bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Physical, Chemical and Thermal Properties of Palm Oil Boiler Ash/Rediset-Modified Asphalt Binder
Authors: Rosyidi Sri Atmaja P. , Idiajir Bayu , Akhir Norliza Mohd , Rahmad Suzielah , Lestari Nor Puji , Widoanindyawati Vemi , Al-Sabaeei Abdulnaser M. , Milad Abdalrhman , Mashaan Nuha S. , Md Yusoff Nur Izzi
Published: March 2022

The growth of the palm oil industry has resulted in an increase in the production of solid waste, created from the extraction of fresh fruit bunches, which can take the form of palm oil boiler ash (POBA). POBA can be used to modify asphalt binder and asphalt mixtures to reduce the harmful effect of this waste on the environment. The objective of each modification is to increase the strength, stiffness, durability, workability and constructability of asphalt mixtures while reducing the environmental effects. This study examines the physical and chemical properties of 60/70 penetration-grade asphalt binder, modified using POBA and warm mix asphalt (WMA) additive. Ranges of modified binder were prepared by adding 2% of the warm additive Rediset with different POBA contents (3%, 5%, 7% and 9%) throughout the wet mixing process. Physical properties of modified binder were obtained from penetration, softening point, ductility and rotational viscosity tests. Molecular components and structures of the modified binder were identified using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to determine the thermal properties of modified asphalt binder. The addition of 7% POBA in WMA binder showed the best characteristics in the tested consistency of its physical properties. As a modifier, POBA showed no chemical interaction with the molecules and structures of the asphalt binder and did not significantly change the physicochemical transitions. From the results, it can be concluded that using POBA in WMA binder for pavement construction is a viable option.
Effects of Hallyu on Chinese Consumers: A Focus on Remote Acculturation
Authors: Sun Lili , Jun Jong-Woo
Published: March 2022

Remote acculturation is a modern form of non-immigrant acculturation, which has primarily been used to investigate local people’s acculturation toward one or more foreign cultures. It has been approximately 30 years since the introduction of the first Korean TV drama Jealousy into China in 1993, and China is the birthplace of the Chinese term of Hallyu. Chinese people have experienced a long-term and far-reaching impact of Hallyu and Korean culture. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the effects of Hallyu (e.g., degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents, the Hallyu image, and Hallyu cultural familiarity) on Chinese consumers, with a focus on remote acculturation. A total of 623 Chinese consumers’ survey data were collected, and an analysis of a structural equation model (SEM) was conducted to verify the research hypotheses. The results manifest that the degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents, the Hallyu image, the Hallyu cognitive image, the Hallyu affective image and Hallyu cultural familiarity positively influence Korean cultural orientation, while the Hallyu image, the Hallyu cognitive image and the Hallyu affective image exert a negative impact on Chinese cultural orientation, but the degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents and Hallyu cultural familiarity do not significantly negatively affect Chinese cultural orientation. Moreover, Korean cultural orientation brings about a positive effect on attitudes toward Korea, while Chinese cultural orientation negatively impacts on attitudes toward Korea. Additionally, attitudes toward Korea generate a positive influence on visit intention to Korea, along with the intention to purchase Korean products. Overall, this paper enriches the research objects of remote acculturation, extends the research scope of remote acculturation and provides a new perspective for studies on Hallyu by introducing remote acculturation into the exploration of Hallyu.
The Coffee Compromise: Is Agricultural Expansion into Tree Plantations a Sustainable Option?
Authors: Fitch Alice , Rowe Rebecca L. , McNamara Niall P. , Prayogo Cahyo , Ishaq Rizky Maulana , Prasetyo Rizki Dwi , Mitchell Zak , Oakley Simon , Jones Laurence
Published: March 2022

