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Considering climate change problems that European countries are currently struggling with, the aim of this paper is to examine the behavioural factors that affect corporate environmental sustainability (CES). Based on the relevant academic literature and reports behavioural barriers and enablers for corporate environmental sustainability are identified using the ABCD (attention-belief formation-choice-determination) framework. Selected issues are further investigated in a survey among a representative sample of 350 small and medium-sized Polish enterprises and discussed in a broader European context. Our research reveals what goals and motivations Polish SMEs employ to make green investments, how they asses their environmental efforts compared with peer companies, what sources of environmental information they consider as trustworthy, as well as what factors they believe most strengthen the firm’s determination for sustainable development. The contribution of this paper lies in shedding light on the starting dispositions of entrepreneurs as targets of public policies promoting environmental goals in the EU. Such insights are instrumental in designing and implementing effective policy interventions.

As a result of the border shift after the Second World War, people belonging to different national, ethnic, and regional groups settled in Lower Silesia, although Poland was portrayed in propaganda as a mono-ethnic state until the political transformation in 1989. This article examines present types of identification related to the place of origin of the oldest inhabitants of Lower Silesia: persons who were resettled from present-day Belarus and Ukraine, re-emigrants from Bosnia and France, settlers from diverse regions of Central Poland, and deportees from Russia and Kazakhstan. The presence of these identifications in the contemporary public sphere is then discussed. The article’s results are based on computer-assisted qualitative analysis of in-depth, biographically oriented interviews. They show how the social reconstruction of identifications with the place of origin has become institutionalised and examine the treatment of selected once-Polish regional or migratory groups as separate ethnic groups in a multicultural society. The paper demonstrates the distinctiveness of settlers from Central Poland compared to other categories in terms of defining their ties with their place of origin and their visibility in public space.

Abstract Background Children living in Roma settlements in Central and Eastern Europe face extreme levels of social exclusion and poverty, but their health status has not been well studied. The objective of this study was to elucidate risk factors for malnutrition in children in Roma settlements in Serbia. Methods Anthropometric and sociodemographic measures were obtained for 1192 Roma children under five living in Roma settlements from the 2005 Serbia Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Multiple logistic regression was used to relate family and child characteristics to the odds of stunting, wasting, and underweight. Results The prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight was 20.1%, 4.3%, and 8.0%, respectively. Nearly all of the children studied fell into the lowest quintile of wealth for the overall population of Serbia. Children in the lowest quintile of wealth were four times more likely to be stunted compared to those in the highest quintile, followed by those in the second lowest quintile (AOR = 2.1) and lastly by those in the middle quintile (AOR = 1.6). Children who were ever left in the care of an older child were almost twice as likely to stunted as those were not. Children living in urban settlements showed a clear disadvantage with close to three times the likelihood of being wasted compared to those living in rural areas. There was a suggestion that maternal, but not paternal, education was associated with stunting, and maternal literacy was significantly associated with wasting. Whether children were ever breastfed, immunized or had diarrhoeal episodes in the past two weeks did not show strong correlations to children malnutrition status in this Roma population. Conclusions There exists a gradient relationship between household wealth and stunting even within impoverished settlements, indicating that among poor and marginalized populations socioeconomic inequities in child health should be addressed. Other areas on which to focus future research and public health intervention include maternal literacy, child endangerment practices, and urban settlements.

Abstract Background Many factors influence the composition of the sinus microflora. The microbial balance is most disturbed by the use of antibacterial agents. Superinfections caused by more than one pathogen may then occur. Despite treatment, including surgery and long‐term antibiotic therapy, many patients with sinusitis do not experience significant relief from their symptoms. It has been hypothesized that an imbalance in the gut microbiota may also be responsible for the chronicity of sinusitis. Our goal was therefore to identify selected gut indicator bacteria that play a role in immunity in patients with chronic sinusitis. In addition, compare the number of selected bacteria in two groups of patients: with chronic sinusitis and with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with concomitant diseases and/or symptoms other than CRS. Results Significantly decreased numbers of Bifidobacterium spp. and Faecalibacterium prauznitzi bacteria were observed in patients from the G1 group. The majority of patients from this group (12 out of 13) had a significantly decreased number of Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia muciniphila bacteria, which are involved in the nutrition and regeneration of gut epithelium cells and have anti‐inflammatory properties. In group G2 (patients with chronic sinusitis and symptoms of comorbidities) a decreased number of F. prausnitzii, Bifidobacterium spp., A. muciniphila and Lactobacillus spp. bacteria was observed. A small percentage of patients in this group showed overgrowth of yeast‐like fungi. Conclusion Although the more research is needed, possibly the gut microbiota indicator bacteria number analyses might enable to plan personalized prebiotic and probiotic treatment, which could support intestine microbiota and mucosal immunity patients suffering from chronic sinusitis.

