Leveraging Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service to Build Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains

Building sustainable and resilient supply chains has emerged as a strategic priority for organizations to improve their environmental, social, and governance performance while deal with unexpected disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, clear guidance for practitioners and analysis of the practices serving both purposes are missing. Leveraging cloud computing benefits, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products feature commercial and technical characteristics that help organizations resolve certain sustainable and resilient supply chain challenges by strengthening key capabilities, such as transparency, collaboration, and agility. We apply an affordance lens and a theory-generation case research design to define these challenges and identify how SaaS solutions can respond to them, using empirical qualitative data. We formulate SaaS affordances promoting the concepts of community, standard, update, data, applications, communication, and governance. We determine and illustrate the potential of SaaS solutions for sustainability and resilience for supply chain practitioners and software providers to help them unleash it

The Right of Refuse: A Call for Adequate Protection of a Pharmacist\u27s Right to Refuse Facilitation of Abortion and Emergency Contraception

The purpose of this Note is not to argue for or against either the pro-life or pro-choice positions. The purpose of this Note is to shed light on a serious moral dilemma that faces many pharmacists today, to call for universal acceptance in the pharmacy profession of a right of conscience, and to suggest adequate state and national legislative measures that would protect and prevent pharmacists from having to act contrary to their basic moral convictions. Section I provides background regarding present day abortive and contraceptive drug therapies and the role of the pharmacist in providing such medications. Section II is presented to provide some perspective and background as to moral belief regarding abortion and emergency contraception (EC) and how such a belief may conflict with a pharmacist\u27s professional duties. The discussion of the tension between moral and professional duties illustrates that the beliefs regarding abortion and EC of the pharmacists who chooses conscience over professional duty are genuinely fundamental and deserve respect. Section III illustrates the detrimental consequences that choosing conscience could wreak. Section IV sheds light on the inadequacy of current common and statutory law that could feasibly protect the pharmacist\u27s moral convictions from retaliation or liability. Finally, Section V proposes that professional pharmaceutical organizations lead the way to recognizing a true right of conscience which would eventually result in universal legislation protecting against all potential ramifications of choosing conscience

“And every day new Authors doe appeare…”: Labelling the Author in the Front Matter of Thomas Beedome’s Poems Divine, and Humane (1641)

In 1641, Thomas Beedome’s first and only book, Poems Divine, and Humane, was published posthumously. Considering this volume of poetry in the context of a proliferation of poetry publishing in mid-seventeenth century England and accepting the idea that early modern paratexts provided an ideal site for the renegotiation and manifestation of authorship, I argue that throughout the front matter of Beedome’s book, the largest part of which is taken up by commendatory poetry, a concept of the author, not only as singular creator, but also as proprietor of his work, is created. This essay shows how the writers of the commendatory verses try to single out Beedome by almost obsessively labelling him as a worthy author, comparing him favourably with classical and contemporary poets, and affirming the proprietary relationship between Beedome and his poems

Epidemiology of viruses in the livestock in Tanzania

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a disease of major socioeconomic impact. It is an acute and highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants caused by the agent Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV), a Morbillivirus closely related to Rinderpest virus (RPV) which was declared eradicated from the world in 2011. PPR has a high morbidity and mortality rate and is characterised by high fever, nasal and ocular discharge, pneumonia, necrosis and ulceration of the mucous membranes and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract causing severe diarrhoea. The role of wildlife in the epidemiology of the disease is still unclear. The disease is currently affecting sheep and goat in 70 countries worldwide and this year (2014) FAO has announced a program to eradicate the virus by 2030. In Tanzania, the disease was first reported in 2008 and has since then spread to different parts of the country. Tanzania is currently the southern border of the disease in the world but the risk of spread even further south is considered to be high. This Minor Field Study is a part of a bigger three-year project with focus on evaluating the role of wildlife in the PPR epidemiology. I have investigated the presence of PPRV-antibodies in sheep and goat in two different regions of Tanzania where the domestic animals intermingle with the wildlife. A total number of 476 animals were sampled and analysed and the overall seroprevalence of PPRV was 43.2% in sheep and 49.0% in goats. The results indicate the presence and activity of the virus in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated areas of the country.Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) är en sjukdom med stor socioekonomisk påverkan. Det är en akut och mycket smittsam virussjukdom som drabbar små idisslare. Sjukdomen orsakas av Peste des Petits Ruminantsvirus (PPRV), ett Morbillivirus nära besläktat med boskapspestviruset som förklarades utrotat från jordens yta år 2011. PPR har hög morbiditet och mortalitet och karaktäriseras av hög feber, nos- och tårflöde, lunginflammation, nekroser och ulcerationer av slemhinnor samt kraftig diarré orsakad av en inflammerad mag- och tarmslemhinna. I dagsläget härjar sjukdomen bland får och getter i 70 länder världen över. FAO presenterade i år ett program för hur viruset ska lyckas utrotas till år 2030. I Tanzania påvisades sjukdomen första gången år 2008 men har sedan dess spritt sig till olika delar av landet. Tanzania är i dagsläget sjukdomens mest södra utbredningsområde i världen men det finns en överhängande risk att sjukdomen i framtiden kan komma att sprida sig till länder söder om Tanzania. Denna studie är en del av ett treårigt projekt vars fokus ligger på att undersöka de vilda djurens roll i sjukdomens smittspridning. Jag har undersökt närvaron av PPRV-antikroppar hos får och getter i två olika regioner av Tanzania där de tama djuren har kontakt med de vilda. Totalt togs och analyserades 467 prover och den totala seroprevalensen hos får var 43,2 %, och 49,0 % hos getter. Resultaten talar för att viruset är närvarande och aktivt i både vaccinerade och ovaccinerade områden av Tanzania

