Global discussions on health systems strengthening have lately tilted towards increasing investments in human resources for health to address health workforce challenges, especially shortages and employment. Countries have, as a result, increased investments in the health workforce by expanding the production and recruitment of the needed health workforce, with the resultant effects of increasing health workforce budget space and the unending clamour by health policy actors for further increases. Despite these calls, there has been no wage bill affordability and budget space analysis to rationalise the sustainable production of and demand for health workers, which is the thrust of Ghana\'s current health workforce policy and strategy. Using an adapted approach (the Asamani approach), the study modelled the supply of some essential health workers and their associated cost of employment, compared it with the modelled budget space for health workforce employment and then drew conclusions on the wage bill sustainability for policy consideration. Of the seven cadres considered in the study (doctors, professional nurses, midwives, enrolled nurses, community health nurses, pharmacists and biomedical scientists), who constitute about 97% of the wage bill, the study found the baseline stock to be 129 378 in 2022, which was estimated to increase to 199 715 by 2027 and 254 466 by 2032 with corresponding wage bills of US$869.4 million and US$ 1.1 billion, respectively, holding routine salary increases constant. The budget space for health was, meanwhile, projected to be US$899.3 million and US$1.1 billion in 2022 and 2032 respectively, out of a projected overall government fiscal space of US$7 billion per year. This study concludes that, given current levels and mix of production, Ghana was estimated to expend an average of 88% of its health budget space as wage bill cost. This was 54.4% over the global median and 95.6% over the African Region\'s median, making the current regime unsustainable.

From an agricultural perspective, carrots are a significant tap root vegetable crop in the Apiaceae family because of their nutritional value, health advantages, and economic importance. The edible part of a carrot, known as the storage root, contains various beneficial compounds, such as carotenoids, anthocyanins, dietary fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients. It has a crucial role in human nutrition as a significant vegetable and raw material in the nutraceutical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. The cultivation of carrot fields is susceptible to a wide range of biotic and abiotic hazards, which can significantly damage the plants\' health and decrease yield and quality. Scientific research mostly focuses on important biotic stressors, including pests, such as nematodes and carrot flies, as well as diseases, such as cavity spots, crown or cottony rot, black rot, and leaf blight, caused by bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes. The emerging challenges in the field include gaining a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between hosts and pathogens in the carrot-pathogen system, identifying the elements that contribute to disease development, expanding knowledge of systemic treatments, exploring host resistance mechanisms, developing integrated control programs, and enhancing resistance through breeding approaches. In fact, the primary carrot-growing regions in tropical and subtropical climates are experiencing abiotic pressures, such as drought, salinity, and heat stress, which limit carrot production. This review provides an extensive, up-to-date overview of the literature on biotic and abiotic factors for enhanced and sustainable carrot production, considering the use of different technologies for the shelf-life extension of carrots. Therefore, it addresses the current issues in the carrot production chain, opening new perspectives for the exploration of carrots both as a food commodity and as a source of natural compounds.

Cellulases have been widely used in many fields such as animal feed, textile, food, lignocellulose bioconversion, etc. Efficient and low-cost production of cellulases is very important for its industrial application, especially in bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass. Filamentous fungi are currently widely used in industrial cellulase production due to their ability to secrete large amounts of active free cellulases extracellularly. This review comprehensively summarized the research progress on cellulases from filamentous fungi in recent years, including filamentous fungi used for cellulase production and its modification strategies, enzyme compositions, characterization methods and application of fungal cellulase systems, and the production of fungal cellulase includes production processes, factors affecting cellulase production such as inducers, fermentation medium, process parameters and their control strategies. Also, the future perspectives and research topics in fungal cellulase production are presented in the end of the review. The review helps to deepen the understanding of the current status of fungal cellulases, thereby promoting the production technology progress and industrial application of filamentous fungal cellulase.