The most recent industrial sewing machines are designed and developed to give high production and quality. These machines are capable to operate at very high speed. On the other hand, the sewing machines operated at high speed are facing the challenge of very high needle temperature generation which leads to seam damages like burnt holes, stiff seam, molten seam etc. Such seam damages are serious issue and affects the performance of the garment produced. An attempt was taken to analyze the factors influencing the rise in needle temperature change during sewing to derive exact solution to the problem. Thermal camera was set up in the sewing machine and change in needle temperature under varying influencing parameter was recorded and taken for analysis. From this study, it is found that twill fabric and interlock fabric with superimposed seam of four layers and high needle tension produced higher needle temperature. The other factors such as sewing thread, stitch density, needle size etc falls in next level of contribution.

Comfort is an aspect and is considered as one of the important characteristics of clothing. Generally, the comfort properties can be distinguished into three categories, viz., thermo-physiological comfort, sensorial comfort, and psychological comfort. Thermo-physiological comfort of a fabric is determined by the ability of the fabric to transmit heat, air, and moisture from the skin to the atmosphere. Fabric made of synthetic fibers has convincing comfort properties when compared with the fabrics made of natural fibers like cotton, silk, wool, etc. When natural fibers are compared with synthetic fibers, synthetic fibers are hydrophobic in nature and provides less comfort to the wearer. Hence, in this research work, an attempt has been made to study the thermo-physiological comfort properties of herbal finished woven fabrics made from synthetic fibers coated with neem and bermudagrass. Herbal finishes were applied on the woven fabrics made from 100% polyester and blends of 50:50 polyester, acrylic fibers. These finished fabrics were tested and analyzed for durability and essential thermo-physiological comfort properties. Based on the test results and analysis it was found that significant improvements in the moisture-related properties and moderate decrease in the thermal conductivity of the synthetic fabrics with neem and bermudagrass herbal finish.

Thirty-six samples of woven fabric were finished with Musa acuminata SAP in three different concentrations, viz., 50%, 75%, and 100% were applied on cotton fabrics using padding mangle at four different temperatures, viz., room temperature, 50°C, 75°C, and 100°C and also with three different process timings, viz., 20 min, 40 min, and 60 min, respectively. The finished fabrics have been analyzed on the whiteness and yellow index properties. It has been observed that the fabric finished with a 50% concentration of Musa acuminata SAP with 50°C for a prolonged time of processing shows a lesser yellow index and higher whiteness index value followed by the 100% and 75% concentration of SAP. The finished optimized fabric samples have been evaluated on the physical properties of fabric such as tensile strength, tear strength, pilling, drape coefficient, and stiffness of the fabric. It has been found that the fabric finished with a 50% concentration of Musa acuminata SAP with the lowest temperature at least processing time has better performance in the physical properties of the fabric when compared to the highest concentration of Musa acuminata SAP with the highest temperature at highest process timing.

In this study, 100% Eri Silk, 85:15% Wool/Eri silk, Cotton, and Micro-denier Acrylic yarns have been used to develop double-layered knitted fabrics. The thermal comfort properties such as air permeability, thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, and water vapor transmission have been evaluated. In this study, it is found that 100% eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics have better air permeability properties when compared with the other fabrics (85:15% Wool/Eri silk and 100% micro-denier acrylic fabrics) due to their thin and porous structure. As far as thermal conductivity is concerned, 100% Eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics have better thermal conductivity, whereas 85:15% wool/Eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics show poor thermal conductivity. In the case of thermal resistance, 85:15% wool/Eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics have maximum thermal resistance and 100% Eri silk shows poor thermal resistance when compared to other samples. A total of 100% Eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics have better water vapor transmission and 85:15% wool/Eri silk double-layered knitted fabrics have poor water vapor transmission when compared to other samples.

Natural fibers are gaining popularity among researchers and academics for use in polymer composites due to their environmental friendliness and long-term viability.A new series of green composites using chicken feather fiber (CFF) and jute as reinforcing materials in a polypropylene resin-based polymer matrixwere used to fabricate the hybrid composites. This paper examines the impact of molding pressure, temperature, and time on the tensile strength and water absorption characteristics of compression molded hybrid composites. The findings of experiments undertaken to evaluate hybrid composites produced with different fiber fractions and processing parameters are discussed in this paper.When the composites’ overall tensile strength was compared, the 100% Jute fiber composite had the highest tensile strength when the maximum pressure, temperature, and time were kept constant. Temperature and pressure have a considerable impact on composite sample tensile strength, whereas time has little influence.As predicted, raising the jute weight percentage in composites increases water absorption.

