Major Undertakings Research Articles

RAB4A is a master regulator of cancer cell stemness upstream of NUMB–NOTCH signaling

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a group of specially programmed tumor cells that possess the characteristics of perpetual cell renewal, increased invasiveness, and often, drug resistance. Hence, eliminating CSCs is a major challenge for cancer treatment. Understanding the cellular programs that maintain CSCs, and identifying the critical regulators for such programs, are major undertakings in both basic and translational cancer research. Recently, we have reported that RAB4A is a major regulator of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and it does so mainly through regulating the activation of RAC1 GTPase. In the current study, we have delineated a new signaling circuitry through which RAB4A transmits its control of cancer stemness. Using in vitro and in vivo studies, we show that RAB4A, as the upstream regulator, relays signal stepwise to NUMB, NOTCH1, RAC1, and then SOX2 to control the self-renewal property of multiple cancer cells of diverse tissue origins. Knockdown of NUMB, or overexpression of NICD (the active fragment NOTCH1) or SOX2, rescued the in vitro sphere-forming and in vivo tumor-forming abilities that were lost upon RAB4A knockdown. Furthermore, we discovered that the chain of control is mostly through transcriptional regulation at every step of the pathway. The discovery of the novel signaling axis of RAB4A–NUMB–NOTCH–SOX2 opens the path for further expansion of the signaling chain and for the identification of new regulators and interacting proteins important for CSC functions, which can be explored to develop new and effective therapies.

From greatest simplicity to full power

AbstractWhile language processing services are key assets for the science and technology of language, the possible ways under which they may be made available to the widest range of their end users are critical to support an Open Science policy for this scientific domain. Although providing such processing services under some web-based interface, at large, offers itself as an immediate and cogent response to that challenge, turning this view into an effective access to language processing services is an undertaking deserving a clear conceptual direction and a corresponding robust empirical validation. Based on an extensive overview of major undertakings towards making language processing tools available and on the design principles worked out and implemented in the PORTULAN CLARIN infrastructure, in this paper we advocate for a Research-Infrastructure-as-a-Service (RIaaS) model. This model unleashes accessibility to language processing services in as many web-based interface modalities as the current stage of technological development permits to support, in order to serve as many types of end users as possible, from IT developers to Digital Humanities researchers, and including citizen scientists, teachers, students and digital artists among many others.

Bodies-territories and intersectionalities: contributions to public health surveillance.

Multiple bodies and territories experience impacts, conflicts, and socioenvironmental injustices in different ways. The consequences of the neoextractivist accumulation patterns weigh differently on women, especially non-white women. This text brings narratives of a wide range of women who live in different territories and experience different impacts from major undertakings. Through their narratives, we seek to understand how they constitute their territorial bodies; how they are impacted; and how they resist colonialist domination, defend life, and restore health. These impacts affect women's means and ways of life, and restrict their ways of being, power, and knowledge in these territories, rendering them vulnerable, subject to the precariousness of life, immersed in systemic intoxication, reaching situations classified as genocide. Faced with such threats, they manage collective resistance; trigger what makes them active subjectivity; and decolonize themselves as beings, knowledge, and power. In this way they defend life and restore their health and that of their environments. These experiences indicate ways to strengthen public health surveillance perspectives and networks.

Undersea cables in Africa: The new frontiers of digital colonialism

The Internet has become the backbone of the social fabric. The United Nations Human Rights Council declared access to the Internet a fundamental human right over a decade ago. Yet, Africa remains the region with the widest Digital Divide where most of the population is either sparsely connected or has no access to the Internet. This has in turn created a race amongst Western big tech corporations scrambling to “bridge the Digital Divide”. Although the Internet is often portrayed as something that resides in the “cloud”, it heavily depends on physical infrastructure, including undersea cables. In this paper, we examine how current undersea cable projects and Internet infrastructure, owned, controlled, and managed by private Western big tech corporation, often using the “bridging the Digital Divide” rhetoric, not only replicates colonial logic but also follows the same infrastructural path laid during the trans-Atlantic slave trade era. Despite its significant impact on the continent’s digital infrastructure, we find publicly available information is scarce and undersea cable projects are carried out with no oversight and little transparency. We review historical evolution of the Internet, and detail and track the development of undersea cables in Africa, and illustrate its tight connection with colonial legacies. We provide an in-depth analysis of two current major undersea cable undertakings across the continent: Google’s Equiano and Meta’s 2Africa. Using Google and Meta’s undersea cables as case studies, we illustrate how these projects follow colonial logic, create a new cost model that keep African nations under perpetual debt, and serve as infrastructure for mass data harvesting while bringing little benefit to the Global South. We conclude with actionable recommendations for and demands from big tech corporations, regulatory bodies, and governments across the African continent.