Ganoderma has received much attention for its medicinal value, but the manipulation of multiple genes remains a challenge, hindering the genetic engineering of this species for the development of cell factories. Here, we first showed that the presence of an intron is necessary for the efficient expression of the endogenous cDNA of carboxin-resistant gene (cbx) in G. lucidum. Then, the self-cleaving function of 2 A peptide was investigated in G. lucidum by linking cbx cDNA to the codon-optimized hygromycin B-resistant gene (ophph) using the 2A-peptide sequence. The results showed that cbx cDNA and ophph can be successfully expressed in G. lucidum in a bicistronic manner from a single transcript. Moreover, the expression of both genes was not affected by the order within the 2 A cassette. In addition, simultaneous expression of cbx cDNA, ophph, and codon-optimized yellow fluorescent protein gene (opyfp) was conducted for the first time in G. lucidum using the 2 A peptide-based approach. The developed method was successfully applied to express both cDNA of the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (hmgr) and squalene epoxidase gene (se) for enhanced production of ganoderic acids (GAs) in G. lucidum. The engineered strain produced the maximum content of GA-Mk, GA-T, GA-S, and GA-Me were 26.56±3.53,39.58±3.75, 16.54±2.16, and 19.1±1.87 μg/100 mg dry weight, respectively. These values were 3.85-, 4.74-, 3.65-, and 3.23-fold higher than those produced by the control strain. The developed method will be useful for the manipulation of complex metabolic or regulatory pathways involving multiple genes in Ganoderma.

The shift towards a circular economy, where waste generation is minimized through waste re-use and the development of valorization strategies, is crucial for the establishment of a low carbon, sustainable, and resource-efficient economy. However, there is a lack of strategies for re-using and valorizing specific types of waste, particularly those containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), despite the prevalence of industrial activities that produce such waste due to their chemical and radiological hazards. Living organisms, including fungi, are valuable sources of bioactive compounds with various industrial applications. In this study, we assessed the growth and metabolic profile changes of three white rot fungi species in response to low concentrations of a uranium mine effluent containing NORM and metals to explore their potential for producing biotechnologically relevant bioactive compounds. The growth rate was assessed in three different culture media, with and without the uranium mine effluent (1% V/V)), and the metabolic profile was analyzed using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy. Results suggested an improvement in growth rates in media containing the uranium mine effluent, although not statistically significant. T. versicolor showed promise in terms of bioactive compound production. The production of droplets during growth experiments and significant metabolic changes, associated with the production of bioactive compounds like laccase, melanin, and oxalic acid, were observed in T. versicolor grown in mYEPDA with the uranium mine effluent. These findings present new research opportunities for utilizing waste to enhance the biotechnological production of industrially relevant bioactive compounds and promote the development of circular economy strategies for re-using and valorizing NORM-containing waste.

The production effect refers to the finding that words read aloud are better remembered than words read silently. This finding is typically attributed to the presence of additional sensorimotor features appended to the memory trace by the act of reading aloud, which are not present for items read silently. Supporting this perspective, the production effect tends to be larger for singing (the singing superiority effect) than reading aloud, possibly due to the inclusion of further sensorimotor features (e.g., more pronounced tone). However, the singing superiority effect has not always replicated. Across four experiments, we demonstrate a production effect for items read aloud but observe a singing superiority effect only when items are tested in the same color in which they were studied (with foils randomized to color). A series of meta-analytic models revealed the singing superiority effect to be smaller than previously thought and to emerge only when test items are presented in the same color in which they were studied. This outcome is inconsistent with common distinctiveness-based theoretical accounts.

Despite several accomplishments in addressing malnutrition, the issue of food scarcity remains a persistent concern all over the globe, particularly in the South Asian region. One recommended solution to address this situation involves advocating for further liberalization of global food trading and opening employment opportunities. In this context, using panel data spanning 2000-2019, this study makes a novel attempt to quantify the impact of agricultural trade openness and agricultural employment on food security in countries belonging to the South Asian region while controlling the tariff and agricultural production. Using \"Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS)\" and \"Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS)\" modeling, this article concludes that increased agricultural trade openness hinders food security in this region. Because, the member countries of South Asia are heavily reliant on food imports to meet their domestic needs, implying that the expenses of food imports exceed the potential benefits of increasing exports. Moreover, tariffs have a detrimental impact on food security in this region. However, production and employment in the agricultural industry augment earnings, strengthen the capacity to buy food, and ensure adequate nutrition intake over the long term. The study\'s findings suggest that these nations should prioritize food self-sufficiency to expand agricultural exports and lessen their reliance on imported food. More than that, economies should provide rewards to broaden their agricultural production locally, which aids in reducing hunger and uplifting food security.

