The export of agri-food products represents a pillar of the Italian economy. However, food businesses (FBs) must comply with a series of requirements, including those imposed by importing countries. This study conducted in-depth interviews with three Italian FBs producing food of animal origin to explore their perception about procedures, documentation, and the role of the central competent authority (CA) related to export. Interviews with food quality managers (FQMs) (February-April 2024) revealed similar challenges across different sectors, particularly regarding the availability and clarity of information. FQMs suggested the implementation of a centralized online platform to enhance access to necessary information. Additionally, the study revealed a lack of full awareness among FQMs about central CA’s role in the export process. A coordinated approach involving central, regional, and local CAs, trade associations, and the productive sector could be crucial to ensure the success of FBs in the international market.
This study investigates the feasibility of studying Arabic for business communication and marketing promotion in Nigeria, particularly against the context of growing economic relations with Arabic-speaking nations. Although Arabic is one of the six working languages at the United Nations and of global strategic importance, it is still scarcely used in commercial and educational endeavors in Nigeria. The study used a descriptive survey research design and a standardized questionnaire titled Questionnaire on Arabic for Effective Business Communication and Marketing Promotion (QAEBCMP) to obtain responses from the people of schools and twon of respondents regarding their opinions, perceptions, and attitudes toward the relevance of learning Arabic for business communication. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 30 Arabic lecturers, 60 Arabic students, and 155 business operators in a three universities in Ilorin. The total population made up of 195 respondents. The questionnaire had 30 items, distributed over three parts: lecturers' views on the inclusion of Arabic for Specific Purposes such as Business Arabic in curricula and business education; students' attitudes towards studying Arabic for business and work; and attitudes of traders regarding the application of Arabic for foreign trade and marketing. The tool was face-validated by Arabic education specialists, business communication specialists, and research methodology specialists. A pilot test involving an external sample resulted in Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient being 0.78, showing excellent internal consistency. Descriptive statistics of percentage indices and frequencies were applied in the analysis of data.
The findings of the study revealed that That Arabic has commercial significant relevance beyond religious uses and that it should be taught within entrepreneurship education and university curriculum; that Arabic for Specific Purposes (ASP), specifically, Learning Arabic for Business Communication (ABC) enhances employability, entrepreneurship, and international marketing.; and that Arabic has practical value of in strategic business transaction, particularly with Arab suppliers and customers. It reduces dependence on interpreters, generates confidence, and results in improved products.
Consequently, the study recommended that Arabic Language lecturers should be professionally trained on real business materials such as contracts and adverts. Universities should also collaborate with trade associations to offer short-term courses in Arabic to traders and professionals. Government institutions ought to sponsor Arabic-economic empowerment initiatives, especially for trade with the Middle East and North Africa. There should be the creation of business-oriented Arabic study materials textbooks, audiovisuals, and case studies. Simple Arabic Education should also be promoted in the merchants to reduce the employment of interpreters and enhance confidence in business. Lastly, Nigerian trade ministries and missions in Arabic countries should ensure language training programs by making available the latest terminologies and information on culture. Implementation of these recommendations will align Arabic instruction with demand in the market place, enhancing language skills and business success.
The Malabo Declaration commits African Union member states to eliminating hunger by 2025. Progress toward this target has been uneven and poorly understood. While some countries have recorded gains in non-hunger thematic areas such as finance, trade, resilience to climate variability, and governance and accountability mechanisms, the extent to which these improvements contribute to hunger reduction remains unclear. This study investigates whether performance in non-hunger areas, as measured through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Biennial Review C-scores, is statistically associated with outcomes under Commitment 3, which focuses on hunger reduction. We used random effects panel regression model covering 55 African countries from 2017 to 2023, the analysis identifies five significant predictors: agricultural GDP and poverty reduction (PC 4.1), foreign private investment (PC 2.3), multi stakeholder coordination (PC 1.2), inclusive public–private partnerships (PC 4.2), and trade policies (PC 5.2). Investment in resilience (PC 6.2) and capacity for planning and monitoring (PC 7.1) showed marginal associations. Our findings suggest that institutional presence alone does not drive hunger outcomes. We reflect that what matters is the structure, inclusiveness, and functionality of these mechanisms, including whether investments reach food-insecure populations, coordination platforms influence decisions, and policies adapt to local conditions. This study concludes that some high-performing categories fail to deliver tangible hunger reduction benefits when implementation is fragmented or disconnected from context. These findings challenge how progress is currently measured and interpreted at the regional level. Finally, we reiterate that as the region prepares for the post-2025 agenda, future strategies must directly link agricultural transformation to hunger reduction through targeted interventions and accountable institutions.
