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The purpose of this paper is, first, to evaluate the quality of commonly consumed fish species in Fez region (Morocco) by quantifying the levels of histamine in fresh fish samples using competitive enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA), and then to study the effect of heating and enzymatic digestion on the level of fish-histamine.

Histamine content was tested on 80 fresh fish samples of 11 species collected from various local stores in Fez region, from February to March 2016. The analyses were performed using a competitive ELISA assay to measure histamine in fish samples.

ELISA results showed that 80 percent of 80 fish samples analyzed was found to contain much lower levels of histamine (<1 mg/kg) and can be considered to be safe for human consumption. However, 20 percent of the samples (16/80) had histamine level higher than the tolerance limit of 200 mg/kg established by Moroccan and International regulations, which the maximum level reached up to 7,331 mg/kg in horse mackerel. Concerning the effect of heating and enzymatic treatments on fish-histamine levels, results have shown a low reduction in histamine contents in the majority of fish samples under these treatments.

In conclusion, good quality of the fish product, demonstrated by histamine levels, was found in the most of fish samples analyzed, while 20 percent of the samples are non-compliant and exceed the tolerance limit established by the national and international regulatory limit.

The purpose of this paper is to detect total aflatoxin (AFT) in domestic and imported tea in Amol (north of Iran).

A total of 42 tea samples including 21 domestic and 21 imported tea samples of three popular commercial brands were purchased from retail stores and analyzed for estimation of AFT by ELISA technique. Data were analyzed by ANOVA using SPSS software.

All of the tea samples were contaminated with detectable amount of AFT ranging from 1.5‐16.5 ng/g. The average±SD concentration of AFT in domestic and imported samples was 7.1±2.96 and 6.11±3.94 ng/g, respectively, which is lower than national and EU standards (10 ng/g). The AFT content in 9.5 and 14.3 percent of domestic and imported samples was more than the limited concentration, respectively. There was no significant difference in AFT content of samples of different commercial brands (p>0.05).

No research had been done to detect and compare the AFT content of domestic and imported tea in Iran.

In this study, a highly sensitive and quantitative analysis method using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-labeled immunoassay is adopted for bisphenol A bisphenol A (BPA) detection in water samples.

Primarily, an excellent SERS immuno-nanoprobe is prepared, which relays on Au/Ag core-shell nanoparticles tagged 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4MBA) and labeled with specific antibody against BPA. Second, the coating antigen of 4,4-Bis(4-hydroxyphenol) valeric acid (BVA) coupling poly-L-lysine (PLL) conjugate (BVA-PLL) is fastened on the substrate. Based on competitive immunoassay, the antibody labeled on SERS immuno-nanoprobe will bind with the free BPA and BVA-PLL competitively.

A calibration curve was obtained by plotting the intensity of SERS signal of 4MBA at 1007 cm⁻¹ versus the concentration of BPA. The results indicated that the limit of detection (LOD) for BPA is 1 ng/mL and present a great capacity for higher sensitivity. Furthermore, the method was able to quantitatively detect BPA in water samples, which was validated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The method was developed based on competitive immunoassay, and the conjugate (BVA-PLL) was chosen as the coating antigen. Au/Ag core-shell nanoparticles played as the SERS active substrate and were labeled with Raman reporter. The value of this paper is supplying a wide potential for analysis of target analytes in the environmental monitoring and food safety.

Food safety is among the most important topics in the world. According to WHO guidelines, aflatoxins are one of the most hazardous food toxins. Therefore, their detection in food products seems crucial due to health problems. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the different types of biosensors in aflatoxin determination.

Traditional detection methods are time consuming and expensive. As fast and accurate detection is important in monitoring food contaminants, alternative analytical methods would be essential. Biosensors are the intelligent design of sensitive sensors for precise detection of toxins in a short time. Various biosensors are being applied for aflatoxins detection in food products with many advantages over the traditional methods.

Biosensors are cost-effective, stable and have possessed high selectivity, specificity and accuracy in aflatoxins detection. Applying biosensors has been increased recently, so biosensing methods (optical, electrochemical, piezoelectrical, immunosensors, surface plasmon resonance and calorimetric) are discussed along with their advantages in this article.

