Search results

1 – 10 of 144
Article
Publication date: 17 October 2022

Maryam Gholami, Amir Hossein Mahvi, Fahimeh Teimouri, Mohammad Hassan Ehrampoush, Abbasali Jafari Nodoushan, Sara Jambarsang and Mohammad Taghi Ghaneian

This paper aims to study the application of high-tolerance and flexible indigenous bacteria and fungi, along with the co-metabolism in recycled paper and cardboard mill (RPCM…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study the application of high-tolerance and flexible indigenous bacteria and fungi, along with the co-metabolism in recycled paper and cardboard mill (RPCM) wastewater treatment (WWT).

Design/methodology/approach

The molecular characterization of isolated indigenous bacteria and fungi was performed by 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA gene sequencing, respectively. Glucose was used as a cometabolic substrate to enhance the bioremediation process.

Findings

The highest removal efficiency was achieved for both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color [78% COD and 45% color removal by Pseudomonas aeruginosa RW-2 (MZ603673), as well as approximately 70% COD and 48% color removal by Geotrichum candidum RW-4 (ON024394)]. The corresponding percentages were higher in comparison with the efficiency obtained from the oxidation ditch unit in the full-scale RPCM WWT plant.

Originality/value

Indigenous P. aeruginosa RW-2 and G. candidum RW-4 demonstrated effective capability in RPCM WWT despite the highly toxic and low biodegradable nature, especially with the assistance of glucose.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 53 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 December 2023

Qi Kang, Carlos E. Carpio, Chenggang Wang and Zeng Tang

This research examined the impacts of diversified income from trading caterpillar fungus on pastoral households' livestock production and income. The specific objectives were to…

Abstract

Purpose

This research examined the impacts of diversified income from trading caterpillar fungus on pastoral households' livestock production and income. The specific objectives were to identify the main factors underlying participation in caterpillar fungus trade and to explore the impacts of a diversified income from trading fungus on livestock production activities and income.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a pastoral household survey (n = 503) in five Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures. The authors employed propensity score matching (PSM) procedures to estimate the effects of participation in trading caterpillar fungus.

Findings

Pastoral households participating in caterpillar fungus activities maintain smaller herds, sell fewer animals for profit, slaughter more livestock for family consumption and experience fewer livestock deaths compared to nonparticipants. There is also some evidence that pastoral households participating in caterpillar fungus activities have a higher annual income compared to nonparticipants.

Research limitations/implications

A direct measure of grassland degradation was not included due to the data limitation. The estimated average treatment effects could differ under different observed households' characteristics.

Originality/value

This study fills a gap in the literature on the impacts of diversified income on livestock production activities. The authors provide a new perspective on the controversy over the extraction of caterpillar fungus. This study contributes to exploring the dual role of income diversification in addressing poverty and grassland resource degradation for Tibetan pastoral communities.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 January 2022

Rio Jati Kusuma, Desty Ervira Puspaningtyas and Puspita Mardika Sari

The downstream insulin signaling, such as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway, is an important step for skeletal glucose disposal through the…

Abstract

Purpose

The downstream insulin signaling, such as phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway, is an important step for skeletal glucose disposal through the translocation of glucose transporter (GLUT)-4. In addition, the master of energy regulator adenosine monophosphate-activated kinase (AMPK) is also involved in GLUT-4 translocation, independent from the PI3K/Akt pathway. Fermented cassava tuber or gatot is a traditional food from Indonesia with antihyperglycemic properties. However, the molecular mechanism leading to this effect is unclear. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate whether the antidiabetic activity of gatot is through PI3K/Akt dependent or AMPK pathway.

Design/methodology/approach

Diabetes mellitus was induced in 20 male Wistar rats by intraperitoneal injection of 65 mg/kg body weight streptozotocin and 230 mg/kg body weight nicotinamide. Diabetic rats were randomly allocated into four groups; negative control, positive control (metformin 100 mg/kg body weight), fermented cassava diet replacing 50% of carbohydrate (FC-50) and 100% of carbohydrate (FC-100) in the diet. Serum glucose, insulin and lipid profile were analyzed before and after four weeks of intervention. Genes expression of PI3K subunit alpha, PI3K subunit beta, PI3K regulatory subunit, Akt and AMPK were analyzed using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). GLUT-4 protein expression was performed using immunohistochemistry.

Findings

There is a significant difference (p = 0.000) in serum glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol between groups. Skeletal AMPK gene expression was higher and significantly different between FC-100 (p = 0.006) and healthy control groups. No significant difference was observed in the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression of the PI3K/Akt pathway among groups. GLUT-4 expression was highly expressed in a positive control group followed by FC-100.