Abstract It is increasingly important to study the impact of environmental inhalation exposures on human health in natural or man-made disasters in civilian populations. The members of the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC; WTC Survivors) had complex exposures to environmental disaster from the destruction of WTC towers and can serve to reveal the effects of WTC exposure on the entire spectrum of lung functions. We aimed to investigate the associations between complex WTC exposures and measures of spirometry and oscillometry in WTC Survivors and included 3605 patients enrolled between Oct 1, 2009 and Mar 31, 2018. We performed latent class analysis and identified five latent exposure groups. We applied linear and quantile regressions to estimate the exposure effects on the means and various quantiles of pre-bronchodilator (BD) % predicted forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC ratio, as well as the resistance at an oscillating frequency of 5 Hz (R5), frequency dependence of resistance R5–20, and reactance area (AX). Compared with Group 5, which had low or unknown exposure and was treated as the reference group, Group 1, the local workers with both acute and chronic exposures, had a lower median of % predicted FVC (−3.6; 95% CI: −5.4, −1.7) and higher (more abnormal) measures of AX at 10th quantile (0.77 cmH2O L–1 s; 95% CI: 0.41, 1.13) and 25th quantile (0.80 cmH2O L−1 s; 95% CI: 0.41, 1.20). Results suggested heterogeneous exposures to the WTC disaster had differential effects on the distributions of lung functions in the WTC Survivors. These findings could provide insights for future investigation of environmental disaster exposures.
Wouter Muijres, Sylvie Arnalsteen, Cas Daenens
et al.
IntroductionStepping accuracy, speed, and stability are lower in older compared to young adults. Lower stepping performance in older adults may be due to larger accuracy-speed-stability trade-offs because of reduced ability to simultaneously fulfill these task-level goals. Our goal was to evaluate whether trade-offs are larger in older compared to young adults in a targeted stepping task. Since sensorimotor function declines with age, our secondary goal was to evaluate whether poorer sensorimotor function was associated with larger trade-offs.MethodsTwenty-five young (median 22 years old) and 25 older (median 70 years old) adults stepped into projected targets in conditions with various levels of accuracy, speed, and stability requirements. We determined trade-offs as the change in performance, i.e., foot placement error, step duration, and mediolateral center of pressure path length, between each of these conditions and a control condition. To assess age-related differences in the magnitude of trade-offs, we compared the change in performance between age groups. Associations between trade-offs and measures of sensorimotor function were tested using correlations.ResultsWe found an accuracy-speed and an accuracy-stability trade-off in both young and older adults, but trade-offs were not different between young and older adults. Inter-subject differences in sensorimotor function could not explain inter-subject differences in trade-offs.ConclusionAge-related differences in the ability to combine task-level goals do not explain why older adults stepped less accurate and less stable than young adults. However, lower stability combined with an age-independent accuracy-stability trade-off could explain lower accuracy in older adults.
