Supply Chain Management in the Prime Lamb Industry Tender Plus: A Success Story

Traditionally fresh food industries have lagged behind other consumer goods in their approach to marketing and integration, and generally, are resigned to being commodity traders. Retailers' worldwide have increased their dominance within the fresh food industry. Clairs (2001) argued that within 10 years, 5-10 retail chains would dominate global food retailing. In Australia the three big supermarket chains and their subsidiaries had 40% of the retail grocery market in 1970 yet by 1998-99 their share had moved to 80% (AFFA and ABARE 2000). In the UK, four retailers account for two thirds of all grocery sales (Fearne & Hughes 1999). The Australian prime lamb industry is rapidly growing, especially in the export arena and has companies rising to the challenge of the domination of market place by retail chains. This paper looks in depth at one such company, Tender Plus. It profiles the relationships within the supply chain, and the success factors, which has provided Tender Plus with the impetus to increase sales to Japan by 15% a year. The key factor is a paradigm shift from a price orientated domain, to that of a relationship orientated one. This is achieved through the commercial factors of quality and consistency of supply, and the people factors of trust, honesty, loyalty and open communication. A combination of these factors, and continuous learning, is cementing the future of Tender Plus, in a marketplace where the power of multi-national conglomerates is increasing.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Carbamazepine, HLA-B*1502 and risk of Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis: US FDA recommendations

Recently, the USA FDA has made a labeling change to the drug information contained in carbamazepine. Owing to recent data implicating the HLA allele B*1502 as a marker for carbamazepine-induced Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis in Han Chinese, the FDA recommends genotyping all Asians for the allele. This allele is seen in high frequency in many Asian populations other than Han Chinese, but there are few data on whether the allele is a marker for this severe outcome in anyone other than Han Chinese. In fact, the association has not been found in Caucasian patients. We review the data that prompted this recommendation, list data for other ethnic groups, both Asian and non-Asian, and briefly discuss the implication of this recommendation for clinical practice

A scoping study and qualitative assessment of care planning and case management in community paramedicine

Introduction:  Community paramedicine (CP) establishes an ongoing patient relationship beyond short emergency care episodes. How care planning and case management have been adapted from the isolated incidents of traditional practice is unclear.  The objective of this study is to contribute to paramedic practice by examining broad areas of care planning in CP, identifying gaps in the evidence, clarifying key concepts, and reporting on the types of evidence that address and inform practice.  A qualitative analysis of included literature outlines program capacities and identifies comprehensive models of care that can inform clinical practice in CP. Methods:  A scoping study was completed that included conducting a systematic search of the literature (in MEDLINE and CINAHL) and selecting relevant studies, followed by data extraction, summarizing, and reporting.  The authors of included studies were contacted to confirm the aspects of care planning that were extracted from their respective studies.  Aspects of care planning were compared between studies and used to generate a comprehensive list of existing practices. Results:   Ten of 1648 studies met inclusion criteria.  Qualitative analysis identified 22 aspects of care planning along four themes; enrollment (n=3), assessment and management (n=6), intervention and care (n=5), and collaboration (n=8).  No study included all 22 aspects of care planning.  One aspect of care planning was present in all 10 studies; collaboration with primary care providers. Conclusion:  The aspects of care planning identified through this study provide a framework that can guide service providers in the delivery of care and researchers in defined outcome measures to be assessed.  Future program development should be guided by the finding that all articles included in this study included collaboration with primary care providers.  By summarizing care planning within CP programs, ongoing program development can embrace collaboration with other care providers to help insure that patients receive the appropriate care

A scoping study and qualitative assessment of care planning and case management in community paramedicine

Introduction:  Community paramedicine (CP) establishes an ongoing patient relationship beyond short emergency care episodes. How care planning and case management have been adapted from the isolated incidents of traditional practice is unclear.  The objective of this study is to contribute to paramedic practice by examining broad areas of care planning in CP, identifying gaps in the evidence, clarifying key concepts, and reporting on the types of evidence that address and inform practice.  A qualitative analysis of included literature outlines program capacities and identifies comprehensive models of care that can inform clinical practice in CP. Methods:  A scoping study was completed that included conducting a systematic search of the literature (in MEDLINE and CINAHL) and selecting relevant studies, followed by data extraction, summarizing, and reporting.  The authors of included studies were contacted to confirm the aspects of care planning that were extracted from their respective studies.  Aspects of care planning were compared between studies and used to generate a comprehensive list of existing practices. Results:   Ten of 1648 studies met inclusion criteria.  Qualitative analysis identified 22 aspects of care planning along four themes; enrollment (n=3), assessment and management (n=6), intervention and care (n=5), and collaboration (n=8).  No study included all 22 aspects of care planning.  One aspect of care planning was present in all 10 studies; collaboration with primary care providers. Conclusion:  The aspects of care planning identified through this study provide a framework that can guide service providers in the delivery of care and researchers in defined outcome measures to be assessed.  Future program development should be guided by the finding that all articles included in this study included collaboration with primary care providers.  By summarizing care planning within CP programs, ongoing program development can embrace collaboration with other care providers to help insure that patients receive the appropriate care

wuHMM: a robust algorithm to detect DNA copy number variation using long oligonucleotide microarray data

