Entrepreneurial Supply Chains and Strategic Collaboration: The Case of Bagòss Cheese in Bagolino, Italy

Many small towns and communities are struggling to sustain their competitiveness in the face of increasing globalization. Yet, through entrepreneurial supply chains, some communities are organizing themselves to forge local solutions to their global challenges. The essence of entrepreneurial supply chains is its ability to facilitate alignment of all participants in the chain, eliminating moral hazard and opportunism risks. It is argued that this governance system and an ability to protect the common assets from infringement by outsiders are necessary for the success of these solutions. The research uses Bagòss cheese, produced in the small Italian village of Bagolino, to illustrate the characteristics of entrepreneurial supply chains and test the effect of the identified necessary conditions for their successful implementation.entrepreneurial supply chain, Bagòss cheese, globalization, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Q10, Q17,

Consequences of climate change on food-energy-water systems in arid regions without agricultural adaptation, analyzed using FEWCalc and DSSAT

Effects of a changing climate on agricultural system productivity are poorly understood, and likely to be met with as yet undefined agricultural adaptations by farmers and associated business and governmental entities. The continued vitality of agricultural systems depends on economic conditions that support farmers’ livelihoods. Exploring the long-term effects of adaptations requires modeling agricultural and economic conditions to engage stakeholders upon whom the burden of any adaptation will rest. Here, we use a new freeware model FEWCalc (Food-Energy-Water Calculator) to project farm incomes based on climate, crop selection, irrigation practices, water availability, and economic adaptation of adding renewable energy production. Thus, FEWCalc addresses United Nations Global Sustainability Goals No Hunger and Affordable and Clean Energy. Here, future climate scenario impacts on crop production and farm incomes are simulated when current agricultural practices continue so that no agricultural adaptations are enabled. The model Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) with added arid-region dynamics is used to simulate agricultural dynamics. Demonstrations at a site in the midwest USA with 2008–2017 historical data and two 2018–2098 RCP climate scenarios provide an initial quantification of increased agricultural challenges under climate change, such as reduced crop yields and increased financial losses. Results show how this finding is largely driven by increasing temperatures and changed distribution of precipitation throughout the year. Without effective technological advances and operational and policy changes, the simulations show how rural areas could increasingly depend economically on local renewable energy, while agricultural production from arid regions declines by 50% or more

Relating agriculture, energy, and water decisions to farm incomes and climate projections using two freeware programs, FEWCalc and DSSAT

Context: The larger scale perspective of Integrated Assessment (IA) and smaller scale perspective of Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (IAV) need to be bridged to design long-term solutions to agricultural problems that threaten agricultural production, rural economic viability, and global food supplies. FEWCalc (Food-Energy-Water Calculator) is a new freeware, agent-based model with the novel ability to project farm incomes based on crop selection, irrigation practices, groundwater availability, renewable energy investment, and historical and projected environmental conditions. FEWCalc is used to analyze the interrelated food, energy, water, and climate systems of Finney County, Kansas to evaluate consequences of choices currently available to farmers and resource managers. Objective: This article aims to evaluate local farmer choices of crops and renewable energy investment in the face of water resource limitations and global climate change. Metrics of the analysis include agricultural and renewable-energy production, farm income, and water availability and quality. The intended audience includes farmers, resource managers, and scientists focusing on food, energy, and water systems. Methods: Data derived from publicly available sources are used to support user-specified FEWCalc input values. DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) with added arid-region dynamics is used to obtain simulated crop production and irrigation water demand for FEWCalc. Here, FEWCalc is used to simulate agricultural and energy production and farm income based on continuation of recent ranges of crop prices, farm expenses, and crop insurance; continuation of recent renewable-energy economics and government incentives; one of four climate scenarios, including General Circulation Model projections for Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5; and groundwater-supported irrigation and its limitations. Results and Conclusions: A 50-year (2018-2067) climate and groundwater availability projection process indicates possible trends of future crop yield, water utility, and farm income. The simulation during more wet years produces high crop production and slower depletion of groundwater, as expected. However, surprisingly, the simulations suggest that only the Drier Future scenario is commercially profitable, and this is because of reduced expenses for dryland farming. Although simulated income losses due to low crop production are ameliorated by the energy sector income and crop insurance, the simulation under climate change still produces the worst annual total income. Significance: FEWCalc addresses scientific, communication, and educational gaps between global- and local-scale FEW research communities and local stakeholders, affected by food, energy, water systems and their interactions by relating near-term choices to near- and long-term consequences. This analysis is needed to craft a more advantageous future

Association between micronutrients, oxidative stress biomarkers and angiogenic growth mediators in early and late-onset preeclamptic Ghanaian women

