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Background: The common cat tapeworm, Hydatigera taeniaeformis, is widely distributed across many regions of the world but its global genetic diversity, ecology, and other biological features are not fully understood. The predator-prey relationship of felids and rodents sustains the transmission in both sylvatic and synanthropic or urban settings. This study was carried out in three urban market centres in Tamale, Ghana to determine the prevalence of H. taeniaeformis infection in urban rats and characterise the local population genetics using the mitochondrial nad1 gene sequences. Methods: From January to May 2023, rats were captured and euthanized to identity and isolate the H. taeniaeformis metacestodes. The full mitochondrial nad1 gene was amplified, sequenced and used to characterise the cestode population. Results: In total 64/80 rats from the three market centres were found naturally infected with metacestodes of H. taeniaeformis. Averagely, infected rats harboured two cysts with one exceptional case of 25 cysts in one liver. Each cyst harboured one metacestode. The DNA sequences revealed four haplotypes in a star-like distribution network across the three market centres. All four haplotypes were found to be unique, clustered with H. taeniaeformis sensu stricto (s.s.) global isolates and had only marginal variation among themselves. Conclusion: This is the first account of the genetic variability within H. taeniaeformis in Ghana and would contribute to ongoing and future studies on African regional biogeographic distribution of the common cat tapeworm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The common cat tapeworm, Hydatigera taeniaeformis, is widely distributed across many regions of the world but its global genetic diversity, ecology, and other biological features are not fully understood. The predator-prey relationship of felids and rodents sustains the transmission in both sylvatic and synanthropic or urban settings. This study was carried out in three urban market centres in Tamale, Ghana to determine the prevalence of H. taeniaeformis infection in urban rats and characterise the local population genetics using the mitochondrial nad1 gene sequences. Methods From January to May 2023, rats were captured and euthanized to identity and isolate the H. taeniaeformis metacestodes. The full mitochondrial nad1 gene was amplified, sequenced and used to characterise the cestode population. Results In total 64/80 rats from the three market centres were found naturally infected with metacestodes of H. taeniaeformis. Averagely, infected rats harboured two cysts with one exceptional case of 25 cysts in one liver. Each cyst harboured one metacestode. The DNA sequences revealed four haplotypes in a star-like distribution network across the three market centres. All four haplotypes were found to be unique, clustered with H. taeniaeformis sensu stricto (s.s.) global isolates and had only marginal variation among themselves. Conclusion This is the first account of the genetic variability within H. taeniaeformis in Ghana and would contribute to ongoing and future studies on African regional biogeographic distribution of the common cat tapeworm.

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In recent years, China has been at the forefront of the world in the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs). However, national financial subsidies for NEVs will be withdrawn at an accelerated pace with the marketization process. Regional policies have become key to compensating for this withdrawal; these policies can renew the development of NEVs. Therefore, this paper explores the endogenous power of NEVs in blooming from the urban level in China. We used the multiple linear regression method to examine the influence of market and policy and found that the most effective way to promote sales growth of NEVs is to combine both factors. In terms of the market, higher diversity and coverage will make regional competition fair and reasonable. In terms of policy, road priority policy is the main factor to promote sales growth, especially in the cities with license restrictions. Although the regional financial subsidy has declined, its role in increasing sales still exists. Fee relief has the weakest impact on sales and there is still much room for improvement. The findings of this paper provide a foundation for regional governments to develop better decision making strategies for promoting NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African urban market spaces are heavily congested and mostly unfavourable for mobility. Understanding this difficult terrain, human porters facilitate navigation of difficult layouts. They negotiate with buyers and carry their loads to the bus stops or car parks. Load carriers are of both sexes but very little has been empirically done to understand women as porters and the dynamics of their work as well as its organization. In this study, we interviewed 30 female porters in Bodija food market in Ibadan. Findings show that due to their fragile nature, light luggages are carried by women unlike men who carry bags of beans and rice. Variations exist in resumption and closing among women porters. There was seasonality in portage labour with high earnings at month end, weekends and during festivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing number of shopping centers day by day, the urban markets, whose visitors and popularities continue to increase, are the facts of urban life that have been left behind in terms of making even ordinary analyses on their historical positions and socio-economic stances. Urban markets are intense areas of socialization apart from all their important features. In this context, the quality and quantity of times spent in these areas should be configured in the best possible manner. The main subject of this study is the evaluation of the urban markets (district