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Unfair Trading Practices in Contract Farming - Ensuring Commercial Justice and Contract Enforcement
No full textThis dissertation examines the issue of unfair trading practices (UTPs) in contract farming, particularly in the context of perishable agricultural commodities such as fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. Contract farming involves agricultural production contracts (APCs) where farmers agree to produce and deliver specified quantities of products that meet the buyer’s quality, quantity, and timing criteria. In return, buyers commit to purchasing the product at a predetermined price and provide inputs necessary for producing commodities (e.g., financial assistance, technology, fertilizers, and pesticides). The APC creates a dynamic where farmers become economically dependent on buyers, leading to an imbalance of bargaining power. This power disparity allows buyers to impose UTPs that disproportionately disadvantage farmers, undermining the potential benefits of contract farming.
The research begins by examining the UNIDROIT Legal Guide on Contract Farming and the FAO Legislative Study on Enabling Regulatory Frameworks for Contract Farming, providing a foundational understanding of contract farming principles and challenges. Building on this foundation, the dissertation conducts a comparative analysis of the legislative frameworks in the United States and the European Union. The US approach, exemplified by the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, emphasizes direct contract enforcement and accessible dispute resolution mechanisms. In contrast, the EU’s Directive 2019/633 on Unfair Trading Practices focuses on regulating buyer behavior and imposing penalties, often without direct recourse for farmers.
Building on the comparative analysis, this dissertation proposes a model designed to address UTPs effectively to ensure compensatory commercial justice and contract enforcement. The Proposed Model suggests comprehensive guidelines on prohibited UTPs, drawing on the strengths of the European framework. It also recommends a multi-tiered dispute resolution mechanism inspired by the effective strategies within the American framework. The Proposed Model focuses on accessible, affordable, expert, and enforceable solutions ensuring that farmers can achieve compensatory commercial justice and contract enforcement after UTPs are imposed. To facilitate practical implementation in practice, the Proposed Model is intended to be adopted by trade associations, providing a flexible and industry-specific framework that can adapt to various legal environments. This approach encourages quicker adoption and allows complementary use alongside existing legislative frameworks, offering robust protection for farmers
Analysis of food insecurity indicators: A critical literature synthesis
No full textDiffering levels of severity define food insecurity. The commonality found within these simplified levels of severity, low, high, and marginal, is an individual's inability to access nutritionally dense, sustainable food pathways. This inequity can result from a lack of economic resources, transportation, economic opportunities, and educational opportunities. The circumstances that lead to food insecurity are often confounding. This critical literature review examines the experiences, risk factors, health impacts, and interventions associated with food insecurity within the United States. To understand food insecurity screening indicators’ validity, reliability, and effectiveness at the population level, this paper focuses on federally funded key measures. In particular, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES), the United States Agriculture Department (USDA), The Census Bureau (USCB), and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). These indicators are most frequently used in the United States to indicate food insecurity. One reviewer searched three databases to find original research articles published in English utilizing United States-based data within the years 2018 to 2024. A total of 520 titles and abstracts were reviewed (after removing duplicates), after which 127 articles remained. Of the articles reviewed 61 articles met inclusion criteria and were included within this review. One reviewer conducted data extraction. Findings showcase that most of the research uses a cross-sectional study design, conducted within low-income populations, and frequently resulted in several adverse health outcomes. Studies show that food insecurity represents a serious risk factor for developing health outcomes such as hypertension, depression, anxiety, diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, tooth decay, and negative behavioral eating patterns. Several interventions exist to mediate the effects of food insecurity within the United States. This process begins with the utilization of federally funded indicators to identify food insecurity severity and presence for individuals. Further research should be conducted at a smaller scale, within community-based organizations, to better understand the impact of a food insecurity indicator that approaches defining food insecurity based on an individual’s social determinants of health. It is critical that federally funded food insecurity indicators expand their scope and solidify the confounding factors associated with food insecurity
Xilinx inputs for nanosecond hardware decision trees for missing transverse energy
No full textFiles include the Xilinx IP core for xvcu9p and a generic testbench with test vectors for the hardware decision tree
Associations Between Episodic Memory and Hippocampal Volume in Late Adulthood
