The Adoption of Blue Ocean Strategy to Sustain Competitive Advantage in the Syrian Food Industry

This study aims to detect the extent of adoption of the Blue Ocean Strategy in the Syrian ‎food industry companies and its role in improving its competitive advantage. Syrian ‎Companies need to shape their blue ocean strategy in accordance with consumer value, ‎price, cost, and adoption. This permits them to construct a feasible business model and ‎ensure that profits from the blue ocean is created. The study used descriptive-analytical ‎approach. The data were composed of a questionnaire distributed to 293 personnel ‎working in 85 Syrian food companies. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 22) were ‎applied to analyze the data. The result showed there are a substantial interest by Syrian ‎food companies to adopt Blue Ocean strategy indicators in its operations. Also, there was ‎a significant relationship between the adoption of Blue Ocean Strategy and the ‎improvement of sustainable competitive advantage for the investigated companies. The ‎researchers suggested that Syrian companies should emphasize on the importance of the ‎innovation indicator and its role in producing new brands and creating markets free of ‎competition which sequentially contributes to increase in the company's market share. The ‎study achieves a qualitative benefit for both researchers and academics about the concept ‎of BOS because it is the first study that introduces the BOS and its impact on sustainable ‎competitive advantage in Syrian‎.

Examining the Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions of 4-H Professionals Related to LGBTQ+ Youth

Despite its status as the largest youth-serving organization in the United States, there is a dearth of empirical scholarship about LGBTQ+ youth within 4-H; research examining 4-H professionals’ competencies to effectively support LGBTQ+ youth is even more scarce. To address this gap in the literature, this quantitative study explored the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of 4-H professionals in North Carolina as they relate to working with LGBTQ+ youth. Seventy-five professionals responded to an online survey. Professionals displayed higher levels of knowledge than skills or dispositions, were more knowledgeable about how to support LGB youth compared to transgender and gender expansive youth, and expressed the need for and substantial interest in professional development. Rural professionals tended to report lower knowledge, skills, and dispositions compared to professionals working in urban/suburban settings. This article presents the study’s findings and explores implications for future research and practice.

Dynamics and Economics of Shallow Lakes: A Survey

We provide an overview of the results devoted to the analysis of the dynamics and economics of shallow lakes, spanning the period from 1999 until now. A shallow lake serves as a typical representative of an ecological system subject to (possibly irreversible) regime shifts. The dynamics of a shallow lake are described by a non-linear model with multiple steady states and multiple domains of attraction and is thus suitable to model the evolution of an ecosystem featuring both resilience within a domain of stability and an abrupt regime shift outside of it. Beyond this, the shallow lake model can also be viewed as a metaphor for many other ecological problems. Due to the broad applicability of this model, there is substantial interest in the management of shallow lakes and both their optimal regulation and competitive usage.

Integrated HPS? Formal versus historical approaches to philosophy of science

The project of integrated HPS (‘integrated history and philosophy of science’) has occupied philosophers of science in one form or another since at least the 1960s. Yet, despite this substantial interest in bringing together philosophical and historical reflections on the nature of science, history of science and formal philosophy of science remain as divided as ever. In this paper, I will argue that the continuing separation between historical and formal philosophy of science is ill-founded. I will argue for this in both abstract and concrete terms. At the abstract level, I reconstruct two possible arguments for the incompatibility of historical and formal philosophy of science and argue that they are both wanting. At the concrete level, I discuss how historical and formal philosophy of science have been brought together in practice, namely: in the form of a largely forgotten research tradition that I will refer to here as the study of formalized macro-units. After a brief exposition, I argue that this research tradition has been unduly overlooked by historically minded philosophers of science. Bringing together these observations, I argue that the divide between historical and formal philosophy of science is not grounded in any substantive arguments, but can be primarily attributed to disciplinary happenstance.

Glucocorticoid therapy in assisted reproduction

As glucocorticoids are well-known as important regulators of stress and the immune system, their function and clinical use have elicited substantial interest in the field of reproduction. In particular, the effect of glucocorticoid therapy on endometrial receptivity during assisted reproduction, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles, has led to a great deal of interest and controversy. However, previous studies have not been able to provide consistent and reliable evidence due to their small, non-controlled designs and use of different criteria. Considering the potential risk of exposure to glucocorticoids for mothers and fetuses in early pregnancy, the use of glucocorticoids in IVF cycles should be carefully evaluated, including the balance between risk and benefit. To date, there is no conclusive evidence that the use of glucocorticoids improves the pregnancy rate in IVF cycles with unselected subjects, and a further investigation should be considered with a proper study design.

