This study was conducted to investigate whether water chilling had effect on water retention, freshness or internal temperature of chicken carcasses during chilling or storage in two different chicken processing plants (designated as A and B). A total of 240 carcasses from chicken processing plants (n = 120 per chicken processing plant) was randomly sampled and evaluated the effect of water chilling on carcass characteristics (i.e., water retention, water loss or freshness during chilling or storage). Torrymeter value was used as an indicator of freshness in chicken carcasses. Water chilling did not affect carcass water retention between the processing plants. However, chicken carcasses processing in B plant exhibited significantly higher freshness (p0.05) compared with those in A plant. This difference in freshness was mainly due to the longer transit time through the water chiller in A versus B plants. Water loss of carcasses during storage was not different between plants. It was found that carcass freshness can be affected by water chilling time as manifested in this study. Further study is warranted to see whether freshness or microbiological status of chicken carcasses may be affected depending on the chilling methods, i.e., air or water chilling

This research aims to evaluate quality services in the Rajaee Port container terminal by using SERVQUAL model that is a tool for measuring quality services, identification and for analyzing available gaps between expectations and perceptions services. Container terminal customers at the port of Rajaee are community statistics in this Research. Judgmental sampling method use for selecting sample. The standard and localized questionnaires with Cronbach's alpha coefficient in the perceptions section was 0.921 and in expectations section was 0.895 that was distributed among the 150 members of sample, which 102 (68%) questionnaires were available. First for analyze the data, the researcher used of LISREL software to check reliability SERVQUAL model (Size Making Model First and Second term) and then used SPSS software to do T Test pair sample for analyzing significant gap between expectations and perceptions respondents. Results obtained in this study indicated that there is a gap between customer’s expectation services and perceptions services in container terminal of Rajaee Port in all five dimension of quality services and from weight point of view. the physical dimension is the most important dimension between all dimensions and after that, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy are also important. In addition, physical dimension have maximum gap and empathy dimension have minimum gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions. | Published

Dairy farming is one of the key industries of agriculture in Latvia with ancient traditions and its role in producing agricultural goods as well as generating the income for farmers has always played an important role. A large part of dairy farmers have united in cooperatives so the producers can better defend their interests in the market and increase their influence. In 2012, 28% of total number of agricultural cooperatives operated in dairy farming, while 26.9% of total amount of milk produced in Latvia was sold through cooperatives. The aim of the paper is to analyse the development of cooperation in Latvia’s dairy farming. The research identifies the key problems in dairy farming, explains the terms cooperation and cooperative society, and analyses the level of development of cooperation as well as provides the characteristics of the largest dairy cooperatives in the European Union (EU) and Latvia. The paper concludes that one of the ways how to raise the competitiveness of small farms is to foster cooperation among these farms; cooperation in dairy farming has successfully developed compared with other agricultural industries, which is evidenced by the changes in the number of cooperatives, the increase in the quantity of milk purchased by cooperatives, and the performance indicators of individual cooperatives.

The paper presents results of studies devoted to the changes of land use caused by implementation of bioenergy policy in Latvia. The period of 2007-2012 was chosen and chiefly data on declared utilised agricultural area on municipal and region level from the Rural Support Service were used for assessment of land use changes. In Latvia, utilised agricultural areas (UAA), which is mainly used for bioenergy feedstocks production - rape and maize for silage - are located in the territories/regions (Zemgale and Kurzeme) with the highest proportion of agricultural lands and the highest soil fertility. The growing trends in these regions are statistically significant. The biogas plants are also located in these territories. Meanwhile, slight but decreasing tendency of the share of unused UAA in all regions, except Latgale, was observed. Moreover, the share in Latgale, the most undeveloped region, increases and reached 18% in 2012. The observed changes in land use in Latvia show some contradictions to bioenergy policy which is oriented to: returning the unused agricultural land in the production of feedstock; improving the quality of the environment, particularly, biodiversity and the landscape; and encouraging rural development.

Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. On the other hand, nanotechnology is a rapidly developing domain of research and practice, the terminology is in a state of flux and usage is evolving. Nano-applications are being applied across the entire agriculture and food sectors. In agriculture, for example, nano-pesticides and nano-sensors are changing the nature of agricultural production. In regard to use of nanotechnologies in organic production currently, there are no national or international regulation, definitions, licensing or declaration requirements. We are still a long way off from conclusively assessing nanotechnologies or individual substances with nanoparticles, since we do not yet have the toxiclogical and ecological bases to do this. In our view, all of nanotechnology applications should be evaluated case by case. Positive or negative lists seem to be a good tool to regulate the use of nanotechnology in organic agriculture.

Kasvava luomutuotteiden kysyntä ja luomutuotteista saatava parempi hinta on tuonut mukanaan lieveilmiöt kuten tuoteväärennökset myös globaaleille luomumarkkinoille. Valvontajärjestelmän ja -merkkien lisäksi koetaan tarpeelliseksi kehittää muitakin keinoja tunnistaa luomutuote. Ryhmä eurooppalaisia tutkijoita selvittää parhaillaan erityisesti luomutuotteille ominaisia kemiallisia sormenjälkiä. Tavoitteena on kehittää helppokäyttöinen työkalu tuoteväärennösten tunnistamiseen. Siten kuluttajat voivat jatkossakin olla varmoja, että luomutuote on aina oikeasti luomua.

Swallowing disorders are frequent in daily practice. They could involve liquids or solid diets or both, and are mainly caused by neurological or ENT diseases. They impair patients or their relatives’ quality of life and increase the risks of aspiration, undernutrition and dehydration. Assessment includes careful interview and physical examination. The DePippo's test is a key examination. Additionally, endoscopy or video fluoroscopy, which remains the gold standard for swallowing assessment, could be needed. Nutritional and respiratory assessments are mandatory. The management of swallowing disorders should be multidisciplinary, involving physicians, speech therapist, dietician, sometimes dentist or surgeon, and needs a strong contribution of the paramedical staff and the patient's relatives.

With the rapid development of the marine economy industry, human exploitation of marine resources is increasing, which is contributing to the growing trend of eutrophication and frequent occurrence of red tide. Accordingly, investigations of seawater quality have attracted a great deal of attention. This study was conducted to construct a seawater environmental quality assessment model based on the variable fuzzy recognition model. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the seawater quality assessment were then considered, combining the monitoring values of evaluation indicators with the standard values of seawater quality. Laizhou Bay was subsequently selected for a case study. In this study, the correct variable model for different parameters was obtained according to the linear and nonlinear features of evaluation objects. Application of the variable fuzzy recognition model for Laizhou Bay, water quality evaluation and comparison with performance obtained using other approaches revealed that the generated model is more reliable than traditional methods, can more reasonably determine the water quality of various samples, and is more suitable for evaluation of a multi-index, multi-level, nonlinear marine environment system; accordingly, the generated model will be an effective tool for seawater quality evaluation.