Certify or not? An analysis of organic food supply chain with competing suppliers

Customers expect companies to provide clear health-related information for the products they purchase in a big data environment. Organic food is data-enabled with the organic label, but the certification cost discourages small-scale suppliers from certifying their product. This lack of a label means that product that satisfies the organic standard is regarded as conventional product. By considering the trade-off between the profit gained from organic label and additional costs of certification, this paper investigates an organic food supply chain where a leading retailer procures from two suppliers with different brands. Customers care about both the brand-value and quality (more specifically, if food is organic or not) when purchasing the product. We explore the organic certification and wholesale pricing strategies for suppliers, and the supplier selection and retail pricing strategies for the retailer. We find that when two suppliers adopt asymmetric certification strategy, the retailer tends to procure the product with organic label. The supplier without a brand name can compensate with organic certification, which leads to more profits than the branded rival. As the risk of being abandoned by the retailer increases, the supplier without a brand name is more eager than the rival to obtain the organic label. If both suppliers certify the product, however, they will fall into a prisoner’s dilemma under situation with low health utility from organic label and high certification cost

Impact of physical activity on inflammation: Effects on cardiovascular disease risk and other inflammatory conditions

Since the 19th century, many studies have enlightened the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis, changing our perception of "vessel plaque due to oxidized lipoproteins", similar to a "rusted pipe", towards a disease with involvement of many cell types and cytokines with more complex mechanisms. Although "physical activity" and "physical exercise" are two terms with some differences in meaning, compared to sedentary lifestyle, active people have lower cardiovascular risk and lower inflammatory markers. Activities of skeletal muscle reveal "myokines" which have roles in both the immune system and adipose tissue metabolism. In vitro and ex-vivo studies have shown beneficial effects of exercise on inflammationmarkers. Meanwhile in clinical studies, some conflicting results suggested that type of activity, exercise duration, body composition, gender, race and age may modulate anti-inflammatory effects of physical exercise. Medical data on patients with inflammatory diseases have shown beneficialeffects of exercise on disease activity scores, patient well-being and inflammatory markers. Although the most beneficial type of activity and the most relevant patient group for anti-inflammatory benefits are still not clear, studies in elderly and adult people generally support anti-inflammatoryeffects of physical activity and moderate exercise could be advised to patients with cardiovascular risk such as patients with metabolic syndrome

Determination of the amount of irrigation water and interval for cotton with the pan-evaporation method [Pamukta uygun sulama dozu ve araliginin pan-evaporasyon yontemiyle belirlenmesi]

This study was conducted to determine the amount of irrigation water and interval of cotton irrigated by the drip system with the pan-evaporation method. The amount of irrigation water applied was based on free surface evaporation from a screened Class-A Pan. Irrigation treatments consisted of two different irrigation intervals (11: 5; 12: 10 days), and three plant-pan coefficients (Kcp1: 0.75, Kcp2: 0.90, Kcp3: 1.05) and two different wetted percentages (P1: 0.70 and P2: based on the cover percentage of the crop). According to the results, seasonal irrigation water varied from 322 to 472 mm; seasonal Et was 449 to 615 mm; and the cotton yield varied from 1970 to 4220 kg per hectare. Although the effect of irrigation intervals and wetting percentages on cotton yield were not significantly different, plant-pan cofficients in the first year and P-Kcp interaction in the second year were significantly different at a 5 % level among the treatments. The results revealed that cotton can be irrigated with drip systems using a 10 day interval, Kcp 0.90 or 1.05 (mean: 1.00) and P based on the actual cover percentage of the crop

Determination of the effects of different irrigation programs on water consumption in different soil layers and root growth of cotton [Damla sisteminde farkli sulama programlarinin pamuk bitkisinin degisik toprak katmanlardaki su tuketimine ve kok gelisimine etkilerinin belirlenmesi]

