Effect of the raw material composition of fabrics on the Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI)

The raw material composition of fabrics is one of the most important factors for LOI value. LOI value was determined in samples of varying composition composed of cellulose, protein, and synthetic fibers and their mixtures, based on ASTM D 2863-76. Cellulose fibers and their mixtures exhibited the lowest value, while synthetic fibers had the highest LOI value

Letter to an Unknown Hero of Kiev

A letter of solidarity to the besieged in Kiev, from Mustafa Ceric, Ph.D. Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia

Strategies for minimizing information asymmetries in construction projects: project managers’ perceptions

Communication risk is of crucial importance in construction projects. The situation in which one of the project parties is better informed than another is known as information asymmetry. This problem is addressed by the principal-agent theory. According to this theory, information asymmetries cause three problems: adverse selection, moral hazard, and hold up. The focus here is on strategies for minimizing information asymmetries in the construction phase. A survey of project managers was conducted to establish an understanding of the relative importance of risk-minimization strategies established in the literature: bureaucratic control (contracts), information systems, incentives (bonuses), corporate culture, reputation, and trust. The multi-attribute utility theory was used to analyze the responses. According to the project managers who participated in the survey, trust is the most important strategy in the construction phase, followed by bureaucratic control (contracts) and information systems

Lawyering from Below: Activist Legal Support in Contemporary Canada and the US

A vast literature has considered the proactive use of law as a tool by progressive social movements, but far less attention has been paid to the way activists respond to involuntary engagement with law as a result of repression and criminalization. This dissertation explores the legal support infrastructure of grassroots protest movements in Canada and the US by tracing the evolution of contemporary activist legal support through two periods. The tactic of jail solidarity and an emerging legal collective model are highlighted as the key features of the global justice organizing era (1999-2005) while in the second age of austerity era (2008-2018), I discuss evolving approaches to law collective work in various protest movements and highlight a renewed focus on anti-repression as a framing praxis of both organizing and legal support. Grounded in my own activist legal support work over more than two decades, this research rests on data arising from detailed interviews and analysis of more than 125 archival documents. I develop two areas of inquiry. First, I trace critiques of movement lawyering in the legal literature to demonstrate that those critiques are often shared by legal support organizers. Divergent opinions on the appropriate role of lawyers and norms of professional ethics in law collective practice reflect long-standing contradictions in progressive lawyering practice. Accordingly, I argue that the legal work of non-lawyer activists ought to be understood as a complementary if also sometimes disruptive model of movement lawyering. Second, I demonstrate that an analysis of radical legal support speaks to the post-arrest experiences of protesters and the impact of such repression on mobilization phenomena largely absent from the literature on state repression of social movements. I consider this dynamic through the lens of legal mobilization, arguing that the pedagogical work of law collectives, understood as a site of social movement knowledge production, plays a significant role in mediating the complex relationship between repression and mobilization. I conclude by exploring the legal consciousness of activist legal support organizers and argue that the education and organizing praxes of law collectives are evidence of a form of prefigurative, counter-hegemonic legality

ICT adoption model of chinese SMEs

Chinese SMEs have played an important role in stimulating economic growth, increasing employment, expanding exports and promoting science and technology innovations. In 2005 there were more than 10 million SMEs registered in the Industry and Commerce Department, accounting for 99 per cent of all registered corporations (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific; China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 2006). Further development of the Chinese as well as of all modern economies is dependent on the speed and effectiveness of the implementation of ICT based solutions in businesses. While large companies have been quick to adopt ICT solutions and technologies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had more serious problems with the requirements and challenges of e-business. A number of ICT, e-commerce adoption methodologies have been suggested through literature most of this research, has however, focused on developed countries where the structure of the economy is common. There are only few studies that shed some light on prescribing strategies of ICT adoption for SMEs in developing countries, especially Chine. Furthermore, despite the enormous attention given to encourage SMEs to adopt ICT there has been little systematic research into the factors influencing, enabling and inhibiting the adoption of ICT within SMEs. In this article, author developed a model of ICT adoption of Chinese SMEs, founded on premises that the adoption and the use of ICT represent the fundamental source of competitiveness and the basis for firms’ survival in the world market. By applying the Qualitative-Comparative Analysis (QCA) method and Boolean algebra, author proposed a model of necessary and sufficient factors for ICT adoption by SMEs in Chine.Keywords: adoption models; Boolean Algebra; SMEs; case studies; ICT; qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)

An Appeal of Covenant

Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, calls on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Russia to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Model Identification, Parameter Estimation, and Dynamic Flux Analysis of E. coli Central Metabolism

In this work are applied three global optimisation algorithms for adaptation of the mathematical model of the central metabolism of Escherichia coli to data obtained in the experiment with response to glucose impulse. Applied is the adaptive simplex method by Nelder-Mead, evolutionary algorithms of differential evolution, and simulated annealing. The original model has been modified by the following steps: closure of Entner- -Doudoroff pathway with pyruvate balance, introduction of phosphoenolpyruavate carboxylase and carboxykinase reactions in the balance of phosphoenolypyravate, account for loss of pyruvate in biomass synthesis, change in kinetic rate expressions for several enzymes, and partial re-estimation of the kinetic parameters by the global optimisation algorithms. The modified model correctly predicts observed oscillatory response to glucose impulse in concentrations of pyruvate and D-ribose-5-phosphate. To discern metabolic control, evaluated are dynamic intracellular fluxes by the model simulation around the following network branching metabolites: D-glucose-6-phosphate, 6-phospho-D-gluconate, glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate, and pyruvate. The simulation of the fluxes around phosphoenolypyruvate show that phosphoenolpyruavate carboxylase and carboxykinase (PEPCK) activity and phosphotransferase system (PTS) are closely dynamically tied, indicating that glycolysis and TCA metabolisms can not be separated under the given transient conditions. Overall model adequacy is evaluated by standarddeviations of the model predictions and experimental data for each metabolite