Exploring digital transformation and technological innovation in emerging markets

This research aims to fill the research gaps regarding customer preferences for digitalization to create value for retailers and customers, as well as focus on retail change and shopping behaviour in grocery retail stores in the emerging market. This paper contributes to the research in this area by evaluating customers’ and retailers’ attitudes toward digital transformation in retailing through interviews. Methodologically, 200 questionnaires were gathered, and data were analysed with the partial least squared structural equation modelling method. Findings: The findings of this study reveal that the effect of digital transformation in the retail industry will be more apparent in an emerging market. Originality: The paper’s originality consists in understanding the future retail structure in an emerging market. Notably, focusing on business-to-consumer businesses appears helpful in distinguishing between behavioural (buying) intention and online buying behaviour (actual usage) in an emerging marke

Hoping on insufficient evidence: how epistemically rational can action‐centred faith be?

Daniel McKaughan has recently argued that conceiving faith as an ‘action-centred’ attitude whose cognitive component falls short of outright belief can play a central role in explaining how people who regard the truth of Christianity as significantly less probable than naturalism can respond with faith to the gospel proclamation without believing its core claims or presuppositions on insufficient evidence, and without violating the requirements of either pragmatic or epistemic rationality. In this paper I object to McKaughan that hope—the attitude to which he assigns the cognitive role of action-centred faith—is ill-suited for the intended purpose, and that having to the core claims and presuppositions of the gospel proclamation any attitude that is suited for the intended purpose is not going to leave a person who takes her overall evidence to run against some of those claims and presuppositions ‘free to follow the arguments and evidence where it leads’

La guerra partigiana

Il saggio ricostruisce le fasi della guerra partigiana in Italia, incentrandosi in particolare sull'esperienza di guerra e combattimento dei partigiani, sulla loro cultura militare, sui rapporti con le popolazioni, sulla storiografia che si è occupata del tema

Decameron (seconda edizione)

La presente, seconda edizione del commento scientifico al Decameron ripropone e aggiorna il commento, già comparso nel 2020 sempre per Feltrinelli. La novità del commento sta nella centralità esegetica attribuita alla brigata e, attraverso la brigata, alle prospettive culturali (letterarie, giuridiche, politiche, teologiche) del capolavoro di Boccaccio

Characteristics of Force Development and Muscle Excitation in Resisted and Assisted Jumps in Comparison with the Isometric Mid-Shin Pull

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the characteristics of force development and electromyographic activity of the quadriceps muscles in the isometric mid-shin pull (MSP) and the countermovement jump (CMJ) performed under different conditions. Methods: Fifteen resistance-trained individuals (age = 25.9 ± 4.0 y; body mass = 73.2 ± 11.7 Kg; stature = 172.3 ± 9.5 cm) were tested for MSP and for the following CMJs: regular CMJ (CMJ); elastic band-assisted CMJ (CMJAB); elastic band-resisted CMJ (CMJRB); weighted vest CMJ (CMJV) in random order, using a force plate. Peak force (PF) and peak rate of force development (PRFD) were calculated in all the assessments, while peak velocity and power were calculated only in the CMJs. In addition, during all the tests, electromyographic activity of the vastus lateralis (EMGVL) and of vastus medialis (EMGVM) was detected. Results: Higher PF was registered in MSP compared to the CMJs (p < 0.001). PRFD and EMGVL were significantly more elevated in the CMJs compared to the MSP (p < 0.05). No significant correlations were noted between the PRFD measured in MSP and in CMJs, while the PRFD in MSP was largely correlated with PP in CMJs (r = 0.68/0.83). Conclusions: Results of the present study showed that CMJs promote PRFD and the excitation of the vastus lateralis, to a greater extent compared to MSP. Regular CMJ performed at body mass may represent the best option for power development, and small variations in loads allowed by weighted vests or elastic bands do not seem to alter the characteristics of force development

La sicurezza, la privacy e le Corti europee

Il contributo analizza il bilanciamento tra sicurezza e privacy nel dialogo tra Corti europee, nonchè il bilanciamento tra sicurezza e tutela della vita privata nella prospettiva della Corte europea dei diritti dell’Uomo, e infine Il delicato bilanciamento tra sicurezza e protezione dei dati personali con riferimento al trattamento di categorie particolari di dati

Development of a MS compatible HPLC-HILIC method for the analysis of allantoin and glycolic acid in snail slime and related dosage forms: Focus on the enantioseparation of allantoin

