Agricultural production in Kenya is dominated by smallholder enterprises which provide up to 60% of the country's workforce. The agrarian transition to enhance smallholder participation in neoliberal capitalistic markets demands compliance to sanitary and phytosanitary standards and with codes for worker's welfare and thus the concept of decent work. Evaluation of decent work deficits in the informal economy however remains a challenge associated with sector uniqueness and differences in socio- cultural attributes ...

This study explores how consumption of the traditional salad Lalapan, central to the eating culture of the Sundanese, is associated with skin quality perception, daily β-carotene intake and blood β-carotene concentrations. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Gunung Malang Village and Leuweung Kolot Village, Bogor District, West Java. 60 healthy Sundanese women, aged 30-49 years, were selected using simple random sampling. Their body weight and height were measured, and they were interviewed about the eating ...

Alternaria leaf blight (ALB) has been shown in recent years to be one of the major potential disease threats of sunflower capable of causing yield losses in all major production areas. The aim of this study was to determine the causal agent, prevalence and geographical distribution of ALB in the major sunflower production areas of South Africa. Surveys were conducted during 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 growing seasons at commercial sunflower production fields and at commercial cultivar trials. In the three growing ...

The adoption of biological control methods is increasing in crop production due to concerns and awareness of consumers about food safety and pesticide residue conundrum. Biological control methods are a key component in pest management practices as they minimize the usage of pesticides, hence create less environmental and health problems. Biological control practices have been supported in Turkey since the year 2010 to ensure economical greenhouse production and to reduce the consumption of pesticides for sustainable ...

Sustainable rangeland management is crucial for maintaining forage resources in pastoral systems, globally. However, pastoral regions are often remote and therefore data poor when it comes to resource monitoring. We tested participatory mapping as a means to rapidly assess rangeland use to identify areas with high grazing pressure. Participatory geographic information system data and herbaceous biomass production data were collected and georeferenced to establish a grazing pressure index for a summer pasture in the ...

S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH) hydrolases (SAHases) are involved in the regulation of methylation reactions in many organisms and are thus crucial for numerous cellular functions. Consequently, their dysregulation is associated with severe health problems. The SAHase-catalyzed reaction is reversible and both directions depend on the redox activity of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) as a cofactor. Therefore, nicotinamide cofactor biomimetics (NCB) are a promising tool to modulate SAHase activity. In the ...

Madagascar is recognised as having both a high level of poverty and a food shortage. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the national income is higher than for any other sector, though this sector remains insufficiently developed to sustain national food demand. In order to increase food production, the diversification of staple food in conjunction with the detection of best-yield genotypes may be considered the simplest and least expensive alternative approach. For this reason, the response of productive ...

The consequences of keV light-ion bombardment of polycrystalline exchange bias layer systems on individual magnetic anisotropies composing the effective unidirectional magnetic anisotropy are investigated by vectorial magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements. Preferential reduction of rotatable magnetic anisotropy as compared to the other magnetic anisotropies is observable, disproving the intuitive assumption of an equable weakening of all magnetic anisotropies due to the bombardment. It is concluded that light-ion ...

Ce qui sert de base et de cadre au présent volume, résultat d’une sectiondes journées des romanistes de langue allemande (Romanistentag) à Berlin, a fait l’objet de recherches intenses et de bien des controverses ces dernières années ; il s’agit de la fonction des traditions discursives, qui, en tant que savoir culturel et linguistique, nous apprennent à concevoir des textes et qui sont le pivot d’une analyse textuelle linguistique orientée vers la culture.

The British painter Allan Ramsay’s physiognomic sketch of his first son, deceased at the age of 14 months in 1741, can provide some insight into the shift of emotional response towards death during the eighteenth century. Although never used for the execution of an autonomous painting according to available visual conventions, Ramsay directed the attention of his conversation partners to the image, apparently in an attempt to claim a stoic firmness of character for himself modelled on prototypes found in the tradition ...