Статті в журналах з теми "Belt starter generator"

Belt-driven integrated starter generator system is a hybrid transmission that resembles the conventional serpentine belt-driven system. The system contains an integrated starter generator that performs a “start-stop” function on the engine. A two-pulley tensioner mechanism is attached to the integrated starter generator to maintain belt tension. The objectives of this paper are to develop modeling and calculation methods for estimating the performances of the belt-driven integrated starter generator system and to investigate the influence of damping of the two-pulley tensioner on vibration and shock. A systematic modeling and analysis method is proposed. The modeling method for the two-pulley tensioner is distinguished from any existing studies, which are generic for modeling the tensioner in belt-driven integrated starter generator systems with different layouts. A typical belt-driven integrated starter generator system is presented and a model is established to predict the dynamic response of rotational vibrations of pulleys, tensioner motions, and tension fluctuations. A parametric analysis is conducted to evaluate the two-pulley tensioner parameters with respect to their impact on the performances of the belt-driven integrated starter generator system.

Abstract In order to fulfil the latest EU emission standards, the average amount of CO2 emissions for each vehicle sold has to be reduced to avoid fines for manufacturers. One of the simplest and cheapest ways of hybridization is the belt starter generator (BSG), which makes it suitable for an entry-level range of vehicles. This paper presents a software strategy developed for internal combustion engine (ICE) and belt starter generator (BSG) control on a vehicle equipped with automated manual transmission and also the drivability, comfort and emission performances improvements expected by using this strategy.

In the present work, an experimental analysis of the performances of a twin arm tensioner is conducted. The investigated device is used in an automotive belt drive system mounting a belt starter generator. This configuration represents the latest trend of micro-hybrid technologies and is devoted to keep the tension of the belt within a reasonable range, while obtaining the highest possible efficiency in both motor and generator modes. At first, the functionality of a twin arm tensioner is investigated with a static model. Afterward, the performances of a real tensioner are experimentally assessed through a dedicated test rig in quasi-static conditions. The system is benchmarked in terms of angular displacement of the tensioner arms, belt tensions on the corresponding spans, and sliding arc in different operating conditions. Finally, experimental and simulation results are compared. It is shown that the proposed static model is able to capture the behavior of the real device and highlight its functionality.

In order to meet the increasingly stricter emissions’ regulations, road vehicles require additional technologies aimed at the reduction of emissions from the internal combustion engine (ICE). A favorable solution from the standpoint of costs and simplicity of integration is a 48-V electrical architecture utilizing a low-voltage/high-power induction machine, which operates as the so-called engine belt starter generator (BSG) coupled via a timing belt with the ICE crankshaft within a P0 mild hybrid power train and used for starting up and boosting of the ICE power output, as well as for recuperating kinetic energy during vehicle deceleration. The aim of this work was to design a vibration damping system for the belt transmission within the so-called front end accessory drive (FEAD), which couples the BSG with the ICE crankshaft and to test the control system by means of simulations for realistic operating regimes of the P0 mild hybrid power train in order to show the functionality of the proposed approach in terms of mild hybrid vehicle performance improvement. Simulation results have pointed out effective attenuation of belt compliance-related vibrations using the proposed active damping control, with vibration magnitude reduced between three and five times compared to the default case during engine start-up phase. They have indicated the realistic belt slippage effects during engine start-up phase and have illustrated the effectiveness of the FEAD torque boosting capability with 30% gain in acceleration during vehicle launch.

A novel four-phase 16/10 belt-driven starter generator segmented switched reluctance motor has been proposed in a previous work to reduce torque ripple and increase the fault tolerance ability. Based on the previous research, the segmented switched reluctance motor digital control system is designed and presented. The digital control system including a power converter, detection circuits, and protection circuits is introduced in detail. For detection circuits, the half-detection method is employed to decrease the cost of the system. In addition, based on MicroAutoBox DS1401, a rapid control prototype platform is established. With this software system, it is easy to transfer control models and realize real-time control directly. Then, the speed closed closed-loop control for the segmented switched reluctance motor is applied to verify the proposed system. It contains current chopper control at a low speed and angle position control at a high speed. The simulation results are given, including the flux, current, torque, and efficiency range over the entire speed range of the segmented switched reluctance motor. Finally, the experimental results are presented to verify the simulation results and the effectiveness of the system. It can be found that the simulation and experimental results are consistent and acceptable, which means that the proposed digital system can operate naturally and accurately under speed closed loop control. Hence, the proposed digital system has high compatibility and practicability.

This study presents the improvement of energy efficiency and operating time of mini-loader vehicles by integrating the power system of internal combustion engines (ICE) and electric motors (EM). The hybrid powertrain was developed based on the belt-starter generator (BSG). The BSG system enabled us to choose optionally the ICE or the EM mode according to the power demand in different usage scenarios. The required power specifications were evaluated. The equipment in conformity with specification was then tight-stacking installed in the limited space of the mini-loader. Therefore, the mini-loader ably passes across a 770 mm width door. In the situation of consumption of the same amount of gasoline, the hybrid power mode can increase the operating time by 30 min. In addition, its power output can be satisfied to override 140 mm high short steps, cross a 300 mm trench, and climbing a 30% slope. In particular, using electricity as a power source can reduce carbon emission.

Real Driving Emissions (RDE) regulations require the adoption of stoichiometric operation across the entire engine map for downsized turbocharged gasoline engines, which have been so far generally exploiting spark timing retard and mixture enrichment for knock mitigation. However, stoichiometric operation has a detrimental effect on engine and vehicle performances if no countermeasures are taken, such as alternative approaches for knock mitigation, as the exploitation of Miller cycle and/or powertrain electrification to improve vehicle acceleration performance. This research activity aims, therefore, to assess the potential of 48 V electrification and of the adoption of Miller cycle for a downsized and stoichiometric turbocharged gasoline engine. An integrated vehicle and powertrain model was developed for a reference passenger car, equipped with a EU5 gasoline turbocharged engine. Afterwards, two different 48 V electrified powertrain concepts, one featuring a Belt Starter Generator (BSG) mild-hybrid architecture, the other featuring, in addition to the BSG, a Miller cycle engine combined with an e-supercharger were developed and investigated. Vehicle performances were evaluated both in terms of elasticity maneuvers and of CO2 emissions for type approval and RDE driving cycles. Numerical simulations highlighted potential improvements up to 16% CO2 reduction on RDE driving cycle of a 48 V electrified vehicle featuring a high efficiency powertrain with respect to a EU5 engine and more than 10% of transient performance improvement.

Purpose The torque ripple and fault-tolerant capability are the two main problems for the switched reluctance motors (SRMs) in applications. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose a novel 16/10 segmented SRM (SSRM) to reduce the torque ripple and improve the fault-tolerant capability in this work. Design/methodology/approach The stator of the proposed SSRM is composed of exciting and auxiliary stator poles, while the rotor consists of a series of discrete segments. The fault-tolerant and torque ripple characteristics of the proposed SSRM are studied by the finite element analysis (FEA) method. Meanwhile, the characteristics of the SSRM are compared with those of a conventional SRM with 8/6 stator/rotor poles. Finally, FEA and experimental results are provided to validate the static and dynamic characteristics of the proposed SSRM. Findings It is found that the proposed novel 16/10 SSRM for the application in the belt-driven starter generator (BSG) possesses these functions: less mutual inductance and high fault-tolerant capability. It is also found that the proposed SSRM provides lower torque ripple and higher output torque. Finally, the experimental results validate that the proposed SSRM runs with lower torque ripple, better output torque and fault-tolerant characteristics, making it an ideal candidate for the BSG and similar systems. Originality/value This paper presents the analysis of torque ripple and fault-tolerant capability for a 16/10 segmented switched reluctance motor in hybrid electric vehicles. Using FEA simulation and building a test bench to verify the proposed SSRM’s superiority in both torque ripple and fault-tolerant capability.

Purpose Inductance, torque and iron loss are the key parameters of switched reluctance motors for belt-driven starter generators. This paper aims to present the analysis of a segmented rotor switched reluctance motor (SSRM) with three types of winding connections for hybrid electric vehicle applications by using a two-dimensional finite element method. Design/methodology/approach The rotor of the studied SSRM consists of a series of discrete segments, while the stator is made up of exciting and auxiliary teeth. First, the concept and structures of the different winding connections are introduced. Then, the magnetic flux path of the three types of winding connections for the SSRM is described. Second, the magnetic flux distributions in the three parts, i.e. the stator yoke, the stator tooth and the rotor segment, are described in detail to calculate the iron losses. Third, three SSRMs with the different winding arrangements are analyzed and compared to evaluate the distinct features of the studied SSRM. The analysis and comparison mainly include self-inductances, mutual inductances, phase currents, output torque and iron loss. Findings It is found that the self-inductances of the three types of winding connections are almost equal, and only the SSRM1 has a positive mutual inductance. In addition, the current waveforms of SSRM1 and SSRM2 are regular. However, it is irregular in SSRM3. It is shown that SSRM1 has better characteristics, such as higher output torque, high power density, lower torque ripple and iron loss. Originality/value This paper proposes and analyzes three novel winding connections for the SSRM to provide guidance for enhancing the output torque and reducing the iron loss to achieve high efficiency.

This article presents a reading of Douglas Coupland’s 2000 novel Miss Wyoming. Long before this novel was published Coupland had denounced the Generation X phenomena he had started in the early nineties, and this article examines Miss Wyoming’s intertextual references to Jack Kerouac as a representative of the Beat generation, which was the previous self-labeled literary generation in North America before the Generation X of the 1990s. Taking this relationship as a point of departure, the article also explores the novel’s relationship with the Bildungsroman, and it is suggested that the novel portrays communicative and emotional immaturity especially in relation to ideas of postmodernism and irony.

This article discusses that higher automotive voltages may one day empower a car full of drive-by-wire applications and amenities. This move could save gas, too. For starters—literally-42 volts supply sufficient oomph to turn over a stopped engine at a traffic light with a touch of the gas pedal (or a release of the brake), and so move a driver briskly away from a standstill. Such stop-start, or idle-stop, systems deliver gas mileage improvements and emissions reduction, especially in city traffic. Toyota has already introduced the first production version of these so-called mild hybrids. Besides improving efficiency and decreasing emissions, 42-volt systems make implementing electromechanical valve trains easier. For vehicle control, 42-volts might speed the adoption of brake- and steer-by-wire systems. Toyota’s mild hybrid system uses a belt-operated motor generator to restart a stopped engine, move the vehicle while starting, operate auxiliary equipment when the engine is stopped, generate power while motoring, and recapture energy from braking.

Lineament are extended mappable linear or curvilinear feature of a surface which can be utilized in mineral, oil, gas, and underground water studies. They are obvious in satellite images, aerial images or aerial photographs. The aim of this study is to analyse an automatically generated lineament from part of the Maru schist belt using a combination of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data and Aeromagnetic data. The area of study is within the Maru schist belt in Zamfara State. A shaded relief map was produced from the two data sources and the lineament was extracted automatically from them. The extracted lineament was combined to obtain a final lineament map of the area. Trends such as N-S, NW–SE, ENE–WSW and NW–SE, with very little E-W were all present. The areas of very high, high, moderate and low population of lineaments was delineated. Regions with very high lineament intersections and lineament concentration, covers an area of 153.6 km2 and accounts for 16.1% of the study area, these regions are known to harbour gold and iron ores from literature reviews. These target regions are located at the Northern and South part of the study area. Also, the gold artisan miners have dominated these same regions and they have only started from exposed vein of gold mineralization. With this rather fast and easier approach of obtaining such a map, it could be used as a start point for planning a more detailed geophysical or geological survey

Abstract. The Mountain Front Flexure marks a dominant topographic step in the frontal part of the Zagros Fold–Thrust Belt. It is characterized by numerous active anticlines atop of a basement fault. So far, little is known about the relative activity of the anticlines, about their evolution, or about how crustal deformation migrates over time. We assessed the relative landscape maturity of three along-strike anticlines (from SE to NW: Harir, Perat, and Akre) located on the hanging wall of the Mountain Front Flexure in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to identify the most active structures and to gain insights into the evolution of the fold–thrust belt. Landscape maturity was evaluated using geomorphic indices such as hypsometric curves, hypsometric integral, surface roughness, and surface index. Subsequently, numerical landscape evolution models were run to estimate the relative time difference between the onset of growth of the anticlines, using the present-day topography of the Harir Anticline as a base model. A stream power equation was used to introduce fluvial erosion, and a hillslope diffusion equation was applied to account for colluvial sediment transport. For different time steps of model evolution, we calculated the geomorphic indices generated from the base model. While Akre Anticline shows deeply incised valleys and advanced erosion, Harir and Perat anticlines have relatively smoother surfaces and are supposedly younger than the Akre Anticline. The landscape maturity level decreases from NW to SE. A comparison of the geomorphic indices of the model output to those of the present-day topography of Perat and Akre anticlines revealed that it would take the Harir Anticline about 80–100 and 160–200 kyr to reach the maturity level of the Perat and Akre anticlines, respectively, assuming erosion under constant conditions and constant rock uplift rates along the three anticlines. Since the factors controlling geomorphology (lithology, structural setting, and climate) are similar for all three anticlines, and under the assumption of constant growth and erosion conditions, we infer that uplift of the Akre Anticline started 160–200 kyr before that of the Harir Anticline, with the Perat Anticline showing an intermediate age. A NW-ward propagation of the Harir Anticline itself implies that the uplift has been independent within different segments. Our method of estimating the relative age difference can be applied to many other anticlines in the Mountain Front Flexure region to construct a model of temporal evolution of this belt.

