Assessing farmers’ objectives to participate in short food supply chains in Spain, France And Morocco

The promotion of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) is an issue that is becoming more relevant to both the public and research agenda, aiming to build more sustainable agri-food supply chains and empower smallholder farmers. This research aims to determine the willingness of small farmers to adopt SFSCs as an alternative to conventional distribution. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology was used to assess farmers’ objectives of their agricultural activity in Spain, France, and Morocco. For the selection of objectives, deep interviews (DI) and a literature review were carried out. Data were collected from a total of 180 farmers carried out between May and October 2022. Results showed that regardless of the stated interest of farmers in promoting SFSCs, the production-related objectives, especially “Increase productivity” and “Invest in knowledge and machinery”, received the highest priority to distribution-related objectives. Moreover, objectives concerning social responsibility received the lowest relative importance, while environmental preservation concerns outweighed social objectives (especially in the French case). The economic performance of the farm plays a decisive role in the farmers' decision-making as expected in the three cases of the study analyzed. This is important when exploring mechanisms to incentivize farmers to adopt SFSCs where economic sustainability and efficiency are needed. More research is needed to determine the relationship between the choice of supply chain alternatives and the objectives of the farming activity. This knowledge may help in providing alternatives and adapted solutions that are more sustainable regarding farmer’s preferences.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (published version

Preferences analysis of restaurants, industry and retailers for selecting fruits and vegetables suppliers in Spain, France and Morocco

This study focuses on evaluating the criteria used by stakeholders (restaurants, industry, and small-scale retailers) to select fruits and vegetable suppliers in Spain, France, and Morocco targeting three selected countries’ specific products and supply chains (fresh tomatoes in Spain, Chestnuts in France, Carob in Morocco). The research consisted firstly of conducting deep interviews (DI) with the main stakeholders in the added-value chain of fruits and vegetables in order to understand factors affecting their decision when selecting suppliers. A special interest was drawn on the criteria “produced by local farmers” in order to determine its relative importance within the stakeholder’s decision-making. Secondly, semi-structured questionnaires were carried out by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to estimate the relative importance of each criterion and to evaluate the weight of the sustainable factors. Data were collected from stakeholders in the food-added value chain with a total sample, equally distributed across countries, of 180 restaurants, 30 industries, and 180 small-scale retailers. The survey was applied during the months of May to October 2022. Research results revealed the most important supplier selection attributes vary according to each country and product category. The role of sustainable criteria in selecting suppliers played an important role in particular in France. Local small farmers were important for local industry as sustainable suppliers but less relevant for restaurants and retailers respectively. Improving the sustainability of the supply chain should focus more on retailers and restaurant marketing strategies when purchasing fruits and vegetables in order to set quotas for locally produced products. This outcome highlights the need for a new and optimized business model in which small local farmers can directly supply local restaurants and retailers and contribute to improving sustainability and ensuring reasonable profit for farmers.This study belongs to the project Lab4Supply “Multi-agent Agri-food living labs for new supply chain Mediterranean systems. Towards more sustainable and competitive farming addressing consumers’ preferences and market changes”. Lab4supply received funding from the European Union under PRIMA-S.2 programme (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) and approved by the National Agencies in Spain “Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)”, in Morroco “Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de l’Innovation (MESRSFC)” and in France “Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)”. The content of this study reflects only the author’s view and the European Union Agency and national agencies involved are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (published version

Generating and transferring grassroots innovations in a multi-actor participatory process

Peer reviewe

Analysis of Structure and Function of the Giant Protein Pf332 in Plasmodium falciparum

Virulence of Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal parasitic disease in humans, results in part from adhesiveness and increased rigidity of infected erythrocytes. Pf332 is trafficked to the parasite-infected erythrocyte via Maurer's clefts, structures for protein sorting and export in the host erythrocyte. This protein has a domain similar to the Duffy-binding-like (DBL) domain, which functions by binding to receptors for adherence and invasion. To address structure of the Pf332 DBL domain, we expressed this region, and validated its fold on the basis of the disulphide bond pattern, which conformed to the generic pattern for DBL domains. The modelled structure for Pf332 DBL had differences compared with the erythrocyte-binding region of the αDBL domain of Plasmodium knowlesi Duffy-binding protein (Pkα-DBL). We addressed the function of Pf332 by constructing parasites that either lack expression of the protein or express an altered form. We found no evidence that Pf332 is involved in cytoadhesion or merozoite invasion. Truncation of Pf332 had a significant effect on deformability of the P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte, while loss of the full protein deletion did not. Our data suggest that Pf332 may contribute to the overall deformability of the P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte by anchoring and scaffolding

