Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal Transformation of End-of-Life Latex to Valuable Materials

Recent studies have demonstrated that carbon nanomaterials have huge potential in composite applications, but there is a continuous quest for identifying the most viable technique for producing this material. In this study, the possibility of using an innovative approach for the synthesis of value-added carbon nanomaterials and green gases from end-of-life soft mattress materials (latex) was investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to determine the thermal degradation of latex. Quantitative gas analysis at three different temperatures by infrared spectroscopy (IR) suggested that small gas molecules, especially CH4, could be produced at a higher temperature. The carbon residues produced after gas analysis were characterised by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy, suggesting the possibility of direct synthesis of carbon nanomaterials from waste latex. These carbon materials have Na, Zn, Si, and K in their structure, and further study is needed for understanding the effect of these elements on composite properties. Our study demonstrated that heat treatment of waste latex at 1000 °C for 15 min produced carbon materials, which contained 7–16% S and 1.2–2% N, and gases, such as CH4, could be synthesised.
Strategic Objectives of Corporate Venture Capital as a Tool for Open Innovation

Corporations are confronted with challenges adjusting to changing technologies and markets. Seeking innovations externally through open innovation is a possible approach to go beyond the internal development of innovations. One practice of open innovation to assimilate external knowledge is corporate venture capital (CVC), meaning minority investments in entrepreneurial ventures by incumbent firms, whereby the objectives of CVC investments might be purely financial or may pursue strategic goals. CVC has been identified as a possible approach to ambidexterity, since investments in new ventures can allow to explore new technologies and markets, or to improve internal exploitative capabilities. Although literature on the potential strategic benefits of CVC is abundantly available, a systematic conceptualization of strategic objectives is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines strategic objectives of CVC and seeks to enrich, extend and conceptualize existing research through a theoretical framework. The conceptual foundation of this study embeds CVC in the ambidexterity literature, and clusters objectives of CVC investments in view of an ambidextrous organization and the degree of autonomy given to CVC units. The strategic objectives that can be pursued through CVC investments are (a) strengthening the core business, (b) leveraging the ecosystem, and (c) exploring new markets and technologies. This study concludes with a comprehensive overview of the strategic objectives that can be pursued by CVC, illustrates the barriers and limitations of CVC investments, and discusses the role of autonomy and ambidexterity with respect to the individual strategic objectives. Hereby, CVC is identified as a powerful approach to engage in open innovation practices, since it allows one to pursue a range of different strategic objectives through tapping into external knowledge held by new ventures. Often considered an approach for exploring new technologies through external knowledge acquisition, CVC is also identified as an open innovation approach that allows organizations to increase their internal exploitation capabilities.
A cover‐based contact detection approach for irregular convex polygons in discontinuous deformation analysis

Irregular polygon shapes (eg, with small edges or small angles) are usually encountered in the contact simulation of discrete block systems. Treatment of irregular polygons in contact detection process has critical effects on the robustness and efficiency of the discontinuous computation approach. The present work proposes a cover‐based strategy to detect and solve contacts of irregular convex polygons in a robust and efficient way. Contact constraints of two polygons are represented by vertex‐edge and edge‐vertex contact covers in 2D. Two loops, namely vertex‐edge loop and edge‐vertex loop, and two filter criteria, namely the entrance filter criterion and the distance filter criterion, are used to establish the potential contact cover list of two neighbor polygons. The initial active and closed contact covers are chosen based on block configuration at the beginning of the step and they are then updated in the open‐close iteration process using proposed criteria. This strategy is implemented in discontinuous deformation analysis. The robustness of the proposed cover‐based approach and the conventional type‐based approach in handling contact of irregular blocks is verified first. Then, the contact analysis efficiency of the cover‐based approach with different contact tolerances is evaluated. This cover‐based method can be extended to 3D case for efficient and robust contact analysis of irregular polyhedral blocks.
How does Urban Pollution Influence Macroinvertebrate Traits in Forested Riverine Systems?

