Introduction: Toward Algae-Based Products

The biologically active compounds (fatty acids, pigments, phenolics, and flavonoid content) were studied in supercritical fluid extracts from the biomass of marine (Ulva clathrata, Cladophora glomerata, Polysiphonia fucoides, and their multi-species mixture) and freshwater (C. glomerata) macroalgae. Different extraction techniques were used in order to compare differences in the biologically active compound composition of the macroalgal extracts. The results indicated that the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids ranged from C9:0 to C22:0. The analysis of differences in the composition of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids in extracts showed that palmitic acid (C16:0) and oleic acid (C18:1, n-9) reached the highest value not only in marine monospecies and multi-species biomass but also in the freshwater macroalga C. glomerata. When comparing the similarity between the concentration of fatty acids and the ratio of the concentration of unsaturated fatty acids to saturated in macroalgal extracts, we found small but not statistically significant variations in values between years (up to 10%). This is acceptable for applications as a stable raw material for industrial purposes. Significantly higher values of fatty acids, carotenoids, and chlorophylls were obtained in the case of SC-CO2 extraction. The active ingredients of polyphenols, possessing antioxidant activity ranged from approximately 2–4%. Moreover, flavonoids represented less than 10% of the total content of polyphenolic compounds. The extraction efficiency of polyphenols was higher from a mixture of marine algae for the ultrasound-assisted extraction compared to freshwater. All these findings show that marine and freshwater macroalgae, as a raw material, have the optimal biologically active compounds composition for cosmetics.

The Mekong Delta (MD) is the most important area for agriculture and aquaculture production in Vietnam, especially in terms of the production of rice, fruits, shrimp and catfish. However, intensification of rice and shrimp production on both alluvial soils and acid sulphate soils (ASS) has resulted in degradation of soil and water environments. Results of the studies on water quality showed that surface water in two branches of the Mekong River had high biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and nitrate concentrations, which exceeded the limits of the Vietnamese standard for surface water. In ASS areas, water in the canals showed high levels of aluminium, iron and manganese, and toxic metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, Nickel, Lead and Zinc. The concentrations of these metals were higher than that in non ASS areas. For shrimp cultivation, rice-shrimp and extensive shrimp systems were more sustainable in-terms of soil and water quality when compared to the intensive shrimp system. In ASS areas, shrimp cultivation had high risk of failure due to low pH and low alkalinity. Based on recent studies, rice rotation with upland crops and compost amendment were the best practices for maintaining soil fertility and improving rice yield in the intensive rice cultivation areas. Organic amendment also improved soil properties and fruit yields in fruit orchards. In intensive vegetable growing areas, soil available phosphate was very high due to high phosphate fertilization, therefore reducing P fertilizer application is a strategy to both save P resources and reduce production costs for farmers. Further studies on the approaches for sustainability in agriculture and aquaculture production in the MD are needed to adapt to climate change.

Marine biorefinery: an environmentally sustainable solution to turn marine biomass and processing wastes into value-added products and profits

Sustainable aquafeed and aquaculture production systems as impacted by challenges of global food security and climate change

Both aquaculture and agriculture are essential for food security in Europe, but they face different challenges and opportunities. A sustainable and balanced approach that considers both sectors is needed to ensure that Europe can meet its food needs while protecting the environment and promoting economic growth. This research is aimed at studying the economic analyses of the effect of aquaculture versus agriculture production on future food security in the EU27 region from the era between 1990 and 2023. Resolve challenges of endogeneity, employing econometric estimators such as the robust least squares (RLS), two-stage least squares (2SLS), and ordinary least squares (OLS), producing crucial insights. The analysis reveals that in the EU27 region, agricultural production has a higher impact than aquaculture production on influencing food security. Moreover, in the EU13 developing countries, aquaculture production has a higher impact on food security than in the EU14 developing countries. On the other hand, in the EU14 developed countries, agriculture production plays a significant role in food security in comparison with the EU13 developing countries. From another perspective, economic growth, governance, and fossil fuel consumption variables play a significant role in food security in the EU13 members compared with the EU14 members. Based on the study’s findings, policymakers in the EU27 region are advised to provide policies targeted at advancing the aquaculture sector top priority to achieve food security in the future, especially in EU14 developed countries. Additionally, this study suggests that decision-makers in the EU13 members need to improve the efficiency of agriculture production to meet the food security targets.

