Some quality characteristics of solar-dried cocoa beans in St Lucia

A field comparison of solar drying and open-air sun-drying of cocoa (Theobroma cocoa L) beans was carried out in St Lucia. Four methods of drying (indirect solar drier, direct solar drier, open air/perforated steel surface and open air/non-perforated wooden surface) were examined at three loading rates: 13·7, 26·9 and 40·4 kg m⁻². Beans from the open air had a higher incidence of external mould and poorer external appearance, though differences were minor. Beans dried at the lower rate of 13 kg m⁻² showed the best colour, but the highest titratable acidity. Conversely, beans dried at the higher loading rate of 40·4 kg m⁻² showed significantly lower titratable acidity, but poorer colour. Differences in cut-test score, colour, pH and titratable acidity between the open air and closed driers were small or not significant. While not significant, the indirect drier did show the highest cut-test score and the direct drier the poorest. Beans from the indirect drier were darker and more purple, while those from the direct drier were lighter coloured and less purple. The beans from the direct drier, dried to 6% moisture (WB) were, though not significantly so, more brittle and higher in titratable acidity than those from either the open air or indirect drier. Overall the beans from the indirect drier showed the highest quality and those from the direct drier the poorest. Whether the modest improvement of the indirect drier over the open air driers is sufficient to warrant investment in such a drier is unclear. © 1998 SCI.     

The tobacco settlement: an analysis of newspaper coverage of a national policy debate, 1997-98

OBJECTIVE: To examine the framing of tobacco policy issues in the news media during the national tobacco settlement debate of 1997-98. The major aims were (1) to describe the extent of newspaper coverage of each of the specific components of the proposed tobacco settlement; (2) to identify the tobacco control frames, and the dominant frame, appearing in each newspaper article; and (3) to examine trends in tobacco control frames over time. DESIGN: A content analysis was performed on 117 articles related to national tobacco legislation appearing in the Washington Post from 1 January 1997 through 18 June 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Major policy themes of the settlement referred to or implied in each article; (2) major frames used to discuss the problem of tobacco in each article. RESULTS: The generation of new revenue was the dominant theme of the articles, appearing as a major focus in 44% (52) of the articles. Other than the issues of Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco and restrictions on cigarette advertising, the public health policy aspects of the tobacco settlement received little attention. The problem of tobacco was portrayed as one of youth smoking in 55% (64) of the articles, but as one of a deadly product in none of the articles. CONCLUSIONS: Future discussions of comprehensive tobacco policy should be driven by a more specific discussion of the precise programme and policy mechanisms by which tobacco use can be most effectively prevented and controlled. The public health community must find ways to frame the tobacco issue more broadly than simply as one of youth smoking.     

Infinite rehearsal of culture in St Catherine Jamaica: heritage as tourist product, implications for Caribbean pedagogy

Over the last 20 years educational policies across the globe have become more closely aligned with industry interests. Jamaica is no exception. But what does this mean when the country's leading 'industry' is tourism? It is no coincidence that in this decade the Ministry for Education became the Ministry for Education and Culture. When one of the main threats to the industry is seen to be the country's reputation for violence as substantiated by rising murder rates and increasingly vicious crime scenarios, what is the Ministry's response? One has been the introduction of the PALS (Peace and Love in Schools) curriculum, underwritten by the Tourist Board. The article examines the texts within this curriculum and how they position the identity of children and adults, and distinguish between Jamaicans and foreigners. The author then examines material collected during ethnographic fieldwork in the summer of 2000 with Jamaican youth in which issues of violence, tourism and the marketing of cultural products come to the fore. The youth convey an understanding of the facade/reality dichotomy that tourism necessitates across a wide spectrum of activities that make up daily life, and a pragmatism in which innocence is an unaffordable luxury, as are some forms of resistance to the inequalities that tourism brings so prominently into focus in the shape of all-inclusive hotels and cruise ships. The children's experiences resonate tellingly with some of the Caribbean's leading critical thinkers' misgivings about the tourism project and the schism in identities that it perpetuates.     

Price stabilization, international trade and national cereal stocks: world price shocks and policy response in South Asia

The sharp rise in international cereal prices in 2007 and 2008 had a profound impact on food security at national levels for net importing countries, sharply raising the cost of imports. Domestic trade policies and government market interventions in a set of South Asian countries have been critical, however, in determining the effects of the international price shocks on domestic markets. While these price shocks are a sober reminder that reliance on international markets will not guarantee price stability, it is important that governments do not over-react to recent events and adopt policies that ultimately result in large costs in terms of slower economic growth and less poverty reduction. Instead, national policies should involve some combination of (1) national stocks to prevent very large price increases, (2) reliance on international trade to limit the need for government interventions in most years, (3) promotion of domestic production through investments in irrigation, research and extension that is economically efficient when evaluated at medium-term border prices, and (4) targeted (ideally cash-based) safety net programs to address the food security needs of poor households. The appropriate design and implementation of these broad food policy guidelines will necessarily vary according to individual country conditions; the need to avoid government interventions that ultimately have very high costs is universal.