The influence of urbanization on macroinvertebrate traits was explored in forested rivers in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. Physico-chemical variables were sampled on a monthly basis alongside macroinvertebrates in 20 sites of 11 rivers spanning 2008–2012. Physico-chemical variables were used to classify the 20 sites into three ecological classes, namely: least impacted sites (LIS), moderately impacted sites (MIS) and highly impacted sites (HIS) using principal component analysis. Our results based on RLQ (R = physico-chemical variables, L = macroinvertebrate taxa and Q = macroinvertebrate traits) and fourth-corner analyses revealed that large body size, grazing and hardshell were positively significantly associated with LIS on the RLQ. They were also either negatively correlated with any two of water temperature, nutrients, BOD5 and flow velocity or positively significantly correlated with increasing DO. Thus, these traits were considered sensitive to urban pollution in forested rivers. Burrowing, predation and pupa aquatic stage, which were positively associated with HIS, were also significantly negatively correlated with increasing DO, and were deemed tolerant of urban pollution in forested rivers. Box plots and a Kruskal–Wallis test revealed that the three sensitive traits were significantly highest at LIS (p < 0.05) except grazing; while the three tolerant traits were significantly highest at MIS (p < 0.05) except burrowing. Overall, this study revealed that urban pollution influences macroinvertebrate traits differently in forested rivers.
The Effects of Holiday Leisure Travel on Subjective Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Experience Sharing

Despite growing interest in experience sharing among leisure travelers, there is still limited research concerning the role of travel experience sharing on leisure traveler’s life satisfaction. The main objective of this research is to test the moderation effects of experience sharing during and after leisure travel on the bottom-up spillover process of tourists’ leisure travel satisfaction–life satisfaction hierarchy. The positive effect of holiday trip motivation fulfillment on overall holiday trip satisfaction is hypothesized to be amplified by on-site experience sharing (e.g., uploading holiday pictures or videos to social media platforms while traveling). Also, the positive effect of holiday trip satisfaction on holiday travelers’ subjective well-being is hypothesized to be amplified by posttrip experience sharing (e.g., publishing blog posts or travel reports online post trip). We used data from a large-scale social survey in Germany (N = 2,198) and the results confirmed the hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Heterogeneity of Cash Markets at Physical Delivery Points and the Hedging Effectiveness of Agricultural Commodity Futures in India – Lessons for Contract Optimization.

Agricultural commodity futures in India are settled by physical delivery and the seller can choose the location of delivery from a list described in the contract specifications. Cash markets at these locations represent the deliverable basket for the futures contract and are the underlying assets for the delivery options granted to the seller by virtue of contract design. These cash markets are generally heterogenous. This paper studies the impact of heterogeneity of the underlying cash markets in different locations on the hedging effectiveness of the associated futures contract. The hedging effectiveness of cottonseed oilcake and soybean futures is regressed against several variables that represent heterogeneity of the underlying cash markets using ridge regression. We find that in general, the greater the heterogeneity, the poorer the hedging effectiveness of the contract. This paper is unique in that it provides a framework for guidance for contract designers at exchanges and regulators who will find this research useful in optimizing delivery specifications for agricultural futures contracts. This is especially important given the declining volumes in Indian agricultural commodity futures.
Towards a Sustainable Society through Emerging Mobility Services: A Case of Autonomous Buses

The topic of emerging mobility services has quickly received attention from scholars and media in recent years. Mobility services employing autonomous buses in transport systems is one such example. Mobility services using emerging technologies are expected to create social, economic, and environmental benefits. However, the potential benefits of emerging mobility services using autonomous technology will not be realized unless self-driving vehicles are accepted and used by many passengers. The recent worldwide pandemic caused us to recognize the benefits of autonomous technologies. This pretest-and-posttest designed research examines the predictors of willingness to ride autonomous buses in a closed environment. The results of this study indicate that a combination of factors, such as societal benefits, attitude and technology adoption, directly and indirectly influence an individual’s acceptance of autonomous buses. This study finds that passengers’ willingness to use emerging mobility services after a sample riding experience is higher than before having a sample riding experience.
Gold Nanostructured Surface for Electrochemical Sensing and Biosensing: Does Shape Matter?

