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The contamination of groundwater by natural arsenic is currently a worldwide epidemic. Arsenic-contaminated groundwater has been reported in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, China, Hungary, West Bengal in India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Of these regions, Bangladesh and West Bengal are the most seriously affected in terms of the size of the population at risk and magnitude of health problems. Hence, chronic exposure to arsenic >50′′μg/L in drinking water can result in serious health problems. Common symptoms of arsenic-related ailments are skin, cardiovascular, renal, hematological, and respiratory disorders. Therefore, this chapter focuses on nature, origin, and extent of groundwater arsenic contamination, probable causes, and its impacts on food, drinking water, and social coverage. It further discloses mitigation approaches proposed and practiced by the different research groups to combat this problem and finally concludes.

There is strong agreement among educators at universities and colleges worldwide about the importance of assessing and measuring student learning. Yet, putting those best intentions into practice can be daunting within existing institutions. At Minerva, we had the luxury of starting a new college from scratch. We designed the institution to deliver specific student outcomes, and built all the operating practices and systems needed to support faculty and students in this pursuit. In this chapter, we share how Minerva defined what we teach, how we teach, and how our practices enable us to measure whether our students are indeed achieving the outcomes we had intended for them. We hope you might be inspired by learning about our approach, as we do believe that much of what we have put into place can be incorporated by other institutions to help their students achieve their learning outcomes.

The increasing accumulation of synthetic plastic waste in oceans and landfills, along with the depletion of non-renewable fossil-based resources, has sparked environmental concerns and prompted the search for environmentally friendly alternatives. Biodegradable plastics derived from lignocellulosic materials are emerging as substitutes for synthetic plastics, offering significant potential to reduce landfill stress and minimise environmental impacts. This study highlights a sustainable and cost-effective solution by utilising agricultural residues and invasive plant materials as carbon substrates for the production of biopolymers, particularly polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), through microbiological processes. Locally sourced residual materials were preferred to reduce transportation costs and ensure accessibility. The selection of suitable residue streams was based on various criteria, including strength properties, cellulose content, low ash and lignin content, affordability, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, shelf-life, mechanical and physical properties, short maturation period, antibacterial properties and compatibility with global food security. Life cycle assessments confirm that PHB dramatically lowers CO₂ emissions compared to traditional plastics, while the growing use of lignocellulosic biomass in biopolymeric applications offers renewable and readily available resources. Governments worldwide are increasingly inclined to develop comprehensive bioeconomy policies and specialised bioplastics initiatives, driven by customer acceptability and the rising demand for environmentally friendly solutions. The implications of climate change, price volatility in fossil materials, and the imperative to reduce dependence on fossil resources further contribute to the desirability of biopolymers. The study involves fermentation, turbidity measurements, extraction and purification of PHB, and the manufacturing and testing of composite biopolymers using various physical, mechanical and chemical tests.

Globalization has increased the consumer's demand for safe and quality foods. To make food available to consumers from farm to fork, packaging plays a crucial role. The objective of packaging is to shield the foodstuff from degrading and to serve as the medium of communication between the processing industry and the consumers. Conventionally, several materials are used in the packaging such as laminates, plastics, glass, metal, etc., but with the advent of technology, newer and novel smart packaging technologies have entered this field. Smart packaging in the form of active and intelligent packaging not only acts as a barrier to external influences but also prevents internal deterioration. Oxygen scavengers, moisture controllers, antioxidants, CO₂ absorber/emitter, antimicrobial agents, etc., are some of the vital active packaging systems. On the other hand, an intelligent packaging system contains internal or external indicators and sensors that monitor the condition of packed food and gives information about its quality during storage and transportation. It seems that these interventions in packaging have very positive effects on the whole industry, but it is observed that this advancement in the packaging has also raised questions about its disposal. To overcome this issue, industries have started using smart packaging design along with the sustainable packaging trend. Communication with the recycling bodies at the time of development will ensure the smart packaging fit to be recycled. Considering such standards for smart packaging will not only create a healthy bond between industries and consumers but will also help in sustainable development. This chapter mainly focuses on the advancement of the packaging system associated with the agri-food sector. It also discusses how the implementation of these technological advancements will help the industries toward sustainable development.

