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The aim of this study is to investigate the usability of horsetail, sunflower stalk, wheat stalk and corn stalk ashes as additives in paints and their performance against corrosion resistance when used.

The ashes of horsetail, sunflower stalk, wheat stalk and corn stalk were investigated in this study in single, binary and ternary combinations with three different percentages as additives in paints. Samples of concrete with any combinations of ashes resisted against the corrosion of steel reinforcements, but horsetail ash proved to be the most effective.

It can be said that these research results show that the paint containing horsetail ash is an excellent coating material that can be used in paints for the corrosion resistance of steel in reinforced concrete. The corrosion rate decreased with the increase in the amount of reactive SiO₂. There was less mass loss with the formation of resistance against corrosion in the horsetail ash added concretes. That is why horsetail ash is one of the most effective options for the aforementioned purpose.

Being cheap and easily obtainable, the materials used for coating in this study are perfect candidates for industrial use.

The purpose of this study is to examine playful practices in the science video composition of a fourth-grader.

With an analytic interest in “chasing the theory of muchness” (Thiel, 2015a) that describes distinctive moments of affective energies in playful learning, the authors explored a child’s video in which a food chain is dramatized.

The authors identified how muchness manifested in/through her compositional play.

The potential of playful composing and dramatizing to support meaning-making across contexts and disciplines is discussed.

This paper aims to investigate three promotional publications produced by the Postum Cereal Company – A Trip Through Postumville (1920), How I Make Postum (1924) and The Wonderful Lunch Boxes (1925) – with the aim of understanding how language and other semiotic resources are used to promote its products as good and healthy choices.

The three publications were collected from the HathiTrust Digital Library and University of South Florida Tampa Special Collections. They were subjected to multimodal critical discourse analysis to tease out their subtle characteristics and how a combination of language, image, colour, typography and composition are used to represent certain ideas and values related to health and well-being.

The publications subscribe to three distinct genres – “inside the factory”, “friendly spokesperson” and “fictional world” – each of which are aimed at different target audiences. The first seeks to promote Postum as an open and transparent company; the second to promote Postum as a company that cares about its consumers; and the third to promote the health benefits of Postum in a fun and accessible manner. Nonetheless, they are united in their overall objective to link the regular consumption of Postum as essential for good health.

To date, few studies have been conducted on the Postum Cereal Company, while the limited research conducted on promotional publications has tended to overlook discourses of health and well-being. The three genres outlined in this study, thus, have the potential to foster a reappraisal of promotional publications and showcase their ability to offer new understandings on historical approaches to marketing, particularly the link with health and science.

To better understand bioenergy's role in sustainable rural development and cleaner environment, it is necessary to place it in a local regional context. This paper aims to provide a conceptual approach for biomass-based energy self-sufficiency in rural areas of developing and underdeveloped countries having a strong agricultural sector. It further provides a framework for the estimation of surplus biomass and bioenergy potential and the biomass power emissions in a rural area.

A detailed approach is laid out to attain energy self-sufficiency in rural areas encompassing identification of surplus biomass resources in a selected area, suitable conversion technologies, consideration of local end-use priorities, skill development and monitoring of the project.

Following the novel approach proposed in this paper a case study analysis for Thanagazi block (Alwar District, India) is done, and it is observed that locally available biomass in the block can substitute more than 75% of the conventional energy demand and save 78% emissions vis-à-vis equivalent coal power. This indicates that creating local bioenergy production system as a means of substituting/complementing fossil energy can contribute to a cleaner self-sufficient ecosystem.

Biomass is a spatio-temporal resource. Prior works have looked at bioenergy potential for national or state levels; however, granular data to reveal a more realistic outlook in a rural area is the novelty of this work. Furthermore, biomass assessment studies largely focus on crop residual biomass, whereas the present study also includes livestock manure assessment which is a major resource in rural areas. This paper highlights the need and the approach for exploring locally available biomass to meet the local energy demands for clean energy security while considering the involvement of the local population in bioenergy planning and implementation.

This paper aims to investigate the financial aspects of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), its sources of financing and the management of funds in a State-like apparatus.

It is argued that ISIS constitutes a phenomenon not only due to the extreme violence, instrumentalized via “marketing” methods but also on grounds of its declared aspiration to occupy and control land and population with ever expanding borders. After analyzing the group’s sources of funding which are closely interlinked to the areas it controls and its coordinated efforts to establish a proto-terror state framework, a strategy for addressing this threat based on international practices and decisions is being highlighted.

ISIS represents a “sui generis”, primarily self-funded State Scale Entity, a case study for Defense and Security Geo-economics. Its “economic model”, an amalgam of terrorist and criminal practices, could not be used for a viable proto-state it aspires to be.

No official data of any kind are available by international recognized organizations or bodies. The sources for this paper are primarily Western media, journalists, indirect habitants’ testimonies and very few official reports.

Caution must be exercised, when using even trivial platforms of social media and mobile applications, linked even remotely with ISIS or its affiliates.

This paper is a comprehensive presentation of the economic facets of this first modern endeavor for a terror-state.

