Livelihood Disruption and Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship as Technology Adoption A Comparison between Kentucky and Shaanxi Farmers

In the US, The Tobacco Transition Payment Program, also called the "tobacco buy-out," helps tobacco quota holders and producers transition to the free market. In China, the transaction of Land Use Rights providing farmers’ ability to buy or sell Land Use Rights has been seriously considered by the Chinese government. The uncertainty in household income and changes in economic environment during the US Tobacco Transition Payment Program and the Chinese Land Use Rights Regime lead many individuals into entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurship often means making changes in livelihood activities that involve substantial risks to income. While the rewards may be substantial, transactions costs may make decisions irreversible. This paper draws a comparison between entrepreneurship and technology adoption. Adopting a new production technology also involves substantial risks. The economics of technology adoption is a well developed literature with many accepted and testable models. Most prominent are the theories of learning by using and learning by doing. We review the technology adoption literature, drawing out lessons for entrepreneurship research. We then apply an ‘entrepreneurship as technology adoption’ model to a unique dataset collected in Kentucky, US and in Shaanxi province, China. Using a sample of 702 Kentucky farmers at the time of the buyout and 730 Chinese farmers, we test several of the implications of this model and compare significant results between Kentucky and Shaanxi farmers. This study finds that both farmers in Kentucky and Shaanxi with a strong social network are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Kentucky farmers with low income are more likely to start new businesses. The finding supports the “push” hypothesis as farmers with low income are pushed into starting a new business. The human capital factor is strongly associated with Shaanxi farmer’s entrepreneurial decision.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Synthesis and characterization of surface modified banana trunk as absorbent for benzene removal from aqueous solution

Petroleum monoaromatics especially benzene contamination in water and wastewater is the major concern in the industry today. Various removal techniques have been studied. The adsorptive removal process is considered as one of the most cost-efficient and feasible methods because it does not require a large amount of energy and additional chemical. In adsorption technology, several problems such as adsorbent cost, adsorption selectivity and adsorbent reusability are the main concerns. Therefore, the potential conversion and modification of agrowaste adsorbent into an effective adsorbent alternative to removing benzene constituent from the wastewater were studied. The banana trunk (BT) was selected as an agrowaste model in the present study. The raw BT (Raw-BT) was first mercerized and this mercerized BT (M-BT) was then reacted with different surfactants, namely cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB (M-CTAB-BT), 4-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenyl-polyethylene glycol, Triton X-100 (M-TX100-BT) and sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS (M-SDS-BT). Surface etherification was also conducted by using 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl trimethylammonium chloride, CTA with the mass ratio of 1 and this etherified BT (M-1CTA-BT) was then coated with SDS (M-1CTA-SDS-BT). All the adsorbents were characterized by using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, a field emission scanning electron microscope, an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyzer and nitrogen adsorption/desorption analysis. The experimental batch adsorption studies showed that the adsorption capacity increased in the following order: Raw-BT < M-BT < M-CTAB-BT < M-TX100-BT < M-1CTA-SDS-BT. The Langmuir maximum benzene adsorption capacity, qL,max achieved by the M-1CTA-SDS-BT was 468.187 × 10-3 mmol/g. The fundamental adsorption equilibrium and kinetic studies revealed that the benzene adsorption data were fitted well into the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic models which suggested that the adsorption process was governed by a physical phenomenon. The film diffusion was considered as the rate-limiting step for the overall benzene adsorption process. The adsorbents were chemically stable within the pH range. It was revealed the benzene adsorption was an endothermic and non-spontaneous process. The regeneration study using 50 % ethanol-water as the desorbing agent, demonstrated that the modified adsorbents could withstand five adsorption/desorption cycles without a drastic reduction of adsorption uptake (8.5 - 13.0 %). The BT could potentially be employed as an adsorbent precursor for benzene adsorptive removal from aqueous solution