Gold and base metal mineralization of Onzon-Kabani area is located at the western part of Mogok Metamorphic Belt in central Myanmar, where the well-known Sagaing Fault serves as its western boundary. Artisanal and small-scale gold operations started here three decades ago on gold mineralization hosted in marble and gneiss. Mineralization occurs as fracture-filling veins of several types: gold-bearing quartz vein, base metal quartz-carbonate vein, and carbonate base metal sulfides vein. Three types of hydrothermal alteration zones develop from the proximal to distal zone of hydrothermal conduit: silicic, sericite-illite and propylitic alteration. Alteration mineral assemblages consist of quartz, calcite, sericite, adularia, epidote, chlorite, illite and smectite which are typical of neutral pH hydrothermal fluid. The presence of adularia and calcite within veins indicate boiling event of near-neutral pH condition. Common vein textures of quartz and calcite are banded, crustiform, bladed calcite, lattice, mosaic or jigsaw, cockade, comb and zonal. Boiling-related mineral textures (e.g. banded, bladed and lattice) and fluid inclusion characteristics of coexisting liquid-rich and vapor-rich fluid inclusions have been identified in mineralized samples. Common ore minerals are pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite and minor marcasite, electrum and native gold. Gold is mostly associated with quartz gangue, pyrite, sphalerite and galena. Fluid-inclusion study suggests the presence of liquid-rich and vapor-rich fluid inclusions which were trapped in boiling fluid at homogenization temperature of 159 to 315°C and moderate salinity of 0.88 to 12.51 wt.% NaCl equivalent. It is concluded that despite mesothermal gold system is more typical style of gold mineralization in the Mogok Metamorphic Belt, it is not the type of mineralization in the Onzon-Kanbani area. Instead, a low-sulfidation epithermal system is more characteristic to be present here. The knowledge generated from this study can serve as a guide in understanding new deposit type as well as mineral exploration in the region.

The identification of the oil-source correlation plays a significant role in petroleum exploration and development. In this study, we identify the oil-source correlation by a hierarchical cluster analysis method combined with traditional methods. The results shed light on the oil-source correlation in Minfeng area and revealed the oil migration and accumulation process. The crude oil in different structural belts and different horizons has different geochemical characteristics. According to the four types of crude oil and their planner distribution, it was considered that the crude oil mainly migrates along with favorable sand bodies and unconformity surfaces in the lateral direction and then charged and accumulated in the glutenite of Sha3 and Sha4 members since the area from sag to Yan Jia Oil and the gas field was lacking of oil source faults. Further analysis shows that the traps of fault blocks in Yong’anzhen are formed in the same phase, while the crude oil generated in the early stage is charged and accumulated in the fault block of the near source. Along with increasing of the buried depth of source rocks, the overlying source rocks gradually entered into the hydrocarbon generation phase, when crude oil started to charge in the fault blocks farther away.

Compressional and shear sonic traveltime logs (DTC and DTS, respectively) are crucial for subsurface characterization and seismic-well tie. However, these two logs are often missing or incomplete in many oil and gas wells. Therefore, many petrophysical and geophysical workflows include sonic log synthetization or pseudo-log generation based on multivariate regression or rock physics relations. Started on March 1, 2020, and concluded on May 7, 2020, the SPWLA PDDA SIG hosted a contest aiming to predict the DTC and DTS logs from seven “easy-to-acquire” conventional logs using machine-learning methods (GitHub, 2020). In the contest, a total number of 20,525 data points with half-foot resolution from three wells was collected to train regression models using machine-learning techniques. Each data point had seven features, consisting of the conventional “easy-to-acquire” logs: caliper, neutron porosity, gamma ray (GR), deep resistivity, medium resistivity, photoelectric factor, and bulk density, respectively, as well as two sonic logs (DTC and DTS) as the target. The separate data set of 11,089 samples from a fourth well was then used as the blind test data set. The prediction performance of the model was evaluated using root mean square error (RMSE) as the metric, shown in the equation below: RMSE=sqrt(1/2*1/m* [∑_(i=1)^m▒〖(〖DTC〗_pred^i-〖DTC〗_true^i)〗^2 + 〖(〖DTS〗_pred^i-〖DTS〗_true^i)〗^2 ] In the benchmark model, (Yu et al., 2020), we used a Random Forest regressor and conducted minimal preprocessing to the training data set; an RMSE score of 17.93 was achieved on the test data set. The top five models from the contest, on average, beat the performance of our benchmark model by 27% in the RMSE score. In the paper, we will review these five solutions, including preprocess techniques and different machine-learning models, including neural network, long short-term memory (LSTM), and ensemble trees. We found that data cleaning and clustering were critical for improving the performance in all models.

This paper discusses economic and ethical issues that bring about certain limitations in human resource management as one of the basic organizational functions, through which the organization’s relationship with employees is expressed. The aim of this paper is to point out the ethical dimension of human resource management as a key organizational function, which has economic, but at the same time ethical responsibilities. In elaborating this problem, we started from the basic assumption that human resource management as an organizational function and theoretical concept should balance between economic and ethical requirements, which depends on the attitudes of managers as decision makers. In addition to the analysis of the existing literature in this field, an empirical research was conducted to verify the stated assumptions on the basis of a survey questionnaire, which explored the attitudes of managers. The results were processed by statistical methods in the SPSS program. The significance of this paper derives from the importance of employees for the organization and the sensitivity of the human dimension of the organization in relation to the economic one. Bad condition in human resources management in BiH and Serbia, as the countries on which our research is focused, with unfavorable situation on the labor market, low level of perception of needs by managers and knowledge (professionalism) required for experts in this field to achieve necessary influence and affirm an effective concept and practice, opens opportunities for unethical actions of organizations. Unethical practices can be generated by ignorance, employers ’greed for quick profits, and weak institutional influence. High distance of power is an unfavorable cultural factor that encourages the arbitrariness of individuals and prevents social control of the behavior of organizations. In these wanderings and undefined directions of institutional development, in these countries there is room for corruption, poor law enforcement (incomplete reform of the judicial system), insufficiently defined protection of private property, strong influence of political parties in all spheres of life, political and economic connection, significant share of state property, etc. On the ground of egalitarian culture, high social inequality and impoverishment of the majority of the population is created, which negatively affects education, health and distracts attention from the civic control of the government. Therefore, in the research we started from the assumption that the primary evaluation of the human and social function of business and employees as a purpose, not a means, positively affects the ethical practice of human resource management, which we tested over the average response of respondents employed in different positions in the organization. The results obtained are presented in the paper. Keywords: Business Ethics, Ethics, Employees, Economics, HRM, Organization.

We are all familiar with Donald Horne's descriptive phrase “The Lucky Country” as applied to Australia. It was coined during the resources boom years of the late 'sixties. It referred to the luck we have to be living in a country so rich in mineral resources – all we had to do was to dig it out of the ground and sell the raw stuff to equally boom economies overseas. Actually those economies then converted the stuff into manufactured goods – cars, fridges, television sets, plastic toys and so on, which they then flogged back to us … and we could afford to buy – much of the money our wealth generated went to make already comfortably-off people more comfortable - not much went to the not so comfortable or to the really poor. But in line with the optimistic theories in economics, the trickle effect of the boom years would ensure that the poor too got a gnaw at the bones thrown to them; distribution of wealth already distorted, stayed distorted. Then came Gough and a new era was about to dawn, the new wealth would be used toward producing a more egalitarian society and an enhanced infra structure of welfare sevices, a spanking new health service, a broadening of the social security system, more job opportunities, free tertiary education, the Australian Assistance Plan, and the list went on. But history has a mischievous, even misanthropic turn of mind, and no sooner was Gough crowned than the resources market turned sour and the money started to dry up, the dream faded and you know the rest. The Fraser years were years of cutback and belt-tightening, of dour and unglamorous attempts to keep the ship afloat. No more vision of building a new Jerusalem in Canberra's green and pleasant land.

Goa is India's smallest state by area (3700 sq.km) but rich of mineral deposits such as -iron ore, manganese ore, bauxite and many minor minerals like basalt, laterite stones, rubbles, river sand etc., Exploration and exploitation for iron ore has started at the beginning of the 20th century. Iron ore mining in Goa is completely in the private sector. The mining belts extend over a length of 65km from SE to NW of the State covering around 700 sq.km. The iron ore deposits are distributed over the Northern, southern, and central blocks of Goa. It is the only state with large area under mining. Mineral production in Goa started in the late 1940s. Initially with Manganese ore but later shifted to iron ore with phenomenal growth in production. Every year around 60million tonnes of iron ore was being handled till 2015. Subsequently capping has been imposed by Hon’ble Supreme Court to mine 20 million tonnes from 100 mines by open cast method to control the pollution levels. The mining is carried out by mechanized methods and generated large number of employments, around 5 lakh people by both direct and indirect means. The state is having 400 million tonnes of iron ore resources. The highest production of iron ore from Goa was 40 million tonnes per annum in the past, but for extraction of everyone tonne of ore approximately 4 tonnes of waste rock has to be removed as the mining has gone deep and extent of each lease area is small. The waste rock comprises manganiferous and phyletic clays which are soft and easily erodible. Further, Goa witnesses heavy rainfall up to 3500mm during SW monsoon every year, thus the surface waters are getting polluted. As said above the lease areas are being small and the generation of waste rock is high. So, the disposal of waste rock and its prevention poses a problem. The analysis of waste rock indicates the waste rock is rich of sand grains which can be extractable by simple crushing and screening method. So, a detailed conceptual plan is necessary to sustain the mining and to tackle the environmental issues which are suggested in this paper.

The process of globalization has turned international economy into an arena of direct and indirect conflict of interests of various actors. It has also provided states with a new tool for their foreign policy activity — economic diplomacy. The paper focuses on the economic diplomacy of the People’s Republic of China, which not only has become the second important center of the world economy, but is starting to realize its increased capabilities, demonstrating ambitions of a new leader in international relations. The first section outlines the main features of the PRC’s economic diplomacy. The second section focuses on the key areas and specific mechanisms of the so-called incentive economic diplomacy. In this regard, the author emphasizes two trends: on the one hand, China aims at effectively integrating into existing international formats and institutions of global economic governance, but, on the other hand, it shows willingness to take the lead and initiate its own ambitious projects. The Silk Road Fund and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as well as the mega-project ‘The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’ are the most striking examples of the latter trend. Incentive economic diplomacy also serves as an important tool for strengthening the soft-power potential of the PRC in the international arena, especially in developing countries. At the same time, the author stresses that in recent years the PRC resorts more actively to the use of offensive forms of economic diplomacy, such as sanctions. This trend is examined in the third section of the paper. The international crisis provoked by SARS-CoV-2 pandemic became a moment of truth and a stress test for the new foreign policy system of the PRC. The fourth section analyses new challenges faced by China’s economic diplomacy in the context of the pandemic. These challenges have both an objective (the need for quick national economic recovery) and subjective dimensions. The latter implies the wholescale information war as the PRC and the countries of the collective West led by the United States started playing blame game. The author notes that, under these circumstances the PRC’s ‘COVID-19 diplomacy’ becomes more aggressive, which negatively affects the already tarnished national image. However, the author concludes, that although the current Chinese economic diplomacy generates rather negative sentiments in both developed and developing countries, it is exactly economic diplomacy that could, if properly used, help the PRC to establish itself as a leading actor in the new bipolar world order.

Mass digitization is a large undertaking for a collection. It is disruptive of routine and can challenge long-held practises. Having been through the procedure and survived, we feel we have a lot of experience to share with other institutions who are considering taking on this challenge. The changes that digitization has made to our institution are positive and the digitization a success, but that is not to say that we would not have done some things differently, were we to repeat the exercise. In 2015 Meise Botanic Garden received a grant from the Flemish Government to upgrade its digitization infrastructure and mass digitize 1.2 million specimens from its African and Belgian Herbaria. The new infrastructure improved our workflow significantly, enabling us to digitize specimens five to ten times faster while also improving their quality. The mass digitization part of the project was split into two parts, imaging and transcription. The contract was awarded and out-sourced to Picturae, who started imaging in May 2016 using a conveyor belt installation. Prior to starting, a significant amount of preparation was required at the herbarium. Within one year, 1.2 million specimens were imaged. The images were captured as TIFF files and stored in triplicate at The Flemish Institute for Archiving (VIAA), while smaller derived JPEG 2000 and JPEG files were generated for day-to-day use. The second part of the project was label transcription. A third of the specimens were transcribed in-house for capturing minimal data (barcode, filing name, collector, collector number & country of origin). This was partly done to reduce costs, but also allowed us to compare in-house to out-sourced transcription. Some 500,000 specimens were transcribed, either completely or partially, by Alembo (subcontracted by Picturae).The remaining 200.000 specimens from our Belgian Herbarium are being transcribed using crowdsourcing. The latter is being realized through the citizen science platform DoeDat (www.doedat.be) that was launched in November 2017. Many lessons have been learnt with respect to implementing mass digitization, both practically and sociologically. Many of the problems encountered during the project could have been avoided by changing the workflow. The addition of extra control points during the process could have reduced problems encountered later in the data capture process. Solving these problems at a later stage was time consuming. Trying to “save money” can result in a disruptive workflow, which may lead to a number of costly errors. Mass digitization has fundamentally changed the workflow in our collections and the way in which our herbarium is managed. All images for the African and Belgian collections may be now found on our new virtual herbarium www.botanicalcollections.be.