Objectives: Micronutrients, especially calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) are reported to reduce preeclampsia events via several factors such as endothelial cell control, optimal oxidative stress and a balanced angiogenic growth mediator. We evaluated the association of micronutrients with oxidative stress biomarkers, and angiogenic growth mediators in early-onset preeclampsia and late-onset preeclampsia. Methods: This case-control study recruited 197 preeclampsia (early-onset preeclampsia = 70 and late-onset preeclampsia = 127) as cases and 301 normotensive pregnant women as controls from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana. Samples were collected after 20 weeks of gestation for both cases and controls and estimated for Ca, Mg, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, placental growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor-A, soluble endoglin, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha and total antioxidant capacity. Results: Early-onset preeclampsia women had significantly lower levels of Ca, Mg, placental growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor-A and total antioxidant capacity but higher levels of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, soluble endoglin, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1/placental growth factor ratio, 8-epiprostaglandinF2-alpha /placental growth factor ratio, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine/placental growth factor ratio and soluble endoglin/placental growth factor ratio than late-onset preeclampsia and normotensive pregnant women (p \u3c 0.0001). Among the early-onset preeclampsia women, the first and second quartile for serum placental growth factor, first quartile for vascular endothelial growth factor-A and total antioxidant capacity and the fourth quartiles for serum sEng, serum sFlt-1, 8-epiPGF2 and 8-OHdG were independently associated with low Ca and Mg (p \u3c 0.05). Among late-onset preeclampsia women, the fourth quartile for soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 was independently associated with low Ca and Mg (p \u3c 0.05). Conclusion: Magnesium and calcium are associated with an imbalance in angiogenic growth mediators and oxidative stress biomarkers among preeclampsia women, particularly early-onset preeclampsia. Serial and routine measurement of these micronutrients would allow the monitoring of poor placental angiogenesis while enabling an understanding of the triggers of increased oxidative stress and reduced antioxidant in preeclampsia

In vitro anti-malarial interaction and gametocytocidal activity of cryptolepine

YesBackground: Discovery of novel gametocytocidal molecules is a major pharmacological strategy in the elimination and eradication of malaria. The high patronage of the aqueous root extract of the popular West African anti-malarial plant Cryptolepis sanguinolenta (Periplocaceae) in traditional and hospital settings in Ghana has directed this study investigating the gametocytocidal activity of the plant and its major alkaloid, cryptolepine. This study also investigates the anti-malarial interaction of cryptolepine with standard anti-malarials, as the search for new anti-malarial combinations continues. Methods: The resazurin-based assay was employed in evaluating the gametocytocidal properties of C. sanguinolenta and cryptolepine against the late stage (IV/V) gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum (NF54). A fixed ratio method based on the SYBR Green I fluorescence-based assay was used to build isobolograms from a combination of cryptolepine with four standard anti-malarial drugs in vitro using the chloroquine sensitive strain 3D7. Results: Cryptolepis sanguinolenta ( IC50 = 49.65 nM) and its major alkaloid, cryptolepine ( IC50 = 1965 nM), showed high inhibitory activity against the late stage gametocytes of P. falciparum (NF54). In the interaction assays in asexual stage, cryptolepine showed an additive effect with both lumefantrine and chloroquine with mean ΣFIC50s of 1.017 ± 0.06 and 1.465 ± 0.17, respectively. Cryptolepine combination with amodiaquine at therapeutically relevant concentration ratios showed a synergistic effect (mean ΣFIC50 = 0.287 ± 0.10) whereas an antagonistic activity (mean ΣFIC50 = 4.182 ± 0.99) was seen with mefloquine. Conclusions: The findings of this study shed light on the high gametocytocidal properties of C. sanguinolenta and cryptolepine attributing their potent anti-malarial activity mainly to their effect on both the sexual and asexual stages of the parasite. Amodiaquine is a potential drug partner for cryptolepine in the development of novel fixed dose combinations

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Entrepreneurial Supply Chains and Strategic Collaboration: The Case of Bagòss Cheese in Bagolino, Italy

Many small towns and communities are struggling to sustain their competitiveness in the face of increasing globalization. Yet, through entrepreneurial supply chains, some communities are organizing themselves to forge local solutions to their global challenges. The essence of entrepreneurial supply chains is its ability to facilitate alignment of all participants in the chain, eliminating moral hazard and opportunism risks. It is argued that this governance system and an ability to protect the common assets from infringement by outsiders are necessary for the success of these solutions. The research uses Bagòss cheese, produced in the small Italian village of Bagolino, to illustrate the characteristics of entrepreneurial supply chains and test the effect of the identified necessary conditions for their successful implementation