Intuitive perception and the competitive advantage of small family businesses: an exploratory study

We assess the closeness of perceptions between managers and customers of two small family-owned businesses ("FBs") and two larger non-FBs in Sardinia, Italy, in exploring how local retail shops may compete against international superstores. While the decline of small, High Street businesses has been widely reported, we present a more nuanced perspective of their competitiveness by suggesting how these typically family-run businesses may hold a competitive advantage over larger non-FBs based on their welldeveloped "perceptive concordance" with customers. Our findings have scholarly and managerial implications in the way that both FBs and non-FBs may gain competitive advantage by securing their customers' continuing support

Pengaruh Varietas Apel dan Campuran Bakteri Asam Asetat terhadap Proses Fermentasi Cider

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengevaluasi pearan varietas apel dan rasio bakteri asam asetat dalam fermen- tasi cider. Dua varietas apel (Manalagi and Rome Beauty) dan dua kultur bakteri (Acetobacter pasteurianus INT-7 and Acetobacter aceti JCM 7640) digunakan dalam penelitian ini. Ekstrak buah apel dinokulasi dengan bakteri asam asetat dengan rasio 1:1 dan 1:2. Sebagai substrat ditambahkan ke dalam medium fermentasi etanol sebanyak 5 %. Fermentasi silakukan secara aerobik pada suhu ruang selama 7 hari. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa fermentasi cider menggunakan varietas apel Rome Beauty dengan perbandingan A. pasteurianus : A. aceti = 1:2 menghasilkan asam asetat sebanyak 3,11 %, yield produk 0,85 dan efisiensi sebesar 60,56 %

Cholesterol homeostasis: a key to prevent or slow down neurodegeneration

Neurodegeneration, a common feature for many brain disorders, has severe consequences on the mental and physical health of an individual. Typically human neurodegenerative diseases are devastating illnesses that predominantly affect elderly people, progress slowly, and lead to disability and premature death; however they may occur at all ages. Despite extensive research and investments, current therapeutic interventions against these disorders treat solely the symptoms. Therefore, since the underlying mechanisms of damage to neurons are similar, in spite of etiology and background heterogeneous, it will be of interest to identify possible trigger point of neurodegeneration enabling development of drugs and/or prevention strategies that target many disorders simultaneously. Among the factors that have been identified so far to cause neurodegeneration, failures in cholesterol homeostasis are indubitably the best investigated. The aim of this review is to critically discuss some of the main results reported in the recent years in this field mainly focusing on the mechanisms that, by recovering perturbations of cholesterol homeostasis in neuronal cells, may correct clinically relevant features occurring in different neurodegenerative disorders and, in this regard, also debate the current potential therapeutic interventions

Pengaruh Pemberian Asam Retinoat terhadap Perkembangan Fetus Mencit (Mus Musculus L.) Swiss Webster

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh pemberian asam retinoat terhadap perkemban-gan fetus mencit selama periode organogenesis. Dua puluh empat ekor mencit bunting dibagi secara acak menjadi 6 kelompok perlakuan dengan masing-masing 4 ulangan. Asam retinoat dilarutkan dalam olive oil se-banyak 0,3 ml, diberikan secara injeksi subcutan pada saat kebuntingan hari ke 6. Dosis perlakuan asam reti-noat adalah 40; 60; 80; 100 mg/kg bb dan pada perlakuan kelompok kontrol tidak diberi perlakuan, serta ke-lompok pembanding diberi perlakuan pelarut olive oil. Induk mencit dipelihara sampai umur kebuntingan 18 hari. Pada umur kebuntingan 18 hari mencit dibunuh dengan cara dislokasi pada leher, dilaparatomie, memo-tong uterus, mengamati fetus yang resorp, menghitung jumlah fetus hidup dan mati, menimbang bb fetus, lalu melakukan pengamatan secara visual untuk melihat kecacatan yang terjadi pada mencit. Data jumlah dari ha-sil pengamatan tersebut diatas dianalisis dengan Anova Satu Arah dan dilanjutkan dengan uji Duncan\u27s untuk mengetahui beda nyata antar perlakuan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Asam retinoat yang diberikan pada mencit bunting selama periode organogenesis memberikan pengaruh terhadap perkembangan fetus mencit yang ditandai dengan semakin menurunnya jumlah fetus hidup, bb fetus, dan peningkatan fetus mati dan fetus resorp, dibandingkan dengan kontrol dan pembanding

efficacy of biofeedback and cognitive behavioural therapy in psoriatic patientsa single blind randomized and controlled study with added narrow band ultraviolet b therapy

n/

Using Remote Monitoring And Machine Learning To Classify Slam Events Of Wave Piercing Catamarans

An onboard monitoring system can measure features such as stress cycles counts and provide warnings due to slamming. Considering current technology trends there is the opportunity of incorporating machine learning methods into monitoring systems. A hull monitoring system has been developed and installed on a 111 m wave piercing catamaran (Hull 091) to remotely monitor the ship kinematics and hull structural responses. Parallel to that, an existing dataset of a similar vessel (Hull 061) was analysed using unsupervised and supervised learning models; these were found to be beneficial for the classification of bow entry events according to key kinematic parameters. A comparison of different algorithms including linear support vector machines, naïve Bayes and decision tree for the bow entry classification were conducted. In addition, using empirical probability distributions, the likelihood of wet-deck slamming was estimated given a vertical bow acceleration threshold of 1 in head seas, clustering the feature space with the approximate probabilities of 0.001, 0.030 and 0.25