The Kraishte magmato-tectonic zone (KMTZ) is the northernmost of the four Nw-SE trending Paleogene linear magmato-tectonic zones cropping out in Western Bulgaria and referred, as second order structures, to the collision-related first order Macedonian-Rhodope-North Aegean magmatic zone (MRNAMZ). The Kraishte volcanics (KV) are quite uniform dacites to rhyodacites of the calc-alkaline series. They were cooled at a shallow subvolcanic level and are affected irregularly by a low temperature hydrothermal alteration. Most of the KV bodies are conformable and concordant because their morphology is controlled mainly by the trust boundary between the Paleozoic rocks of the Penkyovtsi allochthonous unit and the Berriassian-Titonian flysch of the Luzhnitsa-Tran unit. The presence of KV-epiclastics in the Gorna Glogovitsa and Sekirna grabens shows (in agreement with the available magnetometric data) that at least some of the KV-bodies have been exhumed before the Priabonian-Oligocene (?) sedimentation started. The projections of all of the new whole-rock K-Ar ages (47.4-42.2 ± 1.60-1.80 Ma) fall within a Pre-Priabonian (Lutetian — Bartonian) part of the Gradstein, Ogg's (1996) geochronologic scale. The possible alternative suggestions about the age of the KV emplacement could be: a) the whole-rock ages reflect a long-term low temperature hydrothermal alteration of volcanic bodies, intruded before 47.4 Ma; b) the w. r. record is a complex combination of a polystage (?) Lutetian — Bartonian emplacement and of the related hydrothermal alteration processes, which caused a rejuvenation to a different extent. The existing model for the KMTZ geodynamic position has obviously to be changed taking into account that: a) KMTZ differs from the other Paleogene magmato-tectonic zones in Western Bulgaria by the steeper NW-SE trend (150-160°), the calc-alcaline affinity of the KV, the older age and the absence of a base metal metallogenic specialization, typical for the magmatics from the other zones; b) in a regional scale KMTZ acts as a southern end of the more than 250 km long Late Alpine (Late Cretaceous — Early Tertiary) subduction-related magmato-tectonic structure, following the erosional front of Mid Cretaceous thrusts and described in Eastern Serbia as Ridanj-Krepolin belt and further to the North (in SW Romania) — as “Western banatitic zone”; c) the available discrimination diagrams for KV are characteristic for their orogenic (s. 1.) setting and not for a well grounded collisional one. All these data can serve as a basis of the following suggestions: a) KMTZ does not belong to the collision-related MRNAMZ; b) the KMTZ acid (strongly differentiated?) magmas have been generated either during the late stages of the subductional processes responsible for the formation of the Late Cretaceous island-arc associations on the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, or in an environment transitional to a collisional one.

Background.Not all yeast alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (ADH2) are repressed by glucose, as reported inSaccharomyces cerevisiae.Pichia stipitisADH2 is regulated by oxygen instead of glucose, whereasKluyveromyces marxianusADH2 is regulated by neither glucose nor ethanol. For this reason, ADH2 regulation of yeasts may be species dependent, leading to a different type of expression and fermentation efficiency.Lachancea fermentatiis a highly efficient ethanol producer, fast-growing cells and adapted to fermentation-related stresses such as ethanol and organic acid, but the metabolic information regarding the regulation of glucose and ethanol production is still lacking.Methods.Our investigation started with the stimulation of ADH2 activity fromS. cerevisiaeandL. fermentatiby glucose and ethanol induction in a glucose-repressed medium. The study also embarked on the retrospective analysis of ADH2 genomic and protein level through direct sequencing and sites identification. Based on the sequence generated, we demonstrated ADH2 gene expression highlighting the conserved NAD(P)-binding domain in the context of glucose fermentation and ethanol production.Results.An increase of ADH2 activity was observed in starvedL. fermentati(LfeADH2) andS. cerevisiae(SceADH2) in response to 2% (w/v) glucose induction. These suggest that in the presence of glucose, ADH2 activity was activated instead of being repressed. An induction of 0.5% (v/v) ethanol also increased LfeADH2 activity, promoting ethanol resistance, whereas accumulating acetic acid at a later stage of fermentation stimulated ADH2 activity and enhanced glucose consumption rates. The lack in upper stream activating sequence (UAS) and TATA elements hindered the possibility of Adr1 binding to LfeADH2. Transcription factors such as SP1 and RAP1 observed in LfeADH2 sequence have been implicated in the regulation of many genes including ADH2. In glucose fermentation,L. fermentatiexhibited a bell-shaped ADH2 expression, showing the highest expression when glucose was depleted and ethanol-acetic acid was increased. Meanwhile, S. cerevisiaeshowed a constitutive ADH2 expression throughout the fermentation process.Discussion.ADH2 expression inL. fermentatimay be subjected to changes in the presence of non-fermentative carbon source. The nucleotide sequence showed that ADH2 transcription could be influenced by other transcription genes of glycolysis oriented due to the lack of specific activation sites for Adr1. Our study suggests that if Adr1 is not capable of promoting LfeADH2 activation, the transcription can be controlled by Rap1 and Sp1 due to their inherent roles. Therefore in future, it is interesting to observe ADH2 gene being highly regulated by these potential transcription factors and functioned as a promoter for yeast under high volume of ethanol and organic acids.

Global inventory of shale-oil resources and reserves are far from being complete even in mature basins which have been intensively drilled and produced and in which the main parameters of the regional or local oil-prone source rocks are known. But even in these cases, difficulties still occur for deriving reserves from resources: reaching a plausible recovery factor is actually a complex task because of the lack of production history in many shale-oil ventures. This exercise is in progress in several institutions (EIA, USGS, AAPG) or private oil and gas companies on a basin-by-basin basis in order to estimate the global potential. This analytical method is very useful and accurate but also very time consuming. In the last EIA report in 2013 “only” 95 basins had been surveyed whereas for example, no Middle-East or Caspian basins have been taken into account. In order to accelerate the process and to reach an order of magnitude of worldwide shale-oil reserves, we propose hereafter a method based on the Petroleum System principle as defined by Demaison and Huizinga (Demaison G and Huizinga B. 1991. Genetic classification of Petroleum Systems. AAPG Bulletin 75 (10): 1626–1643) and more precisely on the Petroleum System Yield (PSY) defined as the ratio (at a source-rock drainage area scale) between the accumulated hydrocarbons in conventional traps (HCA) and hydrocarbons generated by the mature parts of the source-rock (HCG). By knowing the initial oil reserves worldwide we can first derive the global HCA and then the HCG. Using a proxy for amount of the migrated oil from the source-rocks to the trap, one can obtain the retained accumulations within the shales and then their reserves by using assumptions about a possible average recovery factor for shale-oil. As a definition of shale-oil or more precisely LTO (light tight oil), we will follow Jarvie (Jarvie D. 2012. Shale resource systems for oil & gas: part 2 – Shale Oil Resources Systems. In: Breyer J, ed. Shale Reservoirs. AAPG, Memoir 97, pp. 89–119) stating that “shale-oil is oil stored in organic rich intervals (the source rock itself) or migrated into juxtaposed organic lean intervals”. According to several institutes or companies, the worldwide initial recoverable oil reserves should reach around 3000 Gbo, taking into account the already produced oil (1000 Gbo) and the “Yet to Find” oil (500 Gbo). Following a review of more than 50 basins within different geodynamical contexts, the world average PSY value is around 5% except for very special Extra Heavy Oils (EHO) belts like the Orinoco or Alberta foreland basins where PSY can reach 50% (!) because large part of the migrated oils have been trapped and preserved and not destroyed by oxidation as it is so often the case. This 50% PSY figure is here considered as a good proxy for the global amount of expelled and migrated oil as compared to the HCG. Confirmation of such figures can also be achieved when studying the ratio of S1 (in-place hydrocarbon) versus S2 (potential hydrocarbons to be produced) of some source rocks in Rock-Eval laboratory measurements. Using 3000 Gbo as worldwide oil reserves and assuming a quite optimistic average recovery factor of 40%, the corresponding HCA is close to 7500 Gbo and HCG (= HCA/PSY) close to 150 000 Gbo. Assuming a 50% expulsion (migration) factor, we obtain that 75 000 Gbo is trapped in source-rocks worldwide which corresponds to the shale-oil resources. To derive the (recoverable) reserves from these resources, one needs to estimate an average recovery factor (RF). Main parameters for determining recovery factors are reasonable values of porosity and saturation which is difficult to obtain in these extremely fine-grained, tight unconventional reservoirs associated with sampling and laboratories technical workflows which vary significantly. However, new logging technologies (NMR) as well as SEM images reveal that the main effective porosity in oil-shales is created, thanks to maturity increase, within the organic matter itself. Accordingly, porosity is increasing with Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and paradoxically with… burial! Moreover, porosity has never been water bearing, is mainly oil-wet and therefore oil saturation is very high, measured and calculated between 75 and 90%. Indirect validation of such high figures can be obtained when looking at the first vertical producing wells in the Bakken LTO before hydraulic fracturing started which show a very low water-cut (between 1 and 4%) up to a cumulative oil production of 300 Kbo. One can therefore assume that the highest RF values of around 10% should be used, as proposed by several researchers. Accordingly, the worldwide un-risked shale-oil reserves should be around 7500 Gbo. However, a high risk factor should be applied to some subsurface pitfalls (basins with mainly dispersed type III kerogen source-rocks or source rocks located in the gas window) and to many surface hurdles caused by human activities (farming, housing, transportation lines, etc…) which can hamper developments of shale-oil production. Assuming that only shale-oil basins in (semi) desert conditions (i.e., mainly parts of Middle East, Kazakstan, West Siberia, North Africa, West China, West Argentina, West USA and Canada, Mexico and Australia) will be developed, a probability factor of 20% can be used. Accordingly, the global shale-oil reserves could reach 1500 Gbo which is half the initial conventional reserves and could therefore double the present conventional oil remaining reserves.

My academic research journey started a decade ago as a Ph.D. student at the Azman Hashim International School, University Technology Malaysia. Since then, I have authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters. In addition to guest editing several special issues for academic journals, I also had an opportunity to serve as the Director of Research for numerous professional organizations. Furthermore, I have served in senior editorial positions for numerous well-established hospitality and services management journals for the last three years. All these roles involve sending out invitations to review the manuscripts. The usual scenario is where some invitees accept to review, and others decline. However, what stands out is that many invitees do not respond to the invitation or send a review comprising three to four sentences. Conferences and special issues usually are tight on time schedules because of deadlines. Journals also need to publish timely research. Most of it is possible with a quality review provided on time. Hospitality and tourism management is a relatively smaller discipline, and it is difficult for many editors/conference chairs to manage reviewers for an increasing number of submissions. Consequently, at times, many scholars receive dozens of review invitations every month with shrinking deadlines to get the job done. Including myself, I know of numerous scholars who review over hundred articles every year. The question, however, is if this is fair to be putting a burden of reviewing on a relatively smaller number of people. Recently a discussion on TRINET MAILSERV attracted some of the prominent scholars in our discipline with exciting viewpoints. An interesting question was raised in the discussion - "How many papers should an active researcher review every year?" To answer the question, while some mentioned a numeric number, others responded with an emphasis on the quality of reviews instead of the quantity. I stand for both of these arguments. I think an active researcher should publish a certain number of papers every year and try to beat that number the following year without compromising the quality of the feedback. I also think that reviewing for a journal should be incentivized. Monetary incentives can be lucrative but not practical. Some journals have started including quality and reliable reviewers on their editorial boards. It is a great practice that can benefit early-career researchers but is not being practiced by all journals. Another incentive can be pushing for the recognition of reviewing process. Recently, there has been an increase in journal editors working with Publons to provide recognition to reviewers. Another reason why many junior faculty members do not want to review academic journals is the simple cost-benefit equation. Providing quality reviews for several papers every year takes considerable time. However, reviewing is often given little weightage in an already minimum share of service for tenure-track faculty members towards their tenure and promotion. Since most of the editors in the hospitality and tourism discipline are senior faculty members, there is an increasing need for them to push for having some weightage to 'reviewing' in the tenure and promotion guidelines within their colleges/schools/departments. It is important because I know a few younger faculty members who love to review papers and provide feedback but cannot do it because it is not considered a performance metric. Lastly, just like anything else, reviewers also need to be developed. Many institutes and conferences hold panel discussions and workshops on research methodology or publishing papers. It is good for the benefit of the authors. However, there are no workshops provided to train reviewers. Recently, I moderated an online webinar, "Academic Peer Review: Benefits and Challenges." Panelists included Dr. Ulrike Gretzel, Dr. Stanislav Ivanov, Dr. Metin Kozak, and Dr. Marissa Orlowski. Here is a link for all of you to watch the webinar and forward it to your students or colleagues. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJ66YyeEdk). The webinar generated a huge interest from around the world, further strengthening my viewpoint about the need for such activities. In the peer review process, reviewers act as the gatekeepers, which signifies their importance in advancing knowledge. However, most of the reviewers are self-taught or mentored in-house by their advisors. It is time for journal editors and conferences to step up and think about holding workshops to train the reviewers on how to review. It can be done at a major conference such as the Annual ICHRIE Conference or the Graduate Conference with a larger graduate student population to cultivate the next crop of reviewers. It can be a valuable step not only to deal with the shortage of reviewers but also to ensure quality reviews. Overview of This Issue This is the second issue of the Journal of Global Hospitality and Tourism. This issue features five exciting research papers and two viewpoints. The first paper written by Noradiva Hamzah, Norlida Hanım Mohd Salleh, Izuli Dzulkifli, and Tengku Kasmini Tengku Wook, sheds light on intellectual capital from the Islamic Value dimension to Muslim-friendly Medical Tourism. Using a case study approach, this study gives some directions for the hospital's management in developing and managing its intellectual capital and Islamic values. This study also explains how they can better leverage their intellectual capital and create added value to respond successfully to the increasingly competitive environment. It is pioneering research that develops a theoretical model to incorporate Intellectual Capital dimensions and Islamic Values in Muslim-friendly Medical Tourism. The second paper is written by Shaniel Bernard, Imran Rahman, Sijun Liu, and Luana Nanu. It examines the effect of reliance on different sources of information on the credibility of COVID-19 information (BCI). In addition, the effect of BCI on fearfulness and the corresponding fear on intention to use accommodation services and stay at home are analyzed. The authors collected data from 1,017 American consumers and analyzed them using a structural equation model. The results confirm the significant effects of trust in media and government on BCI and the corresponding positive effect of BCI on the scarecrow. However, the adverse effects of fear on intentions to visit hotels and restaurants (general and Chinese) and the positive effects of fear on intentions to stay at home and use third-party meal delivery services are confirmed. Rami K. Isaac conducts the third study from the Breda University of Applied Sciences. This research aims to understand better the impact of terrorism on risk perceptions and attitudes of Dutch travel behavior towards Egypt. The researcher obtained data from 414 respondents, and findings show that (potential) Dutch tourists are less likely to take risks when traveling with children. For example, people who often travel with children avoid traveling to countries in the MENA region due to terrorism-related unrest. Furthermore, it was determined that more than half of the sample size did not consider traveling to Egypt due to the current travel advice of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The fourth paper is written by Michael Vieregge from the University of Western Colorado. Although the demand for rural destinations has increased after the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of studies on this topic is scarce. This study contributes to the field by focusing on local gastronomy in rural communities. The archival research study focuses on 549 Cittaslow and non-Cittaslow towns and cities in 19 European countries. According to the research findings, rural towns offer more local gastronomy than cities, and towns with Cittaslow certification are more common than non-Cittaslow ones. The research suggests rural towns should focus on expanding their local gastronomy, and Cittaslow recommends expanding cities even further. The last article is authored by Cecily Martinez, Amy Bardwell, Julie Schumacher, and Jennifer Barnes. This study is based on implementing six nutrient claims evaluated by a group of registered dietitians. The snack items were conveniently placed near the cash register to "nudge" purchases, and sales of snacks before and after the claims implementation were examined. The authors applied paired-sample t-tests and indicated that after nutrient claims were implemented, sales of snacks increased in both groups. Results indicate that nutrient claims that had a significant impact on sales differed between the two groups. In addition to these five research papers, this second issue of JGHT also has two viewpoints. The first is an academic viewpoint, written by Prof. Stanislav Ivanov from Varna University of Management. He suggests academic research accepts and pays more attention to the economics of technologies in travel, tourism, and hospitality. According to Ivanov, travel, tourism, and hospitality (TTH) are intrinsically connected to technology. At the same time, tourists book their flights and accommodation through technology, reach their destination with the help of technology, explore the destination with technology, and share their experiences online with technology. Economic principles, like any other business, run them. Economic factors also drive their decisions to invest in technology. That is why academic research needs to acknowledge and pay more attention to the economics of technologies in travel, tourism, and hospitality. This academic viewpoint also outlines several directions for future research in the field. The second viewpoint is industry-focused and is authored by Mr. Murat Toktaş. He is the founder/president of KATID (Black Sea Tourist Operators Association), the founder/president of SKAL Karadeniz, and the founder/vice-president of TUROYD (Tourism Hotel Managers Association) and a member of the Board of Directors of TUROFED (Turkish Hoteliers Federation). In his viewpoint, he explains how destination management organizations (DMOs) work with local governments in Turkey. He suggested a successful destination marketing strategy for the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA). Collaboration between local and DMOs is essential for destinations to be adequately promoted and become a successful brands. Marketing is effective when a destination's artistic and cultural features are correctly promoted, as in the case of TGA. This viewpoint also concludes with several future research directions.