An Analysis of the Main Explanatory Framework for the Coordinated Development of Overseas Chinese Heritage Language Education and International Chinese Language Education from the Perspective of Symbiosis Theory

Driven by the value and application of Chinese language, global Chinese education has also achieved significant development, with overseas Chinese heritage language education and international Chinese language education being the most important components. This article draws on the theory of symbiosis and proposes an explanatory framework for the symbiosis of overseas Chinese education. It analyzes the symbiotic units, modes, and environments between overseas Chinese heritage language education and international Chinese education, and combines objective development environments and educational needs to summarize optimization strategies to promote the coordinated development of the two major educational undertakings. In the process of conducting overseas Chinese education, in order to promote the international education of Chinese language and the inheritance and development of Chinese culture, relevant parties should start from three aspects: unit, mode, and environment, and expand the symbiotic surface of the two major education undertakings by accurately matching the local Chinese education needs; Combining national and regional Chinese education resources, leveraging the external driving force of a symbiotic environment; Pay attention to the ecological construction of the development of Chinese education and jointly create an integrated model of mutual benefit and symbiosis.

Dual-Stage ultrasound in deep frying of potato chips; effects on the oil absorption and the quality of fried chips

Potato chips are popular high-consuming ready-to-eat meals in all of the world which specially attract a lot of attention from youth and children. Reducing oil absorption and improving the quality of chips are major undertakings within the industry. This research aimed to find the best ultrasonic bath-based method by investigating the optimal ultrasonic pre-treatment and developing an ultrasound (US) assisted frying system (UAFS) to reduce the oil absorption of potato chips while maintaining an acceptable quality. Through this technique, the potato chips get sonicated during deep frying in hot oil. US-pretreatment at temperatures of 25 °C and 73 °C, along with US-assisted frying, resulted in the minimal amount of oil which may be due to the US creating potential pores during the pre-treatment phase, which then expand further during the subsequent sonication stage. UAFS in combination with US-pretreatment produced more crispy chips due to the fact that the texture of potato slices becomes more porous. UAFS resulted in a decrease in the moisture content of the fried chips attributed to an increase in the effective diffusion coefficient and mass. Pretreating the chips at 73 °C significantly reduce the color change producing brighter product by inactivation of enzymes such as polyphenol oxidase. Finally, the result of TOPSIS optimization based on potato chips properties confirms that US-pretreatment in 73 °C brine followed by frying using UAFS is the best approach. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of potato chips also support this issue.

Revisiting King Herod’s Harbour of Sebastos: A Historical Narrative by Titus Flavius Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus (37–100) was a Roman historian of Jewish origin who provided valuable information about his times and the periods that preceded them in his works. Although he tried to persuade the Jews to surrender Jerusalem to the Romans and subsequently became a Roman citizen because of his close relations with the Romans, his works are one of the few sources that can be consulted other than religious books. They are especially important for understanding the period of King Herod (73–4 BC), who is known as the builder king for the projects he implemented. One of his greatest achievements was the temple situated in Jerusalem, commonly referred to as the Second Temple. The Harbour of Sebastos, which is the subject of your article, is located in Caesarea Maritima, a seaside city dating back to the Phoenician era founded by Herod. The Harbour of Sebastos is one of Herod’s most major undertakings in Caesarea Maritima. This article aims to compile and assess the data gathered from field research in accordance with Titus Flavius Josephus’ accounts of the Harbour. The goal is to determine whether the information Josephus reported is consistent with the data available today. In this way, it is thought that the Harbour of Sebastos, one of the most important ancient ports of the Middle Ages, will be better understood.

