Abstract Activated carbon from the shell of the cashew of Para (SCP) was produced by chemical activation with ZnCl using the ratio of SCP: ZnCl2 1.0:1.5 at 700 °C. The prepared activated carbon (SCP700) was used for the removal of two emerging contaminants, 4-bromophenol (4-BrPhOH) and 4-chloroaniline (4-ClPhNH2) that are primarily employed in the industry. Different analytical techniques were used to characterize the activated carbon. From the N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms were obtained the specific surface area of 1520 m2 g− 1 and total pore volume of 0.492 cm3 g−1. The functional groups were identified by the FTIR technique and quantified by modified Boehm titration. The results revealed the bearing of several functional groups on the SCP700 surface, which may utterly influence the removal of the emerging contaminants. The equilibrium experiments showed that the maximum uptaken capacities (Qmax) achieved at 45 °C were 488.2 (4-BrPhOH) and 552.5 mg g−1 (4-ClPhNH2). The thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that the processes of 4-BrPhOH and 4-ClPhNH2 adsorption are exothermic, spontaneous, energetically suitable, and the magnitude of ΔH° is compatible with physisorption. The mechanism of the adsorption of the emerging contaminants onto the carbon surface is dominated by microporous filling, hydrogen bonds, π-stacking interactions, and other Van der Waals interactions. The use of activated carbon for the treatment of industrial synthetic wastewater with several inorganic and organic molecules commonly found in industrial effluents showed a very high percentage of uptaking (up to 98.64%).

The uniqueness of labour as a factor of production is that labour services cannot be separated from the employee. However, since the object of sale is only the services of the employee, not an employee himself, the labour conditions, determined by the labour and collective agreements or other agreements concluded at other levels and within the current legislation, are equally important. Speaking as a subject of labour, a person can realize his or her labour potential by the way of self-employment, that means to act as an independent producer seller of their products. Another way of labour potential realization is hiring, that means offering of the services as a hired employee to the employer, who is the subject of ownership. In this case there is an exchange under the principle: qualification and working time of the worker - for wages and profits. Each enterprise is confronted with a set of goals, among them – economic and social leadership. For their achievement the company uses all the available arsenal of resources - material, land, financial, labour. This indicates the equivalence of all types of resources in achieving the goal. But this is not quite true, because every resource can be included in production only through the activity of labour and people. And this activity depends on the attitude of the company to its employees, the degree of their motivation and stimulation.

The paper presents the results of a multi-criteria comparative evaluation of 12 feasible Russian nuclear energy deployment scenarios with thermal and fast reactors in a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The comparative evaluation was performed based on 6 performance indicators and 5 different MCDA methods (Simple Scoring Model, MAVT / MAUT, AHP, TOPSIS, PROMETHEE) in accordance with the recommendations elaborated by the IAEA/INPRO section. It is shown that the use of different MCDA methods to compare the nuclear energy deployment scenarios, despite some differences in the rankings, leads to well-coordinated and similar results. Taking into account the uncertainties in the weights within a multi-attribute model, it was possible to rank the scenarios in the absence of information regarding the relative importance of performance indicators and determine the preference probability for a certain nuclear energy deployment scenario. Based on the results of the uncertainty/sensitivity analysis and additional analysis of alternatives as well as the whole set of graphical and attribute data, it was possible to identify the most promising nuclear energy deployment scenario under the assumptions made.

Less mature nuclear reactor technologies are characterized by a greater uncertainty due to insufficient detailed design information, operational data, cost information, etc., but the expected performance characteristics of less mature options are usually more attractive in comparison with more mature ones. The greater uncertainty is, the higher economic risks associated with the project realization will be. Within a comparative evaluation of less and more mature nuclear reactor technologies, it is necessary to apply economic risk measures to balance judgments regarding the economic performance of less and more mature options. Assessments of any risk metrics involve calculating different characteristics of probability distributions of associated economic performance indicators and applying the Monte-Carlo method. This paper considers the applicability of statistical risk measures for different economic performance indicators within a trial case study on a comparative evaluation of less and more mature unspecified LWRs. The presented case study demonstrates the main trends associated with the incorporation of economic risk metrics into a comparative evaluation of less and more mature nuclear reactor technologies.

How does the presence of an AGN in uence the total SFR estimates of galaxies and change their distribution with respect to the Galaxy Main Sequence? To contribute to solving this question, we study a sample of 1133 sources detected in the North Ecliptic Pole field (NEP) by AKARI and Herschel. We create a multi-wavelength dataset for these galaxies and we fit their multi-wavelength Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) using the whole spectral regime (from 0.1 to 500 μm). We perform the fit using three procedures: LePhare and two optimised codes for identifying AGN tracers from the SED analysis. In this work we present an overview of the comparison between the estimates of the Infrared bolometric luminosi- ties (between 8 and 1000 μm) and the AGN fractions obtained exploiting these dierent procedures. In particular, by estimating the AGN contribution in four different wavelength ranges (5-40 μm, 10-20 μm, 20-40 μm and 8-1000 μm) we show how the presence of an AGN affects the PAH emission by suppressing the ratio L8 μm L4:5 μm as a function of the considered wavelength range.

