It is assumed that the human sense of smell is inferior to vision. This framework of underdeveloped human olfaction can be mainly attributed previously to its historical demotion of it by the ...Western, quasi-scientific ideas, and evolutionary narratives or differences in reference to other animals, such as rats or mice. However, this notion of a comparatively poor sense of smell may have derived from the narrowly focused pseudoscientific practices of the past and needs to be revisited under more recent findings. Similarly, the generalization of language as poorly connected with the olfactory system needs more cross-cultural references to support or abolish this hypothesis. Humans’ olfactory system is not inferior, but certainly different from other species and humans have excellent olfactory abilities. Humans are exceptional in detection and discrimination; in fact, they are more sensitive than rodents and dogs to some odors. Language does not constrain the naming of odors due to cognitive architecture, and the mapping of language on the senses is culturally related.
Jahai
hunter-gatherers were found naming odors as easy as colors. Plasticity and culture were found to have a huge influence on odor naming. No universal hierarchy of senses, such as if vision is more codable than odor, was found imposing on languages.
Food commodities are packaged and hygienically transported to protect and preserve them from any un-acceptable alteration in quality, before reaching the end-consumer. Food packaging continues to ...evolve along-with the innovations in material science and technology, as well as in light of consumer's demand. Presently, the modern consumers of competitive economies demands for food with natural quality, assured safety, minimal processing, extended shelf-life and ready-to-eat concept. Innovative packaging systems, not only ascertains transit preservation and effective distribution, but also facilitates communication at the consumer levels. The technological advances in the domain of food packaging in twenty-first century are mainly chaired by nanotechnology, the science of nano-materials. Nanotechnology manipulates and creates nanometer scale materials, of commercial and scientific relevance. Introduction of nanotechnology in food packaging sector has significantly addressed the food quality, safety and stability concerns. Besides, nanotechnology based packaging intimate's consumers about the real time quality of food product. Additionally, nanotechnology has been explored for controlled release of preservatives/antimicrobials, extending the product shelf life within the package. The promising reports for nanotechnology interventions in food packaging have established this as an independent priority research area. Nanoparticles based food packages offer improved barrier and mechanical properties, along with food preservation and have gained welcoming response from market and end users. In contrary, recent advances and up-liftment in this area have raised various ethical, environmental and safety concerns. Policies and regulation regarding nanoparticles incorporation in food packaging are being reviewed. This review presents the existing knowledge, recent advances, concerns and future applications of nanotechnology in food packaging sector.
Spore-forming bacilli are being explored for the production and preservation of food for many centuries. The inherent ability of production of large number of secretory proteins, enzymes, ...antimicrobial compounds, vitamins, and carotenoids specifies the importance of bacilli in food chain. Additionally,
spp. are gaining interest in human health related functional food research coupled with their enhanced tolerance and survivability under hostile environment of gastrointestinal tract. Besides, bacilli are more stable during processing and storage of food and pharmaceutical preparations, making them more suitable candidate for health promoting formulations. Further,
strains also possess biotherapeutic potential which is connected with their ability to interact with the internal milieu of the host by producing variety of antimicrobial peptides and small extracellular effector molecules. Nonetheless, with proposed scientific evidences, commercial probiotic supplements, and functional foods comprising of
spp. had not gained much credential in general population, since the debate over probiotic
pathogen tag of
in the research and production terrains is confusing consumers. Hence, it's important to clearly understand the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of selective beneficial
spp. and their substantiation with those having GRAS status, to reach a consensus over the same. This review highlights the probiotic candidature of spore forming
spp. and presents an overview of the proposed health benefits, including application in food and pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, the growing need to evaluate the safety of individual
strains as well as species on a case by case basis and necessity of more profound analysis for the selection and identification of
probiotic candidates are also taken into consideration.