More efforts should be occurred to detect and decrease the aflatoxins by biosensors, and some traits like accuracy and selectivity would be the purpose of future projects. The combination of various techniques would also help in toxin detection issue in food products, so high efforts in this regard are also required for the upcoming years.

This article also reviews different types of biosensors simultaneously and explains their specificity for aflatoxin determination in different food products and also the future trends and requirements.

Some useful bacteria could be used regularly in mycotoxins biodegradation. It is a very good and ecological method, which was tested in experiments when lactobacilli were used. The paper aims to describe this.

Five strains of lactobacilli in experiments were shown, by direct enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (CD‐ELISA) test after their growth in MRS broth, to have decreased in the amount of deoxynivalenol (DON) measured by spectrophotometer. Free DON in the samples and control is allowed to compete with enzyme‐labeled DON (conjugate) for the antibody binding sites. The test was read in a microwell reader to yield optical densities.

It was found that Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus fermentum were more active than human strain Lactobacillus casei Shirota.

The paper suggests that other lactobacilli should be tested in this research field and could be used for detoxification of some feed kinds contaminated minimally by DON.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors determining the choice of sources of finance for a tech startup over its lifecycle.

This study adopts simple random sampling technique to choose 93 sample tech startups in Bangalore. Further, this study employs the primary data collection from the sampled startups under study through a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the founders/CEOs of these startups. Furthermore, it carries out binary logistic regression analysis to primarily examine the likelihood of a tech startup to approach and access a particular source of finance over its lifecycle.

Our results indicate that a tech startup's choice for a financial source varies with its lifecycle stage and financial requirements. We find that while in its early stage, a tech startup's choice of a financial source is limited to business angels (BA), in the growth stage, it approaches the institutional sources, viz. Venture Capital (VC), Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), Banks and Private Equity (PE) firms alternatively. Out of the three major categories of financial requirements: Human Capital (HC), Research Capital (RC) and Social Capital (SC), the requirement for HC and SC is predominantly funded by VCs, while the acquisition of RC is facilitated by early stage investors (BAs) as well as growth stage investors (CVC and PEs).

The research implication of the study lies in bringing out the need to understand both the nature and the quantum of financial requirements of tech startups would influence the sources of finance it would approach and obtain finance for its operations and growth.

The major policy implication of the study refers to the need to promote the diverse sources of finance to meet the diverse needs of finance in different stages of a tech startup's lifecycle. Particularly in an emerging economy, where we do not see the emergence and growth of highly innovative tech startups, the need to promote adequate availability of RC is especially important.

This study makes a key contribution to the entrepreneurial finance literature by empirically investigating the factors determining a tech startup's propensity to approach and access a particular source of finance over its lifecycle.

Obesity can cause impairment in adipose tissue-derived hormones levels, which, in turn, might lead to metabolic syndrome occurrence. This study aims to assess the relationship between the levels of adiponectin, resistin, retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) and insulin with metabolic syndrome (MetS) indices. Also, optimal cutoff points of the adipokines and insulin for MetS prediction were determined.

In this study, 180 women (90 women with MetS and 90 women without MetS) were studied. The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria were used for MetS diagnosis. Anthropometric and biochemical indices were measured. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21.

Serum adiponectin correlated negatively with age, BMI, waist circumference (WC), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol, SBP, DBP, FBS and positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. Both resistin and RBP4 levels correlated positively with BMI, WC, TG, SBP, DBP and FBS. Also, serum insulin correlated positively with BMI, WC, SBP and DBP. All the studied adipokines and insulin showed significant areas under the receiver operating characteristics curve. The largest area under the curve was observed for adiponectin (0.93, 95 per cent CI = 0.89-0.97, p < 0.001) with the optimal cut-off point of 11.94 µg/L. Also, the upper level of adiponectin was associated with 70 per cent lower prevalence odds of metabolic syndrome after adjusting for confounders.

