Examining the effects of green attitude on the purchase intention of sustainable packaging.

Environmental deterioration over the few decades has hugely increased awareness among consumers on environmental problems. Understanding the deterioration, consumers are motivated to make a contribution to the sustainable development. The growing environmental awareness is reflected in every component of modern marketing and more specifically on packaging, as packaging (plastics) causes nearly one-third of the environmental impacts. Green packaging has emerged to be the substitute for polymeric packaging. The study examined the purchase intention of green packed products under three different constructs; environment concern, health hazards, and perceived green values of consumers. Both direct effects of the constructs and effect of the constructs mediated through green attitude was measured using structural equation modelling. SEM was used in the study to analyse the data of 468 respondents and to test the proposed model. The findings of the study confirmed that the purchase intention towards green packaging is significantly influenced by environment concern, health consciousness and perceived values of consumers about green packaging

AVIRIS as a tool for carbonatite exploration: Comparison of SPAM and Mbandmap data analysis methods

Data acquired with the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) of the Mountain Pass, San Bernadino County, California, area were analyzed to evaluate the use of narrow-band imaging data for carbonatite exploration. Carbonatites are igneous carbonate-rich rocks that are economically important in part because they are the major source for rare-earth minerals. Because the 224 AVIRIS spectral channels have a nominal spectral resolution of 10 nm, narrow absorption features such as those displayed by the rare-earth elements neodymium (Nd) and samarium (Sm) may be detected. The Mountain Pass region encompasses a well-exposed sequence of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks, including an alkalic carbonatite intrusion. The carbonatite was emplaced in Precambrian granitic rocks that are fault bounded by a thick suite of Paleozoic, sedimentary rock, predominantly dolomite. The carbonatite stock, the major source of light rare-earth elements (REE) in the United States, affords the opportunity to test AVIRIS capabilities for detecting REE absorption features. Nd-bearing minerals display narrow, sharp and distinctive spectral features at 580, 740, 800, and 870 nm. Minerals bearing Sm display similarly sharp features near 1090, 1250, 1410, and 1550 nm. The more common REE, lanthanum and cerium, do not display absorption features in the visible/near-infrared region in their natural oxidation states

The Death of Plants in Animals

It is necessary first to understand some of the basic concepts associated with the digestion of the plant biomass within the rumen when considering mechanisms for altering/enhancing N-conversion efficiency in the forage-fed ruminant. Although it is generally assumed that breakdown of plant proteins in the rumen is mediated by microbial enzymes, there is increasing evidence to suggest that both plant and microbial proteases are active during degradation of ingested fresh forage (Beha et al., 2002; Kingston-Smith & Theodorou, 2000; Kingston-Smith et al., 2003, 2004). After fresh plant biomass enters the rumen and prior to extensive plant cell wall degradation, there is often a phase of rapid proteolysis in excess of that needed to maintain the rumen microbial population and we now believe that plant enzymes largely mediate this initial proteolysis. Recent evidence also suggests a role for plant lipases in the rumen (Lee et al., 2003). An understanding of the mechanisms that underlie these processes is essential if we are to devise plant-based strategies to manipulate them. This paper presents a new rumen model which, by taking account of the plants biological attributes, provides us with a novel framework for describing the plant contribution to rumen function in grazing livestock

The structure of glucose-fructose oxidoreductase from Zymomonas mobilis: an osmoprotective periplasmic enzyme containing non-dissociable NADP

AbstractBackground The organism Zymomonas mobilis occurs naturally in sugar-rich environments. To protect the bacterium against osmotic shock, the periplasmic enzyme glucose-fructose oxidoreductase (GFOR) produces the compatible, solute sorbitol by reduction of fructose, coupled with the oxidation of glucose to gluconolactone. Hence, Z. mobilis can tolerate high concentrations of sugars and this property may be useful in the development of an efficient microbial process for ethanol production. Each enzyme subunit contains tightly associated NADP which is not released during the catalytic cycle.Results The structure of GFOR was determined by X-ray crystallography at 2.7 å resolution. Each subunit of the tetrameric enzyme comprises two domains, a classical dinucleotide-binding domain, and a C-terminal domain based on a predominantly antiparallel nine-stranded β sheet. In the tetramer, the subunits associate to form two extended 18-stranded β sheets, which pack against each other in a face to face fashion, creating an extensive interface at the core of the tetramer. An N-terminal arm from each subunit wraps around the dinucleotide-binding domain of an adjacent subunit, covering the adenine ring of NADP.Conclusions In GFOR, the NADP is found associated with a classical dinucleotide-binding domain in a conventional fashion. The NADP is effectively buried in the protein-subunit interior as a result of interactions with the N-terminal arm from an adjacent subunit in the tetramer, and with a short helix from the C-terminal domain of the protein. This accounts for NADP's inability to dissociate. The N-terminal arm may also contribute to stabilization of the tetramer. The enzyme has an unexpected structural similarity with the cytoplasmic enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). We hypothesize that both enzymes have diverged from a common ancestor. The mechanism of catalysis is still unclear, but we have identified a conserved structural motif (Glu–Lys–Pro) in the active site of GFOR and G6PD that may be important for catalysis

