The Fish Industry—Toward Supply Chain Modeling

Mathematical models for simulating and optimizing aspects of supply chains such as distribution, planning, and optimal handling of raw materials are widely used. However, modeling based on a holistic chain view including several or all supply chain agents is less studied, and food-related aspects such as quality and shelf-life issues enforce additional requirements onto the chains. In this article, we consider the supply chain structure of the fish industry. We discuss and illustrate the potential of using mathematical models to identify quality and value-adding activities. The article provides a first step toward innovative supply chain modeling aimed to identify benefits for all agents along chains in the fish industry.     

征稿

试验旨在评定日粮组成对断奶仔猪(体重为9~24kg)色氨酸需要量的影响。参照CVB(1996)和NRC(1998)中10~20kg体重的仔猪对色氨酸的需要量,拟定了两个无色氨酸的基础日粮:一个以玉米和豆粕为基础日粮;另一个以小麦、大麦、豆粕、豌豆和乳清粉为基础日粮,其中赖氨酸回肠表观消化率(AID)为10.0g·kg-1;色氨酸回肠表观消化率为1.4g·kg-1;色氨酸标准回肠消化率(SID)为1.5g·kg-1。在两个基础日粮中每1kg分别添加0.3,0.6,0.9gL-色氨酸,使日粮中色氨酸的AID分别达到1.7,2.0和2.3g·kg-(1SID为1.8,2.1和2.4g·kg-1)。8个处理中每个处理设定8个重复(每个圈中8头公猪或母猪)。测定平均日采食量、日增重和G:F作为反应的指标。试验28d后,在小麦-大麦日粮组和玉米-豆粕日粮组的比较中以及色氨酸水平增加的不同组的比较中,平均日增重和G:F均显著增加(P<0.05),平均日增重仅随着色氨酸水平的增加而提高(P<0.05)。增加色氨酸水平会显著增加玉米-豆粕日粮组日采食量中的回肠表观可消化赖氨酸(Lys)2.3g·kg-(1回肠标准可消化Lys2...     

Soil fungal community structure along a soil health gradient in pea fields examined using deep amplicon sequencing

Soil fungi and oomycetes (syn. peronosporomycetes) are the most common causes of pea diseases, and these pathogens often occur in complexes involving several species. Information on the dynamics within this complex of pathogens, and also between the complex of pathogens and other fungi in the development of root disease is limited. In this study, next-generation sequencing of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-1 was used to characterize fungal communities in agricultural soils from nine pea fields, in which pea roots showed different degrees of disease. Fungal species richness, diversity, and community composition were analyzed and compared among the different pea soils. After filtering for quality and excluding non-fungal sequences, 55,460 sequences clustering into 434 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), were obtained from the nine soil samples. These sequences were found to correspond to 145–200 OTUs in each soil. The fungal communities in the nine soils were strongly dominated by Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Phoma, Podospora, Pseudaleuria, and Veronaea, at genus level, correlated to the disease severity index of pea roots; Phoma was most abundant in soils with diseased plants, whereas Podospora, Pseudaleuria, and Veronaea were most abundant in healthy soils. No correlation was found between the disease severity index and the abundance of some of the other fungi and oomycetes normally considered as root pathogens in pea.     

Microstructural and chemical investigation of subsurface hardened potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Summary Microstructural changes related to subsurface hardening of pre-peeled potatoes were investigated using cv. Sava potatoes peeled using an industrial peeler, a laboratory knife peeler or a hand knife peeler. The pre-peeled potatoes were packed in polymer bags and stored at 18°C for six days until cooking. Potato hardness and microstructure of the tissue was investigated. Cellulose and suberin in hard potato tissue increased linearly with increase in mechanical impact in a damage barrel. The area of cell walls and especially cell corners of mechanically damaged potatoes showed white autofluorescence in blue light. The number of layers of bricklike and autofluorescent parenchyma increased significantly with increasing hardness. Subsurface hardening was related to percentage cells with fluorescent gelatinised cell mass and curly cell walls in a depth of the potato tissue corresponding to the depth of maximum hardness.     

Analysis of pregerminated barley using hyperspectral image analysis

Pregermination is one of many serious degradations to barley when used for malting. A pregerminated barley kernel can under certain conditions not regerminate and is reduced to animal feed of lower quality. Identifying pregermination at an early stage is therefore essential in order to segregate the barley kernels into low or high quality. Current standard methods to quantify pregerminated barley include visual approaches, e.g. to identify the root sprout, or using an embryo staining method, which use a time-consuming procedure. We present an approach using a near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging system in a mathematical modeling framework to identify pregerminated barley at an early stage of approximately 12 h of pregermination. Our model only assigns pregermination as the cause for a single kernel's lack of germination and is unable to identify dormancy, kernel damage etc. The analysis is based on more than 750 Rosalina barley kernels being pregerminated at 8 different durations between 0 and 60 h based on the BRF method. Regerminating the kernels reveals a grouping of the pregerminated kernels into three categories: normal, delayed and limited germination. Our model employs a supervised classification framework based on a set of extracted features insensitive to the kernel orientation. An out-of-sample classification error of 32% (CI(95%): 29-35%) is obtained for single kernels when grouped into the three categories, and an error of 3% (CI(95%): 0-15%) is achieved on a bulk kernel level. The model provides class probabilities for each kernel, which can assist in achieving homogeneous germination profiles. This research can further be developed to establish an automated and faster procedure as an alternative to the standard procedures for pregerminated barley.     

