Mechanical Performances of Isolated Cuticles Along Tomato Fruit Growth and Ripening

The cuticle is the most external layer that protects fruits from the environment and constitutes the first shield against physical impacts. The preservation of its mechanical integrity is essential to avoid the access to epidermal cell walls and to prevent mass loss and damage that affect the commercial quality of fruits. The rheology of the cuticle is also very important to respond to the size modification along fruit growth and to regulate the diffusion of molecules from and toward the atmosphere. The mechanical performance of cuticles is regulated by the amount and assembly of its components (mainly cutin, polysaccharides, and waxes). In tomato fruit cuticles, phenolics, a minor cuticle component, have been found to have a strong influence on their mechanical behavior. To fully characterize the biomechanics of tomato fruit cuticle, transient creep, uniaxial tests, and multi strain dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) measurements have been carried out. Two well-differentiated stages have been identified. At early stages of growth, characterized by a low phenolic content, the cuticle displays a soft elastic behavior. Upon increased phenolic accumulation during ripening, a progressive stiffening is observed. The increment of viscoelasticity in ripe fruit cuticles has also been associated with the presence of these compounds. The transition from the soft elastic to the more rigid viscoelastic regime can be explained by the cooperative association of phenolics with both the cutin and the polysaccharide fractions.

Investigating the Export Procedure Awareness of the Residents of Laligurans Municipality

This survey examined the association between the gender of the respondents and their desire to join or form a local cooperative association, perception towards the quality of locally grown agricultural products, and practice of selling locally produced agricultural products of the residents of Musunkhel, ward number 3 of Laligurans Municipality of Tehrathum district, Province No.1, Nepal. The population in the study comprised all the households of ward number 3 of Laligurans Municipality. This survey used a standardized questionnaire to collect primary data from 92 households from the targeted area. However, this study included 79 households only. The remaining households were filtered during the data curation and cleaning process. The collected data were processed in the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), version 25. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The study's findings indicated an insignificant association between gender and desire to join or form a local cooperative association, perception towards the quality of locally grown agricultural products, and practice of selling locally produced agricultural products. The study also found that the level of qualification does not influence awareness of the export process. However, relatively respondents with lower academic qualifications were aware of the export procedure.

Collective Poetry Making in the Poesis of Psychohistoriographic Cultural Therapy

Psychohistoriographic Cultural Therapy (PCT), pioneered in Jamaica in 1978, is a post-colonial model of group psychotherapy that privileges the use of the poetic to heal historical traumas. Embedded in PCT is a technique of collective poetry making. In this paper, the process is chronicled in five case studies: Madnificent Irations at the Bellevue Mental Hospital (Jamaica); Rethinking Cultural Diversity at the Cooperative Association of States for Scholarship (Georgetown University, Washington); Windows for Wavelengths at the Maudsley Hospital (London, UK); Identity and Achievement at the Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Centre (Wolverhampton, UK); and Mite de La Laine at the McGill University, (Montreal, Canada). An analysis of the PCT process and the collaborative poems created highlights how this model accelerates insight and resilience, confronts stigma, and facilitates rehabilitation and productivity.

Level of Savings among Maize Farmers in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study examined level of savings among maize farmers in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 80 respondents in the study area. Primary data were collected using well-structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Multiple Linear Regression. The results show that half of the respondents (50.0%) were within the age bracket of 21 - 40 years with a mean age of 42 years. Majority (83.8%) of the respondents were married. About 26.2% of the respondents had between 11 and 15 years of farming experience. More than half (56.2%) of the respondents belong to one cooperative association or another. Most of the respondents (81.2%) had access to extension contact with 46.3% of the respondents operating savings accounts with commercial banks. Household size (0.819**), farming experience (-0.589**), membership of association (-5.635**) and revenue from maize farming (0.00028**) were significant at 5% and constitute major determinants of savings in the study area. It is recommended that efforts should be made to increase earnings from maize farming through improved productivity by appropriate extension service. Also, savings with the financial institutions by the maize farmers should be encouraged through whittling down of administrative bottlenecks and, through extension of collateral-free credit facilities to them. Keywords: Savings, maize farmers, commercial banks

Cooperative in the modern economic environment

The purpose of this paper is to point out the importance of the cooperative as an economic entity, through representation of modern trends of cooperative association in Europe and beyond. Through their association, cooperative development covers key connecting factors of individuals, while finding models for reducing the differences between cooperatives as economic entities and companies for the benefit of companies. The subject of research in the paper represents an analytics of cooperatives and the need for new legal solutions, which would support the development of cooperatives as independent economic entities in the future. The key hypothesis the paper starts with is that cooperative association is of great importance in dealing with many economic, market and sociological challenges, which is of special significance for the economic development of our country. The previous legal solutions of the cooperative association, in addition to positive changes, have not given expected results so far. In the conclusion, it is pointed out that legally regulated area of cooperatives as specific economic subjects is the foundation of development of their economic activity. Based on the critical illumination of the cooperative legislation, recommendations are given for its improvement, while taking into account the ever-present needs for improving the business of cooperatives and their convergence with the business of other economic entities.

