The Financial Aspect of Growing Organic Wine Grapes in the Vredendal District

Confusion still exists regarding the meaning of the organic production system. It can be defined as a holistic production system which enhances the agricultural eco-system by prohibiting the use of synthetic production mediums. It focuses on the improvement of soil fertility and the protection of the environment. The environmental advantages by themselves are not reason enough for farmers to adopt organic practices. The financial implication of organic agriculture in comparison with conventional practices is very important. It does not matter how ecologically advantegeous organic farming is, if a farming system does not show sufficient profit for the farmer to stay in business in a free market, an organic system will not be adopted. Ecological agriculture tends to have slightly lower yields, but production costs also tend to be lower during full production, due to the reduced use of purchased inputs. The net income (gross margin) from organic and conventional practices is thought to be comparable, although either can be advantageous under specific conditions. Many South African producers are interested in the organic production practices of wine grapes. Some of the producers are already busy converting their vineyards to organic practices. An important question relating to the organic production of wine grapes, is the cost associated with the practice. Research had been undertaken by Coetzee, of the farm Vaalpan, in the Vanrhynsdorp district, near Vredendal, South Africa. The farm is 12 hectares in extent of which 3 hectares are under the production of organic wine grapes. The purpose of the research was to compare the financial issues relating to conventional and organic practices. The results had shown that the price of the wine grapes and specially the price premium of organic wine, would determine whether the organic production of wine grapes was financially viable, as the production was lower and the production costs were higher.Crop Production/Industries,

Distributed Ledger Technology for the systematic Investigation and Reduction of Information Asymmetry in Collaborative Networks

Costs, risks and inefficiencies in Collaborative Networks (CNs) resulting from information asymmetries have been discussed in the scientific community for years. In this work, supply chain networks, as common representative of CNs, are used as object of investigation. Therein, problems and requirements of interorganizational information exchange are elaborated as well as the potential role Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) could play to address them. As major challenge, convincing all relevant network partners to resolve asymmetric information by sharing sensitive data is identified. To face this issue, the value of shared information is prioritized as a motivational aspect. Finally, we propose a search process to systematically assess the benefits of information sharing in collaborative networks. To coordinate and implement this process regarding the derived requirements of CNs we propose system components based on DLT design patterns

Data Sovereignty in Data Donation Cycles - Requirements and Enabling Technologies for the Data-driven Development of Health Applications

Personalized healthcare is expected to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of health services using different kinds of algorithms on existing data. This approach is currently confronted with the lack of digital data and the desire for self-determined personal data handling. However, the issue of health data donation is on the political agenda of some governments. Within this work, a knowledge base will be created by reviewing existing approaches and technologies regarding this topic with the focus on chronic diseases. A list of requirements will be derived from which we conceptualize a data donation cycle to demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of health data sovereignty and its future possibilities concerning data-driven health application development. By linking the requirements to technological approaches, the baseline for future open ecosystems will be presented

Decision model to design a blockchain-based system for storing sensitive health data

The storage and sharing of sensitive health data in Blockchain-based systems implicates data protection issues that must be addressed when designing such systems. Those issues can be traced back to the properties of decentralized systems. A blessing but also a curse in the context of health data is the transparency of the Blockchain, because it allows the stored data to be viewed by all participants of the network. In addition, the property of immutability is in contrast to the possibility to delete the personal data upon request according to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Accordingly, approaches to tackle these issues have recently been discussed in research and industry, e.g. by storing sensitive data encrypted On-Chain or Off-Chain on own servers connected to a Blockchain. These approaches deal with how the confidentiality and integrity of stored data can be guaranteed and how data can be deleted. By reviewing the proposed approaches, we develop a taxonomy to summarize their specific technical characteristics and create a decision model that will allow the selection of a suitable approach for the design of future Blockchain-based systems for the storage of sensitive health data. Afterwards, we demonstrate the utility of the decision model based on a use case for storing test results from a digital dementia screening application. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and suggestions for future research

Digital Health Apps in the Context of Dementia: Questionnaire Study to Assess the Likelihood of Use Among Physicians

