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In this study, we examine the impact of a change in the bonus-based incentives on firm performance and promotions. We use both a proprietary dataset and a field-based survey of a leading bakery cha...

The role of metal salts in inducing supramolecular gel network formation was analysed by reacting two pyridyl-N-oxide amides with various diamagnetic zinc(II) and cadmium(II) salts. Metal induced s...

Following the internationalisation of food production and manufacturing, a significant increase of food fraud was discovered, ranging from false label claims to the use of additives and fillers to increase profitability. The accidental or fraudulent mixing of animal products or by-products from different species is an important preoccupation for consumers with health or ethical concerns. Gelatin is widely used during food processing as well as in cosmetics, nutraceutics and medical formulations. It contains mainly type I, II and III collagen polypeptides. Gelatin speciation was performed using a well-defined proteogenomic annotation, carefully chosen surrogate tryptic peptides and analysis using a hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap MS. Gelatin samples were dissolved in ammonium bicarbonate buffer and proteins were digested with trypsin. The samples were analysed using high-resolution MS. Chromatography was achieved using a 30-min linear gradient on a Thermo BioBasic C8 100 × 1 mm column at a flow rate of 75 μL min

The incorporation of graphite as a solid lubricant in the formulation of brake friction material is well-recognized practice. However, achieving the desired level of performances using graphite is still a significant challenge, due to difficulty in dispersion and loading of graphite in composite materials. The present investigation was aimed at identifying the effect of graphite loading on the tribological and thermal properties of a composite made from phenolic resin modified with powdered acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). Five composites were prepared with different proportions of graphite (0–40 phr) to the phenolic resin. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal conductivity measurements were carried out to demonstrate the thermal stability and thermal conductivity behaviors. Both the thermal stability and thermal conductivity were found to increase with an increase in graphite content. On the other hand, the tribological properties were found to be optimum at a definite loading of grap...

Short fiber reinforcement plays a definite role in governing the performance of a composite through the improvement of different material properties. The present investigation deals with the effect of aramid pulp and lapinas fiber on the friction and wear characteristics of a composite made from phenolic resin modified by powdered acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) on a pin-on-disc tribometer. Four composites, containing 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt% of aramid pulp with respect to phenolic resin content, were prepared. Another four composites, containing 50, 100, 200, and 300 wt% of lapinas fiber with respect to phenolic resin content, were also made. It was found that the two different fibers have distinctly different contributions to the friction and wear properties of the composites. It was also found that the incorporation of aramid pulp enhances friction stability of the composites much better than that of lapinas fiber. The change in surface morphology of these composites was studied by scanning ...

This work reports the design optimization of a single-mode graded index multiclad dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) with a central dip, for broadband wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system in the C- and L-bands of an operating wavelength zone. The index profile parameters of this fiber have been adjusted to simultaneously achieve high figure of merit (FOM) as well as considerably high value of effective core areas of the fiber to minimize the nonlinear effects like self-phase modulation or cross-phase modulation. At 1,550 nm operating wavelength, an effective core area (A eff ) of 46 μm2, which is very large compared to other reported values of DCFs, is obtained here. The average dispersion of the DCFs, in combination with conventional single-mode fiber (CSF) and small dispersion fiber (SDF), are found out to be considerably flat in the entire C- and L-band zone of operating wavelength.

SUMMARY This article describes Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a case study of youth leadership development in Hawai'i. Since 1980, thousands of young people-primarily Filipino youth-have participated in Sariling Gawa activities which have developed their leadership skills. Many of them have continued to lead the organization and utilize what they learned with numerous local organizations and state agencies. The authors examine Sariling Gawa's growth, structure, and other factors that contribute to its longevity. The model includes (1) youth empowerment through building their leadership skills, (2) fostering and strengthening peer social support and social networks, (3) promotion of positive ethnic identity, and (4) community capacity building by involving youth in civic and community affairs.

A closer look at some natural materials from animal and plant sources and the phenomenon driving their use in day to day applications resulted in investigation of their potential in processing of ceramic foams. Ceramic foams were made using aqueous ceramic slurries based on chicken egg white, soap nut fruit extract and sucrose. Egg white and soap nut extract were utilised for their natural foaming ability and binding of ceramic particles. Ceramic foams were produced by foaming the aqueous ceramic slurries by mechanical agitation followed by casting. The egg white based foams were set by coagulation achieved through sprinkling of acid, however use of acid was not successful with foams made from slurries with low and high ceramic loadings. Sucrose was utilised for its moisture retention ability and it not only simplified the egg white based process but also helped to achieve foams with exceptional characteristics including porosity exceeding 95%. Sucrose containing egg white based ceramic foams coul...

A new ceramic forming process, protein coagulation casting (PCC), has been applied for consolidation of green silicon carbide bodies. The process utilizes aqueous ceramic slurries based on egg whit...

The use of positive ion fast atom bombardment mass-analysed ion kinetic energy (FAB/MIKE) spectroscopy to differentiate the 2′, 3′-and 5′-monophosphate isomers of adenosine, guanosine and cytidine is described.

FAB mass spectrometry with MIKES scanning provides an effective means of identifying cyclic nucleotides. Its application readily distinguishes 2′,3′- and 3′,5′-isomers, and has enabled the demonstration of the natural occurrence of ccMP, cUMP, cIMP and cdT'NP in manrmals and higher plants, the identification of novel side-products generated by cytidylyl cyclase activity and of synthetic cyclic nucleotide derivatives, and the quantitation of phosphodiesterase activity.