Search

In this article, the synthesis of biocompatible fibrous scaffolds with antimicrobial properties based on polycaprolactone/hydroxyapatite/amoxicillin and study of their surface morphology, antimicrobial effect, and drug release are discussed. Hydroxyapatite (1–2 $\mu $m, 97%) synthesized from biologically waste material (eggshell) was added to the composite scaffolds as a bone-replacement material. The scaffolds’ antimicrobial properties were evaluated against S. aureus and E. faecalis. The scaffolds possessed a sustained drug release from the scaffolds amounted to about 94% of the antibiotic’s total weight over a 4-week observation period. Agar diffusion confirmed the antimicrobial properties of the scaffolds against specific bacteria.

This study examines the role of gender on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) and Bangladeshi Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) performance relationship. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted. A total of 220 owners of SMEs in Bangladesh were selected randomly as respondents from the list of active SMEs in Dhaka and Narayanganj city. The data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS package 25.0. This study finds that there was a significant and direct effect of entrepreneurial marketing on firm performance. In addition, there was a significant effect of gender as a moderating variable in this relationship. At the corporate level, this study provides insights for the SMEs in making decisions related to gender and firm performance. The implications of the above findings are discussed.

The novel funding sources turn out to be important for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector all over the world especially after 2007-2008 world financial crisis. Thus, to develop a new business idea and start-ups, SMEs need a sufficient amount of capital. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, SME sector faced the challenges of attracting new capital. Therefore, an innovative method of fundraising for SME was introduced as crowdfunding. Crowdfunding indicates financing a project or an idea via the internet owing the help from the many investors or donors of a society. Since there are limited works about the influence of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur Self-efficacy (ESE), hence, to minimize the research gap and to achieve the objective of the study, we conduct a quantitative research among 190 entrepreneurs in Bangladesh using crowdfunding based on Social Cognitive theory. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in IBM-SPSS-Amos 25.0 and the stated hypotheses were tested. The study found a direct and positive effect of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur’s Self-efficacy (β=0.924, P=.001). Overall, the result has landed support for crowdfunding, which indicates that it can influence on self-efficacy of entrepreneur. In order to determine the need of crowdfunding, we have explained and statistically demonstrated how crowdfunding can provide a supplementary channel where firms can gain finance and to create self-efficacy of entrepreneurs through exploiting the potential of internet.

Accurate prediction of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of components and systems is crucial for avoiding an unscheduled shutdown of production by planning maintenance interventions effectively in advance. For high‐reliability equipment, few complete‐run‐to‐failure trajectories may be available in practice. This constitutes a technical challenge for data‐driven techniques for estimating the RUL. This paper proposes a novel data‐driven approach for fault prognostics using the Long‐Short Term Memory (LSTM) model combined with the Multi‐Head Self‐Attention (MHSA) mechanism. The former is applied to the input signals, whereas the latter is used to extract features from the LSTM hidden states, benefiting from the information from all hidden states rather than utilizing that of the final hidden state only. The proposed approach is characterized by its capability to recognize long‐term dependencies while extracting features in both global and local contexts. This enables the approach to provide accurate RUL estimates in various stages of the equipment's life. The proposed approach is applied to an artificial case study simulated to mimic the realistic degradation behaviour of a heterogeneous fleet of aluminium electrolytic capacitors used in the automotive industry (under variable operating and environmental conditions). Results indicate that the proposed approach can provide accurate RUL estimates for high‐reliability equipment compared to four benchmark models from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the role of organizational culture (OC) in the relationship between entrepre-neurial orientation (EO) and Bangladeshi small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. Their relationship obtains a substantial scholarly attention, however very few empirical studies have been conducted among Bangladeshi SMEs. Generally, SMEs contribute to the economy through employment generation, poverty reduction, innovation, social cohesion, and so on, which in turn contribute to the growth domestic product (GDP) of Bangladesh. Hence, SMEs are considered as a key reactor of economic growth in Bangladesh. Grounded on the literature and theoretical fact, a model was developed and intended to examine this relationship. A quantitative survey technique was exercised and the data were collected from the randomly selected 384 owners of SMEs in Dhaka–Bangladesh. The data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS. Based on the statistical results, EO and OC were significantly related to SME performance and OC was found to mediate the relationship between EO and SME performance. This study will help entrepreneurs as well as policy makers make better decisions for maximizing SME performance through improving OC in the competitive global economy.

This study investigates the effect of activating metacognitive strategies on the listening performance of English as a foreign language (EFL) university students and explores the impact of such strategies on their metacognitive awareness of the listening task. The participants were N = 50 students of English literature at the state university of Qom, Iran. After screening the participants from among 60 students, they were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group (n = 25) received the metacognitive strategy instruction based on the models proposed by Vandergrift and Tafaghodtari (2010), while the control group (n = 25) received just the listening input with no strategy instruction. The listening module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was utilized to evaluate the listening performance of the participants in both groups in pretests and posttests, and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) instrument was applied to measure the metacognitive awareness of the treatment group before and after the treatment. The results of the IELTS test revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the posttest and according to the analysis of the MALQ instrument there was a significant improvement in the students' level of metacognitive awareness after strategy instruction. The interview results in the discussion section also supported the findings and shed more light on the details.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of linguistic and intelligence factors in L2 writing. The sample included 347 Iranian learners of English. Six tests were administered to measure the participants' grammar knowledge, depth of vocabulary knowledge, breadth of vocabulary, verbal intelligence, narrative intelligence, and writing ability. Two SEM models were compared to each other. Model 1 only included grammar knowledge, depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge as the linguistic factors of writing. Model 2, proposed by the researchers, included verbal and narrative intelligences as well. The models were then linked to the data to see which one fits better. The results of structural equation modeling show that Model 2 has better fit indices producing better parameter estimates. In the end, the applications and implications of the findings for L2 writing pedagogy and assessment are discussed.