scholarly journals Knowledge and consumption of probiotics and prebiotics in India: a narrative review

Author(s):  
Arshia Shireen ◽  
Mitravinda Aneesh

In this narrative review, we discuss existing literature on the knowledge, consumption, and factors influencing the consumption of probiotics and prebiotics in India. We also examined the current nature of the probiotics and prebiotics market in the country. There were only a handful of studies on the knowledge and consumption of probiotics and prebiotics among Indians, mainly conducted in urban areas and middle to high-income households. Limited research showed that the knowledge of probiotics had increased appreciably in the past decade, while there is still poor technical knowledge among Indians. Simultaneously, prebiotics is an unfamiliar concept to the general public. Younger individuals are more aware than their older counterparts. The probiotics market in India offers several milk-based beverages, yogurt, and curd, while few non-dairy beverages are available from overseas. The prebiotics market in India has several powder formulas and some chewable tablets. The consumption of probiotics and prebiotics is limited to popular foods like curd, probiotic drinks, buttermilk, and milk, wheat, onion, tomatoes respectively. The modern Indian diet lacks traditional probiotic and prebiotic sources despite their presence in several regional cuisines. Furthermore, awareness of these foods and the knowledge and belief in their health benefits are the most influential factors in their consumption. Contrarily, the perception of not requiring these foods for the maintenance of good health prevents their consumption. Improving awareness and knowledge while offering diverse gut-healthy foods in all strata of Indian society can increase the utilization of these foods and improve general health and prevent chronic diseases.

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 40407-1-40407-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Pang ◽  
He Huang ◽  
Tri Dev Acharya

Abstract Yongding River is one of the five major river systems in Beijing. It is located to the west of Beijing. It has influenced culture along its basin. The river supports both rural and urban areas. Furthermore, it influences economic development, water conservation, and the natural environment. However, during the past few decades, due to the combined effect of increasing population and economic activities, a series of changes have led to problems such as the reduction in water volume and the exposure of the riverbed. In this study, remote sensing images were used to derive land cover maps and compare spatiotemporal changes during the past 40 years. As a result, the following data were found: forest changed least; cropland area increased to a large extent; bareland area was reduced by a maximum of 63%; surface water area in the study area was lower from 1989 to 1999 because of the excessive use of water in human activities, but it increased by 92% from 2010 to 2018 as awareness about protecting the environment arose; there was a small increase in the built-up area, but this was more planned. These results reveal that water conservancy construction, agroforestry activities, and increasing urbanization have a great impact on the surrounding environment of the Yongding River (Beijing section). This study discusses in detail how the current situation can be attributed to of human activities, policies, economic development, and ecological conservation Furthermore, it suggests improvement by strengthening the governance of the riverbed and the riverside. These results and discussion can be a reference and provide decision support for the management of southwest Beijing or similar river basins in peri-urban areas.


GIS Business ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Gunjan Sharma ◽  
Tarika Singh ◽  
Suvijna Awasthi

In the midst of increasing globalization, the past two decades have observed huge inflow of outside capital in the shape of direct and portfolio investment. The increase in capital mobility is due to contact between the different economies across the globe. The growing liberalization in the capital market leads to the growth of various financial products and services. Over the past decade, the Indian capital market has witnessed numerous changes in the direction of developing the capital markets more robust. With the growing Indian economy, the larger inflow of funds has been fetched into the capital markets. The government is continuously working on investor’s education in order to increase retail participation in the Indian stock market. The habits of the risk-averse middle class have been changing where these investors started participating in the Indian stock market. It is an explored fact that human beings are irrational and considering this fact becomes imperative to investigate factors that influence the trading decisions. In this research, ‘an attempt has been made to investigate various factors that affect the individual trading decision’. The data has been collected from various stockbroking firms and from clients of those stockbroking firms their opinions were recorded by means of a questionnaire. Data collected through the structured questionnaire, 33 questions were prepared which was given to the 330 respondents on the basis of convenience sampling out of which 220 individuals filled questionnaire, the total of 200 questionnaires was included in the study after eliminating the incomplete questionnaire. Various factors are being explored from the literature and then with the help of factor analysis some of the most influential factors have been explored. Factors like overconfidence, optimism, cognitive bias, herd behavior, advisory effect, and idealism are the factors which influenced the trading decision of the investors the most. Such kind of a study is contributing in the area of behavioral finance as a trading decision is an important aspect while investing in the stock market. And this kind of study would be helping and assisting financial advisors to strategies for their clients in making the right allocation and also the policy maker and market regulators to come up with better reforms for the Indian stock markets.