In tropical regions, land-use pressures between natural forest, commercial tree plantations, and agricultural land for rural communities are widespread. One option is to increase the functionality of commercial plantations by allowing agroforestry within them by rural communities. Such land-sharing options could address wider societal and environmental issues and reduce pressure on natural forest. To investigate the trade-offs involved, we used InVEST to model the ecosystem services provided by growing coffee under commercial pine plantations in Indonesia against other land-use options. Pine–coffee agroforestry provided worse supporting and regulating services (carbon, sediment and nitrogen retention, catchment runoff) than natural forest; however, it provided greater provisioning services (product yield) directly to smallholders. Converting pine monoculture into pine-coffee agroforestry led to increases in all ecosystem services, although there was an increased risk to water quality. Compared with coffee and root crop monocultures, pine–coffee agroforestry provided higher levels of supporting and regulating services; however, product yields were lower. Thus, opening up pine plantations for agroforestry realises additional income-generating opportunities for rural communities, provides wider ecosystem service benefits, and reduces pressure for land-use change. Lower smallholder yields could be addressed through the management of shade levels or through Payments for Ecosystem Services schemes.
An Evolutionary Descent Algorithm for Customer-Oriented Mobility-On-Demand Problems
Authors: Nasri Sonia , Bouziri Hend , Aggoune-Mtalaa Wassila
Published: March 2022

This paper is addressing a new class of on-demand transport problems oriented toward customers. A mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed with new effective constraints that contribute to enhancing the quality of service. An exact resolution has been achieved, leading to lower bounds of the solution space of real cases of on-demand transport problems. To overcome the exponential computational time of the exact resolution, an evolutionary descent method is developed. It relies on a new operator for perturbing the search. The comparative results between the new method and the branch and bound show low gaps for almost all the instances tested with lower execution times. The results of the evolutionary descent method are also compared with the results of two different heuristics, namely a Tabu Search and an Evolutionary Local Search. Our evolutionary method demonstrates its effectiveness through competitive and promising results.
The Impact of CSR on the Performance of a Dual-Channel Closed-Loop Supply Chain under Two Carbon Regulatory Policies
Authors: Zhang Fuan , Li Na
Published: March 2022

Under different carbon regulatory policies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities will have different impacts on the environmental benefits of the supply chain and corporate carbon emission reduction decisions. In this study, we examine a dual-channel closed-loop supply chain consisting of a single manufacturer selling re-products generated from waste products and a single retailer selling new products and consider two settings: enforcing a carbon tax policy or enforcing a subsidy policy. Under each setting, we put CSR into account, construct two models for the retailer to implement or not implement CSR activities, and analyze the decisions obtained under optimal solutions. Through numerical simulation and comparative research, we observe that the carbon tax policy applies to the supply chain where CSR activities are implemented, while the subsidy policy applies to the supply chain where CSR activities are not implemented. Reasonable selection of CSR implementation methods with low-cost coefficients by the retailer is conducive to eliminating profit conflicts among supply chain members. The government should fully consider the decision-making thresholds of supply chain members to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the policy.
A Bi-Objective Field-Visit Planning Problem for Rapid Needs Assessment under Travel-Time Uncertainty
Authors: Hakimifar Mohammadmehdi , Hemmelmayr Vera C. , Tricoire Fabien
Published: March 2022

After a sudden-onset disaster strikes, relief agencies usually dispatch assessment teams to the affected region to quickly investigate the impacts of the disaster on the affected communities. Within this process, assessment teams should compromise between the two conflicting objectives of a “faster” assessment, which covers the needs of fewer community groups, and a “better” assessment, i.e., covering more community groups over a longer time. Moreover, due to the possible effect of the disaster on the transportation network, assessment teams need to make their field-visit planning decisions under travel-time uncertainty. This study considers the two objectives of minimizing the total route duration and maximizing the coverage ratio of community groups, as well as the uncertainty of travel times, during the rapid needs assessment stage. In particular, within our bi-objective solution approach, we provide the set of non-dominated solutions that differ in terms of total route duration and the vector of community coverage ratio at different levels of travel-time uncertainty. Moreover, we provide an in-depth analysis of the amount of violation of maximum allowed time for decision makers to see the trade-offs between infeasibility and solution quality. We apply the robust optimization approach to tackle travel-time uncertainty due to its advantages in requiring fewer data for uncertain parameters and immunizing a feasible solution under all possible realizations.
Activity Chains Modelling of Travellers by Using Logit Models Based on the Utility Function
Authors: Al-Salih Wissam Qassim , Esztergár Kiss Domokos
Published: March 2022

