553 research outputs found
Shea butter: connecting rural Burkinabè women to international markets through fair trade
No full textProcessed by rural West African women and desired by wealthy Northern consumers of natural beauty products, shea butter seems a prime candidate for fair trade, yet to date there has been little study of the industry. This article analyses the opportunities and constraints of the development of fair-trade exports of shea butter from Burkina Faso, taking into account the context in which shea is produced and sold locally and internationally, the concept of fair trade, and the impact of gender relations on shea production. Although a definitive positive or negative determination cannot be made, given the complex and divergent factors affecting the potential international market and the production process, the author finds that the development of the fair-trade shea butter industry in Burkina Faso has great potential. However, such development must occur with restraint and consideration of possible challenges and limitations, in order to remain sustainable and viable for rural female producers.This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis.</p
The Way of Shea: Developing Permaculture Systems within the Shea Butter Supply Chain in Ghana
No full textThe aim of this work is to analyze the traditional shea butter production process and the supply chain of shea in the rural communities that produce it in the Upper West region of Ghana so as to improve these activities through developing permaculture systems and collective work in Ghana and throughout the African diaspora. This thesis focuses on the traditional shea butter process, existing permaculture systems within the process, and supply chain to market. The value of cooperatives and connecting the African Diaspora to shea for a greater social impact is also discussed. The author concludes with suggestions for opportunities to further develop a permaculture system within the shea butter supply chain through improved environmental policy, greater community cooperation, infrastructural developments, and private and public entities creating methods for greater collective impact.</p
Ele Agbe in search of a new light in Ghana's shea sector
No full textEle Agbe is a Ghanaian phrase meaning “God is alive.” Founded as a small and medium enterprise (SME), in Ghana in 1996, Ele Agbe Company is currently a dynamic business operating in the downstream shea export sector. Demand for shea is increasing for skin and hair products on the foreign market. Ele Agbe’s artisans use traditional Ghanaian tools and methods, and the highest quality materials available, including unique scents. The protected knowledge build up of unique scents in its shea product mix has given Ele Agbe its trade secret. At Ele Agbe, artisans pass on their skills to younger generations, conducting workshops for school groups and accepting apprentices from throughout Ghana. The business is confronted with challenges partly as a result of non-existent working policy for shea and breaks or gaps in the shea supply chain preventing it from achieving full potential. The company needs to consider how to improve on its’ firm and business networks given its internal and external environment in order to expand.Values Technology and InnovationTechnology, Policy and Managemen
Once More to the City
No full textAuthor Suzanne Strempek Shea attended the Portland School of Art in the late 1970s and teaches today at the University of Maine\u27s Stonecoast MFA program. She reminisces of what Portland was like in the 1970s and 1980s. [images
Quality characteristics of West African shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) and approaches to extend shelf-life
No full textShea butter is a versatile plant fat extracted from kernels of shea nuts, seeds of shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa). Shea butter has long been used in sub-Saharan Africa for medicinal, culinary, and other applications and serves as a cocoa butter equivalent in the manufacture of chocolate as well as an ingredient in cosmetics. Shea butter, rich in unsaturated fatty acids undergoes hydrolytic and oxidative degradation during post-harvest processing and storage, resulting in inconsistent and degraded quality and limited shelf-life. The objective of this study was to assess important quality characteristics of shea butter. Seven West African shea butters were analyzed to measure physicochemical parameters by wet chemical tests and to measure chemical composition by gas chromatographic analysis. Physical properties were consistent among samples and within the range of typical shea butter. The samples also shared similar chemical compositions, showing palmitic (3.36-4.44 % of total fatty acids), stearic (39.74-44.62 %), oleic (40.71-44.48 %), and linoleic acids (5.73-6.41 %) as the major fatty acids and α-amyrin having anti-inflammatory property (57.26-64.37 % of total sterols and triterpenes) as the major unsaponifiable matter. Moisture, insoluble impurities, free fatty acids, and peroxide values were needed to be controlled. Free fatty acid level was the most variable parameter, ranged from 1.07 to 8.56 %. Peroxide value was low enough except the one which was as high as 15.32 mEq/kg. Total unsaponifiable matters were measured lower (2.21-4.18 %) compared to the previous studies (4-11 %) but still higher than many other plant oils and fats (~2 %). This study also aimed at identifying the protective effect of selected synthetic (BHT) and natural (rosmarinic and gallic acids) antioxidants on shea butter from oxidation. Peroxide value, conjugated dienes, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and the amount of major fatty acids were measured as oxidative parameters at 0, 72 and 144 hours while the control and samples with 0.02 % of antioxidants were stored at 90 °C with air flow. The antioxidants were significantly effective in protecting shea butter from oxidation and no significant difference in the effect of synthetic and natural antioxidants was found.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Hee Seung Nah
Daily Reflections (Meditations) on the Scriptures from the Roman Catholic Lectionary.
