Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) has been cultivated as a food crop for at least 3500 years. It is a great source of protein and widely consumed in South Asia, as well as Asia as a whole, Africa, and Latin America. Researchers in Kenya point out that land degradation and drought conditions can seriously constrain agricultural production in arid and semi-arid areas. However, even without significant rain there can be bumper harvests of this crop plant.

The researchers have looked at the yields of sole- and inter-crops of maize and pigeon ea varieties under different weather conditions over the period 2009 to 2013 and found that harvests where the Mbaazi II strain of pigeon pea was intercropped with maize offers the best option for marginal farmers especially if water conservation methods are employed and excess crop and waste plants parts are ploughed back into the soil rather than being fed to livestock.

Kwena, K.M., Ayuke, F.O., Karuku, G.N. and Esilaba, A.O. (2018) 'No rain but bumper harvest: the magic of pigeonpea in semi-arid Kenya', Int. J. Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp.181–203.
DOI: 10.1504/IJARGE.2018.10015157

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Your smartphone could be used to monitor your level of activity – whether you are running, walking or standing, according to research in China. The benefits might be in healthcare, checking up on patients with mobility issues of fall risk as well as in health and fitness apps that allow the user to set targets for different levels of activity.

The team has developed a two-stage method for analyzing the data from the smart phone's built-in accelerometer. The team's algorithm looks at the acceleration in three dimensions, x, y, and z and can then determine whether the person carrying the phone is running, walking, or standing with an accuracy of more than 97%. The next steps will include improving accuracy still further as well as developing the technology so that it can distinguish other physical actions, perhaps sporting activity such as cycling or rowing.

Ali, S.A. and Amin, R.U. (2018) 'A two-phase human activity classification design using accelerometer data from smartphone', Int. J. Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.281–291.
DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2018.10015231

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Researchers in India have reviewed the potential of using Brassica plants (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, rape, kohlrabi, cauliflower, rutabaga, brown mustard, and turnip) as biological processors for the environmentally friendly reduction of silver and gold to nanoparticles of those metals.

Engineered nanoparticles can be made using various physical and chemical "bottom up" approaches as well as biological methods. Bacteria, fungi, and yeasts have been used to make nanoparticles, but there is great potential for a wide range of crop plants to be used too. The approach offers great cost savings versus physical and chemical methods and the resulting gold and silver nanoparticles have been demonstrated to have antibacterial and even anticancer activity.

Yadav, M. and Kaur, P. (2018) 'A review on exploring phytosynthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles using genus Brassica', Int. J. Nanoparticles, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.165–177.
DOI: 10.1504/IJNP.2018.094033

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A narrow interpretation of the term "crisis" in the context of refugees and migrants seeking a new home in the European Union and EU border control regimes could have grave consequences of the lives of many people, according to research from Italy.

Moreover, the intense public debate on the "crisis" has not allowed the public and policymakers alike to recognize that the crisis is not a manifestation of external factors but a problem arising because of the intrinsic weaknesses in the EU border control regime and political instability in the Mediterranean region.

"The ongoing crisis at Europe's borders can be seen as an ‘epistemic crisis', signalling the contradictions and fluidity in the language and labels used when discussing human mobility and its governance," it is argued.

Campesi, G. (2018) 'Crisis, migration and the consolidation of the EU border control regime', Int. J. Migration and Border Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.196-221.
DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2018.10015056

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In 2014, Indonesia introduced National Health Insurance. One of the goals of the new program was to increase the use of generic, rather than expensive proprietary pharmaceuticals. In 2011, generic use was low at 14% whereas policymakers and purse-string holders felt that if the use of generics was broadened much greater savings could be made. A large survey of patients revealed that information from one's physician has the biggest effect on whether or not patients opt for a generic version of the medication they require. Additionally, experience with a given pharmaceutical also has a significant impact on whether or not the generic drug is chosen in preference to the proprietary product.

Generic drugs are essentially identical to the products offered by large drug companies even after the drugs' patents have long expired with one important difference that has an even more significant effect in the developing world – they are cheaper. It is critical that policymakers and healthcare workers push for greater use of generics products in order to cut the healthcare bill and allow healthcare to be more widely available through those cost savings.