The importance of establishment and development of touristic cooperatives in the economy of rural areas of Serbia

Rural tourism in Serbia and its development has positive effects on all aspects of rural development, both economic and social. The aim of this paperwork is to investigate the importance that touristic cooperatives in rural areas of Serbia, although relatively new in this area, have and can have on the overall development of rural areas. For the purpose of the research, an interview was conducted with the directors of the existing tourist cooperatives in Serbia. Based on the obtained data, it was determined that this form of cooperative association is necessary, not only because of the development of tourism in the countryside, but above all because of the survival of the Serbian village. The obtained data on the problems and limiting factors that cooperative members face in business can be a further basis for future research on the topic of rural development through the establishment and strengthening of tourist cooperatives.

The History of Coach Education in Flanders

From an international perspective, it is indispensable to shed light on the education and certification of sports coaches within different countries in order to exchange good practices and facilitate international collaboration. This article highlights the past, present and future of coach education in Flanders, Belgium. A historical overview of the main initiatives of public, private and academic partners and their shifting relationships with regard to coach education provides insight into the establishment of the current Flemish School for Coach Education, a unique cooperative association between the public government, private sports federations and academic institutes for physical education. Key elements of the Flemish coach education system are presented: mission, organisation and partnerships, framework, competence model, learning pathways/culture and quality assurance. Important future steps involve the transition from a linear framework to a context-specific and nonlinear alternative, based on long-term athlete and coach development models, rethinking coach competences for all programs and implementing a blended learner-based approach with more focus on unmediated, nonformal mediated and internal learning situations.

The Anchor Borrowers Programme and youth rice farmers in Northern Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Anchor Borrowers Programme (APB) on youth rice farmers’ productivity (yield/ha).Design/methodology/approachUsing cross-sectional data from youth rice farmers in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria, probit regression was used to examine the determinants of participation in ABP amongst the youth rice farmers. In addition, the instrumental variable (IV) regression approach that could mitigate selection bias due to unobservable factors resulting from the cross-sectional nature of the data was also used to determine the impact of the ABP on rice productivity of youth farmers.FindingsFindings from the study indicated that marital status, education, access to credit and membership of cooperative association were the significant determinants of participation in the ABP amongst the youth rice farmers.Practical implicationsThe implication of the result is that participation in the ABP leads to an increase in yield by about 42.46%, which shows the effectiveness of the ABP in the study area.Originality/valueThis study provides a rigorous econometric analysis of the determinants of ABP and its impact on rice productivity amongst youth farmers in Northern Nigeria. Thus, the study recommends improvement in credit accessibility, participation in the cooperative association and more education of the farmers to sustain the inputs distribution aim of the ABP.

Directions for strengthening cooperative ties in pig production

Possible directions of development of cooperation in the feld of pig breeding have been investigated in the article. The analysis of import and export of pig production in Ukraine in recent years has been carried out, which showed that today there is a need to improve integrated relations in the pig industry. The features of the cooperation process in highly developed countries (USA, Denmark, Netherlands, China, Poland) are highlighted. It is proved that the organization of a cooperative association can be accomplished by the acquisition of processing facilities at the expense of fnancial resources of the cooperative shareholders or the cooperative introduction under the terms of an equal member-shareholder of the meat processing enterprise. In order to increase the effciency of pork production in small farms with livestock up to 50 heads, it is advisable to involve them in competitive pork supply chains based on an agricultural cooperative for the production and marketing of pig production. It is substantiated that pig production cooperative can bring small agricultural enterprises together, individual agribusiness entrepreneurs, owners of private farms, processing enterprises and wholesale and retail establishments. Analysis of tendencies and features of development of cooperation in agriculture on the basis of a survey of managers and leading experts of agricultural enterprises for the production of pig meat, as well as generalizations of the results of studies of Ukrainian scientists give reason to recommend certain models of production cooperation in pig production: 1) the establishment of agricultural production cooperatives on the basis of high-value personal farms that hold three pig heads and more land use area more 1 hectare within a settlement that will integrate land in a single array for the purpose of mechanized cultivation and growing crops to feed pigs; 2) creation of highly concentrated agricultural production cooperatives on the basis of unproftable enterprises of the corporate sector of other organizational and legal forms of management with a clear separation of specialized structural units, which operate on the basis of internal economic calculation. In order to identify ways to improve the functioning of agricultural production cooperatives-producers, approaches to improving the management system are considered. Key words: pig breeding, production efciency, cooperation, typology of corporate sector farms, approaches to improving the management system, model of relations between the subjects of cooperation.