By comparing strategies of genetic alterations introduced in genetic engineering with spontaneously occurring genetic variation, we have come to conclude that both processes depend on several distinct and specific molecular mechanisms. These mechanisms can be attributed, with regard to their evolutionary impact, to three different strategies of genetic variation. These are local nucleotide sequ...

Bees are essential pollinators of many plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural crops alike. In recent years the decline and disappearance of bee species in the wild and the collapse of honey bee colonies have concerned ecologists and apiculturalists, who search for causes and solutions to this problem. Whilst biological factors such as viral diseases, mite and parasite infections are undo...

Public risk perceptions and demand for safer food are important factors shaping agricultural production practices in the United States. Despite documented food safety concerns, little attempt has been made to elicit consumers' subjective risk judgments for a range of food safety hazards or to identify factors most predictive of perceived food safety risks. In this study, over 700 conventional a...

Jordan is extremely water-scarce with just 167 m3 per capita per year to meet domestic, industrial, agricultural, tourism, and environmental demands. The heavy exploitation of water resources has contributed to declines in the levels of aquifers and the Dead Sea. Rapid growth in demand, particularly for higher quality water for domestic, industrial, and tourism uses, is significantly increasing...

Prof. Maryam Shokri was born in 1950, in Sari city, Iran, where she got her diploma certificate. She received her B.Sc. degree in Natural Resources from Tehran University during 1969 to 1973. She employed the Environmental Organisation as teacher in High School in Environment during 1973-1975. She received a scholarship position from the Buali Sina University to finish her M.Sc. degree from Mon...

this article is an overview of materials used for paper sizing to improve its packaging characteristics. sizing is an important way of cellulose fibers’ modification as a mean to increase its resistance to absorption or penetration of fluids, especially water. from the functional viewpoint, this definition is equal to reinforcement through application of chemicals on paper or cardboard’s surfac...

In this paper, we evaluate the downside risk of six major agricultural commodities – corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal, oil and oats. For research purposes, first use an optimal generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model to create residuals, which later for measuring risks via parametric semiparametric approaches. Modified value-at-risk (mVaR) modified (mCVaR) pro...