For micro-hybrid electric vehicles, the belt-driven starter generator system is a typical idle stop–start system that is used to substitute the traditional engine front-end accessory drive system. The aim of this work is to present a method to investigate steady-state and start-up transient responses of a typical belt-driven starter generator system with twin tensioner arms for micro-hybrid electric vehicles. A dynamic model of the belt-driven starter generator system is established for this scheme, where a smoothing dynamic friction model considering the velocity-weakening effect is presented to model the tensioner dry friction. Unlike some traditional dynamic models of the belt-driven starter generator system that the engine dynamics and dynamics of the belt-driven starter generator system are decoupled, an engine dynamic model, which is embedded in the dynamic model of the belt-driven starter generator system, is also established to calculate engine resistance torques at the engine starting process stage. Influences of the tensioner dry friction and stiffness on steady-state responses of the belt-driven starter generator system especially the stick–slip oscillations of the twin tensioner arms are examined. Angular oscillations and rotation speed variations of the belt-driven starter generator pulley and C/S pulley as well as the belt tension variations during the engine starting process are calculated. Influences of the tensioner dry friction and stiffness on transient dynamic performances of the belt-driven starter generator system during the engine starting process and its starting efficiency are investigated.

48V systems enable not only mild hybrid functionalities such as recuperation or torque assist by a belt-driven starter generator (BSG), but also electrification of accessories and the engine boosting system. To maximize the powertrain efficiency, a proper layout of the electrified system and an optimized distribution of the electric power during transient operation is essential. In this study, a vehicle co-simulation of a conventional powertrain with a downsized turbocharged gasoline engine is extended by a 48V system with an electric compressor (eC) and a BSG. The control functions of the eC and BSG are based on a state-of-the-art vehicle application and calibrated for transient operating conditions. The engine model, which is built using a one-dimensional crank angle resolved approach in GT-POWER, has been validated with measurement data and is used to predict the interaction between the eC and the engine air path. The investigations using the simulation platform show that the 48V eC and the BSG can significantly improve the fuel effïciency if the electric energy consumption is initially neglected. However, when considering the electric energy consumption within the vehicle co-simulation, efficient operation is particularly depending on driver torque demand, the battery state-of-charge and charging effïciency. Hence, intelligent operating strategies are necessary to take advantage of the better torque response and improve fuel consumption at the same time.

Abstract OBJECTIVES Univentricular malformations are severe cardiac lesions with limited therapeutic options and a poor long-term outcome. The staged surgical palliation (Fontan principle) results in a circulation in which venous return is conducted to the pulmonary arteries via passive laminar flow. We aimed to generate a contractile subpulmonary neo-ventricle from engineered heart tissue (EHT) to drive pulmonary flow actively. METHODS A three-dimensional tubular EHT (1.8-cm length, 6-mm inner diameter, ca. 1-mm wall thickness) was created by casting human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (0.9 ml, 18 mio/ml) embedded in a fibrin-based hydrogel around a silicone tube. EHTs were cultured under continuous, pulsatile flow through the silicone tube for 23 days. RESULTS The constructs started to beat macroscopically at days 8–14 and remained stable in size and shape over the whole culture period. Tubular EHTs showed a coherent beating pattern after 23 days in culture, and isovolumetric pressure measurements demonstrated a coherent pulsatile wave formation with an average frequency of 77 ± 5 beats/min and an average pressure of 0.2 mmHg. Histological analysis revealed cardiomyocytes mainly localized along the inner and outer curvature of the tubular wall with mainly longitudinal alignment. Cell density in the center of the tubular wall was lower. CONCLUSIONS A simple tube-shaped contractile EHT was generated from human-induced pluripotent stem cells and developed a synchronous beating pattern. Further steps need to focus on optimizing support materials, flow rates and geometry to obtain a construct that creates sufficient pressures to support a directed and pulsatile blood flow.

PREFACEThe articles of this supplement resulted from the 5 th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society held in São Paulo city, Brazil, at the Convention Center of the Transamérica Hotel, from 28 th September to 2 nd of October 1997. The participants of the Round Table Discussions on “Mean Sea Level Changes Along the Brazilian Coast” were Dr. Denizar Blitzkow, Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, (POLI-USP), Prof. Dr. Waldenir Veronese Furtado, Institute of Oceanography (IO-USP), Dr. Joseph Harari (IO-USP), Dr. Roberto Teixeira from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and the invited coordinator Prof. Dr. Afrânio Rubens de Mesquita (IO-USP). Soon after the first presentation of the IBGE representative, on the efforts of his Institute regarding sea level matters, it became clear that, apart from a M.Sc. Thesis of Mesquita (1968) and the contributions of Johannenssen (1967), Mesquita et al. (1986) and Mesquita et al. (1994), little was known by the participants, about the history of the primordial sea level measurements along the Brazilian coast, one of the objectives of the meeting. So, following the strong recommendations of the Table participants, a short review on the early Brazilian sea level measurements was planned for a much needed general historical account on the topic. For this purpose, several researchers such as The Commander Frederico Corner Bentes, Directorate of Hydrography and Navigation (DHN) of the Brazilian Navy, Ms. Maria Helena Severo (DHN) and Eng. Jose Antonio dos Santos, National Institute of Ports and Rivers (INPH), long involved with the national sea level measurements were asked to present their views. Promptly, they all provided useful information on the ports and present difficulties with the Brazilian Law relative to the “Terrenos de Marinha” (Sea/Land Limits). Admiral Max Justo Guedes of the General Documentation Service (SDG) of the Brazilian Navy gave an account of the first “Roteiros”– Safe ways to approach the cities (ports) of that time by the sea –, written by the Portuguese navigators in the XVI Century, on the newly found land of “Terra de Santa Cruz”, Brazil’s first given name. Admiral Dr. Alberto Dos Santos Franco (IO-USP/DHN) gave information on the first works on sea level analysis published by the National Observatory (ON) Scientists, Belford Vieira (1928) and Lemos (1928). In a visit to ON, which belongs to the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CNPq) and after a thorough discussion on sea level matters in Brazil, Dr. Luiz Muniz Barreto showed the Library Museum, where the Tide Predictor machine, purchased from England, in the beginning of the XX century, is well kept and preserved. Afterwards, Dr. Mauro de Andrade Sousa of ON, sent a photography (Fig. 1) of the Kelvin machine (the same Kelvin of the Absolute Temperature), a tide predictor firstly used in the Country by ON to produce Tide Tables. From 1964 until now, the astronomical prediction of Tides (Tide Tables) for most of the Brazilian ports is produced using computer software and published by the DHN. Before the 5 th International Congress of Geophysics, the Global Observing Sea Level System (GLOSS), a program of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, had already offered a Training Course on sea level matters, in 1993 at IO-USP (IOC. 1999) and, six years later, a Training Workshop was also given at IO-USP in 1999 (IOC. 2000). Several participants of the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries of the Americas and Africa (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mozambique, Uruguay, Peru, São Tome and Principe and Venezuela) were invited to take part in the Course and Workshop, under the auspices of the IOC. During the Training Course of 1993, Dr. David Pugh, Director of GLOSS, proposed to publish a Newsletter for sea level matters as a FORUM of the involved countries. The Newsletter, after the approval of the IOC Chairman at the time, Dr. Albert Tolkachev, ended up as the Afro America GLOSS News (AAGN). The newsletter had its first Edition published by IO-USP and was paper-printed up to its 4 th Edition. After that, under the registration Number ISSN: 1983-0319, from the CNPq and the new forum of GLOSS, which the Afro-American Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries already had, started to be disseminated only electronically. Currently on its 15 th Edition, the News Letter can be accessed on: www.mares.io.usp.br, Icon Afro America GLOSS News (AAGN),the electronic address of the “Laboratory of Tides and Oceanic Temporal Processes” (MAPTOLAB) of IO-USP, where other contributions on Brazilian sea level, besides the ones given in this Supplement, can also be found. The acronym GLOSS identifies the IOC program, which aims to produce an overall global long-term sea level data set from permanent measuring stations, distributed in ocean islands and all over the continental borders about 500 Km on average apart from each other, covering evenly both Earth hemispheres. The program follows the lines of the Permanent Service for the Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), a Service established in 1933 by the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO), which, however, has a much stronger and denser sea level data contribution from countries of the Northern Hemisphere. The Service receives and organizes sea level data sent by all countries with maritime borders, members of the United Nations (UN) and freely distributes the data to interested people, on the site http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl. The Permanent Station of Cananeia, Brazil, which has the GLOSS number 194 together with several other permanent stations (San Francisco, USA, Brest, France and many others), belongs to a chosen group of stations (Brazil has 9 GLOSS Stations) prepared to produce real time sea level, accompanied by gravity, GPS and meteorological high quality data measurements, aiming to contribute for a strictly reliable “in situ” data knowledge regarding the Global Earth sea level variability. Following the recommendations of the Round Table for a search of the first historical events, it was found that sea level measurements started in the Brazilian coast in 1781. The year when the Portuguese astronomer Sanches Dorta came to the Southern oceans, interested in studying the attraction between masses, applied to the oceanic tides a fundamental global law discovered by Isaak Newton in the seventeenth century. Nearly a hundred years later the Law was confirmed by Henry Cavendish. Another nearly hundred years passed and a few years after the transfer of the Portuguese Crown from Europe to Brazil, in 1808, the Port of Rio de Janeiro was occupied, in 1831, for the first systematic sea level measurements ever performed on the Brazilian coast. The one year recorded tidal signal, showing a clear semidiurnal tide is kept nowadays in the Library of the Directory of Hydrography and Navigation (DHN) of the Brazilian Navy. After the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in 1889, systematic sea level measurements at several ports along the coast were organized and established by the Port Authorities precursors of INPH. Sea level analyses based on these measurements were made by Belford Vieira (op. cit.) and Lemos (op. cit.) of the aforementioned National Observatory (ON), and the Institute of the National Council of Research and Technology (CNPq), which gave the knowledge of tides and tidal analysis a valuable boost at that time. For some reason, the measurements of 1831 were included into the Brazilian Federal law No. 9760 of 1946, to serve as the National Reference (NR) for determining the sea/land limits of the “Terrenos de Marinha”, and inadvertently took it as if it were a fixed and permanent level along the years, which is known today to be untrue. Not only for this reason, but also for the fact that the datum, the reference level (RL) in the Port of Rio de Janeiro, to which the measurements of 1831 were referred to, was lost, making the 1946 Law inapplicable nowadays. The recommendations of the Round Table participants seemed to have been providential for the action which was taken, in order to solve these unexpected events. A method for recovering the 1831 limits of high waters, referred by Law 9760, was produced recently and is shown in this supplement. It is also shown the first attempt to identify, on the coast of São Paulo State, from the bathymetry of the marine charts produced by DHN, several details of the bottom of the shelf area. The Paleo Rivers and terraces covered by the most recent de-glaciation period, which started about 20,000 years ago, were computationally uncovered from the charts, showing several paleo entrances of rivers and other sediment features of the shelf around “Ilha Bela”, an island off the coast of S˜ao Sebastião. Another tidal analysis contribution, following the first studies of ON scientists, but now using computer facilities and the Fast Fourier Transform for tidal analysis, developed by Franco and Rock (1971), is also shown in this Supplement. Estimates of Constituents amplitudes as M2 and S2 seem to be decreasing along the years. In two ports of the coast this was effective, as a consequence of tidal energy being transferred from the astronomical Tide Generator Potential (PGM), created basically by the Sun and the Moon, to nonlinear components generated by tidal currents in a process of continuously modifying the beaches, estuarine borders and the shelf area. A study on the generation of nonlinear tidal components, also envisaged by Franco (2009) in his book on tides, seems to be the answer to some basic questions of this field of knowledge. Harari & Camargo (1994) worked along the same lines covering the entire South Eastern Shelf. As for Long Term Sea Level Trends, the sea level series produced by the National Institute of Research for Ports and Rivers (INPH), with the 10 years series obtained by the Geodetic Survey of USA, in various Brazilian ports, together with the sea level series of Cananeia of IO-USP, allowed the first estimation of Brazil’s long term trend, as about 30 cm/cty. A study comparing this value with the global value of sea level variation obtained from the PSMSL data series, shows that among the positively and negatively trended global tidal series, the Brazilian series are well above the mean global trend value of about 18 cm/cty. This result was communicated to IAPSO in the 1987 meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. In another attempt to decipher the long term sea level contents of these series, the correlation values, as a measure of collinearity and proximity values, as well as the distance of the yearly mean data values of sea level to the calculated regression line, are shown to be invariant with rotation of the Cartesian axes in this Supplement. Not following the recommendations of the Round Table but for the completeness of this Preface, these values, estimated from the Permanent Service for the Mean Sea Level data, with the Brazilian series included, allowed the definition of a function F, which, being also invariant with axis rotation, seems to measure the sort of characteristic state of variability of each sea level series. The plot of F values against the corresponding trend values of the 60 to 100 year-long PSMSL series is shown in Figure 2. This plot shows positive values of F reaching the 18 cm/cty, in good agreement with the recent International Panel for Climate Changes (IPCC) estimated global value. However, the negative side of the Figure also shows other values of F giving other information, which is enigmatic and is discussed in Mesquita (2004). For the comprehensiveness of this Preface and continuation of the subjects, although not exactly following the discussions of the Round Table, other related topics were developed since the 5th Symposium in 1997, for the extreme sea level events. They were estimated for the port of Cananeia, indicating average values of 2.80 m above mean sea level, which appears to be representative of the entire Brazilian coast and probable to occur within the next hundred years, as shown by Franco et al. (2007). Again for completeness, the topic on the steric and halosteric sea levels has also been talked about a lot after the 1997 reunion. Prospects of further studies on the topic rely on proposed oceanographic annual section measurements on the Southeastern coast, “The Capricorn Section,” aimed at estimating the variability and the long term steric and halosteric sea levels contributions, as expressed in Mesquita (2009). These data and the time series measurements (sea level, GPS, meteorology and gravity), already taken at Cananeia and Ubatuba research Stations, both near the Tropic of Capricorn, should allow to locally estimate the values of almost all basic components of the sea level over the Brazilian Southeastern area and perhaps also of the whole South Atlantic, allowing for quantitative studies on their composition, long term variability and their climatic influence.