Transportation planning plays an essential role in improving the transportation system. Therefore, planners should have the ability to forecast the response of transportation demand to changes in the characteristics of the travellers. This has led researchers to work on more effective behavioural models by updating conventional models and replacing them with activity-based modelling to describe the daily activity chains performed by travellers. So, this study uses the activity model to model and analyse daily activity to identify the factors affecting the activity chain. This study aims to use logit models based on the utility function for modelling the activity chains of travellers in Budapest city. At the same time, we identify the effects of various characteristics related to the traveller, trip and location in the activity chains. This paper presents the relationships between the two aspects of travel behaviour and activity chains by providing two different causal structures. The results showed that the location attribute, activity duration and activity purpose were most influential on the activity chains. This study provides good insights into activity chains behaviour of travellers. It also extends the need to incorporate activity model behaviour within these complicated processes and household and individual decision making of daily activity.
Stability Analysis of Continuous Stochastic Linear Model
Authors: Du Jun , Jia Bin , Zheng Shiteng
Published: March 2022

Many scholars have conducted research on the traffic oscillations and reproduced the growth pattern by establishing stochastic models and simulations. However, the growth pattern of oscillations caused by uncertainty have not been thoroughly studied. Recently, a frequency domain stability analysis method was proposed to analyze the discrete stochastic model. This paper extends this analysis to a continuous situation based on frequency domain tools (e.g., Laplace transform) by introducing a continuous bandlimited white noise. The analytical expression for the evolution of speed standard deviation has been derived. Our study of a homogeneous case reveals an interesting phenomenon: when |G(ω)|∞<1, the speed variance will converge to a constant value, which only depends on the self-disturbance of vehicles. The simulation results verified that the continuous models and corresponding discrete model tend to be consistent when the discrete time step tends to the infinitesimal. Overall, this paper makes up for the deficiency of previous studies on continuous oscillations in car-following theory and can potentially be used to develop new control strategies to help dampen traffic oscillations.
(In)Visible Tourism According to Online Cash Registers in Hungary, 2018–2020
Authors: Tóth Géza , Kincses Áron
Published: March 2022

The aim of this paper is to share innovations and some key lessons learned in the use of non-traditional data sources to improve data quality and enable more accurate and efficient data use in the field of tourism. Research on visitor traffic is based on classical statistical measures, but it may be worth expanding it with alternative data sources, such as databases based on online cash register (OCR) data. These data can be particularly useful for analysing tourism-related consumption habits in a given area. The study introduces the “invisible”, tourism-related, non-accommodation spending characteristics of transit traffic in Hungary, the possibilities of its analysis and spatial aspects, using online cash register data (includes all retail sales in Hungary, except for motorcycle purchases), and additionally, we identify the most affected municipalities which are invisible for traditional data sources. The results show that invisible tourism, linked to transit traffic, has significant economic potential. The analysis of this new type of database will provide a more accurate and faster picture of consumption associated with hidden tourism, which can be an important input for economic and marketing development.
Impact of ICT and Globalization on Educational Attainment: Evidence from the New EU Member States
Authors: Sart Gamze , Bayar Yilmaz , Corpădean Adrian-Gabriel , Gavriletea Marius Dan
Published: March 2022

