Traceability as Part of Competitive Strategy in the Fruit Supply Chain

This paper discusses traceability as part of information management in fruit supply chains of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. A review of the rules in use for traceability distinguishes between a proper traceability and a traceability plus (T+), embedded of many value attributes. Elements of competitive strategy, considered in the analysis of fruit supply chins of Emilia-Romagna, try to demonstrate that not only strategic but also operative choices determine the way a single firm or filiere manages traceability and information issues. Applications of such elements to buyers and sellers selection as well as to competing retailers of fruit supply chain, verify the hypothesis.Traceability, Information management, Fruit supply chain, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, L1, Q13,

Organic food marketing and distribution in the European Union

The paper discusses the European organic agricultural sector from a socio-economical point of view and from a EU perspective. In the 1990s organic agriculture has known a strong development and today it is considered as a stable sector and with a certain economic importance inside agricultural sector. If originally organic food was the result of an ideological choice and was set inside the alternative culture in opposition to current models of economic development and social organisation, today it has the feature of an entrepreneurial phenomenon, belonging to a life style and to a finally acknowledged cultural model which is able to attract human and financial resources on its own, to produce profit and to satisfy a steadily increasing market. A description of the data obtained by the main available sources on organic food markets in Europe is provided, trying to analyse the present scenario for organic agriculture with the lenses of the 4Ps marketing management paradigm. The analysis may be useful to shed light on the several facets of the organic sector in Europe, and as a basis for further studies on the topic.organic food, distribution, marketing, communication, brand

ROCK ‘n TOR: An Outlook on Keratinocyte Stem Cell Expansion in Regenerative Medicine via Protein Kinase Inhibition

Keratinocyte stem cells play a fundamental role in homeostasis and repair of stratified epithelial tissues. Transplantation of cultured keratinocytes autografts provides a landmark example of successful cellular therapies by restoring durable integrity in stratified epithelia lost to devastating tissue conditions. Despite the overall success of such procedures, failures still occur in case of paucity of cultured stem cells in therapeutic grafts. Strategies aiming at a further amplification of stem cells during keratinocyte ex vivo expansion may thus extend the applicability of these treatments to subjects in which endogenous stem cells pools are depauperated by aging, trauma, or disease. Pharmacological targeting of stem cell signaling pathways is recently emerging as a powerful strategy for improving stem cell maintenance and/or amplification. Recent experimental data indicate that pharmacological inhibition of two prominent keratinocyte signaling pathways governed by apical mTOR and ROCK protein kinases favor stem cell maintenance and/or amplification ex vivo and may improve the effectiveness of stem cell-based therapeutic procedures. In this review, we highlight the pathophysiological roles of mTOR and ROCK in keratinocyte biology and evaluate existing pre-clinical data on the effects of their inhibition in epithelial stem cell expansion for transplantation purposes