The authors determined the optimal cutoff points of the adipokines and insulin for MetS prediction and calculated the diagnostic odds ratio for various cutoff values. Adiponectin could be used as a biomarker in MetS regarding its largest AUC.

In this study, the authors examine the influence of market orientation on small firms' performance. The authors theorize that the association between market orientation and small firm performance provides an incomplete picture in a competitive environment. The application of configuration approach which involves simultaneous consideration of market orientation, strategic flexibility and competition intensity is crucial to examine driver of firm performance.

The sample of the research study consists of 272 small firms from an emerging economy, India. Ordinary least squares regression has been used to investigate the hypothesized relationships.

The authors noted that the three-way interaction between market orientation, strategic flexibility and competition intensity elucidates variance in small firm performance over and above a contingency model and a direct relationship.

The findings contribute to the existing literature by exhibiting the effect of market orientation on firm performance. The configuration model suggests that small firms can outperform competitors in a lower competitive environment if they have high market orientation and high strategic flexibility investment. To leverage market opportunities and achieve better firm performance, small firms’ owners should analyze the usefulness of current capabilities in a changing competitive environment concurrently and align market orientation to those conditions.

The strategic management and marketing literature suggests that relationship between market orientation and performance is ambiguous. The findings offer insights to managers regarding the appropriate use of strategic flexibility in leveraging the benefits of market orientation in a highly competitive environment. Furthermore, by collecting data from the context of an emerging economy, India, the authors attempt to strengthen the applicability of market orientation in different contexts.

This study aimed to understand coopetition in the context of Brazilian specialty coffee grower Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), based on the need to differentiate the beans in and outside the farm level, taking into account the stakeholders’ influence.

In this study twenty semistructured interviews were carried out with coffee growers and managers of cooperatives, associations and supporting institutions involving two Brazilian coffee geographical indications. Data were analyzed using a mixed grid composed of qualitative, semantic and categorical factors.

Strategic moves undertaken by coffee growers and stakeholders have shaped the pathway of coopetition among coffee growers, as determinants to frame it as a deliberate or emergent pattern (intentional or unplanned, respectively). Our findings provide evidence that coopetition development among firms is deliberate when influenced by firms’ or stakeholders’ cooperative moves and emergent when influenced by firms’ or stakeholders’ competitive moves.

Although the firm/stakeholder relationship is often approached as a joint wealth creation effort, stakes are not always fairly distributed, so one of the parties may be negatively affected, with consequences for the development of coopetition. Underpinned by a stakeholder-oriented resource-based theoretical lens, this investigation of the development patterns of coopetition linked to the strategic actions undertaken by firms and stakeholders has resonance on competitive advantages.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the significance and impact of strategic knowledge management (SKM) practices and organisational change capacity (OCC) in improving strategic thinking and strategic orientation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their contribution in overall improvement of entrepreneurial performance.

Quantitative research methodology using partial least square structural equation modelling with data of 296 sample from the target group as managers and owners from various SMEs in the UK has been used in the study.

The findings suggest that SMEs that invest in SKM and OCC are more proficient at adjusting to fluctuations in the business landscape and develop effective strategies that lead to improved entrepreneurial performance. The study provides evidence that SKM encompasses more than just the acquisition and use of information. It also involves the establishment of a learning and innovation culture that facilitates strategic thinking and direction. Similarly, OCC is not just about implementing change but also about developing the agility and flexibility to adapt to market changes, consumer demands and technology.

According to the research, SMEs may boost their entrepreneurial performance and keep a competitive advantage in the modern, dynamic business environment by investing in SKM and OCC. The capacity of SMEs to implement SKM and organisational change should be encouraged and supported by policymakers and practitioners, who should also offer the necessary tools and assistance to do so.

This study offers a valuable addition to the previously published works on SKM and OCC within SMEs. It offers empirical data that highlights the significance of SKM and OCC in fostering strategic thinking, strategic orientation and ultimately, boosting entrepreneurial performance. The study also highlights the challenges faced by SMEs in implementing SKM and OCC and provides recommendations for overcoming these challenges.