“Public catering in service to the industrial financial plan of the “Apatit” trust”: from the history of the establishment and development of a new branch of the socialist economy in 1930–1935

The article retrospectively highlights the main stages of the establishment and development of public catering as a subsystem of food distribution in the area of apatite mining of the Apatit trust in 1930–1935 in the context of the socio-economic modernization processes of the first five-year plans, which led to the rapid urbanization of the population in the new industrial regions of the USSR. Despite the presence of a wide range of foreign and domestic studies of the history of Russian society during the period of its transition from the traditional agrarian to the industrial type of development, including everyday life and the organization of supply of the urban population, which are based on the methodology of social and economic history, anthropology, the scientific literature lacks information on the history of providing food on the regional level to the urbanized population of the new industrial centers of the USSR, in particular through public catering enterprises. This indicates the relevance of studying the history of the formation of a new branch of the Soviet economy in the Khibiny. Within the framework of the humanitarian and systemic approaches, the methodology of the case study is based on general scientific methods of scientific cognition, archival, source study, problem-chronological, comparative, historical-genetic (retrospective) methods. The empirical material for the study was archival documents from the end of 1929–1935 deposited in the collections of the Kirovsk branch of the State Archive of the Murmansk Region and in the Main Collection of the Museum-Archive of the History of Study and Development of the European North of the BCH of the KSC of the RAS, including published prescriptive documents of state power and political administrating authorities in the USSR in 1930–1935, materials of the periodical press of Khibinogorsk (since December 1934 — Kirovsk) in 1930–1935.

Introduction of food distribution in the conditions of the supply crisis before the revolution of 1917 (based on the materials of Kostroma Province)

By the end of 1916, the food issue had been escalating in the Russian Empire. The Russian government faced the need to supply not only the army, but also the provinces with consuming bread, and the civilians were hostages of the transport crisis. The fixed prices for bread introduced in September 1916 led to the restriction of market trade. An important step in the state regulation of the bread market was the unfolding of bread. The article provides an analysis of food policy before the introduction of the unfolding. The food distribution of the tsarist government was an attempt to mobilise grain resources for the needs of the army and the civilians. The peculiarity of the reform was the combination of the principle of duty and payment of the product at a fixed price. The expansion is considered both from the all-Russia positions, taking into account the experience of grain-producing provinces, and in terms of Kostroma Province, which had lack of developed agriculture. The article pays special attention to the measures of local authorities. The governor, the zemstvo, the volost peasant gatherings were not ready to complete the tasks in full. The article concludes that the food distribution in the bread-consuming province, experiencing a crisis of planned supply, could not end successfully.

ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities

In the past few decades, aquatic animals have become popular model organisms in biology, spurring a growing need for establishing aquatic facilities. Zebrafish are widely studied and relatively easy to culture using commercial systems. However, a challenging aspect of maintaining aquatic facilities is animal feeding, which is both time- and resourceconsuming. We have developed an open-source fully automatic daily feeding system, Zebrafish Automatic Feeder (ZAF). ZAF is reliable, provides a standardized amount of food to every tank, is cost-efficient and easy to build. The advanced version, ZAF+, allows for the precise control of food distribution as a function of fish density per tank, and has a user-friendly interface. Both ZAF and ZAF+ are adaptable to any laboratory environment and facilitate the implementation of aquatic colonies. Here we provide all blueprints and instructions for building the mechanics, electronics, fluidics, as well as to setup the control software and its user-friendly graphical interface. Importantly, the design is modular and can be scaled to meet different user needs. Furthermore, our results show that ZAF and ZAF+ do not adversely affect zebrafish culture, enabling fully automatic feeding for any aquatic facility.