Research limitations/implications

This paper did not characterize the bioactive component that is responsible for increasing mRNA expression of AMPK. This paper also did not analyze the phosphorylation of PI3K/Akt and AMPK that are important in activating the protein.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that showed the antidiabetic activity of traditional fermented food is through AMPK-dependent activity.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science , vol. 52 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 April 2024

Ana Júlia Souto Carvalho, Jhonatan Rafael Zárate-Salazar, Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob, Patrícia Lima Araújo, Sávio Marcelino Gomes and Fillipe De Oliveira Pereira

This study aims to examine the role of edible mushrooms in the Brazilian diet, considering their strategic significance in meeting nutritional goals within sustainable…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the role of edible mushrooms in the Brazilian diet, considering their strategic significance in meeting nutritional goals within sustainable development. Despite their potential in the nutrition of the Brazilian population, significant knowledge gaps still exist. To address this, the authors formulated this study into five main sections: the consumption of edible mushrooms in Brazil, the factors influencing the consumption, the occurrence of edible mushrooms in Brazil, the nutritional contribution of mushrooms consumed in Brazil and sustainable mushroom production in Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors compiled current literature to develop this viewpoint paper using systematic review, systematic search and narrative review search methods.

Findings

Mushrooms are sporadically consumed in Brazil, primarily by the urban population, with challenges in estimating the most used species. Social, economic and cultural factors, health considerations and reduced meat consumption influence mushroom consumption behavior. While Pleurotus ostreatus, Lentinula edodes and Agaricus bisporus are primary species, ethnomycological studies highlight a more diverse consumption among traditional indigenous communities. Brazil hosts approximately 133 wild mushroom species safe for human consumption. Some can be sustainably cultivated using substrates derived from agricultural and urban waste, offering high-protein, high-fiber, low-fat foods with bioactive compounds holding antioxidant and prebiotic potential.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has investigated how edible mushrooms contribute to the food and nutrition of the Brazilian population. This study emphasizes the crucial role of edible mushrooms in preserving Brazil’s cultural heritage, contributing to food and nutritional security and enhancing the overall diet quality.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science , vol. 54 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 November 2019

Matthew Adams

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a meaningful response to recent calls to “indigenize” and “decolonize” the Anthropocene in the social sciences and humanities; and in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to articulate a meaningful response to recent calls to “indigenize” and “decolonize” the Anthropocene in the social sciences and humanities; and in doing so to challenge and extend dominant conceptualisations of the Anthropocene offered to date within a posthuman and more-than-human intellectual context.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper develops a radical material and relational ontology, purposefully drawing on an indigenous knowledge framework, as it is specifically exemplified in Maori approaches to anthropogenic impacts on species and multi-species entanglements. The paper takes as its focus particular species of whales, trees and humans and their entanglements. It also draws on, critically engages with, and partially integrates posthuman and more-than-human theory addressing the Anthropocene.

Findings

The findings of this study are that we will benefit from approaching the Anthropocene from situated and specific ontologies rooted in place, which can frame multi-species encounters in novel and productive ways.

Research limitations/implications

The paper calls for a more expansive and critical version of social science in which the relations between human and more-than-human becomes much more of a central concern; but in doing so it must recognize the importance of multiple histories, knowledge systems and narratives, the marginalization of many of which can be seen as a symptom of ecological crisis. The paper also proposes adopting Zoe Todd’s suggested tools to further indigenize the Anthropocene – though there remains much more scope to do so both theoretically and methodologically.

Practical implications

The paper argues that Anthropocene narratives must incorporate deeper colonial histories and their legacies; that related research must pay greater attention to reciprocity and relatedness, as advocated by posthuman scholarship in developing methodologies and research agendas; and that non-human life should remain firmly in focus to avoid reproducing human exceptionalism.

Social implications

In societies where populations are coming to terms in different ways with living through an era of environmental breakdown, it is vital to seek out forms of knowledge and progressive collaboration that resonate with place and with which progressive science and humanities research can learn and collaborate; to highlight narratives which “give life and dimension to the strategies – oppositional, affirmative, and yes, often desperate and fractured – that emerge from those who bear the brunt of the planet’s ecological crises” (Nixon, 2011, p. 23).

Originality/value

The paper is original in approaching the specific and situated application of indigenous ontologies in some of their grounded everyday social complexity, with the potential value of opening up the Anthropocene imaginary to a more radical and ethical relational ontology.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 41 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 April 2021

Mohammad Ishaq Lone, Abdul Wahid and Abdul Shakoor

The study is an endeavour to find out the preservation status of rare documents in Srinagar. The rare documents, here, mean the manuscripts and rare books, journals, reports…

Abstract

Purpose

The study is an endeavour to find out the preservation status of rare documents in Srinagar. The rare documents, here, mean the manuscripts and rare books, journals, reports, magazines, archival documents, etc. These resources are available in private libraries of individuals and religious institutions in Srinagar. This study aims to find these private libraries of individuals/families and religious institutions, which are unknown to the scholarly world and observe the preservation status of rare documents. The main focus is to document their present preservation status to give an opportunity to the stakeholders, particularly the government organizations, to take appropriate action before they are lost forever.

Design/methodology/approach

Before conducting the survey, the investigator interviewed 114 persons including literary persons, faith leaders, librarians, faculty members from various prominent institutions in Srinagar to get leads regarding the persons/families and religious institutions in possession of rare documents. The investigator gathered data through two different schedules and later analyzed the same in this study after carrying out a pilot study to make necessary changes to the schedules compiled for the study. The investigator visited personally each family/individual and religious institution to gather the data for months together.

Findings

An arduous job was carried out in which around 111 individuals/families and religious institutions were found to be having such rare resources. However, the data gathered reveals a dismal picture of private libraries and religious institutions, in possession of rare documents, as almost all caretakers/ families are devoid of any knowledge regarding the maintenance of these important sources of knowledge. Further, the traditional methods of preservation are still in vogue in some private libraries. These traditional methods have opened new areas of research while at the same time can prove detrimental to the collection if they are useless.

Originality/value

The study is the first of its kind in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir i.e. Srinagar. The study gives an idea of preservation status of manuscripts and rare documents including books, magazines, journals, archival documents, etc. so that the same are taken care of for posterity. The study is an eye-opener for the policymakers, conservators, archivists and others interested in historical documents. The study will help in furthering the research process as it needs to be ascertained whether the traditional methods of preservation are fruitful. In short, the study is quite helpful in understanding the nature of collection in Srinagar so that appropriate steps are taken by all particularly the Government in J&K. The paper will surely help in the policy formulation in the future.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. 70 no. 8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9342

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2004

Yin Cheong Cheng

Since there are increasing international concerns with both the positive and negative impacts of globalization on indigenous and national development, how to manage the realities…

6546

Abstract

Since there are increasing international concerns with both the positive and negative impacts of globalization on indigenous and national development, how to manage the realities and practices of globalization and localization in education for maximizing the benefits and minimizing the disadvantages for the development of individuals and their local community inevitably becomes a key issue in educational development particularly in the developing countries. Proposes a typology of multiple theories of fostering local knowledge and human development to address this key concern. These theories have varied emphasis on global dependence and local orientation and therefore they have their own characteristics, strengths, and limitations. The typology can provide a wide spectrum of alternatives for policy‐makers and educators to conceptualize and formulate their strategies and practices in developing local education. Also presents how to facilitate individual learning and organizational learning in fast‐changing local and global environments and how to foster both individual knowledge and institutional knowledge in schools as the major contribution to the growth of local knowledge and local development. It is hoped that the theories and ideas raised in this paper can benefit the ongoing international efforts for globalization and localization in education for the future of our next generations in the new millennium.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2007

Gordon Feller

To demonstrate that Bateson's path‐breaking life and breakthrough thinking have directly (and indirectly) inspired a profound shift which has specific and practical effects in the…

384

Abstract

Purpose

To demonstrate that Bateson's path‐breaking life and breakthrough thinking have directly (and indirectly) inspired a profound shift which has specific and practical effects in the physical world – as well as in the world of ideas.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper describes an outstanding initiative inspired by Bateson's ideas and work.

Findings

Colombia's Gaviotas, situated far from the traditional centers of power and prestige, is the scene of an extraordinary whole system's experiment which is successfully applying Batesonian ideas in a harsh and troubled setting. Colombia is a country where environmental degradation, violence and instability are rampant. The paper examines some of the successes already achieved in Gaviotas, the path that lies ahead and the new opportunities being pursued by the Gaviotas project's developers. The paper attempts to understand how scientists are actively using Bateson's epistemology in their work.

Practical implications

This paper aims to enrich the Bateson memorial by demonstrating that cutting‐edge ecological thinking, as pioneered by Bateson, is being applied around the globe in ways both surprising and profound.

Originality/value

This paper identifies a unique attempt to manifest, in the most difficult circumstances, that Bateson's ecological concepts and values are not abstraction s and that change is a process which can occur in the most unlikely places.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 36 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 February 2021

Alana Mann

Abstract

Details

Food in a Changing Climate
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-725-9

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2015

Hanan Ibrahim Mudawi and Mohamed Osman Idris

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ability of four microorganisms to reduce disease infection of root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus spp.) and Fusarium spp. the causal…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ability of four microorganisms to reduce disease infection of root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus spp.) and Fusarium spp. the causal agent of wilt/root-rot disease complex in chickpea.

Design/methodology/approach

A pot experiment was conducted for three consecutive winter seasons. A completely randomized design with five replicates was adopted. Two Bacillus isolates and Trichoderma harzianum and T. viride and their combinations were applied in infected soil. The effect on plant growth parameters, disease incidence and severity, root necrosis, weight of shoot and root, nematode population density and reproductive index were assessed.

Findings

The applications significantly (p=0.05) reduced the wilt/root-rot diseases complex. The reduction was attributed to the decline of the population density of nematodes in soil and root, and the suppression of the disease complex compared to controls, represented by reproductive index and the disease intensity index. Combinations were better than individual inoculation. The use of Bacillus isolate B3 and T. harzianum increased the number of flowers by 88.34 per cent. Reduction in the severity of root necrosis was in the range of 2.22-5.55 within a scale of 1-10. These findings indicate the significance of utilizing local bioagents for control of wilt/root-rot disease complex in chickpea plants.

Originality/value

The microorganisms used in this study are indigenous.

Details

World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5945

Keywords

1 – 10 of 144