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Starch is one of the oldest adhesives, and has been utilised for a variety of applications, including as a consolidant for artworks and archives, after cooking. Although widely available, cost-effective, and versatile it has limitations such as large particle size, which makes it challenging for the adhesive to penetrate deeply into objects. Attempts to increase the concentration of starch adhesives for enhanced strength often lead to increased viscosity, hindering penetration and causing an undesirable film on the surface. Achieving a workable consistency often leads to reduced adhesive power. An approach to using nanosized starch as a binder for paper and cellulose-based objects is presented. Starch nanoparticles (SNPs) from wheat, rice, maize and waxy maize were successfully synthesised using a 'top-down' approach that is facile as well as energy efficient. Size distribution measurements indicate most particles to be less than 50 nm, smaller than the pore size of most historic papers. SNPs could make a better sizing adhesive than traditionally-made starch paste, and they are also a green alternative to a variety of chemically formulated, organic solvent-based adhesives. The compatibility, non-toxicity, and biodegradability of starch remained uncompromised during the modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the consensus has emerged across the globe to promote energy conservation for reducing green-house gas emissions worldwide, achieving low-carbon society and ensuring ecological sustainability have become primary objective for policymakers. To meet these energy conservation targets, energy scholarship has been asking to shift focus from promoting usage of energy-efficient appliances to reduce their usage, terming this as shifting from efficiency approach to curtailment approach. Promoting curtailment behaviour for energy conservation requires inducing pro-social behaviour among individuals, considering which, this study attempts to understand the psychosocial aspects those help determine individual's behaviour towards energy conservation. In the backdrop of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) framework, six psychometric variables, and to capture the socio-economic realities, five socio-economic measures from a representative sample of 550 individuals belonging to urban middle-class households of a city in Madhya Pradesh state of India were measured. Comparative tests to highlight differences in psychosocial measures among different socio-economic groups of individuals, tests to ascertain association between socio-economic and psychosocial measures, along with a linear regression analysis to predict behavioural intention were conducted. Study finds gender having no association with energy-conservation behaviour of individuals and points out certain threshold levels of age, household income, and energy expenditure, above and below which the performance of human behaviour towards energy conservation is likely to change. Further, mediating role of the values, beliefs, and subjective norms on the relationship between energy-conservation attitude and behavioural intention has been suggested along with discussing implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the explorative study aimed at furthering the understanding of cleaning of acrylic emulsion painted surfaces and evaluating the effectiveness of gel cleaning with rigid gels without affecting the original paint layer. In the present study, the gellan and agar gelling materials were exploited for cleaning acrylic emulsion painted surfaces by optimizing their rheological properties using two application methodologies. The gellan and agar gels were used on soiled and unsoiled acrylic painted surfaces and micro-photographed at 50x magnification using Dinolite digital microscope under normal, raking and ultraviolet fluorescence light. The experimental results have demonstrated better contact, no loss of water and fair cleaning results for gellan gel as compared to agar. The effectiveness of the cleaning operation was also observed using ATR-FTIR and SEM-EDX in the present study. The results can be extended for cleaning of other sensitive painted surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Role of human behaviour in mitigating climate change, controlling Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, reducing carbon footprint leading to sustainable development, is at the centre of all policy discussions across the globe, thereby tailoring human behaviour is considered imperative by contemporary scholarship. This study attempts to understand the psycho-social interaction of individuals that promote such a human action. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework has been used to predict human behaviour assuming human behaviour for energy conservation is one of the pro-social low-cost behaviour. Value orientation of individuals, energy conservation beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and energy conservation attitude have been measured to gauge the behavioural intention, along with capturing the socio-economic realities pertaining to households and individuals therein. Awareness towards energy conservation efforts and social interaction are found to be key behaviour influencers, whereas energy conservation intent is found to be gender neutral. Study implies the underlying necessity to explore mediating and moderating models in order to decipher complex inter-play among key variables for predicting energy conservation behaviour intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the financial and organizational change in the WorldCom Inc. following an accounting fraud occurred in the company. The corporation's restructuring process includes the appointment of Michael D. Capellas as the new CEO and chairman, the launching of a cost reduction plan and corporate governance reform, and the announcement of the company's new name from the WorldCom Inc. to MCI Inc. An overview of the development of MCI Inc. is provided.