Conjunctions in ELF academic discourse: a corpus-based analysis

Abstract – Conjunctions as fundamental elements in the construction of discourse cohesion represent a relatively neglected research area, due to their complexity and the bewildering number of “conjunctive relations” (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 226) that they may express in context, as also highlighted in Christiansen (2011). In addition to this, there does not seem to be a shared view as far as the classification and denomination of the different kinds of conjunctions are concerned (cf. Halliday and Hasan 1976; Vande Kopple 1985; Martin and Rose 2003; Hyland 2005b). The selection of a specific type of conjunction acquires more importance because they are typically open to so many different interpretations, especially when the participants in the speech event come from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds (cf. Guido 2007; Guido 2008; Cogo et al. 2011).Following the taxonomy provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976) for conjunctions, our study attempts to shed light on the usage of conjunctions by ELF speakers in specific contexts. We shall consider ten transcripts taken from the VOICE Corpus (Seidlhofer et. al 2013), namely five interviews and five conversations in multicultural academic contexts (approximately 4,000 words each), and analyze the number of instances for each type of conjunction (additive, adversative, clausal, temporal as well as continuatives) in depth, by adopting a quantitative as well as a qualitative method and by using TextSTAT 2.9 (Huning 2012). We shall then move on to the analysis of conjunctions with respect to their internal properties/collocates and eventually see the occurrence of conjunctions by comparing them with the two different speech events which are chosen as the subject of our study, i.e. interviews and conversations. We shall see the extent to which certain conjunctions are more restricted than others in terms of usage (cf. Leung 2005) in both types of speech events, despite the great number of options available to the speaker, and how some of their properties have become ‘hybridized’ (e.g. and) in multicultural contexts.Keywords: conjunctions; ELF; VOICE corpus; discourse; cohesion. Abstract – Le congiunzioni quali elementi fondamentali nella costruzione della coesione testuale rappresentano un’area di ricerca poco studiata, a causa della loro complessità e del numero di relazioni che le stesse possono avere a seconda del contesto (Halliday and Hasan 1976; Christiansen 2011). Inoltre, non sembra esservi una visione condivisa per quanto concerne la classificazione delle diverse tipologie di congiunzione (cf. Halliday and Hasan 1976; Vande Kopple 1985; Martin and Rose 2003; Hyland 2005b). La scelta di un tipo di congiunzione piuttosto di un’altra acquista maggiore importanza in quanto generalmente soggette a molteplici interpretazioni, soprattutto nel caso in cui i partecipanti all’atto comunicativo non condividono lo stesso background linguistico-culturale (cf. Guido 2007; Guido 2008; Cogo et al. 2011).Avvalendosi della tassonomia per le congiunzioni fornita da Halliday and Hasan (1976), questo studio analizza l’utilizzo delle congiunzioni da parte di parlanti di Inglese Lingua Franca in contesti specialistici. Considereremo dieci trascrizioni tratte dal VOICE Corpus (Seidlhofer et. al 2013), ovvero cinque interviste e cinque conversazioni in contesti accademici multiculturali (approssimativamente 4000 parole ciascuno) e analizzeremo il numero di occorrenze per ogni congiunzione (additive, adversative, clausal, temporal e continuatives), adottando un metodo quantitative-qualitativo e utilizzando TextSTAT 2.9 (Huning 2012). Procederemo poi con l’analisi delle congiunzioni in base alle loro proprietà intrinseche/collocati e, infine, vedremo l’occorrenza delle stesse comparando le due tipologie di evento comunicativo oggetto dello studio, ossia interviste e conversazioni. Si mostrerà come il repertorio delle congiunzioni a disposizione del parlante di Inglese Lingua Franca sia molto più ristretto (cf. Leung 2005) in entrambe le tipologie testuali, nonostante il gran numero di opzioni disponibili, e come le funzioni di congiunzioni - quali, per esempio, la coordinante and - necessitino di essere esplorate nuovamente, alla luce del loro utilizzo in contesti multiculturali.Keywords: conjunctions; ELF; VOICE corpus; discourse; cohesion

NRSF/REST impairs brain spatial K+ buffering and glutamate uptake via downregulation of inwardly rectifying K+ channel Kir4.1 and GLT-1 transporter in cultured cortical astrocytes

Neuron-restrictive silencer factor/repressor element 1 (RE1)-silencing transcription factor (NRSF/REST) regulates many genes and signaling pathways involved in neuronal differentiation, synaptic homeostasis and maintenance of normal glial cell functions. REST activity is progressively downregulated in neurons during development, while it is normally expressed in glial cells. Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells and play an important role in maintaining the functional integrity of neuronal networks by forming tripartite synapses. In this study, we have explored the in vitro role of REST in astrocyte functions using REST conditional knockout mice (REST-KO). We studied the electrophysiological properties of primary cultures of REST-KO cortical astrocytes by the patch-clamp method. We provided biophysical and pharmacological evidence of a reduced plasma membrane density of the inward rectifying K+ channel subtypes 4.1 (Kir4.1). Loss of Kir4.1 causes reduction of the expression and activity of glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1), accompanied by a decrease in the astroglial glutamate uptake. Because a reduced activity of astrocyte Kir4.1 has been observed in a number of neurological diseases including temporal lobe epilepsy, we have studied the firing properties of neurons co-cultured with REST-KO astrocytes. Loss of Kir4.1 impairs the astrocyte ability to buffer extracellular K+ concentration that, increased by neuronal activity, indirectly enhances the action potential firing of neurons co-cultured with REST-KO astrocytes. This study adds a new piece to the discovery of REST-regulated mechanisms in astrocytes and contributes to our understanding of the involvement of Kir4.1 and GLT-1 in a variety of neurological disorders

