Impact of COVID-19 food supply chain: Comparing the use of IoT in three South African supermarkets

Unspoken Consequences of Structural Racism in the USA: Diabetes and COVID-19

OBJECTIVES

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted by the diabetes epidemic. This health inequity, aggravated by environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors, has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased risk of severe complications due to COVID-19 in BIPOC communities speaks to the importance of understanding the impacts of social and structural factors on health. This report aims to outline the connection between diabetes and vulnerability to COVID-19 through the lens of racism.

STUDY DESIGN

Review of original report and subsequent modeling and interpretations.

METHODS

We reviewed and analyzed original data in relation to health inequity, diabetes, COVID-19, and BIPOC.

RESULTS

This holistic approach framed the disproportionate prevalence of diabetes and vulnerability to COVID-19 not just as a health disparity, but as a health inequity.

CONCLUSION

Defining the relationship between diabetes, vulnerability to COVID-19, and systems of advantage, such as racism, can further support the design of health interventions and policies that reduce the disproportionate impact of these diseases on the health of BIPOC communities.

Disruptions in the food supply chain: A literature review

Disruptions in the food supply chain are events that affect the flow of products and can be caused by extreme weather, natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics, and political situations, among others. These events can significantly impact food products' availability, quality, and cost, creating risks to the well-being of local populations and livelihoods. The specific literature on food supply chains needs to address other approaches to risk categorisation, which allow for establishing reference frameworks focused on the general classification of types of disruption and parameters related to solution methods. In this paper, we present a literature review to analyse the disruptions in the food supply chain. We classified 74 papers according to the types of disruptions, stakeholders, response level, supply chain echelon, solution methods, goals, and related considerations. The review results showed that the most common disruptions in the food supply chain are climatic, biological and environmental, logistics and infrastructure, and supply. The results of this review allow us to suggest some new research directions.

Exploring the application of ICTs in decarbonizing the agriculture supply chain: A literature review and research agenda

The contemporary agricultural supply chain necessitates the integration of information and communication technologies to effectively mitigate the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change and rising global demand for food products. Furthermore, recent developments in information and communication technologies, such as blockchain, big data analytics, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc., have made this transformation possible. Each of these technologies plays a particular role in enabling the agriculture supply chain ecosystem to be intelligent enough to handle today's world's challenges. Thus, this paper reviews the crucial information and communication technologies-enabled agriculture supply chains to understand their potential uses and contemporary developments. The review is supported by 57 research papers from the Scopus database. Five research areas analyze the applications of the technology reviewed in the agriculture supply chain: food safety and traceability, security and information system management, wasting food, supervision and tracking, agricultural businesses and decision-making, and other applications not explicitly related to the agriculture supply chain. The study also emphasizes how information and communication technologies can help agriculture supply chains and promote agriculture supply chain decarbonization. An information and communication technologies application framework for a decarbonized agriculture supply chain is suggested based on the research's findings. The framework identifies the contribution of information and communication technologies to decision-making in agriculture supply chains. The review also offers guidelines to academics, policymakers, and practitioners on managing agriculture supply chains successfully for enhanced agricultural productivity and decarbonization.

Food Retail Resilience Pre-, during, and Post-COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis and Research Agenda

This paper aims to conduct a bibliometric mapping and systematic review of the food retail industry's resilience strategy in the context of COVID-19. Specifically, we aim to identify relevant research gaps in the industry during the pre-, during, and post-pandemic periods and highlight the differences between B2B and B2C sectors. We analyzed articles in the Scopus database from 2019 to 2022 using the PRISMA method for article selection, resulting in a total of 69 articles. We employed a VOS viewer for bibliometric mapping. Our analysis revealed that most studies focused on the impact of COVID-19, with only a few examining the pre- and post-pandemic periods critically. In the B2C context, we identified two major topics: changes in purchasing and consumption behavior, and food waste and safety. In the B2B sector, the two most recurrent subjects were retailers' strategies and supply chain management. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers by exploring industry trends and for scholars by highlighting future research agendas based on the identified topics.

Extended Multicriteria Group Decision Making with a Novel Aggregation Operator for Emergency Material Supplier Selection

How to ensure the normal production of industries in an uncertain emergency environment has aroused a lot of concern in society. Selecting the best emergency material suppliers using the multicriteria group decision making (MCGDM) method will ensure the normal production of industries in this environment. However, there are few studies in emergency environments that consider the impact of the decision order of decision makers (DMs) on the decision results. Therefore, in order to fill the research gap, we propose an extended MCGDM method, whose main steps include the following: Firstly, the DMs give their assessment of all alternatives. Secondly, we take the AHP method and entropy weight method to weight the criteria and the DMs. Thirdly, we take the intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid priority weight average (IFHPWA) operator we proposed to aggregate evaluation information and take the TOPSIS method to rank all the alternatives. Finally, the proposed method is applied in a case to prove its practicability and effectiveness. The proposed method considers the influence of the decision order of the DMs on the decision results, which improves the accuracy and efficiency of decision-making results.

Assessing the older population acceptance of healthcare wearable in a developing Country: an extended PMT model

Wearable healthcare devices (HWDs) got prominence, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aiming to know the proliferation of the HWDS, this study tries to evaluate the intentions of the old-age population to use the devices. To this end, the protection motivation theory (PMT) coupled with health information accuracy, perceived novelty, perceived ease of use, hedonic motivation, health anxiety, and health consciousness were investigated as predictors of HWDs among senior Pakistani citizens. A total of 310 participants who knew how the smartwatches could be used as a health monitoring device, were surveyed to empirically test the model. The required data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that the protective, utilitarian, and personal attributes of HWDs play a significant role in choosing the HWDs. While addressing their healthcare issues, senior citizens are highly receptive to perceived usefulness, accurate information accuracy, self-efficacy, perceived severity, health consciousness, and perceived vulnerability during COVID-19. These factors have a positive impact on their willingness to use HWDs. The study educates healthcare management and users to focus on the determining factors that can enhance the use of HWDs.

Optimization of food-energy-water-waste nexus in a sustainable food supply chain under the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study in Iran

Abstract

During the coronavirus epidemic, food supply chains have been affected by disruptions of this epidemic. Having an overview and considering food-related factors such as energy, waste, and water make the design of the supply chain more effective. In this study, a multi-objective model for a sustainable food supply chain is presented based on the prevalence of coronavirus by considering the food-energy-water-waste nexus. There are dual-channel sales including online and in-person channels, which their demand functions depend on products price in every channel, as well as the prevalence of coronavirus in high-risk or low-risk areas. Distribution centers, located in high-risk regions, require the disinfection of products to minimize coronavirus spread. Indeed, the proposed mathematical model has three objective functions that the first objective maximizes the profit of the food supply under COVID-19 conditions. The other two objectives minimize not only the environmental impact of transportation, but also the delivery time. In order to solve this multi-objective model, the epsilon constraint method, as an efficient technique, is employed. To validate the proposed model, the model is finally implemented in a two-channel supply chain in Iran. The results show that the food supply chain has a close relationship with the energy-water-waste nexus COVID-19 and can also affect customers' behavior. Moreover, the model shows when the prevalence of COVID-19 increases, people tend to buy from online shops, affecting product prices that can change by nearly 50%.

Graphical abstract