1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-442
Author(s):  
Jamila Akhtar

This review of the Literacy and Education Bklletin1 of the 1961 Census is fourth in the series of review articles published in this journal2. The Bulletin under review forms a part of the interim report on the characteristics of the population of Pakistan. It gives information on the number of illiterate and literate persons by age and sex for rural and urban areas on division and district basis; illiterate and literate.population in selected cities and towns; and the educational levels attained by the literate population by age and sex for divisions and districts. Relevant statistical notes and statements precede the tables in the Bulletin. The objective of this review is to describe the meaningfulness and significance of literacy statistics. To this end, a distinction is made between formal and functional levels of literacy. Comparisons of the 1951 and 1961 census figures are undertaken to indicate the progress of literacy and education during the past decade with reference to the effect of intercensal rate of population growth on such progress. Certain questions regarding the reliability of data are raised, which emphasize the need for caution in the interpretation of literacy statistics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6686
Author(s):  
Bellia Claudio ◽  
Scavone Valeria ◽  
Ingrassia Marzia

The Francigena Way (Via Francigena) is a long international itinerary that was awarded recognition as a Culture Route of the Council of Europe. It starts in Canterbury (UK), touches 13 European regions and ends in Rome. An ancient track of this route is in Sicily (Southern Italy), and its name is Magna Via Francigena (Great Francigena Way). This track is a pilgrimage route that connects two ancient port cities, Palermo and Agrigento, passing through internal rural territories that now deal with the exodus of population from rural to urban areas. The route passes through the Sicilian territory named “Upper-Belìce corleonese”, a rural area around the city of Corleone (a little village known worldwide for the sad Mafia events) that includes a number of municipalities. In the past, this religious pilgrimage was a fundamental part of the expression of faith for Christians and now still represents for Sicilians a strong symbol of Christian identity. In recent decades, pilgrimage tourism around the world has grown significantly each year. The aim of the study is to know the pilgrims’ motivations for choosing the Magna Via Francigena pilgrimage as a vacation and any possible similarities between pilgrimage tourism and food and wine tourism, in the wider context of sustainable and slow tourism. The Policy Delphi method was applied to collect the opinions of the stakeholders involved. The study highlighted the strong link between religious motivations and local enogastronomy, culture, art and nature. Results will support policy-making in the development of integrated territorial tourist marketing strategies.


Author(s):  
D.W. Baxter

In 1975, medical neurology is a well established, viable, growing specialty in Canada. There are now almost 250 neurologists scattered across the country, congregated largely in the hospitals associated with our 16 medical schools. Neurology is a major component of the undergraduate curriculum in each of these schools, and the majority of schools are approved for postgraduate training in our specialty. The Royal College has certified an average of 18 new neurologists each year for the past five years. In our hospitals we work closely with our internist and neurosurgical colleagues and we receive the support of highly competent teams of neuropathologists, clinical electrophysiologists and neuroradiologists. We believe that we provide a generally high standard of consultation service to our medical and surgical colleagues. We accept direct responsibility for patients suffering from a host of acute neurological problems, but we accept long term responsibility for very few. We do a great deal of teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In fact, the major role which neurology plays in undergraduate curricula, and the stimulus of postgraduate education, probably have been the two most influential factors shaping the number, work patterns and distribution of Canadian neurologists. Many of us are engaged in clinical investigation, but relatively few medical neurologists in Canada make fundamental research contributions.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 961-963

This year marks the 42nd anniversary of the American Academy of Pediatrics. From its original 35 members, in this short span of years, the Academy has become a progressive, rapidly growing, vigorous group of more than 14,000 Fellows-four-fifths of all the United States pediatricians and a representative percentage of the pediatricians in Central and South America and Canada. During this interval, the Academy has consistently developed its programs and activities to advance and promote the health and welfare of children. Yet for the first 35 years we were basically an educational, disease-oriented organization, with little impact on community-oriented medical services, or on the socioeconomics of health care. Fortunately in the past several years there has been a decided change in the policies, priorities, and direction of the Academy. This is best reflected by its recent expanded goals and objectives in a complete revision of Article III, Section I of its Constitution. Even though we are still primarily disease-oriented physicians, we must not forget the problems that are deterrents to good health. We can hardly expect mcdicine to solve every social, political, and economic ill of the ghetto, suburbia, and the rural areas of our country; however, we do have an important role to play and we do have an important contribution to make in our communities. These areas, large or small and wherever they may be, will not have the same medical health and manpower needs, nor the same priorities, and will continually need our individual and collective attention. The United States has more physicians per capita than all but three or four other nations.


