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In the United States, successive farm bills and the 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) have largely defined domestic subsidy and conservation programs and U.S. food-aid initiatives over the past decade. This chapter examines the effects of the current mixture of U.S. agricultural policies and international food-aid programs on domestic and global food-insecure populations. A detailed research-based examination is carried out with respect to the impacts of U.S. subsidy programs on agricultural production, domestic and global agricultural commodity prices, and their implications for food-insecure populations. The impacts of the RFS are assessed along with the effects of current and potentially reformed U.S. international food-aid programs.

This study concludes that current U.S. agricultural subsidy programs have small or negligible impacts on the aggregate level and mixture of U.S. agricultural output, U.S. domestic prices and global prices, and domestic and global food insecurity among poor households. The RFS has increased prices for food and feed grain and oilseeds with adverse implications for the urban poor in developing countries and some poor U.S. households. The portfolios of U.S. food-aid programs are managed inefficiently because of congressional mandates designed to aid special interest groups that waste 30% of the current budget. While U.S. subsidy programs likely should be moderated for other reasons, they have few impacts on domestic and globally food-insecure households. However, in relation to global and domestic food insecurity, the RFS should be discontinued and major reforms to U.S. international food aid implemented.

Since 2008, the Global North universities and the rural district of Chilanga, Kasungu in Malawi, have endeavored to create a dialogic, inclusive, and reciprocal knowledge-transfer project. Numerous years of consultation with community members resulted in the creation of Transformative Praxis: Malawi, a project dedicated to bettering human conditions in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. Through participatory action research (PAR), the Malawian community strongly indicated the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and social entrepreneurship in the areas of Education, Health, and Development. Although local women were prominent in all stakeholder meetings, a growing suspicion emerged that the inclusive intent of our research-based work was actually supporting existing male-oriented power structures, which exist despite ongoing assurances of the active participation of women in decision-making, and the purported matrilineal societal nature of Malawi. Through a progressive series of critical incidents connected to literature on PAR and women in impoverished communities, this chapter chronicles the manner in which local Chilanga women unexpectedly and unconventionally solidified their participation and authentic leadership in a Global North and South initiative based in Malawi.

The fabrication and characterization of a hydrogel-based conductometric sensor have been carried out. The purpose of this research is to fabricate a small robust hydrogel-based conductometric sensor for real-time monitoring of pH in the physiological range.

A pH-responsive Chitosan/Gelatin composite hydrogel has been used for this purpose. This study reports and analyzes the sensing response obtained from four hydrogel compositions with varying Chitosan/Gelatin ratios. The pH-responsive nature of the hydrogel has been mapped out through volumetric and conductometric tests. An attempt has been made to correlate these characteristics with the physico-chemical nature of the hydrogel through scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques.

The four hydrogel compositions differed on the basis of gel composition ratios; the conductometric analysis results prove that the sensor with the hydrogel composition (Chitosan 2 per cent, Gelatin 7 per cent, ratio 1:2) produces the best pH resolution in the pH range of 4 to 9. The sensing mechanisms and the differences obtained between individual sensor outputs have been discussed in detail. On the basis of this extensive in vitro assessment, it has been concluded that while key pendant functional groups contribute to pH-responsive characteristics of the hydrogel, the overall sensitivity of the sensors gel component to surrounding pH is also determined by the crystalline to amorphous ratio of the hydrogel composite, its interpenetrating cross-linked structure and the relative ratio of the hydrophilic to the pH-sensitive components.

The conductometric sensor results prove that the fabricated sensor with the shortlisted hydrogel composition shows good sensitivity in the physiological pH range (4 to 9) and it has the potential for use in point of care medical devices for diagnostic purposes.

This is the first reported version of the fabrication and testing and analysis/comparison of a hydrogel-based conductometric sensor based on this composition. The work is original and has not been replicated anywhere.

The authors suggest strategies for addressing and combating these attempts at racelighting.

The authors of this article– five anti-racist educators working in various educational settings in SLC– employ the Critical Race Theory counter-story methodology (Delgado and Stefancic, 1993) to confront resistance to educational equity in Utah. They do so by first providing a historical context of race and education in Utah before presenting four short counterstories addressing the racelighting efforts of students, fellow educators and administrators when confronted with the complexities of racial injustice.

