Product Commerce Research Articles

Maritime cultural encounters and consumerism of turtles and manatees: An environmental history of the Caribbean

By the mid-eighteenth century, a distinctive maritime commerce in turtle and manatee products existed in the Caribbean. It was especially prevalent amongst English-speaking inhabitants, from the Cayman Islands and Jamaica to the outposts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Colombian islands. Consumption patterns led to a variety of encounters between indigenous Indians, Europeans, Africans and Creoles. Commerce in these natural resources, especially turtles, grew steadily, creating prodigious consumer demands for medical uses, culinary and fashion trends in Europe and the North America by the late-nineteenth century. This study intertwines themes of environmental history, maritime cultural encounters, fisheries and food history. Topics such as indigenous hunting techniques, processing, transportation, marketization, utilitarian and luxury consumerism and evolution of social attitudes towards natural resources are addressed. It is based on contemporary sources and covers various aspects of the supply and utilization of these marine animals over the longue durée.

Universe of PFAS Regulation Rapidly Expanding

Even as states are responding to the coronavirus pandemic, their efforts to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment and in drinking water continue. As of this writing, seven states have taken specific steps in 2020 and eight states continue to follow through on ongoing initiatives. Most state activities are focused on setting drinking water standards, with California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont all advancing primary drinking water standards. State legislative activity continues to target PFAS in drinking water as well. In Virginia, two laws were signed that mandate efforts to develop standards for PFAS, and many other states have seen similar bills introduced. While state efforts have emerged out of frustration that federal action requires time to assess the risks posed by PFAS before taking appropriate regulatory steps, the array of federal activities and work products has changed. A key tenet that AWWA shares with many other stakeholders is that neither the federal government nor states should rely solely on the Safe Drinking Water Act to address PFAS. Preventing PFAS from entering the water supply starts with making sound decisions about if, and how, to use PFAS. While the public spotlight has often focused on PFAS in drinking water, this is slowly changing. Since the publication of the US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) PFAS Action Plan, research programs have ramped up focus on PFAS. A major component of USEPA research is the characterization of toxicity, including an ongoing effort to conduct rapid screening toxicity research for 150 PFAS and risk assessments for seven specific PFAS. There is also ongoing work to develop analytical methods for natural waters, wastewaters, biosolids, soils, and other media, with a method suitable for monitoring wastewater now available for use. Core regulatory programs at USEPA have taken steps to address PFAS as well. USEPA's solid and hazardous waste program released interim cleanup recommendations for sites contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) that are tied directly to the existing PFOA and PFOS health advisory levels. The agency also recently added 172 PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), according to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which will help characterize facilities releasing PFAS into the environment. USEPA also has recently promulgated a rule that imposes restrictions on the commerce of products containing certain PFAS. As these efforts have proceeded, USEPA has moved forward to address PFAS in drinking water. Not only has the USEPA Office of Water proposed to regulate PFOA and PFOS, it is expected to finalize the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) to gather occurrence data for 29 PFAS using new analytical methods by next summer. While there are considerable differences in the policy debate around PFAS, one constant is the need to make science-based decisions that provide meaningful public health protection. To that end, AWWA and many others expressed support for USEPA's positive regulatory determination for PFOA and PFOS and encouraged the agency to conduct a thorough and transparent evaluation of potential standards. Additionally, AWWA and others emphasized that the agency should not consider additional PFAS yet, given outstanding data gaps and forthcoming data collection activities that would directly address those gaps. Ongoing efforts include data collection programs such as the TRI, UCMR 5, and toxicity research. These programs are expected to facilitate evaluations for more meaningful future determinations for additional PFAS with substantially more data than what are currently available. Education and outreach by the entire water sector will continue to be critical to ensure that all state and federal authorities identify and manage PFAS use. We urge the drinking water community to continue to communicate with state and local decision makers about the need for protecting public health using sound standards. Chris Moody is the regulatory technical manager at the AWWA Government Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at cmoody@awwa.org.

