It's a brand new year, a chance to look back on where we've struggled and look ahead to how we can improve. How can we draw closer to God in 2015, and share Him with the world?

Intel was once unrivalled as the world's chip maker. Now it's fallen behind its rivals.

A man's bond with an orphaned otter changed his life and became a movie hit.

Scotland fell silent at 11:00 to commemorate those who died in conflicts around the world.

Dynamic nature of the FMCG sector perpetually provides a tricky challenge for organisational leaders to nurture their employees. High demand for products, less shelf life and tough competitors always challenge the leaders to uphold their products in the market. Due to technology and e-commerce, many new competitors have joined the market, vying with the industry's veterans. Due to their unique business models that match client needs, these firms are expected to boost FMCG industry income in the future. Managers' leadership styles depend primarily on emotional intelligence. This quantitative study examines how emotional intelligence influences West Bengal FMCG senior managers' leadership styles. 500 FMCG managers were selected. PLS-SEM is used to study. Emotionally competent leaders choose transactional and transformational leadership styles depending on the occasion. Managers' transactional leadership style is strongly influenced by their sympathetic awareness, as shown by a path coefficient of 0.755. Transformational leadership style has a path coefficient of 0.693, indicating that managers' empathy affects their organisational management. Thus, sympathetic awareness and emotion regulation predict good management leadership.

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the availability and pricing of perishable farm produce before and during the lockdown restrictions imposed due to Covid-19. This paper also proposes machine learning and deep learning models to help the farmers decide on an appropriate market to sell their farm produce and get a fair price for their product. Background: Developing countries like India have regulated agricultural markets governed by country-specific protective laws like the Essential Commodities Act and the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act. These regulations restrict the sale of agricultural produce to a predefined set of local markets. Covid-19 pandemic led to a lockdown during the first half of 2020 which resulted in supply disruption and demand-supply mismatch of agricultural commodities at these local markets. These demand-supply dynamics led to disruptions in the pricing of the farm produce leading to a lower price realization for farmers. Hence it is essential to analyze the impact of this disruption on the pricing of farm produce at a granular level. Moreover, the farmers need a tool that guides them with the most suitable market/city/town to sell their farm produce to get a fair price. Methodology: One hundred and fifty thousand samples from the agricultural dataset, released by the Government of India, were used to perform statistical analysis and identify the supply disruptions as well as price disruptions of perishable agricultural produce. In addition, more than seventeen thousand samples were used to implement and train machine learning and deep learning models that can predict and guide the farmers about the appropriate market to sell their farm produce. In essence, the paper uses descriptive analytics to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural produce pricing. The paper explores the usage of prescriptive analytics to recommend an appropriate market to sell agricultural produce. Contribution: Five machine learning models based on Logistic Regression, K-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting, and three deep learning models based on Artificial Neural Networks were implemented. The performance of these models was compared using metrics like Precision, Recall, Accuracy, and F1-Score. Findings: Among the five classification models, the Gradient Boosting classifier was the optimal classifier that achieved precision, recall, accuracy, and F1 score of 99%. Out of the three deep learning models, the Adam optimizer-based deep neural network achieved precision, recall, accuracy, and F1 score of 99%. Recommendations for Practitioners: Gradient boosting technique and Adam-based deep learning model should be the preferred choice for analyzing agricultural pricing-related problems. Recommendation for Researchers: Ensemble learning techniques like Random Forest and Gradient boosting perform better than non-Ensemble classification techniques. Hyperparameter tuning is an essential step in developing these models and it improves the performance of the model. Impact on Society: Statistical analysis of the data revealed the true nature of demand and supply and price disruption. This analysis helps to assess the revenue impact borne by the farmers due to Covid-19. The machine learning and deep learning models help the farmers to get a better price for their crops. Though the da-taset used in this paper is related to India, the outcome of this research work applies to many developing countries that have similar regulated markets. Hence farmers from developing countries across the world can benefit from the outcome of this research work. Future Research: The machine learning and deep learning models were implemented and tested for markets in and around Bangalore. The model can be expanded to cover other markets within India.