No full textThere are various ways of conceptualizing and assessing episodic memory (EM), but different EM tasks are only moderately correlated with each other, suggesting that EM might not be a unitary construct. Further, various EM tasks exhibit disproportional task demands on the hippocampus and differentially reflect hippocampal volume (HV) degeneration – one of the strongest predictors of Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, it is unclear if variation in EM performance is a meaningful indicator of risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. This study established a structural equation model to examine the covariance structure and distinctiveness of EM tasks and assessed whether these relate differently to HV. This study examined 648 older adults (M=69.88). EM was assessed using seven of the most commonly used tasks in neuropsychological testing settings. Automated Segmentation of Hippocampal Subfields was used to segment the hippocampus. A confirmatory factor analysis was used with residual covariances included and loadings freely estimated. Hierarchical regression models were used to test the associations between the observed factors of EM and HV. A model with three first-order subfactors (verbal immediate recall, verbal delayed recall, and visuospatial) derived from a second-order general EM domain factor had the best model fit. All three subfactors and the general EM domain factor significantly explained a similar amount of variance in total, left, and right HV. In addition, all subfactors were significantly associated with CA1, entorhinal cortex, and subiculum volume, only the verbal immediate recall and verbal delayed recall subfactors were significantly associated with CA3 volume, and none of the three subfactors were significantly associated with CA2 or dentate gyrus volume. These results suggest that traditional EM tasks are measuring the same overarching construct, but different task conditions are tapping into different complex processes associated with EM. Further, performance across the observed factors only accounted for a small portion of the variance in HV, suggesting that HV might not be a strong marker of EM ability before clinically observable cognitive deficits are present. Lastly, findings from this study suggest that different hippocampal subfields are not uniformly involved in managing and supporting EM, and they may be preferentially important for various processes
Linking Brain Networks and Gut Microbiota to Cognitive Impairment and Depressive Symptoms in Late Life
No full textMajor neurocognitive disorder (MNCD) or dementia is a widespread condition affecting more than 50 million individuals, resulting in memory loss and communication difficulties. Late life depression (LLD) occurring alongside MNCD exacerbates the symptoms and imposes a substantial burden on society and healthcare. Finding effective treatments for MNCD and LLD is crucial, but options are currently limited. The search for neurobiologically informed treatment targets involves many efforts, including quantitatively mapping clinical symptoms onto neural networks, as well as exploring the therapeutic potential of manipulating the gut-brain axis. Despite emerging research on midlife depression and cognition in the context of the gut-brain axis, our understanding of the microbiota-gut-brain relationship in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or MNCD, especially when accompanied by varying degrees of depressive symptoms, remains considerably limited. This dissertation aims to unravel the complex interplay between gut microbiota, brain function, cognitive capacities, and depressive symptoms within the specific framework of MCI or MNCD, both with and without comorbid LLD.
Chapter 2 (Aim 1) of the dissertation examines the links between gut microbiome diversity, cognitive function, and depressive symptoms. It explores the connection between the richness and evenness of the gut microbiota (alpha diversity) and cognitive function or depressive symptoms. Additionally, it explores whether depressive symptoms and cognitive function interact to influence alpha diversity.
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Chapters 3 and 4 (Aim 2) delve into the relationships between brain functional connectivity, cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and alpha diversity. Chapter 3 investigates which resting state features are most strongly associated with cognitive function or depressive symptoms. Chapter 4 explores whether the relationship between alpha diversity, cognitive function, or depressive symptoms is partially mediated by specific functional connectivity features.
In conclusion, this dissertation presents a thorough exploration of the microbiota-gut-brain axis and its implications for cognitive function and depressive symptoms in older adults. The findings have the potential to provide valuable insights and innovative interventions for individuals dealing with these conditions, ultimately reducing the societal burden of MNCD and related disorders
A novel mutation in yeast Hxk2 confers 2DG resistance through altered dynamics of the active site
No full textHigh rates of glycolysis are present both in cancer cells and yeast cultures. Using lab evolution with a glucose analog (2-deoxy-glucose or 2DG) and the drug-sensitive ABC16-monster yeast strain, I determined a probable cause of 2DG resistance to be a novel mutation in Hexokinase II (Hxk2G238V) that may alter the flexibility of amino acids outside of the hexose binding pocket. To verify that this mutation could possibly be the primary contributor to 2DG resistance found in my lab evolution experiments, we ruled out protein misfolding, protein under-expression, genomic abnormalities, and differences in gene copy number. We modeled the Hxk2G238V protein using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and I analyzed the simulations to find a region of increased flexibility lining the enzyme active site that is stabilized upon ligand binding. I describe the different opened and closed states that occurred in the wildtype and mutant-protein simulations and show that the Hxk2G238V protein has altered dynamics/movements that could explain some of the differences between the mutant and wildtype forms. Differences in flexibility in the ATP binding site in Hxk2G238V (versus wildtype) could be a main contributor to 2DG resistance, and further study may provide new insights about hexokinase function
Yoruba Music and Jazz: Dialogues and Influences