Considerations of constructing quality, health and safety management system for agricultural products sold via e-commerce

The continual development of internet technology and its extensive applications in the business domain have enabled the development of e-commerce in relation to agricultural products. However, this development is facing some “pain points.” While middle-class consumers are displaying ever-increasing demand for high-quality agricultural products via the e-commerce environment, the quality and safety of agricultural products under this environment cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, to strengthen the evaluation of the technical level of agricultural products quality, health and safety supervision via e-commerce, understand the problems in the regulatory techniques of e-commerce of agricultural products in China, increase the agricultural product quality, health and safety supervision via e-commerce are of great importance to satisfy the growing consumer demand for e-commerce in agricultural products. Based on the comparative analysis of the evaluation methods and the establishment methods of evaluation index system, this research innovatively established quality, health and safety index system for agricultural products sold via e-commerce, which included 6 first-level and 13 second-level indices. The establishment of the index system provides a method for quality, health and safety regulation for agricultural products via e-commerce. In addition, based on the theory of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), this paper combed the key links and control points of quality and safety for agricultural products via e-commerce and provided an evaluation basis for the quality and safety management system of agricultural products under the e-commerce environment. Finally, in view of the shortcomings of the current quality and safety for agricultural products via e-commerce, and the development trend of the future electronic commerce of agricultural products, the paper put forward the countermeasures and suggestions. Keywords: agricultural products, e-commerce, quality and safety, supervision, management system DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181101.3005 Citation: Ma C, Wang D Y, Hu Z Q, Li Z. Considerations of constructing quality, health and safety management system for agricultural products sold via e-commerce. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(1): 31–39.

Skills and capabilities for a sustainable and circular economy: The changing role of design

Implementing practices for a circular economy transforms the way companies do business, notably in the manufacturing industry. However, a circular economy requires a transformation of both production and consumption systems; the standard approach for creation, fabrication, and commerce of products is challenged. Authors repeatedly call for the development of new proficiencies to attend to system transformations, but these so far have not been described for design and engineering. Given that the design of a product directly influences the way a value chain will be managed, building circular, globally sustainable value chains inevitably signifies a fundamental change in the practice of design. Comprehensive analyses were conducted on case studies from a variety of multinational enterprises that are transforming their product strategies for climate change. Changes in design processes were identified, revealing a growing necessity for industry to employ new proficiencies that support closure of material loops. This paper contributes to existing literature by depicting successful practices being implemented in industry. A variety of new capabilities are key to design for a sustainable future; these range from deeper knowledge of material composition to rich understanding of social behaviour. Resulting from this research, learning goals are proposed to serve as guidance for manufacturing companies seeking to tackle climate change. Conclusions aim to encourage researchers and academics to respond to emerging needs by re-thinking education in design and engineering.

온라인상에서 식품구매 시 서비스품질과 식품품질이 구매의도에 미치는 영향

온라인상에서 식품구매 시 서비스품질과 식품품질이 구매의도에 미치는 영향

Blending Art with Commerce to Expand Aesthetic Leadership: Insights from Steve Jobs and Jerry Garcia

