Strategies for the survival of ABC Produce

Small-scale vegetable shops are facing a scenario of stiff competition, posing threat to their viability and existence. The ongoing trend and customer behaviour have made it apparent to research as to what needs to be done to ensure the survival of the vegetable business and further make it a profitable venture. To research on the same, a study is conducted on the operations of ABC Produce, a vegetable and grocery shop in Hamilton. It is jointly owned. They acquired the business around two years ago. The aim of the project is to ascertain factors, strategies, and techniques which can attribute to performance and enhanced productivity. Mixed methods are used to carry the research project as it will give the opportunity for both Qualitative and Quantitative research. Qualitative research will assist in understanding the intricacies of the business by interviewing Employer and Employee. Quantitative research will help to get feedback from customers through a questionnaire that includes both open-ended and closed sample questions. The research results show that they have a good footfall and most customers prefer shopping during evening time. The maximum sale is of vegetables, which constitute around 40% of sales, followed by fruits and dairy produce. More than 70% of the customers were satisfied by quality and services. A better product mix is expected by customers. Some of the key strategies that are recommended include pricing and promotion strategy, waste management strategy, customer retention, attracting new customers, partnership and collaboration

New Congruences Modulo 2, 4, and 8 for the Number of Tagged Parts Over the Partitions with Designated Summands

Recently, Lin introduced two new partition functions PD$_t(n)$ and PDO$_t(n)$, which count the total number of tagged parts over all partitions of $n$ with designated summands and the total number of tagged parts over all partitions of $n$ with designated summands in which all parts are odd. Lin also proved some congruences modulo 3 and 9 for PD$_t(n)$ and PDO$_t(n)$, and conjectured some congruences modulo 8. Very recently, Adansie, Chern, and Xia found two new infinite families of congruences modulo 9 for PD$_t(n)$. In this paper, we prove the congruences modulo 8 conjectured by Lin and also find many new congruences and infinite families of congruences modulo some small powers of 2.Comment: 19 page

Remote control of diffusion from magnetic hollow silica microspheres

Composite hollow core silica/iron oxide microparticles with the ability to store an encapsulated payload and release a defined quantity “on demand” by the application of a radiofrequency magnetic field were prepared. The microparticles possessed a mesoporous silica shell with iron oxide nanoparticles bound to the external silica surface by electrostatic interaction. The size, morphology and stability of the composite particles were systematically investigated and the effect of iron oxide:silica ratio on their heating rate and the release kinetics of a model compound (vitamin B12) was determined. The composite particles were stable in time and had a high heating ability in the radiofrequency magnetic field, achieving a temperature rise of several 10’s °C per minute. Thanks to the high heating rate, external radiofrequency field was shown to be an effective trigger mechanism for externally controlled diffusion of encapsulated material from within the hollow core at an arbitrary on-off sequence

Adoption of technology in teaching of language: A critical assessment of Punjabi(mother tongue)

Mother-tongue plays a paramount role in child’s development. It is the heart and soul of child's education. It is the foundation on which the personality of the child is built. The study of mother- tongue is of dire necessity on psychological, intellectual, emotional and cultural grounds. It is our duty to adopt and adapt mother-tongue as medium of all non-linguistic subjects, thereby making it easy and interesting for the child to learn these subjects. Teachers rarely use teaching technology like multimedia, instructional technology etc. They adopt lecture cum text book method-a boring procedure. Students are made to mug up even stories and poems. Students are passive partners in the learning process. No attempt is made to arouse their creativeness or encourage their self-expression so what they learn is poor learning. This calls for drastic changes. Language learning is a part of education in the wider sense. One of the important causes for the deterioration of the standard of mother-tongue (Punjabi) in Punjab is inadequate provision of teaching aids. In the present study, an attempt has been made to arrive at some precise conclusions.Punjabi,mother tongue, technology

Expression and Function of Prostaglandin E2 Receptors in Human Myometrium

Preterm labour occurs in approximately 10 % of pregnancies and shows no signs of abating. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis plays a regulatory role in a number of important processes that are necessary for successful labour. One role for PGE2 is the activation of contractility in the muscle that contracts during labour, the myometrium. The myometrium is theorised to separate into two functional compartments during pregnancy and parturition. During parturition, the fundal region contracts downwards, whilst the lower segment relaxes. PGE2 binds to four G-protein coupled receptors, termed E-series (EP1-4), which modulate a dynamic range of responses due to differential binding of G proteins. The accepted theory for the function of EP receptors in the myometrium, at the time of labour, is that EP1 and EP3 are procontractile receptors whilst EP2 and EP4 receptors are anti-contractile. This thesis studied the compartmental expression of the EP receptors and the signalling pathways they couple to in the pregnant myometrium. EP receptor mRNA and protein do not alter in expression between sample groups, before or after the onset of labour. Further experiments identified EP2 receptors to activate both pro- and anti-labour responses (expression of COX-2 and inhibition of myometrial contractility), interestingly by two distinct G protein signalling pathways, questioning its role as an anti-labour receptor. A novel EP4 receptor agonist also activated cell signalling pathways not previously associated with this receptor. An EP3, but not an EP1, antagonist inhibited spontaneous and PGE2 induced contractility, despite the activation of similar signalling pathways. Overall, this study indicates that the action of an individual EP receptor is more diverse than anticipated, indicating that the myometrium is a complex, dynamic system enabling efficient reprogramming of responsiveness during pregnancy and labour