Amelia, A. and Ronald, R. (2018) 'Generic drug in Indonesia: why physicians and pharmacists matters', Int. J. Monetary Economics and Finance, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.307–315.
DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2018.10006628

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Researchers in The Netherlands and Italy are developing a new approach to identifying and providing prioritized regulatory follow-up actions for new or emerging chemical risks. The approach could benefit workers, consumers, and the environment. The team describes their approach as "a comprehensive and systematic approach for the identification of new or emerging risks of chemicals".

First, new information is assimilated, then exposure and adverse effects are evaluated and prioritized, and where a problem is apparent an analysis of regulatory risk management options is undertaken so that timely recommendations of follow-up steps can be carried out to reduce or eliminate putative risks for a given substance.

L.G., Hogendoorn, E.A., Bakker, J., van Broekhuizen, F.A., Palmen, N.G.M., de Bruin, Y.B., Kooi, M., Sijm, D.T.H.M. and Traas, T.P. (2018) 'An approach to identify, prioritise and provide regulatory follow-up actions for new or emerging risks of chemicals for workers, consumers and the environment', Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp.248–269.
DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2018.093763

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Do attractive celebrity figures have more influence on public opinion than experts when it comes to consumer fashion choice? Given that influencer marketing is on the rise - essentially exploiting word-of-mouth from the words of well-known and favoured individuals - then understanding whether or not this kind of marketing is more effective when the influencer is a celebrity or a well-known fashion expert is an important topic of research for the fashion industry.

Researchers in India have surveyed several hundred individuals in the "Generation Y" cohort, those born after 1980, and looked at how they made their fashion choices in the wake of following celebrities and fashion experts on social media. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the research established that attractive celebrity influencers have a much greater impact on the choices made by Gen Y individuals over fashion experts, pointing to the seemingly obvious idea that attractive celebrities can be used to market products more effectively than the less famous but more expert individual.

Trivedi, J.P. (2018) 'Measuring the comparative efficacy of an attractive celebrity influencer vis-à-vis an expert influencer - a fashion industry perspective', Int. J. Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.256-271.
DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2018.10014889/IJ

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A significant problem in computer graphics and digital photography is the presence of high-frequency "noise" in an image, which occurs in the form of random speckles or aberrant pixels that reduce the overall information content of the image especially when magnifying particular regions of the image for examination. The effect is manifest as a phenomenon known as aliasing and anti-aliasing techniques and filters are available to cope with it…to some extent.

Now, researchers in China have developed a new algorithm that utilises the distributed resources of cloud computing to sample blue noise and prevent image-distorting aliasing effects in a digital image. Their approach shows significant performance gains over conventional error-resilient encoding methods and native redundant encoding methods, they report.

Zhan, A., Hu, Y., Yu, M. and Zhang, Y. (2018) 'A blue noise pattern sampling method based on cloud computing to prevent aliasing', Int. J. Innovative Computing and Applications, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp.173-179.
DOI: 10.1504/IJICA.2018.10014862

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Researchers in Spain are developing a tool to measure the personal and interpersonal skills of individuals who have engaged in experiential learning based on outdoor training and mindfulness. Employees, master’s and undergraduate students were evaluated looking at teamwork, communication, leadership, motivation, stress tolerance, organisation and planning, responsibility, and analysis, resolution and anticipation of problems.

The success of the tool highlights how important it is in the workplace and in the educational environment to evaluate "competencies" being taught.

del Val Núñez, M.T., Romero, F.J.C., Sánchez, R.C. and Aránega, A.Y. (2018) 'Developing management skills through experiential learning: the effectiveness of outdoor training and mindfulness', European J. International Management, Vol. 12, Nos. 5/6, pp.676–694.
DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2018.10014751

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Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women. Mammography is the best imaging technology for early detection of tumours in breast tissue.

Now, researchers in India have developed a new approach to the classification of abnormalities in the breast using a decision tree based on GLCM (grey level co-occurrence matrices). This allows useful texture and statistical features to be extracted from a medical image based on the pixel "brightness" value in the digital image.

In the new approach noise is reduced following data acquisition using pre-processing and then the image is examined using the GLCM technique to help discern between benign and malignant tissue seen in the mammogram.

Kamalakannan, J. and Babu, M.R. (2018) 'Classification of breast abnormality using decision tree based on GLCM features in mammograms', Int. J. Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp.504–512.
DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2018.10013711

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