This study provides a sketch on the trends of domestic production and labor productivity in agriculture, industry and services sector of 155 countries from across the globe during the period of 1980 to 2012, while focusing mainly on the impact of income and size of the stated economies on their domestic productions and labor productivity. Findings confirm that the trend of production is decreasing for agricultural sector while increasing for service sector whereas, parabolic trend is found observed for it in industry sector, while the trend of labor allocations is found upward in industry and service sectors in contrast to downward trend in agricultural sector for all of the stated nations as the whole. It was noted that the average labor productivity was found with negative trend for all of the stated sectors. The findings further confirms that the income and size of the economies positively affect the productions in agriculture and industry sector substantially while manage to affect the service sector somehow as well. While the size of economy also effect the labor productivity in all of sectors of selected nations.

Sustainable Aquaculture Futures

Agriculture and aquaculture are indispensable for humanity. The majority of people are fed from these two sources and gain economic gain with these two sources. For this reason, scientific studies are constantly carried out in these fields and new techniques are determined. In this book titled Recent Applications and Biological Activities in Aquaculture and Agriculture, recent developments and basic issues are discussed by scientists specialised in aquaculture and agriculture. The safety of aquaculture and agricultural products, production techniques, innovative approaches and specific examples are described. Biological activities of medicinal and aromatic plants and aquaculture products are also included. Agricultural economics is explained with current applications. It is hoped that scientists working in these fields and all relevant institutions and individuals will benefit.

Aquaculture is one of the most developing sectors worldwide, and it contributes to enhancing the global production. The application of natural feed additives is an external source of aquaculture production due to the ban on antibiotics as a growth promotor as well as their harmful effects on the host, and cost‐effectiveness. Even consumer concerns those antibiotics can cause the water quality and growth instead of growth promoters of natural feed additives to improve the aquaculture production. The role of feed additives is to control the pathogenic microbes, enhance their growth, immune stimulation, and ensure water quality. For these reasons, several types of dietary feed additives are used in the livestock sector, such as essential oil, essential fatty acid, probiotics, prebiotics, symbiotic, and exogenous enzymes, but here, the feed additives of probiotics' most relevant applications in the aquaculture field in terms of modes of action such as strengthening the immune response, competition of binding sites, production of antipathogenic substances, and growth performance competition for nutrition are described. These additives are considered to be useful for their specific medicinal properties and eco‐friendly metabolism in the digestive system. This review describes the role of various feed additives and their relevance to aquaculture production quality.

Prevalence of Obesity Is Higher in Patients Admitted to an Acute Behavioral Hospital

Using locally available resources to sustain the local economy has been (and in some parts of the world still is) looked at as a valuable survival skill. The rising cost of finite petroleum resources have increased the demand for manufacture of products from abundant natural resources (such as agricultural or forest-based feedstock) and new resource-based economic development. The environmental consciousness resulted in pursuing more sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics, and from this viewpoint, many attractive properties of biopolymers inspired multiple big industry players in using them for the development of the materials of the future. One such example is the broad applications opportunities for chitin derivatives. Although chitin and chitin derivatives worth $63B worldwide there is not (yet) a single chitin production plant in North America. Another reason for the current limitations in utilizing chitin to its full potential is the process that is required to extract the chitin from raw biomass. The current process employs harsh conditions (acidic and alkaline treatment at elevated pressure and temperatures) which result in the degradation of the chitin structure, thus changing the properties of the biopolymer. Due to the aforementioned limitations, there is no surprise that chitin materials have not been previously produced and marketed. It is well known that ionic liquids (ILs) are great solvents when it comes to biomass processing, from lignocellulosic biomass to crustacean waste, with the vision that one day the ILs will replace the current chemical-, waste-, and energy-intensive processes. The annual available chitin in freshwater and marine ecosystems is roughly 600 and 1,600 million tons, respectively. Even though the United States is among the three largest seafood markets in the world, 85% of US seafood consumption depends on importation and only 5% is from US aquaculture production. Taking shrimp aquaculture for example; shrimp meat is pealed for food consumption, currently the main profit source, and the large amounts of shrimp shells are treated as waste and thrown away (at a cost), leading to environmental pollution. What if the shrimp shell waste is turned into valuable products and becomes the main source of profit? Chitin and its deacetylated derivative, chitosan can be manufactured into many forms (fibers, films, high surface area nanomats, beads, hydrogels) and can be used in different industrial sectors such as water treatment, food processing, agriculture, nutrition, cosmetics, and medical applications. Due to chitin’s non-toxicity, non-allergenicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and bioactivity, diverse medicinal applications of chitin include both pharmacological and biotechnological materials and products. Emerging end-use biomedical applications include organ dressings, vascular implants, burn dressings, structural surgical implants, bio-textiles, and bone growth scaffolds, among others. Chitin can provide millions of dollars in revenues and have a significant impact on the economy if it is effectively isolated and used in high value products. This presentation will discuss this one example that illustrates the importance of the IL research in shell waste biomass processing and ultimately in delivering materials suitable for a myriad of applications that are still to be discovered. Development of such technologies requires creative thinking, changing the way we look at existing technologies, and push society away from a dependence on oil that grows steadily. Figure 1

Purpose: this research study focused on analyzing the conditions of income distribution and the determinants of the low Gini coefficient, namely the sectors that have the highest contribution, including the industrial, agricultural and trade sectors and labor productivity in the industrial sector in Kepulauan Bangka Belitung Province.Methods: the income distribution phenomenon in Kepulauan Bangka Belitung Province during the 2007-2018 period became the basis for analyzing the determining variables of income distribution including the industrial sector, the agricultural sector, the trade sector and the industrial labor productivity. The income distribution indicator was measured from the Gini coefficient value using the Panel Data Regression approach to determine the effect of these variables on the Gini coefficient in all regencies / cities in the Kepulauan Bangka Belitung Province.Results: the results showed that the agricultural sector, industrial sector and trade sector had a negative and significant effect on the Gini coefficient. Meanwhile, labor productivity in the Industrial Sector had a significant positive effect on the Gini coefficient. The results showed that the determinant of income distribution was the agricultural sector. Further findings prove that the agricultural, industrial and trade sectors improved the income distribution.Conclusions and Relevance: this study implied for the efforts to increase the agricultural market orientation towards high productivity which was inversely contrast to the output of workers in the industrial sector proven to reduce income distribution. Therefore, the structural transformation towards industrialization and market-oriented efforts from the agricultural sector were necessary.

Feed additives are regarded as an essential component of the fish diet during the production of fish feed. The addition of feed additives to fish food is essential for enhancing the growth and immunity of farmed fish. This study’s objective was to conduct a comprehensive review of the Current Status and Trends in the Adoption of these fish feed additives for Sustainable Tilapia production. In this study, an exploratory research design was used to review and comprehend numerous peer-reviewed papers published in national and international publications on issues related to fish feed additives currently used in Tilapia aquaculture production and the current and future prospects of essential fish feed additives. Feed additives are ingredients that are added in minor amounts to fish diets to increase nutrient content and prolong shelf life. Preservatives, binders, feeding stimulants, and food coloring are frequent feed additives. In order to optimize the production of farmed fish, it is necessary to encourage the use of additives as aquaculture expands. The purpose of feed additives in fish feed is to promote healthier and more rapid fish growth in aquaculture. As a result, fish diets must include the proper amounts of feed additives. The findings imply that fish feed without feed additives is analogous to “a vehicle without fuel” and should be regarded as poor fish feed when fed to fish in an aquaculture system. The end consequence will be a low growth rate for fish, decreased disease resistance, and consequently low productivity in an aquaculture production system.

During fish feed production, feed additives are regarded as an essential component of the fish diet. The use of feed additives in fish feed is essential for boosting the growth and immunity of cultured fish. The aim of this study was therefore to make a comprehensive review of the Current Status and Trend in the Adoption of these fish feed additives for Sustainable tilapia production. An exploratory research design was used in the study to review and comprehend various peer-reviewed papers published in national and international publications on issues surrounding fish feed additives currently used in tilapia aquaculture production and the current and future prospect of essential fish feed additives in use. Feed additives are ingredients that are added in small quantities to fish diets to enhance nutrients and preserve the feed. Preservatives, binders, feeding stimulants, and food colourants constitute common feed additives. With increased growth in aquaculture, the use of additives must be promoted in order to optimize the production of farmed fish. The aim of feed additives in fish feed is to promote healthier and faster fish growth in cultured fish. As a result, fish diets should incorporate the right quantities of feed additives. The conclusions drawn succinctly suggest that fish feed with no feed additives is comparable to "a vehicle without fuel" and should be regarded as poor feed when fed to fish in a culture system. And the end result will be a poor fish growth rate, less resistance to diseases, and hence low productivity in an aquaculture production system.

This chapter discusses the situation of local algal-biomass production and its applications as well as the high-value biochemical compounds present in micro- and macroalgae, including their extractions and potential uses. Microalgae and macroalgae are well recognized in the food market and in agricultural and industrial sectors. Micro- and macroalgae are found in many parts of Thailand due to favourable climatic conditions. The chapter explains the locally grown strains of marine- and freshwater algae and their applications. In Thailand, freshwater macroalgae is much less popular than marine macroalgae. Marine and freshwater macroalgae are natural sources of carotenoids, polysaccharides and phenolic compounds, which exhibit antioxidant, antigastric ulcer, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and hypotensive activities, including anticancer and antimicrobial activities. In Thailand, microalgae are well known for two applications, namely, food supplements and feed additives for aquaculture. The trend in algal biotechnology research in Thailand has mainly shifted to molecular biological studies.