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The United States defense industry has had a long history of unethical and illegal business practices. Recent polls find that most Americans believe that their nation’s weapon acquisition system is one of the worst managed activities in the public or private sectors and the defense industry is neither efficient nor honestly managed. Although the defense acquisition process has been the subject of many reform efforts, it is reasonable to ask whether these reform efforts have had any success. The Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct, commonly known as DII, is the defense industry’s selfgoverned program responding to the concern regarding ethical business practices in defense procurement. This study is to assess the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct in an attempt to find the perceived impact of this self-governed compliance program.

Diabetes is one of the health problems of increasing importance owing to the increase in its incidence and the problems it causes, and it is closely related to nutrition. This study aims to determine the relationship between the dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores of individuals with type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety and quality of life.

In this cross-sectional study, 158 individuals with type 2 diabetes who applied to a nutrition and diet outpatient clinic of a private hospital in Istanbul were included. Their depression status was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory; their anxiety status was evaluated using the Beck Anxiety Inventory; and their quality of life was evaluated using the Short Form 36 Quality of Life scale. One-way ANOVA test was used to define the difference between groups. All test results were evaluated at a significance level of 0.05.

There was no significant relationship between DII scores, depression (p = 0.814) and anxiety (p = 0.817). However, a significant decrease was observed in the scores of the quality of life criterion in the groups with high depression and anxiety scores (p < 0.05). In addition, participants with high anxiety states had higher HbA1c levels (p = 0.043).

Individuals in this sample with no known psychiatric diagnosis or treatment history demonstrated a significant relationship between depression and anxiety scores and quality of life.

This chapter reviews the recent polarisation of debates in agrofood and rural studies, in particular the opposition between network (social relations, actor-network) and political economy analyses. It explores the contributions of different network approaches and draws on the French convention and regulation traditions, which provide alternative guidelines for confronting micro–macro tensions. Networks have similarly assumed analytical centrality in the new institutional economics and subsequent elaborations of the Williamsonian transaction costs paradigm have involved an approximation to some of the central tenets of social network analysis. Alternative traditions of political economy analysis (Global Value Chains (GVC), Global Production Networks) are now making an important contribution to agrofood studies. A distinctive feature of these analysts is their overture to social networks, actor-network, transaction costs and convention theory in the effort to capture the multiple dimensions of economic power and coordination. The possibilities for a fruitful convergence between these apparently conflicting approaches are best captured in the emergence of the concept of the “netchain”. At the same time, the intractability of values to absorption within economic transactions suggests the need to move forward to a focus on the tensions between netchains and social movements and a different type of network, the global policy network.

This study aims to investigate the association of the dietary inflammatory index (DII), kidney function and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) among the senior population (60-83 years).

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 221 elderly subjects who are living in Tehran, Iran. The DII was calculated from validated semi-quantified food frequency questionnaire, combining putatively pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects of nutrients, vitamins and trace elements. Biochemical measurements of blood and urine samples were measured. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was assessed from serum creatinine.

A total of 221 subjects with mean BMI of 29.75 and age ranged 60-83 years old were included in the current study. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that eGFR (ß = –0.471; p = 0.48; 95 per cent CI: –2.90, 2.63), albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) (ß = 0.041 p = 0.55; 95 per cent CI: –5.12, 9.46) and hs-CRP (ß = 0.004; p = 0.55; 95 per cent CI: –0.96, 1.79) were not associated with the DII before and after adjusting for potential confounders, including energy intake, age, sex, BMI, smoking status, physical activity, hypertension, diabetes, use of lipid-lowering medication, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), steroidal and non- steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.

Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, it is difficult to find the cause-and-effect relationship between the DII and the serum hs-CRP concentration. Another limitation of our study is concerning a possible overestimation or underestimation of dietary intakes, because the participants in the study were elderly and FFQ is a memory-based questionnaire.

Our findings suggest that the DII score is not associated with serum hs-CRP and kidney function markers in elderly people.

Inflammation plays a significant role in incidence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), whose risk can be reduced through modifying the diet. Considering the importance of incidence of MetS among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), this study aims to determine the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and MetS in these patients.

This study was performed on 261 adults 35–65 years of age suffering from RA. The patients were among the participants in Ravansar non-communicable disease prospective study. DII was calculated based on food frequency questionnaire. The components of MetS were measured according to the protocol of prospective epidemiological research studies in Iran cohort. Data analysis was carried out using univariate and multivariate logistic regression model by modifying the confounding variables.

In patients with RA, prevalence of MetS was 37.5%. The mean of DII in RA patients with MetS and without MetS was −2.3 ± 1.5 and −2.2 ± 1.6, respectively, with no significant difference between two groups. After modifying the variables of age and gender, the odds of increasing waist circumference (WC) were near 1.9 times greater in the fourth quartile (pro-inflammatory diet) compared to the first quartile of DII (anti-inflammatory diet) (P = 0.03). The odds of developing hypertension was approximately 1.3 times greater in the fourth compared to the first quartile of DII (P = 0.034). The odds of developing MetS increased by 27% in the fourth quartile in comparison to the first one, though this increase was not statistically significant.

In RA patients, with increase in DII score, the WC and blood pressure had increased. The DII had no significant relationship with MetS. Further studies are essential across larger populations to confirm the findings.