South Africa is considered a food-secure nation; however, food insecurity is still a major challenge for many poor rural households that rely on cash incomes and government grants for survival. Furthermore, these grants are not always adequate to meet households\' basic needs, and fail to provide them with the food required for food and nutrition security. Some of these households rely on agriculture to supplement their food needs, and an important aspect of this agricultural production is the seed system. Smallholder farmers in rural areas rely on informal seed systems, and use traditional knowledge and methods to produce, harvest, store, and sell their produce. This research combined quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the role of informal seed systems in promoting food production in rural smallholder agricultural households in South Africa. The narrative review showed reword that while smallholder farmers acquire seed from informal seed systems, they face numerous challenges that affect their production activities. These challenges include poor seed quality and assessment, poor storage and harvesting facilities, which limit proper seed production, and affect crop yield and marketing. Due to these challenges, the ability of rural smallholder farmers to access mainstream markets is limited and as a result, they are confined to local markets that offer lower prices. Moreover, South African policies do not recognize the informal seed system as one of the contributors to food security. This is a major limitation as farmers may not receive the support and assistance they require. Formal recognition and support for informal seed systems would go a long way in improving smallholder farmers\' access to quality seed. This would have ripple effects on their yields and productivity. When properly implemented and given recognition by the government, informal seed systems have the potential to contribute to rural food security and livelihoods.

UNASSIGNED: Salicylic acid has shown promise in alleviating water stress in cultivated plants. However, there is a lack of studies confirming its effectiveness in cowpea plants grown in field conditions. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the use of salicylic acid as a water stress mitigator in cowpea cultivars under different irrigation depths in field conditions.
UNASSIGNED: Four cowpea cultivars (BRS Novaera, BRS Tapaihum, BRS Pujante, and BRS Pajeú) were subjected to different treatments: control (W100: 100% replacement of crop evapotranspiration - ETc), W50 (50% of ETc), W50+SA2 (50% of ETc + 276 mg L-1 of SA), and W50+SA4 (50% of ETc + 552 mg L-1 of SA). The treatments were combined in a 4×4 factorial scheme with three replications, arranged in a randomized block design.
UNASSIGNED: Water restriction had a negative impact on the water status, growth, gas exchange, and production of the cultivars while also leading to changes in the antioxidant metabolism and osmolyte concentration. The application of SA enhanced antioxidant activity and the synthesis of osmotic adjusters under stress conditions. The most effective concentration was 276 mg L-1 in stage R2 and 552 mg L-1 in stage V7, respectively. The BRS Pujante cultivar showed increased productivity under water restriction with SA application, while the BRS Tapaihum was the most tolerant among the cultivars studied.
UNASSIGNED: In summary, our findings underscore the importance of using SA to mitigate the effects of water restriction on cowpea cultivation. These discoveries are crucial for the sustainability of cowpea production in regions susceptible to drought, which can contribute to food security. We further add that the adoption of new agricultural practices can enhance the resilience and productivity of cowpea as an essential and sustainable food source for vulnerable populations in various parts of the world.

Cucumis metuliferus E. Meyer ex Naudin belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. It is an annual vegetable species known as horned melon or kiwano. Fruits are recommended for the daily diet because they provide vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals to alleviate malnutrition and improve human health. In this study, kiwano was cultivated in the climatic conditions of Southwestern Romania, which is characterized by warm summers, lower precipitation, and high temperatures, ensuring optimal conditions for growth and development. The fruits were harvested at three stages of consumption: immature stage (green), intermediate stage (white-yellow) or the mature stage (yellow-orange). They were also subjected to analysis on the productive yield and physical-chemical properties. The results showed that the number of fruits ranged from 13.9 to 15.3 fruits/plant, and their average weight had values from 204 g to 234 g, depending on the harvest stage. The results obtained for bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity indicated significant differences (p ≤ 0.05), depending on the harvesting stage. The highest values for the antioxidant capacity (140.90 μM TE/100g DPPH) and total polyphenols (48.78 TPC mg/100 g) were recorded in the immature fruit phase, as well as for the carbohydrate content (3.56%), total protein (1.98%), ascorbic acid (4.3 mg/100 g f.w.), and carotene (0.98 mg/100 g) in the mature fruit phase. These results may stimulate interest in the introduction of this species as a niche crop and for consumption as a source of natural antioxidants for the prevention of diseases due to oxidative stress.