Search results

This study aims to investigate the effect of the copresence of ferrous (Fe²⁺) ions and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the activity of an amylase enzyme during the desizing of greige viscose fabric for potential industrial applications. The removal of starches is an essential step before processing the fabric for dyeing and finishing operations. The authors tend to accomplish it in eco-friendly and sustainable ways.

The experiments were designed under the Taguchi approach, and the results were analyzed using grey relational analysis to optimize the process. The textile properties of absorbency, reducing sugars, bending length, weight loss, Tegawa rating and tensile strength were assessed using the standard protocols. The control and optimized viscose specimens were investigated for certain surface chemical properties using advanced analytical techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA).

The results demonstrate that the Fe²⁺ concentration and process time were the main influencing factors in the amylolytic desizing of viscose fabric. The optimized process conditions were found to be 0.1 mm Fe²⁺ ions, 3 mm SDS, 80°C, 7 pH and 30 min process time. The copresence of Fe²⁺ ions and SDS promoted the biodesizing of viscose fabric. The SEM, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, XRD and TGA results demonstrated that the sizing agent has efficiently been removed from the fabric surface.

The amylase desizing of viscose fabric in the presence of certain metal ions and surfactants is a significant subject as the enzyme may face them due to their prevalence in the water systems. This could also support the biodesizing and bioscouring operations to be done in one bath, thus making the textile pretreatment process both economical and environmentally sustainable.

The authors found no report on the biodesizing of viscose fabric in the copresence of Fe²⁺ ions and the SDS surfactant under statistical multiresponse optimization. The biodesized viscose fabric has been investigated using both conventional and analytical approaches.

This study aims to explore the intricate relationship between housing prices and transaction volumes in Tehran, a city with diverse socioeconomic and regional characteristics. This research addresses a critical gap in understanding the role of local spatial factors, which previous studies have often overlooked, focusing instead on macroeconomic variables.

Using a data set of housing transactions of Metropolitan Tehran from 2010 to 2020 sourced from secondary data, this study uses generalized linear mixed models and spatial clustering techniques. These methods enable an examination of geographical clustering and the effects of local contextual variables on the dynamics between housing prices and transaction volumes.

Results indicate significant spatial heterogeneity within Tehran’s housing market. Higher prices and transaction volumes are concentrated in the northern and western regions, influenced by factors such as employment rates, rental housing supply and the physical attributes of the housing stock. The findings suggest that macroeconomic policies alone are insufficient to address housing challenges in Tehran; targeted, localized interventions are necessary.

This study’s reliance on secondary data and its focus on a single urban environment may limit the generalizability of the findings. Further research incorporating a wider range of local and macro variables could strengthen the applicability of the results across different contexts.

This study underscores the need for region-specific housing policies that consider local economic, social and spatial conditions. Policymakers could improve housing affordability and accessibility in Tehran by implementing tailored strategies to address the distinct needs of different districts.

This study offers a novel perspective by integrating spatial and contextual factors in housing market analysis, providing insights that challenge the traditional macroeconomic focus. The use of advanced statistical and spatial analysis techniques contributes to a deeper understanding of urban housing market dynamics.

Provisions for the minimisation of human error are essential through governance structures such as recruitment, human resource allocation and education/training. As predictors of safety attitudes/behaviours, employees’ personality traits (e.g. conscientiousness, sensation-seeking, agreeableness, etc.) have been examined in relation to human error and safety education.

This review aimed to explore research activity on the safety attitudes of healthcare staff and their relationship with the different types of personalities, compared to other complex and highly regulated industries. A scoping review was conducted on five electronic databases on all industrial/work areas from 2001 to July 2023. A total of 60 studies were included in this review.

Studies were categorised as driving/traffic and industrial to draw useful comparisons between healthcare. Certain employees’ personality traits were matched to positive and negative relationships with safety attitudes/behaviours. Results are proposed to be used as a baseline when conducting further relevant research in healthcare.

Only two studies were identified in the healthcare sector.

The necessity for additional research in healthcare and for comparisons to other complex and highly regulated industries has been established. Safety will be enhanced through healthcare governance through personality-based recruitment, human resource allocation and education/training.

While entrepreneurship has long been heralded for its positive contributions, there is a growing recognition of its “dark side,” characterized by unproductive, unethical and destructive actions. This exploratory literature review aims to illuminate the underexplored dark side of entrepreneurship, thereby enriching the discourse on entrepreneurship’s dual nature.

This study employs a robust mixed-method approach, integrating phenomenologically detailed co-citation bibliographic coupling with detailed thematic data and code-weaving. Science mapping tools like R-Bibliometrix and VOSviewer enhance the credibility of the findings by providing a sophisticated and reproducible methodological framework.

