HISTOLOGICAL STUDIES OF BREWERY SPENT GRAINS IN DIETARY PROTEIN FORMULATION IN DONRYU RATS

The increasing production of large tonnage of products in brewing industries continually generates lots of solid waste which includes spent grains, surplus yeast, malt sprout and cullet. The disposal of spent grains is often a problem and poses major health and environmental challenges, thereby making it imminently necessary to explore alternatives for its management. This paper focuses on investigating the effects of Brewery Spent Grain formulated diet on haematological, biochemical, histological and growth performance of Donryu rats. The rats were allocated into six dietary treatment groups and fed on a short-term study with diet containing graded levels of spent grains from 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 100% weight/weight. The outcome demonstrated that formulated diet had a positive effect on the growth performance of the rats up to levels of 6% inclusions, while the haematological and biochemical evaluation revealed that threshold limit should not exceed 9% of the grain. However, the histological study on the liver indicated a limit of 3% inclusion in feed without serious adverse effect. Thus invariably showing that blend between ranges 1-3% is appropriate for the utilization of the waste in human food without adverse effect on the liver organ. The economic advantage accruing from this waste conversion process not only solves problem of waste disposal but also handle issues of malnutrition in feeding ration

Enhanced Accessibility for People with Disabilities Living in Urban Areas

[Excerpt] People with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of the poor in developing countries. If internationally agreed targets on reducing poverty are to be reached, it is critical that specific measures be taken to reduce the societal discrimination and isolation that people with disabilities continue to face. Transport is an important enabler of strategies to fight poverty through enhancing access to education, employment, and social services. This project aims to further the understanding of the mobility and access issues experienced by people with disabilities in developing countries, and to identify specific steps that can be taken to start addressing problems. A major objective of the project is to compile a compendium of guidelines that can be used by government authorities, advocacy groups, and donor/loan agencies to improve the access of people with disabilities to transport and other services in urban areas

Using an essentiality and proficiency approach to improve the web browsing experience of visually impaired users

Increased volumes of content exacerbate the Web accessibility issues faced by people with visual impairments. Essentiality & Proficiency is presented as one method of easing access to information in Websites by addressing the volume of content coupled with how it is presented. This research develops the concept of Essentiality for Web authors. A preliminary survey was conducted to understand the accessibility issues faced by people with visual impairments. Structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants and a further 26 participants responded to online questionnaires. In total there were 38 participants (both sexes), aged 18 to 54 years. 68% had visual impairments, three had motor issues, one had a hearing impairment and two had cognitive impairments. The findings show that the overload of information on a page was the most prominent difficulty experienced when using the Web. The findings from the preliminary survey fed into an empirical study. Four participants aged 21 to 54 years (both sexes) from the preliminary survey were presented with a technology demonstrator to check the feasibility of Essentiality & Proficiency in the real environment. It was found that participants were able to identify and appreciate the reduced volume of information. This initiated the iterative development of the prototype tool. Microformatting is used in the development of the Essentiality & Proficiency prototype tool to allow the reformulated Web pages to remain standards compliant. There is a formative evaluation of the prototype tool using an experimental design methodology. A convenience sample of nine participants (both sexes) with a range of visual impairments, aged 18 to 52 performed tasks on a computer under three essentiality conditions. With an alpha level .05, the evaluation of the Essentiality & Proficiency tool has been shown to offer some improvement in accessing information

Rethinking connectivity as interactivity: a case study of Pakistan

Connectivity in developing countries has traditionally been viewed in terms of investment in transport and communications. This papers makes an effort to go beyond this traditional view and conceptualizes connectivity as networks between people and places. We split the overall national reforms agenda for connectivity into three prongs: a) transportation and related services, b) ICT, and c) social capital. We try to see the state of each of these three in case of Pakistan and then propose reforms keeping in view the current political economy milieu.Connectivity; Economic Growth; Transport; Communications; Social Capital

Fostering Barrier Free Access for Children with Special Needs in India

Barrier Free Access is particularly relevant in the context of children with special needs because they have variety of needs which need to be addressed. The paper will focus on access to the physical environment as well as access to the curriculum and the teaching environment of children with special needs. The various Acts and Policies emphasizing on the provision of barrier free environment would also be discussed. Secondary sources like books, Journals, Articles and websites have been used to collect the information. The adoption of inclusive approaches in education is imperative so that the goal of ‘Education for All’ can be achieved. It serves as the catalyst for smarter practices and broader perspectives and to improve quality of life of special children. The paper will put forward the strategies for the Institutional planners to help them in developing some mechanism for promoting accessibility and full participation of children with special needs

Vending Machines Used for Contraceptives in Developing Countries

The evidence found for this report shows that vending machines have been used to make contraceptives available to vulnerable groups in low and middle income countries in a number of programmes. Examples from different parts of the world include: A six-year HIV prevention pilot programme started in 2009, which plans to install 100 CVMs using mobile phone-based technology in several bars and nightclubs in Tanzania. This year, the United National Population Fund donated even more CVMs to be distributed in areas with the highest HIV prevalence rates in Zambia; CVMs are due to be installed in Thai shopping malls and schools as part of the “Condoms for Teens” programme; Brazil plans to install several CVMs in all schools, and a national competition was launched for students to design “better” versions for use in the future. An El Salvador pilot provided the only project available to include both CVMs and oral contraceptive machines

Factors Influencing Online Buying Behavior of College Students: A Qualitative Analysis

Online retailing in India has shown tremendous growth in the recent years. However as compared to the other countries leading in online retailing, India is still in its initial stage of development. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing the online buying behavior of the college students. Convenience sampling method was used to select the sample of 25 college students and qualitative content analysis was used for analyzing the textual content of the depth interview data. The main influencing factors for online shopping were identified as availability, low price, promotions, comparison, convenience, customer service, perceived ease of use, attitude, time consciousness, trust and variety seeking

Consumer Data Research

Big Data collected by customer-facing organisations – such as smartphone logs, store loyalty card transactions, smart travel tickets, social media posts, or smart energy meter readings – account for most of the data collected about citizens today. As a result, they are transforming the practice of social science. Consumer Big Data are distinct from conventional social science data not only in their volume, variety and velocity, but also in terms of their provenance and fitness for ever more research purposes. The contributors to this book, all from the Consumer Data Research Centre, provide a first consolidated statement of the enormous potential of consumer data research in the academic, commercial and government sectors – and a timely appraisal of the ways in which consumer data challenge scientific orthodoxies