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One of the particular problems facing agribusiness firms is the relationship between commodity price risk (a source of business risk) and debt repayment ability (a source of financial risk). This study examines the use of commodity‐linked loans applied to agricultural credits. A commodity‐linked loan is a credit instrument whose payoff is contingent on the value of an underlying commodity or portfolio of commodities. The payoff structure includes an option (call or put) rider that provides a payoff if the commodity price rises above or drops below a preset strike price. The payoff is applied directly to the loan. This study introduces the general concept, reviews the literature, and develops and applies a particular model. Simulation results illustrate the interrelationship between options payoffs, strike prices, volatility, and downside financial risk reduction.

Torque is one of the main loads acting on the aircraft wing, the horizontal tail and the vertical tail. In flight load measurement, due to the significant influence of the bending moment and the shear force on the strain gauge, the accuracy of torque measurement is usually low. Therefore, aircraft torque measurement is difficult. Based on the characteristics of a certain type of horizontal tail, a measurement method for the torque with high accuracy was proposed in this paper.

A new simplified torque measurement method for the all-moving horizontal tail was proposed based on the spiral driver. The feasibility of the method and key points of the tests were analyzed and studied through a virtual load calibration test.

Based on the results of the real load calibration test, the torque load equation with high accuracy was established, and the torque measurement was achieved in load flight tests.

However, the proposed method is based on the structure of the spiral driver. If there is generally no spiral driver at the aircraft wings and vertical tails, then the appropriate torque measurement method needs to be derived according to the specific object.

The research in this paper provides a new idea for the torque measurement of aircraft structures, which can be used for the torque measurement of subsequent aircraft types.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the pattern between government innovation funding and enterprise value creation. Many factors, including government innovation funding, R&D ability, corporate governance and some company characteristics significantly affected the efficiency of firm value creation.

This paper proposed a novel methodology based on clustering-rough sets to explore the characteristics of enterprise value creation behavior, and map the relationship between government innovation funding and enterprise value creation. The agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) algorithm were used to classify firm performance and get two types of value creation efficiencies and to discretize condition attributes because the rough set theory cannot deal with continuous attributes. This paper utilized the rough sets method to realize data mining and get rules of government innovation funding and enterprise value creation.

R&D ability, proportion of independent directors, remuneration of directors, operating revenue, number of employees, price-earnings ratio, quick ratio, capital intensity and ROA were important to identify firm value creation efficiency when government funded the firms. Firms of high level of government innovation funding, high lagged R&D ratio, high remuneration of directors, low price-earnings ratio, low quick ratio, moderate capital intensity and high ROA were more likely to have high efficiency of value creation.

Since China implemented the innovation-driven development strategy, facilitating enterprise innovation has become an important way to achieve high-quality economic growth. With constantly increasing of Chinese government innovation funding, studying on the effect of government innovation funding on firm’s value creation is significant to improve the efficiency of government resource allocation. It is valuable to reveal the pattern between government innovation funding and enterprise value creation based on the value added theory. The rules obtained could be used to provide decision-making support to improve the efficiency of government innovation funding and prevent waste of government resources effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the changes in descriptive sensory properties and overall consumer acceptability of soymilk prepared from roasted soybeans.

In total, 12 purposively selected post graduate students majoring in Food Science conducted descriptive sensory analysis after being trained for 18 h in sensory analysis, while 75 untrained students conducted consumer acceptability test of soymilk prepared by roasting soybeans at a temperature of 110°C for 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 min and at 120°C for 20 min.

Results have revealed that roasting soybeans improved sensory properties by significantly (p<0.05) decreasing the objectionable green, beany flavours and increasing sweet taste, viscosity and roasted flavour. Furthermore, results from the principal component analysis revealed that aroma and sweet taste were the most critical sensory attributes. In addition, it was found out that soymilk samples prepared by roasting soybeans at 110°C for 40 and 60 min and at 120°C for 20 min were significantly more acceptable than the control soymilk.

The participants in this study were from one locality and predominantly soybean consuming community and therefore there is need to conduct the study in a different locality in order to validate the study findings.

