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This work presents how a digital identity management system can support food supply chains in guaranteeing the quality of the products marketed and the compliance of the several supply-chain’s nodes to standards and technical regulations. Specific goal of this work is to present a system that provides full visibility of process/food certifications, which nowadays are issued by accredited and approved certification bodies (issuers) and delivered and stored in paper version by the several participants (holders) of the supply chain. The system is designed and implemented by combining the latest most innovative and disruptive technologies in the market—Self Sovereign Identity system, Blockchain, and Inter Planetary File System. The crucial aspects that it aims to hit are the storage and access of food/process certifications, and the proper eligibility verification of these certifications exploiting the concepts of the Self Sovereign Identity-based models. The proposed system, realized by using standards that are WWW Consortium-compatible and the Ethereum Blockchain, ensures eligibility, transparency, and traceability of the certifications along a food supply chain, and could be an innovation model/idea that the companies that adopt the Open Innovation paradigm might want to pursue.

Given possible temperature variations in the cold chain during retail display of chilled food, this work evaluated the growth of Salmonella choleraesuis and Staphylococcus aureus inoculated in chicken breast fillet submitted to different temperature abuses. The bacterial growth was evaluated in Luria–Bertani broth and previously inoculated chicken breast fillet cooled for 12h and incubated at different temperatures (5, 20, and 25 °C) for 12 h and 5 ºC for 12 days. The maximum growth rate and maximum growth were determined. The microorganisms grew at all studied temperatures, with a significantly lower growth at 5 °C compared with 20 and 25 °C. S. choleraesuis showed higher growth than S. aureus in both culture medium and chicken breast, and major maximum growth in culture medium than chicken breast, at all studied temperatures. Salmonella sp. and S. aureus were not detected in the control treatment maintained at 5 °C, and the thermotolerant bacteria remained within the standards allowed by Brazilian legislation when stored for 12 days. However, temperature abuse resulted in the vulnerability and spoilage of chicken breast fillet quality. The effects of temperature abuse caused by negligence on the microbial growth (Ymax) and growth rate (µmax) in chicken breast fillet, under industrial conditions was demonstrated.

Blockchain technology is an emerging technology which is making a significant contribution to the ongoing digital evolution by influencing companies, business models and value creation. Since its invention, this technology was receiving great interest in different areas, starting from the financial one by also including the tourism sector. This work proposes the study of a software system, based on blockchain, to facilitate disintermediation in the tourism sector and promoting its sustainability simultaneously. The system is designed to take advantage of blockchain technology both to guarantee the security and reliability of the system, and to manage the roles and responsibilities of numerous types of actors. Thanks to the continuous collaboration of the all involved stakeholders, and to the data come from IoT devices, the system will be able to monitor a specific tourist destination by making use of ETIS indicators we specifically use for the assessment of sustainability into all aspects. The study also includes an overview of the barriers to blockchain adoption in tourism that can undermine the sustainability of the system.

This paper quantitatively assesses the negative impact of land discontinuity on the development of a railway network on an island. This implicit cost of insularity is because an insular railway network only serves the territory in which it is located while the same network on a mainland also serves other regions. We apply this idea to the case of a simplified Italian railway network and we implement it through a simulation model. The simulation results highlight the strong negative effect of land discontinuity: whereas the railway lines located on the island of Sardinia are the least profitable under the factual scenario, their relative profitability is significantly boosted in every counterfactual scenario where the land discontinuity is artificially removed.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Recent data suggest that probiotics can reduce some symptoms of this disorder and Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 has been reported to be especially useful. We recruited a sample of 131 autistic children and adolescents (M:F = 122:19; age: 86.1 ± 41.1 months) and evaluated their changes after use of probiotics by mean of CGI. We found some significant improvements with very few side effects; these positive effects were more evident in younger children. Patients taking Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 had greater improvements and fewer side effects than those taking other probiotics. Our real-life data are consistent with existing literature showing a specific effect of Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 in Autism Spectrum Disorder.