Low glycemic index: The next target for rice production in China?

China has 22% of the world’s population but only 7% of the world’s arable land.  Food security has been a chief mission of the Chinese state since the beginning of the dynastic era and remains a primary objective in the early 21st century.  As a result, high yield has been the first priority of farmers, researchers and agricultural agencies in China for a long time.    Rice is the most important food crop in China, feeding about 65% of the national population.  Rice self-sufficiency has been achieved in China by increasing grain yields by more than 50% since 1980, and this trend is likely to be sustained assuming current yield and consumption trajectories without reduction in production area (Deng et al. 2019).    As living standards improve, the demand for high quality rice, especially good taste rice, increases in China.  In general, rice with low amylose content and soft texture is preferred by Chinese rice consumers.  This preference has driven considerable changes in rice production of China: (1) in single-season rice cropping regions such as Jiangsu and Heilongjiang provinces, the planting area of soft japonica rice with low amylose content (<15%) has increased substantially while that of non-soft japonica rice with relatively high amylose content has decreased considerably (Zhu et al. 2015); (2) in single- and double-season (early and late seasons) rice mixed cropping regions such as Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, the planting area of early-season indica rice, which is dominated by cultivars with high amylose content (Yin et al. 2020), has decreased sharply (Peng 2016), whereas the planting area of single- and late-season indica rice with moderate to low amylose contents has increased significantly.  Increasing eating quality of rice has also been a focus for Chinese rice researchers and agricultural agencies. New tasty (soft texture) indica and japonica rice cultivars have been increasingly developed and grown in China to cater to consumer preferences (Zeng et al. 2019).    Improved living standards are also driving up the demand for healthy food in China.  However, rice is generally categorized as a food with high glycemic index (GI).  There is an evidence that rice consumption is significanlty positively associated with the increase in risk of type II diabetes, especially in Asian populations including Chinese (Hu et al. 2012).  Based on the dose-response relation between rice intake and relative risk of type II diabetes plotted by Hu et al. (2012), Song et al. (2017) found that the relative risk of type II diabetes was significantly elevated above 1.00 in China under the current rice intake, i.e., 213 and 256 g d^–1 for women and men, respectively.  In addition, China currently has the highest number of people with diabetes (mainly type II diabetes) in the world, with 114 million or 12% of Chinese adults being diagnosed with diabetes and an additional 493 million with pre-diabetes (Xu et al. 2013).  It is well known that diet management is very important for diabetes care (Sami et al. 2017).  Choosing low-GI foods in place of high-GI foods is a clinically useful way to control glycemic levels in people with diabetes (Brand-Miller et al. 2003).  Therefore, it is meaningful and urgent to produce low-GI rice in China to reduce risk of type II diabetes.  In this regard, it has been found that there is a large variability in GI among rice cultivars.  For example, Fitzgerald et al. (2011) reported that the GI of cooked rice ranged from 48 to 92 in a set of 235 cultivars.    Our concern is that the current rapid development of tasty rice with soft texture (low amylose content) may increase rather than reduce the risk of type II diabetes in China, because the lower the amylose content of rice, the lower the resistant starch contents (Rahman et al. 2007), the less the resistance to digestion (Hu et al. 2004), and the higher the GI (Fitzgerald et al. 2011).  This concern can be supported by a human diet study of Ohtsubo et al. (2016), who observed that a more drastic increase of postprandial blood glucose occurred in the case of eating low-amylose rice than in the case of eating high-amylose rice and thus concluded that the high-amylose rice is promising for the purpose of diabetes prevention.  Our concern is also supported by a population-based study of 3 918 Chinese adults aged 23–69 years (Cheng et al. 2017), which showed that the consumption of rice with high GI was detrimentally associated with glucose homeostasis and suggested that the preferred choice of rice with lower GI should be advocated.  These also highlight that the cultivar change should be included when modeling the risk of type II diabetes associated with rice intake.    There is no doubt that low-GI rice with high amylose and resistant starch contents is not preferred by most Chinese consumers in the terms of palatability.  However, in the age of increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, most rice consumers are expected to choose health over taste.  Therefore, we appeal that China should begin to consider human health as a target for rice production.  Taken into considerations that (1) GI of rice is not only closely related to its amylose and resistance starch contents but also affected by its other starch traits (e.g., starch gelatinization and retrogradation properties, the particle size of starch granule, the ratio of amylose to amylopectin, the crystallite structure of amylopectin, the starch resistance against enzymatic hydrolysis, and the interactions of starch with other components) and external factors such as cooking conditions (Frei et al. 2003; Rahman et al. 2007; Kaur et al. 2016); and (2) GI of foods and some starch traits such as the resistance starch contents are different depending on measurement method (Brand-Miller and Holt 2004; Walter et al. 2005), we therefore suggest promoting collaborative studies among researchers from various disciplines (crop science, food science and public health) to permit a full understanding of low-GI rice (Fig. 1).  The collaborative studies are not difficult to arrange given that China has established a batch of collaborative innovation centers at national and local levels and has accumulated a wealth of experience.  The studies can start by (1) investigating the digestive properties and glycemic impact of existing rice cultivars with different grain physicochemical characteristics across a wide range of environments, crop management practices and cooking conditions; and (2) considering the minimal extent of desirable palatability for the development of low-GI rice cultivars with high amylose and resistance starch contents in breeding programs.  In addition, it is also important to facilitate the collaboration among academy, government and business to enhance the consumer acceptance of low-GI rice (Jones and Jew 2007).  These works will provide useful information to guide the evaluation, production and promotion of healthy rice in China in the near future.     

Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research

Notions such as terroir and “Slow Food,” which originated in Mediterranean Europe, have emerged as buzzwords around the globe, becoming commonplace across Europe and economically important in the United States and Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Given the increased global prominence of terroir and regulatory frameworks like geographical indications, we argue that the associated conceptual tools have become more relevant to scholars working within the “alternative food networks” (AFN) framework in the United States and United Kingdom. Specifically, the Local Agrifood Systems (Systèmes Agroalimentaires Localisés, or SYAL) perspective, first articulated in 1996 by French scholars, seeks to understand the relationship between the development of local food systems and specific territories. We review the empirical and theoretical literature that comprises each of these perspectives, highlighting three areas in which SYAL scholarship may be relevant to AFN researchers. First, while AFN scholars tend to understand the “local” in terms of positionality, in a distributionist sense (vis-à-vis one’s relation to sites of food production or consumption or along commodity chains), SYAL studies frame local food systems as anchored within particular territories. Second, SYAL research places significant emphasis on collectivity, both in terms of collective institutions and shared forms of knowledge and identity. Third, although both perspectives are framed in opposition of the industrialization of the global food system, AFN scholars focus more on alternative distribution schemes (e.g., organic, fair trade, and direct marketing schemes), while SYAL researchers favor territorially anchored structures (e.g., geographical indications).     

The 1985 central chile earthquake: a repeat of previous great earthquakes in the region?

A great earthquake (surface-wave magnitude, 7.8) occurred along the coast of central Chile on 3 March 1985, causing heavy damage to coastal towns. Intense foreshock activity near the epicenter of the main shock occurred for 11 days before the earthquake. The aftershocks of the 1985 earthquake define a rupture area of 170 by 110 square kilometers. The earthquake was forecast on the basis of the nearly constant repeat time (83 +/- 9 years) of great earthquakes in this region. An analysis of previous earthquakes suggests that the rupture lengths of great shocks in the region vary by a factor of about 3. The nearly constant repeat time and variable rupture lengths cannot be reconciled with time- or slip-predictable models of earthquake recurrence. The great earthquakes in the region seem to involve a variable rupture mode and yet, for unknown reasons, remain periodic. Historical data suggest that the region south of the 1985 rupture zone should now be considered a gap of high seismic potential that may rupture in a great earthquake in the next few tens of years.     

Nanotechnologies,food, and agriculture: next big thing or flash in the pan?

The advent of the new nanotechnologies has been heralded by government, media, and many in the scientific community as the next big thing. Within the agricultural sector research is underway on a wide variety of products ranging from distributed intelligence in orchards, to radio frequency identification devices, to animal diagnostics, to nanofiltered food products. But the nano-revolution (if indeed there is a revolution at all) appears to be taking a turn quite different from the biotechnology revolution of two decades ago. Grappling with these issues will require abandoning both the exuberance of diffusion theory and ex post facto criticism of new technologies as well in favor of a more nuanced and proactive view that cross the fault line between the social and natural sciences.

The Application of PLC in the Overhead Crane

This paper is about the application of PLC (Model S5-135U made by Siemens) in the overhead crane. It is mainly about the working principles and application of PLC Model S5-135U.     

The end of the cretaceous: sharp boundary or gradual transition?

Evidence indicates that the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary is very sharp, and, within the limits of resolution, it is apparently synchronous at the various boundary localities. Arguments to the contrary, particularly those of Officer and Darke, are shown to invalid.     

The recombinant BGH controversy in the United States: Toward a new consumption politics of food?

The history of the controversy overrecombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is exploredin terms of the issue of the potential robustness ofa consumption-driven ``new' politics of food andagriculture. It is noted that while the dominanthistorical traditions in the social sciences haveserved to discount the autonomous role that consumersand consumption play in modern societies, there hasbeen growing interest in consumption within foodstudies as well as other bodies of scholarship such aspostmodernism, social constructivism, socialcapital/social distinction, and environmentalsociology. A review of the shifting pattern ofdiscourses during the rBGH controversy shows thatconsumption-driven claims and politics played atangible, but relatively minor role. Even so, it issuggested that the rBGH experience along with paralleltrends in food politics (e.g., anti-pesticidecampaigns such as the ``Alar scare,' agribusinessattempts to intimidate opponents through fooddisparagement laws, conditions-of-productionprovisions of the World Trade Organization agreement)could make the consumption/consumer dimension of foodpolitics more important in the future.     

Genetic factors in type 2 diabetes: the end of the beginning?

The intensive search for genetic variants that predispose to type 2 diabetes was launched with optimism, but progress has been slower than was hoped. Even so, major advances have been made in the understanding of monogenic forms of the disease which together represent a substantial health burden, and a few common gene variants that influence susceptibility have now been unequivocally identified. Armed with a better understanding of the tools needed to detect such genes, it seems inevitable that the rate of progress will increase and the relevance of genetic information to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diabetes will become increasingly tangible.     

Particle dark matter in the universe: at the brink of discovery?

The nature of dark matter is one of the central problems of cosmology, particle physics, and gravity. It may be made of still unknown particles produced in the early universe. Much progress has been made in attempts to detect these particles and in the development of the required experimental techniques. Results from direct searches, the Large Hadron Collider, and the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope offer promising opportunities within the next decade to find the missing dark matter.