Executing Entrepreneurial Leadership Strategies for the Sustainability of SMEs in Muar, Johor, Malaysia

SMEs have been the backbone of the economy of Malaysia, contributing to Malaysia’s GDP, employment and exports. However, the growth rate of SMEs in Malaysia has declined since 2017 and the failure rates of SMEs were high, and this has affected the economy of Malaysia. One main reason for SMEs’ high failures was due to lack of relevant entrepreneurial leadership strategies for sustainability. Therefore, the aim of this research was to study the entrepreneurial leadership strategies for the sustainability of SMEs, specifically to identify the relevant strategies and to examine the relationships between the strategies and the sustainability of SMEs. This study also aims to recommend a strategic framework for the sustainability of SMEs. Vision Framework, Resource-based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory and Triple Bottom Line Theory were adopted to identify the independent and dependent variables. An extensive review and synthesis of literatures was conducted to develop hypotheses to determine the relationships of the strategies with the sustainability of SMEs. Muar was chosen to be the study area for its significant role in the Local Town Planning Project 2030. A quantitative approach was adopted with a questionnaire method of collecting primary data, using a 5-point Likert Scale. Based on Roscoe’s sample size rule of thumb, a sample size of 100 SMEs in Muar was selected with simple random probability sampling. Frequency and correlation analyses were performed using SPSS to identify the strategies and to determine the relationships between those strategies and the sustainability of SMEs. The findings of the research (Rs:0.439, p-value: <0.001) revealed that entrepreneurial leadership strategies have a significant positive impact on the sustainability of SMEs. Moreover, the findings of these results provided more nuance and detailed perspective to the existing literature and also significant in helping SMEs build their business for long-term survival and success

Adsorptive removal of benzene from aqueous solution by surfactant modified banana trunk as adsorbents

The adsorptive removal of benzene from aqueous solution by four types of surfactant modified banana trunk (BT) adsorbents was investigated through batch adsorption experiments. The surface morphology and functional groups determination were conducted BT adsorbents indicating the significant changes were observed after modifications. The adsorption results indicated that the non-ionic surfactant (i.e. Triton-X 100) modified BT has the highest adsorption capacity (57.52 µmol/g) and its adsorption capacity significantly affected by the increase of temperatures, benzene concentrations and contact time

Removal of Elemental Mercury by Coconut Pith Char Adsorbents

AbstractCoconut pith (CP), which is abundantly available and cheap, has the potential of being used as low-cost adsorbents for elemental mercury removal. In this study, the preparation of chars was carried out through the carbonization of CP at three different environment conditions: (a) open reactor under nitrogen flow; (b) closed reactor under nitrogen environment; and (c) closed reactor under ambient environment; at the temperature of 700°C. The results show that the chemical, physical, morphological and spectral properties of the adsorbents greatly influenced by the environment of carbonization used. The highest Hgo adsorption capacity was observed for CCA700 (2395.98 μg/g), followed by CCN700 (2052.49 μg/g), and CFN700 (1416.92 μg/g). These results demonstrated that coconut pith derived chars could be potential as low-cost adsorbent alternatives for the removal of elemental mercury in gas streams

Some Recent Results on Pair Correlation Functions and Susceptibilities in Exactly Solvable Models

Using detailed exact results on pair-correlation functions of Z-invariant Ising models, we can write and run algorithms of polynomial complexity to obtain wavevector-dependent susceptibilities for a variety of Ising systems. Reviewing recent work we compare various periodic and quasiperiodic models, where the couplings and/or the lattice may be aperiodic, and where the Ising couplings may be either ferromagnetic, or antiferromagnetic, or of mixed sign. We present some of our results on the square-lattice fully-frustrated Ising model. Finally, we make a few remarks on our recent works on the pentagrid Ising model and on overlapping unit cells in three dimensions and how these works can be utilized once more detailed results for pair correlations in, e.g., the eight-vertex model or the chiral Potts model or even three-dimensional Yang-Baxter integrable models become available.Comment: LaTeX2e using iopart.cls, 10 pages, 5 figures (5 eps files), Dunk Island conference in honor of 60th birthday of A.J. Guttman