Anne-Célia Disdier, Fabrice Etilé, Lorenzo Rotunno
Introduction There is a lack of quantitative evidence on the role of food innovations—new food ingredients and processing techniques—in the nutrition transition.Objective Document the distribution of food innovations across 67 high-income (HIC) and middle-income (MIC) countries between 1970 and 2010, and its association with the nutritional composition of food supply.Methods We used all available data on food patents, as compiled by the European Patent Office, to measure food innovations. We considered innovations directly received by countries from inventors seeking protection in their territories, and those embedded in processed food imports. Food and Agricultural Organization data were used to estimate the associations between international diffusion of food innovations and trends in total food supply and its macronutrient composition, after adjusting for confounding trends in demand-side factors. We identified the role of trade by simulating the changes in average diet due to innovations embedded in food imports.Results Trends in food innovations were positively and significantly associated with changes in daily per capita calorie supply available for human consumption in MIC between 1990 and 2010 (elasticity of 0.027, 95% CI 0.019 to 0.036). Food innovations were positively correlated with the share of animal and free fats in total food supply (elasticities of 0.044, 95% CI 0.030 to 0.058 for MIC between 1970 and 1989 and 0.023, 95% CI 0.003 to 0.043 for HIC between 1990 and 2010). Food innovations were associated with substitutions from complex carbohydrates towards sugars in total food supply for MIC after 1990 (elasticities of −0.037, 95% CI −0.045 to −0.029 for complex carbs, 0.082, 95% CI 0.066 to 0.098 for sugars). For these countries, the trade channel capturing access to innovations through imports of processed food played a key role.Conclusion Policy-makers should consider the impacts of the international diffusion of food innovations in assessing the costs and benefits of international trade regulations.
Medicine (General), Infectious and parasitic diseases
Sebastián Di Giacomo, Danilo Bucafusco, Juan Manuel Schammas
et al.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) remains one of the major threats to animal health worldwide. Its causative agent, the FMD virus (FMDV), affects cloven-hoofed animals, including farm animals and wildlife species, inflicting severe damage to the international trade and livestock industry. FMDV antigenic variability remains one of the biggest challenges for vaccine-based control strategies. The current study analyzed the host’s adaptive immune responses in cattle immunized with different vaccine protocols and investigated its associations with the clinical outcome after infection with a heterologous strain of FMDV. The results showed that antigenic payload, multivalency, and revaccination may impact on the clinical outcome after heterologous challenge with FMDV. Protection from the experimental infection was related to qualitative traits of the elicited antibodies, such as avidity, IgG isotype composition, and specificity diversity, modulating and reflecting the vaccine-induced maturation of the humoral response. The correlation analyses of the serum avidity obtained per vaccinated individual might suggest that conventional vaccination can induce high-affinity immunoglobulins against conserved epitopes even within different FMDV serotypes. Cross-reaction among strains by these high-affinity antibodies may support further protection against a heterologous infection with FMDV.
Tropospheric ozone and nitrogen deposition are two major environmental pollutants. A great deal of research has focused on the negative impacts of elevated O<sub>3</sub> and the complementary effect of soil N addition on the physiological properties of trees. However, it has been overlooked how elevated O<sub>3</sub> and N addition affect tree immunity in face of pathogen infection, as well as of the important roles of phyllosphere microbiome community in host–pathogen–environment interplay. Here, we examined the effects of elevated O<sub>3</sub> and soil N addition on poplar leaf rust [<i>Melampsora larici-populina</i>] severity of two susceptible hybrid poplars [clone ‘107’: <i>Populus euramericana</i> cv. ‘74/76’; clone ‘546’: <i>P. deltoides</i> Í <i>P. cathayana</i>] in Free-Air-Controlled-Environment plots, in addition, the link between <i>Mlp</i>-susceptibility and changes in microbial community was determined using Miseq amplicon sequencing. Rust severity of clone ‘107’ significantly increased under elevated O<sub>3</sub> or N addition only; however, the negative impact of elevated O<sub>3</sub> could be significantly mitigated when accompanied by N addition, likewise, this trade-off was reflected in its phyllosphere microbial α-diversity responding to elevated O<sub>3</sub> and N addition. However, rust severity of clone ‘546’ did not differ significantly in the cases of elevated O<sub>3</sub> and N addition. <i>Mlp</i> infection altered microbial community composition and increased its sensitivity to elevated O<sub>3</sub>, as determined by the markedly different abundance of taxa. Elevated O<sub>3</sub> and N addition reduced the complexity of microbial community, which may explain the increased severity of poplar rust. These findings suggest that poplars require a changing phyllosphere microbial associations to optimize plant immunity in response to environmental changes.
