Objective:To determine self-reported reasons for drinking alcohol and for changing alcohol use in older people. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study using semistructured questionnaire interviews of 141 randomly selected community-dwelling older people. Results: The 100 current drinkers said they consumed alcohol for social reasons, before and with meals and because alcohol helped them to relax: 45 had not changed their alcohol consumption over the past 12 months, nine had increased, 43 decreased and three did not know. Reasons for increasing were encouragement from friends, loneliness, as an alternative to smoking and enjoyment of drinking alcohol. Reasons for decreasing were mostly for health concerns or because of pressure from family or friends. Conclusions: Suggested strategies for influencing alcohol consumption in older people might include health promotion and education about potential negative health outcomes, in the context of ensuring appropriate social engagement in later life.
Advanced technologies and innovation are essential for promoting sustainable food systems (SFSs) because these technologies can be used to answer some of the critical questions needed to transform SFSs and help us better understand global food security and nutrition. The main objective of this study is to address the question of whether technological innovations have an impact on the transformation of SFSs. There are certain innovations including agricultural land utilization, food processing, production systems, improvement in diets according to people’s needs, and management of waste products. This study provides an overview of new technologies and innovations being used with potential to transform SFSs. Applications of emerging technologies in digital agriculture, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning, drones, use of new physical systems (e.g., advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, advanced materials), and gene technology (e.g., biofortified crops, genome-wide selection, genome editing), are discussed in this study. Additionally, we suggest eight action initiatives, which are transforming mindsets, enabling social licensing, changing policies and regulations, designing market incentives, safeguarding against undesirable effects, ensuring stable finance, building trust, and developing transition pathways that can hasten the transition to more SFSs. We conclude that appropriate incentives, regulations, and social permits play a critical role in enhancing the adoption of modern technologies to promote SFSs.
Cotton growth and development is influenced by various uncontrollable environmental conditions. Temperature variations in the field can be created by planting at different dates. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of planting dates and thermal temperatures (growing degree days) on yield of 4 genotypes viz. CIM-598, CIM-599, CIM-602, Ali Akbar-703. Plants were subjected to six planting dates during 2013 and 2014 in a trial conducted in randomized complete block design with four replications. Cotton genotypes exhibited significant differences for boll number, boll weight and seed cotton yield while CIM-599 produced the highest seed cotton yield of 2062 kg ha-1 on account of maximum boll number and boll weight. Highest seed cotton yield was recorded in planting dates from April 15 to May 1 whereas early and delayed planting reduced the yield due to less accumulation of heat units. Regression analysis revealed that increase of one unit (15 days) from early to optimum date (March 15 to April 15) increased yield by 93.58 kg ha-1. Delay in planting also decreased the seed cotton yield with the same ratio. Thus it is concluded that cotton must be sown from April 15 to May 1 to have good productivity in this kind of environment.
The agricultural sector worldwide is facing many issues relating to crop productivity due to the lack of communication between extension workers and farmers. To reduce this gap, information technology like mobile phones are one of the essential communication devices in numerous fields as well as agriculture. This review aims to analyze mobile phone usage in agricultural modernization and rural development. The advancement of the agricultural sector in rural areas is essential for reducing poverty among growers. As we all know, agricultural activities provide employment opportunities and generate income in rural areas. Poverty can be decreased by advancement in the agriculture sector for better production. Agriculture production, socioeconomic conditions, and food security can be improved by increasing the usage of mobile phones for easy and accurate agricultural knowledge sharing to the farming community.
Conservation tillage and nitrogen may improve soil fertility, yield and income on sustainable basis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of three tillage systems viz. zero (ZT), reduced (RT), and conventional tillage (CT) and five N rates (0, 80, 120, 160, and 200 kg·N·ha-1) on yield and yield components, soil organic matter (SOM), total soil N (TSN), and income of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown after rice (Oryza sativa L.). Nitrogen rates significantly affected yield and yield attributing characters with highest values recorded at200 kg·N·ha-1. Mean maximum grain yield (6390 -6845 kg·ha-1), net benefit (1359 - 1460 US$ ha-1), and benefit cost ratio (5.6 - 5.7) could be achieved at 160 to200 kg·N·ha-1. The tillage systems produced similar yield and yield components except spikes m-2. The SOM and TSN were highest in ZT compared to other tillage systems. Though tillage × N interactions were not significant for most of the parameters under study, the overall effect of ZT with200 kg·N·ha-1 appeared to be most favorable compared to RT and CT. Zero tillage resulted in highest number of spikes m-2 (304.4), SOM (9.6 g·kg-1) and TSN (0.5 g·kg-1) with200 kg·N·ha-1. The results suggest that ZT with200 kg·N·ha-1 was optimum and sustainable strategy to achieve higher yield and income and also to improve SOM and TSN on silty clay soil.
Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers) turf is the most widely used turfgrass in urban landscapes. Large amounts of fertilizer are usually applied for maximum turf performance, while relatively little attention has been paid to efficient nutrient management of bermudagrass turf. The design opted for was a 3-factor and 5-level Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) consisting of 24 experimental runs in the greenhouse with response surface methodology (RSM) and simulated regression modeling. The experiment covered in this study was carried out at Sichuan Agricultural University with the objectives of understanding the interactive effects of nitrogen, (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilization on the bermudagrass integrated turf performance (ITP) and optimizing the amount of N, P, and K required for optimum turf performance during establishment. The qualitative and quantitative relationships between bermudagrass and fertilization significantly affected the ITP. The N, P, and K Fertilization significantly influenced the percent grass cover, turf height, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, and total chlorophyll content. Fertilization with N and P significantly enhanced the tiller length, turf density, color, and total protein levels. Root length was augmented with the application of P and K. We found that 3-D surface plots indicated significant interactive effects of NP, NK, and PK on the ITP. A simulation optimization and frequency analysis indicated that the optimal combined amounts of these nutrients were N: 26.0–27.6 g m−2, P: 24.2–26.4 g m−2, and K: 3.1–5.0 g m−2 during the establishment phase. The results suggest that optimized fertilization is key to sustainable nutrient management of bermudagrass integrated turf performance.
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