The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior of hybrid bio-composites under varied applications.

Fabrication methods and material characterization of various hybrid bio-composites are analyzed by studying the tensile, impact, flexural and hardness of the same. The natural fiber is a manufactured group of assembly of big or short bundles of fiber to produce one or more layers of flat sheets. The natural fiber-reinforced composite materials offer a wide range of properties that are suitable for many engineering-related fields like aerospace, automotive areas. The main characteristics of natural fiber composites are durability, low cost, low weight, high specific strength and equally good mechanical properties.

The tensile properties like tensile strength and tensile modulus of flax/hemp/sisal/Coir/Palmyra fiber-reinforced composites are majorly dependent on the chemical treatment and catalyst usage with fiber. The flexural properties of flax/hemp/sisal/coir/Palmyra are greatly dependent on fiber orientation and fiber length. Impact properties of flax/hemp/sisal/coir/Palmyra are depended on the fiber content, composition and orientation of various fibers.

This study is a review of various research work done on the natural fiber bio-composites exhibiting the factors to be considered for specific load conditions.

The reduction of food wastage at every stage of a fresh produce supply chain helps in achieving balance among all three dimensions (social, ecological and economic) of the sustainability and helps in stimulating the growth and development in the agricultural domain. The purpose of this paper is to address the causal factors of post-harvesting losses (PHLs) occurring in the transportation phase.

Through exhaustive literature survey and expert opinions, 12 crucial barriers to sustainable transportation of fruits and vegetables (F&V) are identified. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, is employed for developing a structural model of the identified barriers.

The results of the analysis highlighted that two factors, namely, the non-availability of refrigerated vehicles, and excessive loading on the vehicles, are the most significant barriers to sustainable transportation which are found to have the highest driving power.

The results of the present research are applicable to the F&V supply chains only. The established interrelation among the identified factors depends on the judgments given by the experts which could be biased. The developed ISM model is intended to guide the policy and decision makers for formulating the policies for the performance improvement of the fresh produce value chain.

It is the first research of its kind focusing on the model development of critical factors causing PHLs in the transportation phase of the agricultural fresh produce supply chain using MCDM process.

Applying brand names to international markets remains a challenge to multinational corporations. Consumers’ sociolinguistic backgrounds shape their responses to brand names. This paper uses a sociolinguistic approach as a conceptual framework in understanding brand naming and translating in the Chinese market. The approach promotes that sociolinguistics a) recognizes linguistic competence, b) advances symbolic values imbedded in linguistic forms, and c) renders attached social valence to cultural scrutiny. Three brand‐naming cases in China are presented for discussion, which may benefit multinational corporations on brand decisions involving Chinese consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the status of policy design and policy implementation in the biofuel sector in Ireland. The focus of the work addresses the overarching operational context of the biofuel sector in Ireland and the role of different actors in shaping and resolving inconsistencies in policy outlook and practice.

This study used a qualitative research approach involving a series of semi-structured interviews with members of the relevant sub-groups concerned. This study sought to address two questions – whether current or proposed policy is likely to affect consumption of indigenous biofuel feedstocks in the biofuel sector and what are the controlling factors in the demand for indigenous feedstocks for biofuel.

Outcomes suggest that while Irish government policy recognises the need to support the development of renewable energy, it also operates under a number of parallel and potentially inconsistent paradigms in relation to biofuels as a renewable energy commodity. It is contended that the outcome of this position is a lack of coherent and coordinated policy in the area of biofuel production, including second generation biofuel using indigenous feedstocks.

This paper provides a new cross sectoral perspective on the status of biofuel policy in Ireland with particular reference to second generation biofuel feedstocks. It focuses analysis on the nature of policy-operational inconsistencies and the need for a deeper ecological perspective in governance.

The future success of organizations increasingly depends on what they know rather than what they do. Knowledge is embedded in a number of distinct types of intangibles in an organization. Management of intangibles requires different tools and approaches than those commonly used to manage industrial‐era tangibles‐based businesses. The purpose of this article is to propose a simple framework for management of knowledge intangibles.

The author examines and synthesizes a number of new and/or prominent theories of management (such as intellectual capital, business performance management, innovation and network analysis) through the lens of her 25 years of practical experience as a financier and strategy consultant helping companies create intangibles management capabilities.

The result is a set of ten concepts that together provide a primer on the management of intangibles. Each concept is presented together with its tangible counterpart to help the reader envision its role in the organization. The concepts are: knowledge is the new oil; intangibles are the new raw material; intellectual capital is the new factory; i‐capex is the new capital expenditure; assessment is the new ROI; performance measurement is the new scorecard; innovation is the new strategy; orchestration is the new command and control; maps are the new organization chart; and reputation is the new bottom line.

The article includes exercises to enable the reader to apply each of the ten concepts in his or her own organization.

The article helps executives increase their understanding of diverse trends by filtering them through the lens of intangibles management. Understanding of these concepts is increased through comparison with the common building blocks of tangibles management. The article introduces two original concepts: intellectual capital seen as the “new factory” and spending on intangibles seen as “intellectual capital expenditures.”