Blockchain technologies have become increasingly popular and attracted great interest in recent years. Beyond the financial sector, blockchain technologies are promising for addressing the current ...limitations in food supply chain management. As blockchain adoption for food supply chains is still in an early stage, it is significant to have a thematic framework to systematically understand the processes, benefits, and challenges. This paper aims to explore the adoption of blockchain technologies in food supply chains with a thematic analysis. Desktop research is conducted, and data is collected from online databases, including news article (e.g. Factiva) and research paper databases (e.g. Web of Science). Then we carry out a qualitative thematic analysis, according to the investigation processes suggested by Creswell. Based on the thematic analysis, we identify seven first-order themes and two second-order themes in adoption processes; thirteen first-order themes, sixteen second-order themes, and five third-order themes in benefits; and fourteen first-order themes and five second-order themes in challenges. In addition, we discuss and propose how to improve blockchain adoption in food supply chains in practice.
•We explore how individualistic culture affects readers’ information credibility.•Individualistic culture has positive moderate effect with information sidedness.•Individualistic culture has negative ...moderate effect with information consistency.•Individualistic culture has negative moderate effect with information rating.
Drawing upon elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and espoused culture, this study predicts that eWOM reader's individualism–collectivism orientation (ICO) moderates eWOM antecedent factors’ effects on the perception of information credibility. 274 data were collected from two leading electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) forums in China, the results confirm our prediction: eWOM reader's ICO positively moderates information sidedness’ effect on the perception of information credibility, it also negatively moderates the relationships between information consistency/information rating and information credibility. These findings validate the necessity and importance to consider readers’ espoused cultural differences in eWOM context.
To examine the protective effect of vitamin B12 against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and elucidate its underlying mechanism of action.
Mice were subjected to myocardial I/R injury by ...left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) occlusion followed by 24 h reperfusion. Cardiac function and injury were evaluated by echocardiography, triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) staining, and measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels. In addition, various molecular and biochemical methods, as well as RNA sequencing were used to determine the effects and mechanism of action of vitamin B12 on I/R injury.
We found that high doses of vitamin B12 inhibited myocardial I/R injury. Furthermore, our data indicated that vitamin B12 supplementation alleviated cardiac dysfunction and injury by mitigating oxidative stress and apoptosis through downregulation of Nox2, the Ac-SOD2/SOD2 and Bax/Bcl-2 ratios and cleaved caspase-3 expression, and upregulation of SIRT3 expression and AMPK activity. However, these effects were largely reversed following treatment with the SIRT3 inhibitor, 3-TYP. Our RNA-sequencing data further demonstrated that vitamin B12 supplementation reduced inflammation during I/R injury.
High doses of vitamin B12 supplements improved myocardial I/R injury by suppressing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and apoptosis of myocardial tissue through modulation of the SIRT3/AMPK signaling pathway, while reducing inflammation. Our findings suggested that vitamin B12 administered at high doses could be a potential therapy for myocardial I/R damage.
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•This study shows that Vitamin B12 alleviate myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury for the first time.•Vitamin B12 reduces oxidative stress and apoptosis via SIRT3/AMPK pathway.•RNA sequencing indicates that Vitamin B12 reduces inflammation under ischemia-reperfusion.
► We propose in-grouping strategies for foreign e-commerce firms to build initial trust and examine their effectiveness. ► Strategies providing common-bond information are more effective to in-group ...a foreign online store to build trust than strategies providing common-identity information. ► While foreign customer review is viewed as out-group endorsement, providing common-bond or common-identity information can make it a useful strategy to build trust. ► Institutional-identity strategy of showing local cultural activities is also effective in in-grouping the foreign online store to build trust.
Internet development has fueled e-commerce firms’ globalization efforts, but many have met with only limited success. This often stems from the foreign firms’ limited understanding of a focal country's local culture and idiosyncrasies. Foreign firms are usually viewed as out-group entities, which lowers consumers’ trust in them. The extent of such a phenomenon varies. In locations where people are more skeptical of out-groups, a critical question is whether it is possible to transform such foreign out-group firms into in-groups, specifically with the support of popular social networking media. Based on Social Identity Theory and Trust Transference Process, five strategies leveraging social grouping and social ties to build trust for foreign electronic commerce firms were proposed. A survey was conducted to examine their effectiveness. The results suggest that social-grouping strategies are useful for in-grouping foreign out-group entities to build trust, and the effectiveness of strategies is determined by the social similarity and psychological distance between the consumer and the endorser. This has important implications for scholars and practitioners, both local and abroad, to leverage social grouping to boost Internet sales.
Recent quality scandals reveal the importance of quality management from a supply chain perspective. Although there has been many related studies focusing on supply chain quality management, the ...technologies used still have difficulties in resolving problems arising from the lack of trust in supply chains. The root reason lies in three challenges brought to the traditional centralized trust mechanism: self-interests of supply chain members, information asymmetry in production processes, costs and limitations of quality inspections. Blockchain is a promising technology to address these problems. In this paper, we discuss how to improve the supply chain quality management by adopting the blockchain technology, and propose a framework for blockchain-based supply chain quality management.