Education is a critical factor underlying the social and economic development of countries and their citizens. Therefore, the specification of factors affecting educational attainment is crucial for the planning and implementation of optimal educational policies. The objective of the article is to research the influence of information and communication technology (ICT), proxied by the ICT index and globalization index on educational attainment in the new EU Member States over the term of 2000–2018 by means of the causality and cointegration test. The causality test points out a unilateral causality from ICT to educational attainment and a bidirectional causality between ICT and globalization. In other words, ICT has a significant effect on educational attainment, but globalization influences educational attainment by way of ICT in the short term. On the other hand, the cointegration test uncovers a positive effect of ICT on educational attainment at panel level and in Croatia, Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia in the long term, while globalization has a positive effect on educational attainment in Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland. The findings of the cointegration test also support those of the causality test and denote that both ICT and globalization can be effective instruments for improving educational attainment, depending on countries’ current human and physical capital and education policies.
Managing Reputation in MNEs through Intangible Liabilities
Authors: García-López Maria-José , Durán Juan-José , Avilés-Palacios Carmen
Published: March 2022

Company-specific assets, especially those of an intangible nature, are sources of value for the firm; consequently, the company should carry out a good management of them to increase the firm’s competitiveness, accesses to financing, reduce risks and improve its reputation. However, no attention has been paid to the concept of intangible liabilities that a company may create or develop and its effects on the value of the firm, and the relationship with its competitiveness and reputation, with reputation being considered as the public recognition (perception) of the quality of activities of the firm by both internal and external stakeholders of the organization. The right identification of them should allow us to better manage companies. Through literature analysis and empirical observations, we identify different sources of intangible liabilities and their effect on the value of the firm, highlighting those of them that implies a negative impact in the firm reputation. We identified which factors are greatly impacted when firm reputation decreases, so that a constructor is proposed to explain the relationship among reputation and the potential of generating implicit intangible liabilities. As result of an empirical analysis, we conclude that the factors (corporate assets, quality of management, financial soundness and long-term investment) impacting more on perception of reputation by stakeholders are those linked to the management style of the MNE. This would help MNCs to better manage both intangible assets and liabilities.
Understanding Sustainability of Construction Products: Answers from Investors, Contractors, and Sellers of Building Materials
Authors: Michalak Jacek , Michałowski Bartosz
Published: March 2022

Preventing environmental degradation and climate changes are some of the primary challenges of our civilization. Changes to the construction sector, which consumes vast amounts of raw materials, emits significant amounts of greenhouse gas and significant amounts of waste, are very important to reduce emissions and stop negative environmental changes. Regardless of the type of goal, an essential element to achieve it is understanding the purpose and tools necessary to implement appropriate and efficient solutions. This paper presents the survey results on understanding issues related to assessing construction products, including their environmental impact. The survey was conducted among professional groups related to construction, i.e., 181 investors, 522 contractors, and 116 sellers of construction products from various regions of Poland. Questions concerning thermal insulation materials and the external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS), the most widely used solution in the EU for the improvement of thermal performance of buildings, were asked. The obtained results indicate that the knowledge of the basic requirements of construction works under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is not too high (the share of correct answers was respectively 33.5%, 23.2%, and 16.2% in contractors, sellers, and investors groups). Similarly, the awareness of the tested, related to the environmental burden in terms of GWP of insulation materials and components of ETICS, should be assessed (49.7% of investors, 57.1% sellers of construction products, and 76.4% contractors indicated the thermal insulation material as the ETICS component with the highest environmental impact in terms of GWP). The obtained research results indicate the need for further education for evaluating construction products and sustainability.
Land- and Skyscapes of the Camino de Santiago: An Astronomy and World Heritage Sustainable Approach
Authors: Urrutia-Aparicio Maitane , Belmonte Juan A. , González-García Antonio César
Published: March 2022

