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Logistics is most often associated with the most visible jobs, the performance of which was or still is physically demanding or exhausting (driving long distances, reloading of goods, etc.). That is why these jobs, and even the entire field of logistics, are often associated with the male workforce that most often performs them. However, with the evolution of logistics and its scientific study, a more comprehensive overview of the field, including the role and importance of the female workforce for the implementation of logistics processes, is reached. Despite this, there is still a significant gap between the wishes, perceptions, and projections of gender equality of educated logisticians about the existing practice. This paper discusses the state of gender equality and the roles of men and women in logistics from the perspective of the future and existing workforce.

Rail transport (RT) has a significant share in intermodal chains, so intermodal transport (IT) quality largely depends on RT services' quality. On the other side, the quality of these services depends on many infrastructural-technological, organizational and regulatory-institutional factors. The impact of these factors on the service quality and IT is not easy to precisely quantify. Fuzzy systems are a suitable mathematical tool for solving this task, considering that they provide the possibility of imprecise evaluation of variables. In this paper, a fuzzy system-based model for evaluating the impact of RT services' quality on IT quality is defined. Applying it to the example of Serbia, it was established that this influence in this country is neutral/dual.

Defining and the application of sustainable city logistics concepts is a prerequisite for achieving sustainability in urban areas. The scientific literature is abundant with research that highlights individual technologies, initiatives, measures and approaches as indispensable elements of sustainable concepts. Although a relatively large set of city logistics concepts is analyzed in the literature, there is no generally accepted set of guidelines for defining sustainable city logistics concepts. This article tries to fill that literature gap. The main contribution of this article is, on basis of the review of relevant literature in the field, to demonstrate how potentially sustainable city logistics concepts could be conceptualized by combining different building elements (technologies, initiatives, measures, and approaches).

Market needs and demands are contingent upon continuous work on finding better, faster, more efficient and more economic systems of goods flow. The intention is to optimize the logistic processes along the supply chain in terms of achieving economic, temporal, spatial and environmental improvements. One of the possible methods to improve the efficiency of supply chains is the introduction of the cross-docking (CD) concept. The essence of the CD concept is reflected in the consolidation of goods flows into the CD terminals with little or no storage of goods. The objective is to achieve optimization of time, space and costs. This paper presents the role of the CD concept in logistics chains, description of the CD terminals, and then the advantages and disadvantages of their application. The primary objective of this paper is to present the role, advantages and disadvantages of implementing the CD concept in logistics chains

Tumor related angiogenesis is an attractive target in cancer therapeutic research due to its crucial role in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. Different agents were developed aiming to inhibit this process; however they had limited success. Cancer vaccines could be a promising tool in anti-cancer/anti-angiogenic therapy. Cancer vaccines aim to initiate an immune response against cancer cells upon presentation of tumor antigens which hopefully will result in the eradication of disease and prevention of its recurrence by inducing an efficient and long-lasting immune response. Different vaccine constructs have been developed to achieve this and they could include either protein-based or nucleic acid-based vaccines. Nucleic acid vaccines are simple and relatively easy to produce, with high efficiency and safety, thus prompting a high interest in the field. Different DNA vaccines have been developed to target crucial regulators of tumor angiogenesis. Most of them were successful in pre-clinical studies, mostly when used in combination with other therapeutics, but had limited success in the clinic. Apparently, different tumor evasion mechanisms and reduced immunogenicity still limit the potential of these vaccines and there is plenty of room for improvement. Nowadays, mRNA cancer vaccines are making remarkable progress due to improvements in the manufacturing technology and represent a powerful potential alternative. Apart from their efficiency, mRNA vaccines are simple and cheap to produce, can encompass multiple targets simultaneously, and can be quickly transferred from bench to bedside. mRNA vaccines have already accomplished amazing results in cancer clinical trials, thus ensuring a bright future in the field, although no anti-angiogenic mRNA vaccines have been described yet. This review aims to describe recent advances in anti-angiogenic DNA vaccine therapy and to provide perspectives for use of revolutionary approaches such are mRNA vaccines for anti-angiogenic treatments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Tadic and Martínez.)

Mucin-1 (MUC1) glycopeptides are exceptional candidates for potential cancer vaccines. However, their autoantigenic nature often results in a weak immune response. To overcome this drawback, we carefully engineered synthetic antigens with precise chemical modifications. To be effective and stimulate an anti-MUC1 response, artificial antigens must mimic the conformational dynamics of natural antigens in solution and have an equivalent or higher binding affinity to anti-MUC1 antibodies than their natural counterparts. As a proof of concept, we have developed a glycopeptide that contains noncanonical amino acid (2 S ,3 R )-3-hydroxynorvaline. The unnatural antigen fulfills these two properties and effectively mimics the threonine-derived antigen. On the one hand, conformational analysis in water shows that this surrogate explores a landscape similar to that of the natural variant. On the other hand, the presence of an additional methylene group in the side chain of this analog compared to the threonine residue enhances a CH/π interaction in the antigen/antibody complex. Despite an enthalpy-entropy balance, this synthetic glycopeptide has a binding affinity slightly higher than that of its natural counterpart. When conjugated with gold nanoparticles, the vaccine candidate stimulates the formation of specific anti-MUC1 IgG antibodies in mice and shows efficacy comparable to that of the natural derivative. The antibodies also exhibit cross-reactivity to selectively target, for example, human breast cancer cells. This investigation relied on numerous analytical (e.g., NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography) and biophysical techniques and molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the antigen-antibody interactions. This workflow streamlines the synthetic process, saves time, and reduces the need for extensive, animal-intensive immunization procedures. These advances underscore the promise of structure-based rational design in the advance of cancer vaccine development., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)