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The discretisation scheme presented for an unstructured triangular grid, is able to reflect the physical properties of stationary, nonlinear heat conduction even in the numerical case and leads to a stabilisation of iterative solution techniques for nonlinearities.

The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model has been used to claim that genetically modified (GM) crops have substantial positive welfare potential for sub‐Saharan Africa. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine these claims with a view to seeing if this type of modelling provides any meaningful basis for agricultural policy recommendations.

One particular study is examined to show that because any possible negative effects of GM foods are ignored, optimistic assumptions are made about increases in productivity and trade, and selective scenarios are used, the modelling must, perforce, result in positive welfare effects.

It is found that, because of the assumptions of the study and the restricted scenarios investigated, all the modelling can do is estimate the size of the supposedly positive benefits. A negative outcome is not possible.

It is argued that the GTAP model is inappropriate for sub‐Saharan Africa and that the sweeping conclusions from this type of stylised modelling trivialize the complex poverty and socio‐economic problems of sub‐Saharan Africa.

It is demonstrated that, in this case, the GTAP model is not only redundant, but also can yield risky policy recommendations for sub‐Saharan Africa as it affects not only the livelihoods of millions of poor Africans but the ecological balance, biodiversity and economic independence of these nations.

Genetically modified (GM) food is currently being intensely debated in Ireland and throughout Europe. Academic scientists are important players in both the public discourse and in the public policy formulation process. This paper reveals and explores the perceptions and attitudes of Irish university based academic scientists to issues regarding GM food. Most notably, 79.1 per cent of respondents stated that there should be no immediate complete ban of all GM foods and their production. The majority of respondents (70.1 per cent) believed it unlikely that within the next 20 years a substantial reduction in world hunger would occur, due to developments within modern biotechnology. Important opinions and standpoints of Irish academic scientists, which the public, industry and policy makers often look to for informed opinion on matters of a scientific content, are discussed. Results also show that the Irish Science community representatives’ pro‐GM food stance at the National Public Consultation process was justified as it reflected the majority view among respondents.

Based on empirical data, this study investigates the intention of BA/BSc students in higher education to either pursue their studies or start working.

This paper analyses how students' attitudes towards higher education and studying (quality of undergraduate education and performance in higher education), as well as the intention to meet labour market needs, influence the decision of pursuing studies in a Master's programme.

The main reason why respondents do not intend to pursue their studies is not because they do not want to work. It is primarily the acquisition of knowledge and the motivation to learn that encourages students to stay in higher education. Moreover, individual performance in Bachelor programmes has no influence on the decision made by students to study or work after graduation.

As for the limitations of the study, the authors have to mention that although the survey is based on data from a single country, the similarity of the international and Hungarian previous research results suggests that similar results would have been obtained in an international sample. Furthermore, the impact of the current ongoing epidemic on the further learning of young people in tertiary education at primary level could not be investigated by the authors.

The bivariate logistic regression results show that the correlation between secure job placement in a field of study and the quality of education is not significant. Furthermore, students are primarily motivated by the desire to learn and acquire knowledge. The reasons can therefore be explored based on the analysis of more detailed data, which could be the subject of a subsequent study.

The authors conducted their research in Hungarian higher education at seven universities between 2019 and 2020 to determine the influencing factors of career choice decisions, the degree of students' satisfaction with their selected course, their attitude towards higher education and learning, their job opportunities after graduation and the extent to which their decision is made according to their labour market orientation. Although the study relies on data from a single nation, the similarity between the findings of previous international (Hovdhaugen and Ulriksen, 2021; Sikyr et al., 2019); and Hungarian (Berezvai, 2022; Kiss and Varga, 2022) research suggests that an international sample would have produced similar results.

Soybean has great nutritional potential. Its high protein content makes it an alternative protein source to milk in situations where milk cannot be used due to allergic reactions or intolerance. However, the potential benefits of soybean might be limited by the presence of antinutritional factors, including trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA). The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of dehulling and germination on the nutritive value of the soy flour and on the factors that could negatively affect the nutritional potential of the bean.

Soybean seeds were soaked for 24 h and allowed to germinate for one to three days. Soaked soybeans were manually dehulled and the flours obtained were evaluated for nutritional and antinutritional factors.

Dehulling and germination produce significant increase in crude protein and crude fiber and ash content (p = 0.05). Crude fat and starch content decreased, but the reduction was insignificant. Trypsin inhibitor levels were significantly lower after germination and dehulling of the seeds (p = 0.05).

Dehulling and germination are cost-effective processing techniques to improve the nutritional quality of the legume.

This paper examines the attitudes of young Greek University students towards genetically modified (GM) foods and studies the effect of appropriate information in shaping this attitude.

A questionnaire was distributed to 433 Greek students of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens during the academic year 2003‐2004. Results were processed by SPSS 11.0.

The survey reveals that although Greek University students are more informed than the general population about genetic modification issues, still a large proportion (48 per cent) are unaware of what is exactly a GM plant and 55.3 per cent believe that GM foods may impose risks for public health and the environment. However, after reading a short informative statement the “negative” attitude of respondents is decreased by 15.5 percentage units and the “positive” attitude is increased by 13.2 percentage units. These results show that appropriate information could affect the acceptability of a technological innovation. Future research is required to investigate how scientists could intervene in order to make the GM issue clear on a scientific basis.

The findings of this study could be useful to those who are seeking to elucidate the complex issue of GM food acceptance and have an interest in establishing communication between the scientific community and the public, such as regulatory authorities, the industry or academics.

Establishes what is meant by the term “genetic modification” and reviews the many methods used in agriculture to achieve it, including traditional breeding techniques and new, artificial recombinant DNA technologies (“new GM”). Argues strongly that it is important that neither side of the debate resorts to over‐simplified generalizations about the “new GM” but that each new development needs to be treated on its own, scientific, merit. Expresses concern that if politically pragmatic strategies are not developed on that basis, the opportunities presented by new GM technologies could be permanently lost.

Tuber crops are extremely important for humans, being extensively used in many cultures and mainly in poor and developing countries. Tanias (Xanthosoma Schott) belong to the Aracea family and have been commonly used as a staple food since pre‐Columbian times. Nowadays, tanias are integrated in the staple diet of several countries in the Americas, West Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In order to shed light on their potential and possible risks for human nutrition, nutritional and anti‐nutritional evaluations of different compounds synthesized by tania corms were carried out by using seven tropical species.

Classical analyses for non‐structural carbohydrates and nitrogenated compounds as well inhibitory assays towards α‐amylases and proteases were employed.

Tests for quantitation of reducing sugars, soluble polysaccharides, free amino acid content and total protein amounts presented variable scores among studied species. Nevertheless, the amounts of non‐starchy polysaccharides and sugars were less than those observed in other tuber crops, such as potato, cassava, sweet potato and yam. Otherwise, when anti‐nutritional compounds were evaluated, no digestive enzyme inhibitory activity was detected in performed assays. Moreover, Xanthosoma atrovirens, Xanthosoma brasiliense and Xanthosoma mafaffa showed agglutination activity towards blood type B, probably due to the presence of lectins.

In summary, data here presented suggest that it is not possible to indicate a single tania candidate as the best choice for human consumption.

The paper presents a pioneer comparison of nutritional and antinutritional compounds between different species of tania corms.