Comparison of direct and indirect models of early induced acute lung injury

The animal experimental counterpart of human acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is acute lung injury (ALI). Most models of ALI involve reproducing the clinical risk factors associated with human ARDS, such as sepsis or acid aspiration; however, none of these models fully replicates human ARDS. To compare different experimental animal models of ALI, based on direct or indirect mechanisms of lung injury, to characterize a model which more closely could reproduce the acute phase of human ARDS. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to intratracheal instillations of (1) HCl to mimic aspiration of gastric contents; (2) lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mimic bacterial infection; (3) HCl followed by LPS to mimic aspiration of gastric contents with bacterial superinfection; or (4) cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) to induce peritonitis and mimic sepsis. Rats were sacrificed 24 h after instillations or 24 h after CLP. At 24 h, rats instilled with LPS or HCl-LPS had increased lung permeability, alveolar neutrophilic recruitment and inflammatory markers (GRO/KC, TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-1β, IL-6). Rats receiving only HCl or subjected to CLP had no evidence of lung injury. Rat models of ALI induced directly by LPS or HCl-LPS more closely reproduced the acute phase of human ARDS than the CLP model of indirectly induced ALI

Power laws in microrheology experiments on living cells: comparative analysis and modelling

We compare and synthesize the results of two microrheological experiments on the cytoskeleton of single cells. In the first one, the creep function J(t) of a cell stretched between two glass plates is measured after applying a constant force step. In the second one, a micrometric bead specifically bound to transmembrane receptors is driven by an oscillating optical trap, and the viscoelastic coefficient $G_e(\omega)$ is retrieved. Both $J(t)$ and $G_e(\omega)$ exhibit power law behavior: $J(t)= A(t/t_0)^\alpha$ and $\bar G_e(\omega)\bar = G_0 (\omega/\omega_0)^\alpha$, with the same exponent $\alpha\approx 0.2$. This power law behavior is very robust ; $\alpha$ is distributed over a narrow range, and shows almost no dependance on the cell type, on the nature of the protein complex which transmits the mechanical stress, nor on the typical length scale of the experiment. On the contrary, the prefactors $A_0$ and $G_0$appear very sensitive to these parameters. Whereas the exponents $\alpha$ are normally distributed over the cell population, the prefactors $A_0$ and $G_0$ follow a log-normal repartition. These results are compared with other data published in the litterature. We propose a global interpretation, based on a semi-phenomenological model, which involves a broad distribution of relaxation times in the system. The model predicts the power law behavior and the statistical repartition of the mechanical parameters, as experimentally observed for the cells. Moreover, it leads to an estimate of the largest response time in the cytoskeletal network: $\tau_m \approx 1000$ s.Comment: 47 pages, 14 figures // v2: PDF file is now Acrobat Reader 4 (and up) compatible // v3: Minor typos corrected - The presentation of the model have been substantially rewritten (p. 17-18), in order to give more details - Enhanced description of protocols // v4: Minor corrections in the text : the immersion angles are estimated and not measured // v5: Minor typos corrected. Two references were clarifie

Multiple Particle Tracking and Two-Point Microrheology in Cells

Mechanical stress and stiffness are increasingly recognized to play important roles in numerous cell biological processes, notably cell differentiation and tissue morphogenesis. Little definite is known, however, about how stress propagates through different cell structures or how it is converted to biochemical signals via mechanotransduction, due in large part to the difficulty of interpreting many cell mechanics experiments. A newly developed technique, two-point microrheology (TPM), can provide highly interpretable, quantitative measurements of cells’ frequency-dependent shear moduli and spectra of their fluctuating intracellular stresses. TPM is a non-invasive method based on measuring the Brownian motion of large numbers of intracellular particles using multiple particle tracking. While requiring only hardware available in many cell biology laboratories–a phase microscope and digital video camera, as a statistical technique, it also requires the automated analysis of many thousands of micrographs. Here we describe in detail the algorithms and software tools used for such large-scale multiple particle tracking, as well as common sources of error and the microscopy methods needed to minimize them. Moreover, we describe the physical principles behind TPM and other passive microrheology methods, their limitations, and typical results for cultured epithelial cells

Pérdida de suelo en laderas bajo cambio climático: procesos físicos, modelación predictiva y posibles estrategias de mitigación - El proyecto de investigación “SmuCPhy”

Este proyecto de investigación estudia los mecanismos de la pérdida de suelos en zonas montañosas mediante un método multidisciplinar y el trabajo a diferentes escalas. Uno de los objetivos principales es analizar el efecto del cambio climático sobre estos mecanismos y buscar métodos de mitigación para afrontarlo correctamente. Se utilizan datos obtenidos mediante la auscultación de un experimento físico a gran escala y cuatro laderas y cuencas naturales situadas en el Pirineo Catalán, para alimentar y validar un modelo numérico innovador que implementa un módulo de interacciones suelo-vegetación-atmósfera. Finalmente, los resultados de la auscultación y de la modelización numérica se usarán para realizar una correlación de factores condicionantes de la inestabilidad con la ocurrencia espacio-temporal de deslizamientos superficiales utilizando técnicas SIG a escala regional.Postprint (published version