The global food industry is expected to increase more than US $ 7 trillion by 2014. This rise in processed food sector shows that more and more people are diverging towards modern processed foods. As ...modern diets are largely heat processed, they are more prone to contain high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs are a group of complex and heterogeneous compounds which are known as brown and fluorescent cross-linking substances such as pentosidine, non-fluorescent cross-linking products such as methylglyoxal-lysine dimers (MOLD), or non-fluorescent, non-cross linking adducts such as carboxymethyllysine (CML) and pyrraline (a pyrrole aldehyde). The chemistry of the AGEs formation, absorption and bioavailability and their patho-biochemistry particularly in relation to different complications like diabetes and ageing discussed. The concept of AGEs receptor – RAGE is mentioned. AGEs contribute to a variety of microvascular and macrovascular complications through the formation of cross-links between molecules in the basement membrane of the extracellular matrix and by engaging the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). Different methods of detection and quantification along with types of agents used for the treatment of AGEs are reviewed. Generally, ELISA or LC-MS methods are used for analysis of foods and body fluids, however lack of universally established method highlighted. The inhibitory effect of bioactive components on AGEs by trapping variety of chemical moieties discussed. The emerging evidence about the adverse effects of AGEs makes it necessary to investigate the different therapies to inhibit AGEs.
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•Significant changes in the precipitation pattern were observed.•Maximum decline in monsoon precipitation was observed in central and southern fertile regions.•The change was ...detectable after the year 1980.•Anthropogenic emissions influenced the monsoon and pre-monsoon precipitation.
Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin is the third-largest and one of the most populated river basins in the world. As climate change is affecting most of the hydrometeorological variables across the globe, this study investigated the existence of climate change signal in all four climatological seasons in the GBM river basin and assessed the contribution of anthropogenic activities, i.e., Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emission in the change. Significant decreasing trends in the monsoon and a small increase in pre-monsoon precipitation were observed. Negligible change was detected in post-monsoon and winter season precipitation. CMIP5 GCMs were used for climate change detection, change point estimation, and attribution studies. Support Vector Machine (SVM) regression method was adopted to downscale GCM variables at the local scale. Monte-Carlo simulation approach was used to detect changes in different seasons. The climate change ‘signals’ were detectable after the year 1980 using Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) method in the majority of central and north-western regions. The change point was detectable only in annual monsoon precipitation at the basin level. Attribution analysis indicated >50% contribution of anthropogenic activities (GHGs) to annual monsoon precipitation changes. So, there is high confidence that monsoon precipitation in GBM has significantly changed due to anthropogenic activities. Different mitigation and adaption measures are also suggested, which may be adopted to manage the growing demand and water availability in the basin.
This study aimed to evaluate the influence of origin information on Pinot Noir wine labels using eye-tracking and its associations with purchase intent, and hedonic and subconscious emotional ...responses. Two studies were carried out on untrained university staff and students aged 20-60 years old. Study 1 was conducted to assess consumers' (
= 55; 55% males, and 45% females) self-reported and subconscious responses towards four design labels (with and without New Zealand origin name/script or origin logo) using eye-tracking and video analysis to evaluate emotions of participants. In study 2, participants (
= 72, 56% males, and 44% females) blind-tasted the same wine sample from different labels while recording their self-reported responses. In study 1, no significant differences were found in fixations between origin name/script and origin logo. However, participants paid more attention to the image and the brand name on the wine labels. In study 2, no significant effects on emotional responses were found with or without the origin name/script or logo. Nonetheless, a multiple factor analysis showed either negative or no associations between the baseline (wine with no label) and the samples showing the different labels, even though the taste of the wine samples was the same, which confirmed an influence of the label on the wine appreciation. Among results from studies 1 and 2, origin information affected the purchase intent and hedonic responses marginally. These findings can be used to design wine labels for e-commerce.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: A Bibliometric Analysis Jain, Shaily; Sharma, Chetan; Das, Prasenjit ...