This article forwards a new way of thinking about pornography, based on the changing work practices of web-based and film/video amateur porn producers and their spectators. Their efforts are not to be confused with individuals who pose for porn sites and simulate sex as glossy “amateurs” – bored housewives, horny freshmen, nasty teen virgins, battered Russian migrants, pregnant mommies, crude aunts or rapist uncles, etc. In most types of commercial porn, amateur roles are scripted, filmed and edited by producers who direct and pay models to enter their stage setups and sex scenes. Different from those are sexually driven media practitioners who make sex scenes to explore personal desires and respond to those of others. They use a variety of recording devices to capture moments, screen scenes privately or in small groups, or upload them on the web through webcams, live journals and web logs. Looking at the website of “pornblogger” Carly, for instance, we can see how the sexual body is revealed through daily online writing modes and feedback from other web users. Moreover, Carly masters the discourses of eroticism and porn theory as overlapping knowledge regimes of sexual representation. In an entry uploaded on March 26, 2004, she writes about Internet porn debates and the plight of children and parents. Moreover, in the same entry, she shows pictures of her collection of dildos and how she uses them on her anal region. One could think of Carly’s body as inhabiting “performance strata” of porn cultures as they mediate real-life contexts. As explained by performance theorist Jon McKenzie in Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance, strata are layers of forces and intensities that give form to matter by organizing small molecular entities into aggregations. The performance strata bundle a variety of cultural, organizational and technological performances as discursive and normative working methods. McKenzie explains that the agents of the performance strata harbor new forms of normativity, while they may also recognize cracks, fissures and “outside” discourses as agents in their force fields (176). The strata are solidified and disrupted by an attentiveness to the active-performative nature of language and bodily gestures, as we develop creativity in our dealings with art and technology, or new attitudes towards social-sexual networking and cultural vitality. Work ethics, the use of technological languages, social and intellectual curiosities, intermingle and intersect to become strata of power and knowledge. Whereas nation-state governments and capitalist porn industries are arguably organized by an older “discipline or punish” maxim (as consolidated empires decide to “push-down” content onto consumers, or punish consumers who access porn in surveilled places), amateur pornography thrives on a different type of exhibitionism and voyeurism. Pornographers and voyeurs communicate with each other and learn how to articulate fluctuating sexual scenarios and pornographic roles. This new trend towards mutual communication and bonding is currently developed in two types of pornography, in web-based platforms for alternative pornography, where the exchanges can be complex and partly private; and in community theaters where the exchange is raw and carried out in public. A good example of the first type would be web sites where individuals collaborate in scripting, shooting, and responding to pornographic portraits. www.spread.com (note: no longer available online) is a good example such of such a porn site. The site was set up by Barbara DeGenevieve, Professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago, in collaboration with Terry Pirtle, the web master and manager of the site. As the announcement read, the site is “… committed to the queer community, to serve a segment of that community that is under-represented in web pornography.” The ssspread.com site encourages queer and transgender people to submit porn scripts and organize film-shoots to act out scenarios. The outcome of this collaboration process is filmed and still-images are uploaded on the site on a weekly basis. For instance, in the “Road Side Service” slide-show, posted on October 30, 2003, Chicago-based singer Nomy Lamm acts out a macho-redneck scenario as a “male trucker” who receives a blowjob from a “transman” partner, then penetrates the partner anally with a dildo on the hood of the vehicle, only to finally reveal her cock to be in the form of an amputated leg. De Genevieve explains the collaboration process with participants in an interview: I usually collaborate with the people that I am filming, and I ask them ahead of time to carefully consider what they want to do in the session. Very often, I just leave the scene up them, or they come up with a scenario that we have discussed beforehand. I will add something to it or ask them to do something slightly different. But, of course, I myself could never come up with the variety of scenarios that they come up with. A lot of people I shoot are young and into punk aesthetics. The environments they live in are definitely not mainstream, and this becomes part of the ambience of a shoot. Yesterday, I shot in a model’s kitchen. It was a pretty chaotic environment with dishes in the sink, food remnants on the countertops and floors, and stuff all over the place. There was another shoot a couple months ago in a room where I literally couldn’t see the floor for the clothes, CDs, magazines, over-flowing ashtrays, sex toys, pillows… But I find these living spaces really fascinating because these are the places where people really have sex. ” (DeGenevieve, 2002) www.spread.com also encourages social activities between members. Moreover, the site contains links to pornographic stories in the “Story Lounge” area. The “Articles and Interviews” area has interviews with sex scholars and activists such as Shannon Bell and Annie Sprinkle. The members also give feedback to weekly still-images by writing messages on the messageboard. This is an important development in the history of pornography, as spectators may be increasingly interested in giving feedback to producers to complement their habits of voyeuristic specatorship and masturbation. The model of amateur porn is thus an important challenge for the commercial porn industries, which for the most part construct an imagined audience of quietly masturbating and orgasmic voyeurs. This is the normative impulse in commercial pornography, exemplified in the tendency to show extreme close-ups of human intercourse or sex with underage models. These normative elements are contested by the growing masses of alternative pornographers, who crack the system while marking symbolically varied porn movies and diverse body types as “ordinary”. A parallel development to web-based producers would be amateur pornographers screening their works in community centers or arthouse theaters, where voyeurs once again are invited to watch and share responses. This development has started to gain attention in the US mass media with TV and film critics expressing both revulsion and propulsion towards this trend (Dana 2002). In the Boston area, for instance, Kim Airs and the arthouse theater Coolidge Corner Cinema have started to organize annual screenings of amateur porn movies. The event, entitled You Oughta Be in Pictures, brings together home-made porn movies and low-budget movies made by artists and filmmakers. The appeal of the event lies exactly in the communication between makers and viewers, the untrained screen-performers and filmmakers, whose movies cause exhilarating responses in the audiences. Audiences in this screening are large and loud, at times shouting out their reactions, or laughing at how the filmmakers conceive of sexual positions and camera angles. In some movies, the scenes fail to be explicit or dynamic at all. For example, a female masturbation scene shows a moving hand on a hidden vagina, where the soundtrack consists of quiet and camera-shy moaning. This is amateur porn, a bundle of an “ordinary” person’s sexual efforts and their representation. As the above example demonstrates, amateur porn does not always cater to arousal or masturbation, but can nevertheless trigger fulfilling reactions in audiences, as screenings give producers an opportunity to interact with spectators and get immersed in changing feedback loops. One man in the audience of the 2002 screening of You Oughta Be in Pictures described his confused reaction: “I have seen pornography before. I’ve seen quite a bit of it. But this was unlike any of those experiences. I am not exactly sure what is different about it. But the response that it generated made me feel asexual” (Syme 2002). A female respondent emphasized the importance of humor in the implicit communication between the filmmakers and the viewers. She writes: “But I think it was the humor part that I really enjoyed. It allows you to step back from all the taboo-ness of sex. There is a give and take in the sense that some filmmakers will poke fun at audience response by deliberately putting extreme images on screen, while audience members will at points poke fun at the filmmaker’s attempt at ‘sexiness’ at certain intervals” (Yu, 2002). Amateur pornographers and their respondents are the everyday agents of mediated sex, exploring acts of media making and porn debates. Amateur pornographers assert their bodies as sexually active entities negotiating power structures through performative modes of awareness within media communities. Amateur pornographers live the era of Internet porn, indie media and globalization, inventing “peer-to-peer” languages of eroticism and small-scale economies as pockets of sexual health and experimentation. This is perhaps the long-awaited schooling of pornography, its rapid democratization, its turn to more diversified expressions of sexual-aesthetic lust. As was reported in a recent New York Times article, more women and queer producers are entering small-scale sex sites and industries, and making attempts to promote better working conditions for sex workers and media art” (Navarro, 2004). McKenzie predicts that there will be no “good schools” of performance to replace the “bad“ ones. There are only pockets of activism that assert a need to perform and be performed, as communication technologies are rapidly modifying the way we share knowledge and nurture the body. This article was first published as ‘the New Media Schooling of the Amateur Pornographer’ in Spectator 24:1 (Spring 2004). An excerpt was also published in Freecooperation (SUNY Buffalo, April 2004). References Bisbee, Dana. “Real Candid Camera” Boston Herald. October 24, 2002. DeGenevieve, Barbara. Personal interview with author. Unpublished Text. October 9, 2002. McKenzie, Jon. 2001. Perform or Else. From Discipline to Performance. New York: Routledge, p. 176. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/20/national/20FEM.htmlhttp://www.pornblography.com/daily_grind/ Syme, Ewen, Personal Interview with Author. Unpublished Text. January 7, 2002. Yu, Titi, Personal Interview with Author. Unpublished Text. January 7, 2002. http://www.ssspread.com MLA Style Jacobs, Katrien. "The Amateur Pornographer and the Glib Voyeur." M/C Journal 7.4 (2004). 10 October 2004 <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0410/06_amateur.php>. APA Style Jacobs, K. (2004 Oct 11). The Amateur Pornographer and the Glib Voyeur, M/C Journal 7(4). Retrieved Oct 10 2004 from <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0410/06_amateur.php>