ABSTRACT The construction of an electrochemical sensor based on a gold working electrode modified with gold nanostructures was achieved by galvanic deposition into an anodic alumina nanoporous template. Two approaches were investigated to fabricate the nanostructures of various sizes and shapes. First, gold deposition was performed through a thin alumina template resulting in the production of nanorods. In the second approach, alumina pores were widened to form cup-shaped nanostructures. The detailed topography of the nanostructured surfaces was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The lengths and the diameters of the nanostructures were anticipated to have a significant influence on the surface area and thus on the capacity to promote electron-transfer reactions. This dependence was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The functionalization of electrode surface with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid provided a basis for further bonding with analytes. A modified Randles equivalent circuit model with a constant phase element was used to interpret the impedance spectra. The interfacial properties of the modified electrodes were also evaluated by cyclic voltammetry in the presence of the Fe(CN)63−/4− redox couple as a probe. The results showed that the voltammetric behavior of the probe was influenced by surface modification. The accumulation of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid on the nanostructured electrode surface did not result in the expected increase in charge-transfer resistance and the decreased capacitance, unlike the cup-shaped nanostructured electrode.
NLO properties of polymeric Langmuir-Blodgett films of sulfonamide-substituted azobenzenes

The behaviour at the air/water interface of polymeric materials containing sulfonamide-substituted azobenzene chromophores has been investigated using surface pressure versus area measurements. Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of the polymers have been built up and then studied using X-ray diffraction. The polymer which gave the best organised LB film has been used to prepare an alternating Y-type multilayer structure with a polymer inactive in non-linear optics. The obtained film has a well-ordered polymeric LB structure giving three Bragg peaks. A series of films with various numbers of bilayers within the range from 2 to 80 has been prepared and the second harmonic generating properties of the films investigated. The measured intensity of the SH signal produced from incident light of wavelength 1064 nm was proportional to the square of the number of bilayers. The alternating LB films exhibited a non-linear susceptibility of up to 24 pm V –1 corresponding to a chromophore non-linear vector susceptibility of magnitude χ zzz (2) =170 pm V –1 .
Starvation-Dependent Inhibition of the Hydrocarbon Degrader Marinobacter sp. TT1 by a Chemical Dispersant

During marine oil spills, chemical dispersants are used routinely to disperse surface slicks, transferring the hydrocarbon constituents of oil into the aqueous phase. Nonetheless, a comprehensive understanding of how dispersants affect natural populations of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, particularly under environmentally relevant conditions, is lacking. We investigated the impacts of the dispersant Corexit EC9500A on the marine hydrocarbon degrader Marinobacter sp. TT1 when pre-adapted to either low n-hexadecane concentrations (starved culture) or high n-hexadecane concentrations (well-fed culture). The growth of previously starved cells was inhibited when exposed to the dispersant, as evidenced by 55% lower cell numbers and 30% lower n-hexadecane biodegradation efficiency compared to cells grown on n-hexadecane alone. Cultures that were well-fed did not exhibit dispersant-induced inhibition of growth or n-hexadecane degradation. In addition, fluorescence microscopy revealed amorphous cell aggregate structures when the starved culture was exposed to dispersants, suggesting that Corexit affected the biofilm formation behavior of starved cells. Our findings indicate that (previous) substrate limitation, resembling oligotrophic open ocean conditions, can impact the response and hydrocarbon-degrading activities of oil-degrading organisms when exposed to Corexit, and highlight the need for further work to better understand the implications of environmental stressors on oil biodegradation and microbial community dynamics.
Co-inoculation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum and Azospirillum brasilense on the physiological quality of soybean seeds

The success of the soybean crop depends on the physiological quality of seeds, which can be favored by beneficial microorganisms, however, it may be impaired by unfavorable environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of co-inoculation with Bradyrhizobium japonicum and Azospirillum brasilense on the physiological quality of soybean seeds obtained in the 2017/2018 crop season, from a field trial involving 23 cultivars submitted to co-inoculation (in-furrow) or without coinoculation. Plants were assessed for nodulation at R1 and, after harvest at R8, seeds were assessed for concentration of proteins, mass of thousand seeds, and seed physiological quality [(Germination, emergence of seedlings in sand, and Emergence Speed Index (ESI)]. In the average of cultivars, the number of nodules per plant increased from 36.0 in the control to 44.4 nodules with co-inoculation. Increases in the concentration of proteins and in the mass of thousand seeds due to co-inoculation were 5.6% and 34.7%, respectively. Seeds originated from co-inoculated plants had higher germination rate at the first (50% vs. 45.3%) and at the final (87% vs. 79.8%) countings, in addition to higher rate of seedlings emergence in sand box (83.3% vs. 80%), and higher ESI (18.5 vs. 17.4). The benefits of coinoculation were observed in 17 of 23 cultivars (74%) for at least two of the seven assessed variables. Considering only the minimal germination of 80%, the seeds originated from 10 non-inoculated cultivars could not be used, whereas for the co-inoculated plants this number fell to four.
Microfluidic Approach for Lead Halide Perovskite Flexible Phototransistors

