The Sugar Industry in Fiji is facing a lot of problems. Since the Government of Fiji has not fulfilled their commitments to the European Union (EU), the EU has backed away from supporting the industry. The milling efficiency has been constantly declining since the mid 1980’s and farm productivities have not kept pace with the changing international market for sugar. To be able to obtain the economies of scale, the sugar production in Fiji has to increase with 75 % from the current level of production. A lot of towns in Fiji would be nothing without the Sugar Industry, and thousands of people are dependent on the industry for their sustenance. Due to this fact, it is certain that the loss of confidence in the industry, or any likely collapse, would imply disaster for Fiji as a whole. It will lead to serious implications on the economic, social and political stability of Fiji. The overall aim of this thesis is to study the effects of the EU measures especially on the Sugar Industry in Fiji, to be able to understand to which extent the industry depends on the support from the EU. The aim is also to analyse and discuss different competition strategies on how Fiji can compete and be a part of the global market of sugar. This research was made from a qualitative approach in order to gain a deeper understanding about the problem. Abduction made it possible to work parallel with different parts of the thesis. A combination of primary and secondary data gathering has been used, with the secondary data as a basis for building the empirical part of the thesis. The primary data was collected through in-depth interviews with people at different positions within the Sugar Industry in Fiji. Fiji is dependent on the Sugar Industry and since there is no other obvious donor for Fiji today, and it is crucial that the industry gets support, the conclusion is that Fiji also is dependent on the support from the EU. Even though Fiji has the possibility to increase their competitiveness on the regional as well as on the international market, there is no need for Fiji to strive after the world market at the moment.

The common agricultural policy (CAP) is a much discussed policy in the European Union (EU). It allocates great sums to the European agricultural sector every year and has been accused of being trade distorting and outdated. This thesis takes a closer look at what protectionist measures the CAP has used. The policy’s effects on trade will be assessed employing the sugar industry as a reference case. Sugar is heavily protected and is one of the most distorted sectors in agriculture. The CAP effects on trade in the sugar industry for ten countries in and outside the EU from 1991 to 2011 are estimated using a gravity model. This particular type of estimation has, to the author’s knowledge, not been performed for the sugar industry before, which makes the study unique. The results of the empirical testing indicates that trade diversion occurs if one country is a member of the CAP and its trading partner is not. When both trading partners are outside the CAP cooperation, they are estimated to have a higher trade volume. This result indicates that the CAP decreases trade. Current economic theory, in particular the North-South model of trade developed by Krugman (1979), suggests that protectionism of non-competitive sectors should be abolished and funds should instead be directed to innovation and new technology. The CAP is in this sense not adapted to modern economic thought.

The main objective of this study was to investigate two of the possible exploitation routes of anaerobic digestion (acid-phase and methane-phase) for the treatment of sugar-beet processing wastes, while producing valuable biobased products. For this purpose, four sets of laboratory experiments were carried out in a stepwise fashion: First, in the biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay (Set-up 1) wastewater and beet-pulp were efficiently digested (63.7&ndash / 87.3% COD removal and 69.6&ndash / 89.3% VS reduction) in batch anaerobic reactors. Secondly, wastewater and beet-pulp could simultaneously be converted to VFAs in acidogenic anaerobic reactors with considerable acidification degrees (43.8&ndash / 52.9%), optimizing the operational conditions (Set-up 2). Then, the produced VFAs were recovered by liquid-liquid extraction (Set-up 3), in which highest VFA recoveries (60.7&ndash / 97.6%) were observed at 20% trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) in kerosene with KD values ranging between 1.54 and 40.79 at pH 2.5. Finally, methane-phase anaerobic digestion was evaluated in two different reactor configurations, namely fed-batch continuously mixed reactor (FCMR) and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) (Set-up 4). Methane production yield of 255 &plusmn / 11 mL/g COD-added was increased to 337 &plusmn / 15 mL/g COD-added (32.2% increase in methane yield) when configuration was changed from FCMR to ASBR. In addition, tCOD removal was increased from 68.7 &plusmn / 2.2 to 79.7 &plusmn / 1.1%. Based on the result obtained in this study, it is postulated that, biorefining of sugar-beet processing wastes by anaerobic digestion can not only be a solution for environmental related problems, but also contribute to resource conservation and sustainable production via valuable bio-based product formation.