IntroductionFirmly located within the discourse of visible culture as the lofty preserve of art exhibitions and museum artefacts, the noun “curate” has gradually transformed into the verb “to curate”. Williams writes that “curate” has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded to describe a creative activity. Designers no longer simply sell clothes; they “curate” merchandise. Chefs no longer only make food; they also “curate” meals. Chosen for their keen eye for a particular style or a precise shade, it is their knowledge of their craft, their reputation, and their sheer ability to choose among countless objects which make the creative process a creative activity in itself. Writing from within the framework of “curate” as a creative process, this article discusses how the state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II, hosted by Irish President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle in May 2011, was carefully curated to represent Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural, and culinary identity. The paper will focus in particular on how the menu for the banquet was created and how the banquet’s brief, “Ireland on a Plate”, was fulfilled.History and BackgroundFood has been used by nations for centuries to display wealth, cement alliances, and impress foreign visitors. Since the feasts of the Numidian kings (circa 340 BC), culinary staging and presentation has belonged to “a long, multifaceted and multicultural history of diplomatic practices” (IEHCA 5). According to the works of Baughman, Young, and Albala, food has defined the social, cultural, and political position of a nation’s leaders throughout history.In early 2011, Ross Lewis, Chef Patron of Chapter One Restaurant in Dublin, was asked by the Irish Food Board, Bord Bía, if he would be available to create a menu for a high-profile banquet (Mahon 112). The name of the guest of honour was divulged several weeks later after vetting by the protocol and security divisions of the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Lewis was informed that the menu was for the state banquet to be hosted by President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Ireland the following May.Hosting a formal banquet for a visiting head of state is a key feature in the statecraft of international and diplomatic relations. Food is the societal common denominator that links all human beings, regardless of culture (Pliner and Rozin 19). When world leaders publicly share a meal, that meal is laden with symbolism, illuminating each diner’s position “in social networks and social systems” (Sobal, Bove, and Rauschenbach 378). The public nature of the meal signifies status and symbolic kinship and that “guest and host are on par in terms of their personal or official attributes” (Morgan 149). While the field of academic scholarship on diplomatic dining might be young, there is little doubt of the value ascribed to the semiotics of diplomatic gastronomy in modern power structures (Morgan 150; De Vooght and Scholliers 12; Chapple-Sokol 162), for, as Firth explains, symbols are malleable and perfectly suited to exploitation by all parties (427).Political DiplomacyWhen Ireland gained independence in December 1921, it marked the end of eight centuries of British rule. The outbreak of “The Troubles” in 1969 in Northern Ireland upset the gradually improving environment of British–Irish relations, and it would be some time before a state visit became a possibility. Beginning with the peace process in the 1990s, the IRA ceasefire of 1994, and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, a state visit was firmly set in motion by the visit of Irish President Mary Robinson to Buckingham Palace in 1993, followed by the unofficial visit of the Prince of Wales to Ireland in 1995, and the visit of Irish President Mary McAleese to Buckingham Palace in 1999. An official invitation to Queen Elizabeth from President Mary McAleese in March 2011 was accepted, and the visit was scheduled for mid-May of the same year.The visit was a highly performative occasion, orchestrated and ordained in great detail, displaying all the necessary protocol associated with the state visit of one head of state to another: inspection of the military, a courtesy visit to the nation’s head of state on arrival, the laying of a wreath at the nation’s war memorial, and a state banquet.These aspects of protocol between Britain and Ireland were particularly symbolic. By inspecting the military on arrival, the existence of which is a key indicator of independence, Queen Elizabeth effectively demonstrated her recognition of Ireland’s national sovereignty. On making the customary courtesy call to the head of state, the Queen was received by President McAleese at her official residence Áras an Uachtaráin (The President’s House), which had formerly been the residence of the British monarch’s representative in Ireland (Robbins 66). The state banquet was held in Dublin Castle, once the headquarters of British rule where the Viceroy, the representative of Britain’s Court of St James, had maintained court (McDowell 1).Cultural DiplomacyThe state banquet provided an exceptional showcase of Irish culture and design and generated a level of preparation previously unseen among Dublin Castle staff, who described it as “the most stage managed state event” they had ever witnessed (Mahon 129).The castle was cleaned from top to bottom, and inventories were taken of the furniture and fittings. The Waterford Crystal chandeliers were painstakingly taken down, cleaned, and reassembled; the Killybegs carpets and rugs of Irish lamb’s wool were cleaned and repaired. A special edition Newbridge Silverware pen was commissioned for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to sign the newly ordered Irish leather-bound visitors’ book. A new set of state tableware was ordered for the President’s table. Irish manufacturers of household goods necessary for the guest rooms, such as towels and soaps, hand creams and body lotions, candle holders and scent diffusers, were sought. Members of Her Majesty’s staff conducted a “walk-through” several weeks in advance of the visit to ensure that the Queen’s wardrobe would not clash with the surroundings (Mahon 129–32).The promotion of Irish manufacture is a constant thread throughout history. Irish linen, writes Kane, enjoyed a reputation as far afield as the Netherlands and Italy in the 15th century, and archival documents from the Vaucluse attest to the purchase of Irish cloth in Avignon in 1432 (249–50). Support for Irish-made goods was raised in 1720 by Jonathan Swift, and by the 18th century, writes Foster, Dublin had become an important centre for luxury goods (44–51).It has been Irish government policy since the late 1940s to use Irish-manufactured goods for state entertaining, so the material culture of the banquet was distinctly Irish: Arklow Pottery plates, Newbridge Silverware cutlery, Waterford Crystal glassware, and Irish linen tablecloths. In order to decide upon the table setting for the banquet, four tables were laid in the King’s Bedroom in Dublin Castle. The Executive Chef responsible for the banquet menu, and certain key personnel, helped determine which setting would facilitate serving the food within the time schedule allowed (Mahon 128–29). The style of service would be service à la russe, so widespread in restaurants today as to seem unremarkable. Each plate is prepared in the kitchen by the chef and then served to each individual guest at table. In the mid-19th century, this style of service replaced service à la française, in which guests typically entered the dining room after the first course had been laid on the table and selected food from the choice of dishes displayed around them (Kaufman 126).The guest list was compiled by government and embassy officials on both sides and was a roll call of Irish and British life. At the President’s table, 10 guests would be served by a team of 10 staff in Dorchester livery. The remaining tables would each seat 12 guests, served by 12 liveried staff. The staff practiced for several days prior to the banquet to make sure that service would proceed smoothly within the time frame allowed. The team of waiters, each carrying a plate, would emerge from the kitchen in single file. They would then take up positions around the table, each waiter standing to the left of the guest they would serve. On receipt of a discreet signal, each plate would be laid in front of each guest at precisely the same moment, after which the waiters would then about foot and return to the kitchen in single file (Mahon 130).Post-prandial entertainment featured distinctive styles of performance and instruments associated with Irish traditional music. These included reels, hornpipes, and slipjigs, voice and harp, sean-nόs (old style) singing, and performances by established Irish artists on the fiddle, bouzouki, flute, and uilleann pipes (Office of Public Works).Culinary Diplomacy: Ireland on a PlateLewis was given the following brief: the menu had to be Irish, the main course must be beef, and the meal should represent the very best of Irish ingredients. There were no restrictions on menu design. There were no dietary requirements or specific requests from the Queen’s representatives, although Lewis was informed that shellfish is excluded de facto from Irish state banquets as a precautionary measure. The meal was to be four courses long and had to be served to 170 diners within exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes (Mahon 112). A small army of 16 chefs and 4 kitchen porters would prepare the food in the kitchen of Dublin Castle under tight security. The dishes would be served on state tableware by 40 waiters, 6 restaurant managers, a banqueting manager and a sommélier. Lewis would be at the helm of the operation as Executive Chef (Mahon 112–13).Lewis started by drawing up “a patchwork quilt” of the products he most wanted to use and built the menu around it. The choice of suppliers was based on experience but also on a supplier’s ability to deliver perfectly ripe goods in mid-May, a typically black spot in the Irish fruit and vegetable growing calendar as it sits between the end of one season and the beginning of another. Lewis consulted the Queen’s itinerary and the menus to be served so as to avoid repetitions. He had to discard his initial plan to feature lobster in the starter and rhubarb in the dessert—the former for the precautionary reasons mentioned above, and the latter because it featured on the Queen’s lunch menu on the day of the banquet (Mahon 112–13).Once the ingredients had been selected, the menu design focused on creating tastes, flavours and textures. Several draft menus were drawn up and myriad dishes were tasted and discussed in the kitchen of Lewis’s own restaurant. Various wines were paired and tasted with the different courses, the final choice being a Château Lynch-Bages 1998 red and a Château de Fieuzal 2005 white, both from French Bordeaux estates with an Irish connection (Kellaghan 3). Two months and two menu sittings later, the final menu was confirmed and signed off by state and embassy officials (Mahon 112–16).The StarterThe banquet’s starter featured organic Clare Island salmon cured in a sweet brine, laid on top of a salmon cream combining wild smoked salmon from the Burren and Cork’s Glenilen Farm crème fraîche, set over a lemon balm jelly from the Tannery Cookery School Gardens, Waterford. Garnished with horseradish cream, wild watercress, and chive flowers from Wicklow, the dish was finished with rapeseed oil from Kilkenny and a little sea salt from West Cork (Mahon 114). Main CourseA main course of Irish beef featured as the pièce de résistance of the menu. A rib of beef from Wexford’s Slaney Valley was provided by Kettyle Irish Foods in Fermanagh and served with ox cheek and tongue from Rathcoole, County Dublin. From along the eastern coastline came the ingredients for the traditional Irish dish of smoked champ: cabbage from Wicklow combined with potatoes and spring onions grown in Dublin. The new season’s broad beans and carrots were served with wild garlic leaf, which adorned the dish (Mahon 113). Cheese CourseThe cheese course was made up of Knockdrinna, a Tomme style goat’s milk cheese from Kilkenny; Milleens, a Munster style cow’s milk cheese produced in Cork; Cashel Blue, a cow’s milk blue cheese from Tipperary; and Glebe Brethan, a Comté style cheese from raw cow’s milk from Louth. Ditty’s Oatmeal Biscuits from Belfast accompanied the course.DessertLewis chose to feature Irish strawberries in the dessert. Pat Clarke guaranteed delivery of ripe strawberries on the day of the banquet. They married perfectly with cream and yoghurt from Glenilen Farm in Cork. The cream was set with Irish Carrageen moss, overlaid with strawberry jelly and sauce, and garnished with meringues made with Irish apple balsamic vinegar from Lusk in North Dublin, yoghurt mousse, and Irish soda bread tuiles made with wholemeal flour from the Mosse family mill in Kilkenny (Mahon 113).The following day, President McAleese telephoned Lewis, saying of the banquet “Ní hé go raibh sé go maith, ach go raibh sé míle uair níos fearr ná sin” (“It’s not that it was good but that it was a thousand times better”). The President observed that the menu was not only delicious but that it was “amazingly articulate in terms of the story that it told about Ireland and Irish food.” The Queen had particularly enjoyed the stuffed cabbage leaf of tongue, cheek and smoked colcannon (a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes with curly kale or green cabbage) and had noted the diverse selection of Irish ingredients from Irish artisans (Mahon 116). Irish CuisineWhen the topic of food is explored in Irish historiography, the focus tends to be on the consequences of the Great Famine (1845–49) which left the country “socially and emotionally scarred for well over a century” (Mac Con Iomaire and Gallagher 161). Some commentators consider the term “Irish cuisine” oxymoronic, according to Mac Con Iomaire and Maher (3). As Goldstein observes, Ireland has suffered twice—once from its food deprivation and second because these deprivations present an obstacle for the exploration of Irish foodways (xii). Writing about Italian, Irish, and Jewish migration to America, Diner states that the Irish did not have a food culture to speak of and that Irish writers “rarely included the details of food in describing daily life” (85). Mac Con Iomaire and Maher note that Diner’s methodology overlooks a centuries-long tradition of hospitality in Ireland such as that described by Simms (68) and shows an unfamiliarity with