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Dry eye syndrome is one of the most common reasons for eye-related discomfort which, without treatment, in some cases may even lead to corneal damage. Blinking, baseline and reflex lachrymation and drainage compromise the topical application of therapeutics demanding repeated, often hourly applications of common lubricants. In contrast, topically administered chitosan-N-acetylcysteine-based eye drops were reported to sustain on the ocular surface for more than 24 h. The thiolated biopolymer can interact with the corneal mucin layer thereby forming covalent disulphide bridges, which may contribute to extended residence times.

In this study, the tribological characteristics of four different lubricants including hyaluronic acid and chitosan-N-acetylcysteine containing commercially available eye drops were investigated. For this purpose, a representative test setup was developed, which mimics the contact between the cornea and the eyelid wiper. Gels with different elastic properties coated with a mucin layer were used as a substrate to mimic the corneal surface. Tests were conducted with a micro-tribometer, and friction values were recorded. Contact zones were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate wear and thiol bonding on the surface.

Results revealed the lowest average coefficient of friction values for chitosan-N-acetylcysteine-based eye drops and substrate dependence of the test setup.

In this study, the authors introduced an in vitro system to test different types of eye drops so that chemical interaction with the mucin layer can be observed. These interactions change the tribological performance significantly and must be considered to have results relevant to the actual application.

Sex and age estimation is important, particularly when information about the deceased is unavailable. There are limited radiological studies investigating side, sex and age differences in normal ankle morphometric parameters. The authors’ goal was to evaluate different ankle joint morphometric measurements and document variations among Egyptians.

A prospective study was conducted throughout 23 months on 203 (100 males and 103 females) adult Egyptians, aged between 20-69 years old, who were referred for a plain x-ray of bilateral normal ankle joints.

Ankle parameters showed no statistical difference between both sides, except for tarsal width (TaW) which was significantly higher on right than left side (26.92 ± 2.66 vs 26.18 ± 2.65 mm). Males showed significantly higher morphometric values except for anteroposterior gap (APG) and talus height (TaH) which were significantly higher in females (2.29 ± 0.80 vs 1.80 ± 0.61 mm and 13.01 ± 1.68 vs 11.87 ± 1.91 mm, respectively). There was significant increase in tibial arc length, APG, distance of level of MTiTh from anterior limit of mortise, distance of level of MTiTh from vertex of mortise, sagittal distance between tibial and talar vertices and sagittal radius of trochlea tali arc in old age group compared to young one. A significant decrease in tibial width, malleolar width, TaW and TaH was noted in old age group compared to young one.

Ankle joints of both sides are mostly symmetrical; however, there are significant differences in most morphometric values due to sex and age factors. These findings may be essential during side, sex and age determination.

This paper aims to highlight contrasts between the writing of young people in the UAE and Japan. For comparison, anthologies of 50-word short stories written in English, resulting from the Extremely Short Story Competition (ESSC) in each country are examined. These two ESSC anthologies were created under similar conditions in 2006. Analysis of the most frequently-appearing topics in each ESSC anthology provides insights into the daily life, general mindsets, behavior, preferences, values and culture of these two groups. These data help us to understand the everyday life and social context of young people in the UAE and Japan. Thematic analysis shows that youth in both countries are often preoccupied with seeking identity, and regard friends to be important. Both groups of young people also appear to appreciate the beauty of nature and feel affection towards living creatures. An identifying characteristic of Emirati youth is that they talk about death more often than do the Japanese writers; in addition, the ESSC anthologies indicate UAE society is remarkably family-oriented, with life being firmly connected to Islam and God. In contrast, Japanese youth show they are keen to engage in various hobbies and also like to express their romantic feelings and thankfulness for their environment. The ESSC was originally designed to develop students’ creative writing in English. This study explains that corpora generated by the ESSC may be used to illuminate the lives and societies of students living in disparate countries, with implications for planning and delivering locally appropriate education.

Skilled workers are crucial for an organization’s success, and managing, retaining and attracting them is vital in long-term. This study aims to explore talent management practices in the Finnish restaurant industry and to align workers' expectations with the real-world experiences of their work to reduce turnover and enhance job satisfaction.

The study adopts a mixed methods approach, including a survey and interviews with workers and managers to gain insights into their expectations and experiences of work. The study considers themes for designing and implementing effective talent management procedures.

This study highlights the importance of employees' experiences of their work conditions, leveraging positive emotions and fair utilization of temporary agency work (TAW). Understanding the different work preferences of generational cohorts and addressing the challenges associated with owner disengagement and TAW can also contribute to attracting and retaining talent in the restaurant industry.

Skilled workers have often been portrayed as targets that need to be managed, with insufficient consideration given to their preferences, needs and expectations. With the findings of this study, companies can establish mutual understanding with their employees and attract diverse talent.

