The Importance of Forming and Funding Collaborative Marketing Groups for the Survival of Smallholder Farmers in Asia

In developed countries such as the USA and Western Europe, the market share of fresh fruit and vegetable sales by the major supermarket chains can be as high as 80%. In China, with growth rates averaging between 30% and 40%, it is anticipated that supermarket chains will gain a greater market share in Asia. Because of their size, supermarket chains source their product globally and focus on maximizing returns for shareholders, keeping costs low for consumers, and providing a safe product. To be competitive, smallholder farmers need to supply a large volume of safe and high-quality fruit. However, unless they increase their bargaining power, they will become price-takers. Regrettably, most smallholder farmers in Asia lack the income to introduce new technologies such as fertilizing and irrigation to improve fruit quality. Sometimes these management inputs are funded by the trader and supermarket chains though outgrower schemes. However, this leaves the farmer vulnerable to exploitation. We suggest that the best means for smallholder farmers to remain viable in global supply chains is to establish economically sustainable collaborative marketing groups. We propose a new way to fund the establishment of these groups, whereby international aid agencies or national governments fund a core nucleus of farmers (10 to 50) and contract them to implement new technologies. This will deliver a greatly improved product and significantly increase grower returns, often in the order of 5 to 10 times their current net farm profit. We suggest that a portion of the improved profits from this core group be retained to provide short-term start-up funds for additional groups of farmers to implement new technologies. Consequently, the process of farmer improvement will become self-generating and self-sustainable without the need for additional support. Furthermore, we propose that the more successful farmers levy themselves to establish and maintain marketing infrastructure and activities such as training and cool chain management. Governments and aid agencies will need to support these marketing groups by providing long-term technical assistance as well as social facilitators to develop trust and maintain unity within the groups

Assisting Vietnamese Mango Farmers to Capture Greater Benefi ts through Improved Supply Chain Management

In the developing countries, traditional supply chains for fresh produce are giving way to new supermarket-led supply chains. The rapid transformation in the fruit and vegetable sector is due to the meteoric rise of supermarkets, hypermarkets, superstores, neighbourhood stores, convenience stores, and discount stores, which are impacting on smallholder farmers. This change is also impacting on both upstream and downstream market intermediaries through the demand for safe, high-quality produce that has been produced in a sustainable manner. Problems with procurement in traditional supply chains include few product standards, inconsistent supply, highly variable transaction costs, and limited market information. Supermarkets are now setting new procurement practices and supply systems which focus on reducing costs and improving quality to enable them to sell at lower prices. This will allow them to win over consumers and to obtain a larger market share. However, the ability of smallholder farmers, collector agents, and wholesalers in the Mekong Delta to meet safe food levels and the quality demands of domestic and overseas supermarkets can only be obtained through improving their production and supply chain practices. The implementation of new production and postharvest practices and the modernization of these supply chains may preclude many smallholder farmers from participating. Smallholder farmers must develop risk minimization strategies, such as forming collaborative marketing groups, implementing new crop management and production systems, improving the packaging, and creating more efficient transport methods and handling practices to provide a safe, competitively priced, high-quality product. Understanding the supply chain and where to intervene are essential if farmers and all supply chain participants are to benefit. In this paper, we describe mango supply chains in the Mekong Delta, provide empirical data collected from surveys, and highlight improvements smallholder farmers have been making to achieve greater benefits