THE HARMFUL EFFECT OF LEADERS WITH NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITIES IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN COMPANIES

There are organizations and companies that, for whatever reason and even in spite of the very condition of the company's continued operations, are interested in hiring narcissistic managers and leaders, with a destructive or functionally deluded profile (from the SD - Self-deceptive concept), since they are often either immersed in a tangle of mistaken beliefs about management, or are involved in excessively grandiose projects. The aim of this study is to analyze the harmful effect of this type of leader, given that narcissism is closely linked to management staff, a condition that can compromise the company's economic and social results. The problem situation arises when narcissism ceases to be healthy and becomes pathological. The research is justified by the fact that, in this situation, a narcissistic and destructive leader, depending on their position in the organization's hierarchy (low, medium or high), can have serious consequences for the organization, especially if there is no effective monitoring of their actions. As partial results of this approach, we already know that, despite this, organizations have a clear predilection for this profile of leader, due to their ability to take big risks and carry out major undertakings and projects. This research will use a bibliographical review as its method, presenting the thoughts of various authors who are concerned with this issue. The main bibliographic contribution of this literature review, however, rests on the intersection of various authors, with the thinking of Freud (2010).

PROMOTING THE STRENGTH OF THE GREAT UNITY BLOC OF ETHNIC MINORITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS IN A SUSTAINABLE AND COMPREHENSIVE MANNER IN THE CURRENT INTEGRATION CONTEXT

The Central Highlands is an important strategic region in terms of socio-economic, national defense and security, foreign affairs and ecological environment of our country. The rapid and sustainable development of the Central Highlands region is one of the major undertakings of the Party, State, National Assembly and Government, at the same time to be an important task of the whole country in the current integration context, first of all, the provinces in the region. In particular, especially the construction and development of the Central Highlands region, it is necessary to harmoniously combine economic, socio-cultural development, protection of natural resources and environment in general and ethnic minority areas in particular… This is the basis and premise for making an important contribution to the successful implementation of political tasks, socio-economic development, building a strong Party and political system, maintaining political stability, promoting the great national unity bloc, social order and safety in the Central Highlands provinces in the current integration context.

FOCUSING ON PRIORITIZING RESEARCH AND APPLICATION TO CONTRIBUTE TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN ETHNIC MINORITY AND MOUNTAINOUS IN THE CURRENT PERIOD

In the context of the fourth scientific and technological revolution and the trend of deep international integration, research, transfer, and application of science and technology has become a mandatory requirement for each country as well as each field, including science and technology transfer in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Therefore, in the past years, the Party, State, National Assembly and Government have determined that science and technology transfer plays a very important role in the process of socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction and improve the lives of ethnic minorities in extremely difficult areas, remote, border and island areas. Up to now, our Party and State have promulgated many undertakings and policies on science and technology transfer for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in general and in extremely difficult, remote and isolated areas, borders and islands in particular, of which the important premise is Resolution No. 22/NQ-TW dated November 27th, 1989 of the Politburo on a number of major undertakings and policies “to accelerate scientific and technological progress in mountainous areas” and Decision No. 72/HDBT dated March 13th, 1990 of the Council of Ministers on a number of specific guidelines and policies on socio-economic development in mountainous areas.

FOCUSING ON PRIORITIZING RESEARCH AND APPLICATION TO CONTRIBUTE TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN ETHNIC MINORITY AND MOUNTAINOUS IN THE CURRENT PERIOD

In the context of the fourth scientific and technological revolution and the trend of deep international integration, research, transfer, and application of science and technology has become a mandatory requirement for each country as well as each field, including science and technology transfer in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Therefore, in the past years, the Party, State, National Assembly and Government have determined that science and technology transfer plays a very important role in the process of socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction and improve the lives of ethnic minorities in extremely difficult areas, remote, border and island areas. Up to now, our Party and State have promulgated many undertakings and policies on science and technology transfer for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in general and in extremely difficult, remote and isolated areas, borders and islands in particular, of which the important premise is Resolution No. 22/NQ-TW dated November 27th, 1989 of the Politburo on a number of major undertakings and policies “to accelerate scientific and technological progress in mountainous areas” and Decision No. 72/HDBT dated March 13th, 1990 of the Council of Ministers on a number of specific guidelines and policies on socio-economic development in mountainous areas.