The birth and survival rate of youth-owned businesses has been a major concern for policymakers, industry and academics alike. Learning and innovation play important roles and more critical is the mediating factors and how it impacts the enterprise competitiveness of youth-owned businesses and hence worth studying. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of mediating factors such as government support, informal network society and external knowledge infrastructure on learning and innovation in youth-owned small businesses in Lagos, Nigeria, from a cross-sectional perspective.

Leveraging the sectoral system of innovation theory, we use a primary research method and data obtained from a structured questionnaire administered among a sample of 1,000 registered youth-owned small businesses in Lagos, while 30 in-depth interviews were also conducted. The exploratory factor analysis was used for data examination.

The findings show that even though government support, informal network society and external knowledge all have a positive relationship with learning and innovation in youth-owned small businesses, government support has the most impactful impact. The informal network society via a trade association, professional network and social media are also critical in knowledge transfer in youth-owned businesses.

The significance of learning and innovation is more important as many small businesses do not have the privilege of standard human resource management (HRM) systems. This paper looks at the mediating factors affecting the introduction of innovative practices in youth-owned and managed small businesses and how productivity is enabled in a developing county context.

This study investigates how small firms develop preferences for varying levels of alliance partner diversity by applying a behavioral perspective.

Data were collected via an original survey administered by the Swedish National Bureau of Statistics (SCB) of 1,026 Swedish firms with 50 employees or less. Hypotheses were tested by specifying a series of fractional response regressions.

The results show a U-shaped relationship between experienced and preferred alliance partner diversity in small firms and further show moderating effects of firm age, prior growth and environmental dynamism. The findings suggest that preferences towards diverse alliance portfolios in small firms may arise, not only from well-informed deliberate strategic thinking based on prior experience, but also as a consequence of cognitive bias.

The findings suggest that (1) small firms considering a wide variety of alliance partners should carefully investigate whether they are, in fact, capable of mastering a highly diverse alliance portfolio or if they are overconfident novices. (2) Holders of homogenous alliance portfolios should recurringly investigate whether homogeneity is due to informed strategy or inertia.

This study contributes to the literature on alliance partner diversity and behavioral alliance portfolio configuration by shedding light on the learning mechanisms that shape alliance portfolio strategies of small firms by explicating the complexity of how different experience levels of partner variety affect current alliance portfolio preferences.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its preventative social distancing measures have led to a dramatic increase in subscriptions to paid streaming services. Online users are increasingly accessing live broadcasts, as well as recorded video content and digital music services through internet and mobile devices. In this context, this study aims to explore the individuals’ uses and gratifications from online streaming technologies during COVID-19.

This research has adapted key measures from the “technology acceptance model” (TAM) and from the “uses and gratifications theory” (UGT) to better understand the individuals’ intentions to use online streaming technologies. A structural equations partial least squares’ confirmatory composite approach was used to analyze the gathered data.

The individuals’ perceived usefulness and ease of use of online streaming services were significant antecedents of their intentions to use the mentioned technologies. Moreover, this study suggests that the research participants sought emotional gratifications from online streaming technologies, as they allowed them to distract themselves into a better mood and to relax in their leisure time. Evidently, they were using them to satisfy their needs for information and entertainment.

This study contributes to the academic literature by generating new knowledge about the individuals’ perceptions, motivations and intentions to use online streaming technologies to watch recorded movies, series and live broadcasts.

The findings imply that there is scope for the providers of online streaming services to improve their customer-centric marketing by refining the quality and content of their recorded programs and through regular interactions with subscribers and personalized recommender systems.

This study integrates the TAM and UGT frameworks to better understand the effects of the users’ perceptions, ritualized and instrumental motivations on their intentions to continue watching movies, series and broadcasts through online streaming technologies, during COVID-19.

El distanciamiento social durante la pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19) ha llevado a un aumento dramático en las suscripciones a los servicios de transmisión de pago. Los usuarios en línea acceden cada vez más a transmisiones en vivo, así como a contenido de video grabado y servicios de música digital. En este contexto, este estudio explora los usos y las gratificaciones buscadas por las personas con las tecnologías de transmisión en línea durante la COVID-19.

En la operacionalización de las variables se utilizaron las medidas del “Modelo de Aceptación de Tecnología” (TAM) y la “Teoría de Usos y Gratificaciones” (UGT). Además, se utilizó SEM-PLS 3 para analizar los datos recopilados de las encuestas.

La utilidad percibida y la facilidad de uso de los servicios de transmisión en línea son antecedentes significativos de la intención de utilizarlos. Además, las personas buscan gratificaciones emocionales de tales tecnologías, ya que les permiten distraerse, estar de mejor humor y relajarse en su tiempo libre. Además, las utilizan para obtener información y entretenimiento.