Palmyra fibers are found to be the renewable and sustainable fiber in textile applications. These fibers possess good tensile strength and found to be used as a natural reinforcement material for composites. The main objective of this work is to extract and treat the fibers with varying concentrations of NaOH (2%,3%,4%& 5%) to evaluate the mechanical properties, surface morphology, and fiber orientation. The observations in SEM images denote the removal of impurities like hemi cellulose and lignin after the alkali treatment. 4% NaOH-treated fibers results in higher tensile strength (63.43 MPa) and a further increase in alkali concentration to 5% results in a reduction of the tensile strength (62.65 MPa). For all the treated fibers, elongation at break was found to be higher than the untreated one. The orientation in the fiber structure improves after the alkali treatment up to 4% and a further increase in alkali concentration leads to a decrease in the orientation which was observed through X-ray diffraction studies.

The thermal comfort of finished fabric is directly influenced to its capacity of thermo regulation of human skin and allows the perspiration of the human body. A study on effect of Musa acuminata SAP on the thermal comfort performance of the cotton finished fabric has been analyzed. It was evident that the fabric finished with a lower concentration of Musa acuminata SAP and lower temperature at least processing time has improved result in air permeability, water vapor permeability and thermal conductivity of the finished fabrics. It was also observed that the fabric finished with a higher concentration of Musa acuminata SAP and higher temperature at the highest processing time has better performance in the thermal resistance of the fabric.

Menstrual hygiene is one of the most important health-related aspects which must be given higher priority to overcome the menstrual cycle period of women. Currently, there are many types of sanitary napkins are available in the market to absorb the menstrual fluid but most of them are constructed by using petroleum bi-product called SAP and it is used to absorb and hold more menstrual fluid. The present work focuses on to produce and study the moisture behavior properties of a sanitary napkin by using 100% natural fibers as core absorbent. Milkweed fibers are the natural organic fibers which have been taken as core absorbent material in different blend ratios as 100% milkweed, 80/20 milkweed/cotton, 60/40 milkweed/cotton, 50/50 milkweed/cotton, 40/60 milkweed/cotton, and 20/80 milkweed/cotton to develop a sanitary napkin by using polyethylene and polypropylene as bottom and top layer respectively. The produced samples were tested and evaluated by Liquid spreading rate test, Liquid Retention test, Liquid holding capacity under pressure test, and quantity of liquid absorbed in order to evaluate the moisture behavior properties of developed sanitary napkin. The outcome of the results demonstrates that sanitary napkins shows enhanced moisture properties when increasing the milkweed fiber blend percentage.

Due to the high prevalence of depression among cancer patients, antidepressant medications are frequently administered as adjuvant treatment. However, the safety of such medications in the development of metastasis is unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of fluoxetine, desipramine, and mirtazapine on the liver metastasis of murine C26 colon carcinoma (cc). Balb/c male mice were administered these antidepressants intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 14 days following intrasplenic injections of C26 colon carcinoma cells. Desipramine and fluoxetine, but not mirtazapine, significantly increased the number of tumor foci and total volume of the tumor in liver tissue. This effect was associated with a decrease in the ability of splenocytes to produce interleukin (IL)-1β and interferon (IFN)-γ and an increase in their ability to produce interleukin (IL)-10. Similar changes were observed in plasma IL-1β, IFN-γ, and IL-10 levels. The current study demonstrates that the stimulatory effect of desipramine and fluoxetine, but not mirtazapine, on experimental colon cancer liver metastasis is associated with a suppression of immune defenses against the tumor.

Abstract This study aimed to see how different treatments affect the low-stress mechanical properties of micro-denier polyester/cotton (MDP/C—65/35) fabrics. This blend was chosen for the study because it is the most popular blend used in polyester/cotton blended material. The results of fabric properties treated with sericin revealed that fabrics treated with sericin and glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent had higher bending rigidity, regardless of how it was tested. Concerning the blend fabrics, it was noticed that there was deterioration in tensile resilience following sericin treatment. Shear rigidity, accompanied by shear hysteresis, showed an increase in sericin-treated fabrics. Compression properties were affected by the treatment, and in general, the fabric suffered deterioration in those the samples were hard. Surface properties such as coefficient of friction, mean deviation of friction and mean deviation of surface contour were found to be higher than those of the control and sericin-treated fabrics in a few cases.