Understanding land use change impacts on ecosystem services within urban protected areas

Protected Areas (PAs) aim at safeguarding biodiversity and cultural values by regulating land use and land cover (LULC) within their boundaries. In the context of different PAs categories, urban planners have the challenge of temporally and spatially understand ecosystem services (ES) supply and demand. To shed light on this issue, we explored ES within two levels of PAs in one of the main cities in a large tropical forest. By analyzing LULC and mapping ES in sustainable use and full protection PAs in São Paulo (Brazil), we investigated the impacts on ES supply and demand resulting from 28 years of LULC changes. In the sustainable use area, we identified urban expansion and the increased pressure on urban parks. In contrast, full protection PAs blocked the urbanization resulted from major undertakings and blocked the urban sprawl to parts of the sustainable use area. We found possible trade-offs between water provision (positively affected) and tourism (negatively affected) in response to the loss of pasture and between water provision (negatively affected) and local climate regulation, and tourism (positively affected) associated with the increase in agriculture. Our study reveals that conservation targets for PAs decisions should address trade-offs among ES as a result of LULC changes derived from surrounding projects and associated interventions.

Development Trends China’s Belt and Road Initiative in South Asia :

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the major undertakings in China's "peaceful rise" strategy. South Asia has a particularly important position in this plan because it is the confluent area between the two pincers "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" of the BRI. The progress of the BRI in South Asia plays a relatively vital role as a model and reference, as well as has encountered many obstacles and challenges. The successful implementation of ambitious BRI projects in South Asia requires China to have a dynamic, development mindset to take the advantages and deal with the challenges posed. The article mentions the advantages and disadvantages of the BRI development trend in South Asia in the coming time and some implications for countermeasures for South Asian countries when they participate in this initiative of China.

Recent Technology Developments in Biogas Production from Waste Materials in Malaysia

AbstractSolid waste management towards the sustainable process is one of the major undertakings of the Malaysia Solid Waste Management Department. Hence, development towards biofuels including biogas production from wastes has been escalating in Malaysia. There have been some major innovations in biogas production, including design and operation of the reactor, the presence of an additive, change in mixing regime, supporting unit, measurement, and monitoring systems, since the technology has developed. The sections mainly included are types of digesters, strategies such as upstream, mainstream, and downstream. In upstream strategies, the hydrothermal pretreatment of anaerobic digestion showed a higher improvement of biogas by an increase of 222 % of methane content. The mainstream strategies showed that co‐digestion was the best method to increase the methane yield to 305–445 mL g−1 VS. In downstream system, methane content can be upgraded from 60 to 90 % by applying water scrubber. This paper aims to discuss the recent trends and innovations in biogas production from waste and their pathways in details.

Engaging with the Çatalhöyük Database

Çatalhöyük remains one of the most intensively and meticulously excavated prehistoric sites in the history of archaeology. Two large excavation campaigns, carried out in the years 1961–1965 and 1993–2017, have generated a large amount of data. A particularly large body of data was accumulated over the twenty-five-year period of excavation and analyses carried out by the Çatalhöyük Research Project. One of the project’s major undertakings was to make all data collected accessible for wider audiences. To realize this idea the project’s digital database was designed and made accessible for everyone, both scholars and non-scholars, via the Çatalhöyük website since the very beginning of the project. This article explores different forms of engagement with the Çatalhöyük database that not only enhance its visibility and accessibility, but can serve as an exemplary case for archaeology at large.

Sustainability-informed multi-criteria decision support framework for ranking and prioritization of pavement sections

Abstract Ranking and prioritizing pavement infrastructure for maintenance and rehabilitation have become major undertakings for several departments of transportation around the globe. This is a complex decision-making problem because multiple and conflicting criteria can contribute to the assessment. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques evaluate the trade-off between several quantitative and qualitative criteria and facilitate complex decision-making. This research introduces a framework based on MCDA to support pavement management decision making, while quantifying emerging sustainability-related factors such as safety, noise, and pollution in the decision-making process. The framework features include 1) identifying pavement management main decision elements: objectives, criteria, and attributes by detailing the problem with a five-level hierarchy structure; 2) employing combined analytic hierarchy process and multi-attribute utility theory to develop representative set of utility functions; and 3) ranking and prioritizing large networks of pavement sections while incorporating sustainability-related criteria. Data used to assess the decision criteria and develop the utility functions is extracted by means of a questionnaire survey completed by professionals working in the field of pavement management. The proposed method is applied to a case study consisting of ten pavement sections extracted from the long-term pavement performance database, wherein the sections are ranked based on their attributes. Sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the impact of the different criteria on the ranking process. The proposed method has shown potential in ranking pavement networks based on the identified criteria. Future work can test the performance of the proposed methodology with a full-scale pavement network and apply it to other civil infrastructure assets to evaluate its performance with different types of projects.

Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity: Writings of an Unexpected Emperor by Meredith L. D. Riedel

Reviewed by: Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity: Writings of an Unexpected Emperor by Meredith L. D. Riedel George E. Demacopoulos Meredith L. D. Riedel. Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity: Writings of an Unexpected Emperor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 219 pp. Leo VI (886–912) is rather notorious for being the only Byzantine emperor to defy canon law by marrying a fourth time. For those who know little else of his reign, it will likely come as a surprise that a new book compellingly argues that Leo went further than any emperor before him to integrate a Christian worldview into the secular machinery of the empire, including its army and legal code. Among other things, and given the scandal of his own marriages, it is ironic that it would be Leo who first decreed that a marriage required an ecclesiastical blessing before it would be recognized by the state. Through a careful analysis of Leo's military manual (the Taktika), his major legal undertakings, and his homilies [End Page 228] (yes, homilies), Dr. Meredith Riedel provides a comprehensive assessment of the ways in which this "unexpected" emperor injected his own Orthodox Christian commitments into imperial governance. Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Identity is Dr. Riedel's first monograph—a revision and expansion of her 2010 Oxford dissertation, which had focused on the underappreciated Christian dimensions of Leo's military manual, the Taktika. The book comprises nine chapters (the introduction and conclusion being numbered as chapters 1 and 9, respectively). Chapters 2–4 analyze the Taktika; chapters 5–6 assess Leo's revisions of and additions to the legal code; chapter 7 examines his homilies; and chapter 8 reconstructs and interprets Leo's conception of the Byzantines as a "chosen people." Military historians will, of course, be familiar with Leo's Taktika. Although it draws deeply from previous military manuals, especially the Strategikon of the emperor Maurice, Leo's venture is noteworthy for a few reasons (perhaps the most surprising is that Leo was not a soldier and he never commanded an army). For example, the Taktika is the first Roman/Byzantine military treatise to take a serious interest in naval warfare, an aspect that likely reflects the fact that Byzantines were at that time suffering recurring defeats from Arab navies and pirates. For Riedel, however, the most interesting feature of the Taktika is the fact that it is also the first Byzantine military manual to offer a thick description of the Saracens, one that, unlike the descriptions of all other ethnic groups, is framed almost exclusively in terms of religion. Riedel proposes that Leo deliberately employs religion and religious difference to reframe the way that his readers should think about their most dangerous enemy. For Leo, not only is Islam a direct military threat, but the defense of the empire is an explicit defense of Christian faith (43). Riedel describes Leo's depiction of Muslim recruitment practice as a "function of applied theology" and asserts that the emperor believes "that the Byzantines might look to this as a sort of example for solving similar difficulties" (44). Although the book is neither a study of Byzantine attitudes toward war nor an assessment of Byzantine military strategy, Riedel does make a series of important observations in these matters. Perhaps most importantly, she successfully argues that the Byzantines did not have a functional conception of holy war as we typically understand it. Nevertheless, she observes that the Byzantines after Leo did pursue an explicit "defense of the Christian faith" through the strategic use of violence. For an emperor like Leo, a Christian general should pray and he should know how to fight. But characteristic of Byzantine diplomatic policy and (for Riedel) Byzantine theological commitments, a general should pursue peace above other options. With respect to his legal reforms and new laws (novellae), Riedel proposes that Leo consistently shows a greater concern for the Christian conceptions of mercy and repentance than did previous legislators. Leo, she avers, is at pains to make Orthodox Christian commitments visible in everyday aspects of Byzantine social and legal life, such as the prohibition against work on Sundays or...