Glycolic acid and allantoin are known to be responsible, at least in part, for the main activities of snail slime, such as moisturizing, skin regeneration, antioxidant, soothing and anti-inflammatory. Accordingly, a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method for the analysis of allantoin and glycolic acid in snail slime samples was developed by a conventional UV-Vis detector and the diol-type Luna (R) HILIC column. An optimized eluent made up of acetonitrile/water/methanol/formic acid (90:5:5:0.1 v/v/v/v) allowed the separation of the two investigated compounds from each other and from lactic acid and hydantoin used as internal standards. Being allantoin a chiral compound, an enantioselective HPLC protocol was also developed. The chiral analysis of allantoin was performed with the Lux (R) 3 mu m i-Amilose-3 chiral stationary phase using the same mobile phase as for the achiral analysis. The chiral method was efficiently transferred to a HPLC system coupled to triplequadrupole mass spectrometry (MS/MS). HPLC-MS/MS analysis revealed the racemic nature of allantoin in the pure snail slime. The same profile was also observed in a prototype hydrogel prepared with snail slime. Moreover, the same method allowed to measure the amount of glycolic acid in the two investigated samples (pure snail slime and gel) and ascertain a valuable extraction recovery. The enantiomeric elution order (S)<(R) with the amylose-based phase was established coupling the results of experimental electronic circular dichroism analysis to time-dependent density functional theory simulations

The perception of fairness in the division of labor around first childbirth in Germany

The transition to parenthood is a pivotal life course event that impacts well-being, relationship quality and the distribution of housework and paid work. In Germany, during the transition to first-time parenthood, women often reduce their involvement in paid work and take on a larger share of housework, leading to a more gendered division of labor. This shift could influence perceptions of fairness in the division of labor inducing both men and women to perceive the division as being more fair to themselves or more fair to their partner. Using data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) and fixed effects models, we examine how women's and men's perception of fairness of the division of labor varies around first childbirth conceptualizing different phases spanning from 5 years before until 5 years after the first childbirth. Relative to baseline, mothers (-to-be) reported a fairer division of labor (less under-benefitting) from around conception to right after childbirth. Yet, already from 6 months after childbirth mothers' perception of fairness becomes less fair to them again and the perception of under-benefitting continues as the child ages. For fathers-to-be, perceptions of fairness did not vary substantially around childbirth. We further found that neither the change in the division of housework, nor in the division of paid work, explained changes in fairness perceptions during the transition to parenthood

An Investigation of the Domain Gap in CLIP-Based Person Re-Identification

Person re-identification (re-id) is a critical computer vision task aimed at identifying individuals across multiple non-overlapping cameras, with wide-ranging applications in intelligent surveillance systems. Despite recent advances, the domain gap—performance degradation when models encounter unseen datasets—remains a critical challenge. CLIP-based models, leveraging multimodal pre-training, offer potential for mitigating this issue by aligning visual and textual representations. In this study, we provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the domain gap in CLIP-based re-id systems across standard benchmarks, including Market-1501, DukeMTMC-reID, MSMT17, and Airport, simulating real-world deployment conditions. We systematically measure the performance of these models in terms of mean average precision (mAP) and Rank-1 accuracy, offering insights into the challenges faced during dataset transitions. Our analysis highlights the specific advantages introduced by CLIP’s visual–textual alignment and evaluates its contribution relative to strong image encoder baselines. Additionally, we evaluate the impact of extending training sets with non-domain-specific data and incorporating random erasing augmentation, achieving an average improvement of +4.3% in mAP and +4.0% in Rank-1 accuracy. Our findings underscore the importance of standardized benchmarks and systematic evaluations for enhancing reproducibility and guiding future research. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the domain gap in re-id, while highlighting pathways for improving model robustness and generalization in diverse, real-world scenarios

Recycling of Multilayer Flexible Packaging Waste Through Delamination with Recoverable Switchable Hydrophilicity Solvents

Multilayer flexible packaging wastes (MFPWs) consist of complex materials composed of multiple plastic films, which are often laminated with aluminum foil, and they constitute a large portion of packaging waste. The use of several polymeric layers is essential to achieve the desired technical and mechanical performance of the packaging; however, this makes layer separation and recycling challenging. Currently, this type of waste is predominantly incinerated or landfilled; non-industrial recycling processes have recently been developed, but they mostly rely on traditional solvent-based treatments, which can be problematic. We present a versatile process for recycling MFPWs using switchable hydrophilicity solvents (SHSs). By treating waste with SHSs through a temperature-controlled process, we efficiently recovered the polymeric layers as sorted transparent films, effectively removing all additives while preserving the original properties of the polymers. Aluminum was recovered as well. N,N-dimethylcyclohexylamine was the best solvent for the delamination of the 26 different packaging materials tested, containing polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and aluminum. The main advantage of this method is the straightforward recovery of the different components that can be efficiently delaminated and easily removed from the solvent, even from highly variable input material. Moreover, by exploiting the CO2-triggered switchable behavior of the solvent, its purification and recovery can be achieved, maintaining its delamination efficacy over several cycles