Trends in courier services in terms of digitalization of commerce

The modern commerce is changing dynamically under the influence of information innovations and the gradual transition of existing economic and social systems into the digital age. Merchants are using the digital technologies to make it easier for consumers to shop and explore their behavior, expectations and preferences. However, this development requires a quick adaptation of courier services to suit customer preferences. This paper examines changes in the logistics industry and supply chain due to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the growing role of Internet of Things (IoT) in the delivery industry, the autonomous vehicle management, the use of 3D printing for custom production and other current trends to accelerate delivery time and customer satisfaction

Challenges to digital marketing in multi-screen environment

The development of information and communication technologies alters the habits and behavior of modern consumers, who are using increasingly a larger number of portable devices with an Internet connection. According to a number of studies, users spend more than seven hours a day, distributed across multiple screens, and the multi-screenenvironment provides new challenges to digital marketing. Digital channels provide more ways to communicate with potential users and new opportunities for tracking user behavior, but at the same time they risk an intrusion into the privacy of the individual user. The article discusses the issues of digital marketing in social media, the role of visual content marketing to keep consumers' attention, the use of influencer marketing for message transmission, as well the impact on marketing after introduction of the EU Data Protection Regulation

First-Year Effects and Persistence Decisions: A Moderated Mediation Model of Coping, Self-Efficacy, and Locus of Control

The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of a theoretical model encompassing psychological theories underlying student retention in postsecondary education. New conceptual operationalizations were applied to elaborate Bean and Eaton’s theoretical model of student retention. The influences of student entry characteristics, environmental interactions, psychological processes, attitudes, and intentions toward persistence were assessed using a repeated measures, longitudinal design. Within the framework, persistence is an endogenous variable based on actual re-enrollment into subsequent semesters.Three student samples were drawn from a large urban research university in California. Survey data collected from a first-year seminar and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and were used to test pathways of Bean and Eaton’s conceptual framework. The data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and moderated mediation considering the following dichotomized groups: male/female, underrepresented/non- underrepresented students, first-generation/non-first-generation students. Analysis of first-time freshman cohort data revealed that the hypothesized model is supported across all three samples in 2018, 2019, and 2020. The results reveal that measures of locus of control, self-efficacy and coping were found to indirectly predict persistence into the second year and third year of college, while measures of academic interactions, academic integration, social integration, and institutional fit were directly predictive of persistence. Path level differences between first-generation students and non-first-generation students were found in the 2019 cohort in the relationships between past behavior and faculty academic interactions, and normative beliefs and classroom interactions. None of the other grouping variables yielded moderating effects. The fit statistics for three models are within the acceptable range, with the 2020 SEM model producing the best fit. The 2018 model, which included NSSE independent variables and assessed persistence into the third year, had the most explanatory power. Across all three cohorts, both classroom and faculty academic interactions exerted the strongest indirect effects on persistence. The results from this study provide strong support for the indirect effects of coping strategies, locus of control, and self-efficacy on both social and academic integration. Moreover, quality of student interactions with other students, academic advisors, faculty, student services and administrative staff is influenced by normative beliefs as a function of self-directedness and autonomy. The findings supported evidence that programs that influence students’ coping strategies can encourage self-efficacy, which in turn reinforces academic interactions and indirectly influences academic integration, social integration, institutional fit and persistence. High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as first-year seminars and learning communities may enhance faculty and classroom academic interactions, and ultimately academic and social integration leading toward persistence. Faculty academic interactions and classroom academic interactions also facilitate social integration leading toward persistence. Overall, this study highlights a need for a better understanding of these interactions in order to help institutional administrators develop services and programs to better meet the needs of students, particularly in an era of teaching and learning in an online environment

Pyridoxal-5′-phosphate-dependent catalytic antibodies

Cofactors—i.e., metal ions and coenzymes—extend the catalytic scope of enzymes and might have been among the first biological catalysts. They may be expected to efficiently extend the catalytic potential of antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against Nα-phosphopyridoxyl-l-lysine were screened for 1) binding of 5′-phosphopyridoxyl amino acids, 2) binding of the planar Schiff base of pyridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP) and amino acids, the first intermediate of all PLP-dependent reactions, and 3), catalysis of the PLP-dependent α, β-elimination reaction with β-chloro-D/L-alanine. Antibody 15A9 fulfilled all criteria and was also found to catalyze the cofactor-dependent transamination reaction of hydrophobic D-amino acids and oxo acids (k′ cat=0.42 min−1 with D-alanine at 25°C). No other reactions with either D- or L-amino acids were detected. PLP markedly contributes to catalytic effecacy—it is a 104 times more efficient acceptor of the amino group than pyruvate. The antibody ensures reaction specificity, stereospecificity, and substrate specificity, and further accelerates the transamination reaction (k′ cat(Ab)/k′ cat(PLP)=5×103). The successive screening steps simulate the selection criteria that might have been operative in the evolution of protein-assisted psyridoxal catalysi