No full text|Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John, the Apostle. Although the Gospel of John never reveals the name of the "beloved disciple" tradition has identified him with John, the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles and author of the fourth Gospel. For some reason, the old Smothers brothers' comedy routine comes to mind whenever I hear about the "disciple whom Jesus loved." The playful argument (paraphrased here) takes place between Dick, the straight man and his slower brother, Tommy:|Tommy: Mom always liked you best. Mom always liked my brother best and she never liked me.|Dick: Why do you always keep telling everyone, "Mom always liked you best"? Every time you get mad you say, "Mom always liked you best."|Tommy: Oh yea?! Well… well, mom always liked you best!|Such sibling rivalry seems so inconsistent with what we know about Jesus. Surely he doesn't play favorites. Doesn't Jesus love us all equally? And yet, today's reading refers to Peter and "the other disciple whom Jesus loved."|Tommy: You always picked on me! You and mom... my mom and my brother got together to say, "we don't like you" because mom always liked you best!|This other disciple outruns Peter, reaching the tomb first (mentioned twice, as if to rub it in). He's the one who saw and believed (as if to imply that Peter did not).|Dick: Do you know why she liked me best?|Tommy: She - er, OH?!|Dick: Sure she liked me best. Why not? Would you like to know why she liked me best? Do you wanna know why?|Tommy: I didn't know she liked you best...|To understand John we need to know a little about the Johannine community he wrote to. Most likely, this early Christian community traced its foundation to one of Jesus' followers who came to be known as the "beloved disciple." The writer of John wanted to show that the witness value of this founder rivaled that of Peter. So the author "builds up" this unnamed disciple to establish his credentials with the community.|Further, many early Christians began to see Christianity more as spiritual enlightenment in which salvation came to a select few who were "in the know." So the author of John also wanted counter the threat that Christianity would become more about what you know as opposed to who you know. The "beloved disciple" shows us the importance of the love that exists not only between him and Jesus, but also between Jesus and us. The Gospel of John thus calls each one of us to enter into a similar deep and loving relationship with Jesus.|Echoing the first reading, God calls us into the most important fellowship, the only relationship that will make our joy complete. God calls each of us to become the disciple whom Jesus loves… because only Jesus can love each of us the best
Representation in Cognitive Science - Replies
No full textIn their constructive reviews, Frances Egan, Randy Gallistel and Steven Gross have raised some important problems for the account of content advanced by Nicholas Shea in Representation in Cognitive Science (2018, OUP). Here the author addresses their main challenges as follows. Egan argues that the account includes an unrecognised pragmatic element; and that it makes contents explanatorily otiose. Gallistel raises questions about homomorphism and correlational information. Gross puts the account to work to resolve the dispute about probabilistic contents in perception, but argues that a question remains about whether probabilities are found in the content or instead in the manner of representation
Monetizing Sommalife’s Social and Environmental Impact: Exploring opportunities for Sommalife to scale its impact and disturb the shea industry
No full textSmallholder farmers in the Shea Industry live a challenging life. From lack of economic opportunities to climate change, if they are not helped their already troubling situation will worsen. Sommalife is a social startup who strives to sustainably improve the lives of rural farmers in West Africa by helping with production, protecting lands from deforestation dn having developed a software to improve operations. Sommalife has been successful at this to a small extent and has set the stage for an impactful act in West Africa. Sommalife currently does this with their own profits as the shea supply chain does not pay for impact at the moment. Without this support Sommalife will struggle to scale and improve its impact. Existing tools to monetize impact , such as Fair Trade, do not apply to the widespreadness of Sommalife’s operations and the poverty level of the farmers as their operations have high monitoring costs. Fortunately, the world is changing and a demand from consumers for sustainable products is affecting industries. Industries with similarities to the shea industry like the cacao industry. Sommalife has an opportunity to monetize their impact by advancing the industry and attempting to address the consumers. This can be supported by opportunities to monetize their social and environmental impact through carbon credits and a form of storytelling driven by impact data. The climate projects are supported by partnerships and will provide additional social and financial benefits to communities, while also generating carbon credits. On the social side, Sommalife can monetize its impact through data-driven storytelling. This involves turning data into tangible narratives that build consumer trust and brand loyalty for Sommalife and its partners. In return Sommalife will expect these companies to pay an impact fee. These services are by a brand strategy and roadmap to effectively execute and communicate Sommalife’s mission to drive change in the shea industry.Strategic Product Desig
Understanding Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans
No full textWe use a new database covering 1.2 million active participants to study trading activities in 1,530 defined contribution retirement plans. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis indicate some interesting trading patterns. First, we show that trading activity in 401(k) accounts is very limited: only 20% of participants ever reshuffled their portfolios in two years. Second, demographic characteristics are strongly associated with trading activities: traders are older, wealthier, more highly paid, male employees with longer plan tenure. Finally, we find that plan design factors, such as the number of funds offered, loan availability, and specific fund-families offered have significant impacts on 401(k) plan participants’ trading behavior. Moreover, on-line access channels stimulate participants to trade more frequently, although they do not increase turnover ratio as much. We conclude that plan design features are crucial in sharing trading patterns in 401(k) plans.
Extension of the Drasin-Shea-Jordan theorem
No full textPassing from regular variation of a function f to regular variation of its integral transform k*f of Mellin-convolution form with kernel k is an Abelian problem; its converse, under suitable Tauberian conditions, is a Tauberian one. In either case, one has a comparison statement that the ratio of f and k*f tends to a constant at infinity. Passing from a comparison statement to a regular-variation statement is a Mercerian problem. The prototype results here are the Drasin-Shea theorem (for non-negative k) and Jordan's theorem (for k which may change sign). We free Jordan's theorem from its non-essential technical conditions which reduce its applicability. Our proof is simpler than the counter-parts of the previous results and does not even use the Pólya Peak Theorem which has been so essential before. The usefulness of the extension is highlighted by an application to Hankel transforms
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