The Romanesque churches dotted along the Way of Saint James are magnificent examples of cultural heritage, and their analysis from the perspective of cultural astronomy may, in an unobtrusive manner, provide information of hitherto unexplored facets of these treasures. This study aims to examine the pilgrimage road as a communication channel and to seek possible regional variations in the Christian kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon. Seen as a whole, the Romanesque churches of our sample present two main orientation patterns: towards either the ecclesiastical and astronomical equinox or to certain Easter Sunday celestial phenomena. However, equinoctial orientations are present only in Leon and Navarre, while Easter appears with more or less significance in every kingdom. The Camino de Santiago constitutes a sacred landscape with a common heritage, with a certain degree of cultural diversity that depends on the territory. These subtle differences have surfaced only in light of archaeoastronomical investigations.
Value from Development-Led Archaeology in the UK: Advancing the Narrative to Reflect Societal Changes
Authors: Watson Sadie , Fredheim Harald
Published: March 2022

This paper explores how current challenges in the development-led system of archaeology in the UK are widely applicable elsewhere. Using the UK model, we explore the legislative and structural frameworks that enable archaeological work and the pressing need to better provide benefit for the wider public from that work. We believe that there is a focus on outputs rather than outcomes, which has perpetuated the idea that contracting archaeology is a product of development rather than a process that can instigate social value. We argue that the shift to public benefit and social value in UK policy should be encouraging practitioners operating within this industry to pay more attention to the links between their standard contracting practice and the benefits they deliver to people through their work. We explore why this could be a way of meeting policy priorities but also an opportunity to bridge the gaps between expert-identified heritage values and societal needs.
Achieving Sustainability of the Seafood Sector in the European Atlantic Area by Addressing Eco-Social Challenges: The NEPTUNUS Project
Authors: Laso Jara , Ruiz-Salmón Israel , Margallo María , Villanueva-Rey Pedro , Poceiro Lucía , Quinteiro Paula , Dias Ana Cláudia , Almeida Cheila , Marques António , Entrena-Barbero Eduardo , Moreira María Teresa , Feijoo Gumersindo , Loubet Philippe , Sonnemann Guido , Cooney Ronan , Clifford Eoghan , Regueiro Leticia , Sousa David Alonso Baptista de , Jacob Céline , Noirot Christelle , Martin Jean-Christophe , Raffray Morgan , Rowan Neil , Mellett Sinead , Aldaco Rubén
Published: March 2022

Fisheries and aquaculture are becoming a focus of societal concern driven by globalization and increasing environmental degradation, mainly caused by climate change and marine litter. In response to this problem, the European Atlantic Area NEPTUNUS project aims to support and inform about the sustainability of the seafood sector, boosting the transition towards a circular economy through defining eco-innovation approaches and a steady methodology for eco-labelling products. This timely trans-regional European project proposes key corrective actions for positively influencing resource efficiency by addressing a life cycle thinking and involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes, harnessing the water-energy-seafood nexus. This paper presents inter-related objectives, methodologies and cues to action that will potentially meet these challenges that are aligned with many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and European policy frameworks (e.g., Farm to Fork, European Green Deal).
The New Island-Wide LS Factors of Taiwan, with Comparison with EU Nations
Authors: Chen Walter , Nguyen Kieu Anh
Published: March 2022

Soil erosion is a global environmental challenge that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) #15 wants to address, and the topographic factor, according to the RUSLE (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation) model, is one of the most critical factors causing soil erosion. In this study, we employed three separate digital elevation models of Taiwan, with horizontal resolution ranging from 20 to 90 m, to compute the LS factors based on the upslope contributing areas and multiple flow directions, utilizing the methodologies used by the European Soil Data Centre. This is the first study to create a map of Taiwan’s island-wide LS factors without using a fixed slope length of 40 m. To compare European Union countries with Taiwan, we also calculated their LS means, standard deviations, and coefficients of variation of LS factors. As a result, Taiwan’s high LS values are readily noticeable as compared to the EU. Taiwan’s LS factor is greater than that of any EU country and the United Kingdom, at 2.69 times the EU average. To put it another way, while all other erosive factors are held equal, Taiwan’s average soil erosion is about 2.69 times that of the EU. With an LS factor of 6.95, Austria has the highest average LS in the EU, yet it is 91 percent of Taiwan’s. The findings demonstrate that Taiwan has a far higher mean LS factor than any EU country or the United Kingdom, which helps to partially explain why soil erosion in Taiwan is substantially higher than in the EU.
A Study Revelation on Market and Value-Realization of Ecological Product to the Control of Rocky Desertification in South China Karst
Authors: Shen Haiting , Liu Ziqi , Xiong Kangning , Li Liang
Published: March 2022