Author(s):  
Neelima S. Naik

Noise pollution in urban areas is recognized as a major environmental concern in India. The lack of infrastructure and fast paced life in major metropolitan cities of India has made the urban environment extremely crowded, busy as well as noisy and as a result the millions of people living in the major metropolitan areas are suffering from the impacts of noise pollution. Noise levels are escalating at such a rate that it has become a major threat to the quality of human lives. Direct links between noise and health have been established by research conducted over the past few decades. There are several causes for urban degradation such as population migration, environmental considerations not adequately being incorporated into master plans, uncoordinated and haphazard development, weak implementation of plans and laws and inadequate institutional competences and resource crunch. This paper discusses the causal factors, impacts and the different approaches adopted by the Central Government as well as some major State Pollution Control Boards to curb the urban noise problem and the need for looking into non-conventional solutions such as Ecocity programme to bring in visible environmental improvement.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghulam Sarwar Kaloi ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Mazhar H Baloch ◽  
Sohaib Tahir

Unfortunately, Pakistan is facing an acute energy crisis since the past decade due to the increasing population growth and is heavily dependent on imports of fossil fuels. The shortage of the electricity is 14-18 hours in rural areas and 8-10 hours in urban areas. This situation has been significantly affecting the residential, industrial and commercial sectors in the country. At this time, it is immense challenges for the government to keep the power supply provision continue in the future for the country. In this situation, it has been the increased research to explore renewable energy resources in the country to fulfill the deficit scenario in the state. The renewable energy sector has not penetrated in the energy mix, currently in the upcoming markets. This paper highlights the steps taken by the country in the past and is taking steps at the present time to get rid of from the existing energy crisis when most urban areas are suffering from power outages for 12 hours on regular basis. Until 2009, no single grid interconnected wind established, but now the circumstances are changing significantly and wind farms are contributing to the national grid is the reality now. The initiation of the three wind farms interconnection network and many others in the pipeline are going to be operational soon. The federal policy on wind energy system has recently changed. Surprisingly, the continuing schemes of the wind farm are getting slow. This paper reviews developments in the wind energy sector in the country and lists some suggestions that can contribute to improving the penetration of wind energy in the national energy sector.Keywords: Wind energy, evolution of wind resource, Wind sites of PakistanArticle History: Received Dec 16th 2016; Received in revised form May 15th 2017; Accepted June 18th 2017; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Kaloi,G.S., Wang, J., Baloch, M.H and Tahir, S. (2017) Wind Energy Potential at Badin and Pasni Costal Line Pakistan. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 6(2), 103-110.https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.6.2.103-110


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (17) ◽  
pp. 5313-5325 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Stephens ◽  
S. Madronich ◽  
F. Wu ◽  
J. B. Olson ◽  
R. Ramos ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface pollutant concentrations in México City show a distinct pattern of weekly variations similar to that observed in many other cities of the world. Measurements of the concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx=NO+NO2), particulate matter smaller than 10 μm (PM10), and ozone (O3) collected hourly over 22 years (1986–2007) at 39 urban monitoring locations were analyzed. Morning concentrations of CO, NOx, and PM10 are lower on Saturdays and even more so on Sundays, compared to workdays (Monday–Friday), while afternoon O3 concentrations change minimally and are occasionally even higher. This weekend effect is empirical evidence that photochemical O3 production is NOx-inhibited, and to the extent that emissions of CO are proportional to those of reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs), it is VOC-limited, at least in the urban areas for which the monitoring stations are representative. The VOC-limitation has increased in the past decade, due to decreases in the concentrations of CO (and presumably VOCs) and consequent decreases in the CO/NOx and VOC/NOx ratios. Enhancements of photolysis frequencies resulting from smaller weekend aerosol burdens are not negligible, but fall short of being an alternate explanation for the observed weekend effect. The strength of the weekend effect indicates that local radical termination occurs primarily via formation of nitric acid and other NOx-related compounds, some of which (e.g. peroxy acyl nitrates) can contribute to the regional NOx budget. While VOC emission reductions would be most effective in reducing local O3 production, NOx emission reduction may be more important for controlling regional oxidants.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Ann Fitzcharles ◽  
Muhammad B. Yunus

Fibromyalgia (FMS) is a valid clinical condition that affects 2%–4% of the population with a pivot symptom of widespread body pain. The cause and cure of FMS are as yet unknown. The concept of FMS has evolved over the past two decades to incorporate symptoms beyond pain as contributing to the global spectrum of suffering. FMS is now recognized to be grounded in the neurological domain with evidence of dysregulation of pain processing. Appreciation of the neurophysiologic mechanisms operative in FMS has contributed to rational treatment recommendations, although a “gold standard treatment” does not currently exist. Ideal treatments for FMS patients should be individualized with emphasis on active patient participation, good health practices, and multimodal intervention, incorporating nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic treatments. Predictors of outcome, which is favourable in over 50% of patients, are unknown, but those with better outcome do more physical activity and use fewer medications.


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