The Rice Agri-enterprises’ (RAEs) Predictors of Success

Rey A. Castillo,Margie J. Clavano 아시아무역학회 2021 Journal of Asia Trade and Business Vol.8 No.1

Purpose - The agriculture industry is one of the prolific industries which play a significant role in the Philippine economy. As an important sector of this industry, rice is a staple food for over half the world’s population. However, this sector has faced many challenges such as lack of support, rural to urban migration, limited education, quality of inputs, unsatisfactory price, and lack of facilities, indicators of the “business as usual mentality” of the rice farmers. The study takes off from the idea that rice farmers must treat their farms as enterprises to address those challenges and become successful rice agri-enterprises. Design/Methodology/Approach - The study used the Theory of Firm as its theoretical foundation. It employed a Resource-Based View (RBV) and Industrial Organization (I/O) approach to assess the internal and external aspects of the enterprise. The methods used to attain the objectives of this study are descriptive-causal procedure, self-constructed survey questionnaire, sample size identification using Slovin s formula, stratified, cluster and purposive sampling techniques, and ordinal logistic regression. Findings - Results of the study revealed that internal variables such as Accounting for Agriculture, Farm Management, Farm Value-Adding Activities and Marketing of Farm Output still need to be implemented all the time; also, external variables such as Buyer Factor, Competition, Economic Factor, Enablers, Political Factor, Technological Factor and Supplier Factor are still needed to be considered all the time. Results revealed Farm-Value Adding Activities, Accounting for Agriculture, and Supplier Factor as predictors of success for the Rice Agri-Enterprise. Thus, the application of these variables with a focus on the predictor variables may address the challenges cited in this study and are expected to contribute to the success of the Rice Agri-Enterprises in Region XI. Research Implications - The study results will help rice-agri enterprises become successful by applying the predictor variables for success. The results are recommended to be adopted by government agencies and prepare targeted activities supporting these enterprises. Also, Higher Education Institutions offering business courses can develop programs and prepare course materials wherein findings of this study are considered.

Evaluation of two microcosm systems for co-treatment of LDPEoxo and lignocellulosic biomass for biochar production

Alejandra Castillo-Toro,Juan F. Mateus-Maldonado,Diana N. Céspedes-Bernal,Leonardo Peña-Carranza,Adriana I. Páez-Morales,Raúl A. Poutou-Piñales,Juan C. Salcedo-Reyes,Lucía A. Díaz-Ariza,Laura C. Casti 한국생체재료학회 2021 생체재료학회지 Vol.25 No.3

Background: The co-transformation of solid waste of natural and anthropogenic origin can be carried out through solid-state-fermentation systems to obtain bio-products with higher added value and lower environmental impact. Methods: To evaluate the effect of Pleurotus ostreatus on co-transformation of oxo-degradable low-density polyethylene (LDPEoxo) sheets and lignocellulosic biomass (LCB), were assembled two 0.75 L microcosm systems in vertical (VMS) and horizontal (HMS) position. The pre-treated sheets with luminescent O2 plasma discharges were mixed with pine bark, hydrolyzed brewer’s yeast and paper napkin fragments and incubated for 135 days at 20 ± 1.0 °C in the presence of the fungus. With the co-transformation residues, biochar (BC) was produced at 300 ± 1.0 °C (BC300) for 1 h, then used to carry out adsorption studies, using the malachite green dye (MG) at pH 4.0, 7.0 and 9.0 ± 0.2. Finally, the biochar was the substrate for the germination of carnation seeds (Dianthus caryophyllus) and Ray-grass (Lolium sp.) in vitro. Results: For HMS, the decrease in static contact angle (SCA) was 63.63% (p = 0.00824) and for VMS 74.45% (p =0.00219), concerning the pristine. Plastic roughness in VMS was higher (26%) concerning the control. Throughout the 135 days, there were fungal growth and consequently laccase (Lac), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase (LiP) activities. During the first 75 days, CO2 production increased to 4.78 ± 0.01 and 4.98 ± 0.01 mg g-1 for HMS and VMS, respectively. In MG adsorption studies, the highest amount of the colourant adsorbed at both pH 4.0 and 7.0 ± 0.2. Conclusions: Finally, the biochar or the biochar enriched with low concentrations of plant growth-promoting microorganisms and inorganic fertilizer favours the germination of Dianthus caryophyllus and Lolium sp., seeds.