This review defines dark entrepreneurship, its characteristics, and its complexities. We introduced the “Dark Entrepreneurship Trinity”: Ethical Complexity, Institutional Navigation and Conflict Entrepreneurialship, with Institutional Navigation as the apex theme. It elucidates how this theme influences ethical dilemmas and operational strategies in conflict zones, illustrated through a diagram depicting their complex interrelations and dynamics.

The originality of this literature review lies in its comprehensive synthesis of the dark side of entrepreneurship. This review significantly contributes to the academic discourse by delineating a clearer picture of the destructive potentials of entrepreneurship. It compiles existing research, critically addresses the gaps and suggests future pathways for empirical studies.

This paper aims to propose an instrument for measuring social commerce among entrepreneurs from the USA, Mexico and Colombia.

The methodological design was quantitative, explanatory, observational and transversal, where a sample of 1,644 entrepreneurs from the USA (n = 525), Mexico (n = 608) and Colombia (n = 510) was obtained. For the validation and reliability of the instruments, a structural equation model (SEM) was developed for the three studies carried out. Regarding the goodness and adjustment indices of the SEM in the three countries, they turned out to be acceptable.

Through the results obtained in the three studies carried out, it has been verified that the instrument of social commerce in its two factors: Marketing and Market Participation, has sufficient validity and statistical reliability. Likewise, it has been verified that both the manifest variables and the latent variables of the construct show a significant relationship between the three studies carried out in different populations.

The findings obtained in the presented study contribute to entrepreneurs, leaders and managers of the business sector to improve the entrepreneurial project through marketing and market participation of the product and service, as well as the business unit that seeks to position itself in the market. Likewise, it helps entrepreneurs to understand analytically and systematically the constructs that social commerce is made up of, which will help entrepreneurial leaders reduce or control their risk when considering social commerce in their entrepreneurship, achieving the success of the entrepreneurial project through its positioning in the market considering marketing and market participation as main factors of social commerce.

The findings are relevant and of great value to the literature because at present there is not enough research that is focused on the variables analysed related to social commerce in the contexts of the USA, Mexico and Colombia. The relevance of the present scale in comparison to others proposed by the literature is that the proposed scale is focused on entrepreneurs who seek to be more successful through the positioning of their business unit, product or service in the market through the market participation. It is achieved through marketing strategies. Another contribution provided by the present study lies in the methodological robustness of the scale and its analysis, comparing it with studies in three leading entrepreneurship countries in Latin America, comparing the validity and reliability as well as the goodness of fit indices of the proposed model in each of the studies. They were significant and very similar, so the proposed scale is of great value and usefulness in the literature.

This study aims to analyze corporate mail and wire fraud penalties, using bounded rationality in decision-making and assessing internal and external influences on prosecutorial choices.

The study analyzed 467 cases from 1992 to 2019, using data from the Corporate Prosecution Registry of the University of Virginia School of Law and Duke University School of Law. It examined corporations facing mail and wire fraud charges and other fraud crimes. Multiple regression linked predictor variables to the dependent variable, total payment.

The study found that corporate penalties tend to be lower for financial institutions or corporations in countries with US free trade agreements. Conversely, penalties are higher when the company is a U.S. public company or filed in districts with more pending criminal cases.

This study’s originality lies in applying the bounded rationality model to assess corporate prosecutorial decisions, unveiling external factors’ influence on corporate penalties.

The objectives of this study are to (a) identify spatial and temporal crime concentrations, (b) supplement the traditional place-based analysis that defines hot spots based on counted incidents with an analysis of crime severity and (c) add to the research of hot spots with an analysis of offender data.

This study explores crime concentration in mass transit settings, focusing on Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations in 2017–2022. Pareto curves are used to observe the degree of concentration of crime in certain locations using multiple estimates; trajectory analysis is then used to observe crime patterns in the data on both places and offenders.

A total of 16.3% of stations accounted for 50% of recorded incidents. Train stations with high or low crime counts and severity remained as such consistently over time. Additionally, 3.6% of offenders accounted for 50% of incident count, while 5% accounted for 50% of harm. We did not observe differences in the patterns and distributions of crime concentrations when comparing crime counts and harm.

Hot spots and harm spots are synonymous in low-crime-harm environments: high-harm incidents are outliers, and their weight in the average crime severity score is limited. More sensitive severity measures are needed for high-frequenty, low-harm enviornments.

The findings underscore the benefits of integrating offender data in place-based applied research.

The findings provide additional evidence on the utility of place-based criminology and potentially cost-effective interventions.