An observational analysis of Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) foraging and caching ecology in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA

Arctic and subarctic wildlife are among the most vulnerable species to climate change. Canada Jays (Perisoreus canadensis (Linnaeus, 1776)) are generalist residents of northern boreal forests and scatter-hoard food to insulate against food scarcity during winter. Unlike most scatter-hoarders, however, Canada Jays primarily cache perishable food, rendering their caches more susceptible to climate change induced degradation and loss. Here we use a mostly noninvasive approach to document Canada Jay foraging ecology among a population in interior Alaska, USA, including the types of food acquired, foraging and caching rates, and cache longevity and loss. We also tested for associations between foraging and caching rates with reproductive metrics to assess possible relationships among food and productivity. We found that Canada Jays have a varied diet that changed seasonally, and responded to a record-setting warm spring by directing foraging efforts away from cache recovery and towards the emergence of fresh food. We did not find evidence for relationships between foraging and caching rate with reproductive output, possibly owing to small sample sizes. We found that caches were recovered quickly (<4 weeks) and frequently lost to conspecific and heterospecific competitors. Our study suggests that Canada Jays may be better poised to respond to changes in cache integrity and food availability than has been previously recognized.

Socialize More, Pay Less: Randomized Field Experiments on Social Pricing

We propose social pricing, a novel pricing framework under which consumers with higher social capital enjoy a better price. Conceptually, social pricing enables firms to achieve price discrimination based on a consumer’s social value. This is in sharp contrast with traditional price discrimination strategies where price differentiation typically hinges on consumers’ personal value. We design and conduct two randomized field experiments on a leading online fresh food retailer to understand the value of social pricing. Social pricing has been commonly credited for its effectiveness in new customer acquisition. Interestingly, our study reveals that it is also highly effective on existing consumers. Our analysis shows that social pricing can increase an online retailer’s profit by 40% solely from existing consumers, compared with regular firm-offered discounts. Exploration of the underlying mechanisms reveals that perceived engagement and social cost are the main drivers, which not only help to increase purchasing frequency but also induce higher order value per purchase. In a follow-up experiment, we vary the rules of social interactions by requiring heterogeneity in consumers’ purchasing frequencies. The results suggest that a heterogeneity-based strategy can further amplify the benefits of social pricing.

Structural time series: computational efficiency in estimating economic parameters in industry

A growing field is related to automatized Time Series analysis, through complicated due to the dependence of observed and hidden dimensions often presented in these data types. In this report the problem is motivated by a Brazilian financial company interested in unraveling relation structure explanation of the Japanese' CPI ex-fresh Food \& Energy across 157 economical exogenous variables, with very limiting data. The problem becomes more complex when considering that each variable can enter the model with lags of 0 to 8 periods, as well as an additional restriction of admitting only a positive relationship. This report discusses three possible treatments involving models for structured time series, the most relevant approach found in this study is a Dynamic Regression Model combined with a Stepwise algorithm, which allows the most relevant variables, as well as their respective lags, to be found and inserted in the model with low computational cost.

A new method for ranking the usefulness of negative online reviews based on combined weighting method and improved TOPSIS

Online shopping has gradually become an important way of consumption, and consumers are paying more and more attention to negative reviews. In order to avoid the massive amount of negative review information leading to loss of useful information, this paper proposes a method for evaluating the usefulness of negative online reviews. Firstly, the method constructs an evaluation index system for the usefulness of negative online reviews from three aspects: the form feature, text feature, and reviewer feature of negative reviews, and uses a combination weighting method based on fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and entropy method to determine the weight of each index. Secondly, the usefulness ranking results of negative online reviews are obtained through the improved TOPSIS method based on the combined weighting method. Finally, the empirical analysis of the proposed model is carried out by crawling the negative online reviews of JD.com Fresh Food platform, and the improved model is compared with the traditional TOPSIS model, which proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the model.