Este estudio contribuye a la literatura académica generando nuevos conocimientos sobre las percepciones, motivaciones e intenciones de los individuos de utilizar tecnologías de transmisión en línea para ver películas grabadas, series y transmisiones en vivo.

Los hallazgos implican que hay margen para que los proveedores de servicios de transmisión en línea mejoren su marketing centrado en el cliente reforzando la calidad y el contenido de sus programas grabados y la publicidad intermitente.

Este estudio integra las teorías TAM y UGT para comprender mejor el creciente uso de las tecnologías de transmisión para ver películas grabadas, series y transmisiones en vivo.

新型冠状病毒(COVID-19)大流行的爆发及其预防性的社会隔离措施，导致付费流媒体服务订阅量大幅增加。越来越多的在线用户通过互联网和移动设备访问直播、录制视频内容和数字音乐服务。在此背景下，本研究旨在探讨COVID-19疫情期间个人对在线流媒体技术的使用和满意度。

为了更好地理解个体使用在线流媒体技术的意图，本研究采用了“技术接受模型”(TAM)和“使用与满足理论”(UGT)的主要测量方法。另外，作者采用了结构方程偏最小二乘验证组合方法对采集的数据进行分析。

个人对在线流媒体服务的感知有用性和易用性是他们使用上述技术的意图的重要先行因素。此外，这项研究表明，研究中的参与者从在线流媒体技术中寻求情感满足，让自己得到一个好心情，并在闲暇时间放松。显然，他们是在用手机来满足他们对信息和娱乐的需求。

本研究对个人使用在线流媒体技术观看电影、电视剧和直播的认知、动机和意图产生了新的认识，对学术文献的贡献。

研究结果表明，在线流媒体服务提供商可以通过改进其录制节目的质量和内容、定期与订阅者互动以及个性化推荐系统来改善其以客户为中心的营销。

本研究整合了TAM和UGT框架，以更好地了解COVID-19期间用户的认知、仪式化和工具动机对他们通过在线流媒体技术继续观看电影、电视剧和广播的意图的影响。

A parent who continuously physically abuses her/his child doesn't aim to kill the child but commits an accidental filicide in a more violent outburst of anger. Fatal abuse deaths are prevented by recognition of signs of battering in time. Out of 200 examined intra-familial filicides, 23 (12%) were caused by child battering and 13 (7%) by continuous battering. The medical and court records of the victim and the perpetrator were examined. The perpetrator was the biological mother and the victim was male in 69 per cent of the cases. The abused children were either younger than one year or from two-and-a-half to four years old. Risk factors of the victim (being unwanted, premature birth, separation from the parent caused by hospitalization or custodial care, being ill and crying a lot) and the perpetrator (personality disorder, low socioeconomic status, chaotic family conditions, domestic violence, isolation, alcohol abuse) were common. The injuries caused by previous battering were mostly soft tissue injuries in head and limbs and head traumas and the battering lasted for days or even an year. The final assault was more violent and occurred when the parent was more anxious, frustrated or left alone with the child. The perpetrating parent was diagnosed as having a personality disorder (borderline, narcissistic or dependent) and often substance dependence (31%). None of them were psychotic. Authorities and community members should pay attention to the change in child's behavior and inexplicable injuries or absence from daycare. Furthermore if the parent is immature, alcohol dependent, have a personality disorder and is unable to cope with the demands the small child entails in the parent's life, the child may be in danger.

This paper aims to shed light on how children's literature in Africa deserves to be studied because African writers “decolonize” the minds of African children and children and adults around the world.

This paper defines children's literature from an African perspective and the “decolonization of the mind.” This is done to examine how two African writers provide narratives for children inspired by their cultures. They deal with themes, characters and symbols that interest children and adults.

Achebe and Youssef crossed many borders: the world of children and adults, animals and humans, vice and virtue, supernatural and real. Their stories take the reader on journeys that involve enriching, engaging and inspiring adventures.

Youssef and Achebe are prolific writers. Providing a survey of what is available in Arabic and Nigerian literature for children, is beyond the scope of this paper.

This paper sends a message to those in charge of the curriculum in schools in Egypt, the Arab countries, Africa and the world at large: decolonize the syllabi in schools because the world is not black and white. Literature for children that encourages critical thinking is available by African writers in Egypt, Nigeria and elsewhere.

The works discussed show that African writers are creative, and their works inspire the African child with pride in his/her identity, culture and heritage.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no one has compared Egyptian and Nigerian literature for children before. Youssef and Achebe provide evidence that “Good literature gives the child a place in the world … and the world a place in the child.” – Astrid Lindgren.