The restoration of the ecological environment in rocky desertification areas and economic development go hand in hand. With the support of the national policies from the “Ninth Five-Year Plan” to the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”, the related ecological industries and products derived from the control of rocky desertification in karst areas continue to emerge. It not only restrains and repairs the development of rocky desertification but also produces a higher regional economic value than the replaced industry, which has practical significance for targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in rocky desertification areas. The thesis classifies and summarizes the development status of ecological products from the perspectives of the basic theory of ecological products, industrial model construction, industrial demonstration, quality monitoring and evaluation, product sales space, product value realization and improvement research and proposes some scientific problems to be solved. The dual attributes of ecology and economy of ecological products are integrated, and a sustainable industrial model and industrial value-added enlightenment for consolidating the achievements of rocky desertification control is proposed.
Factors in Evaluating Online Learning in Higher Education in the Era of a New Normal Derived from an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Based Survey in South Korea
Authors: Cho Yoon Y. , Woo Hyunju
Published: March 2022

Before COVID-19, online learning in higher education was more of a choice than a requirement. The majority of universities in South Korea are currently not utilizing an evaluation index tailored specifically to online courses and are instead using the traditional in-person class evaluation standards. The study, hence, examines the factors that could be used to evaluate the quality of online learning in higher education taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic from the point of views of the main subjects of online education: e-learning system administrators, instructors, and students. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to determine the relative importance of factors in evaluating online learning. The conclusions derived from this research can be used as foundational material for evaluation factors of online learning in higher education.
Are Business Graduates’ Employability Skills and Learning/Teaching Techniques Universal? Exploring the Role of Culture: A Comparative Study among Australia, China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia
Authors: Bhatti Muhammad , Mat Saat Suzanie , Aleidan Megbel , Al Murshidi Ghadah , Alyahya Mansour , Juhari Ariff
Published: March 2022

The purpose of this study is to explore the employability skills required in different countries/cultures and to further explore how cultural differences influence teaching/learning techniques required to equip students with required employability skills. Data were collected from 158 human resource managers working in different organizations and 169 faculty members who were engaged in teaching business graduates in four culturally different countries: Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. SPSS version 20 was used to calculate the average and compute the values. Results of this study indicated that employability skills for business graduates vary among different counties/cultures but the five employability skills are common regardless of cultural differences: entry-level digital skills, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, decision making, and goal-oriented skills. In addition, the findings of this study also indicated that teaching/learning techniques such as case studies, conventional lectures, and simulations, etc., are not completely culture-sensitive and could be used in almost every country/culture. The findings of this study will be helpful for higher educational institutions, vocational training centers, and other stakeholders to use in determining the most effective teaching/learning techniques to equip the students with the employability skills required in their country/culture including common employability skills and make their graduates more employable.
Circular Economy: A Comprehensive Review of Eco-Friendly Wollastonite Applications
Authors: Peres Christiano Bruneli , Resende Pedro R. , Nunes Leonel J. R. , de Morais Leandro Cardoso
Published: March 2022