During the nineteenth century, the Gulf of Mexico fostered the movement of people, ideas, and news throughout the surrounding regions. Although each colony and state surrounding the basin had distinct cultures and traditions, they shared the legacy of slavery and emancipation. This study examines the transformation of labor that occurred for sugar planters in British Guiana and southern Louisiana during the age of emancipation. In this comparative project, I argue that in the 1830s planters from the British West Indies set the trajectory for solutions to the labor problem by curtailing the freedom of former slaves with Asian contract labor. Those in the sugar parishes of southern Louisiana followed this same framework in the 1860s yet it led to different outcomes. The nature of the circum-Caribbean provided opportunities for planters throughout the Gulf to observe the Asian indentured system and use a form of it in their distinct societies.

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Vita. "Litterartur-verzeichnis": p. [43].

Inaug.-diss.--Breslau. / Lebenslauf. "Literstur-verzeichnis": p. [57]-58.

Inaug.-diss.--Rostock.

A proposta do presente estudo é de contribuir para o conhecimento das estratégias competitivas genéricas. Para isto, tem como objetivo analisar a natureza das estratégias competitivas genéricas em suas principais dimensões relevantes a fim de compreender melhor seu papel, sua importância e sua aplicação no processo estratégico das empresas. Estratégias genéricas já eram conhecidas desde a década de 1960, mas a partir do livro de Michael E. Porter de 1980, Estratégia Competitiva, o tema ganhou grande impulso por meio de pesquisas, da literatura, do ensino e da prática. Constitui uma questão referente ao conteúdo e que importa ao processo estratégico das empresas na medida em que pode vir a possibilitar melhores decisões a fim de atingir seus objetivos e sua adequação ao ambiente de atuação em busca de um desempenho organizacional superior. Entretanto, os diversos aspectos relevantes acerca do tema encontram-se, de forma geral, dispersos na literatura da administração estratégica, carecendo de uma abordagem abrangente e estruturada que explore suas diversas dimensões de forma ampla e consolidada para compreender suas relações e sua amplitude para uma aplicação mais consciente e eficaz no processo estratégico das empresas. Para atingir seus objetivos, este estudo utiliza-se de uma pesquisa do tipo exploratória, de natureza qualitativa, por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica. São estudados aspectos como a evolução do conceito, sua natureza e características principais, aplicações, tipologias mais proeminentes, riscos, requisitos à implementação, utilização de estratégias combinadas, generalização e contingencialidade, papel, importância e críticas ao conceito. Para aprofundar o estudo, complementá-lo e enriquecê-lo, é realizada uma pesquisa de campo por meio de um estudo de caso único e holístico a fim de investigar a aplicação do conceito em uma empresa da indústria brasileira de açúcar. Os resultados indicam que o conceito de estratégias competitivas genéricas surge na Nova América S.A. ? Agroenergia principalmente sob a forma de estratégia de diferenciação, desenvolvimento de mercados e desenvolvimento de produtos, e exerce no processo estratégico da empresa os papéis de direcionador organizacional e facilitador do processo de tomada de decisão estratégica. A Nova América S.A. ? Agroenergia, entretanto, aplica de maneira limitada o conceito de estratégias competitivas genéricas, basicamente na elaboração de alternativas estratégicas, mas este conceito assume importância em razão de contribuir para o posicionamento na indústria brasileira de açúcar e em fornecer alternativas de caminhos possíveis sobre como competir para um desempenho organizacional superior. A fundamentação teórica auxilia no esclarecimento da natureza, dos diferentes papéis desempenhados, das aplicações e da importância do conceito de estratégias competitivas genéricas para o processo estratégico das empresas. O estudo conclui que a abordagem do conceito não pode estar desvinculada de suas diferentes dimensões, relações e implicações para uma melhor compreensão do tema e sugere ainda a adequação das técnicas de identificação e classificação estratégica levantadas, analisadas e utilizadas nesta pesquisa. O enfoque abrangente e estruturado desta dissertação pode vir a ser utilizado como ponto de partida para estudos posteriores sobre o fenômeno das estratégias competitivas genéricas bem como servir de fonte de referência para empresas e seus altos administradores a fim de apoiar e aprimorar seu processo de tomada de decisão estratégica. / The proposal of this study is to contribute for the acknowledgment of the competitive generic strategies. So its aim is to analyze the nature of the competitive generic strategies into their main dimensions in order to understand better their role, their importance, and their application onto the strategic process of the organizations. Generic strategies have ever been known since the 1960?s, but from Michael E. Porter?s book in 1980, Competitive Strategy, this theme has been developed through researches, literature, teaching, and practice. It makes up an issue to the content and that matters to the strategic process of the organizations regarding the possibility of better decisions intended to reach their goals and their fitness to the present environment seeking a superior organizational performance. However, the various relevant features as to the theme are generally found throughout the strategic management literature, dependent of a larger and structured approach which explores its main dimensions in a broad and consolidated way, in order to understand its relations and width for a more conscious and effective application into the strategic process of the organizations. This study uses an exploratory research of qualitative nature to achieve its goals, by a bibliographic survey. Consequently, some aspects are studied such as concept evolution, its nature and main features, applications, more important typologies, risks, requisites for the implementation, use of combined strategies, generalization and contingency, role, importance and critics to the concept. To get a deeper study, complement and enrich it, this work was carried out in a field research through a unique and holistic case study, in order to investigate the concept application into a company of the Brazilian sugar industry. The results demonstrate that the concept of generic competitive strategies comes out in Nova América S.A. ? Agroenergia chiefly dressed of differentiation strategy, market development and product development, and has been exercising the roles of organizational leader and facilitator of strategic decision taking process, in the strategic process of the company. Nevertheless Nova América S.A. ? Agroenergia have limitedly applied the generic competitive strategies concept basically in the elaboration of the strategic alternatives, but this concept assumes importance for contributing to positioning in the Brazilian sugar industry, and in offering alternatives of feasible ways on how to compete to a superior organizational performance. The theoretical survey supports the enlightenment of the nature, of the different roles performed, of the applications and of the importance of the concept of generic competitive strategies for the strategic process of the organizations. This study concludes that the approach cannot be disassociated from its various dimensions, relations, and issues for a better understanding of the theme, and we still have the utility and fitness of the techniques of identification and found strategic classification, analyzed and applied into this research. So, the large and structured focus of this dissertation may come to be used as the beginning point for later studies on the phenomenon of the generic competitive strategies as well as source of references for companies and their top management team in order to support and improve their strategic decision taking process.