This study was conducted to determine of the effects of different irrigation programs on water consumption in different soil depths and root growth of cotton. The amount of irrigation water applied was based on free water surface evaporation from a screened Class-A Pan. Irrigation treatments consisted two different irrigation intervals (11: 5; 12: 10 days), and three plant-pan cofficients (Kcp1: 0.75, Kcp2: 0.90, Kcp3: 1.05) and two different wetted percentages (P1: 0.70 and P2: based on cover percentage of crop). According to results it was determined that plant water consumption of 42% and root growth of 65% were in 30 cm soil layer. The plant water consumptions and root growth were affected by irrigation intervals, plant-pan cofficients and wetted percentages. On the other hand, under the same conditions, when drip irrigation was used, wetted depth for cotton may be 108 cm

Metabolic and cardiovascular effects of berberine: from preclinical evidences to clinical trial results.

Berberine is a plant alkaloid with various biological activities. A large body of literature support different pharmacological actions of berberine that could be interesting in the management of metabolic diseases associated with high cardiovascular disease risk, such as mixed hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes. Numerous preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies support all these effects. Moreover, it seems that berberine also exerts anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative effects that could play a role in the development of atherosclerosis and its clinical consequences. Recently, the metabolic effects of berberine have also been demonstrated in humans, opening new perspectives for the use of this molecule in patient therapy. Larger and longer studies need to be carried out to implement the definition of the therapeutic role of berberine in humans

Natural sources of antidyslipidaemic agents: is there an evidence-based approach for their prescription?

Numerous randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have confirmed the antidyslipidaemic activity of different dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and herbal remedies. International guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention have begun to consider dietary supplements as an evidence-based approach to improve patients\u2019 plasma lipid levels. They already suggest to increasing or supplementing the dietary intake of soluble fibre (especially psyllium), soy proteins, plant sterols, niacin, and fish oil. Among the nutraceuticals, mevacoline and policosanol are both able to reduce plasma LDL-C by a mean of 20%. A preliminary clinical study of berberine has shown it to be the most powerful antihyperlipidaemic natural compound, reducing plasma LDL-C by 25% and triglycerides by 35%. Among the herbal remedies, several placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials have confirmed the anti-Numerous randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have confirmed the antidyslipidaemic activity of different dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and herbal remedies. International guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention have begun to consider dietary supplements as an evidence-based approach to improve patients\u2019 plasma lipid levels. They already suggest to increasing or supplementing the dietary intake of soluble fibre (especially psyllium), soy proteins, plant sterols, niacin, and fish oil. Among the nutraceuticals, mevacoline and policosanol are both able to reduce plasma LDL-C by a mean of 20%. A preliminary clinical study of berberine has shown it to be the most powerful antihyperlipidaemic natural compound, reducing plasma LDL-C by 25% and triglycerides by 35%. Among the herbal remedies, several placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials have confirmed the antihypercholesterolaemic, and antihypertriglyceridaemic properties of aged garlic powder, artichoke leaf extracts, guggul, and fenugreek. Single small clinical trials have also suggested that Korean ginseng, green tea, onion, yarrow, holy basil and arjun have an antihypercholesterolaemic effect

Effects of different drip irrigation programs on the boll number and shedding percentage and yield of cotton

This study investigated the effects of different drip irrigation programs on boll number, shedding percentage, and yield of cotton. The amount of water used was based on free surface evaporation from a screened class-A pan. Irrigation treatments consisted of two different irrigation intervals (I1: 5 days; I2: 10 days), three plant-pan coefficients (Kcp1: 0.75; Kcp2: 0.90; Kcp3: 1.05) and two different wetting factors (P1: 0.70 (constant) and P2: based on cover percentage of the crop). The first irrigation was carried out when the available water in the 120 cm of the soil profile was at the 40% level. The results revealed significant linear relationships between cotton yield-irrigation water and boll number-shedding percentage. On the other hand, the shedding was decreased by increasing the amount of applied irrigation and irrigation interval. Therefore, the yield increased by increasing the boll number. Furthermore, it was found that there was a significant (P < 0.01) inverse linear relationship between the shedding rate and boll number. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved