Postponement and the wealth of nations

In this paper, Fair Value Chain Creation (FVC2;), as an approach that applies and extends principles of Fair Trade to exports from developed countries to the less developed countries, is being introduced. It awards a Fair Value label to goods which undergo further value adding in the host market. FVC2; attempts to utilize a label pointing at made for rather than made in by emblematizing the degree of Fair Value involved. Building on logistics and manufacturing postponement allows FVC2; to balance value chains in such a way that both stakes (North - South; developed countries - developing countries; country of origin - host market) are going to profit. Developing countries can increase their share in value chains originating from Northern countries. In turn, this enables those developed countries and corresponding manufacturers to level their resources. While postponing none-core activities to the developing countries and the respective host markets, manufacturers can focus even more on core processes. In fact, FVC2; mostly employs humans instead of machines. It makes labor a promoted option. Based on free-market mechanisms, like opportunity costs and the production possibilities frontier, the authors prove FVC2; being an attempt in the market and on the structure of global value chains. Fair Value Chain Creation is driven by enhanced global logistics performance. Thus, and in contrast to Fair Trade, FVC2; requires no price premium being paid by the consumer and therefore no stringent inspection of its application. Nonetheless, every labeling initiative requires an authority to prevent malpractice. The authors show, before such an initiative can be put into practice, that it is particularly evident to define the developing gap enabling to specify the potential and spectrum of FVC2;. This gap arises from globalization and enhanced logistics performance (foremost postponement). --Fair Trade,Fair Value Chain,Fair Value Creation,Postponement,Wealth of Nations

Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Graph Editing on Interactive Surfaces

Graph exploration and editing are still mostly considered independently and systems to work with are not designed for todays interactive surfaces like smartphones, tablets or tabletops. When developing a system for those modern devices that supports both graph exploration and graph editing, it is necessary to 1) identify what basic tasks need to be supported, 2) what interactions can be used, and 3) how to map these tasks and interactions. This technical report provides a list of basic interaction tasks for graph exploration and editing as a result of an extensive system review. Moreover, different interaction modalities of interactive surfaces are reviewed according to their interaction vocabulary and further degrees of freedom that can be used to make interactions distinguishable are discussed. Beyond the scope of graph exploration and editing, we provide an approach for finding and evaluating a mapping from tasks to interactions, that is generally applicable. Thus, this work acts as a guideline for developing a system for graph exploration and editing that is specifically designed for interactive surfaces.Comment: 21 pages, minor corrections (typos etc.

Using Distributed Ledger Technologies to Support Complex Supply Chains

The concept of blockchain, as part of distributed ledger technologies, has gained a lot of interest recently, especially in cryptocurrencies. With the addition of other technical capabilities, e.g., smart contracts and oracles, this interest has spread to other areas as well and affects a wide variety of business processes such as supply chain processes. However, in research, the wide variety of processes finds inadequate consideration to date. In this research paper, we provide an overview of the state of the art of distributed ledger technologies in supply chains and point out future research topics. Therefore, we conducted a structured literature review, systematized potential application areas in supply chain processes, and showed that research gaps exist. To address the research gaps, we derived open research questions, whereby conducting design studies to deal with the practical problems in the application areas plays a central role

Expansion von αEβ7+ CD4+-T-Lymphozyten in der bronchoalveolären Lavage als Marker für pulmonale Fibrosen: Beziehung zu interstitiellen Lungenkrankheiten und diagnostische Relevanz

In der Diagnostik interstitieller Lungenerkrankungen nimmt die Immunphänotypisierung der Lymphozyten aus der bronchoalveolären Lavage, ergänzend zu den klinischen Untersuchungen eine zentrale Rolle ein. Ein klinischer Marker, der eine pulmonale Fibrogenese anzeigt, existiert bislang jedoch nicht. In dieser Arbeit konnte für αEβ7 (CD103) eine signifikant erhöhte Expansion auf CD4+-TLymphozyten bei pulmonaler Fibrose im Vergleich zu einer Kontrollgruppe nachgewiesen werden. Bei nahezu kompletter Co-Expression von CD45RO und weiteren T-Zellaktivierungsparametern ist CD103 als Aktivitätsmarker einer pulmonalen Fibrose anzusehen und gewinnt somit klinische Relevanz in Diagnostik und Verlaufsbeurteilung pulmonaler Fibrosen