Contemporary Public Policies to Strengthen Family Farming in the International Perspective: A Bibliometric Study

Family farming produces most of the fresh food consumed in large urban centers. However, its success depends on a variety of public policies, which range from strengthening the means of production to supporting marketing channels. In this article, we conduct a careful bibliometric analysis of studies in the international literature that address “family farming, public policies, and socioeconomic development”. The aim of the study is to identify and classify the public policies aimed at supporting family farming and socioeconomic development. We carried out a systematic literature review considering five international scientific journal databases using pairs of the keywords “public policies”, “family farming” and “socioeconomic development”. The resulting sample was a total of 625 articles, covering the period between 1984 and 2020. A bibliometric analysis of the first 50 articles selected by the Methodi Ordinatio tool was performed. For the final portfolio, 10 variables were analyzed to better assess and understand the current literature. Our analysis shows an increase in publications in the last five years, with articles from South America being more prevalent than those from other continents. Brazil being one of the key countries that has developed public policies aimed at family farming and rural socioeconomic development.

Study on decision making of fresh food supplier selection

As the first process of the supply chain, fresh food supplier is the source of food safety, and also the key factor of the whole fresh food supply chain competition. AHP is used to establish the fresh food supplier selection index system. IT is used to calculate the weight of each evaluation index. Through the establishment of a comprehensive evaluation model, decision maker will comprehensively evaluate the strength of fresh food suppliers.

Challenges and performance evaluation of livestock waste energy content

The global increase of the population has generated more and more requirement of the animal-based food. In order to provide this requirement, it was necessary to increase considerably the actual numbers of animals. This has led to both numerous positive and negative effects brought both to people and animals. Creating agro-touristic farms, ensuring fresh food, creating workplaces are just a part of the factors which have beneficial effects on the human beings. Yet, a major problem, which should not be ignored and neglected, is represented by the wastes resulted from animal breeding. These superficially treated wastes can cause numerous negative effects on the whole ecosystem. The animal dejections, the water resulted from the meat processing, the animal corpses, and all represent biodegradable wastes, which might be used, by transforming their energy content into electrical and thermal energy. This can be possible, for example, by using these wastes as raw material for producing biogas. To prove their efficiency in producing the biogases there have been done thermal analysis. In this article are analysed, from a thermal point of view, 3 different samples. In the first part of the experiment were analysed the swine dejections, in the second part were analysed the poultry dejections, and the third experiment consisted in the analysis of the cow stable waste. The analysis of these samples was done with the help of the Netzsch 449 C Jupiter device. The results obtained from the analysis prove the fact that all the three raw materials can be used as raw materials in producing the biogas.

Impact of Climatic Changes on Earth's Survival

Every species' survival on earth is dependent on each other for their demand and dependent on the environment and various other sources. These resources include fresh food, clean drinking water, timber for construction, natural gas and coal for industries, fibers for clothing. All the human activity affects the environment severely in different ways. The biggest threats to the environment are climatic changes. Climate is an important factor that affects all survival on earth. The different pollutants, transport, dispersion, chemical transformation, as well as the deposition can be affected by meteorological variable such as humidity, wind, temperature. Climatic changes are expected to worsen the quality of air and water by changing the atmospheric processes and chemistry. Not only human beings but every aspect of the ecosystem is affected due to the changing climate. This chapter will explore the impacts of climatic changes on biodiversity by various activities of humans. Additionally, it will sketch how the impacts can be reduced by plants.

Improving Operational and Sustainability Performance in a Retail Fresh Food Market Using Lean: A Portuguese Case Study

This paper presents a real application of a lean–green improvement initiative conducted at a large Portuguese hypermarket store. It explores how lean tools and techniques may be used to not only improve the operational performance, but also sustainability. A case study was carried out in one store of a multinational retail enterprise, with the aim of enhancing both the operational and sustainability performance in the cold meat section, one of the most relevant areas of the fresh food markets. The Gemba Kaizen event approach, which comprises three main stages, was adopted. During the workshop stage, the structured problem-solving methodology was followed, and was recorded in an A3 format. As a consequence of this project, food waste in the cold meat market was reduced by half, whereas the out-of-stock index decreased by a third. In addition, the pilot store hit top performance within all stores of the company in Portugal, ranking first in all key indicators for the cold meat market. The lean–green scope and performance improvement procedures developed and implemented in the pilot store were later deployed to other stores of the company. This is one of the first publications regarding the application of lean management in the food retail sector for improving both the operational and sustainability performance.