The growing increase in greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), by anthropogenic activities can be linked to extreme climate events, such as intensive droughts, floods, or hurricanes, and has led to several studies focused on reducing the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Some technologies, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), can potentially sequester billions of tons of CO2 per year. One of the promising methods is the use of carbon mineralization as a CCS methodology. For this approach, some minerals can be investigated, such as wollastonite, which can be obtained from agricultural waste recovery. One topic of interest in these studies is agriculture, demonstrating that it can play an important role in climate change mitigation. This work presents a critical review of the studies of rice waste use for potential synthesizing wollastonite as a path for CO2 storage, promoting the circular economy. Several works were analyzed and presented, addressing eco-friendly wollastonite use, such as in the cement industry, and they can contribute to a lower global warming potential. There is a promising way to explore, once there are few studies in the literature about CO2 capture and storage of wollastonite by carbon mineralization.
Looking Critically at Heat Loss through Party Walls
Authors: Palmer Jason , Terry Nicola
Published: March 2022

Heat loss through party walls to outside (not the neighbouring dwelling) has received considerable attention in the UK, and this was flagged as a serious omission from the UK Building Regulations in 2010-12. There was evidence of significant heat loss between adjoined terraced or semi-detached new homes, which was increasingly important as heat loss from other parts of dwellings was being reduced. As a result, Building Regulations were changed so that other parts of the building envelope had to be improved in new homes to compensate for heat loss through the party wall. However, this empirical work based on measuring heat loss through the party walls of 55 UK dwellings indicates that fears about high heat loss through party walls may have been exaggerated. While a minority of dwellings (less than 10%) do suffer from a “thermal bypass” through the party wall, for the vast majority of existing homes with party walls, heat loss through the party wall is minimal. There may be a case for revising UK Building Regulations to reflect this new evidence, and for re-directing the efforts aimed at reducing heat loss through party walls towards other opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of dwellings.
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Food Supply Chain and the Role of E-Commerce for Food Purchasing
Authors: Din Ashraf Ud , Han Heesup , Ariza-Montes Antonio , Vega-Muñoz Alejandro , Raposo António , Mohapatra Shruti
Published: March 2022

The world has been plagued by an unforeseen threat to public health by the appearance of COVID-19, which has impacted the world’s economy and the worldwide supply chain. The unexpected pandemic (COVID-19) quickly spread across the world, leaving not a single country unaffected by the worldwide pandemic. At the start of COVID-19, several countries adopted social distancing and lockdowns due to the virus. The existing pandemic’s discriminatory aspect has a negative influence on human health and the standard of living, as well as worldwide trade, supply chains, and major economies. COVID-19 has been shown to have an effect throughout the broader food supply chain, one of the largest significant sectors of any country, from the field to the consumers. There are currently substantial concerns regarding food production, manufacturing, delivery, and consumption in light of emerging issues within the food supply chain. Limitations on the mobility of workers, variations in consumer demands, the shutdown of food manufacturing industries, limited food trading regulations, and financial stress throughout the food supply chain are all results of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic (COVID-19) has changed consumer behavior and affected the business and economic sector. The purpose of this study was to explore the application of the Q-technique in the investigation of online consumer and manufacturer behavior in relation to end-user food purchases via digital marketing skills, supply chain possibilities, food purchaser and consumer happiness, and e-commerce infrastructure efficiency under the influence of COVID-19. The results show that in the crisis of supply chain management, clarifying the import food industry e-commerce supply chain crisis items, and determining their priority and strength can help enterprises make emergency decisions regarding supply chain operation; they can also be used as a reference for enterprises to use in responding to the crisis.
Electrochemical Detection of Dinitrobenzene on Silicon Electrodes: Toward Explosives Sensors
Authors: Dief Essam M. , Hoffmann Natasha , Darwish Nadim
Published: March 2022