These counterstories are particularly important in light of the recent increase in color-evasive and whitewashed messaging used to attack CRT and to deny the existence of racism in the SLC school system in K-post-secondary education, and in the U.S. as a whole.

These stories are set in a unique environment, yet they hold national relevance. The racial and religious demographics in Utah shed light on the foundational ethos of the country – white, Christian supremacy. They reveal what is at stake in defending it and some of the key mechanisms of that defense.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016.

The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the proportionality of market brand (MB) foods versus supermarket own brand (OB) foods sold on promotion and to compare their healthiness.

An existing dataset containing nutritional information about a variety of foods on promotion (n = 6,776) from 48 stores across 8 retail chains in Northern Ireland (NI) was reanalysed. Product healthiness was measured using a score aligned to the Food Standards Agency's Front of Pack nutrient labelling system. MBs and OBs were considered as a whole and in their respective subsets–international/national and regional MBs, and premium, mid-market and value tiered OBs.

Results found a balance in favour of health (52.4% amber/green versus 47.6% red) across retailers' promotions in NI. Further, OB products were often found to be superior to MBs with regards to overall healthfulness, and regional brands were found to be less healthy than international/national brands.

Findings rationale further retail research to compare nutritionally OB and MB product types, and further consumer research regarding important attributes of OBs.

Retailers should communicate the comparative healthiness of their OBs in comparison to MB alternatives, in addition to communicating comparative price savings. There is opportunity for retailers to increase visibility of mid-market and value OB tiers, and for regional MBs to improve the nutritional profile of products in line with the consumer trend for health.

This study provides a contribution by using data on OBs and MBs on promotion, and by investigating the nutritional differences between different tiers of OB and MB products.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Blundell, Spence Appointments. Five appointments have been made to the board of Blundell, Spence Ltd. They are F. R. EDEN, W. H. HULME, C. C. MELL, A. L. SMITH and K. T. SAXTON. Mr. Saxton will be located at Slough and will have overall responsibility for the Industrial Division.

Generative AI and more specifically ChatGPT has brought a revolution in the lives  of people by providing them with required knowledge that it has learnt from an exponentially large knowledge base. In this viewpoint, we are initiating the debate and offer the first step towards Generative AI based knowledge management systems in organizations.

This study is a viewpoint and develops a conceptual foundation using existing literature on how ChatGPT can enhance the KM capability based on Nonaka’s SECI model. It further supports the concept by collecting data from a public sector univesity in Hong Kong to strenghten our argument of ChatGPT mediated knowledge management system.

We posit that all four processes, that is Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization can significantly improve when integrated with ChatGPT. ChatGPT users are, in general, satisfied with the use of ChatGPT being capable of facilitating knowledge generation and flow in organizations.

The study provides a conceptual foundation to further the knowledge on how ChatGPT can be integrated within organizations to enhance the knowledge management capability of organizations. Further, it develops an understanding on how managers and executives can use ChatGPT for effective knowledge management through improving the four processes of Nonaka’s SECI model.

This is one of the earliest studies on the linkage of knowledge management with ChatGPT and lays a foundation for ChatGPT mediated knowledge management system in organizations.

The current piece summarizes five critical points about racism from the point of view of Black scholars and allies: (1) Black people are experiencing exhaustion from and physiological effects of racism, (2) racism extends far beyond police brutality and into most societal structures, (3) despite being the targets of racism, Black people are often blamed for their oppression and retaliated against for their response to it, (4) everyone must improve their awareness and knowledge (through both formal education and individual motivation) to fight racism and (5) anti-racist policies and accountability are key to enact structural reformation.

The first three of these points detail the depths of the problem from the perspectives of the authors and the final two lay out a call to action.

This viewpoint is the joint effort of 14 authors who provided a unified perspective.

This was one of the most original experiences the authors have had – working with 13 former/current students on joint perspectives about police brutality and racism more generally. The authors thank for the opportunity.