Growth performance, carcass traits, muscle fiber characteristics and skeletal muscle mRNA abundance in hair lambs supplemented with ferulic acid

( Edgar Fernando Peña-torres ),( Candelario Castillo-salas ),( Ismael Jiménez-estrada ),( Adriana Muhlia-almazán ),( Etna Aida Peña-ramos ),( Araceli Pinelli-saavedra ),( Leonel Avendaño-reyes ),( Cin 한국축산학회 2022 한국축산학회지 Vol.64 No.1

Ferulic acid (FA) is a phytochemical with various bioactive properties. It has recently been proposed that due to its phytogenic action it can be used as an alternative growth promoter additive to synthetic compounds. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the growth performance, carcass traits, fiber characterization and skeletal muscle gene expression on hair-lambs supplemented with two doses of FA. Thirty-two male lambs (n = 8 per treatment) were individually housed during a 32 d feeding trial to evaluate the effect of FA (300 and 600 mg d^-1) or zilpaterol hydrochloride (ZH; 6 mg d^-1) on growth performance, and then slaughtered to evaluate the effects on carcass traits, and muscle fibers morphometry from Longissimus thoracis (LT) and mRNA abundance of β2-adrenergic receptor (β₂-AR), MHC-I, MHC-IIX and IGF-I genes. FA increased final weight and average daily gain with respect to non-supplemented animals (p < 0.05). The ZH supplementation increased LT muscle area, with respect to FA doses and control (p < 0.05). Cross-sectional area (CSA) of oxidative fibers was larger with FA doses and ZH (p < 0.05). Feeding ZH increased mRNA abundance for β₂-AR compared to FA and control (p < 0.05), and expression of MHC-I was affected by FA doses and ZH (p < 0.05). Overall, FA supplementation of male hair lambs enhanced productive variables due to skeletal muscle hypertrophy caused by MHC-I up-regulation. Results suggest that FA has the potential like a growth promoter in lambs.

Bovine Dialyzable Leukocyte Extract Modulates the Nitric Oxide and Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Production in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Murine Peritoneal Macrophages In Vitro

Cristina Rodriguez-Padilla,Moises A. Franco-Molina,Edgar Mendoza-Gamboa,Leonardo Castillo-Le?,Reyes S. Tamez-Guerra,Cristina Rodriguez-Padilla 한국식품영양과학회 2005 Journal of medicinal food Vol.8 No.1

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) released from Gram-negative bacteria after infection initiate an exagerated responsethat leads to a cascade of pathophysiological events termed sepsis. Monocytes or macrophages produce many of the media-tors found in septic patients. Targeting of these mediators, especially tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-. and nitric oxide (NO),has been pursued as a mean of reducing mortality in sepsis. Bovine dialyzable leukocyte extract (bDLE) is a dialysate of aheterogeneous mixture of low-molecular-weight substances released from disintegrated leukocytes of the blood or tissue lym-phoid. In this study, to determine whether bDLE modulates NO and pro-inflammatory cytokine production, murine peritonealmacrophages were treated with bDLE (0.05 or 0.5 U/mL) before LPS (20 mg/mL) stimulation, and also LPS-stimulated murineperitoneal macrophages were treated with bDLE (0.05 or 0.5 U/mL) at 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hours. The bDLE significantly de-creased NO production, and also decreased TNF-. and interleukin (IL)-6 but increased IL-10 production in LPS-stimulatedmurine peritoneal macrophages. Our results demonstrate that bDLE plays an important role in modulating TNF-., IL-6, andNO production through IL-10, and this may offer therapeutic potential in clinical endotoxic shock.

Characterization of CBD-CdSe1-ySy deposited at low-temperature for photovoltaic applications

J.I. Contreras-Rascón,J. Díaz-Reyes,J.E. Flores-Mena,M. Galvan-Arellano,L.A. Juárez-Morán,R.S. Castillo-Ojeda 한국물리학회 2015 Current Applied Physics Vol.15 No.12

We present the structural and optical characterization of cadmium selenide sulphur (CdSe1-ySy) deposited by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique at low-temperature (20 ± 2 ℃). The sulphur molar fraction is varied from 0 to 42.13%. The chemical stoichiometry is estimated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The CdSe1-ySy shows hexagonal wurtzite crystalline phase, which was found by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and it was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The average grain size of the CdSe1-ySy films was ranged from 1.20 to 1.68 nm that was determined by Debye-Scherrer equation from W(002) direction and it was confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). This average grain size indicates a high quantum confinement because of it is smaller than the Bohr radii of CdS (2.8 nm) and CdSe (4.9 nm). Raman spectra show two dominant vibrational bands about 208 and 415 cm-1 associated at CdSe-1LO-like and CdSe-2LO-like. By transmittance measurements at room temperature are found that the optical band gap energies vary from 1.86 to 2.16 eV in the range of investigated sulphur molar fraction. Room temperature photoluminescence shows radiative bands in the visible range and a dominant band in the UV range, approximately 3.0 eV, which can be associated with a radiative transition, bound exciton to donor impurity.