A Sequential Insect Dispenser for Behavioral Experiments

Assessment of Beekeeping Constraints and Opportunities in Diga and Wayu Tuka Districts

Gleaning programs organize volunteer gleaners to harvest leftover crops that are donated by farmers for the purpose of feeding food-insecure individuals. Thus, the gleaning process simultaneously reduces food waste and food insecurity. However, the operationalization of this process is challenging because gleaning relies on two uncertain sources of input: the food and labor supplies. The purpose of this paper is to increase the volume of fresh food gleaned by better managing the uncertainties in the gleaning operation. We develop a model to capture the uncertainties in food and labor supplies and seek a dynamic volunteer staffing policy that maximizes the long run average volume of food gleaned. The exact analysis of the staffing problem seems intractable. Therefore, we resort to an approximation in the heavy traffic regime. In that regime, we characterize the system dynamics of the gleaning operation and derive the optimal staffing policy in closed form. The optimal policy is a nested threshold policy that depends on the number of available gleaners and the backlog of gleaning donations. A numerical study using data calibrated from a gleaning organization in the Boston area shows that the dynamic staffing policy we propose can make meaningful improvements to gleaning output over a static policy. To achieve these improvements, no capital or major process changes would be required - only some small changes to the staffing level requests.

The study was conducted in Arsi Zone Sude Woreda, Oromia region, Ethiopia aims to assess beekeeping production systems and constraints. Totally, 90 households were selected for the study. Semi structured questionnaire was prepared to collect primary data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the results were organized by tables and graphs. Based on the survey result, about 97% of the respondents indicated there are different forage types of honey bees’ floras like shrubs, bushes, cultivated crops herbs, weeds and some woody plants like Wanza, Koshem, Sesbania, Acacia and Tree Lucerne. The majority (72%) of the respondents obtained beekeeping by catching swarms. Honey was harvested twice a year from May to June and September to November. The survey result also indicated that beekeeping has a huge number of constraints that hinder honey bee production and profitability. The major constraints are shortage of bee forage, pests and predators, death of colony, swarming; bad weather and marketing. Lack of bee forage associate with deforestation is the main problem, and it ranks first from all the constraints. The major pests and predators are ants, rats, beetles wax moth, bee lice, spiders, birds, lizards, snakes, etc. The respondents indicated that, they have interest to improve beekeeping practices in the area. So the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should support by training them on how to manage honey bee flora, and providing modern honey bee equipment to enhance the honey productivity is also very important to enhance the products of beekeeping in the study area. Key words: Beekeeping practice, Ethiopia.

