AGENTS OF TRUST: BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS IN AGRI-FOOD SUPPLY SYSTEMS

The generation of trust between business partners is a strategic issue for firms in competitive agri-food markets. It is asserted that business associations can be important facilitators of trust between firms. Cross-national comparative research on the UK and Dutch potato industries is conducted to find out how and to what extent business associations perform functions that can facilitate trust. The results show that there are considerable national differences in the intensity and range of such functions performed by business associations. The findings indicate that, in spite of globalization trends, nationally distinct ways of generating trust via business associations continue to exist.Industrial Organization, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

The PROOF Distributed Parallel Analysis Framework based on ROOT

The development of the Parallel ROOT Facility, PROOF, enables a physicist to analyze and understand much larger data sets on a shorter time scale. It makes use of the inherent parallelism in event data and implements an architecture that optimizes I/O and CPU utilization in heterogeneous clusters with distributed storage. The system provides transparent and interactive access to gigabytes today. Being part of the ROOT framework PROOF inherits the benefits of a performant object storage system and a wealth of statistical and visualization tools. This paper describes the key principles of the PROOF architecture and the implementation of the system. We will illustrate its features using a simple example and present measurements of the scalability of the system. Finally we will discuss how PROOF can be interfaced and make use of the different Grid solutions.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, CA, USA, March 2003, 5 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures. PSN TULT00

ROOT Status and Future Developments

In this talk we will review the major additions and improvements made to the ROOT system in the last 18 months and present our plans for future developments. The additons and improvements range from modifications to the I/O sub-system to allow users to save and restore objects of classes that have not been instrumented by special ROOT macros, to the addition of a geometry package designed for building, browsing, tracking and visualizing detector geometries. Other improvements include enhancements to the quick analysis sub-system (TTree::Draw()), the addition of classes that allow inter-file object references (TRef, TRefArray), better support for templated and STL classes, amelioration of the Automatic Script Compiler and the incorporation of new fitting and mathematical tools. Efforts have also been made to increase the modularity of the ROOT system with the introduction of more abstract interfaces and the development of a plug-in manager. In the near future, we intend to continue the development of PROOF and its interfacing with GRID environments. We plan on providing an interface between Geant3, Geant4 and Fluka and the new geometry package. The ROOT GUI classes will finally be available on Windows and we plan to release a GUI inspector and builder. In the last year, ROOT has drawn the endorsement of additional experiments and institutions. It is now officially supported by CERN and used as key I/O component by the LCG project.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 5 pages, MSWord, pSN MOJT00

Biological and translational implications of enteric nerves in colorectal cancer:When tumors get nervous

This thesis investigates the role of the enteric nervous system, or 'the abdominal brain' in colon cancer. Through this study, it has been shown that there is an interaction between the nerve cells of the gut and the tumor cells, where certain proteins secreted by nerve cells can affect the growth of the tumor. It has also been shown that the presence or absence of nerve fibers in colon tumors may predict the life expectancy of colon cancer patients. Finally, it was discovered that many methylation markers, which can be used for early detection of colon cancer, are involved in nervous system processes. These studies indicate the importance of the enteric nervous system in colon cancer, which has not been extensively studied before. In the future, this research may lead to the development of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as new therapies for colon cancer

ALICE Data Challenges

When fully operational, the ALICE experiment will take data at a rate of 1.5 GB/s. This rate is more than an order of magnitude higher than that of the other LHC experiments. To be ready for this very high rate and to understand early on what the possible problems might be, we have decided to start the ALICEData Challenges (ADC). The idea is that the ADCs will be repeated once or twice a year until the LHC goes online. The unique aspect of the ADCs is that it involves the complete ALICE data taking chain: form DAQ, via event builder, via filter, to object database to mass storage system. Progressively, with each ADC we shall try to achieve higher data rates, more realistic event filters and raw data models

Food supplements for type 2 diabetics

With more than 382 million patients being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and even more unknowingly suffering of diabetes and pre-diabetes, health burden will continue to grow. Diabetes is a chronic disease, characterized by an unbalanced glucose metabolism. Insulin resistance, inhibited insulin production and rising glucose levels are on the onset of diabetes type 2. The major complications occurring in diabetics are cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy and cognitive decline resulting in depressions and loss of memory. The pathophysiology of the complications show similarities. High glucose concentrations lead to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction, which is amplified by the formation of advanced glycation products. Endothelial dysfunction increases a bunch of intracellular cascades resulting in the onset of inflammation, vasoconstriction, cell expansion and thrombosis. This bachelor thesis hands a solution to prevent or delay the onset of these major diabetes complications by the design of a range of food supplements, especially for diabetics. Every major complication is linked to an own food supplement. Methods. The active ingredients were chosen based on the pathophysiology of both diabetes type 2 and the complication (part 1). When the active ingredients were chosen, the excipients were discussed; a body, lubricants, moisture scavengers, firmness agents and binding agent are used to make the supplement manufacturable. To test if the excipients were added in the right amount and proportions, several tests were done. These tests include a friability test, a disintegration test and a hardness test (part 2). Results. The active ingredients include polyphenols, vitamins, plant extracts, herbs and minerals. All supplements resulted in the acceptable ranges set for every test, contain at least one health claim and are supported by scientific evidence. Discussion. When selecting the ingredients, several requirements were taken into account; every product should contain at least one related health claim and should be supported by scientific evidence, also affordability is taken into account. Based on these requirements, some ingredients have been rejected. Points of discussion of these nutritional supplements are the bioavailability and interactions of some of the ingredients, such as polyphenols. Thereby, size of the tablet and quality of the used herbal extracts are points of improvements. Conclusion. The food supplement range has reached the three most important requirements: scientific evidence, health claim and manufacturability. The range is ready for production