Metaphors are key to how children conceptualise the world around them and how they engage socially and educationally. This study investigated metaphor comprehension in typically developing Arabic-speaking children aged 3;01-6;07. Eighty-seven children were administered a newly developed task containing 20 narrated stories and were asked to point at pictures that best illustrated the metaphoric expression. The results were examined through a mixed ANCOVA, testing the effects of chronological age, metaphor type (primary, perceptual) and metaphor conventionality (conventional, novel) on metaphor comprehension. Children could understand some metaphors just after their third birthday, and their comprehension increased with age. Children’s performance was somewhat better on primary than perceptual, and much better on conventional than novel metaphors. These findings are discussed in light of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008) and structure mapping theory (Gentner & Markman, 1997), confirming differences in the acquisition of different metaphor types.

Declining nutrient densities of crops in the past 50–70 years have been attributed to unsound agricultural practices and plant breeding focus on yield rather than quality. Few studies have quantified the soil and nutritional quality of grains in organic and conventional farms and reported results are scarce and inconsistent. The Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial (FST) was established in 1981 to quantify the effects of long-term organic and conventional grain cropping systems and tillage practices. A 2014 study to quantify effects on the nutrient density of oat grains was integrated into three systems within the long-term trial: organic manure-based (MNR), organic legume-based (LEG), and conventional synthetic input-based (CNV), split between tilled (T) and no-till (NT) practices. Oat grains with hulls removed were analyzed for minerals (n = 24), vitamins (n = 24), amino acids (n = 24) and proteins (n = 24), while soil samples to a depth of 10 cm were analyzed for elemental minerals, and total carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S). Organic systems increased six out ten soil minerals whose concentrations were influenced by cropping systems: aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), calcium (Ca), barium (B) and strontium (Sr). All essential amino acids were greater in oat grains under LEG systems compared with other systems except lysine, histidine and methionine. Both LEG systems also increased 12 out of 13 non-essential amino acids in oat grains. Total oat N, C and S required for amino acid synthesis tended to be greater in organic systems. Soil N, C and S were highly correlated with total oat amino acids under organic systems compared to CNV. Organic LEG had significantly greater vitamin B1 than MNR and CNV. These results suggest that nutrient concentrations of oat grains were greater in organic systems compared to CNV systems, and the increase could be partially explained by the long-term soil management differences between the systems.

United States certified organic and conventional dairy farms are compared on the basis of economic, financial, and technological measures using dairy data from the 2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey. A stochastic production frontier model using an input distance function framework is estimated for U.S. dairy farms to examine technical efficiency and returns to scale (RTS) of farms of both systems and by multiple size categories. Financial and economic measures such as net return on assets and input costs, as well as technological adoption measures are compared by system and size. For both systems, size is the major determinant of competitiveness based on selected measures of productivity and RTS.

The intestinal tract is the entry gate for nutrients and symbiotic organisms, being in constant contact with external environment. DNA methylation is one of the keys to how environmental conditions, diet and nutritional status included, shape functionality in the gut and systemically. This review aims to summarise findings on the importance of methylation to gut development, differentiation and function. Evidence to date on how external factors such as diet, dietary supplements, nutritional status and microbiota modifications modulate intestinal function through DNA methylation is also presented.

Aberration in leptin expression is one of the most frequent features in the onset and progression of obesity, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear and need to be clarified. This study investigated the effects of the absence of gut microbiota on body weight and the expression and promoter methylation of the leptin. Male C57 BL/6 J germ-free (GF) and conventional (CV) mice (aged 4–5 weeks) were fed either a normal-fat diet (NFD) or a high-fat diet (HFD) for 16 weeks. Six to eight mice from each group, at 15 weeks, were administered exogenous leptin for 7 d. Leptin expression and body weight gain in GF mice were increased by NFD with more CpG sites hypermethylated at the leptin promoter, whereas there was no change with HFD, compared with CV mice. Adipose or hepatic expression of genes associated with fat synthesis (Acc1, Fas and Srebp-1c), hydrolysis and oxidation (Atgl, Cpt1a, Cpt1c, Ppar-α and Pgc-1α) was lower, and hypothalamus expression of Pomc and Socs3 was higher in GF mice than levels in CV mice, particularly with NFD feeding. Exogenous leptin reduced body weight in both types of mice, with a greater effect on CV mice with NFD. Adipose Lep-R expression was up-regulated, and hepatic Fas and hypothalamic Socs3 were down-regulated in both types of mice. Expression of fat hydrolysis and oxidative genes (Atgl, Hsl, Cpt1a, Cpt1c, Ppar-α and Pgc-1α) was up-regulated in CV mice. Therefore, the effects of gut microbiota on the leptin expression and body weight were affected by dietary fat intake.

To sustainably contribute to food security of a growing and richer world population, livestock production systems are challenged to increase production levels while reducing environmental impact, being economically viable, and socially responsible. Knowledge about the sustainability performance of current livestock production systems may help to formulate strategies for future systems. Our study provides a systematic overview of differences between conventional and organic livestock production systems on a broad range of sustainability aspects and animal species available in peer-reviewed literature. Systems were compared on economy, productivity, environmental impact, animal welfare and public health. The review was limited to dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs, broilers and laying hens, and to Europe, North America and New Zealand. Results per indicators are presented as in the articles without performing additional calculations. Out of 4171 initial search hits, 179 articles were analysed. Studies varied widely in indicators, research design, sample size and location and context. Quite some studies used small samples. No study analysed all aspects of sustainability simultaneously. Conventional systems had lower labour requirements per unit product, lower income risk per animal, higher production per animal per time unit, higher reproduction numbers, lower feed conversion ratio, lower land use, generally lower acidification and eutrophication potential per unit product, equal or better udder health for cows and equal or lower microbiological contamination. Organic systems had higher income per animal or full time employee, lower impact on biodiversity, lower eutrophication and acidification potential per unit land, equal or lower likelihood of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and higher beneficial fatty acid levels in cow milk. For most sustainability aspects, sometimes conventional and sometimes organic systems performed better, except for productivity, which was consistently higher in conventional systems. For many aspects and animal species, more data are needed to conclude on a difference between organic and conventional livestock production systems.