As a result of the information asymmetry on product quality, there is a risk of unethical suppliers defrauding buyers in a supply chain. Buyers often conduct quality inspection on shipments and frame ...supply contracts to punish quality fraud. Due to cost concerns, buyers need to estimate the suppliers’ fraud possibilities and choose appropriate testing methods and frequencies. As suppliers’ fraud intentions depend on their cost-benefit analysis, it is possible to analyze suppliers’ fraud intention with appropriate modeling of their profit-seeking behavior. In this research, we are interested in how fraud intention analysis may affect the quality inspection process. It should be noted that quality inspection can be a repeated process, with suppliers and buyers conducting multiple rounds of transactions (including transactions with frauds) and learning about each other during the process. Their supply contracts may also affect suppliers’ profit-seeking attitude. We conduct a laboratory experiment to examine the effect of fraud intention analysis systems on inspection decision making considering the learning and contract effects. We put the experiment in the context of a dairy supply chain as a critical and interesting example application. The experiment shows that if there are no strong punitive terms for fraud in the contract, fraud intention analysis can improve buyers’ decision-making efficiency after controlling the learning effect, in terms of decision time, inspection cost, and correctness of rejecting suppliers’ fraudulent shipments.
Blockchain is a promising technology to drive business processes transparency and traceability, providing consensus and agreement between business partners to reduce information asymmetry and ...uncertainty along business processes. However, it does not assure data quality in blockchain-driven business processes, and poor data reliability can still occur. In this paper, the authors provide a framework of ontology modeling and verification for data reliability assessment in blockchain-driven business processes. The authors offer formal, process-oriented ontology definitions to specify data reliability assessment requirements, based on which smart contracts can be executed to implement the requirements. They provide a preliminary case study to demonstrate the use of the approach to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of data reliability assessment in consortium blockchains. The proposed ontology model can serve as a tool to standardize data formats and control data quality in blockchain-driven business scenarios.
As the most well-known analytical tool, the thermometer has been extended to the field of biological analysis based on the photothermal effect. Herein, isoniazide modified Ag nanoparticles were ...prepared as nanolabels to build an immunoassay. The nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic laser scattering (DLS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). When the target protein was present, the sandwich immunoassay was developed and the photothermal reaction was triggered by isoniazide modified Ag nanoparticles. As a reducing agent, isoniazide is used to transform phosphomolybdic acid hydrate into molybdenum blue solution. And molybdenum blue had good photothermal stability and high photothermal conversion efficiency. The temperature variation of molybdenum blue solution showed a positive correlation with the concentration of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Thus, the target protein of CEA was quantitative detection by thermometer. The linear response range is 0.1 ng mL−1 to 40 ng mL−1, and the detection limit is 0.08 ng mL−1. Moreover, the proposed protocol had satisfactory selectivity, accuracy, and reproducibility.
A novel photothermal immunoassay was constructed based on molybdenum blue. Molybdenum blue solution was triggered by isoniazide modified Ag nanoparticles reacted with phosphomolybdic acid hydrate under acidic conditions. Molybdenum blue has good photothermal stability and high photothermal conversion efficiency. Carcinoembryonic antigen in sample was detected sensitively by thermometer readout. Display omitted
•The photothermal immunoassay was built on isoniazide modified Ag nanoparticles for CEA detection.•Isoniazide modified Ag nanoparticles could reduce phosphomolybdic acid hydrate into molybdenum blue solution.•Molybdenum blue solution had good photothermal stability and high photothermal conversion efficiency.
Quality management is one of the most critical issues in supply chain management. The rapid growth of information technologies, such as blockchain technology, has facilitated effective information ...systems development to support supply chain quality management. However, a significant challenge in developing blockchain-enabled supply chain quality information systems is how to deal with information asymmetry and the conflicting interests of supply chain partners. Taking a service-dominant view, this research proposes a Blockchain-Oriented Service Modeling (BOSM) approach for blockchain-enabled supply chain quality information systems. We provide a visual language for modeling the coordination and integration of business processes and domain knowledge at the knowledge level to facilitate the alignment of blockchain technology with supply chain quality management. The proposed approach bridges operational service computing with strategic service management in blockchain-enabled supply chain quality management and facilitates the communication between business people in supply chain management and software professionals in blockchain-based service computing. A case study on a dairy supply chain is presented to show advantages of the modeling framework under the service-dominant view, separating the cause of quality from the carrier of quality in the design of blockchain-enabled supply chain quality information systems.
Tumor angiogenesis is closely associated with the metastasis and progression of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a highly vascularized solid tumor. However, novel therapeutics are lacking for the ...treatment of this cancer. Here, we developed a series of 2-aryl-4-(3,4,5-trimethoxy-benzoyl)-5-substituted-1,2,3-triazol analogs (6a–6x) as tubulin colchicine-binding site inhibitors, aiming to find a novel promising drug candidate for NSCLC treatment. We first identified 2-(2-fluorophenyl)-3-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoyl)-5-(3-hydroxyazetidin-1-yl)-2H-1,2,3-triazole (6h) as a hit compound, which inhibited angiogenesis induced by NSCLC cells both in vivo and in vitro. In addition, our data showed that 6h could tightly bind to the colchicine-binding site of tubulin and inhibit tubulin polymerization. We also found that 6h could effectively induce G2/M cell cycle arrest of A549 and H460 cells, inhibit cell proliferation, and induce apoptosis. Furthermore, we showed 6h had the potential to inhibit the migration and invasion of NSCLC cells, two basic characteristics of tumor metastasis. Finally, we found 6h could effectively inhibit tumor progression in A549 xenograft mouse models with minimal toxicity. Taken together, these findings provide strong evidence for the development of 6h as a promising microtubule colchicine-binding site inhibitor for NSCLC treatment.