Bulgaristan’da Alevi-Bektaşi Topluluğunda Hızır-İlyas Kültünün Yansımaları ve Hıdırellez Geleneği

Hıdrellez ist ein traditioneller Feiertag, der in der gesamten türkischen Welt seit Jahrhunderten sehr beliebt ist und ausgelassen gefeiert wird. Der Legende nach ist dies der Tag, an dem sich die Propheten Hızır und Ilyas treffen, und so leitet sich auch der Name des Festes aus der Kombination ihrer Namen ab. Dieser Feiertag, auch Ruz-i Hızır genannt, symbolisiert die Wiederbelebung und das Ergrünen der Natur, ihr neues Leben und den kontinuierlichen Übergang des Universums vom Tod zum Leben. Aus diesem Grund wird Hıdrellez im Grünen, an Orten mit Bäumen und Wasser gefeiert, an denen es oft auch einen Schrein gibt oder die eine Verbindung zu einem verehrten Heiligen haben. Der Glaube besagt, dass Hızır Wohlstand und Fruchtbarkeit an alle Orte bringt, die er in der Nacht vor diesem Tag beschreitet. Die Tradition des Hıdrellez ist eines der wichtigsten und bekanntesten traditionellen Feste, das von der alevitisch-bektaschitischen Gemeinschaft in Bulgarien ausgelassen gefeiert wird. Es ist sowohl Ausdruck des Hızır-Kults als auch des alten türkischen Festkalenders und der Begehung traditioneller Rituale. Der vorliegende Beitrag betrachtet einige spezifische Aspekte des Hızır-Kults der Gemeinschaft in Bulgarien im historischen Kontext. Gleichzeitig geht der Artikel auf einige der Bräuche und Rituale ein, die am Hıdrellez in den von Aleviten und Bektaschiten bewohnten Dörfern im Oblast Rasgrad – Bisertsi, Madrevo und Sevar – begangen werden, und beschäftigt sich mit den symbolischen Elementen der beim Hıdrellez getanzten Tänze. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Praktiken wie alaylar, beşikli, bezirgan und nişan çıkarma untersucht. Dabei wird auch auf die Parallelen zu der Hıdrellez-Tradition der in der Türkei lebenden Aleviten und Bektaschiten eingegangen. Weiter möchte diese Arbeit aufzeigen, dass das traditionelle Hıdrellez-Ritualsystem in Bulgarien in den letzten 10-15 Jahren wiederaufgelebt ist, sich geografisch ausgedehnt hat und neue Merkmale dazugewonnen hat. Dabei wird hervorgehoben, dass die Hıdrellez-Tradition nach dem demokratischen Wandel im Land ab 1990 eine wichtige Rolle bei der Wiederbelebung und Bewahrung der alevitisch-bektaschitischen Identität gespielt hat. An den Hıdrellez-Ritualen in Bulgarien nehmen vor allem Frauen teil. Dies ist Indikator und Symbol der Rolle und des Platzes von Frauen in der alevitisch-bektaschitischen Gemeinschaft. Trotz Zeitenwandels Modernisierungsdrucks bewahren die Frauen die Hıdrellez-Tradition. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Hıdrellez-Rituale, wie sehr Türken Wasser, Natur, Bäume, Pflanzen, Feuer und Erde würdigen. Dies ist auch am Beispiel Bulgariens zu beobachten und erklärt die Universalität des Hıdrellez-Festes.Hidrellez is a traditional holiday that has been very popular and actively celebrated all over the Turkic World for centuries. According to legend, this is the day on which the prophets Al-Khidr (Hizir) and Elijah (Ilyas) met, and the name of the holiday is a compound of their names. This holiday, also called Ruz-i Hizir, is the symbol of the nature’s revival, its new life and the continuous transition of the universe from death to life. Therefore, Hidrellez is celebrated in green areas, places where there are trees and water, and often in places associated with a tomb or a respected saint. It is believed that Khidr brings prosperity and fruitfulness to the place where he set his foot a night before Hidrellez. The Hidrellez tradition is one of the most respected and famous traditional holidays actively celebrated by the Alevi-Bektashi community in Bulgaria. It is both a manifestation of the cult of Khidr and a representation of the ancient Turkish holiday calendar and the practices of traditional rituals. Our paper focuses on some specific aspects of the cult of Khidr among the representatives of this