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Universities and higher education institutes are key pillars of all societies, as the result of their important roles in education, research and training of human resources. Nevertheless, similar to other social structures, universities need to be prepared for natural disasters. This study aims to measure and analyze the level of earthquake preparedness in a higher education institute in Tehran, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 in a higher education institute through three stages of tool, namely, development, preparedness evaluation and strength–weakness–opportunity–threat analysis. The valid and reliable tool was applied for assessment of college preparedness through a field survey. Factors affecting the obtained level of preparedness were categorized into internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors to decide on an appropriate strategy for promoting the preparedness level.

Content validity index and content validity ratio of the tool were 88 and 98.85 per cent, respectively. The reliability of the tool was measured to be 98 per cent using the kappa coefficient. The level of preparedness was estimated to be weak. The final value of the matrix of internal and external factors was higher than average, which can be improved in the form of strength–opportunity strategy.

It is highly suggested to allocate a specific budget for improvement and evaluation of preparedness measures in all parts of education systems. In addition, making the preparedness measures as the mandatory duty for educational structures can be considered by decision-makers and managers at the national and local levels.

This paper seeks to offer a step‐by‐step methodology to extract and model business processes with a focus on business process decomposition. The main motivation is the lack of repeatable measurable methods and techniques for extracting business process decomposition.

A step‐by‐step methodology for extracting business process models is provided. This methodology is called “the V methodology” because of its approach to break down the enterprise through a functional hierarchy and then collecting it up again via its process decomposition. Porter's value chain model is noticed as a powerful tool to complete the roadmap. The paper is designed using sections: benefits and necessities of having such a methodology, terminology, the V methodology, learned lessons and further work.

Success stories using the V methodology expressing its impact on quality business process models are mentioned. Experts find it useful to gain unified process models as well as helping them to discover gaps, bottlenecks and redundancies amongst business processes.

It is too hard to receive reliable information about previous experiences from the working companies in the area.

The main implications found when using the V methodology are: practiced analysts feel it dangerous to their position, younger analysts use it as the only source of modeling and people find it difficult to apply Porter's model in practice.

Almost all of the previous papers refer to modeling notations when using the term “methodology”. This paper instead describes the process of business process modeling. Another original value of the paper would be using Porter's model to classify the processes within their right process groups.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of “carrot and stick” (transactional) leadership style in predicting employees’ job satisfaction in a modern business organization.

The study was cross-sectional in nature and made use of structured questionnaire to collect data. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. In total, 215 questionnaires were returned by respondents out of the 220 administered. Taylor and Bowers (1974) overall job satisfaction questionnaire and Bass and Avolio (2004) multifactor leadership questionnaire, were used to measure job satisfaction (α=0.812) and transactional leadership style (α=0.761), respectively. Simple linear regression was also used to predict the relationship between the constructs.

Results indicated significant and positive relationship between managers transactional leadership style and employees overall job satisfaction (β=0.292, p<0.001). Moreover, contingent reward (β=0.313, p<0.001) and management by exception (active) (β=0.208, p<0.001) were, respectively, found to be statistically significant and positively related with job satisfaction. However, there was no significant relationship between management by exception (passive) and job satisfaction.

This study adds to research that transactional leadership is broadly ideal for employees of manufacturing firms in Ghana where tasks are routine, objectives are clearly stated and work outputs can easily be measured.

A nanosilica adsorbent was prepared and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and BET.

The optimum conditions for the highest adsorption performance were determined by kinetic modeling. The adsorbent was used for the adsorption of acetaminophen (ACT), and the parameters affecting the adsorption were discussed like pH, initial concentration, contact time and adsorbent dosage. The adsorbent have been characterized by SEM, XRD and BET analysis. The kinetic models including pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to investigate the kinetic and isotherms parameters.

The adsorption of ACT increased to around 95% with the increase of nanosilica concentration to 30 g/L. Moreover, the adsorption process of ACT follows the pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm with the maximum adsorption capacity of 609 mg/g.

This study provided a simple and effective way to prepare of nanoadsorbents. This way was conductive to protect environmental and subsequent application for removal of emerging pollutants from aqueous solutions.

The novelty of the study is synthesizing the morphological and structural properties of nanosilica-based adsorbent (specific surface area, pore volume and size, shape and capability) and improving its removal rate through optimizing the synthesis method; and studying the capability of synthesis of nanosilica-based adsorbent for removal of ACT as a main emerging pharmaceutical water contaminant.

This study aims to identify the antecedents of strategic thinking and its relationship with competitive advantage. Further, this study analyses the mediating effect of strategic thinking between its antecedents and competitive advantage.

A self-reported questionnaire with 51 questions was floated among 220 professionals from various industries in India. The response was analysed using the partial least squares-structural equation modelling methodology using SmartPLS software.

The direct effect of creativity, corporate culture and knowledge management are established with strategic thinking, as well as a competitive advantage. Also, the study finds a significant relationship between strategic thinking and competitive advantage. The study finds no mediation (direct effect) in the case of creativity, corporate culture and knowledge management. Further, no mediation (no relationship) is found in the case of vision.

Business must start adopting strategic thinking practices in their decision-making process to create a competitive advantage. Further, the influence of corporate culture, creativity and knowledge management on strategic thinking highlights their importance.

The study establishes the impact of antecedents of strategic thinking on competitive advantage. The study highlights the importance of other factors along with strategic thinking for achieving competitive advantage.

Globally, consumer’s inclination towards functional foods had noticed due to their greater health consciousness coupled with enhanced health-care cost. The fact that probiotics could promote a healthier gut microbiome led projection of probiotic foods as functional foods and had emerged as an important dietary strategy for improved human health. It had established that ice cream was a better carrier for probiotics than fermented milked due to greater stability of probiotics in ice cream matrix. Global demand for ice cream boomed and probiotic ice cream could have been one of the most demanded functional foods. The purpose of this paper was to review the technological aspects and factors affecting probiotic viability and to standardize methodology to produce functional probiotic ice cream.

Attempt was made to search the literature (review and researched papers) to identify diverse factors affecting the probiotic viability and major technological challenge faced during formulation of probiotic ice cream. Keywords used for data searched included dairy-based functional foods, ice cream variants, probiotic ice cream, factors affecting probiotic viability and health benefits of probiotic ice cream.

Retention of probiotic viability at a level of >10⁶ cfu/ml is a prerequisite for functional probiotic ice creams. Functional probiotic ice cream could have been produced with the modification of basic mix and modulating technological parameters during processing and freezing. Functionality can be further enhanced with the inclusion of certain nutraceutical components such as prebiotics, antioxidant, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres. Based upon reviewed literature, suggested method for the manufacture of functional probiotic ice cream involved freezing of a probiotic ice cream mix obtained by blending 10% probiotic fermented milk with 90% non-fermented plain ice cream mix for higher probiotic viability. Probiotic ice cream with functional features, comparable with traditional ice cream in terms of technological and sensory properties could be produced and can crop up as a novel functional food.

Probiotic ice cream with functional features may attract food manufacturers to cater health-conscious consumers.