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Briefly outlines the role of new distillation technology in the recovery and management of natural flavours. Often processing leads to the loss or deterioration in the flavour characteristics of foods and drinks, especially when compared with fresh starting materials. Aims to show that some of these effects can be mitigated by good process engineering; and uses the role of spinning cone distillation processes, on which the author currently is researching, to illustrate the argument. Summarizes the principal features of spinning cone technology, together with the advantages of the technology for flavour recovery: these include high selectivity and efficiency, mild operating conditions, low residence times and multistage operation, which, inter alia, allow low stripping rates, while producing flavour concentrates. Briefly mentions some current applications including flavour management in the production of fruit concentrates, the production of reduced alcohol drinks, and, in the context of clean technologies, the use of the technology for flavour recovery and odour removal.

Purpose – This study examines religious stratification in America from the colonial period until the present.

Design/Methodology/Approach – We use a conflict theoretical approach to examine trends in religious stratification over time. The rankings of religious groups are based on tabulations of the religious affiliations of economic, political, and cultural elites collected at 37 data points from the colonial era until the present.

Findings – In the colonial period, the Upper stratum religious groups (Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists) accounted for nearly 90 percent of elites in cultural, economic, and political spheres. The representation of Upper stratum groups among American elites declined from the 1800s to the early 1900s, rebounded somewhat after the 1930s, and then declined after the 1960s. The four groups that comprise the New Upper stratum (Episcopalians, Jews, Presbyterians, and Unitarian-Universalists) account for nearly half of the nation's elites while representing less than 10 percent of the total population.

Research implications – Our research indicates that religious stratification has had largely destabilizing effects on society. In line with other research on stratification, we find that the harmful effects were somewhat muted when inequality was most severe, and these negative effects increased as religious inequality became less pronounced.

Originality/Value – This chapter highlights the importance of religion as a factor in stratification. The use of a conflict perspective allows us to bridge the gap between the stratification literature and the religion literature.

This predominantly theoretical paper concentrates on the strategic presentation of history. The dynamics of re‐presenting the past is framed as the simultaneous processes of decentering and recentering. It shows that a postmodern epistemology is relevant in understanding the strategic use of history but a postmodern approach concentrates only on the production of historical accounts. The negotiated reception of history has to be considered too. The discussions draw inspirations from organizational studies, heritage studies and Meštrovic’s post‐emotionalism. This article argues that the simultaneous crafting of audiences’ thoughts, experiences and emotions is central in the effective communication of history. This paper also points out the consequences of its arguments for organizational research and theories.

For a variety of reasons, both ordinary citizens and political leaders have failed since 1914 to be passionate and imaginative enough in the pursuit of peace. As technological advances have made it possible to kill increasing numbers of people and put civilians increasingly at risk, our moral development has lagged far beyond. We need to emulate Gandhi more, whose moral passion and non-violent resistance tactics have inspired other seekers of peace like Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Although political leaders have different responsibilities than ordinary citizens, they too can be ardent and imaginative peace seekers, as the examples of West Germany’s Willy Brandt, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy (during the last year of his life) demonstrate. At present, the Ukrainian Crisis cries out for just such leadership, but heretofore has not been forthcoming.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a scientific method for modelling human behavior, successfully applied in the context of Autism. Recording and sharing measurable data (on subjects’ performance) between caregivers guarantees consistency of learning programs and allows monitoring the learning enhancements. Data are usually recorded on paper, which requires considerable effort and is subject to error. The purpose of this paper is to describe a portable application developed to support ABA tutors in their work with autistic subjects. It allows gathering data from ABA sessions, giving tutors rapid access to information, also in graphical formats.

The tool was designed via participatory design. Various ABA team members were involved, in order to make the application respond perfectly to their needs. The approach aims to ensure maximum usability, while minimizing errors and ambient interference.

The use of mobile devices (i.e. tablets or smartphones) allows mobility and ease of interaction, enabling efficient data collection and processing. Data plotting allows one to easily interpret gathered data.

The proposed application, free open source software, can be a valuable aid for supporting the ABA intervention and favor the inclusion of children with autism.

Available software to assist tutors during therapy sessions is often proprietary, and research prototypes are not freely available, so paper forms are still widespread. Besides, without attention to usability requirements, assisting tools would be comparable in efficiency with data insertion on paper. Our software was specifically designed following ABA principles and favors efficient data entry allowing natural interaction with touch screen interfaces: drag and drop, taps and gestures. Furthermore, it is shared in the public domain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how to achieve business improvement using clear organisational goals and well-communicated vision, together with a powerful process modelling technique and an analysis of the adopted e-business development stages.

Employing both business process modelling and improvement complement and reinforce one another. Among different business process modelling techniques, Ould's Riva method was selected to analyse the business processes and to improve the CRM business process in Incom Egypt. In order to get a deeper insight, seven-key decision makers at the case study organisation have been interviewed. E-business development stages have also been elaborated and analysed in the case study. This case study approach enables the researchers to get a complete picture of the problem.

It was found that Incom Egypt aimed to automate their business processes to solve these problems but they failed. Main reasons behind its failure are their unstructured business processes and employees resistance to improvements. Setting clear goals that follow the organisation's mission and vision can direct managers towards better decision making. Therefore, identification of business processes should be among the first steps to understand business structure, where inefficiencies in current activities could be detected, adjusted and improved. Improvements could then follow e-business development stages using Earl's technique.

The primary value of this paper is that business process improvement does not depend on one technique, but rather lies in the combination of process modelling, and e-business development together, which in turn helps decision makers successfully set up effective organisational plans via clarifying business processes. The improved system will provide a roadmap for organisations to make the proper transition to e-business.

This paper aims to investigate the physical, chemical and physicochemical characteristics of rice husk on alkaline treatment.

Rice husk (RM) was alkaline treated to produce soluble (SR) and insoluble residues (IR). Each fraction was characterized and soluble fraction was used to produce nanofibres using electrospinning method.

Alkaline treatment was effective in isolating insoluble dietary fibre rich IR from the other interfering substances such as soluble dietary fibre, protein and lipids that originally present in RM and leached into SR. The problem of silica induced toxicity and indigestibility of rice husk was overcome by alkaline treatment. Alkaline treatment altered the inherent mineral content (calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorus, zinc) of rice husk, and increased physicochemical properties such as emulsification ability and stability, water holding ability, mineral binding capacity (calcium, copper, iron, zinc), and antioxidant activity. SR had been successfully electrospun into nanofibres with the addition of polyvinyl alcohol.

The paper investigated the characteristic of rice husk (RM and IR) for the development of functional foods, pharmaceutical products and new bioactives delivery system at the expense of reducing environmental liability.