Vol. 7, No. 2 Late Imperial ChinaDecember 1986 FOOD SUPPLY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FUKIEN Yeh-chien Wang* Introduction Throughout China's long history few rulers paid as much attention to the supply of food as those in the eighteenth century. They required, among other things, local officials in every province to make regular reports on the state of weather, crops, harvest, grain prices, and reserves in public granaries. Preserved in large quantities in the First Archives in Peking and the National Palace Museum in Taipei, these reports will enable historians to examine in some depth food supply conditions and government activities to cope with the problems of food shortage. This paper on food supply in eighteenth-century Fukien Province is accordingly divided into two parts. In part one I investigate the demand and supply of food in different areas of the province in the middle of the eighteenth century. In part two I analyze changes in rice prices from 1745 to 1756, a period for which we have virtually complete month-by-month data. Beyond lending support to my findings, based largely upon impressionistic evidence in part one, this analysis presents the division of marketing areas in the province, the relationship of price behavior between the core and periphery, as well as the seasonal and cyclical features of food supply in Fukien. * This is a revised version of my paper read at the Workshop on Qing Population History, California Institute of Technology, August 26-31, 1985. I wish to thank Lillian Li, PierreEtienne Will, my colleague Robert P. Swierenga, and Editor James Lee for their invaluable comments, suggestions, and criticism. I would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Committee for Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China and Kent State Research Council which enabled me to pursue full-time research in the First Historical Archives in Peking in 1982-83 and in the summer of 1985 respectively. 80 Food Supply in Eighteenth-Century Fukien81 Deficit, Self-sufficient, and Surplus Areas There were ten prefectures and two independent departments in Fukien. Four of the prefectures~Fu-chou, Ch'uan-chou, Chang-chou on the coast, and Ting-chou in the interior-suffered from chronic shortage in food supply . Four other prefectures-Taiwan, Chien-ning, Yen-p'ing and Shao-wu produced more grain than could be locally consumed, while the remaining two coastal prefectures, Hsing-hua and Fu-ning, and two independent departments in the inland, Lung-yen and Yung-chun were by and large self-sufficient (see Chart 1). ' Needless to say, food supply conditions varied from district to district even within prefectures. Chart 2 presents a more detailed picture. Of the ten districts in the capital prefecture of Fu-chou three districts, Min-ch'ing, Yung-fu, and P'ing-nan, belonged to the surplus category; four districts, Ku-t'ien, Chang-lo, Lien-chiang, and Lo-yuan, were self-sufficient; only three districts, Min hsien, Hou-kuan, and Fu-ch'ing were in the deficit group. In the two heavily deficit prefectures of Ch'uan-chou and Chang-chou only three districts, An-ch'i, Chang-tai, and Nan-ching could produce enough food for local consumption. Among the eight districts of Tingchou Prefecture bordering Kiangsi to the west, Chang-ting, Shang-hang, 1 KCTYC, 7.32, KCTCL, 6.519. KCTYC and KCTCL are abréviations for Kung-chung tang Yung-cheng ch'ao tsou-che (Palace Memorials for the Yung-cheng Period) and Kung-chung tang Ch'ien-lung ch'ao tsou-che (Palace Memorials for the Ch'ien-lung Period) respectively, published by the National Palace Museum in Taipei, 1977-. The two numbers, separated by a period, following the abbreviation indicate volume and page. There is some doubt on the status of Hsing-hua, a small coastal prefecture consisting of two districts only. Governor Kao Ch'i-cho reported in 1726 that the prefecture was self-sufficient in food supply. This was also the observation made by Chun Tai, Acting Superintendent of Maritime Customs in Fukien, in 1731 and by Governor Pan Ssu-ch'u in 1748. In 1753, however, Governor Ch'en Hungmou put Hsing-hua in the deficit category...

Ultra high frequency hearing in a moth

Gleaning programs organize volunteer gleaners to harvest a variety of leftover crops that are donated by farmers for the purpose of feeding food-insecure individuals. Thus, the gleaning process simultaneously reduces food waste and food insecurity. However, the operationalization of this process is challenging because gleaning relies on two uncertain sources of input: the food and labor supplies. The purpose of this paper is to help gleaning organizations increase the (value-weighted) volume of fresh food gleaned by better managing the uncertainties in the gleaning operation. We develop a model to capture the uncertainties in food and labor supplies and seek a dynamic volunteer staffing policy that maximizes the payoff associated with the amount of food gleaned. The exact analysis of the staffing problem seems intractable. Therefore, we resort to an approximation in the heavy traffic regime. In that regime, we characterize the system dynamics of the multicrop gleaning operation and derive the optimal staffing policy in closed form. The optimal policy is a nested threshold policy that specifies the staffing level for each class of donation (i.e., a donation of a particular crop type and donation size). The policy depends on the number of available gleaners and the backlog of gleaning donations. A numerical study using data calibrated from a gleaning organization in the Boston area shows that the dynamic staffing policy we propose can recover approximately 10% of the volume lost when the gleaning organization uses a static policy. To achieve this improvement, no capital or major process changes would be required -- only some small changes to the staffing level requests.