Background: Age-related diseases such as dementia are playing an increasingly important role in global population development. Thus, prevention, diagnostics, and interventions require more accessibility, which can be realized through digital health apps. With the app on prescription, Germany made history by being the first country worldwide to offer physicians the possibility to prescribe and reimburse digital health apps as of the end of the year 2020. Objective: Considering the lack of knowledge about correlations with the likelihood of use among physicians, this study aimed to address the question of what makes the use of a digital health app by physicians more likely. Methods: We developed and validated a novel measurement tool—the Digital Health Compliance Questionnaire (DHCQ)—in an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts to assess the role of proposed factors in the likelihood of using a health app. Therefore, a web-based survey was conducted to evaluate the likelihood of using a digital app called DemPredict to screen for Alzheimer dementia. Within this survey, 5 latent dimensions (acceptance, attitude toward technology, technology experience, payment for time of use, and effort of collection), the dependent variable likelihood of use, and answers to exploratory questions were recorded and tested within directed correlations. Following a non–probability-sampling strategy, the study was completed by 331 physicians from Germany in the German language, of whom 301 (90.9%) fulfilled the study criteria (eg, being in regular contact with patients with dementia). These data were analyzed using a range of statistical methods to validate the dimensions of the DHCQ. Results: The DHCQ revealed good test theoretical measures—it showed excellent fit indexes (Tucker-Lewis index=0.98; comparative fit index=0.982; standardized root mean square residual=0.073; root mean square error of approximation=0.037), good internal consistency (Cronbach α=.83), and signs of moderate to large correlations between the DHCQ dimensions and the dependent variable. The correlations between the variables acceptance, attitude toward technology, technology experience, and payment for the time of use and the dependent variable likelihood of use ranged from 0.29 to 0.79, and the correlation between effort of the collection and likelihood of use was −0.80. In addition, we found high levels of skepticism regarding data protection, and the age of the participants was found to be negatively related to their technical experience and attitude toward technology. Conclusions: In the context of the results, increased communication between the medical and technology sectors and significantly more awareness raising are recommended to make the use of digital health apps more attractive to physicians as they can be adjusted to their everyday needs. Further research could explore the connection between areas such as adherence on the patient side and its impact on the likelihood of use by physicians

Acute exercise impacts AhR and PD-1 levels of CD8+ T-cells

Purpose: The programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has become a promising target in cancer immunotherapy. PD-1 expression of CD8+ T-cells may be increased via the exploitation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling with kynurenine (KYN) as a ligand. Since exercise affects KYN metabolism, we exploratory investigated the influence of acute exercise bouts on AhR and PD-1 levels of CD8+ T-cells. Method: In this study, 24 healthy males (age: 24.6 ± 3.9 years; weight 83.9 ± 10.5 kg; height: 182.4 ± 6.2 cm) completed a single bout of endurance (EE) and resistance exercise (RE) in a randomly assigned order on separate days. Blood samples were drawn before (t0), after (t1), and 1 h after (t2) both conditions. T-cell populations, the level of cytoplasmic AhR, and surface PD-1 were assessed by flow cytometry. Results: T-cell populations changed over time, indicated by an increase in the absolute numbers of CD3+ lymphocytes after EE (p < .001) and RE (p = .036) and in PD-1+ CD8+ T-cells after EE (p = .021). Proportions of T-cell populations changed only after EE (t0–t2: p = .029; t1-t2: p = .006). The level of cytoplasmic AhR decreased immediately after exercise in both exercise conditions (EE: p = .009; RE: p = .036). The level of surface PD-1 decreased 1 h after EE (p = .005). Conclusion: We analyzed the level of surface PD-1 and cytoplasmic AhR following acute physical exercise for the first time. Especially EE was observed to impact both AhR and PD-1 levels, undermining its role as the AhR-PD-1 axis modulator. These results provide new insights into the impact of exercise on AhR-signaling, which could potentially be relevant for various chronic diseases

Multi-block polyurethanes via RAFT end-group switching and their characterization by advanced hyphenated techniques

The detailed characterization of poly(styrene)-b-poly(tetrahydrofuran) (pS-b-pTHF) multiblock copolymers (17800 g mol(-1) <= M-n <= 46800 g mol(-1)) generated via urethane linkages is presented. The synthesis of the block copolymers is enabled via a mechanistic switch of the thiocarbonyl thio end group of a poly(styrene) to dihydroxyl terminated polymers that subsequently react with a diisocyanate terminated polytetrahydrofuran based prepolymer to form multiblock copolymer structures. The characterization of the multiblock copolymers and their substructures includes size exclusion chromatography (SEC), liquid chromatography at critical conditions (LCCC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and infrared (IR) spectroscopy as well as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry. To obtain even further details of the polymer size and its composition, SEC with triple detection as well as newly developed SEC coupled online to IR spectroscopy was carried out. The quantification of the average block fractions via online SEC-IR (41-61 mol % pTHF) is in very good agreement with the results obtained via NMR spectroscopy (39-66 mol % pTHF)

A screen-printing method for manufacturing of current collectors for structural batteries

Structural carbon fibre composite batteries are a type of multifunctional batteries that combine the energy storage capability of a battery with the load-carrying ability of a structural material. To extract the current from the structural battery cell, current collectors are needed. However, current collectors are expensive, hard to connect to the electrode material and add mass to the system. Further, attaching the current collector to the carbon fibre electrode must not affect the electrochemical properties negatively or requires time-consuming, manual steps. This paper presents a proof-of-concept method for screen-printing of current collectors for structural carbon fibre composite batteries using silver conductive paste. Current collectors are screen-printed directly on spread carbon fibre tows and a polycarbonate carrier film. Experimental results show that the electrochemical performance of carbon fibre vs lithium metal half-cells with the screen-printed collectors is similar to reference half-cells using metal foil and silver adhered metal-foil collectors. The screen-printed current collectors fulfil the requirements for electrical conductivity, adhesion to the fibres and flexible handling of the fibre electrode. The screen-printing process is highly automatable and allows for cost-efficient upscaling to large scale manufacturing of arbitrary and complex current collector shapes. Hence, the screen-printing process shows a promising route to realization of high performing current collectors in structural batteries and potentially in other types of energy storage solutions