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to identify the characteristics of YouTube video reviews that consumers utilize to evaluate review helpfulness and explores how they process such information. This study aims to investigate the effect of argument quality, review popularity, number of likes, and source credibility on consumers’ perception of YouTube’s video review helpfulness. Background: Video reviews posted on YouTube are an emerging form of online reviews, which have the potential to be more helpful than textual reviews due to their visual and audible cues that deliver more vivid information about product features and specifications. With the availability of an enormous number of video reviews with unpredictable quality, it becomes challenging for consumers to find helpful reviews without consuming significant time and effort. In addition, YouTube does not provide a specific feature that indicates a review helpfulness similar to the one found on e-commerce websites. Consequently, consumers have to examine the characteristics of video reviews that are readily available on YouTube, evaluate them, and form a perception of whether a review is helpful or not. Despite the increasing popularity of YouTube’s video reviews, video reviews’ helpfulness received inadequate attention in the literature. The antecedents of the helpfulness of online video reviews are still underinvestigated, and more research is needed to identify the characteristics that consumers depend upon to assess video review helpfulness. Furthermore, it is important to understand how consumers process the information they gain from these characteristics to form a perception of their helpfulness. Methodology: Following an extended investigation of the relevant literature, we identified four key video characteristics that consumers presumably utilize to evaluate review helpfulness on YouTube (i.e., review popularity, number of likes, source credibility, and argument quality). By employing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we classified these characteristics along the central and peripheral routes. The central route characteristics require a high cognitive effort by consumers to process the review’s message and reach a logical decision. In contrast, the peripheral route assumes that consumers judge the review’s message based on superficial qualities without substantial cognitive effort. A research model is introduced to investigate the effect of central and peripheral cues and their corresponding video review characteristics on review helpfulness. Accordingly, argument quality is proposed in the central route of the model, while review popularity, number of likes, and source credibility are proposed in the peripheral route. Furthermore, the study investigates how consumers process the information they obtain from these routes jointly or independently. To empirically test the proposed model, a convenient sample of 361 YouTube users was obtained through an online survey. The partial least squares method was used to investigate the effect of the proposed characteristics on video review helpfulness. Contribution: This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it is one of the few studies that investigate online video reviews’ helpfulness. Second, this study identifies several unique characteristics of YouTube’s video reviews that span peripheral and central routes, which potentially contribute to review helpfulness. Third, this study proposes a conceptual model based on the ELM to explore the effect of central and peripheral cues and their corresponding review characteristics on review helpfulness. Fourth, the research findings provide implications for research and practice that advance the theoretical understanding of video reviews’ helpfulness and serve as guidelines to create more helpful video reviews by better understanding the consumer’s cognitive processes. Findings: The results show that among the four characteristics proposed in the research model, argument quality in the central route is the strongest determinant factor affecting video review helpfulness. Results also show that review popularity, source credibility, and the number of likes in the peripheral route have significant effects on video review helpfulness. Altogether, our results show that the effect of the peripheral route adds up to 0.463 compared to 0.430, which is the impact magnitude of the argument quality construct in the central route. Based on the comparable effect magnitude of the central and peripheral routes of the model on video review helpfulness, our results indicate that both peripheral and central cues significantly affect consumers’ perception of video review helpfulness. The two routes are not mutually exclusive, and their cues can be processed in parallel or consecutive ways. Recommendations for Practitioners: The study recommends creating a dedicated category for reviews on YouTube with a specific feature for consumers to indicate the helpfulness of a video review, similar to the helpful vote button in textual reviews. The study also recommends that reviewers deliver more appealing and convincing argument quality, work toward improving their credibility, and understand the factors that contribute to video popularity. Impact on Society: Identifying the characteristics that affect video review helpfulness on YouTube helps consumers access helpful reviews more efficiently and improves their purchase decisions. Future Research: Future research could look into different types of data that could be extracted from YouTube to investigate the helpfulness of online video reviews. Future studies could employ machine learning and sentiment analysis techniques to reach more insights. Future research could also investigate the effect of product types in the context of online video reviews.