This paper aims to help expand and contribute to understanding of nascent Aesthetic Leadership theory, which recognizes importance of both art and science in practice of effective leadership. This paper also posits that in addition to drawing on both art and science to be effective, aesthetic leaders blend art with commerce in products and services they create. Additionally paper proposes that Aesthetic Leadership theory can be expanded with four antecedents from Shared Leadership: shared purpose, social support, voice and transparency. The paper achieves this by drawing from experience of two nearly mythical Bay Area leaders-Steve Jobs at Apple, and Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead. After overcoming business struggles, both leaders and their businesses ultimately thrived in two dramatically different industries. They left behind one business that continues to be a driving force in changing world-Apple; and another business-the Grateful Dead and Grateful Dead Productions, which mostly dissolved on passing of Garcia, yet continues to provide a model for others in still turbulent music industry.This paper begins with a brief biographical look at surprising similarities in backgrounds of Jobs and Garcia as well as their differences. Following this is a brief discussion of Shared Leadership theory with an emphasis on four of its elements that may be useful in expanding Aesthetic Leadership theory. Next is a discussion of emerging Aesthetic Leadership theory, its characteristics and outcomes, followed by examples of those characteristics for both Jobs and Garcia. The paper concludes with implications of insights gained from examination of Jobs and Garcia as both Shared and Aesthetic leaders.A short history of Jerry GarciaJerry Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942 and died there in 1995 of a heart attack shortly after his 53rd birthday. His childhood presented him with a number of challenges including death by drowning of his father, and loss of part of his right middle finger in a family accident. Garcia was raised primarily by his grandmother while his mother ran a local bar that catered to sailors. During his life he was married three times and fathered four daughters (Jackson, 1999).Garcia began his love affair with guitar when he got his first one for his 15th birthday. He didn't finish high school but did attend classes at San Francisco Art Institute, and this cemented his love of visual arts in addition to his passion for music. His artwork has become highly valued, and interestingly, he used an Apple Macintosh for his early visual artistic pursuits (McNally, 2002).Garcia was strongly influenced by Beat Generation writers, artists, and poets in Bay Area, and he hung around local book and music stores in Palo Alto where Beat scene was giving way to folk scene and what would become Hippie scene in late 1960s. It was here that he began a lifetime relationship with poet Robert Hunter who became Garcia's lyricist (and who was also part of federal government's LSD experiments in early 1960s). Garcia was self-educated through voracious reading, and he was a seeker of higher consciousness, which was aided by use of LSD while it was still legal (and even after) (McNally, 2002).Although Garcia resisted label of leader, everyone else around him knew he was. Bass player Phil Lesh said that Garcia was the undeclared leader of band (Lesh, 2005, p. 135). Another insider said, Jerry's vote was greater than sum of everybody else's (in Jackson, 1999, p. 274). Garcia understood charismatic power he had with others in band and Grateful Dead organization. He knew that as soon as he said anything, then that's way it would be. So he often held back and avoided speaking up in order to encourage others to voice their views and to lead. Some who knew him suggest that he could shrug off his leadership role as mentioned above because he had absolute authority whenever he chose to exercise it (Barnes, 2011). …

Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs

Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs

Pattern Analysis on Electronic Commerce of Agricultural Products

The paper firstly gives an analysis of the role of electronic commerce of agricultural products on agricultural development, and existing problems, and it raises the innovation of electronic commerce modes including the selection of P2B2C mode and P2G2B mode, and gives detailed suggestions such as setting up the third party e-commerce trade pattern, speeding up the construction of farmer agents, the construction of logistics system, and construction of agricultural standardization system.

'To Regulate,' Not 'To Prohibit': Limiting the Commerce Power

Today it is taken for granted that Congress’s power “to regulate . . . Commerce among the several States” includes the power to shut interstate markets down. That is why, for example, Congress is understood to have the power to ban the possession and use of marijuana, even though twenty states have expressed contrary preferences, either for the medicinal or recreational use of the drug. This Article argues that as a matter of constitutional history and theory both, this familiar assumption about congressional power is wrong. First, the Article demonstrates that the original understanding, which prevailed for over one hundred years, did not grant Congress the power to ban markets. Congress could pass “helper” statutes to facilitate state choices, and it could even ban particular goods (such as diseased cattle) “in service” of the interstate market; but it could not simply prohibit all commerce in products of which it disapproved. Second, the Article demonstrates that although this understanding changed following the 1903 Supreme Court decision in Champion v. Ames, none of the reasons supporting the change justify Congress possessing the power today. Finally, this Article examines theoretical justifications for congressional power grounded in law and economics and constitutional theory to suggest that the power “to regulate” interstate commerce should not be understood to include the power to prohibit it. The argument has implications for national bans on articles and activities such as interstate gambling, drugs, raw milk products and assault weapons.

“To Regulate,” Not “To Prohibit”: Limiting the Commerce Power

Today it is taken for granted that Congress’s power “to regulate . . . Commerce among the several States” includes the power to shut interstate markets down. That is why, for example, Congress is understood to have the power to ban the possession and use of marijuana, even though twenty states have expressed contrary preferences, either for the medicinal or recreational use of the drug. This Article argues that as a matter of constitutional history and theory both, this familiar assumption about congressional power is wrong. First, the Article demonstrates that the original understanding, which prevailed for over one hundred years, did not grant Congress the power to ban markets. Congress could pass “helper” statutes to facilitate state choices, and it could even ban particular goods (such as diseased cattle) “in service” of the interstate market; but it could not simply prohibit all commerce in products of which it disapproved. Second, the Article demonstrates that although this understanding changed following the 1903 Supreme Court decision in Champion v. Ames, none of the reasons supporting the change justify Congress possessing the power today. Finally, this Article examines theoretical justifications for congressional power grounded in law and economics and constitutional theory to suggest that the power “to regulate” interstate commerce should not be understood to include the power to prohibit it. The argument has implications for national bans on articles and activities such as interstate gambling, drugs, raw milk products and assault weapons.

