Your browser does not fully support modern features. Please upgrade for a smoother experience.
Subject:
All Disciplines Arts & Humanities Biology & Life Sciences Business & Economics Chemistry & Materials Science Computer Science & Mathematics Engineering Environmental & Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacology Physical Sciences Public Health & Healthcare Social Sciences
Sort by:
Most Viewed Latest Alphabetical (A-Z) Alphabetical (Z-A)
Filter:
All Topic Review Biography Peer Reviewed Entry Video Entry
Topic Review
Sprouts and Microgreens for Healthy Diets
Healthy diets prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases; they provide nutrients and health-promoting substances from nutritious foods in adequate amounts. With society's growing interest in healthy eating, the interest in fresh, ready-to-eat, functional food, such as microscale vegetables (sprouted seeds and microgreens), has been on the rise in recent years globally. This entry briefly describes the crops commonly used for microscale vegetable production, highlights Brassica vegetables because of their health-promoting secondary metabolites and looks at consumer acceptance of sprouts and microgreens. Landraces, wild food plants, and crops' wild relatives often have high phytonutrient density and exciting flavours and tastes, thus providing scope to widen the range of crops and species used for this purpose. Moreover, the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals often vary with plant growth and development stages of the same crop. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are often more nutrient-dense than ungerminated seeds or mature vegetables. This entry also describes the environmental and priming factors that may impact the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals of microscale vegetables. Due to their short growth cycle, nutrient-dense sprouts and microgreens can be produced with minimal input and without pesticides. They can even be home-grown and harvested as needed, hence having low environmental impacts and a broad acceptance among health-conscious consumers.
  • 2.3K
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Bush Dog
The Bush Dog (Speothos venaticus) emerges as a captivating and elusive canid species, residing in the dense and remote habitats of Central and South America. Recognized for its unique appearance and social behaviors, the Bush Dog stands out as a small yet highly specialized predator within the intricate tapestry of neotropical ecosystems. This elusive canid's cryptic lifestyle and distinctive pack dynamics make it a subject of intrigue for wildlife enthusiasts and researchers alike.
  • 2.3K
  • 04 Feb 2024
Topic Review
African Wild Dog
The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a highly social and charismatic carnivore native to sub-Saharan Africa. Recognized by its distinctive mottled coat pattern and large rounded ears, it is one of Africa's most endangered predators. Living in cohesive packs, African wild dogs exhibit complex social behaviors and cooperative hunting strategies, making them both fascinating and ecologically important species in African ecosystems.
  • 2.2K
  • 08 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Cape Fox
The Cape Fox, scientifically known as Vulpes chama, is a small canid species native to southern Africa, particularly the arid regions of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. Characterized by its distinctive sandy-colored fur, large ears, and bushy tail, the Cape Fox is well-adapted to its desert habitat, where it primarily preys on small mammals, birds, and insects. Despite its diminutive size, the Cape Fox plays a significant ecological role as a predator and scavenger, contributing to the balance of its arid ecosystem.
  • 2.2K
  • 28 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Spent Mushroom Substrate for Enhanced Agricultural Sustainability
As the mushroom industry advances, it yields a consequential by-product known as spent mushroom substrate (SMS). Comprising residual fungal mycelium, lignocellulosic biomass, and enzymes, SMS has garnered significant attention as a substantial waste product.
  • 2.2K
  • 13 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Remotely Piloted Aircraft
The establishment of significant applications of RPAs in livestock, forestry, crop monitoring, disease surveillance, irrigation, soil analysis, fertilization, crop harvest, weed management, mechanical pollination, crop insurance and tree plantation are cited in the light of currently available literature in this domain.
  • 2.2K
  • 06 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Microbial Fermentation Technology
Fermentation is one of the earliest biotechnological methods of food preservation and processing to be extensively applied in the world: foods (fermented food, food additives, functional materials and live probiotics); intestines (aids digestion and promotes absorption, synthetic bioactive substances, inhibits harmful bacteria, diabetes, cardiopathy and allergy); and industry (energy, soil transformation and sewage treatment). The current trends in fermented-based vegetable foods are growing. Fermentation has been used for ages as a safe technique for food preservation, and it uses minimal resources. Fermentation is related to a wide range of catabolic biochemical procedures in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Yeasts are eukaryotes; they can use oxygen while also having the ability to live without oxygen. The lactate fermentation process consists of glycolysis and some alternative steps.
  • 2.2K
  • 27 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Anticancer Properties of Eugenol
Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) (Family Myrtaceae) is a highly prized spice that has been historically utilized as a food preservative and for diverse medical uses. It is reckoned amongst the valued sources of phenolics. Among diverse active components, eugenol, the principal active component of S. aromaticum, has optimistic properties comprising antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer actions. Eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol) is a musky oil that is mainly obtained from clove. It has long been utilized all over the world as a result of its broad properties like antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. Anticancer effects of eugenol are accomplished by various mechanisms like inducing cell death, cell cycle arrest, inhibition of migration, metastasis, and angiogenesis on several cancer cell lines. Besides, eugenol might be utilized as an adjunct remedy for patients who are treated with conventional chemotherapy. This combination leads to a boosted effectiveness with decreased toxicity.
  • 2.2K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Diabrotica Species
The genus Diabrotica has over 400 described species, the majority of them neotropical. However, only three species of neotropical Diabrotica are considered agricultural pests, D. speciosa, D. balteata, and D. viridula. D. speciosa and D. balteata are polyphagous both as adults and during the larval stage. D. viridula are stenophagous during the larval stage, feeding essentially on maize roots, and polyphagous as adults. The larvae of the three species are pests on maize, but D. speciosa larvae also feed on potatoes and peanuts, while D. balteata larvae feed on beans and peanuts. None of these species express a winter/dry season egg diapause, like several North American species. Instead they have several continuous, latitude-mediated generations per year. This hinders the use of crop rotation as a management tool, although early planting can help in the temperate regions of the distribution of D. speciosa. Their know parasitoids do not exert much control on Diabrotica populations, or show potential for inundative biocontrol plans. Management options are limited to insecticide applications and Bt GM maize. Other techniques that show promise are products using Beauveria bassiana and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, semiochemical attractants for monitoring purposes or as toxic baits, and plant resistance.
  • 2.2K
  • 30 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Beech Marten
The Beech Marten (Martes foina) is a slender and agile carnivore native to Europe and parts of Asia. With its distinctive cream-colored throat patch and bushy tail, this medium-sized mustelid is known for its adaptability to various habitats, including forests, woodlands, and urban areas. As a versatile predator, the Beech Marten preys on a variety of small mammals, birds, insects, and fruits, playing a vital role in ecosystem dynamics across its range.
  • 2.2K
  • 15 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Donkey Milk Properties and Mammary Gland Morphological Characteristics
Donkey milk (DM) is produced by the female animals of the house donkey (Equus asinus). DM is known for their nutritional and nutraceutical properties for human consumption. DM compared to milk from other dairy animals such cow, buffalo, goat and sheep is most likely to resemble human breast milk. The average daily milk yield of a female donkey over the entire lactation season is 1.57 kg/day and fluctuated between 0.20 and 6.00 kg/day. Furthermore, the average milk concentration of fat, protein, lactose, total solids and ash in DM are 0.63%, 1.71%, 6.34%, 9.11% and 0.39%, respectively. It is noteworthy that DM is rich in whey proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid C18:2 and linolenic acid C18:3 and vitamin C. In addition, the average lysozyme concentration of DM is approximately 1.07 g/L, similar to human milk (0.30-1.10 g/L). The high lysozyme content may be the cause of low bactarial count of DM and also makes this milk useful for preventing intestinal infections in infants. Due to the significantly lower casein content, many people with a cows milk protein allergy can tolerate DM, as they find DM do not trigger an allergy reaction.
  • 2.2K
  • 15 Apr 2022
Topic Review
LCA of Edible Flower Production
The globalization of the floricultural sector creates more competition, challenging the innovation and reorganization of some ornamental and horticultural nurseries, which started to look at flowers as food products. This research aims to quantify the environmental impact of the emerging productive process of edible flowers through the LCA – Life Cycle Analysis method, due to the higher awareness towards sustainability. Two model species and two types of final products were chosen, using a “cradle to gate” approach.
  • 2.2K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Agro-Waste Management
It is urgent that we increase global food production to support population growth. Food production requires significant resources, amongst them water and energy. Therefore, any losses of food or other agricultural products also means a waste of water and energy resources. A significant amount of these losses occurs during the postharvest stage, primarily during processing and storage. This is considered avoidable food waste. The water-energy-waste nexus (WEW), and its relationship to food production, needs to be investigated from a circular bioeconomy lens. Furthermore, alternative uses of the wastes should be investigated. 
  • 2.2K
  • 06 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Wearable Optical Sensor
Miniaturization advances have led to several wearable sensors that are now being employed in a variety of biomedical applications. Some of these have been ingrained in people’s daily lives. Smart bands and smartwatches with pulse monitors, pulse oximeters, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other sensors are one example.
  • 2.2K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Alien Insect Species for Food and Feed
While the use of alien insect species for food and feed can help to alleviate protein shortage and provide for a more sustainable feed production, their invasive potential should be considered.
  • 2.2K
  • 05 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Bovine β-Casein Variants and Human Health
Bovine beta-casein has been a subject of increasing scientific interest because its genetic A1 variant during gastrointestinal digestion releases opioid-like peptide β-casomorphin-7 (β-CM-7). Since β-CM-7 is involved in the dysregulation of many physiological processes, there is a growing discussion of whether the consumption of the β-casein A1 variant has an influence on human health. The clinical studies on humans showed a negative effect of variant A1 on serum glutathione level, digestive well-being, cognitive performance score in children, and mood score in women.
  • 2.2K
  • 22 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Enzymatic Activity
Enzymatic Activity is a sensitive indicator of changes in soil environment, and it changes depending on the farming system. 
  • 2.2K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Rumen Development of Goats
As small ruminant species, goat kids are born with deficient physical, metabolic, and microbial rumen development. The rumen is the point of contact between the host and the nutrients consumed, where most nutrient digestion and metabolism occur. The process of rumen development, including morphology, metabolic function, and microbial colonization, is a temporal and successional process during the early stage of life. 
  • 2.2K
  • 14 Aug 2023
Topic Review
AWS Architecture for Smart Livestock
In the ecological future of the planet, intelligent agriculture relies on CPS and IoT to free up human resources and increase production efficiency. Due to the growing number of connected IoT devices, the maximum scalability capacity, and available computing power of the existing architectural frameworks will be reached. This necessitates finding a solution that meets the continuously growing demands in smart farming. Cloud-based IoT solutions are achieving increasingly high popularity. The aim of this study was to design a scalable cloud-based architecture for a smart livestock monitoring system following Agile methodology and featuring environmental monitoring, health, growth, behaviour, reproduction, emotional state, and stress levels of animals. The AWS services used, and their specific tasks related to the proposed architecture are explained in detail. A stress test was performed to prove the data ingesting and processing capability of the proposed architecture. Experimental results proved that the proposed architecture using AWS automated scaling mechanisms and IoT devices are fully capable of processing the growing amount of data, which in turn allow for meeting the required needs of the constantly expanding number of CPS systems. 
  • 2.2K
  • 17 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Brassinosteroids in Growth and Development of Plants
Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a group of polyhydroxylated steroidal phytohormones that are required for the development, growth, and productivity of plants. These hormones are involved in regulating the division, elongation, and differentiation of numerous cell types throughout the entire plant life cycle.
  • 2.2K
  • 28 Jan 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 70
Featured Entry Collections
>>

Featured Reprints

>>
Encyclopedia of Digital Society, Industry 5.0 and Smart City
Encyclopedia of Engineering
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Encyclopedia of Medieval Royal Iconography
Academic Video Service
Feedback

Quick Survey

Encyclopedia MDPI is conducting a targeted survey to identify the specific barriers hindering efficient research. We invite you to spend 3 minutes defining the priorities for our next generation of structured knowledge tools.
Take Survey