Situation analytics — at the dawn of a new software engineering paradigm

In this paper,I first review the seminal work by Thomas Kuhn — The Structure of Scientific Revolutions — and elaborate my view on paradigm shifts in software engineering research and practice as it turns 50 years old in 2018. I then examine major undertakings of the computing profession since early days of modern computing, especially those done by the software engineering community as a whole. I also enumerate anomalies and crises that occurred at various stages, and the attempts to provide solutions by the software engineering professionals in the past five decades. After providing such a background, I direct readers attention toward emerging anomalies in software engineering, at a severity level that is causing another software engineering crisis, and suggest a set of criteria for feasible solutions. The main theme of this paper is to advocate that situation analytics, equipped with necessary definitions of essential concepts including situation and intention as parts of a new computational framework, can serve as the foundation for a new software engineering paradigm named the Situation-Centric Paradigm. In this framework, situation is considered a new abstraction for computing and is clearly differentiated from the widely accepted existing abstractions, namely function and object. I argue that the software engineering professionals will inevitably move into this new paradigm, willingly or unwillingly, to empower Human-Embedded Computing (HEC) and End-User Embedded Computing (EUEC), much more than what they have done with traditional human-centered or user-centric computing altogether. In the end, I speculate that an ultimate agile method may be on the rise, and challenge readers to contemplate “what if" hundreds of thousands “end-user developers" emerge into the scene where the boundaries between end users and developers become much more blurred.

A Model of Control Valve for Wagons Equipped by k-Blocks

Paper illustrates the key features of the control valve model of TrainDy, renewed to be compliant with wagons that equip composite brake blocks type k in their braking systems. TrainDy is an international software owned by UIC (The International Union of Railways) and used by major Railway Undertakings in Europe to perform computations of Longitudinal Train Dynamics. Composite brake blocks type k equips new or revamped freight trains in Europe and are used to reduce train noise caused by particles of friction material between wheel and rail. This topic is particularly relevant since a relevant part of freight traffic in Europe is performed during night and many railway lines are close to highly populated areas. Paper shows the validation of this new model against experimental test campaigns performed at bench and in real field and made available for the revision process of UIC CODE 421 for freight train interoperability.

Toidukultuur Hiiumaa Muuseumis: kogumine, uurimine, vahendamine

Alimentary Culture at Hiiumaa Museum: Collection, Research, Exhibition and Outreach We have reached an age when museums’ collections, having rapidly increased in size, require substantive discussion on the need to continue acquisitions. Increasingly often we also encounter the question of whether cultural history museums that chronicle everyday life should devote more attention to aspects that affect practically all people, such as the topic of food and eating. We would do well to consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. To this point, museums’ focus has been more on art, achievements or decidedly material aspects. The article provides a concise overview of what the Hiiumaa Museum has been up to in the context of food and eating over its 50-year history. In the years following the establishment of the museum, attention in both exhibitions and collections was focused mainly on the tableware and utensils used for consumption or preservation of food, most of which originated in the 19th century. As time went on, activities were characterized by an increasing element of play enriched with knowledge (Soviet-era New Year’s exhibitions, “baron’s days”, Christmaslands and other visitor-oriented programmes). The exhibitions themselves grew and changed, even if their titles remained simple: Millest räägivad nõud? (What does tableware have to say? 2000) or Köök (Kitchen, 2015). Over the years, the museum became a place to spend free time in, but also turned into a centre of expertise for the small local community on the matter of regional food traditions. This need for better knowledge on the subject also spurred the development of the museum’s own research, surveys, and documentary efforts. As one example, we can cite the recorded responses to the question “What foods were on your Christmas table?”, around the time of the first free Christmas celebrations in 1990. A problem related to the food topic, revealed during the preparation of the Hiiumaa compilation in 2015, was the paucity (or at least the one-dimensional nature) of images in the museum’s collections. As the museum grew and life changed, new programmatic events such as salon evenings and café days were devised. All these major undertakings required volunteer assistance, because the museum’s own small team was not capable of covering the staffing needs of all these events. Outreach with students took place in all age groups – from nursery school to secondary school. Some of the assignments in the popular cooperation project involving upper secondary schoolers, “Becoming a Hiiumaa islander through tradition”, also tied in with food. The more stringent food safety codes of more recent years have reduced the museum’s possibilities for actually handing food or serving it to visitors. Still, a thing or two has changed over time, and in 2015, we organized a black pudding and white pudding preparation workshop in the museum’s classroom. As interest in the food topic has risen among the locals and Estonia-wide, new topics keep on accruing in the museum’s research sphere: e.g., drying of sheepshanks, making of head cheese. The best and most characteristic examples make their way, with the museum’s help, on to the UNESCO list of intangible heritage, but above all, they end up in the local museum’s collections. Certainly many important topics require much analysis within the museum to make better sense of acquisition policies as well as the museum’s mission and role in society as a whole. Once again, taking up the topic of food and eating has given impetus for this process.