Random Photo: The Fast Lane

Our Bros Tom Venzke & Elias Bauer from Berlin are now officially part of the kunstform BMX Shop Team 2020/21. Due to Corona there is currently no Welcome to the Team Edit. So that nobody has to go empty-handed here, you can now treat yourself with an Insta Mix by Elias & Tom. There is only one thing left to say: Welcome to the team!

Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team!

Video: freedombmx

Related links:

• all products of kunstform
• freedombmx Youtube Channel

Vermont’s unemployment rate was 1.9% in September, among the lowest in the country, and the labor force is still thousands of people smaller than before the pandemic.

The post Vermont may be the face of a long-term U.S. labor shortage appeared first on Boston.com.

“What I remember about my dad is that he had this penetrating smile.”

We recall the life of Tony Acevedo; from child of unauthorised immigrants from Mexico, to US soldier in WWII, to concentration camp survivor, to inspirational father.

Also: the daughter of an American spy reveals secrets about her childhood; a father remembers telling his children that he was going to be deported; Vincenzo Bruno, an activist in Costa Rica, comes out as transgender to his son; and Tami Neilson closes out the programme with her song “The First Man.’’

(Image: Tony Acevedo at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's 20th Anniversary Tribute event in Los Angeles, February 2013. Credit: Courtesy of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

For a man to have real children is easy enough. For children to have a real father is another matter entirely. Growing up fatherless left gaps in me. It does for everyone. Whether your dad was steeped in addiction, an absentee, or just ill-equipped, here are 5 key lessons I’ve acquired over the years. They are helping me to father like the father I never had. I’m praying they’ll help you too! 1. Be a courageous leader. I am the son of an absentee, alcoholic, abandoning man full of excuses. I...

Strategic communications is by no means a ‘silver bullet’, but it is a vital part of addressing the challenges we face

If there is one word that could describe 2020, both in life and for the top 100 security dealers, it is unpredictable. Following several years of growth — and a very strong 2019 — SDM 100 companies found themselves on slippery ground beginning in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Detecting invisible workplace risks is always a challenge. One such hidden hazard is carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas.

 The mobile-first approach of VSaaS aligns perfectly with the growing trend of remote work and distributed teams.

A construction worker removes his hard hat because he is too warm. An engineer refuses to wear head protection, as she has “never been hurt before.” A utility worker thinks hard hats make him look silly and removes his every chance he gets.

What are key considerations in selecting emergency showers and eyewashes?

Download this free Foot Protection Training Guide with expert tips to help keep your workers safe from potentially devastating foot injuries.

Deer and other wildlife often cross our paths during the fall season. What should I keep in mind whi

Imagine this scenario: A construction worker is replacing shingles on the roof of a two-story house 20 feet above ground. He loses his footing and slips, falling off the roof. He’s wearing a fall-arrest system, and as a result is saved from death. But he’s not out of danger yet.

Keeping workers comfortable and productive on the job often starts with taking care of their feet. Download a free training presentation to start sharing foot safety facts with your crew at your next safety meeting.

Occupational asthma can develop when a worker breathes in gases, chemical fumes, dust or other work-related substances. According to Mayo Clinic, it also can result from exposure to a substance a worker is sensitive to, triggering an allergic or immunological response.

North America was the second top region for energy drinks launches during a recent one-year period, with Europe as the leading region. Approximately one-fifth of global energy drink launches are released in North America. However, price differences between North America and other regions lead to a larger and dominant North American share for energy drinks sales value.

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The post The Failing U.S. Health System was curated by information for practice.

Prof. M. Todd Henderson discusses liabilities for hosting criminal content

"'The Beautiful Ones' is the deeply personal account of how Prince Rogers Nelson became the Prince we know: the real-time story of a kid absorbing the world around him and creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and the fame that would come to define him," Random House announced.

The president of Focus on the Family says he’s “encouraged” by Tuesday’s election results even as he acknowledged both victories and setbacks for the pro-life movement.

President of Turkey's Ankaragucu football club, Faruk Koca, punched referee Halil Umut Meler in the face after the match of the 15th round of the Super League, Sabah Spor reports. Faruk Koca punched the referee in the face knocking him down on the lawn. Several other men ran up to the referee the next moment and kicked him in the head. The incident occurred after the final whistle. According to Koca, he wanted to spit the referee in the face, but decided to hit him not too hard. The referee was hospitalised.

Added August 17, 2006:

Laysan Utyasheva, a famous gymnast, shared the recipe for a miraculous drink that she swears by. She only learned the recipe for this drink at the beginning of 2022, and since then she has been drinking it every morning to wake up quickly. Utyasheva claims that this drink helps her wake up better than five cups of coffee. In an interview on the YouTube show "Daring Cooking," Laysan Utyasheva explained that one morning, when she was going on a desert excursion, she really needed to wake up quickly, but five cups of coffee didn't do the trick. That's when she tried the new drink, which woke her up much better. The recipe for this drink is simple: add a pinch of turmeric, cinnamon, and lemon to warm water. This drink helps reduce swelling and boost immunity. However, Laysan Utyasheva warned that the taste of the drink is not very pleasant, but it is very effective.

Sung Kang (L) and Vin Diesel (R) in the film “F9: The Fast Saga"; Credit: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The original cast of The Cosby Show. ; Credit: Frank Carroll/Associated Press

Thirty years ago, on September 20,"The Cosby Show" debuted on NBC and went on to dominate our screens for almost a decade.

The award-winning sitcom introduced us to the Huxtables, an upper-middle class black family  made up of Heathcliff, Clair and their five children. Plus a cast of ugly sweaters.

"The Cosby Show" covered familiar territory; from children getting body piercings, bad boyfriends and maintaining a long term relationship as parents with professional lives.

Speaking to Take Two's Alex Cohen, Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University said "The Cosby Show" broke down racial stereotypes.

"It  really was the first program to present not just a middle class, or upper-middle class black family, but a professional family. Clair and Heathcliff Huxtable were educated, they had advanced degrees. It was an image we hadn't seen before."