A soluble DPNH-nitrate reductase (NRase) of the sugar beet has been purified and characterized. The occurrence of NO₂⁻ as an end product and the insensitivity of the enzyme to oxygen indicate that the sugar beet NRase is of the nitrate assimilation type. The enzyme was not associated with any cell particle and all NRase activity present in the homogenate of sugar beet leaves was recovered in the 20,000 x g supernatant. A sixtyfold purification was accomplished by ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by adsorption on calcium phosphate gel. At room temperatures and higher the enzyme was heat labile, but was relatively stable at -15°C. Dialysis at 4° C. did not result in an appreciable loss of activity. The optimum pH was 7.0. The NRase was sensitive to heavy metal inhibitors but it was not possible to show that Mo was the specific prosthetic metal. It was demonstrated, however, that chemically reduced Mo could serve as an electron donor. Thus Mo may be a cofactor for the enzyme. The reversal of p-chloromercuribenzoate inhibition by the sulfhydryl reagents glutathione and cysteine, coupled with strong inhibition by iodoacetate and cupric sulfate indicated the sulfhydryl nature of the enzyme. The partially purified NRase was stimulated to a considerably greater degree by FAD than by FMN. Rf values and co-chromatography in different solvents showed that a substance liberated from the enzyme preparation by acid and heat was not riboflavin or FMN but very probably was FAD. It is suggested that, in common with other assimilatory NRases of higher plants, the flavin nucleotide prosthetic group of sugar beet NRase is FAD. The presence of two NRases in the sugar beet was indicated by the fact that the crude "enzyme" was stimulated to the same extent by the addition of DPNH or TPNH, that the ratio of activities resulting from the addition of the two pyridine nucleotides changed with the degree of purity of the enzyme, and that the enzyme finally obtained by calcium phosphate gel adsorption and elution was DPNH-specific. That purification was not complete was shown by the presence of DPNH-quinone reductase and DPNH-cytochrome c reductase activity in the NRase preparation. A low NRase activity and a high nitrate content were measured in sugar beet leaves during growth in darkness. The reverse occurred in light. It is suggested that the diurnal variation in NRase activity may be the result of the fall of leaf tissue pH during darkness and its rise to approximate the enzyme's optimum pH in light. The possible participation of the NRase in a flavin nucleotide-catalyzed enzymatic photoreduction of nitrate was indicated by the coupling of photoreduction of FAD with the reduction of nitrate by NRase. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate

Sugar beet seed, S.K.E.-R-11, was obtained from the B.C. Sugar Co. Ltd., Vancouver, B.C. and germinated in flats in a greenhouse on January 29, 1954. The beet plants were transplanted to a fertilized field on May 2, 1954. A randomized lot design was chosen in order to reduce error caused by soil differences, moisture variations, and pH etc. Thirty groups of 10 beets per group were selected from the randomized lot. The leaves of 6 groups were frozen with dry ice and the other groups were defoliated, decrowned continuously defoliated, or used as controls. The regrowth on the continuously defoliated beets was removed every two days following initial defoliation. Defoliation was effected by slicing off the leaves one-quarter inch above the crown. Decrowning was done by cutting the beet root transversely just beneath the outer ring of meristematic buds. The: defoliated beets were used to serve as a parallel to the destruction of leaves by freezing. The continuously defoliated beets were a check on the defoliated beets, where it was considered that photosynthesis in the new regrowth leaves would partially offset a large sugar loss in the root. Two experiments were completed. The first experiment and treatment began on August 16, 1954; the second on October 13, 1954. Harvest times were at the 1, 4, 8, 11, 16 and 20 day intervals following Aug. 16, and at the 1, 4, 8, 12 and 15 day intervals following October 13. Enzyme activity only was determined in the second experiment. 'The fresh leaf weights of the defoliated and control beets were recorded and later compared with leaf regrowth weights and sugar content. The beets were harvested in groups of 10 beets all treated in one specific manner. Ten beets of each group were removed from the soil and each beet sliced diagonally across the centre region. The sections were washed in water and pulped in a meat grinder giving approximately 2000 grams of pulp from 10 sections. Three hundred grams of pulp was used in dry weight -determination. Forty grams of fresh pulp from each group was blended for 2 minutes with 100 ml. of distilled ice water in a Waring blendor. The solution was filtered through broadcloth and used in enzyme activity measurements. In the second experiment, 47 grams of pulp was blended with 100 ml. of distilled ice water for 2 minutes. The crown portion of the root was used in the estimation of invertase activity. A check on the sampling method showed that the 40-gram aliquot of pulp used for enzyme determination represented the sample. Sucrose percent and phosphatase activity were used as the basis of this test. The fresh pulp was analyzed for sucrose, invert sugars, dry weight, catalase, phosphorylase, beta-amylase and invertase enzyme activities. The dried pulp was ground to 40-mesh and analyzed for total nitrogen, sucrose and invert sugars. Insoluble nitrogen and starch-dextrins were determined in ethanol extracted pulp. Duplicate determinations were made on each sample. Percentages are based on both dry and fresh weights and given as T/C values. Phosphorylase, phosphatase, catalase, beta-amylase, invertase were measured. Sucrose, invert sugars, starch-dextrin3, and total and insoluble nitrogen were also determined. The.highest amount of leaf regrowth occurred 4-17 days after freezing. The results indicated no relation between leaf weights and sucrose content nor between root weight and sugar content in mature beets. The percent dry weight decreased in all treated beets from the 1st to the 20th days after treatment. This decrease is likely a result of sucrose loss and an increased hydration in the beet root. Sucrose percent based on dry and fresh weight generally decreased following all- treatments. A positive correlation between percent sugar loss and leaf regrowth is suggested. There was an increase in the amount of reducing sugars after foliar loss. The suggestion has been made that the monosaccharide sugars are utilized almost immediately in leaf regrowth or in (increased respiration in the beet crown. The percent, of starch-dextrins tended to decrease in the treated beets but this is most likely not significant. The decrease in percent of total carbohydrates found follows the fact that sucrose disappears. Total carbohydrate estimations seem to provide a reasonable basis for determining the amount of sucrose loss. Total and soluble nitrogen values decreased to the 8th day after treatment and increased after this time. Insoluble nitrogen results were generally inconclusive. The results suggested a translocation of soluble nitrogenous compounds to the beet crown where active growth was occurring. The apparent activity of phosphorylase decreased with time in all treatments. Starch phosphorylase in sugar beet root likely has a minor role in total carbohydrate metabolism of the tissue. Phosphatase activity decreased to -the 11th day in every treatment except decrowned. The reason for a lower apparent phosphatase activity in treated beets in this experiment is not known. It may be associated with an increase respiratory rate. There were no significant changes in beta-amylase activity and no correlation could be found between starch-dextrin content and amylase activity. Catalase activity based on monomolecular values, decreased with time after treatment. A decrease in catalase activity might be expected in the mature, cells of the root as the respiration rate decreases with age. A correlation between invertase activity and sucrose loss was indicated in the frozen and decrowned beets but not in the defoliated beets. From the results of this experiment it seems unlikely that invertase is alone responsible for a sucrose decrease. The results found in this experiment were largely negative. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate