Acknowledging the existence of a large proportion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their remarkable contribution to an economy, this sector’s competitiveness and development must be sustained. At the firm level, intense competition under the global economic framework requires this sector reconsider their competitive position vis-à-vis their rivals, amongst others, through innovation. ...

'The great appear great, because we are on our knees. Let us rise!,' wrote Larkin. Jean Faugier ( 1 ) described the 'tall poppy syndrome' and spoke of 'bold, nonconformist', brightly- coloured flowers being chopped down mercilessly by farmers just because they were different and stood above the rest in the wheatfields.

The degree of floral gloss varies between species. However, little is known about this distinctive floral trait, even though it could be a key feature of floral biotic and abiotic interactions. One reason for the absence of knowledge is the lack of a simple, repeatable method of gloss measurement that can be used in the field to study floral gloss. A protocol is described for measuring gloss in...

Four experiments examined how faces compete with physically salient stimuli for the control of attention in 4-, 6-, and 8-month-old infants (N = 117 total). Three computational models were used to quantify physical salience. We presented infants with visual search arrays containing a face and familiar object(s), such as shoes and flowers. Six- and 8-month-old infants looked first and longest at...

This work presents results of the preparation and characterization of small unilamellar liposomes for entrapping allergenic proteins extracted from the biomass of Dreschlera (Helminthosporium) monoceras cultivated by solid fermentation. Protein was entrapped by the dehydration-rehydration method, using lyophilization of preformed liposomes in order to prevent their degradation The reconstitutio...

This paper phenomenologically and qualitatively explores the relationship between humans and flowers as a relationship that throws light on the synergetic dynamics of embodied aesthetics. Its methods include qualitative description and thematic analyses of preferred flower types, as well as concept maps of the general term 'flower' by 120 students in Israel. The results revealed the interactive...

Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State UniVersity, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8005, Jiangsu ProVincial Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry UniVersity, Nanjing, Jiangsu ProVince 210037, People’s Republic of China, Department of Chemistry, Duke UniVersity, Durham, North Carolina 27708, Department of Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, Nort...

Textile-based electronic components have gained interest in the fields of science and technology. Recent developments in nanotechnology have enabled the integration of electronic components into textiles while retaining desirable characteristics such as flexibility, strength, and conductivity. Various materials were investigated in detail to obtain current conductive textile technology, and the...

Pollen from the Acacia has been reported as an important source of pollinosis in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The aim of this study was to characterize the IgE binding protein of Acacia farnesiana pollen extract and evaluate cross-reactivity with the most allergenic pollens. In this study, pollen extract was fractionated by SDS-PAGE and the allergenic profile was determined by...

Abstract In this paper, an attempt has been made to establish certain results involving Lambert series and Continued fractions.