From 1985 to 1990, "The Cosby Show" held the number one spot in the TV ratings war, appealing to audiences across color lines. Black viewers in particular welcomed a broader representation of African American life on screen, building on the success of shows such as "The Jeffersons", "Sanford and Son" and "Good Times". 

"Bill Cosby was very honest about the fact that when he conceived the character of Heathcliff Huxtable, he was looking for images that countered, say, Fred Sanford who was a junk dealer, or James Evans, Jr. in 'Good Times' who was always struggling to find a job. Bill Cosby wanted to bring a different view of the black family into the mix."

Despite its popularity, some people took issue with how "The Cosby Show" tackled race issues.

"It's not that black Americans didn't enjoy the show, but there were criticisms because it didn't explore the broader world of African Americans." says Professor Neal. "The Huxtable family became a stand in for the successes of the civil rights movement. It became the rationale that if the Huxtables can do it, why can't other African Americans do it?"

Today's media landscape is very different to the one "The Cosby Show" existed in. For this reason, says Professor Neal, its success has been difficult to replicate.

"Right after it went off the air, cable TV takes hold and we get this niche programming.  Many African American programs ended up on Fox, UPN and the WB, so there was no incentive for the major networks to do any Cosby-like programming with a black family at the center."

With the debut of ABC's "Blackish" on September 24, it's hoped this will go some way to fill the Cosby-shaped void. In the meantime there's always YouTube and re-runs. Just be thankful Heathcliff's ugly sweaters are a thing of the past.

Former LA Times food writer Russ Parsons offers John Rabe a piece of pie, in John's Mercedes; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC

Semi-retired, former LA Times food writer Russ Parsons appeared often on Off-Ramp over the years, helping to explain the city’s communities through their food, as well as giving solid cooking advice. For the final edition of Off-Ramp, John picked up Russ at Jongewaard's Bake-N-Broil, a Long Beach institution.

Parsons brought John an olallieberry pie (a cross of 'Black Logan' blackberries and youngberries), whilst the inimitable Parsons -- author of "How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table" and "How to Read a French Fry: And Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science" -- opted for the coconut cream.

Listen to the audio for John and Russ' observations on how food brings the disparate cultures of Los Angeles together, and to hear about which part of hosting Off-Ramp is as humbling for John as it is for Parsons when readers tell him they cook his food at Thanksgiving.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Michelle Rodriguez (L) and Vin Diesel (R) in "F9: The Fast Saga"; Credit: Universal Pictures

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson and Christy Lemire review this weekend’s new movie releases on streaming and on-demand platforms.

• "F9: The Fast Saga," in wide release

• "Summer of Soul, "at El Capitan Theatre June 25-July 6; Hulu on July 2

• "Zola," in wide release

• "Sweat," at Laemmle’s NoHo 7

• "LFG," on HBO Max  

• "Rebel Hearts," Laemmle’s Glendale; on Discovery+ on June 27

• "I Carry You with Me," AMC Sunset 5 (West Hollywood), The Landmark (West LA); Laemmle Playhouse 7 & Town Center 5 on July 2 (additional Laemmle theaters on July 9)

• "Fathom," on Apple TV+, Laemmle’s Monica Film Center

• "Wolfgang," on Disney+

Our FilmWeek critics have been curating personal lists of their favorite TV shows and movies to binge-watch during self-quarantine. You can see recommendations from each of the critics and where you can watch them here.

Guests:

Amy Nicholson, film critic for KPCC, film writer for The New York Times and host of the podcast ‘Unspooled’ and the podcast miniseries “Zoom”; she tweets @TheAmyNicholson

Christy Lemire, film critic for KPCC, RogerEbert.com and co-host of the ‘Breakfast All Day’ podcast; she tweets @christylemire

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

In 2010 a group of researchers conducted an experiment in which they pretended to be students, emailing 6,500 professors in nearly 90 academic fields at 259 universities with a request to discuss research before applying for a doctoral program. The text of the messages was identical, but the sender’s name was varied to signal race and gender, such as Brad Anderson, Latoya Brown, and Mei Chen.

V Ganapathy, VP, & Head- Global Advanced Analytics CoE, Holcim lays bare the building blocks of his data strategy, the AI-capabilities he is building across the group, and data-led vision for operational efficiency, profitability, and sustainability.

Cookies hold universal appeal. Their aroma beckons, warm from the oven, promising delicious comfort, a little sweet treat to brighten the moment.

Fats and oils play an important role in delivering the sensory and quality attributes for snack and bakery products. Consumers’ interest in sustainability, health and wellbeing, and clean label are influencing the fats and oils category.

For the past several years, the baking industry has faced a long list of serious, ongoing challenges.

When I was the last of the three brothers to enter the family business, my dad said to me, “I owe you an opportunity, not a guarantee.”