community in Bulgaria, in a historical context. At the same time, it mentions some traditions and rituals performed during Hidrellez in the villages inhabited by Alevi-Bektashis in the Razgrad region (Bisertsi, Midrevo and Sevar), touches upon the symbolic elements of the games: Alaylar, Beşikli, Bezirgan, and analyses practices, such as Nişan çıkarma. The paper will also address the fact that these practices are carried out in parallel with the Hidrellez traditions of Alevi-Bektashis living in Turkey.An important point of this study is drawing attention to the revival of the traditional Hidrellez ritual system in Bulgaria for the last 10-15 years, expanding of its geographical scope, and as a result, gaining new features. The paper emphasis the role of the Hidrellez tradition in the revival and preservation of the Alevi-Bektashi identity in the period since 1990, after the democratic changes in the country. In Bulgaria, women, in particular, take part in the Hidrellez rituals. This fact shows and symbolizes the role and place of women within the Alevi-Bektashi community. Despite the changes of time and the pressure of modernization, women preserve the Hidrellez tradition with vigor. At the same time, Hidrellez rituals show how strong is the Turks’ respect for water, nature, trees, plants, fire and soil. We also witness this in the case of Bulgaria. This situation explains the universal dimensions of the holiday in question.Hıdırellez, asırlar boyunca tüm Türk dünyasında çok popüler olan ve canlı şekilde kutlanan bir geleneksel bayramdır. Efsaneye göre bugün Hızır ve İlyas peygamberlerin, buluştuğu gündür ve şölenin adı da onların isimlerinin birleşmesinden gelmektedir. Ruz-i Hızır olarak da adlandırılan bu bayram, doğanın yeniden canlanmasını ve yeşillenmesini, onun yeni yaşamının ve evrenin sürekli ölümden hayata geçmesinin simgesidir. Bu nedenle Hıdırellez yeşil alanlarda, ağaçlar ve su bulunan yerlerde ve çoğu zaman bir türbenin ya da saygın bir azizle ilişkili yerlerde kutlanmaktadır. İnanca göre Hızır, o günden önceki gecede nereye ayak bastıysa oraya refah ve bereket getirmektedir. Hıdırellez geleneği Bulgaristan’da yaşayan Alevi-Bektaşi topluluğunun canlı bir şekilde kutladığı en saygın ve ünlü geleneksel bayramlarındandır. O hem Hızır kültünün bir tezahürüdür hem de eski Türk bayram takviminin, geleneksel ritüellerin uygulamalarının bir ifadesidir. Çalışmamız, bu topluluğun Bulgaristan’daki temsilcileri arasında Hızır kültünün bazı belli boyutlarına tarihsel bağlamda odaklanmaktadır. Aynı zamanda Hıdırellez’de Razgrad bölgesinde Alevi-Bektaşilerin yaşadığı köylerde -Bisertsi (Kasçılar), Mıdrevo (Mesimmahlesi) ve Sevar (Ceferler)- icra edilen bazı geleneklerden ve ritüellerden bahsedilmektedir ve oyunların sembolik unsurlarına değinilmektedir: Alaylar, Beşikli, Bezirgan, Nişan çıkarma gibi pratikler incelenmektedir. Bu pratiklerin Türkiye’de yaşayan Alevi-Bektaşilerin Hıdırellez gelenekleriyle paralellikler gösterdiğine de değinilecektir. Bu çalışmanın önemli bir noktası da Bulgaristan’da son 10-15 yıldan beri geleneksel Hıdırellez ritüel sisteminin yeniden canlanmasına ve coğrafi kapsamının genişletilmesine ve bunun yeni özellikleri de kazanmasına dikkat çekilmektedir. 1990 yılından beri ülkedeki demokratik değişimlerden sonraki dönemde Alevi-Bektaşi kimliğinin yeniden canlandırılmasında ve korunmasında Hıdırellez geleneğinin rolüne vurgu yapılmaktadır. Bulgaristan’da Hıdırellez ritüellerinde özellikle kadınlar yer almaktadır. Bu da Alevi-Bektaşi topluluğunda kadınların rolünü ve yerini göstermektedir ve simgelemektedir. Zamanın değişimlerine ve modernleşme baskısına rağmen kadınlar Hıdırellez geleneğini canlılıkla korumaktadır. Bununla beraber Hıdırellez ritüelleri Türklerin suya, doğaya, ağaçlara, bitkilere, ateşe, yere saygılarının ne kadar güçlü olduğunu göstermektedir. Bunu Bulgaristan örneğinde de görmekteyiz. Bu husus söz konusu bayramın evrensel boyutlarını açıklamaktadır

EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AS A FACTOR FOR RAISING ENTERPRISES COMPETITIVENESS

Employees’ performance appraisal in enterprises is one of the most complicated stages in the process of performance management. That complexity arises from the fact that the employee’s evaluation refers to professional qualification and personal characteristics of individuals, their practical application in the work and the results achieved. The data that is obtained in terms of the quality and effectiveness of employees are the basis for decision-making, motivating, stimulating, rewarding. Employees’ performance appraisal is important for every individual person because, on the one hand it indicates the level achieved in terms of their work, and on the other hand it indicates errors, for which the individual is not aware, but with additional effort he can correct them. In this paper is elaborated the question of employees performance appraisal as a factor for raising the competitiveness of enterprises. This paper recognizes the role and importance of the employees’ evaluation and the enterprises competitiveness. The sample in this paper consists of 53 successful small, medium and large enterprises from the private sector who perform an assessment of the performance of their employees. In this study, primary data were obtained using a structured questionnaire, and data analysis was performed using the statistical program SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Sciences)

CutDB: a proteolytic event database

Beyond the well-known role of proteolytic machinery in protein degradation and turnover, many specialized proteases play a key role in various regulatory processes. Thousands of highly specific proteolytic events are associated with normal and pathological conditions, including bacterial and viral infections. However, the information about individual proteolytic events is dispersed over multiple publications and is not easily available for large-scale analysis. CutDB is one of the first systematic efforts to build an easily accessible collection of documented proteolytic events for natural proteins in vivo or in vitro. A CutDB entry is defined by a unique combination of these three attributes: protease, protein substrate and cleavage site. Currently, CutDB integrates 3070 proteolytic events for 470 different proteases captured from public archives (such as MEROPS and HPRD) and publications. CutDB supports various types of data searches and displays, including clickable network diagrams. Most importantly, CutDB is a community annotation resource based on a Wikipedia approach, providing a convenient user interface to input new data online. A recent contribution of 568 proteolytic events by several experts in the field of matrix metallopeptidases suggests that this approach will significantly accelerate the development of CutDB content. CutDB is publicly available at

A thorough anion-π interaction study in biomolecules:On the importance of cooperativity effects

Noncovalent interactions have a constitutive role in the science of intermolecular relationships, particularly those involving aromatic rings such as π-π and cation-π. In recent years, anion-π contact has also been recognized as a noncovalent bonding interaction with important implications in chemical processes. Yet, its involvement in biological processes has been scarcely reported. Herein we present a large-scale PDB analysis of the occurrence of anion-π interactions in proteins and nucleic acids. In addition we have gone a step further by considering the existence of cooperativity effects through the inclusion of a second noncovalent interaction, i.e. π-stacking, T-shaped, or cation-π interactions to form anion-π-π and anion-π-cation triads. The statistical analysis of the thousands of identified interactions reveals striking selectivities and subtle cooperativity effects among the anions, π-systems, and cations in a biological context. The reported results stress the importance of anion-π interactions and the cooperativity that arises from ternary contacts in key biological processes, such as protein folding and function and nucleic acids-protein and protein-protein recognition. We include examples of anion-π interactions and triads putatively involved in enzymatic catalysis, epigenetic gene regulation, antigen-antibody recognition, and protein dimerization

Clinical Significance of Varying Degrees of Vancomycin Susceptilibity in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia1

We conducted a retrospective study of the clinical aspects of bacteremia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with heterogeneously reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. Bloodstream MRSA isolates were screened for reduced susceptibility by using brain-heart infusion agar, including 4 mg/L vancomycin with and without 4% NaCl. Patients whose isolates exhibited growth (case-patients) were compared with those whose isolates did not (controls) for demographics, coexisting chronic conditions, hospital events, antibiotic exposures, and outcomes. Sixty-one (41%) of 149 isolates exhibited growth. Subclones from 46 (75%) of these had a higher MIC of vancomycin than did their parent isolates. No isolates met criteria for vancomycin heteroresistance. No differences in potential predictors or in outcomes were found between case-patients and controls. These data show that patients with vancomycin-susceptible MRSA bacteremia have similar baseline clinical features and outcomes whether or not their bacterial isolates exhibit growth on screening media containing vancomycin

PMAP: databases for analyzing proteolytic events and pathways

The Proteolysis MAP (PMAP, http://www.proteolysis.org) is a user-friendly website intended to aid the scientific community in reasoning about proteolytic networks and pathways. PMAP is comprised of five databases, linked together in one environment. The foundation databases, ProteaseDB and SubstrateDB, are driven by an automated annotation pipeline that generates dynamic ‘Molecule Pages’, rich in molecular information. PMAP also contains two community annotated databases focused on function; CutDB has information on more than 5000 proteolytic events, and ProfileDB is dedicated to information of the substrate recognition specificity of proteases. Together, the content within these four databases will ultimately feed PathwayDB, which will be comprised of known pathways whose function can be dynamically modeled in a rule-based manner, and hypothetical pathways suggested by semi-automated culling of the literature. A Protease Toolkit is also available for the analysis of proteases and proteolysis. Here, we describe how the databases of PMAP can be used to foster understanding of proteolytic pathways, and equally as significant, to reason about proteolysis