The study can assist small scale processors that might not have access to lipoxygenase-free soybeans and other technologies for improving the quality of soymilk.

The study can be used as a guide for connecting the food processers with the external world of consumption.

For the first time, the study findings have demonstrated that controlled soybean roasting can be a useful strategy for improving soymilk sensory properties and consumer acceptability. The findings in this study can be usefully used in the quality control of soy bean-based products.

During the industrial design process, a product is usually modified and analyzed repeatedly until reaching the final design. Modifying the model and regenerating a mesh for every update during this process is very time consuming. To improve efficiency, it is necessary to circumvent the computer-aided design modeling stage when possible and directly modify the meshes to save valuable time. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for mesh modifications.

In contrast to existing studies, which focus on one or a class of modifications, this paper comprehensively studies mesh union, mesh gluing, mesh cutting and mesh partitioning. To improve the efficiency of the method, the paper presents a fast and effective surface mesh remeshing algorithm based on a ball-packing method and controls the remeshing regions with a size field.

Examples and results show that the proposed mesh modification method is efficient and effective. The proposed method can be also applied to meshes with different material properties, which is very different with previous work that is only suitable for the meshes with same material property.

This paper proposes an efficient and comprehensive tetrahedral mesh modification method, through which engineers can directly modify meshes instead of models and save time.

The present paper aims to reveal how different cultures, as reflected by cultural norms, traditions, and social expectations, influence food waste behaviour in different regions of the world.

A systematic multifaceted literature review was employed as a main research tool.

The focal role of education and awareness campaigns in reducing household food waste and promoting responsible food consumption behaviours is revealed. The importance of guilt, behavioural control, negative attitudes towards leftovers, and social norms are among the most important factors predicting intentions to reduce food waste. Cultural beliefs significantly shape food attitudes and waste. Tailoring sustainable practices to traditions helps to ensure food security. Embracing cultural diversity can lead to the development of effective and sustainable food consumption patterns across different parts of the world.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper fully devoted to revealing how different cultural backgrounds shape food consumption habits and which marketing strategies aiming to nudge positive changes in responsible food consumption are preferred in different cultural contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate colorless cotton fabrics with good antibacterial activity and durability.

Chitosan (CS) based silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were formed in CS solutions as the antibacterial agent. The reducing agent was sodium borohyride. The concentrations of the CS solutions ranged from 0.1 to 1 percent (w/v). Cotton fabrics were impregnated by these CS/AgNPs solutions.

All of these fabrics exhibited superior antibacterial activities. The antibacterial activity still showed great efficiency even after 81 home launderings. Moreover, the results of color change and whiteness indicated that the cotton fabrics treated by CS/AgNPs complex with higher CS concentration had less color change compared with other samples.

Fabrics treated by this method could reduce the brown color brought by AgNPs. The paper also suggests that cotton fabrics treated by AgNPs formed in a relatively higher CS concentration not only had good antibacterial activity but also were colorless.

The influence of CS ratio in CS/AgNPs complexes on the antibacterial activity and color of cotton fabrics was studied, which has been rarely reported in previous papers. The fabrics prepared by this method are promising candidates for a wide range of general applications.

The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to find the best ways to plan their workforce, and the workforce emangement (WFM) is one of the biggest challenges faced by managers. Relevant research on WFM in operations has been published in a several range of journals that vary in their scope and readership, and thus the academic contribution to the topic remains largely fragmented.

To address this gap, this review aims to map research on WFM in operations to understand where it comes from and where it is going and, therefore, provides opportunities for future work. This study combined two bibliometric approaches with manual document coding to examine the literature corpus of WFM in operations to draw a holistic picture of its different aspects.

Content and thematic analysis of the seminal studies resulted in the extraction of three key research themes: workforce cross-training, planning workforce mixed methods and individual workforce characteristics. The findings of this study further highlight the gaps in the WFM in operations literature and raise some research questions that warrant further academic investigation in the future.

Likewise, this study has important implications for practitioners who are likely to benefit from a holistic understanding of the different aspects of WFM in operations.