Assessing Inclusion Behaviors and Impact of Inclusion within the Fleet

NPS NRP Executive SummaryThis project supports the Navy’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion (D&I), which are recognized as strategic imperatives that give the Navy a warfighting advantage against our adversaries. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the major contributing factors to an inclusive and diverse command, accomplishing four research objectives: (1) developing metrics to assess behaviors of inclusion within the fleet; (2) assessing inclusion behaviors within the fleet using the developed metrics; (3) determining the most impactful D&I competencies for building inclusion; and (4) identifying command practices that contribute to greater acceptance of diversity. We develop and introduce a survey instrument to assess Personal Inclusion Factors (individuals’ feelings of being personally included within their command) and Command Core Inclusion Competencies (individuals’ beliefs about how their commands demonstrate practices that promote diversity and inclusion) suitable for a Navy context. The instrument captures best practices and validated metrics for promoting and assessing D&I in organizations and tailors them to the Navy and Sailors’ work. We fielded this survey to 489 active-duty Navy personnel (enlisted and officers) asking them to report on both their current and past commands. We find that females across all race/ethnicities on average report lower feelings of inclusion and rate commands lower on Core Command Inclusion Competencies than their male counterparts. This gender difference is stronger for sea versus shore commands. Participants also answered open-ended questions about the competencies that they believed were most important for promoting D&I in the fleet. "Inclusive leadership" emerged as a dominant theme; in particular, participants felt most included in commands where leadership valued their perspectives and ideas and where Sailors felt heard on a day-in, day-out basis.N1 - Manpower, Personnel, Training & EducationThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Assessing Inclusion Behaviors and Impact of Inclusion within the Fleet

NPS NRP Project PosterThis project supports the Navy’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion (D&I), which are recognized as strategic imperatives that give the Navy a warfighting advantage against our adversaries. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understand the major contributing factors to an inclusive and diverse command, accomplishing four research objectives: (1) developing metrics to assess behaviors of inclusion within the fleet; (2) assessing inclusion behaviors within the fleet using the developed metrics; (3) determining the most impactful D&I competencies for building inclusion; and (4) identifying command practices that contribute to greater acceptance of diversity. We develop and introduce a survey instrument to assess Personal Inclusion Factors (individuals’ feelings of being personally included within their command) and Command Core Inclusion Competencies (individuals’ beliefs about how their commands demonstrate practices that promote diversity and inclusion) suitable for a Navy context. The instrument captures best practices and validated metrics for promoting and assessing D&I in organizations and tailors them to the Navy and Sailors’ work. We fielded this survey to 489 active-duty Navy personnel (enlisted and officers) asking them to report on both their current and past commands. We find that females across all race/ethnicities on average report lower feelings of inclusion and rate commands lower on Core Command Inclusion Competencies than their male counterparts. This gender difference is stronger for sea versus shore commands. Participants also answered open-ended questions about the competencies that they believed were most important for promoting D&I in the fleet. "Inclusive leadership" emerged as a dominant theme; in particular, participants felt most included in commands where leadership valued their perspectives and ideas and where Sailors felt heard on a day-in, day-out basis.N1 - Manpower, Personnel, Training & EducationThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Oxygen Abundances in Two Metal-Poor Subgiants from the Analysis of the 6300 A Forbidden O I Line

Recent LTE analyses (Israelian et al. 1998 and Bosegaard et al. 1999) of the OH bands in the optical-ultraviolet spectra of nearby metal-poor subdwarfs indicate that oxygen abundances are generally higher than those previously determined. The difference increases with decreasing metallicity and reaches delta([O/Fe]) ~ +0.6 dex as [Fe/H] approaches -3.0. Employing high resolution (R = 50000), high S/N (~ 250) echelle spectra of the two stars found by Israelian et al. (1998) to have the highest [O/Fe]-ratios, viz, BD +23 3130 and BD +37 1458, we conducted abundance analyses based on about 60 Fe I and 7-9 Fe II lines. We determined from Kurucz LTE models the values of the stellar parameters, as well as abundances of Na, Ni, and the traditional alpha-elements, independent of the calibration of color vs $T_{eff}$ scales. We determined oxygen abundances from spectral synthesis of the stronger line (6300 A) of the [O I] doublet. The syntheses of the [O I] line lead to smaller values of [O/Fe], consistent with those found earlier among halo field and globular cluster giants. We obtain [O/Fe] = +0.35 +/- 0.2 for BD +23 3130 and +0.50 +/- 0.2 for BD +37 1458. In the former, the [O I] line is very weak (~ 1 mA), so that the quoted [O/Fe] value may in reality be an upper limit. Therefore in these two stars a discrepancy exists between the [O/Fe]- ratios derived from [O I] and the OH feature, and the origin of this difference remains unclear. Until the matter is clarified, we suggest it is premature to conclude that the ab initio oxygen abundances of old, metal-poor stars need to be revised drastically upward.Comment: 38 pages, 5 tables, 14 figures To appear in July 1999 AJ Updated April 16, 1999. Fixed typo