the wealth of food related sources in the Irish language, as highlighted by Mac Con Iomaire (“Exploring” 1–23).Recent scholarship on Ireland’s culinary past is unearthing a fascinating story of a much more nuanced culinary heritage than has been previously understood. This is clearly demonstrated in the research of Cullen, Cashman, Deleuze, Kellaghan, Kelly, Kennedy, Legg, Mac Con Iomaire, Mahon, O’Sullivan, Richman Kenneally, Sexton, and Stanley, Danaher, and Eogan.In 1996 Ireland was described by McKenna as having the most dynamic cuisine in any European country, a place where in the last decade “a vibrant almost unlikely style of cooking has emerged” (qtd. in Mac Con Iomaire “Jammet’s” 136). By 2014, there were nine restaurants in Dublin which had been awarded Michelin stars or Red Ms (Mac Con Iomaire “Jammet’s” 137). Ross Lewis, Chef Patron of Chapter One Restaurant, who would be chosen to create the menu for the state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II, has maintained a Michelin star since 2008 (Mac Con Iomaire, “Jammet’s” 138). Most recently the current strength of Irish gastronomy is globally apparent in Mark Moriarty’s award as San Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 (McQuillan). As Deleuze succinctly states: “Ireland has gone mad about food” (143).This article is part of a research project into Irish diplomatic dining, and the author is part of a research cluster into Ireland’s culinary heritage within the Dublin Institute of Technology. The aim of the research is to add to the growing body of scholarship on Irish gastronomic history and, ultimately, to contribute to the discourse on the existence of a national cuisine. If, as Zubaida says, “a nation’s cuisine is its court’s cuisine,” then it is time for Ireland to “research the feasts as well as the famines” (Mac Con Iomaire and Cashman 97).ConclusionThe Irish state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011 was a highly orchestrated and formalised process. From the menu, material culture, entertainment, and level of consultation in the creative content, it is evident that the banquet was carefully curated to represent Ireland’s diplomatic, cultural, and culinary identity.The effects of the visit appear to have been felt in the years which have followed. Hennessy wrote in the Irish Times newspaper that Queen Elizabeth is privately said to regard her visit to Ireland as the most significant of the trips she has made during her 60-year reign. British Prime Minister David Cameron is noted to mention the visit before every Irish audience he encounters, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague has spoken in particular of the impact the state banquet in Dublin Castle made upon him. Hennessy points out that one of the most significant indicators of the peaceful relationship which exists between the two countries nowadays was the subsequent state visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins to Britain in 2013. This was the first state visit to the United Kingdom by a President of Ireland and would have been unimaginable 25 years ago. The fact that the President and his wife stayed at Windsor Castle and that the attendant state banquet was held there instead of Buckingham Palace were both deemed to be marks of special favour and directly attributed to the success of Her Majesty’s 2011 visit to Ireland.As the research demonstrates, eating together unites rather than separates, gathers rather than divides, diffuses political tensions, and confirms alliances. It might be said then that the 2011 state banquet hosted by President Mary McAleese in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, curated by Ross Lewis, gives particular meaning to the axiom “to eat together is to eat in peace” (Taliano des Garets 160).AcknowledgementsSupervisors: Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire (Dublin Institute of Technology) and Dr Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy)Fáilte IrelandPhotos of the banquet dishes supplied and permission to reproduce them for this article kindly granted by Ross Lewis, Chef Patron, Chapter One Restaurant ‹http://www.chapteronerestaurant.com/›.Illustration ‘Ireland on a Plate’ © Jesse Campbell BrownRemerciementsThe author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.ReferencesAlbala, Ken. The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2007.———. “The Historical Models of Food and Power in European Courts of the Nineteenth Century: An Expository Essay and Prologue.” Royal Taste, Food Power and Status at the European Courts after 1789. Ed. Daniëlle De Vooght. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2011. 13–29.Baughman, John J. “The French Banqueting Campaign of 1847–48.” The Journal of Modern History 31 (1959): 1–15. Cashman, Dorothy. “That Delicate Sweetmeat, the Irish Plum: The Culinary World of Maria Edgeworth.” ‘Tickling the Palate': Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Ed. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. 15–34.———. “French Boobys and Good English Cooks: The Relationship with French Culinary Influence in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Ireland.” Reimagining Ireland: Proceedings from the AFIS Conference 2012. Vol. 55 Reimagining Ireland. Ed. Benjamin Keatinge, and Mary Pierse. Bern: Peter Lang, 2014. 207–22.———. “‘This Receipt Is as Safe as the Bank’: Reading Irish Culinary Manuscripts.” M/C Journal 16.3 (2013). ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal›.———. “Ireland’s Culinary Manuscripts.” Irish Traditional Cooking, Recipes from Ireland’s Heritage. By Darina Allen. London: Kyle Books, 2012. 14–15.Chapple-Sokol, Sam. “Culinary Diplomacy: Breaking Bread to Win Hearts and Minds.” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 8 (2013): 161–83.Cullen, Louis M. The Emergence of Modern Ireland 1600–1900. London: Batsford, 1981.Deleuze, Marjorie. “A New Craze for Food: Why Is Ireland Turning into a Foodie Nation?” ‘Tickling the Palate': Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Ed. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. 143–58.“Details of the State Dinner.” Office of Public Works. 8 Apr. 2013. ‹http://www.dublincastle.ie/HistoryEducation/TheVisitofHerMajestyQueenElizabethII/DetailsoftheStateDinner/›.De Vooght, Danïelle, and Peter Scholliers. Introduction. Royal Taste, Food Power and Status at the European Courts after 1789. Ed. Daniëlle De Vooght. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2011. 1–12.Diner, Hasia. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish & Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.Firth, Raymond. Symbols: Public and Private. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973.Foster, Sarah. “Buying Irish: Consumer Nationalism in 18th Century Dublin.” History Today 47.6 (1997): 44–51.Goldstein, Darra. Foreword. ‘Tickling the Palate': Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Eds. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. xi–xvii.Hennessy, Mark. “President to Visit Queen in First State Visit to the UK.” The Irish Times 28 Nov. 2013. 25 May 2015 ‹http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/president-to-visit-queen-in-first-state-visit-to-the-uk-1.1598127›.“International Historical Conference: Table and Diplomacy—from the Middle Ages to the Present Day—Call for Papers.” Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation (IEHCA) 15 Feb. 2015. ‹http://www.iehca.eu/IEHCA_v4/pdf/16-11-3-5-colloque-table-diplomatique-appel-a-com-fr-en.pdf›.Kane, Eileen M.C. “Irish Cloth in Avignon in the Fifteenth Century.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 102.2 (1972): 249–51.Kaufman, Cathy K. “Structuring the Meal: The Revolution of Service à la Russe.” The Meal: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2001. Ed. Harlan Walker. Devon: Prospect Books, 2002. 123–33.Kellaghan, Tara. “Claret: The Preferred Libation of Georgian Ireland’s Elite.” Dublin Gastronomy Symposium. Dublin, 6 Jun. 2012. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/dgs/2012/june612/3/›.Kelly, Fergus. “Early Irish Farming.” Early Irish Law Series. Ed. Fergus Kelly. Volume IV. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997.Kennedy, Michael. “‘Where’s the Taj Mahal?’: Indian Restaurants in Dublin since 1908.” History Ireland 18.4 (2010): 50–52. ‹http://www.jstor.org/stable/27823031›.Legg, Marie-Louise. “'Irish Wine': The Import of Claret from Bordeaux to Provincial Ireland in the Eighteenth Century.” Irish Provincial Cultures in the Long Eighteenth Century: Making the Middle Sort (Essays for Toby Barnard). Eds. Raymond Gillespie and R[obert] F[itzroy] Foster. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2012.Mac Con Iomaire, Máirtín. “Haute Cuisine Restaurants in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Ireland.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C. DOI: 10.3318/PRIAC.2015.115.06. 2015.———. “‘From Jammet’s to Guilbaud’s’: The Influence of French Haute Cuisine on the Development of Dublin Restaurants.” ‘Tickling the Palate’: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Eds. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. 121–41. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tschafbk/15/›.———. “Exploring the 'Food Motif' in Songs from the Irish Tradition.” Dublin Gastronomy Symposium. Dublin, 3 Jun. 2014. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/dgs/2014/june314/7/›.———. “Gastro-Topography: Exploring Food Related Placenames in Ireland.” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 38.1-2 (2014): 126–57.———. “The Pig in Irish Cuisine and Culture.” M/C Journal 13.5 (2010). ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/296›.———. “The Emergence, Development and Influence of French Haute Cuisine on Public Dining Restaurants 1900–2000: An Oral History.” Doctoral Thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology, 2009. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tourdoc/12/›.———. “A History of Seafood in Irish Cuisine and Culture.” Wild Food: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2004. Ed. Richard Hosking. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2006. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tfschcafcon/3/›.———. “The Pig in Irish Cuisine Past and Present.” The Fat of the Land: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2002. Ed. Harlan Walker. Bristol: Footwork, 2003. 207–15. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tfschcafcon/1/›.———, and Dorothy Cashman. “Irish Culinary Manuscripts and Printed Books: A Discussion.” Petits Propos Culinaires 94 (2011): 81–101. 16 Mar. 2012 ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tfschafart/111/›.———, and Tara Kellaghan. “Royal Pomp: Viceregal Celebrations and Hospitality in Georgian Dublin.” Celebration: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2011. Ed. Mark McWilliams. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books. 2012. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tfschafart/109/›.———, and Eamon Maher. Introduction. ‘Tickling the Palate': Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Eds. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. 1–11. ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tschafbk/11/›.———, and Pádraic Óg Gallagher. “The Potato in Irish Cuisine and Culture.” Journal of Culinary Science and Technology 7.2-3 (2009): 152–67. 24 Sep. 2012 ‹http://arrow.dit.ie/tfschafart/3/›.McConnell, Tara. “'Brew as Much as Possible during the Proper Season': Beer Consumption in Elite Households in Eighteenth-Century Ireland.” ‘Tickling the Palate': Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture. Eds. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Eamon Maher. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014. 177–89.McDowell, R[obert] B[rendan]. Historical Essays 1938–2001. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2003.McQuillan, Deirdre. “Young Irish Chef Wins International Award in Milan.” The Irish Times. 28 June 2015. 30 June 2015 ‹http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/young-irish-chef-wins-international-award-in-milan-1.2265725›.Mahon, Bríd. Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink. Cork: Mercier Press, 1991.Mahon, Elaine. “Eating for Ireland: A Preliminary Investigation into Irish Diplomatic Dining since the Inception of the State.” Diss. Dublin Institute of Technology, 2013.Morgan, Linda. “Diplomatic Gastronomy: Style and Power at the Table.” Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment 20.2 (2012): 146–66.O'Sullivan, Catherine Marie. Hospitality in Medieval Ireland 900–1500. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004.Pliner, Patricia, and Paul Rozin. “The Psychology of the Meal.” Dimensions of the Meal: The Science, Culture, Business, and Art of Eating. Ed. Herbert L. Meiselman. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen, 2000. 19–46.Richman Kenneally, Rhona. “Cooking at the Hearth: The ‘Irish Cottage’ and Women’s Lived Experience.” Memory Ireland. Ed. Oona Frawley. Vol. 2. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2012. 224–41.Robins, Joseph. Champagne and Silver Buckles: The Viceregal Court at Dublin Castle 1700–1922. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2001.Sexton, Regina. A Little History of Irish Food. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1998.Sobal, Jeffrey, Caron Bove, and Barbara Rauschenbach. "Commensal Careers at Entry into Marriage: Establishing Commensal Units and Managing Commensal Circles." The Sociological Review 50.3 (2002): 378-397.Simms, Katharine. “Guesting and Feasting in Gaelic Ireland.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 108 (1978): 67–100.Stanley, Michael, Ed Danaher, and James Eogan, eds. Dining and Dwelling. Dublin: National Roads Authority, 2009.Swift, Jonathan. “A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture.” The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift D.D. Ed. Temple Scott. Vol. 7: Historical and Political Tracts. London: George Bell & Sons, 1905. 17–30. 29 July 2015 ‹http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E700001-024/›.Taliano des Garets, Françoise. “Cuisine et Politique.” Sciences Po University Press. Vingtième Siècle: Revue d’histoire 59 (1998): 160–61. Williams, Alex. “On the Tip of Creative Tongues.” The New York Times. 4 Oct. 2009. 16 June 2015 ‹http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04curate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0›.Young, Carolin. Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.Zubaida, Sami. “Imagining National Cuisines.” TCD/UCD Public Lecture Series. Trinity College, Dublin. 5 Mar. 2014.