Lead halide perovskites possess outstanding optical characteristics that can be employed in the fabrication of phototransistors. However, due to low current modulation at room temperature, sensitivity to the ambient environment, lack of patterning techniques and low carrier mobility of polycrystalline form, investigation in perovskite phototransistors has been limited to rigid substrates such as silicon and glass to improve the film quality. Here, we report on room temperature current modulation in a methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (MAPbI3) flexible transistor made by an extremely cheap and facile fabrication process. The proposed phototransistor has the top-gate configuration with a lateral drain–channel–source structure. The device performed in the linear and saturation regions both in the dark and under white light in different current ranges according to the illumination conditions. The transistor showed p-type transport characteristics and the field effect mobility of the device was calculated to be ~1.7 cm2 V−1 s−1. This study is expected to contribute to the development of MAPbI3 flexible phototransistors.
A Memetic Decomposition-Based Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm Applied to a Constrained Menu Planning Problem

Encouraging healthy and balanced diet plans is one of the most important action points for governments around the world. Generating healthy, balanced and inexpensive menu plans that fulfil all the recommendations given by nutritionists is a complex and time-consuming task; because of this, computer science has an important role in this area. This paper deals with a novel constrained multi-objective formulation of the menu planning problem specially designed for school canteens that considers the minimisation of the cost and the minimisation of the level of repetition of the specific courses and food groups contained in the plans. Particularly, this paper proposes a multi-objective memetic approach based on the well-known multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). A crossover operator specifically designed for this problem is included in the approach. Moreover, an ad-hoc iterated local search (ILS) is considered for the improvement phase. As a result, our proposal is referred to as ILS-MOEA/D. A wide experimental comparison against a recently proposed single-objective memetic scheme, which includes explicit mechanisms to promote diversity in the decision variable space, is provided. The experimental assessment shows that, even though the single-objective approach yields menu plans with lower costs, our multi-objective proposal offers menu plans with a significantly lower level of repetition of courses and food groups, with only a minor increase in cost. Furthermore, our studies demonstrate that the application of multi-objective optimisers can be used to implicitly promote diversity not only in the objective function space, but also in the decision variable space. Consequently, in contrast to the single-objective optimiser, there was no need to include an explicit strategy to manage the diversity in the decision space in the case of the multi-objective approach.
Common Mode Voltage Reduction in Matrix Converter with Multicarrier PWM Scheme

Conventional AC-DC-AC converters have inherent bulky DC bus capacitors. However, the DC bus capacitors have the disadvantages including bulkiness, limited life-time, expensiveness, and unreliability. Therefore, converters without the bulky DC bus capacitors are presented, which is the appearance of AC-AC matrix converters. This study discusses the characteristics of the AC-AC matrix converters. Furthermore, the multicarrier pulse width modulation (PWM) schemes are proposed to reduce the common mode voltage in the AC-AC matrix converters. The simulation results are presented to evaluate the performances of the AC-AC matrix converters with multicarrier PWM scheme.
Recent Trends in Heat-Related Mortality in the United States: An Update through 2018

Much research has shown a general decrease in the negative health response to extreme heat events in recent decades. With a society that is growing older, and a climate that is warming, whether this trend can continue is an open question. Using eight additional years of mortality data, we extend our previous research to explore trends in heat-related mortality across the United States. For the period 1975–2018, we examined the mortality associated with extreme-heat-event days across the 107 largest metropolitan areas. Mortality response was assessed over a cumulative 10-day lag period following events that were defined using thresholds of the excess heat factor, using a distributed-lag nonlinear model. We analyzed total mortality and subsets of age and sex. Our results show that in the past decade there is heterogeneity in the trends of heat-related human mortality. The decrease in heat vulnerability continues among those 65 and older across most of the country, which may be associated with improved messaging and increased awareness. These decreases are offset in many locations by an increase in mortality among men 45–64 (+1.3 deaths per year), particularly across parts of the southern and southwestern United States. As heat-warning messaging broadly identifies the elderly as the most vulnerable group, the results here suggest that differences in risk perception may play a role. Further, an increase in the number of heat events over the past decade across the United States may have contributed to the end of a decades-long downward trend in the estimated number of heat-related fatalities.