Diffractive point sets with entropy

After a brief historical survey, the paper introduces the notion of entropic model sets (cut and project sets), and, more generally, the notion of diffractive point sets with entropy. Such sets may be thought of as generalizations of lattice gases. We show that taking the site occupation of a model set stochastically results, with probabilistic certainty, in well-defined diffractive properties augmented by a constant diffuse background. We discuss both the case of independent, but identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables and that of independent, but different (i.e., site dependent) random variables. Several examples are shown.Comment: 25 pages; dedicated to Hans-Ude Nissen on the occasion of his 65th birthday; final version, some minor addition

The Problem of Hipparcos Distances to Open Clusters: I. Constraints from Multicolor Main Sequence Fitting

Parallax data from the Hipparcos mission allow the direct distance to open clusters to be compared with the distance inferred from main sequence (MS) fitting. There are surprising differences between the two distance measurements, which could lead to consequences of significant astrophysical importance. We examine the different possibilities, focusing on MS fitting in both metallicity-sensitive B-V and metallicity-insensitive V-I for five well-studied systems (the Hyades, Pleiades, Alpha Per, Praesepe, and Coma Ber). The Hipparcos distances to the Hyades and Alpha Per agree with the MS fitting distances in both colors; there is a possible conflict for Praesepe and Coma Ber. The Hipparcos distance to the Pleiades disagrees with the MS fitting distance in both colors at more than the three sigma level. Changes in the cluster metal abundance, helium abundance, reddening and age-related effects are all shown to be unlikely to explain the puzzling behavior for the Pleiades. We present evidence for spatially dependent systematic errors at the 1 mas level in the parallaxes of Pleiades stars. The implications of this result are discussed.Comment: 52 pages, 24 figures. To appear in ApJ. Figures also available by ftp at ftp://ftp.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/pub/pinsono/hipparco

De novo assembly of the cattle reference genome with single-molecule sequencing.

BackgroundMajor advances in selection progress for cattle have been made following the introduction of genomic tools over the past 10-12 years. These tools depend upon the Bos taurus reference genome (UMD3.1.1), which was created using now-outdated technologies and is hindered by a variety of deficiencies and inaccuracies.ResultsWe present the new reference genome for cattle, ARS-UCD1.2, based on the same animal as the original to facilitate transfer and interpretation of results obtained from the earlier version, but applying a combination of modern technologies in a de novo assembly to increase continuity, accuracy, and completeness. The assembly includes 2.7 Gb and is >250× more continuous than the original assembly, with contig N50 >25 Mb and L50 of 32. We also greatly expanded supporting RNA-based data for annotation that identifies 30,396 total genes (21,039 protein coding). The new reference assembly is accessible in annotated form for public use.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that improved continuity of assembled sequence warrants the adoption of ARS-UCD1.2 as the new cattle reference genome and that increased assembly accuracy will benefit future research on this species

Efficacy and tolerability of evolocumab vs. ezetimibe in patients with muscle-related statin intolerance: the GAUSS-3 randomized clinical trial

