Physical Characteristics of Culled Magelang Duck Meat Affected by Aging and Marination in Ginger Extract

The study was aimed to improve the physical characteristics of culled duck meat using marinationin ginger extract and aging. The material used were Magelang culled ducks (2.5 years old). Gingerextract was derived from the rhizome of fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe). The experimentalused was a factorial design (3x3), with two main factors, namely the concentration of ginger extract andaging time in completely randomized design. Level of ginger extract concentrations were 0, 5, 10% andlong times of aging were 24, 48, 72 hours as combination treatments, and replication for each treatmentwere 3 times. There was a significant interaction between the factors of aging time with ginger extractconcentration in influencing moisture, pH , hardness and the water holding capacity of culled Magelangduck meat. The best treatment to improve the physical characteristics of culled duck meat weremarination in 5% ginger extract and aging for 48 hours

Assessing Efforts of the Government of India and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Tackling Bride Trafficking

Bride trafficking is a form of human trafficking that severely affects women and girls. Although some literature has described the causes and impacts, there have been relatively few studies to shed light on the efforts to overcome the problem. By using a theoretical framework, this study limits the research scope and defines the specific viewpoint to analyse the topic. This article aims to examine the efforts of the government of India and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in combating bride trafficking. It pinpoints the causes of bride trafficking in India, such as economic demands, the poverty level, high demand for dowry, the practice of foeticide, and social marginalization leading victims to re-trafficking, as well as the impacts: physical and mental health problems, social exclusion, infectious diseases, and the damage to India's reputation. This article found that the government of India and UNODC has been relatively effective in handling bride trafficking. The number of trafficked women (victims) cases in India declined significantly between 2016 and 2020. The UNODC also plays a pivotal role in strengthening the law enforcement capacity of the government of India. KEYWORDSBride Trafficking; Government of India; UNOD

Innovations in host and microbial sialic acid biosynthesis revealed by phylogenomic prediction of nonulosonic acid structure

Sialic acids (Sias) are nonulosonic acid (NulO) sugars prominently displayed on vertebrate cells and occasionally mimicked by bacterial pathogens using homologous biosynthetic pathways. It has been suggested that Sias were an animal innovation and later emerged in pathogens by convergent evolution or horizontal gene transfer. To better illuminate the evolutionary processes underlying the phenomenon of Sia molecular mimicry, we performed phylogenomic analyses of biosynthetic pathways for Sias and related higher sugars derived from 5,7-diamino-3,5,7,9-tetradeoxynon-2-ulosonic acids. Examination of ≈1,000 sequenced microbial genomes indicated that such biosynthetic pathways are far more widely distributed than previously realized. Phylogenetic analysis, validated by targeted biochemistry, was used to predict NulO types (i.e., neuraminic, legionaminic, or pseudaminic acids) expressed by various organisms. This approach uncovered previously unreported occurrences of Sia pathways in pathogenic and symbiotic bacteria and identified at least one instance in which a human archaeal symbiont tentatively reported to express Sias in fact expressed the related pseudaminic acid structure. Evaluation of targeted phylogenies and protein domain organization revealed that the “unique” Sia biosynthetic pathway of animals was instead a much more ancient innovation. Pathway phylogenies suggest that bacterial pathogens may have acquired Sia expression via adaptation of pathways for legionaminic acid biosynthesis, one of at least 3 evolutionary paths for de novo Sia synthesis. Together, these data indicate that some of the long-standing paradigms in Sia biology should be reconsidered in a wider evolutionary context of the extended family of NulO sugars