The food supply chain in South Africa faces significant challenges related to transparency, traceability, and consumer trust. As concerns about food safety, quality, and sustainability grow, there is an increasing need for innovative solutions to address these issues. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising tool to enhance transparency and accountability across various industries, including the food sector. This study sought to explore the potential of blockchain technology in revolutionizing through promoting transparency that enable the achievement of sustainable food supply chain infrastructure in South Africa. The study found that blockchain technology used in food supply chain creates an immutable and decentralized ledger of transactions that has the capacity to provide real-time, end-to-end visibility of food products from farm to table. This increased transparency can help mitigate risks associated with food fraud, contamination, and inefficiencies in the supply chain. The study found that blockchain technology can be leveraged to enhance supply chain efficiency and trust among stakeholders. This technology used and/or applied in South Africa can reshape the agricultural sector by improving production and distribution processes. Its integration in the food supply chain infrastructure can equally improve data management and increase transparency between farmers and food suppliers.There is need for policy-makers and scholars in the fields of service delivery and food security to conduct more research in blockchain technology and its roles in creating a more transparent, efficient, and trustworthy food supply chain infractructure that address food supply problems in South Africa. The paper adopted a qualitative methodology to collect data, and document and content analysis techniques were used to interpret collected data. 

The power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) combined with the surgeons’ expertise leads to breakthroughs in surgical care, bringing new hope to patients. Utilizing deep learning-based computer vision techniques in surgical procedures will enhance the healthcare industry. Laparoscopic surgery holds excellent potential for computer vision due to the abundance of real-time laparoscopic recordings captured by digital cameras containing significant unexplored information. Furthermore, with computing power resources becoming increasingly accessible and Machine Learning methods expanding across various industries, the potential for AI in healthcare is vast. There are several objectives of AI’s contribution to laparoscopic surgery; one is an image guidance system to identify anatomical structures in real-time. However, few studies are concerned with intraoperative anatomy recognition in laparoscopic surgery. This study provides a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art semantic segmentation techniques, which can guide surgeons during laparoscopic procedures by identifying specific anatomical structures for dissection or avoiding hazardous areas. This review aims to enhance research in AI for surgery to guide innovations towards more successful experiments that can be applied in real-world clinical settings. This AI contribution could revolutionize the field of laparoscopic surgery and improve patient outcomes.

Eco-friendly and greener barrier materials are required to replace the synthetic packaging materials as they produce a threat to environment. These can be fabricated by natural polymers such as cellulose nanofiber (CNF). The sustainability of CNF was so amazing due to its potential for circular economy and provides alternative platform for synthetic plastics. The challenging task to fabricate CNF films still existed and also current methods have various limitations. CNF films have good oxygen permeability and the value was lower than synthetic plastics. However, CNF films have poor water vapour permeability and higher than that of synthetic plastics. The fabrication method is one of strong parameters to impact on the water permeability of CNF films. The deposition of CNF suspension on the stainless-steel plate via spraying, is a potential process for fabrication for CNF films acting as barrier material against water vapour. In spraying process, the time required to form CNF films in diameter of 15.9 cm was less than 1 min and it is independent of CNF content in the suspension. The uniqueness of CNF films via the spraying process was their surfaces, such as rough surface exposed to air and smooth surface exposed to stainless steel. Their surfaces were investigated by SEM, AFM and optical profilometry micrographs, confirming that the smooth surface was evaluated notable lower surface roughness. The spray coated surface was smooth and glossy and its impact on the water vapor permeability remains obscure. The spraying process is a flexible process to tailor the basis weight and thickness of CNF films can be adjusted by the spraying of CNF suspension with varying fibre content. The water vapour permeability of CNF films can be tailored via varying density of CNF films. The plot between water vapour transfer rate (WVTR)/water vapour and density of CNF films has been investigated. The WVP of spray coated CNF films varied from 6.99 ± 1.17 × 10⁻¹¹ to 4.19 ± 1.45 × 10⁻¹¹ g/m.s.Pa. with the density from 664 Kg/m³ to 1,412.08 Kg/m³. The WVP of CNF films achieved with 2 wt% CNF films (1,120 Kg/m³) was 3.91 × 10⁻¹¹ g/m.s.Pa. These values were comparable with the WVP of synthetic plastics. Given this correspondence, CNF films via spraying have a good barrier against water vapour. This process is a potential for scale up and commercialization of CNF films as barrier materials.

Purpose: This review mainly aims to identify the lean practice conducted in hospitals, determining what problems lean practice can be helpful to solve in the hospitals. Data sources: Four electronic databases (Scopus, Web of science, Medline, and PubMed) were conducted for searching related literature in this review. Study selection: These studies in the hospitals that related lean healthcare practice and contained outcome variables were included. Data extraction: Related information such as research design, countries, lean tools, outcome variables, results were extracted. Results of data synthesis: 20 eligible articles were identified in this review. There was 20% lean practice being conducted in emergency department of hospitals in this review. Six cases have implemented lean in Brazilian hospitals. There were 12 cases implemented lean practice through Value Stream Mapping. Conclusion: Lean practices were highly valued in Brazilian hospitals, and it was frequently implemented in hospital emergency department. Value Stream Mapping and process mapping were the most commonly used lean tool. Waiting time, lead time and Length of Hospital Stay (LOS) were the primary indicators reflecting improvements in this review.

Yam (Dioscorea sp.) is a popular tuber in Cameroon, where it is grown for both food and income. One of the most challenging aspects of the long-term storage of yam tubers is post-harvest spoilage, often caused by fungi. The use of post-harvest chemicals on yam tubers is not a matter of course. The present study evaluated the efficacy of aqueous extract and powder of Zingiber officinale against fungi associated with the storage rot of yam. The fungi were isolated from two yam cultivars, “Calabar” and “Ghana”, from three localities in Cameroon. The antifungal activity of the aqueous extract and ginger powder was studied in vivo on slices of yam tubers. The results obtained showed that eight fungi were associated with yam tubers and exhibited typical rotting symptoms. The most prevalent and virulent fungus was Penicillium sp., which caused decay volumes of 12.76 cm³ and 8.74 cm³ for “Calabar” and “Ghana” cultivars, respectively. Fungal spoilage was greatly reduced by the application of aqueous extract and ginger powder. The aqueous extract tested at the 30% dose was more effective with up to 80% inhibition. However, the ginger powder was more effective against Penicillium sp., Aspergillus niger, and Colletotrichum sp. associated with rot in the variety “Ghana” with total inhibition (100%). Therefore, the aqueous extracts and powder of Zingiber officinale can be used as a bio fungicide to improve the shelf life of yam tubers.