Supply chain collaboration aligns order-winning strategy with business outcomes

The paper aims to find out whether appropriate choice of collaboration will enable the required order-winners, leading to improved business outcomes. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed with cross-sectional data to test the hypothesised relationships among order-winners, modes of collaboration, and business outcomes. Results indicate that firms that focus on flexibility, quality, and delivery should develop strategic collaboration with suppliers to achieve market and innovation improvement. Cost- and quality-focussed firms should develop operational collaboration to achieve resource efficiency. The model allows managers to understand the right alignment of external suppliers while working on their own order-winners being pursued to win business performance

Improving the lipid profile in hypercholesterolemia-induced rabbit by supplementation of germinated brown rice.

It is imperative that there be a diet designed specifically to improve lipid profile in order to impede the progress of atherosclerosis. Because rice is a staple food in Asia, it will be chosen as the diet of interest. This study sets out to discover whether consumption of different processed rice diets may result in a change of the lipid profile. The experiment was done on male New Zealand white rabbits after 10 weeks of treatment with diet containing 0.5% cholesterol. The experimental diets include white rice (WR), brown rice (BR), and germinated brown rice (GBR). Among them, rabbits fed a GBR diet demonstrated significantly lower levels of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), LDL/HDL, and atherogenic index (AI) and a higher level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Results from atherosclerotic plaque assessment further support the findings. The level of malondialdehyde (MDA), which acts as an indicator for oxidative stress, was also reduced by GBR diet. The positive change in lipid profile in the rabbits fed GBR appeared to correspond with the higher amounts of γ-oryzanol, tocopherol, and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content