Ouch! Woe! I reply in a personal capacity to this donner of evidence und blitzen of citations, after reading a review in a sister journal. This says of mandatory fortification of food supplies with folic acid: ‘Fetal adaptations to a high-folate environment may interfere with folate metabolism postnatally, with serious consequences for the epigenetic regulation of gene expression’ 1 . Decrypted, this means that a foetus receiving pharmacological doses of folic acid by way of the placenta may therefore be programmed once born to need folate at levels not found in normal diets. The result could be a quasi-drug induced deficiency state. This, the author suggests, might be one reason for the rapid recent tenfold increase in autism in the USA, and might contribute to various forms of psychiatric illnesses which altogether in the UK alone cost the economy an estimated £77 billion a year. Blimey! Somebody prepared to unleash the demons of sensationalism might therefore say, with some backing from cell biology, animal experiments, human observation and intellectual effort, that folic acid fortification drives you nuts. On neural tube defects (NTDs) specifically, I had the impression that the main issue was and is not mainly congenital inability to metabolise folic acid, but lousy diets very low in fresh foliage and other sources of folate 2 .I n this context the MRC trial 3 that is the basis for national policies to fortify food supplies has turned out to be troublesome. In order to get a result, and presumably on the assumption that water-soluble vitamins are harmless at pharmacological doses, the pills that did the business were 4mg of folic acid a day, whereas it’s hard to construct diets containing more than a daily 500mg of folate. ‘Cleansing’ regimes made up almost entirely of fresh fruits, salads, and mounds of lightly cooked greens and other vegetables, don’t go much above 1mg a day, and armed with a steamer Popeye would be pressed to get above 2mg a day. So the opportunity to find out whether diets naturally rich in folate, corresponding to those recommended to prevent chronic diseases, prevent NTDs was lost. In general, what are the implications? Certainly, as Mark Lawrence says, that the impact of fortification of food supplies needs to be monitored thoroughly and imaginatively by investigators on the lookout for biologically plausible bad news. But food supplies are fortified with all sorts of ‘goodies’, including trace elements like iron and zinc known to be antagonistic and toxic above low thresholds ‐ not to mention selenium and fluoride, once identified only as toxic ‘baddies’. Was it a mistake that people in the UK still live with, to fortify white flour and thus bread with calcium at levels above those found in wholegrain bread? Is the whole UN System/Gates Foundation endeavour to fortify the food supplies of impoverished countries, including by adding vitamins and minerals to highly processed fatty, sugary or salty foods and drinks, going to turn out to be a double pathogenic whammy? One query for Mark Lawrence. He uses the term ‘synthetic folic acid’. Is this a hint that the substance itself, irrespective of dose and interaction with other nutrients, might be problematic, and if so, what are the implications for all other synthesised nutrients used as supplements and fortificants? Or, to ask the question another way, is there any evidence that unusually high consumption of folate from foods, as say in whole-food vegetarian diets, could do any harm? The view that supplementation and fortification with bioactive compounds is typically good for public health, and actually and potentially restores the health and saves the lives of millions of people each year, is very deeply entrenched. But is this altogether true? Maybe it’s time for a radical rethink.

This chapter describes changes in imports of selected food categories, changes in the imported volume of specific foods, and reasons for the imports of red meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and nuts to the United States and identifies differences and similarities among exporting countries with implications for the risk of potential microbiological contamination in the domestic food supply. The description distinguishes among food categories and countries of origin with regard to the growth of food product imports. A description of the general conditions of the economic and social development in exporting countries is included as an indication of risk associated with the introduction of food-borne pathogens into the food supply system. In fruit and vegetable production, especially for fresh consumption, labor costs during harvest represent a major expense to a grower. The chapter presents several general measures developed by international organizations to address selected aspects of economic and social development. The short-term projections regarding vegetable imports were quite accurate in the past, but fruit import predictions were less accurate, especially in the category of fresh and frozen fruit (USDA, 2007). The consumption of selected fresh and processed vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish was affected by dissemination of research reports linking substances contained in these foods to confirmed or implied health benefits. The intended use of the different indexes in the chapter is to enable the process of designing and enforcing a system for detecting microbial contamination and, under the best-case scenario, preventing contaminated food from reaching the distribution system.