Journal of advanced computational intelligence and intelligent informatics,
09/2023, Volume:
27, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Blockchain is a technology that collects data in a blockchain and allows transactions securely and transparently. It is used in many fields. Bibliometric publications examining detailed research ...trends in blockchain and cryptocurrency are still rare, but one bibliometric report did include research on the topic. The present work is filling in the void that eludes the study of research in the blockchain area. In the current work, we have included a wide range of blockchain and cryptocurrency research efforts to date. This study used the Scopus database to extract 2,045 articles from 2014 to 2021. The goal was to examine blockchain and cryptocurrency growth in volume, trend, global distribution, significant journals, pioneering authors, leading nations, and dominant sectors. This study highlights many aspects of worldwide blockchain and cryptocurrency research by researchers from all over the world. This research also studies how consensus decision-making and its processes are used. This study highlights many aspects of global blockchain and cryptocurrency research. This study also examines their use and consensus methods.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one among the most common priority areas identified by both national and international agencies, is mushrooming as a silent pandemic. The advancement in public health ...care through introduction of antibiotics against infectious agents is now being threatened by global development of multidrug-resistant strains. These strains are product of both continuous evolution and un-checked antimicrobial usage (AMU). Though antibiotic application in livestock has largely contributed toward health and productivity, it has also played significant role in evolution of resistant strains. Although, a significant emphasis has been given to AMR in humans, trends in animals, on other hand, are not much emphasized. Dairy farming involves surplus use of antibiotics as prophylactic and growth promoting agents. This non-therapeutic application of antibiotics, their dosage, and withdrawal period needs to be re-evaluated and rationally defined. A dairy animal also poses a serious risk of transmission of resistant strains to humans and environment. Outlining the scope of the problem is necessary for formulating and monitoring an active response to AMR. Effective and commendably connected surveillance programs at multidisciplinary level can contribute to better understand and minimize the emergence of resistance. Besides, it requires a renewed emphasis on investments into research for finding alternate, safe, cost effective, and innovative strategies, parallel to discovery of new antibiotics. Nevertheless, numerous direct or indirect novel approaches based on host-microbial interaction and molecular mechanisms of pathogens are also being developed and corroborated by researchers to combat the threat of resistance. This review places a concerted effort to club the current outline of AMU and AMR in dairy animals; ongoing global surveillance and monitoring programs; its impact at animal human interface; and strategies for combating resistance with an extensive overview on possible alternates to current day antibiotics that could be implemented in livestock sector.
Chikungunya disease (CHIKD) is a viral infection caused by an alphavirus, chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and triggers large outbreaks leading to epidemics. Despite the low mortality rate, it is a major ...public health concern owing to high morbidity in affected individuals. The complete spectrum of this disease can be divided into four phases based on its clinical presentation and immunopathology. When a susceptible individual is bitten by an infected mosquito, the bite triggers inflammatory responses attracting neutrophils and initiating a cascade of events, resulting in the entry of the virus into permissive cells. This phase is termed the pre-acute or the intrinsic incubation phase. The virus utilizes the cellular components of the innate immune system to enter into circulation and reach primary sites of infection such as the lymph nodes, spleen, and liver. Also, at this point, antigen-presenting cells (APCs) present the viral antigens to the T cells thereby activating and initiating adaptive immune responses. This phase is marked by the exhibition of clinical symptoms such as fever, rashes, arthralgia, and myalgia and is termed the acute phase of the disease. Viremia reaches its peak during this phase, thereby enhancing the antigen-specific host immune response. Simultaneously, T cell-mediated activation of B cells leads to the formation of CHIKV specific antibodies. Increase in titres of neutralizing IgG/IgM antibodies results in the clearance of virus from the bloodstream and marks the initiation of the post-acute phase. Immune responses mounted during this phase of the infection determine the degree of disease progression or its resolution. Some patients may progress to a chronic arthritic phase of the disease that may last from a few months to several years, owing to a compromised disease resolution. The present review discusses the immunopathology of CHIKD and the factors that dictate disease progression and its resolution.
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