Importance: Muscle-related statin intolerance is reported by 5% to 20% of patients. Objective: To identify patients with muscle symptoms confirmed by statin rechallenge and compare lipid-lowering efficacy for 2 nonstatin therapies, ezetimibe and evolocumab. Design, Setting, and Participants: Two-stage randomized clinical trial including 511 adult patients with uncontrolled low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels and history of intolerance to 2 or more statins enrolled in 2013 and 2014 globally. Phase A used a 24-week crossover procedure with atorvastatin or placebo to identify patients having symptoms only with atorvastatin but not placebo. In phase B, after a 2-week washout, patients were randomized to ezetimibe or evolocumab for 24 weeks. Interventions: Phase A: atorvastatin (20 mg) vs placebo. Phase B: randomization 2:1 to subcutaneous evolocumab (420 mg monthly) or oral ezetimibe (10 mg daily). Main Outcome and Measures: Coprimary end points were the mean percent change in LDL-C level from baseline to the mean of weeks 22 and 24 levels and from baseline to week 24 levels. Results: Of the 491 patients who entered phase A (mean age, 60.7 [SD, 10.2] years; 246 women [50.1%]; 170 with coronary heart disease [34.6%]; entry mean LDL-C level, 212.3 [SD, 67.9] mg/dL), muscle symptoms occurred in 209 of 491 (42.6%) while taking atorvastatin but not while taking placebo. Of these, 199 entered phase B, along with 19 who proceeded directly to phase B for elevated creatine kinase (N = 218, with 73 randomized to ezetimibe and 145 to evolocumab; entry mean LDL-C level, 219.9 [SD, 72] mg/dL). For the mean of weeks 22 and 24, LDL-C level with ezetimibe was 183.0 mg/dL; mean percent LDL-C change, −16.7% (95% CI, −20.5% to −12.9%), absolute change, −31.0 mg/dL and with evolocumab was 103.6 mg/dL; mean percent change, −54.5% (95% CI, −57.2% to −51.8%); absolute change, −106.8 mg/dL (P < .001). LDL-C level at week 24 with ezetimibe was 181.5 mg/dL; mean percent change, −16.7% (95% CI, −20.8% to −12.5%); absolute change, −31.2 mg/dL and with evolocumab was 104.1 mg/dL; mean percent change, −52.8% (95% CI, −55.8% to −49.8%); absolute change, −102.9 mg/dL (P < .001). For the mean of weeks 22 and 24, between-group difference in LDL-C was −37.8%; absolute difference, −75.8 mg/dL. For week 24, between-group difference in LDL-C was −36.1%; absolute difference, –71.7 mg/dL. Muscle symptoms were reported in 28.8% of ezetimibe-treated patients and 20.7% of evolocumab-treated patients (log-rank P = .17). Active study drug was stopped for muscle symptoms in 5 of 73 ezetimibe-treated patients (6.8%) and 1 of 145 evolocumab-treated patients (0.7%). Conclusions and Relevance: Among patients with statin intolerance related to muscle-related adverse effects, the use of evolocumab compared with ezetimibe resulted in a significantly greater reduction in LDL-C levels after 24 weeks. Further studies are needed to assess long-term efficacy and safety

Validation of SPARCC MRI-RETIC e-tools for increasing scoring proficiency of MRI sacroiliac joint lesions in axial spondyloarthritis

BACKGROUND The Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada (SPARCC) developers have created web-based calibration modules for the SPARCC MRI sacroiliac joint (SIJ) scoring methods. We aimed to test the impact of applying these e-modules on the feasibility and reliability of these methods. METHODS The SPARCC-SIJ $_{RETIC}$ e-modules contain cases with baseline and follow-up scans and an online scoring interface. Visual real-time feedback regarding concordance/discordance of scoring with expert readers is provided by a colour-coding scheme. Reliability is assessed in real time by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), cases being scored until ICC targets are attained. Participating readers (n=17) from the EuroSpA Imaging project were randomised to one of two reader calibration strategies that each comprised three stages. Baseline and follow-up scans from 25 cases were scored after each stage was completed. Reliability was compared with a SPARCC developer, and the System Usability Scale (SUS) assessed feasibility. RESULTS The reliability of readers for scoring bone marrow oedema was high after the first stage of calibration, and only minor improvement was noted following the use of the inflammation module. Greater enhancement of reader reliability was evident after the use of the structural module and was most consistently evident for the scoring of erosion (ICC status/change: stage 1 (0.42/0.20) to stage 3 (0.50/0.38)) and backfill (ICC status/change: stage 1 (0.51/0.19) to stage 3 (0.69/0.41)). The feasibility of both e-modules was evident by high SUS scores. CONCLUSION The SPARCC-SIJ $_{RETIC}$ e-modules are feasible, effective knowledge transfer tools, and their use is recommended before using the SPARCC methods for clinical research and tria