The southwest coastal region is part of an inactive delta of large Himalayan rivers and is protected from tidal surge by the Sundarbans mangrove forest. This area is the hub of all types of disasters such as cyclones, tidal surges, floods, drought, salinity intrusions, repeated waterlogging, and land subsidence. Cyclonic tidal surges and floods are the more common disasters, and their effects are frequently experienced at the local level. But silent and invisible disasters such as increased salinity, arsenic contamination, and drought affect local livelihoods, people, and environments in this region. The vulnerability of southwest region to increased salinity, arsenic contamination, and drought are the result of a complex interrelationship among biophysical, social, economical, and technological characteristics of the country. Moreover, in the current and foreseeable future, the country is likely to be affected by the biggest, most long-lasting, and global scale but silent disaster: increased salinity, natural arsenic contamination, and drought. Therefore, this region is thought to be the most disaster-prone region in Bangladesh because of natural disasters and highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Purpose – In this chapter, I set out to unexcise the messiness of maternalisms and disparities in women's health care by addressing narratives about reproductive trauma. I ask, what might it mean to analyze the interaction between the medical industrial complex and women who experience reproductive trauma as a social practice, one that is constitutive of gender socialization and the medicalization of women's bodies in the American nation-state? I accomplish responding to the question by addressing a vastly underresearched and underaddressed pregnancy complication Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG).

Methodology/Approach – First, I thread posts from supportive online reproductive trauma forums to weave thematic narratives about and the impacts of HG. Next, I review biomedical literature in order to probe potential etiology. Third, I share my debilitating experiences with HG – reproductive traumas – to interrogate dominant androcentric biomedical discourse of pregnancy culture, maternalisms, maternal ideology, and epistemic violence.

Findings – Our knowledge about HG continues to be murky and unresolved, leaving many pregnant people – namely women – untreated.

Research limitations/implications – I call on the absence of contemporary protective sociocultural structures that provide support and care – gendered health-care disparities – for women during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum in order to advocate reproductive trauma is a viable and normal expression in the context of misogynist social scripts.

Originality/Value of the Chapter – My hope is to raise the volume on narratives of pregnancy trauma and reproductive experience using HG as a case study and my intention is to argue gender is a salient factor in health-care disparities.

The appearance of the present chapter six years after the publication of Marx's Capital and more than a year after its translation into Russian might seem somewhat untimely, if not entirely superfluous. Who in our country has not read Marx's works, or at least heard of him; who does not know that besides interesting and instructive facts, his work contains new and important socio-political truths? No doubt many have read it and heard of it, but I permit myself to doubt, and not only in an a priori fashion, but on the basis of extensive observation, whether many have gained from a reading of the book a clear and precise understanding of the topics which are treated therein. Are there many who have managed to distinguish in it what is significant from what is of small importance, who have noticed what constituted the core elements or the framework of the whole theoretical edifice as opposed to the detail, which serves only to decorate it, who have been properly aware, what Marx introduced that was new into the consciousness of his contemporaries, and what, on the contrary, did not belong to him, but to his predecessors? We repeat that from frequent observations we have become convinced of the contrary. With some very few exceptions, we have so far not managed to come across people who have understood the significance of Marx's researches in their entirety. Some – and these constitute the majority – are barred on the way to an elucidation of the essence of the matter by Marx's doctrine of the forms of value; others – by the difficult, and, if the truth be told, somewhat scholastic language in which a considerable part of the book is written; and others again are put off by the unaccustomed complexity of the subject and the ponderous argumentation encased in the impenetrable armor of Hegelian contradictions. And not only in Russia, but abroad as well Marx has fared no better. One only has to read reviews by some Baumert, Siebel or the reviewer in Bruno–Hildebrand's Jahrbücher, R. (presumably Rössler) to see at once that all these gentlemen possess one important advantage over the majority of Russian readers in that they not only could not, but also would not understand Marx's investigations. Thus, the above reviewer puts to Marx, among others, the following question: “we would like it if someone were finally to explain to us why the food which finds its way into the stomach of a worker serves as the source of the formation of surplus value, whereas food eaten by a horse or an ox lacks the same significance.” If such a “someone” were really to be found, in which the author of the review expresses serious doubt, then he would probably explain the matter in the following way: that economists and sociologists, to whose number Marx belongs, had to date the weakness to think that the chief object of their investigations was human society, and not the society of domestic animals, horned or otherwise, and therefore they are concerned with that surplus value which is produced by human beings. If, like Darwin, they studied natural science, they would probably have found something like surplus value among various other animals, for example, among different species of ant or bee. Generally speaking, not counting Lange's book on the worker question, and the reviews of some people directly involved with the practical consequences of Marx's ideas, the foreign press presents almost not a single line which would evince in its author the desire and the ability to understand the general significance of Marx's work. These deficiencies, especially the second one, are characteristic of even those writers, like Schäffle, who are quite favorably disposed towards Marx and are aware of his scientific achievements.