Evaluation of Determinant Awareness Factors for the Purchase Decision of Food Items in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Eating nutritious food is an indispensable part of leading healthy life .Knowledgeability and easy access to information network make today’s consumers more conscious about nutrition. Diet conscious consumers now pay more attention to purchase nutritious food. But how far the marketers are ready? The awareness level would play a catalytic role here to make marketers rethink and reshape marketing strategies. This study tried to find out the factors that determine consumer awareness. This intends to judge the awareness level of the consumers in having food items. Five awareness factors out of 12 variables have been summarized by applying factor analysis technique. The subtracted factors are  (1)checking nutritional facts and paying more for nutritious food,(2) familiarity with dietary requirement, checking adulteration, checking food label,(3) checking expiry date, checking mrp,(4) measuring importance of nutrition, looking for nutritional information,(5) rationale for buying a new product. These factors explain 60.52% of the variability of the covariance matrix. Consumers familiar with these awareness aspects may be considered ‘moderately conscious’. Keywords: Food items, nutrition, consumer awareness, factors, factor analysi

Competitive Profile Matrix: A Theoretical Review

A Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) is an analytical tool that provides necessary information of competitive advantage based on critical success factors and serves as the basis for an organization’s strategy. This paper provides for understanding the basic concepts of CPM and its usability in strategy formulation. The study finds that although CPM helps decision makers in some points of strategy formulation, it does not depict a clear picture of the competitive situation because of its subjective selection and assessment of critical success factors and the lack of robustness in calculation in terms of assigning weights and ranks. However, the usability of CPM can be improved by integrating some other sophisticated tools, for example, Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFEM), External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFEM), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and ELECTRE III. This integration will ensure more robust calculation of the weights and rank assigned to each critical success factor upon which CPM is built and lead to successful strategy formulation

Cytomorphological changes in the cerebral and ventral ganglionic neurosecretory cells during copulation in epigeic earthworms

In spite of hermaphroditism, most earthworm species reproduce by cross fertilization i.e. by the process of copulation of two mature partners. Mechanism of copulation in few earthworm species (Lumbricus terrestris) is known. However literature on neurosecretory control of copulation in earthworm is lacking. In the present study 30 pairs of conjugating earthworms of Eisenia fetida were collected from laboratory culture beds during 2016 of monsoon season. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of 10 pairs of conjugating earthworms and 20 pairs of post conjugation (2 hrs after separation, 4 hrs after separation) earthworms were fixed in Bouin’s fluid for cytomorphological studies on their cerebral neurosecretory cells. Earthworms (10 numbers) debrained through anterior transection of first five segments (brain present in 3rd segment) by sterilized paragon knife were studied to observe conjugation if any. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of 5 pairs of pre-conjugating earthworms were considered as control. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of earthworms displayed chiefly two types of neurosecretory cells such as A cells and B cells. The A cells are deeply stained AF-positive cells arranged in upper cortical tier beneath the perineurium and generally exhibiting process of axonal transport. The B cells, generally larger in size than A cells, are lightly or moderately stained with or without axonal transport and lie in between cortical A cells and central fibrous neuropile. In the cerebral ganglia the A cells outnumbered the B cells, while in the ventral ganglia the opposite is true. Debrained E. fetida survived but did not conjugate. Secretory dynamics in the cerebral and ventral ganglionic neurosecretory cells A and B were recorded in pre-conjugating, conjugating and post-conjugating earthworms. Absence of conjugation in debrained worms and exhibition of the same in earthworms with brain and its changes in neurosecretory profile clearly indicate involvement of cerebral neurosecretion in the phenomenon of conjugation in earthworm. Our result indicates probable involvement of cerebral neurohormone in the process of conjugation in E. fetida. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.394860

Mercaptobenzoheterocyclic compounds functionalized silver nanoparticle, an ultrasensitive colorimetric probe for Hg(II) detection in water with picomolar precision: A correlation between sensitivity and binding affinity

Toxic heavy metal ions, specially Hg(II) pose lethal threat to the environment and human beings. To this end, there is a strong need to establish a simple, inexpensive method for the detection of Hg(II) ions with high selectivity and sensitivity in aqueous medium. Herein, we report an ultra-sensitive colorimetric detection of Hg(II) ions following a simple protocol by synthesizing silver nanoparticles functionalized with mercaptobenzoheterocyclic compounds (viz. mercaptobenzooxazole (MBO), mercaptobenzoimidazole (MBI) and mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT). These nanoparticles are found to show a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.8 ppt (9.2 pM), 9.2 ppt (46 pM) and 18.4 ppt (92 pM) for MBO, MBI and MBT respectively). In addition, the binding affinity trend of the mercaptobenzoheterocyclic ligands seems to be in tune with the observed sensitivity trait of Hg2+ sensing. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Cytomorphological changes in the cerebral and ventral ganglionic neurosecretory cells during copulation in epigeic earthworms

In spite of hermaphroditism, most earthworm species reproduce by cross fertilization i.e. by the process of copulation of two mature partners. Mechanism of copulation in few earthworm species (Lumbricus terrestris) is known. However literature on neurosecretory control of copulation in earthworm is lacking. In the present study 30 pairs of conjugating earthworms of Eisenia fetida were collected from laboratory culture beds during 2016 of monsoon season. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of 10 pairs of conjugating earthworms and 20 pairs of post conjugation (2 hrs after separation, 4 hrs after separation) earthworms were fixed in Bouin’s fluid for cytomorphological studies on their cerebral neurosecretory cells. Earthworms (10 numbers) debrained through anterior transection of first five segments (brain present in 3rd segment) by sterilized paragon knife were studied to observe conjugation if any. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of 5 pairs of pre-conjugating earthworms were considered as control. Cerebral and ventral ganglia of earthworms displayed chiefly two types of neurosecretory cells such as A cells and B cells. The A cells are deeply stained AF-positive cells arranged in upper cortical tier beneath the perineurium and generally exhibiting process of axonal transport. The B cells, generally larger in size than A cells, are lightly or moderately stained with or without axonal transport and lie in between cortical A cells and central fibrous neuropile. In the cerebral ganglia the A cells outnumbered the B cells, while in the ventral ganglia the opposite is true. Debrained E. fetida survived but did not conjugate. Secretory dynamics in the cerebral and ventral ganglionic neurosecretory cells A and B were recorded in pre-conjugating, conjugating and post-conjugating earthworms. Absence of conjugation in debrained worms and exhibition of the same in earthworms with brain and its changes in neurosecretory profile clearly indicate involvement of cerebral neurosecretion in the phenomenon of conjugation in earthworm. Our result indicates probable involvement of cerebral neurohormone in the process of conjugation in E. fetida. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.394860

Prebiotics—Clinical relevance

Prebiotics are dietary substances that mostly consist of non-starch polysaccharides and oligosaccharides that nurture a selected group of microorganisms residing in the human intestine. These components are poorly hydrolyzed by our digestive enzymes. Prebiotics preferentially favour the growth of probiotic organisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium that are helpful in gut health maintenance, colitis prevention, cancer inhibition, immunopotentiation, cholesterol removal, reduction of cardiovascular disease, prevention of obesity and constipation. The natural sources of prebiotics are certain fruits and vegetables like asparagus, banana, chicory, garlic, onion, wheat and tomato. Considering increasing market demand of prebiotics, commercial production of them is standardized from wastes of food industries as well as from other sources. Due to their therapeutic support and history of safe use, fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides are now widely used for pharmaceutical formulations, combined with probiotics

Prebiotics—Clinical relevance

91-97<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Prebiotics are dietary substances that mostly consist of non-starch polysaccharides and oligosaccharides that nurture a selected group of microorganisms residing in the human intestine. These components are poorly hydrolyzed by our digestive enzymes. Prebiotics preferentially favour the growth of probiotic organisms like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium that are helpful in gut health maintenance, colitis prevention, cancer inhibition, immunopotentiation, cholesterol removal, reduction of cardiovascular disease, prevention of obesity and constipation. The natural sources of prebiotics are certain fruits and vegetables like asparagus, banana, chicory, garlic, onion, wheat and tomato. Considering increasing market demand of prebiotics, commercial production of them is standardized from wastes of food industries as well as from other sources. Due to their therapeutic support and history of safe use, fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides are now widely used for pharmaceutical formulations, combined with probiotics.</span