Every production day in Nigeria, and in other oil producing countries, millions of barrels of produced water is generated. Being very toxic, remediation of the produced water before discharge into environment or re-use is very essential. An eco-friendly and cost effective approach is hereby reported for remediative pre-treatment of produced water (PW) obtained from Nigerian oilfield. In this approach, Telfairia occidentalis stem extract-silver nanoparticles (TOSE-AgNPs) were synthesized, characterized and applied as bio-based adsorbent for treating the PW in situ. The nanoparticles were of average size 42.8 nm ± 5.3 nm, spherical to round shaped and mainly composed of nitrogen and oxygen as major atoms on the surface. Owing to the effect of addition of TOSE-AgNPs, the initially high levels (mg/L) of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and TSS of 607, 3.78 and 48.4 in the PW were reduced to 381, 1.22 and 19.6, respectively, whereas DO and COD improved from 161 and 48.4 to 276 and 19.6 respectively, most of which fell within WHO and US-EPA safe limits. Particularly, the added TOSE-AgNPs efficiently removed Pb (II) ions from the PW at temperatures between 25 ℃ to 50 ℃. Removal of TOSE-AgNPs occurred through the adsorption mechanism and was dependent contact time, temperature and dose of TOSE-AgNPs added. Optimal remediation was achieved with 0.5 g/L TOSE-AgNPs at 30 ℃ after 5 h contact time. Adsorption of Pb (Ⅱ) ions on TOSE-AgNPs was spontaneous and physical in nature with remediation efficiency of over 82% of the Pb (Ⅱ) ions in solution. Instead of discarding the stem of Telfairia occidentalis, it can be extracted and prepared into a new material and applied in the oilfield as reported here for the first time.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of innovative organizational culture on innovativeness through human resource management and the innovative skills of personnel. The population of this study comprised small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand from both the manufacturing and service sectors. Purposive sampling was employed to gather information from entrepreneurs, executives, or department managers of SMEs through an online questionnaire distributed via email, obtaining a total of 440 responses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation models (SEM) for hypothesis testing. The results indicated that SMEs in this context had a moderate level of innovative organizational culture, human resource management, innovative skills, and innovativeness. Moreover, the structural equation model was consistent with the empirical data, revealing that innovative organizational culture has a direct influence on innovativeness. Furthermore, human resource management and the innovative skills of personnel were found to be partial mediators in the relationship between innovative organizational culture and innovativeness. The indirect effect through these two variables was greater than the direct effect. These findings confirmed the relationship between innovative organizational culture, human resource management, innovative skills, and innovativeness among SMEs in Thailand, leading to guidelines for businesses to improve their innovativeness.

Heavy metal contaminated soil due to industrial, agricultural and municipal activities is becoming a global concern. Heavy metals severely affect plants, animals and human health. A suitable technology is necessary for heavy metals removal because it cannot self-decomposition as organic compounds. Among the various technologies surveyed, phytoremediation is one of the safest, most innovative, environmental friendly and cost-effective approach for heavy metals removal. Nevertheless, traditional phytoremediation practices pose some limitations such as long processing time, unstable treatment efficiency and limited application at large scale. In many methods proposed to improve phytoremediation, integrated phytoremediation has been studied in the recent years. Integrated phytoremediation use chelating agents and phytohormones to enhance phytoremediation. This is an environmentally safe, saving time and relative high effective method. Results showed that the association of a metal ion and a chelating agent to form chelates helps to maintain the availability of metals in the soil for the uptake of plants. Phytohormones supply nutrients for the soil to support vegetable growth. Therefore, integrated phytoremediation is a promising solution to overcome the disadvantages of conventional phytoremediation. It should be taken commercialization and need more applied projects in this field to demonstrate and clarify the real potential of this technology. In view of above, this manuscript reviews the mechanism and the efficiency of integrated phytoremediation for heavy metals in contaminated soil to give an overview of this technology.

This study uses the annual financial data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020 to investigate the relationship between multiple large shareholders (MLS) and earnings management (EM). After analyzing the samples using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model and endogenous switching regression (ESR) model, the empirical results show that the presence of MLS can increase corporate EM activities and the MLS have a significantly positive effect on EM in both the treatment and control groups. In addition, this conclusion still holds after conducting multiple robustness tests. The cross-section analysis shows that the external audit supervision quality, institutional shareholders, and the uncertainty of the external economic environment have significant impacts on the baseline model results. Lastly, mediation effect analysis shows that the presence of MLS increases the corporate operating risk through EM activities. The conclusions of this paper are critical for policymakers to supervise China’s capital market, improve the level of corporate governance of China’s listed firms, and further promote reform of ownership structure.

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) emphasizes the identification and exploitation of business opportunities, while entrepreneurial action learning (EAL) underscores the acquisition of knowledge through practical experience and continuous improvement. Breakthroughs in both aspects contribute to maintaining flexibility, adapting to changes, and enabling success in competitive markets. The key to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lies in a clear Entrepreneurial Orientation, a focus on Entrepreneurial Action Learning, and the cultivation of innovation spirit through continuous practice and experience accumulation, thereby enhancing entrepreneurial performance (EP). This study aims to explore the impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Entrepreneurial Performance of SMEs, clarify the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Action Learning between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Performance, and investigate the variability of Entrepreneurial Performance among different industries. By means of data collection from 598 SMEs, data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The analysis results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation has a positive impact on entrepreneurial action learning and entrepreneurial performance, and entrepreneurial action learning has a positive impact on entrepreneurial performance. The study also found that entrepreneurial action learning partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial performance. There are certain differences in entrepreneurial performance among different industries. This study enriches the relevant literature in the field of entrepreneurship. Additionally, research on entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial action learning, and entrepreneurial performance in specific regional contexts is very limited, making this study valuable for subsequent research in related areas.

The Nigerian Civil Service faces ongoing challenges in optimizing employee commitment, which is fundamental for efficient service delivery and societal progress. Hence, this paper focuses on the mediating effect of job satisfaction on talent engagement and employee commitment in the Nigerian Civil Service. The study adopted a quantitative approach, which allowed for a survey design to be adopted. A sample of 198 middle- and lower-level managers in the civil service was used. Questionnaires were used for data collection, and SmartPls 3.9 was used for data analysis. The result showed that talent engagement significantly predicts employee commitment and that job satisfaction is a good mediator in the relationship between talent engagement and employee commitment in the Nigerian Civil Service. The findings suggest that creating an engaged workforce through talent engagement can have a positive influence on employee commitment within the public sector, which can result in improved public services and contribute to overall societal development.