The craft settings in Kainua-Marzabotto: places and archaeological issues

Excavations in the Etruscan city of Marzabotto, the ancient Kainua, have brought to light a well-developed production structure over time which, especially for the Etruscan world, makes Marzabotto an especially favourable, paradigmatic context for the study of this particular aspect. Thanks to the contributions from the most recent investigations, together with the revision of older excavation data, this theme has in recent years benefitted from a series of updated considerations. The quality and variety of the data collected permits analyses from multiple points of view, not only on an architectural and urban planning level, but also on social, economic and political-institutional levels

Organizational Issues in the Agrifood Sector: Toward a Comparative Approach

Includes bibliographical references.This article outlines a research program comparing the economic organization of agriculture in the United States and European Union (EU). While both have highly developed agricultural sectors, there is substantial variation in organizational arrangements between and within the two. History and path dependence explain some of this variety, but other local conditions are important as well

Redesigning a food bank supply chain network, Part I: Background and mathematical formulation

Motivated by the increasing global interest in reducing food waste, we address the problem of redesigning a multi-echelon supply chain network for the collection of donated food products and their distribution to non-profit organisations that provide food assistance to the needy population. For the social enterprise managing the network, important strategic decisions comprise opening new food bank warehouses and selecting their storage and transport capacities from a set of discrete sizes over a multi-period planning horizon. Facility decisions also affect existing food banks that may be closed or have its capacity expanded. Logistics decisions involve the number of organisations to be supplied, their allocation to operating food banks and the flow of multiple food products throughout the network. Decisions must be made taking into account that food donations are insufficient and a limited investment budget is available. The paper is organised in two parts. In Part I, we propose a novel mixed-integer linear programming model that captures various practical features of a food aid supply chain. In particular, sustainability is explicitly accounted for within the decision-making process by integrating economic, environmental and social objectives. In Part II, a computational study is conducted to investigate the trade-offs achieved by considering three conflicting objective functions. Numerical results are presented for real-case based instances shaped by the food bank network coordinated by the Portuguese Federation of Food Banks

Characterization of yam-growing households in the project areas of Ghana

The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project was initiated to assess and understand yam-based systems in order to identify the opportunities of interventions that could potentially help to increase productivity in the region. The project consists of two phases: the inception and impact study phase. During the inception phase, a baseline study was conducted in different yam-growing communities aggregated on agroecological zoning into southern Guinea savanna (SGS), derived savanna (DS), and humid forest (HF). A complementary baseline survey was commissioned in addition to the substantive data collected within the same yam belt of Ghana aiming at measuring directly yam yield from farmers’ fields in order to get more accurate crop yield estimates. The baseline studies aimed at understanding farmers’ livelihoods in yam growing areas to increase agricultural productivity in Ghana, and serve also as benchmarks to assess changes brought about by the YIIFSWA project in future. The goal of the baseline surveys was to measure the key economic and social indicators before the major components of the project implementation. Data was collected by means of structured questionnaire and a set of qualitative interview questions for focus group discussions to capture household and community specific information. The intent of the survey was to sample households within the yam belt. The survey design was based on a multistage random sampling procedure, drawing on households from yam-growing areas of Ghana; thus 600 households were selected using a sampling frame developed by extension agents in collaboration with community heads as a source list

Livestock and resource management policy: Issues and priorities for research. Proceedings of the research planning workshop

This workshop was convened to help ILCA develop priorities and plan for research over the five year period, 1994-1998. The purpose of the workshop was to identify issues and priorities for research and training in the general areas of livestock and resource management policy, appropriate methodologies for research in these priorities, the role of ILCA in policy research and opportunities for collaboration with national and international institutes. The workshop addressed topics in the areas of trade and macro-economic policies, technology, policy, markets and institutions, and resource management policy

The making of religious heritage

The proliferation of religious heritage seems to flow self-evidently from the processes of de-churching and secularization taking place in many European societies. Although having become redundant or outdated, certain religious buildings, objects or practices may be revalued as religious heritage. This selective setting apart of religious places or practices considered ‘redundant’ as heritage – a value-adding process – involves a form of sacralization. Such processual perspective helps religious heritage to be seen as not just ‘existing’, but, like all heritage, as made. Importantly, the sacredness of religious heritage diverges from the sacredness of religion. With multiple sacralites attributed to it, religious heritage may speak to much larger and diverse audiences as global, national or cultural heritage

Key sources of operational inefficiency in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Purpose: This study explores the downstream Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC) and provides insight to the delivery process of medicines and associated operational inefficiencies. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory, qualitative approach was adopted to examine PSC inefficiency within two European contexts: the UK and Greece. Data was gathered through interviews and a thematic analysis conducted to analyse the data and identify challenges faced by both supply chains. Findings: The medicines delivery system needs to be enhanced in terms of quality, visibility, speed and cost in order to perform effectively. The findings demonstrated that although the healthcare supply chains in the two European contexts have different operational structures, the results are in concordance with each other. Financial, communication, waste and complexity issues were the major concerns. Research limitations/implications: To our knowledge this is the first study to examine aspects of the medicines supply chain via a cross-case analysis in the UK and Greece and extends the body of knowledge. A broader sample of responses is warranted to further validate these findings. Practical implications: The study outputs can inform pharmacies’ strategic to instigate targeted improvement interventions. The implications of which may be extrapolated further to other European healthcare organisations. Originality/value: This research contributes to the academic literature by adding further theoretical insights to supply chain strategy development, especially those that have been characterised as highly complex. The study identifies 4 key areas of intervention needed within this supply chain (in both countries) to promote higher level efficiencies and effectiveness

Key sources of operational inefficiency in the PSC

YesPurpose: This study explores the downstream Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC) and provides insight to the delivery process of medicines and associated operational inefficiencies. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory, qualitative approach was adopted to examine PSC inefficiency within two European contexts: the UK and Greece. Data was gathered through interviews and a thematic analysis conducted to analyse the data and identify challenges faced by both supply chains. Findings: The medicines delivery system needs to be enhanced in terms of quality, visibility, speed and cost in order to perform effectively. The findings demonstrated that although the healthcare supply chains in the two European contexts have different operational structures, the results are in concordance with each other. Financial, communication, waste and complexity issues were the major concerns. Research limitations/implications: To our knowledge this is the first study to examine aspects of the medicines supply chain via a cross-case analysis in the UK and Greece and extends the body of knowledge. A broader sample of responses is warranted to further validate these findings. Practical implications: The study outputs can inform pharmacies’ strategic to instigate targeted improvement interventions. The implications of which may be extrapolated further to other European healthcare organisations. Originality/value: This research contributes to the academic literature by adding further theoretical insights to supply chain strategy development, especially those that have been characterised as highly complex. The study identifies 4 key areas of intervention needed within this supply chain (in both countries) to promote higher level efficiencies and effectiveness

The Economic Impact of Agriculture and Forestry on the Commonwealth of Virginia

This study describes the contribution of the agriculture and forestry industries to Virginia\'s economy. The study relies on both published and unpublished data as well as literature that address trends in the agriculture and forestry industries. It makes use of input-output analysis to identify agriculture and forestry backward and forward linkages to other industries and institutions. It also provides separate estimates of agriculture and forestry impacts, impacts by industry groupings arranged by level of dependency on raw materials originating within the state, and impacts by region.agriculture, forestry, impact, input-output