Almost ten years after the detection of the Xylella bacterium in southern Apulia (Saponari, 2013), the landscape now appears almost entirely desiccated, missing an organic vision of the future. The systematic estrangement between the different actors of knowledge and the substantial administrative immobilism has produced today a political, economic and environmental starvation. Our aim is to provide an adequate reading of the stalemate in the descriptive grids proper to the sociological analysis of socio-environmental (De Marchi, 2004) and botanical conflicts (Sheikh and Gray, 2018) which opens up to the social action ofthe other-than-human world (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017b; Pyyhtinen, 2016).
The material of a double field research - an ethnographic one underway since 2018; and a more recent qualitative sociological research, highlights the role of olive growers, as well as non-profit associations active in reforestation actions, and supports the hypothesis of at least two different interpretive paths.
The representations of the crisis adopted by social groups in the infected area, are investigated starting from the definition of conflict issues on the landscape and the economy in terms of aspirational capacity (Appadurai, 2004; De Leonardis, 2012) of local communities, such as to manifest a rupture of identity constructions and social cohesion following an extreme event. Thus, if the ecological disaster succeeded on the one hand in undermining the vulnerability of social groups and their ability to renegotiate their understanding of the disaster and their relationship with non-human actors, the ethnographic research conducted also shows another side. Numerous social entities have allowed a regenerative dimension to emerge from the disaster, characterized by a critical reinterpretation of past agricultural practices and the ability to question conventional boundaries between nature and culture. The challenge of communities not only to build, but to imagine a new landscape, has given rise in Capo Leuca and few but widespread areas of Salento to experimental practices of agro-forestry regeneration of the highest social relevance (Papadopoulos 2018), which also interrogate through the commons the economic and political agendas of trade associations and the region on the one hand, and speculators on the other.
Vorona Anastasiуa, Kopteva Lyudmila, Trushevskaya Anna
Currently the Eurasian Economic Union defines its main tasks as the creation of an image of the significant center for the development of international trade, enhancement of mutually beneficial partnership with member states and other countries, the creation of new formats for international cooperation. At the present days the Eurasian Economic Union is filled with real economic content. Multilateral projects are being implemented, primarily in key sectors of the economy, that are energy and transport. In the long run, the formation of a monetary union is possible. Development of currency integration, as a component of economic unity, presupposes the process of implementing a coordinated policy of the EAEU countries, as well as the creation and functioning of the organizations performing interstate currency regulation. In the article the dynamics of the main economic indicators of the Eurasian Economic Union functioning is considered. The data on the trade turnover of the EAEU member countries for 2019 is provided. The main directions of EAEU cooperation with third countries and integration associations are revealed, with particular attention being paid to the creation of free trade zones with Vietnam and Singapore. In the context of the organization and functioning of interstate unions, each of the member states of such unions, while ensuring their own security, also needs to manage both the threats to the security of other partners that have an indirect adverse effect and the threats that directly impact the whole union. The directions of digital transformation of the economies of the Eurasian Economic Union member states are considered. The problematic aspects of its functioning are highlighted.