Mercury (Hg) Transport in a High Arctic River in Northeast Greenland

In a warming climate, mercury (Hg) pathways in the Arctic can be expected to be affected. The Hg transport from the high arctic Zackenberg River Basin was assessed in 2009 in order to describe and estimate the mercury transported from land to the marine environment. A total of 95 water samples were acquired and filtered (0.4 ??m pore size), and Hg concentrations were determined in both the filtered water and in the sediment. A range of other elements were also measured in the water samples. Hg concentrations in the filtered water were in general highest in the beginning of the season when the water came mainly from melted snow. THg concentrations in the sediment were in general relatively constant or slightly decreasing until mid-August, where after the concentrations increased. A principal component analysis separated the samples into spring, summer and autumn samples indicating seasonal characteristics of the patterns of element concentrations. The total amount of Hg in the sediment transported was estimated to 2.6 kg. Approximately 60% of the sediment-transported Hg occurred during a 24-h flood in the beginning of August caused by a glacial lake outburst flood. The total amount of transported dissolved Hg was estimated to 46 g, and 13% of this transport occurred during the 24-h flood. If it is assumed that the Hg transport by Zackenberg River is representative for the general glacial rivers in East Greenland, the total Hg transport into the North Atlantic from Greenland alone is approximately 4.6 tons year^?1 with an estimated annual freshwater discharge of ??440 km³.     

New sources of resistance to Colletotrichum truncatum race Ct0 and Ct1 in Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris obtained by single plant selection in germplasm accessions

Anthracnose caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum truncatum is a severe disease of lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) causing premature defoliation and deep penetrating lesions on the stems leading to wilting and plant death. A total of 579 accessions from 20 countries were obtained from four germplasm collections in Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary. The accessions were collected between 1923 and 1988 and comprised mostly landraces. Consequently, many of the resistant entries contained susceptible plants which necessitated one or two cycles of selection of individual resistant plants for selfing and re-testing with the pathogen. Under controlled environmental conditions, plants of each accession were inoculated at early flower with C. truncatum race Ct0 (isolate 95A8) and race Ct1 (isolate 95B36), separately. Scoring of symptoms included number of lesions on the main stem, lesion penetration into the stem and amount of wilting. Resistance was obtained by single plant selection in 23 lentil accessions (4.0 %). Fifteen lines were generated with resistance to race Ct1 (2.6 %), seven with resistance to race Ct0 (1.2 %), and one line with resistance to both races. This is the first report on resistance in L. culinaris to C. truncatum race Ct0 as well as to the two races combined. Seed of homozygous resistant lines can be requested from the corresponding author, and are labeled with their original accession number with the prefix either -Ct0, -Ct1 or -Ct0Ct1 indicating resistance to one or both races of C. truncatum.     

Effect of C:N Ratio on Microbial Activity and N Retention: Bench-scale Study Using Pulp and Paper Biosolids

The effect of C:N ratio on the performance of bench-scale composting systems treating pulp and paper biosolids was investigated. The biosolids used were obtained from the Pine Falls Paper Company located in Manitoba. The biosolids, on a wet basis, consisted of 41% primary biosolids, 21% secondary biosolids, and 39% deinking plant sludge. The biosolids were mixed with bark to achieve an initial moisture content of 60%, resulting in a recipe consisting of 1.09 kg of bark per kg of biosolids on a dry basis. Four reactors (treatments) were run with C:N ratios of 107 (control; no N supplement), 55, 29, and 18. Each treatment was replicated three times. Sulfur coated urea was used as the N supplement. Parameters monitored included C:N ratio, N recovery, material compaction, temperature, qualitative odor observations, and volatile solids reduction. The relative microbial activity was observed in-directly using volatile solids removal and the relative heat generation data. The data showed a strong negative linear relationship between C:N ratio and relative heat generation (r²=0.98) and between C:N ratio and volatile solids removal (r²=0.84 for all four treatments; and r²=1.0 for C:N = 29 to 107). The data also showed a strong nonlinear relation between N retention and C:N ratio (% retention = 101(1-0.92C:N); r² = 0.71; n = 12). Qualitative odor observations and N losses suggested that a C:N ratio of 18 was too low, therefore a performance comparison was made between the C:N-107 and the C:N-29 treatments. It was observed that the mean volatile solids removal was 28.6% higher in the C:N-29 treatments as compared to the C:N-107 control. While this difference is significant from a bench-scale perspective, the authors question the practical significance of the difference and recommend further investigation.