Hypoxia induces telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene expression in non-tumor fish tissues in vivo: the marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) model

BACKGROUND: Current understanding on the relationships between hypoxia, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene expression are largely based on in vitro studies in human cancer cells. Although several reports demonstrated HIF-1- mediated upregulation of the human TERT gene under hypoxia, conflicting findings have also been reported. Thus far, it remains uncertain whether these findings can be directly extrapolated to non-tumor tissues in other whole animal systems in vivo. While fish often encounter environmental hypoxia, the in vivo regulation of TERT by hypoxia in non-neoplastic tissues of fish remains virtually unknown. RESULTS: The adult marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) was employed as a model fish in this study. We have cloned and characterized a 3261-bp full-length TERT cDNA, omTERT, which encodes a protein of 1086 amino acids. It contains all of the functional motifs that are conserved in other vertebrate TERTs. Motif E is the most highly conserved showing 90.9–100% overall identity among the fish TERTs and 63.6% overall identity among vertebrates. Analysis of the 5'-flanking sequence of the omTERT gene identified two HRE (hypoxia-responsive element; nt. – 283 and – 892) cores. Overexpression of the HIF-1α induced omTERT promoter activity as demonstrated using transient transfection assays. The omTERT gene is ubiquitously expressed in fish under normoxia, albeit at varying levels, where highest expression was observed in gonads and the lowest in liver. In vivo expression of omTERT was significantly upregulated in testis and liver in response to hypoxia (at 96 h and 48 h, respectively), where concomitant induction of the omHIF-1α and erythropoietin (omEpo) genes was also observed. In situ hybridization analysis showed that hypoxic induction of omTERT mRNA was clearly evident in hepatocytes in the caudal region of liver and in spermatogonia-containing cysts in testis. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates for the first time, hypoxic regulation of TERT expression in vivo in a whole fish system. Our findings support the notion that hypoxia upregulates omTERT expression via omHIF-1 in non-neoplastic fish liver and testis in vivo. Overall, the structure and regulation of the TERT gene is highly conserved in vertebrates from fish to human

Prolonged exposure to bacterial toxins downregulated expression of toll-like receptors in mesenchymal stromal cell-derived osteoprogenitors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs, also known as mesenchymal stem cells) are multipotent cells with potential therapeutic value. Owing to their osteogenic capability, MSCs may be clinically applied for facilitating osseointegration in dental implants or orthopedic repair of bony defect. However, whether wound infection or oral microflora may interfere with the growth and osteogenic differentiation of human MSCs remains unknown. This study investigated whether proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of MSCs would be affected by potent gram-positive and gram-negative derived bacterial toxins commonly found in human settings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We selected lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from <it>Escherichia coli </it>and lipoteichoic acid (LTA) from <it>Streptococcus pyogenes </it>as our toxins of choice. Our findings showed both LPS and LTA did not affect MSC proliferation, but prolonged LPS challenge upregulated the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs, as assessed by alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition. Because toll-like receptors (TLRs), in particularly TLR4 and TLR2, are important for the cellular responsiveness to LPS and LTA respectively, we evaluated their expression profiles serially from MSCs to osteoblasts by quantitative PCR. We found that during osteogenic differentiation, MSC-derived osteoprogenitors gradually expressed TLR2 and TLR4 by Day 12. But under prolonged incubation with LPS, MSC-derived osteoprogenitors had reduced TLR2 and TLR4 gene expression. This peculiar response to LPS suggests a possible adaptive mechanism when MSCs are subjected to continuous exposure with bacteria.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In conclusion, our findings support the potential of using human MSCs as a biological graft, even under a bacterial toxin-rich environment.</p