The general aim of my PhD was focused on study the role of different agricultural systems in promoting functional biodiversity. In particular, the importance of habitat management techniques on natural enemy enhancement and conservation was considered at farm level with two-years samplings. Predation by polyphagous predators, which represents one of the most important ecosystem services in conservation biological control, was assessed using different approaches. In this context, molecular marker and artificial caterpillars (sentinel preys made by plasticine) were used to investigate the role of polyphagous predators in different cultivated systems. The hypothesis of my thesis is in agreement with the general assumption that diversified agro-ecosystems are more suitable for natural enemies than simplified ones. In vegetable system, natural enemies should be also favoured by the presence of Agro-ecological Service Crops by means of food supply, refuges and shelters. Moreover, we hypothesized that sustainable approaches such as green manure and roller crimper reduce soil disturbance and strengthen the ecosystem services, in comparison with conventional methods.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has initiated a program to evaluate the carcinogenic risk of chemicals to man. This program is centered on the production of monographs on individual chemicals, consisting of data on use and production, carcinogenicity in experimental animals, epidemiological studies and case reports, and other biological data such as metabolism and mutagenicity, and ending with a balanced evaluation of all the data made by an international group of experts. Chemicals to be surveyed for the preparation of monographs have so far been selected among those for which some evidence or suspicion of carcinogenicity in experimental animals and/or man exists and for which human exposure is known to occur. Of the 196 compounds already evaluated, 17 have been found to be associated with cancer in man. Ninety-four compounds were definitely carcinogenic in experimental animals, and 41 were shown to have a limited carcinogenic effect in experimental animals. A number of the chemicals found to be carcinogenic in experimental animals are produced in very large quantities. The type of exposure to the 17 chemicals found carcinogenic to man was occupational for fourteen, medicinal for two, and dietary for one.

[Factors influencing the life history, feeding and reproduction of Cyclops bicuspidatus thomasi and Diaptomus ashlandi in Yellowknife Bay in the Canadian subarctic were studied between August 1975 and November 1976. The former species emerged as copepodid IV from the overwintering stage in June and completed its life cycle in 60 days. Temperature reduced the developmental rate but food supply was not limiting. Although algae were abundant in the environment, <30 cells/animal occurred in the guts of nauplius III to copepodid III. Only the smallest species, Cyclotella glomerata, was usually eaten, with other algae being rejected because of their length. Almost all specimens ingested large quantities of finely divided (<1 μm) detritus. Only 35-55% of carnivorous copepodid IV-VI contained material in their guts. Rotifers were most frequently ingested and copepodid VI fed throughout the reproductive phase. Changing daylength, measured 2 and 4 weeks earlier, accounted for 34 and 68% of variation in the percentage of females with eggs and clutch size respectively. Food supply was second in importance (24-25%) with temperature being of little significance. Variation in the sex ratio could not be adequately explained by daylength, temperature, or food. D. ashlandi required 5 months to complete its life cycle, emerging from the overwintering phase in April as nauplius II. Temperature and possibly photoperiod affected development but food supply was unimportant. Up to 60 algal cells occurred in the gut of copepodid IV-VI with several species (C. glomerata, Synedra acus var. radians, Chrysolykos gracilis, Dinobryon divergens) being ingested. Size selection restricted consumption of most other species. Changing daylength accounted for up to 79% of the variation in the percentage of females with eggs and 67% in the clutch size. Temperature also significantly affected both parameters, with food supply being of little importance. Changes in sex ratio were independent of daylength, food and temperature., Factors influencing the life history, feeding and reproduction of Cyclops bicuspidatus thomasi and Diaptomus ashlandi in Yellowknife Bay in the Canadian subarctic were studied between August 1975 and November 1976. The former species emerged as copepodid IV from the overwintering stage in June and completed its life cycle in 60 days. Temperature reduced the developmental rate but food supply was not limiting. Although algae were abundant in the environment, <30 cells/animal occurred in the guts of nauplius III to copepodid III. Only the smallest species, Cyclotella glomerata, was usually eaten, with other algae being rejected because of their length. Almost all specimens ingested large quantities of finely divided (<1 μm) detritus. Only 35-55% of carnivorous copepodid IV-VI contained material in their guts. Rotifers were most frequently ingested and copepodid VI fed throughout the reproductive phase. Changing daylength, measured 2 and 4 weeks earlier, accounted for 34 and 68% of variation in the percentage of females with eggs and clutch size respectively. Food supply was second in importance (24-25%) with temperature being of little significance. Variation in the sex ratio could not be adequately explained by daylength, temperature, or food. D. ashlandi required 5 months to complete its life cycle, emerging from the overwintering phase in April as nauplius II. Temperature and possibly photoperiod affected development but food supply was unimportant. Up to 60 algal cells occurred in the gut of copepodid IV-VI with several species (C. glomerata, Synedra acus var. radians, Chrysolykos gracilis, Dinobryon divergens) being ingested. Size selection restricted consumption of most other species. Changing daylength accounted for up to 79% of the variation in the percentage of females with eggs and 67% in the clutch size. Temperature also significantly affected both parameters, with food supply being of little importance. Changes in sex ratio were independent of daylength, food and temperature.]