Combining Static and Dynamic Permission Analysis for Android

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on mobile technologies, so has the importance of research in the area of mobile security in order to protect users and their data. My research is focused on the Android permissions-based security model and enhancing the effectiveness of Android application permission analysis. Android provides a permission-based security model in which access to privileged system resources is protected through security mechanisms known as Permissions. By default, an Android application does not have any privileges, but applications can request additional privileges through the use of these permissions. I present a novel method in which an Android application can be analyzed to determine the precise set of permissions an application needs to run properly and more securely on a mobile Android device. I present the tool, ACE4Android (Access-Control Explorer for Android), a Dynamic Analysis tool which, when combined with a Static Analysis tool, will allow application end users to know what they are installing when they download an application, and will allow application developers to improve the runnability and security of their applications

Reframing language, disrupting aging: a corpus-assisted multimodal critical discourse study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore two channels of communication (i.e. texts and images) from a non-governmental organization website called #DisruptAging with the aim of finding how multimodal knowledge dissemination contributes to dismantling misconceptions about the aging process. Design/methodology/approach This analysis is based on an integrated approach that combines corpus-assisted discourse analysis (cf. Semino and Short, 2004; Baker et al., 2008, Baker, 2010) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (Machin and Mayr, 2012) via the American Medical Association format (2007) and the suite of FrameWorks tools (2015, 2017), which are applied to the collection of texts and images taken from #DisruptAging. Findings A total of 69 stories corresponding with 218 images of older adults have shown to be powerful textual and semiotic resources, designed both for educational and awareness-raising purposes, to promote the so-called “aging well discourse” (cf. Loos et al., 2017). Social implications This discursive approach to the textual and visual material found in #DisruptAging hopes to influence the governing institutions that we construct, and the people who are given power to run them, with the goal of fostering fair treatment of older people within society. Originality/value There is a lack of studies investigating counter-discourse forms available online, which use textual and visual language to change the way society conceives the idea of aging

Renewable powered Battery Swapping Stations for sustainable urban mobility

Due to sustainability concerns raised by the transportation sector, still relying mostly on oil as main energy source, urban mobility is quickly shifting towards the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), The EV charging process should heavily rely on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and be smartly scheduled to promote sustainability and pollution reduction. In this context, renewable powered Battery Swapping Stations (BSS) represent a promising solution to enable sustainable and feasible e-mobility. Focusing on a BSS powered by photovoltaic panels, we investigate the issue of properly dimensioning its capacity (in terms of number of sockets) and the renewable energy supply to satisfy the battery swapping demand, trading off cost, Quality of Service and feasibility constraints. In addition, we analyse the potential benefits of smart scheduling strategies for battery recharging. Our results show that considerable cost saving of up to almost 40% can be achieved with a local RE supply to power the BSS. Furthermore, a proper tuning of the scheduling strategy configuration parameters is required to better trade off cost and Quality of Service, based on the desired performance targets

Access-rights Analysis in the Presence of Subjects

Modern software development and run-time environments, such as Java and the Microsoft .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR), have adopted a declarative form of access control. Permissions are granted to code providers, and during execution, the platform verifies compatibility between the permissions required by a security-sensitive operation and those granted to the executing code. While convenient, configuring the access-control policy of a program is not easy. If a code component is not granted sufficient permissions, authorization failures may occur. Thus, security administrators tend to define overly permissive policies, which violate the Principle of Least Privilege (PLP). A considerable body of research has been devoted to building program-analysis tools for computing the optimal policy for a program. However, Java and the CLR also allow executing code under the authority of a subject (user or service), and no program-analysis solution has addressed the challenges of determining the policy of a program in the presence of subjects. This paper introduces Subject Access Rights Analysis (SARA), a novel analysis algorithm for statically computing the permissions required by subjects at run time. We have applied SARA to 348 libraries in IBM WebSphere Application Server - a commercial enterprise application server written in Java that consists of >2 million lines of code and is required to support the Java permission- and subject-based security model. SARA detected 263 PLP violations, 219 cases of policies with missing permissions, and 29 bugs that led code to be unnecessarily executed under the authority of a subject. SARA corrected all these vulnerabilities automatically, and additionally synthesized fresh policies for all the libraries, with a false-positive rate of 5% and an average running time of 103 seconds per library. SARA also implements mechanisms for mitigating the risk of false negatives due to reflection and native code; according to a thorough result evaluation based on testing, no false negative was detected. SARA enabled IBM WebSphere Application Server to receive the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation Assurance Level 4 certification