Factors affecting customer purchase intention in electronic commerce of service products

Factors affecting customer purchase intention in electronic commerce of service products

A Study on Electronic Commerce of Digital Products

A Study on Electronic Commerce of Digital Products

Collaborative Product and Process Commerce and Knowledge Exchange

Collaborative Product and Process Commerce and Knowledge Exchange

Some Reflections on the Brazilian Legacy in Dahomey

1the foundation of the Brazilian heritage was solidly laid in an important West African kingdom (see Figure 1). Even the French influence during the period of the anti-slave trade crusade and eventual transition to ‘legitimate’ commerce in agricultural products (palm oil in particular) benefited from the cooperation or complicity of the Brazilian slave-traders. Similarly, the subsequent French colonial administration sought and found strong support among the Afro-Brazilian elite. It is therefore not surprising that the Brazilian heritage, despite the vicissitudes of history, still remains today a living reality, as if Dahomey had been a Brazilian colony! From Porto-Novo to Agoue, the vestiges of the heritage are attested in family names, cultural traditions, architecture, and more. This short article reflects on the establishment of the Brazilian heritage in Dahomey and its significance in the present-day Republic of Benin. The reign of the Dahomean king Gezo was of particular significance in the consolidation and growth of Brazilian influence. This monarch came to power in 1818 through a coup d’etat, with the assistance of a famous Brazilian slave-trader, Felix Francisco de Souza, who is generally and rightly regarded not only as the ancestor of the de Souza family of the subregion, but also of the Afro-Brazilian community in Dahomey. This episode in the history of Dahomey and biography of Felix Francisco de Souza is already well known and does not require elaboration. 2 It is worth pointing out, however, that the installation by Gezo of Felix Francisco de Souza as his principal commercial agent in Ouidah, with the title of Chacha, was a decisive factor in the establishment and development of the AfroBrazilian community in Dahomey. From the 1830s, de Souza became the chief coordinator of the arrival and establishment of slaves freed or expelled from Brazil as a result of the Bahia uprising in 1835. 3

The Ecclesiastical Colonization of Central America

Dependency theory, which places responsibility for the underdevelopment of the peripheral zones of the world economy upon the North Atlantic core, might well be called a Latin American invention. It goes back, after all, to an article published in 1949 by the Argentine economist Raul Prebisch. Since that time, acceptance of the basic argument — which emphasizes intercontinental trade — has grown, also among historians. Economic dependence with respect to the North Atlantic world began during the colonial era, and forms the principal legacy of that period of Latin American history, according to Stanley and Barbara Stein's The Colonial Heritage of Latin America, first published in 1970 and now in its tenth printing.1 This view has it that economic dependence grew out of Spanish exploitation of American gold and silver, + maritime commerce in tropical plantation products. The entire Spanish colonial world in America would appear to have rested on these two pillars.

The World's Dairy Congress

The World's Dairy Congress is to be a conference of international representatives of the dairy industry, its related sciences and public health and social welfare agencies. Its purpose is to bring together the forward-looking leaders who are shaping the trend of science and industry; to exchange the newer knowledge of the science and practices of dairying and allied activities; to study the economic forces which influence domestic and international commerce in dairy animals, products and equipment; to discuss methods of disease prevention and of regulating and controlling the sanitation and standards of dairy products; to consider the influence of a wise use of milk and its products on national health and the vital importance of the part which they play in human physical and mental development. Acting under the authorization of a law of March 3, 1921, the President of the United States has invited all Governments to send representatives to the sessions and, in addition, the World's Dairy Congress Association has invited institutions, firms and associations of this and other lands to send delegates and has asked the Governors of all the States of the Union to attend the sessions and appoint commissions to represent their dairy and allied interests. The Congress will hold its opening sessions at Washington, D. C., on October 2 and 3, adjourn to Philadelphia, Pa., for October 4 and continue at Syracuse, N. Y., from October 5 to 10. The dairy industry is passing through a transitional period. The war and the after-war conditions have forced it into a world readjustment. The shift in international dairy trade and the struggle to regain pre-war business have made the problems of the industry world problems. While damming up the normal flow of international scientific information, the war resulted 377