The effect of Hg treatment on hemolymph and tissue ferritin in the wax moth Galleria mellonella was examined by western blotting. At 48 h after feeding HgCl2, the level of hemolymph ferritin increased approximately 1.8‐fold over that of control insects that were not fed HgCl2, while there was a small increase in tissue ferritin. Time series experiments showed that tissue ferritin had a typically saturated pattern, with a maximum level from 24 to 72 h, although it decreased 12 h following HgCl2 feeding, while hemolymph ferritin first decreased but subsequently increased. Tissue ferritin in the fat body, gut and Malpighian tubules, the main tissues of ferritin expression, was upregulated over time following treatment with Hg, and in particular, tissue ferritin in the gut increased by a large amount at 12–48 h. The results suggest that in G. mellonella, the ferritin‐inducible mechanisms following treatment with HgCl2 are different for hemolymph and tissue ferritin, as are their biochemical properties.

Chapter 35 - Preventing and Managing Travel-Related Foodborne Disease

Ten species of ants associating with hibiscus mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green), in Pingtung, Taiwan were observed. From those attending ants, Pheidole megacephala (Fabricius) and Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius) are frequently detected in 19 townships. Thus, the associations between P. megacephala, the most common ants on hibiscus (Hibisicus rosa-sinensis Linn.), and hibiscus mealybug were studied in the laboratory. On average, after 28 days only 2.8 out of 10 mealybugs are left coexisting with ants on hibiscus in a 17×10×9 cm^3 cage. This result shows that ants prey on M. hirsutus in case they need protein and fat and there is no additional food supply. By adding 50 spider mites (Tetranychus sp.) into the cage, the amount of mealybugs fed upon by ants dropped significantly in comparison to when there were no mites added (t(subscript 0.05,18)=1.94, p＜0.05). In place of mealybugs, spider mites can serve as an alternative protein source for ants. This can also be proven by the 6-fold of decrease in the number of mites coexisting with ants after 21 days. Predatory and/or parasitic natural enemies were found in 67% of 22 nests constructed by P. megacephala at the stem base of hibiscus. Generally speaking, only female adults and eggs of M. hirsutus could be found inside those nests. The comparison of the preference of P. megacephala for egg, nymph and adult of M. hirsutus indicated that ants do not consume adults and have a significant preference for eggs over nymphs (t(subscript 0.05,20)= 3.01, p=0.002). Because the tests also showed that ants did not influence the egg production of female adults, we presume that the eggs and the adults of M. hirsutus found in the nest are the protein and honeydew, respectively, resources of the ants. The observation of the protective behavior of P. megacephala against the attack of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mulsant on mealybug showed that all C. montrouzieri introduced were killed and removed in 132.5 min. The mealybugs that associated with ants are indeed protected from attack by their predatory natural enemies, although mealybugs and ants do not have an intimate association.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what the term “value” means to the multiple stakeholders interfacing and interacting with the food supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – The research included a literature review and the development of a cost: reward (give: get) stakeholder interaction model. Findings – Perceptions of value are individualistic. Conflict of interest exists for business between maintaining shareholder value and delivering “value” within the food offering to its customers and the wider array of societal stakeholders. Shareholders are profit driven and price is the predominant factor that influences consumer purchasing behaviour leading to a constantly negotiated interface between price and other reward factors. Reward factors such as financial, degree of utility, affordability, hedonistic factors defining the emotional worth of food, acquirability and the ratio of price: volume of food are explored. Originality/value – This research is of academic value and of value to policy makers and practitioners in the food supply chain.