Adoption and use of e-commerce in SMEs

In this study, nonlinear Logit and probit models are used to analyse the important factors that impact on the tendency of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to use electronic commerce in one of the industrial parks in Kermanshah province of Iran. Furthermore, it identifies the major barriers of e-commerce adoption in these SMEs. The Sample of the study includes 35 SMEs in this province. The results of probit and Logit models suggest that a lower level of the internet service costs, motivates firms to adopt e-commerce. In addition, if the government provides free e-commerce facilities for SMEs, it can encourage SMEs to adopt e-commerce. Furthermore, the results show that due to uncertainty in the e-commerce, producing high-quality products and traditional exports cannot raise the tendency of sample firms to adopt e-commerce.     

燃料稀释对传统型和高预热空气稀释型燃烧炉性能的影响的数值研究

This numerical study investigates the effects of using a diluted fuel (50% natural gas and 50% N2) in an industrial furnace under several cases of conventional combustion (air with 21% O2 at 300 and 1273 K) and the highly preheated and diluted air (1273 K with 10% O2 and 90% N2) combustion (HPDAC) conditions using an in-house computer program. It was found that by applying a combined diluted fuel and oxidant instead of their uncombined and/or undiluted states, the best condition is obtained for the estab-lishment of HPDAC’s main unique features. These features are low mean and maximum gas temperature and high radiation/total heat transfer to gas and tubes; as well as more uniformity of theirs distributions which results in decrease in NOx pollutant formation and increase in furnace efficiency or energy saving. Moreover, a variety of chemical flame shape, the process fluid and tubes walls tem-peratures profiles, the required regenerator efficiency and finally the concentration and velocity patterns have been also qualita-tively/quantitatively studied.     

Evaluation of Antioxidant Capacity of Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Antioxidants Using Peroxyoxalate Chemiluminescence Reaction of the Novel Furandicarboxylate Derivative

A simple and fast procedure is described for evaluating the antioxidant activity of hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds by using the chemiluminescence reaction of bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of di(tert-butyl)2-(cyclohexylamino)-5-[(E)-2-phenyl-1-ethenyl]3,4-furandicarboxylate as a novel fluorophore. The AC₅₀ and AC₉₀ values (concentrations of a given antioxidant which reduce the blank emission area by 50 and 90 %, respectively) of all studied antioxidants were calculated, and the results were discussed on the basis of structure–antioxidant activity relationship. It was found that the proposed method is free of physical quenching and oxidant interference being able to determine the accurate scavenging activity of the antioxidants to the free radicals. For a validation of the antioxidant activity values obtained by the proposed method, the antioxidant activity of the studied antioxidants was evaluated using a previously reported Co(II)/EDTA/^?OH/H₂O₂–luminol standard system. Finally, the proposed method was applied to the evaluation of antioxidant activity of complex samples such as olive oils and honey samples.     

Essential and toxic heavy metals in cereals and agricultural products marketed in Kermanshah,Iran, and human health risk assessment

Levels of some essential and toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, zinc and copper in cereals and agricultural products obtained from the markets in Kermanshah city, west Iran, were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The average concentrations for lead and cadmium in some cereals were higher than the maximum levels set by the Codex Alimentarius. A potential human health risk assessment was conducted by calculating estimated weekly intake (EWI) of the metals from eating cereals and comparison of these values with provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) values. In combination with recent cereal consumption data, the EWIs of heavy metals were calculated for the Kermanshah population. EWI data for the studied metals through cereal consumption were lower than the PTWI values. Cr, Ni, Zn and Cu levels in all samples analysed were within the ranges reported for similar cereals from various parts of the world.     

Novel magnetic polyamic hydrazide nanocomposite: Preparation,characterization, and application for the removal of cd2+ and pb2+ from industrial wastes

In this work, a novel polymer polyamic hydrazide (PAH) was synthesized via the reaction of terephthalohydrazide with pyromelitic dianhydride. The obtained PAH was characterized with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Finally, a novel magnetic nanocomposite was prepared by immobilization of PAH on the Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in water. The prepared magnetic nanocomposite was successfully used for selective removal of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions from industrial wastes and the effects of affecting parameters on the adsorption capacity of the magnetic nanocomposite adsorbent for the removal of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ from model aqueous solutions were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacities of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ were found to be 138.9 and 103.1 mg g^?1, respectively. The kinetics and mechanism of the adsorption of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ on the surface of the prepared nanocomposite were studied and it was found that complex formation between active sites of the surface of the nanocomposite and metal ions is the possible mechanism for adsorption of metal cations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42538.