COVID-19 and Supply Chain Disruption: Evidence from Food Markets in India†.

This paper looks at the disruption in food supply chains due to COVID-19 induced economic shutdown in India. We use a novel dataset from one of the largest online grocery retailers to look at the impact on product stockouts and prices. We find that product availability falls by 10% for vegetables, fruits, and edible oils, but there is a minimal impact on their prices. On the farm-gate side, it is matched by a 20% fall in quantity arrivals of vegetables and fruits. We then show that supply chain disruption is the main driver behind this fall. We compute the distance to production zones from our retail centers and find that the fall in product availability and quantity arrivals is larger for items that are cultivated or manufactured farther from the final point of sale. Our results show that long-distance food supply chains have been hit the hardest during the current pandemic with welfare consequences for urban consumers and farmers.

Is Masquelet Technique A Successful Viable Treatment In Reconstructing Large Tumor Bone Gaps in Adolescent and Adult?

Objectives: The reconstruction of large bony defect caused by tumor resection can be managed by different technique like bone graft, Masquelet technique, mega-prosthesis etc. Literature lacks studies discussing Masquelet technique in tumor cases especially pertaining to infected tumor in adults. We aimed to determine 1) How often and how fast is the bone healing achieved after resection greater than 10 cm bone in tumour patient's using Masquelet technique?, 2) Whether Masquelet technique can achieve optimum outcomes in adult infected cases too? Methods: We reviewed 154 patients of benign & malignant tumour managed by us between 2013 and 2019. Patients belonging to all the age group with infected tumor/diaphysial tumor/periarticular tumor, where single stage surgery or mega-prosthesis is not a viable option and were treated with Masquelet technique for reconstructing a bone defect of at least 10 cm were included in our study. We evaluated outcomes of eight patients for four parameters i.e. bony union, healing index, number of re-do surgeries required and limb length discrepancy. Results: Mean age of our study group was 20.25 years and patients followed for mean duration of 3.36 years. Mean bone loss after tumor resection was 13.1 cm (range = 11.5 cm to 15 cm). There was no sign of recurrence of tumor in any patient at the time of last follow up. Average time required to achieve bony union was 23.25 months (mean healing index of 1.67 months/cm). All but one patient achieved bony union. Mean limb length discrepancy seen was 1.44cm. Infected cases showed low healing index with higher percentage of re-do surgeries. Conclusion: Induced membrane technique is quick, safe and reliable alternative method of reconstruction to mega-prosthesis in cases with all age group where risk of failure of mega-prosthesis is high, either due to infection or shorter expected lifespan of prosthesis. However, obtaining union can be a difficult preposition in infected tumor cases and multiple surgeries may be required to get the desired result even after two stages. However, a comparative study with large sample size is required to further validate our results.