bazaar/street market), which is a subject worth to be examined in historical, architectural, economic, environmental, scientific and sociological aspects, specifically in Bilecik (Turkey), with regard to urban planning and design criteria. In the study, it is aimed to examine the study areas comparatively in line with the surveys that contain general questions that will determine the planning and design preferences applied to the users in two marketplaces in different parts of the city in Bilecik and the observation studies made in the market places. The gathered data were analyzed using normal statistical methods of the SPSS program. A set of urban market items were defined using the factor analysis in order for designating the main and underlying factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two proposed containers (50 kg-polypropylene sack and 50 kg-wooden crate) were compared with existing packaging containers (100 kg-polypropylene and jute sacks) to transport sweetpotato storage roots from major aggregation sites to distant urban market centers. The extent of breaks, bruises and the impacts, incurred by storage roots packaged in the different containers, were assessed. Additionally, at the urban market centers, the visual quality of the transported storage roots was evaluated by both aggregators and consumers. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) for each of packaging options was calculated to ascertain their profitability for sweetpotato roots transportation. The existing polypropylene/jute sacks resulted in significant major breakages in both years (p = 0.028, 0.016) after transportation for the Afram Plains-Accra route in truck. The donkey-driven carts or tricycles used for the Bawku-Bitou route did not show any significant (p > 0.05) influence on the storage roots contained in the existing polypropylene/jute sacks. The average impact recorded at both loading and offloading sites was significantly different (13.4 - 19.3 g vs. 0 - 30.0 g; p = 0.045) for all the containers. The proposed 50 kg-woodencrate had a significantly superior (mean rank of 127; p < 0.0001) visual quality compared with the other packages. All the packaging options showed profitability, because they had a BCR > 1.40, except for the 50 kg-wooden-crate. The 50 kg-polypropylene container delivered better quality roots to urban market centers than the existing packaging containers, and was more profitable than the 50 kg-wooden crates. The 50 kg-polypropylene container is recommended for the transport of sweetpotato storage roots in Ghana.

The urban Ibadan market is not only important for its economic value, but also for its representation of the worldview of the Yoruba people of South-Western Nigeria. Yoruba urban markets are adorned with different spiritualists who also earn their livelihood in the market space. Hence, through the employment of observations and in-depth interviews, the study examines how spirituality shapes child health and mothers' health seeking behaviours in Ibadan urban markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wet markets, a 'traditional' form of food retail, have maintained their popularity in urban China despite the rapid expansion of 'modern' supermarket chains. Their continued popularity rests in the freshness of their food. Chinese consumers regard freshness as the most important aspect of food they buy, but what constitutes 'freshness' in produce is not simply a given. Freshness is actively produced by a range of actors including wholesalers, vendors as well as consumers. The paper examines what fresh food means to consumers in the Chinese market. It argues that wet markets create a sense of freshness that resonates with this culinary culture through their sensoria, atmosphere, and trust between food vendors and consumers. Together these respond to desires for and reproduce criteria used to evaluate freshness. Within a fragmented food trade system, wet market vendors have an advantage in offering 'freshness' through their ability to connect various wholesalers, agencies, and middlemen, and shorten supply chains. The paper is based on participatory observation, a consumer survey and in-depth interviews of various stakeholders in southern China, especially Sanya in Hainan and Guangzhou in Guangdong. This study suggests that this cultural construction of freshness creates a niche for small-scale players and 'traditional' markets in an increasingly concentrated global food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two proposed containers (50 kg-polypropylene sack and 50 kg-wooden crate) were compared with existing packaging containers (100 kg-polypropylene and jute sacks) to transport sweetpotato storage roots from major aggregation sites to distant urban market centers. The extent of breaks, bruises and the impacts, incurred by storage roots packaged in the different containers, were assessed. Additionally, at the urban market centers, the visual quality of the transported storage roots was evaluated by both aggregators and consumers. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) for each of packaging options was calculated to ascertain their profitability for sweetpotato roots transportation. The existing polypropylene/jute sacks resulted in significant major breakages in both years (p = 0.028, 0.016) after transportation for the Afram Plains-Accra route in truck. The donkey-driven carts or tricycles used for the Bawku-Bitou route did not show any significant (p > 0.05) influence on the storage roots contained in the existing polypropylene/jute sacks. The average impact recorded at both loading and offloading sites was significantly different (13.4 - 19.3 g vs. 0 - 30.0 g; p = 0.045) for all the containers. The proposed 50 kg-woodencrate had a significantly superior (mean rank of 127; p < 0.0001) visual quality compared with the other packages. All the packaging options showed profitability, because they had a BCR > 1.40, except for the 