Loss-Induced Limits to Phase Measurement Precision with Maximally Entangled States

The presence of loss limits the precision of an approach to phase measurement using maximally entangled states, also referred to as NOON states. A calculation using a simple beam-splitter model of loss shows that, for all nonzero values L of the loss, phase measurement precision degrades with increasing number N of entangled photons for N sufficiently large. For L above a critical value of approximately 0.785, phase measurement precision degrades with increasing N for all values of N. For L near zero, phase measurement precision improves with increasing N down to a limiting precision of approximately 1.018 L radians, attained at N approximately equal to 2.218/L, and degrades as N increases beyond this value. Phase measurement precision with multiple measurements and a fixed total number of photons N_T is also examined. For L above a critical value of approximately 0.586, the ratio of phase measurement precision attainable with NOON states to that attainable by conventional methods using unentangled coherent states degrades with increasing N, the number of entangled photons employed in a single measurement, for all values of N. For L near zero this ratio is optimized by using approximately N=1.279/L entangled photons in each measurement, yielding a precision of approximately 1.340 sqrt(L/N_T) radians.Comment: Additional references include

Covariation Among Vowel Height Effects on Acoustic Measures

Covariation among vowel height effects on vowel intrinsic fundamental frequency (IF0), voice onset time (VOT), and voiceless interval duration (VID) is analyzed to assess the plausibility of a common physiological mechanism underlying variation in these measures. Phrases spoken by 20 young adults, containing words composed of initial voiceless stops or /s/ and high or low vowels, were produced in habitual and voluntarily increased F0 conditions. High vowels were associated with increased IF0 and longer VIDs. VOT and VID exhibited significant covariation with IF0 only for males at habitua

Population dynamics and stock assessment of Delegoa threadfin bream, Nemipterus bipunctatus (Nemipteridae), from the Wadge Bank, South India

Fishery, population characteristics and stock estimates of Nemipterus bipunctatus were studied during June 2015 to May 2016 from Wadge Bank, South India. This region is characterised by rich biodiversity and has a conducive influence of the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. The asymptotic length (L?), growth coefficient (K) and arbitrary origin of growth (t0) were estimated as 30.5 cm, 0.85/year and 0.18 respectively. The mortality parameters, total mortality rate (Z), fishing mortality rate and natural mortality rate (M) were estimated as 2.20, 0.95 and 1.25 respectively. Exploitation ratio (E) was found to be 0.57 which showed marginal over exploitation of the species at Wadge Bank. This species has two recruitment seasons, one major season from October to December and another minor season in August. The length structured Virtual population analysis revealed heavy fishing pressure on the length group 24 to 28 cm and hence the delegoa threadfin bream was not found to suffer due to recruitment overfishing in Wadge Bank. Estimated total stock, Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and annual catch were 5625.9348 tonnes, 1935.321t, 2419.152t respectively. Present level of Exploitation rate (U) and Exploitation ratio (F/Z) were estimated to be 0.43 and 0.57 respectively. The study infers the cod end mesh size of the trawls operated at Wadge Bank coast has to be increase from 10 to 25 mm to increase the yield per recruit, the effort could also be maintained as the exploitation ratio of 0.50 to have maximum yield per recruit. The study suggests reducing the present level of effort by 8 percent may be needed to sustain the stock of N. bipunctatus in Wadge Bank, South Indi

The influence of smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity on cognitive impairment-free life expectancy

BACKGROUND Smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are risk factors for mortality and dementia. However, their impact on cognitive impairment-free life expectancy (CIFLE)has not previously been estimated. METHODS Data were drawn from the DYNOPTA dataset which was derived by harmonizing and pooling common measures from five longitudinal ageing studies. Participants for whom the Mini-Mental State Examination was available were included (N¼8111,48.6% men). Data on education, sex, body mass index, smoking and sedentary lifestyle were collected and mortality data were obtained from Government Records via data linkage.Total life expectancy (LE), CIFLE and years spent with cognitive impairment (CILE)were estimated for each risk factor and total burden of risk factors. RESULTS CILE was approximately 2 years for men and 3 years for women, regardless of age. For men and women respectively, reduced LE associated with smoking was 3.82and 5.88 years, associated with obesity was 0.62 and 1.72 years and associated with being sedentary was 2.50 and 2.89 years. Absence of each risk factor was associated with longer LE and CIFLE, but also longer CILE for smoking in women and being sedentary in both sexes. Compared with participants with no risk factors, those with 2þ had shorter CIFLE of up to 3.5 years depending on gender and education level. CONCLUSIONS Population level reductions in smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity increase longevity and number of years lived without cognitive impairment. Years lived with cognitive impairment may also increase.This work was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant # 410215 and by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CE110001029). K.J.A is funded by NHMRC Fellowship #1002560. C.J. is funded by the AXA Research Fund