Introduction Sharing food is central to culture. Indeed, according to Montanari, “food is culture” (xii). Ways of sharing knowledge about food, such as the exchange of recipes, give longevity to food sharing. Recipes, an important cultural technology, expand the practice of sharing food beyond specific times and places. The means through which recipes, and information about food, is shared has historically been communicated through whatever medium is available at the time. Cookbooks were among the first printed books, with the first known cookbook published in 1485 at Nuremberg, which set a trend in which cookbooks were published in most of the languages across Western Europe by the mid 16th century (Mennell). Since then, recipe collections have found a comfortable home in new and emerging media, from radio, to television, and now, online. The proliferation of cookbooks and other forms of food-related media “can be interpreted as a reflection of culinary inexperience, if not also incompetence—otherwise why so much reliance on outside advice?” (Belasco 46). Food-related media has also been argued to reflect both what people eat and what they might wish they could eat (Neuhaus, in Belasco). As such, cookbooks, television cooking shows, and food websites help shape our identity and, as Gallegos notes, play “a role in inscribing the self with a sense of place, belonging and achievement” (99). Food writing has expanded beyond the instructional form common to cookbooks and television cooking shows and, according to Hughes, “has insinuated itself into every aspect of the literary imagination” (online) from academic writing through to memoir, fiction, and travel writing. Hughes argues that concerns that people are actually now cooking less that ever, despite this influx of food-related media, miss the point that “food writing is a literary activity […] the best of it does what good writing always does, which is to create an alternative world to the one you currently inhabit” (online). While pragmatic, this argument also reinforces the common perception that food writing is a professional pursuit. It is important to note that while cookbooks and other forms of food-related media are well established as a means for recipes to be communicated, recipes have a longer history of being shared between individuals, that is, within families and communities. In helping to expand recipe-sharing practices, food-related media has also both professionalised and depersonalised this activity. As perhaps a reaction to this, or through a desire to re-establish communal recipe-sharing traditions, blogging, and specifically food blogging, has emerged as a new and viable way for people to share information about food in a non-professional capacity. Blogging has long been celebrated for its capacity to give “ordinary” people a voice (Nilsson). Due to their social nature (Walker Rettberg) and the ability for bloggers to create “networks for sharing ideas, trends and information” (Walker Rettberg 60), blogs are a natural fit for sharing recipes and information about food. Additionally, blogs, like food-related media forms such as cookbooks, are also used as tools for identity building. Blogger’s identities may be closely tied to their offline identity (Baumer, Sueyoshi and Tomlinson), forged through discussions about their everyday lives (Lövheim) or used in a professional capacity (Kedrowicz and Sullivan). Food blogs, broadly defined as blogs primarily focused on food, are one of the most prominent means through which so-called “ordinary” people can share recipes online, and can be seen to challenge perceptions that food writing is a professional activity. They may focus specifically on recipes, restaurant reviews, travel, food ethics, or aesthetic concerns such as food styling and photography. Since food blogs began to appear in the early 2000s, their number has steadily increased, and the community has become more established and structured. In my interview with the writer of the popular blog Chocolate & Zucchini, she noted that when she started blogging about food in 2003 there were perhaps a dozen other food bloggers. Since then, this blogger has become a professional food writer, published author, and recipe developer, while the number of food bloggers has grown dramatically. It is difficult to know the precise number of food blogs—as at July 2012, Technorati ranked more than 16,000 food blogs, including both recipe and restaurant review blogs (online)—but it is clear that they are both increasing in number and have become a common and popular blog genre. For the purposes of this article, food blogs are understood as those blogs that mostly feature recipes. The term “recipe blog” could be used, but food bloggers make little distinction between different topic categories—whether someone writes recipes or reviews, they are referred to as a food blogger. As such, I have used the term “food blog” in keeping with the community’s own terminology and practices. Recipes published on blogs reach a wider audience than those shared between individuals within a family or in a community, but are not as exclusive or professional, in most instances, as traditional food-related media. Blogging allows for the compression of time and space, as people can connect with others from around the world, and respond and reinvigorate posts sometimes several years after they have been written. In this sense, food blogs are more dynamic than cookbooks, with multiple entry points and means for people to discover them—through search engines as well as through traditional word of mouth referrals. This dynamism allows food bloggers to form an active community through which “ordinary” people can share their passion for food and the pleasures of cooking, seek advice, give feedback, and discuss such issues as seasonality, locality, and diet. This article is based on research I conducted on food blogs between 2010 and 2012, which used an ethnographic, cultural studies approach to online community studies to provide a rich description of the food blogging community. It examines how food blogging provides insight into the eating habits of “ordinary” people in a more broad-based manner than traditional food-related media such as cookbooks. It looks at how food blogging has evolved from a subcultural activity to an established and recognised element of the wider food-related media ecology, and in this way has been transformed from a hobbyist activity to a cottage industry. It discusses how food blogs have influenced food-related media and the potential they have to drive food trends. In doing so, this research does not consider the Internet, or online communities, as separate or distinct from offline culture. Instead, it follows Richard Rogers’s argument for a new approach to Internet studies, in which “one is not so much researching the Internet, and its users, as studying culture and society with the Internet” (29). A cultural studies approach is useful for understanding food blogs in a broader historical and cultural context, since it considers the Internet as “a rich arena for thinking about how contemporary culture is constituted” (Hine et al. 2). Food Blogging: From Hobbyist Activity to Cottage Industry Benkler argues that “people have always created their own culture” (296); however, as folk culture has gradually been replaced by mass-produced popular culture, we have come to expect certain production values in culture, and lost confidence in creating or sharing it ourselves, for fear of it not meeting these high standards. Such mass-produced popular culture includes food-related media and recipes, as developing and sharing recipes has become the domain of celebrity chefs. Food blogs are created by “ordinary” people, and in this way continue the tradition of community cookbooks and reflect an increased interest in both the do-it-yourself phenomena, and a resurgence of a desire to share and contribute to folk culture. Jenkins argues that “a thriving culture needs spaces where people can do bad art, get feedback, and get better” (140-1). He notes that the Internet has drastically expanded the availability of these spaces, and argues that: "some of what amateurs create will be surprisingly good, and some artists will be recruited into commercial entertainment or the art world. Much of it will be good enough to engage the interest of some modest public, to inspire someone else to create, to provide new content which, when polished through many hands, may turn into something more valuable down the line" (140-1). Food blogs provide such a space for amateurs to share their creations and get feedback. Additionally, some food bloggers, like the artists to whom Jenkins refers, do create recipes, writing, and images that are “surprisingly good”, and are recruited, not into commercial entertainment or the art world, but into food-related media. Some food bloggers publish cookbooks (for example, Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate & Zucchini), or food-related memoirs (for example, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette), and some become food celebrities in their own right, as guests on high profile television shows such as Martha Stewart (Matt Armendariz of mattbites) or with their own cooking shows (Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman Cooks). Others, while not reaching these levels of success, do manage to inspire others to create, or recreate their, recipes. Mainstream media has a tendency to suggest that all food bloggers have professional aspirations (see, for example, Phipps). Yet, it is important to note that, many food bloggers are content to remain hobbyists. These food bloggers form the majority of the community, and blog about food because they are interested in food, and enjoy sharing recipes and discussing their interest with like-minded people. In this way, they are contributing to, and engaging with, folk culture within the blogging community. However, this does not mean that they do not have a broader impact on mainstream food-related media. Food-Related Media Response As the food blogging community has grown, food-related media and other industries have responded with attempts to understand, engage with, and manage food bloggers. Food blogs are increasingly recognised as an aspect of the broader food-related media and, as such, provide both competition and opportunities for media and other industries. Just as food blogs offer individuals opportunities for entry into food-related media professions, they also offer media and other industries opportunities to promote products, reach broader audiences, and source new talent. While food bloggers do not necessarily challenge existing food-related media, they increasingly see themselves as a part of it, and expect to be viewed as a legitimate part of the media landscape and as an alternative source of food-related information. As such, they respond positively to the inclusion of bloggers in food-related media and in other food-related environments. Engaging with the food blogging community allows the wider food-related media to subtly regulate blogger behaviour. It can also provide opportunities for some bloggers to be recruited in a professional capacity into food-related media. In a sense, food-related media attempt to “tame” food bloggers by suggesting that if bloggers behave in a way that they deem is acceptable, they may be able to transition into the professional world of food writing. The most notable example of this response to food blogs by food-related media is the decision to publish blogger’s work. While not all food bloggers have professional aspirations, being published is generally viewed within the community as a positive outcome. Food bloggers are sometimes profiled in food-related media, such as in the Good Weekend magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald (Karnikowski), and in MasterChef Magazine, which profiles a different food blogger each month (T. Jenkins). Food bloggers are also occasionally commissioned to write features for food-related media, as Katie Quinn Davies, of the blog What Katie Ate, who is a regular contributor to delicious magazine. Other food bloggers have been published in their own right. These food bloggers have transitioned from hobbyists to professionals, moving beyond blogging spaces into professional food-related media, and they could be, in Abercrombie and Longhurst’s terms, described as “petty producers” (140). As professionals, they have become a sort of “brand”, which their blog supports and promotes. This is not to say they are no longer interested in food or blogging on a personal level, but their relationship to these activities has shifted. For example, Dusoulier has published numerous books, and was one of the first food bloggers to transition into professional food-related media. However, her career in food-related media—as a food writer, recipe developer and author—goes beyond the work of a petty producer. Dusoulier edited the first English-language edition of I Know How To Cook (Mathiot), which, first published in 1932 (in French), has been described as the “bible” of traditional French cookery. Her work revising this classic book reveals that, beyond being a high-profile member of the food blogging community, she is a key figure in wider food culture. Such professional food bloggers achieve a certain level of celebrity both within the food blogging community and in food-related media. This is reflective of broader media trends in which “ordinary” people are “plucked from obscurity to enjoy a highly circumscribed celebrity” (Turner 12), and, in this way, food bloggers challenge the idea that you need to be an “expert” to talk publicly about food. Food Blogging as an Established Genre Food blogs are often included alongside traditional food-related media as another source of food-related information. For example, the site Eat your books, which indexes cookbooks, providing users with an online tool for searching the recipes in the books they own, has begun to index food blogs as well. Likewise, in 2010, the James Beard Foundation announced that their prestigious journalism awards had “mostly abolished separate categories based on publishing platforms”, although they still have an award for best food blog (Fox online). This inclusion reflects how established food blogging has become. Over time, food blogs have co-evolved and converged with food-related media, offering greater diversity of opinion. Ganda Suthivarakom, a food blogger and now director of the SAVEUR website, says that “in 2004, to be a food blogger was to be an outsider in the world of food media. Today, it couldn’t be more different” (online). She argues that “food blogs leveled the playing field […] Instead of a rarefied and inaccessible group of print reviewers having a say, suddenly thousands of voices of varying skill levels and interests chimed in, and the conversation became livelier” (Suthivarakom online). It is worthwhile noting that while there are more voices and more diversity in traditional food-related media, food blogging has also become somewhat of a cliché: it has even been satirised in an episode of The Simpsons (Bailey and Anderson). As food blogging has evolved it has developed into an established and recognised genre, which may be nuanced to the bloggers themselves, but often appears generic to outsiders. Food blogging has, as it were, gone mainstream. As such, the thousands of voices are also somewhat of an echo chamber. In becoming established as a genre, food blogs reflect the gradual convergence of different types of food-related media. Food blogs are part of a wider trend towards user-generated, food-related online content. It could also be argued that reality shows take cues from food blogs in terms of their active audiences and use of social media. MasterChef in particular is supported by a website, a magazine, and active social media channels, reflecting an increasing expectation of audience participation and interactivity in the delivery of food-related information. Food bloggers have also arguably contributed to the increasingly image-driven nature of food-related media. They have also played a key role in the popularity of sharing photos of food through platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. Food Blogs and Food Trends Food blogs, like cookbooks, can be seen to both reflect and shape culture (Gallegos). In addition to providing an archive of what “ordinary” people are cooking on a scale not previously available, they have potential to influence food trends. Food bloggers are essentially food enthusiasts or “foodies”. According to De Solier, “most foodies see themselves as culturalists rather than materialists, people whose self-making is bound up in the acquisition of cultural experiences and knowledge, rather than the accumulation of material things” (16). As foodies, food bloggers are deeply engaged with food, keen to share their knowledge and, due to the essential and convivial nature of food, are afforded many opportunities to do so. As such, food blogs have influence beyond the food blogging community. For example, food bloggers could be seen to be responsible, in part at least, for the current popularity of macarons. These sweet, meringue-based biscuits were featured on the blog A la cuisine! in 2004—one of the earliest examples of the recipe in the food blogging community. Its popularity then steadily grew throughout the community, and has since been featured on high-profile and popular blogs such as David Lebovitz (2005), The Traveller’s Lunchbox (2005), and La Tartine Gourmand (2006). Creating and posting a recipe for macarons became almost a rite of passage for food bloggers. At a food blogging conference I attended in 2011, one blogger confided to me that she did not feel like a proper blogger because she had not yet made macarons. The popularity of macarons then extended beyond the food blogging community. They were the subject of a book, I Love Macarons (Ogita), first published in Japanese in 2006 and then in English in 2009, and featured in a cooking challenge on MasterChef (Byrnes), which propelled their popularity into mainstream food culture. Macarons, which could have once been seen as exclusive, delicate, and expensive (Jargon and Passariello) are now readily available, and can even be purchased at MacDonalds. Beyond the popularity of specific foods, the influence of food bloggers can be seen in the growing interest in where, and how, food is produced, coupled with concerns around food wastage (see, for example, Tristram). Concerns about food production are sometimes countered by the trend of making foods “from scratch,” a popular topic on food blogs, and such trends can also be seen in wider food culture, such as with classes on topics ranging from cheese making to butchering (Severson). These concerns are also evident in the growing interest in organic and ethical produce (Paish). Conclusion Food blogs have demonstrably revitalised an interest in recipe sharing among “ordinary” people. The evolution of food blogs, however, is just one part of the ongoing evolution of food-related media and recipe sharing technologies. Food blogs are also an important part of food culture, and indeed, culture more broadly. They reflect a renewed interest in folk culture and the trend towards “do-it-yourself”, seen in online and offline communities. Beyond this, food blogs provide a useful case study for understanding how our online and offline lives have become intertwined, and showcase the Internet as a part of everyday life. They remind us that new means of sharing food and culture will continue to emerge, and that our relationships to food and technology, and our interactions with food-related media, must be continually examined if we are to understand the ways they both shape and reflect culture. References Abercrombie, Nicholas, and Brian Longhurst. Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination. London: Sage, 1998. Armendariz, Matt. Mattbites. 21 Apr. 2013 ‹http://mattbites.com/›. Bailey, Timothy, and Mike B. Anderson. “The Food Wife.” The Simpsons. 2011. 13 Nov. Baumer, Eric, Mark Sueyoshi, and Bill Tomlinson. "Exploring the Role of the Reader in the Activity of Blogging." ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2008. Belasco, Warren. Food: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg, 2008. Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale U P, 2006. Byrnes, Holly. "Masterchef's Macaron Madness." The Daily Telegraph (2010). 6 Jul. ‹http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/masterchefs-macaroon-madness/story-e6frewyr-1225888378794%3E. Clement. “Macarons (IMBB 10).” A La Cuisine!. 21 Nov. 2004. 21 Apr. 2013 ‹http://www.alacuisine.org/alacuisine/2004/11/macarons_imbb_1.html›. DeSolier, Isabelle. "Making the Self in a Material World: Food and Moralities of Consumption." Cultural Studies Review 19.1 (2013): 9–27. Drummond, Ree. The Pioneer Woman Cooks!. 21 Apr. 2013 ‹http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/›. Dusoulier, Clotilde. Chocolate and Zucchini. 21 Apr. 2013. ‹http://chocolateandzucchini.com/›. Fox, Nick. "Beard Awards Will Not Distinguish between Online and Print Journalism." New York Times (2010). 14 Oct. ‹http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/beard-awards-will-not-distinguish-between-online-and-print-journalism/%3E›.. Gallegos, Danielle. "Cookbooks as Manuals of Taste." Ordinary Lifestyles: Popular Media, Consumption and Taste. Eds. Bell, David and Joanne Hollows. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005. 99–110. Hine, Christine, Lori Kendall, and Danah Boyd. "Question One: How Can Qualitative Internet Researchers Define the Boundaries of Their Projects?" Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method. Eds. Baym, Nancy K. and Annette N. Markham. Los Angeles: Sage, 2009. 1-32. Hughes, Kathryn. "Food Writing Moves from Kitchen to Bookshelf." guardian.co.uk (2010). 19 June ‹http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/19/anthony-bourdain-food-writing. Jargon, Julie, and Christina Passariello. "Mon Dieu! Will Newfound Popularity Spoil the Dainty Macaron?" Wall Street Journal. 2 March (2010). 21 April 2013 ‹http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269004575073843836895952.html›. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York U P, 2008. Jenkins, Trudi. "Blog File." MasterChef Magazine 2010: 20. Karnikowski, Nina. "Eat, Cook, Blog." Good Weekend 18 Feb. 2012: 29–33. Kedrowicz, April Ann, and Katie Rose Sullivan. "Professional Identity on the Web: Engineering Blogs and Public Engagement." Engineering Studies 4.1 (2012). Lebovitz, David. David Lebovitz. 21 Apr. 2013. ‹http://www.davidlebovitz.com›. Lebovitz, David. “French Chocolate Macaron Recipe.” David Lebovitz. 26 Oct. 2005. 21 Apr. 2013. ‹http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/10/french-chocolat/›. Lövheim, Mia. "Young Women's Blogs as Ethical Spaces." Information, Communication & Society 14.3 (2011): 338–54. Mathiot, Ginette. I Know How to Cook. Trans. Forster, Imogen. UK ed. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2009. Melissa. “The Mighty Macaron.” The Traveller’s Lunchbox. 27 Sep. 2005. 21 April 2013. ‹http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2005/9/27/the-mighty-macaron.html Mennell, Stephen. All Manners of Food. 2nd ed. U of Illinois P, 1996. Montanari, Massimo. Food Is Culture. Trans. Albert Sonnenfeld. New York: Columbia U P, 2006. Nilsson, Bo. "Politicians’ Blogs: Strategic Self-Presentations and Identities." Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 12.3 (2012): 247–65. Ogita, Hisako. I Love Macarons. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2009. Paish, Matt. "Ethical Food Choices Influencing Product Development, Research Finds." Australian Food News 21 Dec. 2011. ‹http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2011/12/21/ethical-food-choices-influencing-product-development-research-finds.html›. Peltre, Béatrice. “Macarons or Victim of a Food fashion—Les macarons ou victime d’une mode culinaire.” La Tartine Gourmande. 10 Dec. 2006. 21 Apr. 2013. ‹http://www.latartinegourmande.com/2006/12/10/macarons-or-victim-of-a-food-fashion-les-macarons-ou-victime-dune-mode-culinaire/›. Phipps, Catherine. "From Blogs to Books." The Guardian (2011). 6 June ‹http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/jun/06/from-blogs-to-books›. Quinn Davies, Katie. "Brunch Time." delicious. 2012: 98–106. Rogers, Richard. The End of the Virtual: Digital Methods. Inaugural Lecture: Delivered on the Appointment to the Chair of New Media & Digital Culture. 8 May 2009. Vossiuspers UvA. Severson, Kim. "Don't Tell the Kids." The New York Times. 2 Mar. 2010. sec. Dining & Wine. Suthivarakom, Ganda. "How Food Blogging Changed My Life " Saveur. 9 May 2011. Technorati. "Blog Directory / Living". 2012. 22 Jul. 2012. ‹http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/living/food/%3E. Tristram, Stuart. Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. London: Penguin, 2009. Turner, Graeme. Ordinary People and the Media: The Demotic Turn. Theory, Culture & Society. Ed. Featherstone, Mike. London: Sage, 2010. Walker Rettberg, Jill. Blogging. Digital Media and Society Series. Cambridge: Polity, 2008. Wizenberg, Molly. Orangette. 21 Apr. 2013. ‹http://orangette.blogspot.com.au/›.