Copy number variants (CNVs) are currently defined as genomic sequences that are polymorphic in copy number and range in length from 1000 to several million base pairs. Among current array-based CNV detection platforms, long-oligonucleotide arrays promise the highest resolution. However, the performance of currently available analytical tools suffers when applied to these data because of the lower signal:noise ratio inherent in oligonucleotide-based hybridization assays. We have developed wuHMM, an algorithm for mapping CNVs from array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) platforms comprised of 385 000 to more than 3 million probes. wuHMM is unique in that it can utilize sequence divergence information to reduce the false positive rate (FPR). We apply wuHMM to 385K-aCGH, 2.1M-aCGH and 3.1M-aCGH experiments comparing the 129X1/SvJ and C57BL/6J inbred mouse genomes. We assess wuHMM's performance on the 385K platform by comparison to the higher resolution platforms and we independently validate 10 CNVs. The method requires no training data and is robust with respect to changes in algorithm parameters. At a FPR of <10%, the algorithm can detect CNVs with five probes on the 385K platform and three on the 2.1M and 3.1M platforms, resulting in effective resolutions of 24 kb, 2–5 kb and 1 kb, respectively

Genetic Analysis of the Roles of BMP2, BMP4, and BMP7 in Limb Patterning and Skeletogenesis

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family members, including BMP2, BMP4, and BMP7, are expressed throughout limb development. BMPs have been implicated in early limb patterning as well as in the process of skeletogenesis. However, due to complications associated with early embryonic lethality, particularly for Bmp2 and Bmp4, and with functional redundancy among BMP molecules, it has been difficult to decipher the specific roles of these BMP molecules during different stages of limb development. To circumvent these issues, we have constructed a series of mouse strains lacking one or more of these BMPs, using conditional alleles in the case of Bmp2 and Bmp4 to remove them specifically from the limb bud mesenchyme. Contrary to earlier suggestions, our results indicate that BMPs neither act as secondary signals downstream of Sonic Hedghog (SHH) in patterning the anteroposterior axis nor as signals from the interdigital mesenchyme in specifying digit identity. We do find that a threshold level of BMP signaling is required for the onset of chondrogenesis, and hence some chondrogenic condensations fail to form in limbs deficient in both BMP2 and BMP4. However, in the condensations that do form, subsequent chondrogenic differentiation proceeds normally even in the absence of BMP2 and BMP7 or BMP2 and BMP4. In contrast, we find that the loss of both BMP2 and BMP4 results in a severe impairment of osteogenesis

Acute Cardiovascular Manifestations in 286 Children With Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome Associated With COVID-19 Infection in Europe

Background: The aim of the study was to document cardiovascular clinical findings, cardiac imaging, and laboratory markers in children presenting with the novel multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Methods: This real-time internet-based survey has been endorsed by the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiologists Working Groups for Cardiac Imaging and Cardiovascular Intensive Care. Children 0 to 18 years of age admitted to a hospital between February 1 and June 6, 2020, with a diagnosis of an inflammatory syndrome and acute cardiovascular complications were included. Results: A total of 286 children from 55 centers in 17 European countries were included. The median age was 8.4 years (interquartile range, 3.8-12.4 years) and 67% were boys. The most common cardiovascular complications were shock, cardiac arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, and coronary artery dilatation. Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction was present in over half of the patients, and a vast majority of children had raised cardiac troponin when checked. The biochemical markers of inflammation were raised in most patients on admission: elevated C-reactive protein, serum ferritin, procalcitonin, N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide, interleukin-6 level, and D-dimers. There was a statistically significant correlation between degree of elevation in cardiac and biochemical parameters and the need for intensive care support (P<0.05). Polymerase chain reaction for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was positive in 33.6%, whereas immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G antibodies were positive in 15.7% cases and immunoglobulin G in 43.6% cases, respectively, when checked. One child in the study cohort died. Conclusions: Cardiac involvement is common in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority of children have significantly raised levels of N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide, ferritin, D-dimers, and cardiac troponin in addition to high C-reactive protein and procalcitonin levels. In comparison with adults with COVID-19, mortality in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 is uncommon despite multisystem involvement, very elevated inflammatory markers, and the need for intensive care support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Supply Chain Management in the Prime Lamb Industry Tender Plus: A Success Story

Traditionally fresh food industries have lagged behind other consumer goods in their approach to marketing and integration, and generally, are resigned to being commodity traders. Retailers' worldwide have increased their dominance within the fresh food industry. Clairs (2001) argued that within 10 years, 5-10 retail chains would dominate global food retailing. In Australia the three big supermarket chains and their subsidiaries had 40% of the retail grocery market in 1970 yet by 1998-99 their share had moved to 80% (AFFA and ABARE 2000). In the UK, four retailers account for two thirds of all grocery sales (Fearne & Hughes 1999). The Australian prime lamb industry is rapidly growing, especially in the export arena and has companies rising to the challenge of the domination of market place by retail chains. This paper looks in depth at one such company, Tender Plus. It profiles the relationships within the supply chain, and the success factors, which has provided Tender Plus with the impetus to increase sales to Japan by 15% a year. The key factor is a paradigm shift from a price orientated domain, to that of a relationship orientated one. This is achieved through the commercial factors of quality and consistency of supply, and the people factors of trust, honesty, loyalty and open communication. A combination of these factors, and continuous learning, is cementing the future of Tender Plus, in a marketplace where the power of multi-national conglomerates is increasing