Effect of food insecurity on the cognitive problems among elderly in India

Background Food Insecurity (FI) is a crucial social determinant of health, independent of other socioeconomic factors, as inadequate food resources create a threat to physical and mental health especially among older person. The present study explores the associations between FI and cognitive ability among the aged population in India. Methods To measure the cognitive functioning we have used two proxies, word recall and computational problem. Descriptive analysis and multivariable logistic regression was used to understand the prevalence of word recall and computational problem by food security and some selected sociodemographic parameters. All the results were reported at 95% confidence interval. Results We have used the data from the first wave of longitudinal ageing study of India (LASI), with a sample of 31,464 older persons 60 years and above. The study identified that 17 and 5% of the older population in India experiencing computational and word recall problem, respectively. It was found that respondents from food secure households were 14% less likely to have word recall problems [AOR:0.86, 95% CI:0.31–0.98], and 55% likely to have computational problems [AOR:0.45, 95% CI:0.29–0.70]. We also found poor cognitive functioning among those experiencing disability, severe ADL, and IADL. Further, factors such as age, education, marital status, working status, health related factors were the major contributors to the cognitive functioning in older adults. Conclusion This study suggest that food insecurity is associated with a lower level of cognition among the elderly in India, which highlight the need of food policy and interventional strategies to address food insecurity, especially among the individuals belonging to lower wealth quintiles. Furthermore, increasing the coverage of food distribution may also help to decrease the burden of disease for the at most risk population. Also, there is a need for specific programs and policies that improve the availability of nutritious food among elderly.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Distribution at Emergency Food Assistance Organizations in the Southwestern United States: A Qualitative Investigation

This study aimed to identify changes in food distribution operations at emergency food assistance organizations (EFAOs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. EFAOs across the Houston metro area, TX (human service centers and food pantries) as well as the Houston Food Bank (HFB) participated in the qualitative study. Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews and focus group (December 2020–February 2021), and coded using semi-structured thematic analysis. Categories were pre-identified based on the interview questions. Direct quotes supported subcategories. Directors from 18 EFAOs were interviewed; 8 HFB leadership staff participated in a focus group. Four major categories of change due to COVID-19 included new safety measures, changes in food distribution process, changes in volunteerism and staffing, and changes in amounts of food distributed. This study helps identify susceptibilities in EFAOs’ food distribution chain should be addressed to manage future emergency food insecurity crises more effectively. An understanding of the changes/challenges incurred by EFAOs during the COVID-19 pandemic can inform policymakers to ensure local food distribution organizations are prepared to fill the needs during future a crisis of food insecurity.

Kajian Penanggulangan Gizi Buruk di Kalimantan Selatan

Toddlers in Indonesia experience a double burden problem, some children are obese but others experience stunting, emaciation, and malnutrition. Nutritional problems if not addressed will cause the Indonesian nation can experience a lost generation. The occurrence of malnutrition can be prevented if the root cause of the problem in the community concerned can be known, so that overcoming the problem of nutrition can be done more fundamentally through handling the root of the problem. The purpose of this study is to identify the causes of malnutrition, identify the implementation of efforts to overcome malnutrition, and formulate strategies to overcome malnutrition in South Kalimantan. This research is a descriptive study with a combination method combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results showed the number of malnutrition in South Kalimantan that was found in 2018 to September was 95 cases. Cases of malnutrition were found mostly with non-clinical symptoms. Most cases of malnutrition found with clinical symptoms are marasmus. Most of the cases in 2018 were caused by poverty + poor parenting + lack of sanitation. Efforts to combat malnutrition in South Kalimantan are not only carried out by the health department but also supported by cross-sectors which are included in sensitive interventions, including social services through PKH programs and non-cash direct assistance (literature, basic food distribution, business capital assistance, home rehabilitation) not living) and also the food security department through KRPL and CPP programs, and others. However, coordination between related agencies in managing malnutrition problems, especially at the district / city level, is still not optimal. High commitment from regional leaders is needed for the integration of all related sectors.

Parental control: ecology drives plasticity in parental response to offspring signals

Different bird species have completely different parent-offspring interactions. When food is plentiful, the chicks that are begging the loudest are fed the most. When food is scarce, bird species instead feed the largest offspring. While this variation could be due to parents responding to signalling differently based on food availability, it could equally be due to offspring adjusting their behaviour, or to variation in information availability. We tested between these competing explanations experimentally, by manipulating food availability in a population of wild great tits, Parus major, while standardising offspring behaviour and size. We found that when food was more plentiful, parents were: (1) more likely to preferentially feed the chicks that were begging the most; and (2) less likely to preferentially feed larger chicks. In addition, we consistently found these same patterns, in a meta-analysis across 57 bird species. Overall, our results suggest that parents have more control over food distribution than offspring do, and that they flexibly adjust how they respond to both offspring signals and cues of offspring quality in response to food availability. Consequently, depending upon environmental conditions, predictably different signalling systems are favoured.