El Perú en la última década ha firmado acuerdos comerciales con sus socios más importantes, entre ellos, el TLC con China que es actualmente su principal socio comercial. Esta investigación busca estimar mediante un modelo de gravedad aumentado, el efecto del TLC con este país sobre los flujos comerciales, tanto a nivel agregado como a nivel desagregado por tipo de bien. Los resultados muestran que el TLC con China ha tenido un impacto positivo tanto en las exportaciones como en las importaciones de Perú, y que el impacto en las exportaciones ha sido más del doble que en las importaciones. A su vez, en la desagregación por tipo de bienes, las materias primas son el grupo de productos que más se ha visto beneficiado. Estos hallazgos muestran evidencia que la canasta exportadora con nuestro principal socio comercial no se ha diversificado en el tiempo, sino más bien se ha profundizado nuestra exportación primaria
Regulation of industry, trade, and commerce. Occupational law, International relations
December 8, 2019 will be the 20-eth anniversary of signing of the Treaty of creation of the Union state by the presidents of Russia and Byelorussia. The phenomenon of the Union state (US) and the road passed by it are sufficiently contradictory. On the one hand, the US is undoubtedly the most advanced integration alignment on the post-Soviet area and a pattern for other associations. For the period of forming of the US considerable progress in all spheres of cooperation has been achieved. The mutual trade volume grew from $9,3 bln in 2000 to $35,6 bln in 2018. Investment cooperation and industrial cooperation are developing, joint programs are being realized. The documents aimed at securing of equal rights of the two countries’ citizens have been signed and are being realized; military and political as well as cooperation at the regional level is developing. On the other hand, many aims of the US have not been attained, its construction has actually been frozen. The integration process evidently slips, many conceptual issues of the union construction stay unsettled. Serious contradictions between the parties on a number of important economic and political issues remain; periodically serious conflicts (“oil”, “gas”, “milk” etc.) accompanied by “information wars” and questioning the prospects of the Russian-Byelorussian integration arise. Recently Russia raises a question of the necessity to accelerate integration in the framework of the US binding it with maintenance of preferences for Byelorussia in mutual economic relations. The action program of the two countries aimed at activization of integration cooperation in the US is being prepared. However, between the parties serious differences stipulated, first of all, by unwillingness of Byelorussia to waive its sovereignty still remain. Just in the near time it will be clear whether the parties will manage to overcome these differences and start a new stage in the development of integration.
Anderson Carlos Camargo, Marcus Vinícius Coutinho Cossi, Wladimir Padilha da Silva
et al.
Microbiological testing is an important quality management tool in the food industry. In this study, the hygiene status of beef carcasses sampled in eight Brazilian slaughterhouses was assessed by enumeration of different hygiene indicator microorganisms, and a model to establish potential associations among these counts was proposed. The carcasses (n = 464) were surface sampled at four slaughtering steps (step 1: Hide after bleeding; step 2: Carcass after hide removal; step 3: Carcass after evisceration; step 4: Carcass after end washing) and subjected to a counting of mesophilic aerobes (MA), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), total coliforms (TC), and Escherichia coli (EC) using Petrifilm™ plates. Among the sampled beef carcasses (step 4), 32 (6.9%) and 71 (15.3%) presented counts above the microbiological criteria established by (EC) No. 1441/2007 for MA and EB, respectively. Thus, indicating that improvements in slaughter hygiene and a review of process controls are demanded in some of the studied slaughterhouses. The log count differences of EC, TC, and EB from MA were considered as response variables as a function of the slaughtering steps. Differential log counts changed consistently with the steps. The measurements, including the patterns in their inherently random variability, were fairly predictable from steps 1 and 4. The results indicated that differential log counts for TC and EC are not relevant, as their concentrations and random pattern can be inferred from counts of MA and EB. The proposed model can be used as a valuable tool for the design and adoption of feasible quality control programs in beef industries. The adoption of such a tool should have a positive contribution on consumers’ health and enhance product quality.
This paper analyses the importance of stakeholders’ actions on the effectiveness of the European competition policy. The national governments, European decision-makers, advisory institutions and civil society take the form of interest groups that have expectations, invest resources and advocate on competition policy. The paper follows the process of adopting a specific strategy (insider/outsider), depending on the type of the interest group and it divides the organizations in those with ”strong ties” and ”weak ties”. The goal of each interest group is to arrive at the main European competition law authority, the European Commission. As it has the full power to investigate cases and manage the process, as well as implementing decisions based on proposals, influencing this institution represents a real challenge for the stakeholders. In this process, some relevant aspects are the perfect timing for lobby, the dimension of the lobbying coalitions and also the capacity of attracting supporters of the cause. Interest groups do not have equal amount of influence power nor the resources but they do change the policy, according to their particular interests, by choosing the right strategies, partnerships and means to influence the decision-makers.
