Fresh bell peppers consumed in cities: Unveiling the environmental impact of urban and rural food supply systems.

Agriculture and its supply chain pose significant environmental threats. This study employs Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to explore the environmental impact of fresh bell pepper production and distribution, comparing Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UPA) with Rural Long-Distance Food Supply Systems (RLDFS). Four UPA scenarios (hydroponics, soil-based greenhouse, open-field conventional, and organic) and two RLDFS scenarios (soil-based greenhouse and open-field conventional) are evaluated using SimaPro, incorporating inputs from UPA practitioners and rural farmers. Results reveal an energy demand range of 0.011 to 5.5 kWh/kg eq., with urban greenhouses exhibiting the lowest consumption and hydroponics the highest due to lighting, ventilation, and irrigation. Hydroponics exhibits a global warming potential of 7.24 kg of CO2 eq·kg-1, with energy demand contributing over 95 %, surpassing other scenarios by 7-25 times, necessitating reduction for sustainability. RLDFS's environmental impact is dominated by transportation (over 70 %), meanwhile other UPA systems are influenced by irrigation, infrastructure, and fertilizers. Despite challenges, UPA-hydroponics proves to be 1.7 to 4.3 times more land-use-efficient than other scenarios, emphasizing its potential. The study highlights the need to address electricity usage in UPA-hydroponics for carbon footprint reduction. Despite challenges, hydroponics could contribute to sustainable food security, and RLDFS does not significantly lag in environmental performance compared to UPA other than Ozone layer depletion criteria attributed to fossil fuel usage in transportation. These insights offer valuable guidance for urban development and policy formulation, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and supporting policies for agronomic and supply chain sustainability.

Impact of learning effect on reliability factors and global indices in visual field testing by standard automated perimetry in normal healthy subjects and primary open-angle glaucoma patients to obtain an accurate baseline perimetry chart.

Purpose: To record and evaluate the reliability parameters (fixation loss (FL) %, false positive (FP) %) and global indices (mean sensitivity (MS), mean deviation (MD), pattern standard deviation in dB) in three visual field test sessions within two weeks to assess the learning effect in normal healthy subjects and POAG patients and comparison of learning effect gender wise and age wise in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. Methods: This study was a prospective observational study. An oculus visual field testing was done and analyzed in 30 eyes of POAG patients and 30 eyes of normal healthy subjects in three visits. Results: There were 16 (53.3%) males and 14 (46.6%) females in the POAG group and 16 (53.33%) males and 14 (46.66%) females in the normal healthy subject group. A significant difference in data change between each visit in FL, FP, MD, MS was found though the difference was more pronounced in the second visit than in the third visit. The pattern standard deviation does not change significantly in subsequent visits in both groups. Gender wise and age wise no significant difference was found in the POAG group. Conclusion: Significant improvement in reliability parameters and global indices with each subsequent visit in both the POAG group and normal patients signifies the importance of learning effect on these parameters and the need to perform at least three tests to get the baseline perimetry chart, especially in POAG patients, while in normal subjects, second perimetric result can be accepted. It was also concluded that the learning effect is not influenced by age and gender.