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The characteristics of relationship quality in business-to-business setting and how these vary between different countries are studied. Profit, followed by trust and power, is the most important relationship quality attribute and are of higher importance for Iranian managers compared to UK managers. Other differences are discussed.

Cellulose fibers can be freed from the cell-wall skeleton via high-shear homogenization, to produce cellulose nanofibers (CNF) that can be used, for example, as the reinforcing phase in composite materials. Nanofiber production from agro-industrial byproducts normally involves harsh chemical-pretreatments and high temperatures to remove noncellulosic polysaccharides (20–70% of dry weight). However, this is expensive for large-scale processing and environmentally damaging. An enzyme-only pretreatment to obtain CNF from agro-industrial byproducts (potato and sugar beet) was developed with targeted commercial enzyme mixtures. It is hypothesized that cellulose can be isolated from the biomass, using enzymes only, due to the low lignin content, facilitating greater liberation of CNF via high-shear homogenization. Comprehensive Microarray Polymer Profiling (CoMPP) measured remaining extractable polysaccharides, showing that the enzyme-pretreatment was more successful at removing noncellulosic polysaccharides than alkaline- or acid-hydrolysis alone. While effective alone, the effect of the enzyme-pretreatment was bolstered via combination with a mild high-pH pretreatment. Dynamic rheology was used to estimate the proportion of CNF in resultant suspensions. Enzyme-pretreated suspensions showed 4-fold and 10-fold increases in the storage modulus for potato and sugar beet, respectively, compared to untreated samples. A greener yet facile method for producing CNF from vegetable waste is presented here.

The music industry is on the cusp of a revolution. Three simultaneous developments are transforming the way in which consumers buy music, listen to it and store it: * Internet-based [...]

Plastic solar cells have been fabricated using a low‐bandgap alternating copolymer of fluorene and a donor–acceptor–donor moiety (APFO‐Green1), blended with 3′‐(3,5‐bis‐trifluoromethylphenyl)‐1′‐(4‐nitrophenyl)pyrazolino[70]fullerene (BTPF70) as electron acceptor. The polymer shows optical absorption in two wavelength ranges, λ < 500 nm and 600 < λ < 1000 nm. The BTPF70 absorbs light at λ < 700 nm. A broad photocurrent spectral response in the wavelength range 300 < λ < 1000 nm is obtained in solar cells. A photocurrent density of 3.4 mA cm–2, open‐circuit voltage of 0.58 V, and power‐conversion efficiency of 0.7 % are achieved under illumination of AM1.5 (1000 W m–2) from a solar simulator. Synthesis of BTPF70 is presented. Photoluminescence quenching and electrochemical studies are used to discuss photoinduced charge transfer.

Polymer solar cells have been fabricated from a recently synthesized low band‐gap alternating polyfluorene copolymer, APFO‐Green2, combined with [6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) from organic solutions. External quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of the solar cells show an onset at 850 nm and a peak of > 10 % located at 650 nm, which corresponds to the extended absorption spectrum of the polymer. Photocurrent of 3.0 mA cm–2, photovoltage of 0.78 V, and power conversion efficiency of 0.9 % have been achieved in solar cells based on this new low‐bandgap polymer under the illumination of air mass 1.5 (AM 1.5) (1000 W m–2) from a solar simulator.