Afrikansk hästpest, ett framtida hot i Europa till följd av ett förändrat klimat?

Afrikansk hästpest är en virussjukdom som framför allt drabbar djur ur familjen Equidae, det vill säga hästdjur. Afrikanskt hästpestvirus är ett Orbivirus som finns i 9 serotyper. Smittan sprids med blodsugande insekter ur släktet Culicoides (svidknott), och främst av arten Culicoides imicola som anses vara huvudvektor. Sjukdomen har den högsta dödligheten på 90 % hos hästar och kan hos åsnor och sebror vara alltifrån dödlig till helt symptomfri. Sjukdomen är idag endemisk i Afrikas centrala, tropiska områden där sebror anses vara reservoar för viruset. Utbrott av sjukdomen har ägt rum i södra Europa och i medelhavsregionen, men i dessa områden är inte sjukdomen endemisk. Sjukdomen har fyra symptombilder som är av olika allvarlighetsgrad. Både viruset och huvudvektorerna är beroende av temperaturer över 11-15 °C för sin replikation respektive förökning. Bland annat därför utgör klimatförändringar med en ökad medeltemperatur ett hot med en eventuell ökad utbredning av vektorer som följd. Detta skulle i sin tur leda till större risk för att smitta sprids i Europa. Olika teorier finns om hur en utbredning av sjukdomen norrut skulle kunna uppstå. Ett exempel är teorin om den så kallade stafetteffekten. Vilka exakta konsekvenser en spridning norrut till hästtätare områden skulle innebära är svårt att förutspå

Sim… eu sou travesti! Entrevista com a professora Herbe de Souza

Não se aplica

Expanded NK cells from umbilical cord blood and adult peripheral blood combined with daratumumab are effective against tumor cells from multiple myeloma patients

In this study we evaluated the potential of expanded NK cells (eNKs) from two sources combined with the mAbs daratumumab and pembrolizumab to target primary multiple myeloma (MM) cells ex vivo. In order to ascertain the best source of NK cells, we expanded and activated NK cells from peripheral blood (PB) of healthy adult donors and from umbilical cord blood (UCB). The resulting expanded NK (eNK) cells express CD16, necessary for carrying out antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Cytotoxicity assays were performed on bone marrow aspirates of 18 MM patients and 4 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Expression levels of PD-1 on eNKs and PD-L1 on MM and MGUS cells were also quantified. Results indicate that most eNKs obtained using our expansion protocol express a low percentage of PD-1+ cells. UCB eNKs were highly cytotoxic against MM cells and addition of daratumumab or pembrolizumab did not further increase their cytotoxicity. PB eNKs, while effective against MM cells, were significantly more cytotoxic when combined with daratumumab. In a minority of cases, eNK cells showed a detectable population of PD1+ cells. This correlated with low cytotoxic activity, particularly in UCB eNKs. Addition of pembrolizumab did not restore their activity. Results indicate that UCB eNKs are to be preferentially used against MM in the absence of daratumumab while PB eNKs have significant cytotoxic advantage when combined with this mAb