Potato production in several Mediterranean countries is focused on the ‘early’ crop type, and is generally associated with intensive applications of farming inputs. Here we report, for the first time, a comparison of crop performance between organic and conventional cultivation systems. Three cultivars were tested over two seasons (2007 and 2008) to record their phenology, yield and tuber chemical composition. The organic cultivation system was less productive than the conventional one across both years with respect to total yield, but in the season (2008) when late blight infection was not severe the difference was narrowed from 7% (Ditta) to 20% (MN 2-1577 S1). The Italian breeding clones (MN 1404 O5 and MN 2-1577 S1) deserve specific consideration due to their higher total yield and nutritional value (in terms of total protein and vitamin C content) under organic cultivation system than the cultivar Ditta. In addition, the organic farming produced tubers with a lower nitrate content, an important benefit in the context of human health. In conclusion, our results indicate that organic cultivation of ‘early’ potatoes can deliver acceptable agronomic and qualitative performances. However, the response of the ‘early’ crop potato to organic farming depends upon both seasonal conditions and cultivar choice. In particular, the selection of appropriate cultivars is one of the key aspects to optimize this environmentally friendly production system.

The present study was conducted in Magnesia Prefecture, central Greece, during the period May–June 2007. It aimed at the comparison between conventional and certified organic olive groves with regard to olive and olive oil production, diversity of plants (herbaceous and woody) and diversity and abundance of avifauna. Correlations between variables within herbaceous plants (linear regression) and woody plants (Principal Component Analysis), and the role of integration time of olive groves to the organic system were investigated. Also, finding easily measurable parameters indicating high bird diversity levels within organic and conventional management systems was a main target of the study. According to our findings, neither edible olive yield nor olive oil yield showed significant differences between conventional and certified organic olive groves. There is an increasing trend for alpha and beta diversity of herbaceous plant species, woody plant beta diversity, density and cover of woody plants, and density of breeding birds in certified organic olive groves (10 years) in comparison with conventional ones. The effect of time since the adoption of organic procedures is very important and produces benefits for the biodiversity. In the total olive groves 15 insectivorous, six granivorous and three insectivorous/granivorous birds species were recorded. Nine bird species distinguished by Ward's hierarchical clustering were identified as typical (indicator value, IndVal>50%) of specific farming systems. Among them, the Eurasian jay, associated with the 10-year certified organic olive groves, and the common cuckoo, Orphean warbler and Red-backed shrike, associated with the 6-year certified organic olive groves, should be regarded as characteristic species (IndVal>70%). Conclusively, organic farming favors some aspects of diversity of herbaceous and woody plants of olive grove ecosystems. On the contrary, similar effects on breeding bird diversity and density were not clearly recorded. However, breeding bird density proved a good indicator of their richness.

The concept of environmental sustainability is crucial for the development of human actions, and it is one of the most important concerns of the European Union that requires attention in all of the economic sectors. In particular, the potential environmental impact of livestock is well known and has been one of the most important constraints on the development of animal breeding in certain areas. The main aim of this paper is to compare the environmental impact of different poultry production systems: conventional, organic and organic-plus. Organic-plus has more restrictive requirements than the organic system for improving animal welfare (i.e., use of slow-growing strains and 10 m2 pasture/bird), and the quality of the product. For environmental evaluation, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used in this review, which is a method to evaluate the environmental impact of products, activities and services, based on a 'cradle-to-grave' approach. This article provides information for improving the environmental impacts in a process of assessing the sustainability that is specific for poultry production. An important recommendation can be drawn from this study: great attention has to be paid to the feed production phase, since it contributes more to the systems than animal rearing does to the environmental impact of the overall system. With reference to the comparison among the systems, our results show that the organic system has the best environmental performance because it not only has the lowest impact values for two of the most important impact categories (i.e., respiratory inorganics and fossil fuels), but it also has the lowest values for most of the remaining categories. LCA provides important data and specific indicators that can be used in a wider process for the analysis of sustainability, and to adapt and improve production systems. Taking into account the entire life cycle, the organic system has shown a better environmental performance than the organic-plus system. On the other hand, the organic-plus system improves animal welfare and meat quality, which are not considered by LCA. Therefore, to reach an equilibrium among all of these factors (namely environment protection, animal welfare and meat quality), it would be necessary to find a production system that conciliates them into one coherent scheme.

CLA levels and fatty acid composition were measured to compare the fat composition in organic bulk milk, destined to the production of Grana Padano cheese, with those produced by conventional system. The curds and Grana Padano cheeses were also analysed to evaluate the effects of the production technology on the CLA content. All analysed organic samples were characterized by higher annual means of CLA, vaccenic acid (TVA) and linolenic acid (LNA) in comparison with conventional samples (with P<0·05). Nevertheless, no particular effect of the production technology was seen on the CLA content. The animal diet appears to be the factor which has the highest effect on the CLA concentration in milk and milk products and an organic diet based on fresh or dried forage, that is rich in CLA precursory fatty acids, may improve the yield of fatty acids with beneficial effects on health.