50 kg-wooden-crate. The 50 kg-polypropylene container delivered better quality roots to urban market centers than the existing packaging containers, and was more profitable than the 50 kg-wooden crates. The 50 kg-polypropylene container is recommended for the transport of sweetpotato storage roots in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of globalization, every product is facing high level of competition as the market is becoming very unpredictable day by day. The predominant factor become how it is stand up to satisfy the consume and can survive with other product of same genre. So, priority is given, how a product is successful in its appeal to the consumer. In this fast changing and unstable market situation, when we concentrate deeply on market demand, we sometime became ignorant about our native product of significant potentiality. A little more nourishment can give that product a neck to neck competition with contemporary goods. In addition to that we have the age old historical heritage with this product, as earthen dolls in West Bengal. Earthen Doll is not only enriched with age old tradition, but also singular in its symbolic representation. We can derive the socio historical context through this art form, which can raise interest of different field of studies. A careful examination can turn the fate of clay doll art to its present miserable condition, shifting to prosperous product with cultural and economic importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the problems of assessing the market capacity in terms of commodity-monetary economy. The author determined peculiarities of studying the capacity of rural and urban markets within select areas. The study shows the changes of the degree of commodification of production in the USSR in 1923–1924 compared with the pre-war level using balance methods, and analyzing the volume and structure of incomes and expenditures. The article concludes that the changes were not organic but represent a transitory phenomenon associated with the disorder of the national economy

Médina J’dida, whose name means “new city”, is a retail market located in Oran’s downtown (Algeria) whose target groups are mainly popular and middle-classes. This market has undergone remarkable transformations under the influence of a transnational trade of low quality goods made in China. In relation with these dynamic trade flows, the area is under a deep urban renewal: the old urban fabric, composed with traditional and small shops in ancient low buildings, is demolished and replaced with new shopping malls which are best suited to new consumption modes and practices. Despite its peripheral situation in the national commercial organization, which is largely polarized by the huge import markets located in East Algeria, Médina J’dida is confirmed by non-hegemonic globalization as a commercial centrality with regional significance. It plays the role of a supply market in items made in China for all the western region of Algeria, and thus strengthens and refines the national trade network of items made in China.

Background: This study focuses on the large outdoor markets of the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. As the largest metropolitan area in Madagascar with a population of nearly two million, the region has great capacity for consumption of medicinal plant remedies despite numerous pharmacies. Medicinal plant use spans all socioeconomic levels, and the diverse metropolitan population allows us to study a wide variety of people who consume these plants for medical purposes. The purpose of this study is to identify and generate a list of medicinal plants sold in the traditional markets with a focus on those collected in the forests around Antananarivo, get an idea of the quantities of medicinal plants sold in the markets around Antananarivo, and assess the economy of the medicinal plant markets. Methods: In order to determine which medicinal plants are most consumed in Antananarivo, ethnobotanical enquiries were conducted in the five main markets of the capital city. Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted with medicinal plant traders, suppliers, harvesters and cultivators, with voucher specimens created from the plants discussed. Trade circuit information was established and the income generated by the trade of some of the species was assessed. Results: The inventory of the Antananarivo markets resulted in a list of 89 commercialized plant species. Ten of the 89 were mentioned by 60-100 % of vendors. Profitability for vendors is high and competitive with other salaried positions within Antananarivo. Transportation costs are also high and therefore lower profitability for other members in the supply chain. Conclusions: The markets of Antananarivo have always played a vital cultural role in the lives of urban Malagasy, but our study shows they also play an economic role not only for urban residents but rural harvesters as well. Continued research and monitoring of the non-timber forest products trade in Antananarivo is needed to better understand the impact of trade on the wild plant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the relevant international literature, as well as empirical research on urban cases, this article determines and discusses five core values of good urban governance: responsiveness, effectiveness, procedural justice, resilience, and counterbalance. The quest for good governance can take various forms. This article focuses on urban governance, and identifies four different shifts, with increased emphasis on the real decision makers or the ordinary citizens, with increased attention to selective choice or integrative deliberation as modes of urban governance. Urban governance and good urban governance are not synonymous. This article advocates critical reflection, moving beyond the performance bias that tends to accompany governance reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]