A set of 340 diverse groundnut genotypes included in Genomic Selection Panel (GSP) was used to evaluate genetic parameters and trait associations for resistance to rust and late leaf spot (LLS) along with yield and nutritional quality traits. The findings revealed high genetic variability coupled with high heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean (GAM) for resistance to both the diseases and yield traits, whereas low variability for nutritional quality traits with high heritability and low GAM. Disease severity scores for rust and LLS at 90 days after sowing (DAS) were negatively associated with yield, indicating pod yield penalty, thus deploying host-resistance for rust and LLS is a good strategy to plug the pod yield losses and reduce the input cost. It is possible to simultaneously improve the number of pods per plant and hundred kernel mass that contribute to pod yield as no trade-offs were detected between them. The association of oil and protein content with pod yield showed no tradeoffs, suggesting the possibility of simultaneous improvement of pod yield either with high oil or protein content. In breeding programs that target development of groundnut varieties to meet two distinct end-uses, oil milling, and food and confectionery, selection for either high oil (for oil purpose) or high protein and low oil (food/confections) will be efficient, as an inverse association between oil and protein content was observed. The use of disease score at 90 DAS for rust and LLS is effective and optimizes resources to make selection decisions in breeding as positive association among disease severity scores at different periods (75, 90 and 105 DAS) was observed.
The purpose of the article is to study the historical background, socio-political and
cultural factors of the establishment and operation of library associations; study the
meaning and essence of the presentations and discussions, the issue of development of library associations in Ukraine at the First National Congress of library workers in 1926 and studies their influence on the development of libraries in Ukraine in the second half of the 1920 years overall. In his scientific work by extensive use of historical-comparative, historical and genetic, statistical, chronological, biographical research methods, the method of diachronic analysis. The article describes the social and cultural conditions of the library associations main stages of development and features of their operation; disclosed value of their work in coordinating the work of libraries; analyzed the characteristic shape and features of these socio-professional organizations training and retraining of library staff. The author found that the success of a development and library associations have sought to consolidate and promote professional scatter libraries in the country were limited initially counteraction on the part of trade unions, and in the future and the governing bodies of political education. The author analyzed and proved that the library association worked out and implemented in practice various forms of organizational work, a variety of means and methods of solution and implementation of professional tasks, using a rich arsenal of democratic mechanisms and raising many issues of library building that was positively evaluated by delegates from 'ride. The main areas of library associations were: formation and development of professional skills of librarians; improving the efficiency of urban libraries through the organization and coordination of their activities; establishing a system of methodological assistance to libraries of different types and species, particularly rural libraries; promotion of scientific research, cultural, and educational activities libraries. However, in the late 1920 years Party and Soviet government bureaucracy gradually established tight control over all aspects of political, social and working life of society, of course, way into the library association and forced them to give in slowly at first managerial government agencies and coordinating functions, and professional and methodical, while not stop its activities in the early 1930 years.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of trade in fruits in Romania, what share does it have in the European and global trade, to show what is its contribution to the development of national economy and how does it affect the GDP of agriculture in Romania. Trade represents a form of human activity hat achieved along time the strongest connection between peoples, contributed to the development of economies and societies. The analysis methods used in order to highlight the changes occurred on the fruit market in Romania are as follows: the grouping method, the degree for covering the import by exports, correlation method. Analysing the correlation in Romania between fruit production, the value of agriculture GDP, and fruit import, a significant correlation is noticed, and the increase of fruit production has a positive impact on GDP and helps diminishing the imports. For the situation to be improved, fruit production increase is advisable, by increasing productivity as a result of using more efficient technologies, setting up associations of producers, building storage facilities.