This research investigates the effects of drying on some selected vegetables, which are Telfaria occidentalis, Amaranthu scruentus, Talinum triangulare, and Crussocephalum biafrae. These vegetables were collected fresh, sliced into smaller sizes of 0.5 cm, and dried in a convective dryer at varying temperatures of 60.0 °C, 70.0 °C and 80.0 °C respectively, for a regulated fan speed of 1.50 ms‒1, 3.00 ms‒1 and 6.00 ms‒1, and for a drying period of 6 hours. It was discovered that the drying rate for fresh samples was 4.560 gmin‒1 for Talinum triangulare, 4.390 gmin‒1for Amaranthu scruentus, 4.580 gmin‒1 for Talinum triangulare, and 4.640 gmin‒1 for Crussocephalum biafrae at different controlled fan speeds and regulated temperatures when the mass of the vegetable samples at each drying time was compared to the mass of the final samples dried for 6 hours. The samples are considered completely dried when the drying time reaches a certain point, as indicated by the drying rate and moisture contents tending to zero. According to drying kinetics, the rate of moisture loss was extremely high during the first two hours of drying and then steadily decreased during the remaining drying duration. The rate at which moisture was removed from the vegetable samples after the drying process at varying regulated temperatures was noted to be in this trend: 80.0 °C > 70.0 °C > 60.0 °C and 6.0 ms‒1 > 3.0 ms‒1 > 1.5 ms‒1 for regulated fan speed. It can be stated here that the moisture contents has significant effects on the drying rate of the samples of vegetables investigated because the drying rate decreases as the regulated temperatures increase and the moisture contents decrease. The present investigation is useful in the agricultural engineering and food engineering industries.

The study acknowledges empirical, conceptual, and policy-driven papers that address emotional assertiveness, assertive communication, and assertive training as means of improving employee performance in Chinese banking, which is a significant contributor to the Chinese economy. Most banking enterprises have suffered from poor performance and a lack of aggressiveness in operation. It can be used by both managers and employees to create a good interaction process and a favorable work environment, which can help elevate performances. The research employs a quantitative approach, utilizing a questionnaire survey and simple random sampling. The sample comprises 381 employees from the Chinese banking industry, with a response rate above 70%. The regression analysis confirms that emotional assertiveness, assertive training, and assertive communication significantly impact employee performance. In conclusion, this study contributes to academia and industries by addressing the importance of assertiveness in improving performance. The policy-driven evidence on the conceptual framework of HR literacy in emotional, training, communication, and job performance should be adopted and reviewed in the country’s existing management by objective policy and legal framework in resolving employee job performance and training that are still underutilized and have a great deal of potential to satisfy the employees and management needs by establishing and emerging nations.

On the morning of the 7th of October, the Hamas organization launched an attack on Israel, causing over 1200 casualties and kidnapping over 250 Israeli citizens. Israeli workers, their families, and the country’s economy were all directly impacted by the war. The effects of the war were vast and created many challenges for the HR departments in various organizations. The HR departments had to respond to these issues with promptness, determination, and thoroughness. I will discuss the functions of HR departments during times of war in this opinion piece. They include eliminating ambiguity and uncertainty; providing managers with the tools they need to handle such circumstances; maintaining resilience and high morale; overseeing volunteer programs; maintaining contact with the reserve forces; providing support to war-affected families; carrying out an effective workforce reduction without jeopardizing the company’s ability to continue operations; and managing workplace tensions.

We present an innovative enthalpy method for determining the thermal properties of phase change materials (PCM). The enthalpy-temperature relation in the “mushy” zone is modelled by means of a fifth order Obreshkov polynomial with continuous first and second order derivatives at the zone boundaries. The partial differential equation (PDE) for the conduction of heat is rewritten so that the enthalpy variable is not explicitly present, rendering the equation nonlinear. The thermal conductivity of the PCM is assumed to be temperature dependent and is modelled by a fifth order Obreshkov polynomial as well. The method has been applied to lauric acid, a standard prototype. The latent heat and the conductivity coefficient, being the model parameters, were retrieved by fitting the measurements obtained through a simple experimental procedure. Therefore, our proposal may be profitably used for the study of materials intended for heat-storage applications.

This article analyses the case of Dubai’s smart city from a public policy perspective and demonstrates how critical it is to rely on the use of the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Effective use of this model can guarantee the building of a smart city that could potentially fulfill the vision of the political leadership in Dubai and serve as a catalyst and blueprint for other Gulf states that wish to follow Dubai’s example. This article argues that Dubai’s smart city project enjoys significant political support and has ambitious plans for sustainable growth, and that the government has invested heavily in developing the necessary institutional, legal/regulatory, and supervisory frameworks that are essential foundations for the success of any PPP project. The article also points to some important insights that the Dubai government can learn from the international experience with the delivery of smart cities through PPPs.

This contribution aims to appraise, analyze and evaluate the literature relating to the interaction of electromagnetic fields (EMF) with matter and the resulting thermal effects. This relates to the wanted thermal effects via the application of fields as well as those uninvited resulting from exposure to the field. In the paper, the most popular EMF heating technologies are analyzed. This involves on the one hand high frequency induction heating (HFIH) and on the other hand microwave heating (MWH), including microwave ovens and hyperthermia medical treatment. Then, the problem of EMF exposure is examined and the resulting biological thermal effects are illuminated. Thus, the two most common cases of wireless EMF devices, namely digital communication tools and inductive power transfer appliances are analyzed and evaluated. The last part of the paper concerns the determination of the different thermal effects, which are studied and discussed, by considering the governing EMF and heat transfer (or bio heat) equations and their solution methodologies.