Antiviral Electrospun Polymer Composites: Recent Advances and Opportunities for Tackling COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has significantly affected the world, creating a global health emergency. For controlling the virus spread, effective and reliable diagnostic and therapeutic measures are highly expected. Using proper biomedical materials to produce detection kits/devices and personal protective equipment (PPE), such as swabs and masks, has become the focus since they play critical roles in virus diagnostics and prevention. Electrospun polymer composites have garnered substantial interest due to their potential to provide antiviral healthcare solutions. In this review, we summarized the recent efforts in developing advanced antiviral electrospun polymer composites for virus detection and prevention. We highlighted some novel strategies for developing effective antiviral personal protective equipment (PPE), including self-sterilization, reusability, and potential antiviral drug encapsulation. Besides, we discussed the current challenges and future perspectives for improving the materials’ performance to achieve better virus detection, antiviral, prevention, and therapeutics.

Suitability of Ferrites for Biomedical Applications

This chapter aims at the latest amelioration in the biomedical application of spinel ferrites. Magnetic hyperthermia treatment of tumour cells and contrast resonance imaging of human body parts, are a few applications of spinel ferrites that have gained substantial interest nowadays. The thermo-therapeutic and radiology based diagnosis treatment has many benefits over traditional methods used for disease diagnosis and imaging treatment of chronic carcinogenic origin diseases. The various types of doped and undoped spinel ferrite nanoparticles are investigated and optimised for different biomedical applications. Through this chapter, an attempt is made to provide readers the knowledge about various required characteristics and latest used strategies for the successful implementations of spinel ferrite in biomedical applications at commercial levels.

Organic semiconductors for light-mediated neuromodulation

Organic semiconductors have generated substantial interest in neurotechnology and emerged as a promising approach for wireless neuromodulation in fundamental and applied research. Here, we summarise the range of applications that have been proposed so far, including retinal stimulation, excitation and inhibition of cultured neurons and regulation of biological processes in other non-excitable cells from animal and plant origins. We also discuss the key chemical and physical phenomena at the basis of the interaction between materials and cells. Finally, we provide an overview of future perspectives, exciting research opportunities and the remaining challenges hampering the translation of this blooming technology into the clinic and industry.

Program Pelatihan dan Pengembangan : Manfaatnya bagi Pegawai dan Organisasi Koperasi

The purpose of this study is to present a literature study and observation that was established in the employee training and development program as well as the benefits of cooperatives in the ranks of the Cimahi City Dekopinda. This study analyzes the structure and elements of employee training and development programs and then this studio presents what are the positive results for employees and the Organization. Organizations find it difficult to stay competitive in the recent global economy. The importance of employee development plans is growing for Organizations seeking to gain an edge over competitors. Employees are a respected resource of the Organization and the success or failure of the Organization depends on the performance of the employees. Therefore, the organization finances a large number of employee training and development programs. Furthermore, the training program is very supportive for companies to emphasize the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees. There is substantial interest among professionals and researchers about the impact of development programs on employees and the organization. The study described here is an assessment of the literature on the basis of employee development programs and their benefits to organizations and employees.

The Role of CDK4 in the Pathogenesis of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) continues to have the lowest overall survival and the lack of effective early diagnosis. Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) plays a fundamental role in the orderly progression of the cell cycle, binding to cyclin D to promote the progression through the G1/2 transition. The inhibition of CDK4/6 has therefore gained substantial interest in the hope of new and effective therapeutics in multiple cancers, such as advanced metastatic breast cancer. While the use of these agents is encouraging, their potential is yet to be fully explored. In this study we used the GLOBOCAN database to understand the most recent epidemiology of PC, Human Protein Atlas and KEGG to highlight the role, prevalence, and significance on patient survival of CDK4 in PC. We found that CDK4 cannot be used as prognostic in PC and no significant differences were observed between CDK4 expression and the patient’s clinical status, though larger studies, especially concerning CDK4 protein expressions, are required for a more thorough understanding. The use of CDK4/6 inhibitors in PC is still in clinical trials. However, due to only modest improvements observed in the use of single-agent therapies, efforts have focused on combinatorial approaches.