Factors Affecting the Competitiveness of the Greek Wine Enterprises and Cooperatives

The present paper investigates the effect of certain economic factors on the competitiveness of Greek Wine Enterprises and Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives (UACs). Data on 41 wineries and 10 UACs of Greece was collected for a period of three years (2004-2006). Financial analysis results were used with the help of a fixed effect model-panel data technique- using profitability as dependent variable in order to measure the competitiveness of wineries. The results indicated that the size of the enterprise as well as the square of the capital intensity have a positive influence on the winery’s profit.competitiveness, profitability, wineries, agricultural cooperatives, Agribusiness,

Identification of microbial signatures linked to oilseed rape yield decline at the landscape scale

Background: The plant microbiome plays a vital role in determining host health and productivity. However, we lack real-world comparative understanding of the factors which shape assembly of its diverse biota, and crucially relationships between microbiota composition and plant health. Here we investigated landscape scale rhizosphere microbial assembly processes in oilseed rape (OSR), the UK’s third most cultivated crop by area and the world's third largest source of vegetable oil, which suffers from yield decline associated with the frequency it is grown in rotations. By including 37 conventional farmers’ fields with varying OSR rotation frequencies, we present an innovative approach to identify microbial signatures characteristic of microbiomes which are beneficial and harmful to the host. Results: We show that OSR yield decline is linked to rotation frequency in real-world agricultural systems. We demonstrate fundamental differences in the environmental and agronomic drivers of protist, bacterial and fungal communities between root, rhizosphere soil and bulk soil compartments. We further discovered that the assembly of fungi, but neither bacteria nor protists, was influenced by OSR rotation frequency. However, there were individual abundant bacterial OTUs that correlated with either yield or rotation frequency. A variety of fungal and protist pathogens were detected in roots and rhizosphere soil of OSR, and several increased relative abundance in root or rhizosphere compartments as OSR rotation frequency increased. Importantly, the relative abundance of the fungal pathogen Olpidium brassicae both increased with short rotations and was significantly associated with low yield. In contrast, the root endophyte Tetracladium spp. showed the reverse associations with both rotation frequency and yield to O. brassicae, suggesting that they are signatures of a microbiome which benefits the host. We also identified a variety of novel protist and fungal clades which are highly connected within the microbiome and could play a role in determining microbiome composition. Conclusions: We show that at the landscape scale, OSR crop yield is governed by interplay between complex communities of both pathogens and beneficial biota which is modulated by rotation frequency. Our comprehensive study has identified signatures of dysbiosis within the OSR microbiome, grown in real-world agricultural systems, which could be used in strategies to promote crop yield. [MediaObject not available: see fulltext.

Collective entrepreneurship in agriculture and its contribution to sustainable rural development in Greece

Agricultural Cooperatives, as member-owned and controlled agribusiness enterprises traditionally play an important role in upgrading the socio-economic status of their members and local Communities. However, in Greece, the majority of Agricultural Cooperatives face severe financial problems, which undermine their existence. In order to surpass this situation, they have sought means of enhancing their business dimension using more competitive forms of collaboration. These include alternative forms of collective entrepreneurship associated with the transformation of “Traditional Cooperatives” into “New Generation Cooperatives”, which under appropriate conditions can ensure their development and their members’ welfare. The typology developed in the present paper presents distinct patterns of collective entrepreneurship in which the traditional cooperative and the private enterprise are the extreme poles. The typology presented allows the comparison of alternative forms of collective entrepreneurship in the light of a threedimensional balance between economic development, environmental protection and social equity

Exploring how microbiome signatures change across inflammatory bowel disease conditions and disease locations

Understanding the variables that influence microbiome studies is critical for successful translational research. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex group of diseases that can present at multiple locations within the Gastrointestinal tract. Here, using the FAMISHED study cohort, we aimed to investigate the relationship between IBD condition, IBD disease location, and the microbiome. Signatures of the microbiome, including measures of diversity, taxonomy, and functionality, all significantly differed across the three different IBD conditions, Crohn’s disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and microscopic colitis (MC). Notably, when stratifying by disease location, patients with CD in the terminal ileum were more similar to healthy controls than patients with CD in the small bowel or colon, however no differences were observed at different disease locations across patients with UC. Change in taxonomic composition resulted in changes in function, with CD at each disease location, UC and MC all having unique functional dysbioses. CD patients in particular had deficiencies in Short-Chain Fatty Acid (SCFA) pathways. Our results demonstrate the complex relationship between IBD and the microbiome and highlight the need for consistent strategies for the stratification of clinical cohorts and downstream analysis to ensure results across microbiome studies and clinical trials are comparable

Fuzzy logic based online electromagnetic loss minimization of permanent magnet synchronous motor drives

Summarization: The objective of this paper is to give an insight about the development of a fuzzy logic efficiency control system which is incorporated to a standard adjustable speed drive control (i.e. Indirect Vector Control) in order to improve the online efficiency in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drives for both transient and steady state operation. The search criterion in steady state is the minimization of the drive power losses by reducing the stator flux while meeting the speed and load torque demands. The power losses are calculated as the difference between the measured input DC-link power and drive's output power. The power losses are calculated at every sampling step and the change of power losses are calculated over a constant time interval as it is needed by the efficiency control algorithm. Variables in the operating characteristics of the PMSM, such as DC input voltage/current and actual speed are inputs to the fuzzy control system, making the control system independent of any specific load. Our system combines two fuzzy logic designed efficiency controllers which are introduced as Fuzzy(1) and Fuzzy(2) controllers in order to generate the magnetizing current (d-axis component of the stator current). They are separately activated during the steady and transient state respectively. The Fuzzy(1) controller is a search controller (SC) operating in steady state, so to decrease the stator flux for higher efficiency. The Fuzzy(2) controller is a SC operating in transient state, so to increase at minimum the magnetizing current, to achieve fast tracking capability, less steady state error and robust to load disturbance during transient state. The torque component of the stator current is generated by the vector controller in order to achieve higher motor performance. The fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) prototypes were created and tested using Simulinkreg simulations. Simulations are accomplished in Simulinkreg in order to validate our method (i.e. efficiency - - improvement, less torque ripple with flux changes and the less speed sensitivity to load disturbances). Experimental results will be available upon conclusion of the laboratory testings. Future experimental deployments will include a DSP board which will be directly programmed in assembler language via Simulinkreg.Παρουσιάστηκε στο: 18th International Conference on Electrical Machine