Exploring the role of social capital in influencing knowledge flows and innovation in smallholder farming communities in the Caribbean

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study into how different forms of social capital embedded within community-based social networks may affect innovation in smallholder farming systems to better support food security in the Caribbean. Focusing on two rural communities in the small island developing nation of Saint Lucia, our results indicate the strong presence of interpersonal agricultural knowledge networks operating to: 1) facilitate farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange; 2) increase farmer access to information; and 3) connect farmers to sources of support. In both communities, ‘peer farmers’ were reported as being the primary source of new agricultural knowledge for farmers, with government ‘extension officers’ the secondary source. Comparative social network analysis reveals how different forms of social capital within the two agricultural knowledge networks can affect self-reported farmer innovation in different contexts. Based on these findings we identify a number of opportunities for policy initiatives to better support, coordinate and enhance innovation opportunities among smallholder farmers in the Caribbean with a view to building their adaptive capacity in the face of environmental change. The findings provide important evidence and insights relevant to the governance of domestic agricultural systems and regional food security programming in the Caribbean.     

对国家发展食用植物油产业政策的几点学习体会

为促进我国食用植物油产业健康发展,保障供给安全,自2007年起,国家及有关部门制订出台了一系列促进油料生产和油脂工业发展的政策措施,诸如,国办发[2007]59号<国务院办公厅关于促进油料生产发展的意见>;国发[2008]36号<国务院关于促进食用植物油产业健康发展保障供给安全的意见>;2008年8月7日,国务院办公厅秘书局印发的关于<国家粮食安全中长期规划纲要(2008～2020年)>;2009年7月3日,国务院办公厅印发的关于<全国新增1 000亿斤粮食生产能力规划 (2009～2020年)的通知>(国办发[2009]47号)以及2008年8月,国家发展和改革委员会印发的关于<促进大豆加工业健康发展的指导意见>等一系列文件.     

Psychosocial work conditions, social capital, and daily smoking: a population based study

Objective: To investigate the associations between psychosocial conditions at work, social capital/social participation, and daily smoking.

Design/setting/participants/measurements: The 2000 public health survey in Scania is a cross sectional postal questionnaire study with a 59% participation rate. A total of 5180 persons aged 18–64 years that belonged to the work force and the unemployed were included in this study. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the associations between psychosocial factors at work/unemployment, social participation, and daily smoking. Psychosocial conditions at work were defined according to the Karasek-Theorell demand–control/decision latitudes into relaxed, active, passive, and jobstrain categories. The multivariate analyses included age, country of origin, education and economic stress.

Results: 17.2% proportion of all men and 21.9% of all women were daily smokers. The jobstrain (high demands/low control) and unemployed categories had significantly higher odds ratios of daily smoking among both men and women compared to the relaxed (low demands/high control) reference category. The passive (low demands/low control), jobstrain, and unemployed categories were also significantly associated with low social participation. Low social participation was significantly and positively associated with daily smoking within each of the psychosocial work conditions and unemployed categories.

Conclusions: The positive association between low social capital/low social participation and daily smoking is well known. However, both social participation and daily smoking are associated with psychosocial work conditions and unemployment. Psychosocial work conditions and unemployment may affect daily smoking both directly and through a pathway including social participation.

     

The vital role of science in global policy decision-making: An analysis of past, current, and forecasted trends and issues in global red meat trade and policy

As global populations and economies change, the dynamics of global trade and policy change as well. In analyzing the past trends and projections for global populations, economic developments, animal product production and consumption, global trade policy, and current issues being faced, one can begin to make some predictions or projections as to how the global red meat and poultry infrastructure will change and, more importantly, point to areas where a proactive approach is necessary to shape these changes to meet the most globally beneficial end. Many issues face the global red meat industry, from food safety to animal disease, and are becoming more and more complicated as consumer knowledge increases and as politics intervene. Internationalized science is key and vital in the future of global trade policy as science can address the more informed consumer in a manner, which reduces anxiety over unknowns. The role of the industry is to provide the information and knowledge to the consumer necessary to convey the validity of globally accepted standards, which relate to ensuring consumer safety, animal welfare, and provide assurances that these standards are being met within the production sector.     

Patterns and stability of food preferences among a national representative sample of young,middle-aged,and elderly adults in China: A latent transition analysis

The purpose of this study was to explore the patterns and stability of, as well as the predictors for, Chinese adults’ food preferences. With the panel data set derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), latent class analysis (LCA) and latent transition analysis (LTA) were employed to analyze the data of 8850 adults aged 18–40 years (young), 41–60 years (middle-aged) and 61 years above (elderly) over a 4-year period (year 2011 as baseline and year 2015 as follow-up). Latent class analysis revealed three types of food preferences: preference for fruits and vegetables, preference for a varied diet and low food preference. Gender, dietary knowledge, residence, education, and BMI were revealed as significant predictors of the class memberships. From baseline to follow-up, the most stable status in young adult group was preference for fruits and vegetables as it had a high transition probability 0.764 of remaining in the same class. While low food preference and preference for a varied diet statuses were unstable, they had transition probabilities of 0.590 and 0.554, respectively, moving to the preference for fruits and vegetables in year 2015. For middle-aged and elderly groups, the most stable and unstable statuses were preference for fruits and vegetables and preference for a varied diet, respectively. The unstable classes all had over 50% probability of moving to the preference for fruits and vegetables after four years. Potential explanations and implications are also discussed.     

Current Curriculum Changes in Poland: a national report

The article discusses the Polish system of education, which faces several major challenges. One of them is the necessity of curriculum development in all types of schools in line with changes in the socio-political and economic system of the country, which is in transition from Communism to parliamentary democracy and a free market economy. The school under the previous system was primarily designed to produce loyal and obedient servants. Now these qualities are neither significant nor relevant. A range of key issues of the current school reform are identified and some suggestions are made towards a strategy for change. The paper is critical of the official strategy of introducing national core requirements as a major step in educational change. It is proposed that there is a risk that, without the careful preparation of teachers, the pace of change will be too great, thereby inviting disruption to the whole system of education.     

Tobacco control, global health policy and development: towards policy coherence in global governance

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) demonstrates the international political will invested in combating the tobacco pandemic and a newfound prominence for tobacco control within the global health agenda. However, major difficulties exist in managing conflicts with foreign and trade policy priorities, and significant obstacles confront efforts to create synergies with development policy and avoid tensions with other health priorities. This paper uses the concept of policy coherence to explore congruence and inconsistencies in objectives, policy, and practice between tobacco control and trade, development and global health priorities. Following the inability of the FCTC negotiations to satisfactorily address the relationship between trade and health, several disputes highlight the challenges posed to tobacco control policies by multilateral and bilateral agreements. While the work of the World Bank has demonstrated the potential contribution of tobacco control to development, the absence of non-communicable diseases from the Millennium Development Goals has limited scope to offer developing countries support for FCTC implementation. Even within international health, tobacco control priorities may be hard to reconcile with other agendas. The paper concludes by discussing the extent to which tobacco control has been pursued via a model of governance very deliberately different from those used in other health issues, in what can be termed 'tobacco exceptionalism'. The analysis developed here suggests that non-communicable disease (NCD) policies, global health, development and tobacco control would have much to gain from re-examining this presumption of difference.     

The monetary value of human milk in Francophone west Africa: a PROFILES analysis for nutrition policy communication

Using a simple and conservative methodology, we estimated the volume and monetary value of the human milk produced by lactating women in Francophone West Africa. In that region, children zero to 35.9 months old consume over 1.1 billion liters of human milk per year. However, suboptimal breastfeeding practices account for the loss of 175 million liters of human milk annually. If the human milk consumed by children zero to 35.9 months old were to be adequately replaced using commercial breastmilk substitutes, an annual expenditure of about 2 billion US dollars would be needed. At the household level, the annual replacement cost of human milk would amount to US$412 per infant. This is beyond the reach of most families in West Africa, where as many as 61% of families in some countries live on less than one US dollar per day. Appropriate policies to foster breastfeeding need to be developed and adequately implemented. Such policy action is more likely to occur if decision makers fully appreciate the monetary value of human milk.     

Risk analysis and the law: international law, the World Trade Organization, Codex Alimentarius and national legislation

This paper discusses the place of risk analysis in international trade from a US perspective, through looking at the activities of the World Trade Organization and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. After examining what the trade agreements say about risk analysis and how international bodies are advancing and using risk analysis, the paper goes on to assess how risk analysis is used at a national level. Finally, recommendations are made for strengthening international food safety initiatives.     

Trade liberalisation and tobacco control: moving from a policy of exclusion towards a more comprehensive policy

Notwithstanding the fact that it has been 10 years since empirical confirmation that trade liberalisation may increase tobacco consumption, tobacco control policy with respect to trade liberalisation and related processes remains largely underdeveloped. The most commonly articulated policy, that tobacco be excluded from the scope of trade agreements, is problematic for a number of reasons and has not been widely implemented. In light of this fact and the potential role of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, further research and policy development are needed in the area.     

浅析工业企业基建业务财务管理

提出目前工业企业基建业务财务管理存在的制度方面、管理方面的问题，建议通过设立专门机构、建章建制、提高人员素质等方法加强企业基建业务财务管理。