No full textThe discussion of the relationship between jazz and African music has received enormous attention in scholarship, media, and among musicians on topics of universality, improvisation, appropriation, the process of indigenization in different societies, etc. These topics often highlight the influence of jazz on African music. However, scholars rarely discuss African music’s and concepts’ impact on jazz beyond the middle passage. The roles of outer-national sites and concepts, particularly Africa, in formulating jazz must be rearticulated to encompass influences beyond the middle passage. As highlighted above, this re-articulation is essential to understanding and interpreting the elements and nuances expressed in jazz. To explore these jazz and African music interconnections, I draw on modern dialogues between jazz and Yoruba music, using selected artists’ works as case studies. Olabode Omojola highlights the unexplored space of individual contributions to the development of Yoruba music. The advancements in Yoruba music and jazz are owed to individual artists, composers, and performing groups’ creative imagination rather than the faceless remarks of advancement ascribed to the music. In addition, there has been little exploration of the interconnections between jazz and Yoruba popular music styles, particularly how elements of jazz are used in Yoruba music and vice versa. This thesis, therefore, investigates the current interconnections and dialogue between Yoruba musical concepts and jazz music, where, on the one hand, I examine the influence of jazz on àpàlà and, on the other hand, the use of ohùn pípè in jazz to demonstrate further the continuous dialogue between African musical concepts and jazz
Bridging Cultures and Fostering Dialogue: Engaging African Students in Discourse on Tribal Equity in Africa
No full textThis proposal aims to start an important conversation among African students, faculty, and staff at the University of Pittsburgh. Led by Daniel K. Abusuampeh, a Ph.D. student, and supervised by Dr. Kyaien Conner, this initiative focuses on understanding and addressing tribalism in Africa. The "Bridging Cultures and Fostering Dialogue" initiative will use Structured Cognitive Behavioral Training (SCBT) to help participants recognize and reduce unconscious tribal biases. Through a series of engaging workshops, participants will learn how tribalism affects their lives and communities, and how to promote tribal equity and inclusivity. Workshops will blend teaching with hands-on exercises, using resources like articles, videos, and discussion forums to explore tribalism's impact on society. A digital platform will be created to provide ongoing support, including a website with resources and a forum for cultural exchange. The project also includes a training and mentorship program to ensure its lasting impact, preparing students, faculty, and staff to lead future SCBT sessions and cultural discussions. By participating, individuals will enhance their cultural understanding, develop skills to combat tribal biases, and contribute to a more inclusive university community. This initiative supports the University of Pittsburgh's Year of Discourse and Dialogue, offering a model for addressing social issues through education and community engagement
Never Ceasing, Never Ending
No full textSince its publication in 1982, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee has gathered a critical currency within academic circles as a piece of personal ethnography that invokes a narrative of post-colonial displacement for the Korean American. At the same time, Theresa Cha’s personal biography, specifically her death, has managed to occlude the inner mechanics of Dictee and the author’s other artistic projects, resulting in the disregard of the full artistic vision within her body of work. One such critical phenomena that has gone overlooked is Theresa Cha’s own cognizance of the relationship between the artist and the audience which is reflected in her inclusion of the audience’s reactions within her creative projects as a way to form a collective memory. This project explores this relationship between artist and audience through a linear narrative describing my own bodily encounters with Cha’s work, archives, and biography. Through recounting my own experiences with Cha’s materials as a physical phenomenon, this project argues that Dictee is a work of translation, translating embodied sensations of displacement and haunting into written language and text. In conjunction with this, by exploring this line of thought through my own personal narrative, this project further explores Theresa Cha’s artistic theme of audience as my own experiences as a reader and researcher continue to add new dimensions and narratives to Cha’s body of work, functioning as a generative collective experience that is not limited to a linear chronology
Technologies of Feeling: Affect, Objects, Early Modern
No full textThe early modern period has been understood as a moment when different forms of emotional experience are named, organized and classified, and when distinctions between mind and body and the human and non-human were invented, upheld, or policed. “Technologies of Feeling: Affect, Objects, Early Modern” charts a path through and beyond these distinctions. Across French cultural production of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this dissertation uncovers affect’s affiliations – with materiality, embodiment, the non-human, and hierarchies of race and gender – in an array of genres not ordinarily placed in dialogue with each other. Affects, objects, and the early modern work relationally, putting into motion distinctions between subject and object, persons and things, and mind and body that may have hardened over time.
Technologies of feeling operate across four affective modes: in fiery elements, in visceral feelings, in the minor feelings of marginal objects, and in persons and things uncomfortably embodied through racialized and gendered affects. Fiery elements break down the emotional consensus of seventeenth-century classificatory regimes in works ranging from the journalistic and epistolary to Jean Racine’s 1674 play Iphigénie. Visceral feelings in Théophile de Viau’s 1621-23 tragedy Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé animate the material world and deanimate the human, decoupling the human subject from the emotional work of the seventeenth century-theater. Minor feelings in a pair of narratives of disenchanted feeling objects, Samuel Isarn’s Louis d’or (1660) and Antoine Bret’s 1746 Le ***** (or Le Bidet), scale down human subjectivity to the level of objects and materialize the uncomfortable boundaries between subject and object, sex and the body. Metempsychosis in Crébillon’s Orientalist and libertine novel Le Sopha (1742) sets the stage for a parodic revision of Descartes’ foundational mind-body split, interrogating the gendered and racialized hierarchies of animacy that uphold personhood. This dissertation locates affect in the interstice of early modern distinctions between subject and object, human and non-human, uncovering their points of suture and disconnection – drawing out the shifting and often surprising contours of early modern configurations of bodies, texts, and feeling