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The 2008-2009 economic crisis has hit severely the African timber sector, with a brutal collapse of the foreign demand. Overall, the impact has been of around the loss of one-third of export and production. Companies have been unable to pay the fixed costs represented by the area tax, and this last has been suspended in several countries, notably in Cameroon. The brutality of the crisis has highlighted the absence of automatic correctors embodied in the fiscal system itself. A first, even though insufficient, answer could be to index the area fee to a nation-representative bundle of timber species FOB values. The absence of organisations such as the World Bank in the dialogue between the governments and the private sector is striking, given their past involvement in the forests fiscal reforms in central Africa. The current focus given on REDD, seen by many as an instrument for entering in a post-logging time could explain this passivity. Large FSC-certified companies announced their intention to sell out their concessions in Congo and Gabon. This could prefigure a new picture with various types of small logging enterprises filling the vacuum left by formal industry and some FSC-certified concessionaires replaced by large but less environmentally responsible companies.

ABSTRACTIn order to optimize the osmotic dehydration process as a pre-treatment to freezing, chemical and structural characteristics of the raw fruit have to be studied together with their influence on the solid liquid exchanges and on the quality of the end productsTextural properties of fruits are intimately associated with the cellular structure and pectic composition. So the influence of osmodehydration on the modification of texture and water-soluble, oxalate-soluble and residual protopectin in kiwifruit slices was studied. To determine the optimum firmness level of the raw kiwifruit, the fruits were processed at three instrumentically measured texture levels: firm, medium and soft. Chemical and physical analyses showed that the biggest difference among the three groups of fresh kiwifruit was the protopectin content which was correlated directly with texture. No relationships were found between texture changes and pectic composition during osmodehydration, the slight firmness increase probably being produced by the soluble solids concentration.

Acetatobis(triphenylphosphine)dicarbonylrhenium (I), (PPh3)2(CO)2Re(O2CCH3), has been prepared in a novel way by treating (PPh3)2(CO)2Re(NHCOR) (R = C6H5, p-MeC6H4) with triethylamine and water in the presence of air. Oxidation of the ethyl group of the tertiary amine is presumably involved in the formation of the acetate ligand. Three-dimensional single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the complex is octahedral with the phosphines in transpositions and the acetate ion acting as a chelating ligand. The complex crystallizes in theP21/c space group with cell dimensions a= 17.63(2), b= 9.72(1), c= 20.95(2)Å, β = 104°38'(6'), Z= 4. The mean values of bond lengths observed are Re-P 2.415, Re-O 2.21 and Re-(CO) 1.85Å. The same acetate derivative and a series of car☐ylato complexes (PPh3)2(CO)2Re(O2CR') have been obtained from reactions of Re(CO)2(PPh3)3H with car☐ylic acids R'COOH (R' = H, CH3, CH2Cl, CH2CH3, C6H5). When trifluoroacetic acid is used, a product of formula (PPh3)2(CO)3Re(OC(O)CF3) is isolated. The action of neutral ligands L on some of these products gave rise to derivatives of formula (PPh3)2(CO)2(L)Re(OC(O)R') (L = CO, R' = H, CH3, C6H5; L = pMeC6H4NC, R' = CH3), having monodentate car☐ylato moieties.

A HPLC method for the separation and estimation of chlorophylls and pheophytins in fresh and frozen peas was assessed with the aim of following the colour changes of the products during storage under frozen conditions.

Better prevention and early detection have improved the percentage of early cancers among all the treated breast tumors to about 40%. After the first demonstration in Milan in 1981 that even conservative surgery can effectively prevent tumor relapses, radical and modified radical mastectomy was compared in 136 and 127 women, respectively. The groups were well stratified as regards age, menopause, T- and N-status. No difference was found in 10-yr survival (58.8 and 59.8%, respectively) or local relapses (9.5 and 10%, respectively) or general relapses. The median disease-free survival was 10 yr in both groups. The results suggest that in Tl-T2a, N0-Nlb M0 unilateral breast cancer relapses are prevented as effectively with modified radical as with radical mastectomy.