Our current understanding is that functional GABA(B) receptors exist as heterodimers of two related seven-transmembrane proteins, GABA(B)-R1 and GABA(B)-R2. GABA(B)-R1 requires GABA(B)-R2 to be expressed at the cell surface as a mature glycoprotein. Cloning of the GABA(B) receptor has failed to provide molecular evidence to support the existence of true receptor subtypes. The discovery of the heterodimeric nature of the GABA(B) receptor has already changed the way we think about GPCR function and it is likely that future studies will change our understanding about how receptor subtypes can be formed.
The agricultural sector contributes 9% towards total UK greenhouse gas emissions and so may offer significant potential as a sector to help meet national and international emission reduction targets. In order to help farmers manage their emissions and to encourage more sustainable farming, several carbon accounting tools are now available. This article describes a short study that selected five suitable tools and compared their performance on nine European arable farms, concentrating on the crop production components, to determine how useful they are for assisting in the development of site-specific mitigation strategies and how well they would perform within farm assurance or benchmarking schemes. The results were mixed, with some tools better designed for identifying mitigation opportunities than others. The results also showed that, quantitatively, the results are highly variable between tools and depended on the selected functional unit, this being highly important if the wider aspects of sustainability such as food security are to be considered. However, there is statistical consistency across the tools regarding the ranking order of the farms in terms of their emissions.
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The pressure on the food industry and society as a whole to evolve towards more sustainable production and consumption has increased in recent years. There are a number of drivers that can help reduce environmental impacts including legislative instruments, retail marketing and consumer choices and demand. One driver that has received attention recently is the use of product labels, either on a single issue or on multiple issues (using omni-labelling). The purpose of this paper is to report on a framework that emerged from a wider study exploring effective approaches to environmental labelling of food products. Design/methodology/approach -Techniques for assessing the environmental impacts of food production were reviewed and a consultation was undertaken with industry and consumer experts to ascertain their views (using multi-criteria mapping) on the practicality and efficacy of environmental labels. Findings -The wider study found that although the science is not sufficiently robust to develop an outcome-based, environmentally broad, omni-label at this time, there is a role for environmental labelling in conjunction with other initiatives to improve the sustainability of food production and consumption. The framework presented aims to support this role and help improve the practicality and efficacy of environmental labels. It provides a series of interrelated guidelines which provide a basis for developing more effective, robust, credible and practical environmental labels for food. Practical implications -The framework can be used to design new, or evaluate existing labelling schemes and to identify opportunities for improvements. The process is illustrated with an application to four existing schemes. Originality/value -Eco-labelling of food products is gaining interest globally, but there are numerous issues that need to be fully understood in order to develop credible and robust labelling systems.
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