Opportunities for blockchain diffusion in the agri-food supply chain: case study in wine sector

The agri-food sector is characterized by a complexity of phases that span diverse stages such as the supply of inputs, cultivation, collection, treatment, transformation and distribution of food. Moreover, globalization has changed the way people act and the way companies do business. Transportation of materials and delivery of final products become difficult as the supply chains got longer. Additionally, the demand of faster delivery of high-quality products is increasing linear to the demands of consumers, thus, the suppliers need to meet these demands and stay competitive as well as profitable on the market. In this scenario, the Blockchain Technology (BCT) can play a fundamental role and could have a wide scope of application, taking into account the importance of knowing the origin of an agro-food product for consumers, the usefulness of this technology to fight against counterfeiting of products especially of the ones with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) or TSG (Traditional specialty guaranteed). Additionally, BCT considerably simplifies information sharing between actors along supply chain, reduces the need of paperwork and digitizes the processes that give the possibility to trace and track the product in a significantly short time and with low costs. The foundation of the methodology of this work is based upon a case study and analysis of valuable literature in the field. Case study methodology provides us with the opportunity to carry out qualitative analysis on the basis of real occasions as well as to study the phenomenon in natural surroundings and to elaborate theories from practical circumstances, contrary to the literature review. The case study provided in this work is about wine supply chain. It is one of the most sensitive products with the features such as provenience and quality. Moreover, wine sector is characterized by profound changes in its production processes as well as in the consumer behavior. In such circumstances, it is essential for stakeholders operating along wine supply chain to adopt effective strategies and efficiently organize internal and external processes. This would enable them to respond to the needs of constantly evolving market. Case study demonstrates the advantages of blockchain based supply chain. The results show that the Blockchain is a useful tool to ensure a traceability system and to protect the production from any type of fraud. The Blockchain also encourages a transparent system that benefits various stakeholders, particularly, the consumers. Lastly, case study illustrates how effective blockchain diffusion can be in the wine supply chain in terms of information sharing and time and costs of tracking back the products

Effect of anabolic treatment on the serum levels of gonadotropins, testosterone, prolactin, thyroid hormones and myoglobin of male athletes under physical training.

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Effect of Polystyrene Synthesis Method on Water Sorption and Glass Transition

Commodity PS is synthesized via free radical polymerization, whereas PS in block copolymers (BCPs) is typically synthesized via living anionic polymerization. The purpose of this work is to investigate how the synthesis method impacts important properties such as water sorption and glass transition temperature (Tg). Water sorption is important because the performance of nanostructured polymer membranes in various applications is known to be affected by environmental conditions such as humidity. Tg is important because it dictates processing conditions, both for commodity PS as well as BCPs such as thermoplastic elastomers. Water sorption in commercial PS was found to be 0.5 mgwater/gpolymer at the highest humidities investigated (about 80%), in agreement with literature. On the other hand, syndiotactic PS synthesized anionically at low temperature absorbed more water, up to 1.5 mgwater/gpolymer, due to higher free volume. The greatest impact on water sorption was due to addition of hydrophilic hydroxyl chain ends to atactic PS, which resulted in water sorption of up to 2.3 mgwater/gpolymer. In addition to measuring water sorption and dry Tg separately, the impact of relative humidity on PS Tg was examined. Combined differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis show that on going from the dry state to high humidity, the Tg of PS decreases by 5 °C. Moreover, the tensile storage modulus of PS decreases from 1.58 GPa at 0% RH to 0.53 GPa at 40% RH. In addition to the practical relevance of this study, this report fills a gap in experimental literature by using a poor solvent system, PS/water, to examine plasticization in the pure polymer limit