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of food scandals on trust towards the corporate brand and purchase intention in Japan. Drawing on Mayer, Davis and Schoorman’s Model of Organizational Trust (1995) this study explores the effects of perceived trustworthiness, trust, and perceived risk on a consumer’s intention to purchase. In Japan, consumers were outraged when some top hotels and department stores were found to have mislabeled foods, selling cheaper alternatives instead of the expensive foods offered on the menu and using expired products (Grace, 2007; Japan Today, 2013; Kageyama, 2007; Onishi, 2007; Spitzer, 2013). The various food scandals have led to product shunning, fear, distrust and suspicion among consumers (Garretson & Burton, 2000; Niewczas, 2014; Smith & Riethmuller, 1999; Yeung & Morris, 2001). Thus this research was conducted to identify the influence of food scandals involving well-established Japanese supermarkets on consumer trust and risk perception. The influence of culture in shaping purchase intention was also explored. Trust itself is a concept that is elusive with myriad definitions ranging from Luhmann’s (1979) sociological theory of trust that looks as trust being a function of high perceived risk and experience to Deutsch (1973) who defines it as the willingness to be dependent on others in the belief that the other party will not disappoint intentionally. Luhmann (1979) argues that in order for trust to be apparent there has to be high-perceived risk. Various studies have also focused on trust being operational when there is risk‐taking behavior (Anderson & Narus, 1990; Canning & Hammer‐Llyod, 2007; Doney & Canon, 1997; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). In the food sector, as consumers lose control over knowing about the food we eat due to the increasing complexity of the food system trust becomes an essential component. Consumers have to trust food producers ranging from farmers to food companies as well as the public authorities to ensure food safety, quality and adequate supply. Consumers display different and inconsistent reactions regarding food safety that affects the perception of quality and their willingness‐to‐pay (Berg, 2004; Brewer & Rojas, 2008).

This study explores the role of corporate involvement and brand perception in moderating the Cause Related Marketing on consumer purchase intention in the luxury product category among Japanese consumers. This research examines three core cause attributes - cause scope, cause type and cause acuteness developed by Vanhamme, Lindgree, Reast and van Popering (2012) as well as an additional component of duration – with corporate involvement and brand perception moderating the effect on purchase intention. The general public places judgment on a corporation based on how much of positive or negative impacts its business has on environment or society (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). In fact, more corporations have been developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, no matter how big their business sizes, big or small, are (Brinkvan, Odekerken-Schroder, & Pauwels, 2006). The general public loses its faith in corporations, especially after a financial crisis or malfeasances of big corporations and as a result, corporations are under stronger pressure to contribute to environmental or societal causes in order to reclaim lost faith from the general public (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011; Berglind & Nakata, 2005). One way corporations contribute to society has been to employ marketing strategies that link product sales to the support of specific charities to create and maintain favorable brand images known as cause related marketing or CRM. CRM has been growing faster as a type of marketing that allow corporations to contribute to environment or society (Brinkvan et al., 2006). Various factors have been extensively researched on and identified as pertinent in the success of cause-related marketing campaigns such as brand-cause fit (Bigne-Alcanniz, Currase-Perez, Ruiz-Mafe and Sanz-Blas, 2011; Nan and Heo, 2007; Samu and Wymer, 2009), donation size (Dahl and Labvack, 1995; Pracejus, Olsen and Brown, 2003), types of causes (local causes are preferred to national ones) (Ellen, Mohr, and Webb, 1996; Smith and Alcorn, 1991) and product type with luxury products found to be more effective (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1995).

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

Most of the stars in the Galaxy are in binary systems. Binaries should be possible as the hosting stars of planets. Searching for planetary companions to binaries, especially evolved close binary stars, can provide insight into the formation and the ultimate fate of circumbinary planets and shed light on the late evolution of binary stars. In order to do this, we have chosen some post common envelope binaries including sdB-type eclipsing binaries and detached WD+dM eclipsing binaries as our targets and monitored them for several years. In this paper, we will present some of our new observations and results for three targets, NSVS 07826147, NSVS14256825 and RR Cae.

The Eclipsing Binaries Minima (BIMA) Monitoring Project is a CCD-based photometric observational program initiated by Bosscha Observatory - Lembang, Indonesia in June 2012. Since December 2012 the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) has joined the BIMA Project as the main partner. This project aims to build an open-database of eclipsing binary minima and to establish the orbital period of each system and its variations. The project is conducted on the basis of multisite monitoring observations of eclipsing binaries with magnitudes less than 19 mag. Dierential photometry methods have been applied throughout the observations. Data reduction was performed using IRAF. The observations were carried out in BVRI bands using three dierent small telescopes situated in Indonesia, Thailand, and Chile. Computer programs have been developed for calculating the time of minima. To date, more than 140 eclipsing binaries have been observed. From them 71 minima have been determined. We present and discuss the O-C diagrams for some eclipsing binary systems.

Due to the lack of an accretion disk in a polar (magnetic cataclysmic variable, MCV), the material transferred from the secondary is directly accreted onto the white dwarf, forming an accretion stream and a hot spot on the white-dwarf component. During the eclipses, different light components can be isolated. Therefore, the monitoring of eclipsing polars could provide valuable information on several modern astrophysical problems, e.g., CVs as planetary hosting stars, mass transfer and mass accretion in CVs, and the magnetic activity of the most rapidly rotating cool dwarfs. In the past five years, we have monitored about 10 eclipsing polars (e.g., DP Leo and HU Aqr) using several 2-m class telescopes and about 100 eclipse profiles were obtained. In this paper, we will introduce the progress of our research group at YNOs. The first direct evidence of variable mass transfer in a CV is obtained and we show that it is the dark-spot activity that causes the mass transfer in CVs. Magnetic activity cycles of the cool secondary were detected and we show that the variable mass transfer is not caused by magnetic activity cycles. These results will shed light on the structure and evolution of close binary stars (e.g., CVs and Algols).