Detection of explosives is vital for protection and criminal investigations, and developing novel explosives’ sensors stands at the forefront of the analytical and forensic chemistry endeavors. Due to the presence of terminal nitro groups that can be electrochemically reduced, nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) have been an analytical target for explosives’ electrochemical sensors. Various electrode materials have been used to detect NACs in solution, including glassy carbon electrodes (GCE), platinum (Pt), and gold (Au) electrodes, by tracking the reversible oxidation/reduction properties of the NACs on these electrodes. Here, we show that the reduction of dinitrobenzene (DNB) on oxide-free silicon (Si–H) electrodes is irreversible with two reduction peaks that disappear within the successive voltammetric scanning. AFM imaging showed the formation of a polymeric film whose thickness scales up with the DNB concentration. This suggest that Si–H surfaces can serve as DNB sensors and possibly other explosive substances. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements showed that the limit of detection (LoD) on Si–H is one order of magnitude lower than that obtained on GCE. In addition, EIS measurements showed that the LoD of DNB on Si–H is two orders of magnitude lower than the CV method. The fact that a Si–H surface can be used to track the presence of DNB makes it a suitable surface to be implemented as a sensing platform. To translate this concept into a sensor, however, it would require engineering and fabrication prospect to be compatible with the current semiconductor technologies.
On (p, q)-Sine and (p, q)-Cosine Fubini Polynomials
Authors: Khan Waseem Ahmad , Muhiuddin Ghulam , Duran Ugur , Al-Kadi Deena
Published: March 2022

In recent years, (p,q)-special polynomials, such as p,q-Euler, p,q-Genocchi, p,q-Bernoulli, and p,q-Frobenius-Euler, have been studied and investigated by many mathematicians, as well physicists. It is important that any polynomial have explicit formulas, symmetric identities, summation formulas, and relations with other polynomials. In this work, the (p,q)-sine and (p,q)-cosine Fubini polynomials are introduced and multifarious abovementioned properties for these polynomials are derived by utilizing some series manipulation methods. p,q-derivative operator rules and p,q-integral representations for the (p,q)-sine and (p,q)-cosine Fubini polynomials are also given. Moreover, several correlations related to both the (p,q)-Bernoulli, Euler, and Genocchi polynomials and the (p,q)-Stirling numbers of the second kind are developed.
Symmetry Constraints on Spin Order Transfer in Parahydrogen-Induced Polarization (PHIP)
Authors: Pravdivtsev Andrey N. , Barskiy Danila A. , Hövener Jan-Bernd , Koptyug Igor V.
Published: March 2022

It is well known that the association of parahydrogen (pH2) with an unsaturated molecule or a transient metalorganic complex can enhance the intensity of NMR signals; the effect is known as parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP). During recent decades, numerous methods were proposed for converting pH2-derived nuclear spin order to the observable magnetization of protons or other nuclei of interest, usually 13C or 15N. Here, we analyze the constraints imposed by the topological symmetry of the spin systems on the amplitude of transferred polarization. We find that in asymmetric systems, heteronuclei can be polarized to 100%. However, the amplitude drops to 75% in A2BX systems and further to 50% in A3B2X systems. The latter case is of primary importance for biological applications of PHIP using sidearm hydrogenation (PHIP-SAH). If the polarization is transferred to the same type of nuclei, i.e., 1H, symmetry constraints impose significant boundaries on the spin-order distribution. For AB, A2B, A3B, A2B2, AA’(AA’) systems, the maximum average polarization for each spin is 100%, 50%, 33.3%, 25%, and 0, respectively, (where A and B (or A’) came from pH2). Remarkably, if the polarization of all spins in a molecule is summed up, the total polarization grows asymptotically with ~1.27N and can exceed 2 in the absence of symmetry constraints (where N is the number of spins). We also discuss the effect of dipole–dipole-induced pH2 spin-order distribution in heterogeneous catalysis or nematic liquid crystals. Practical examples from the literature illustrate our theoretical analysis.
Analysis and Applications of Bonferroni Mean Operators and TOPSIS Method in Complete Cubic Intuitionistic Complex Fuzzy Information Systems
Authors: Mahmood Tahir , Ali Zeeshan , Baupradist Samruam , Chinram Ronnason
Published: March 2022

This article manages vagueness, asymmetric data, and risk demonstrated in awkward information. The ambiguity is handled with the help of possibility and strategic decision-making theory. A MADM (multi-attribute decision-making) tool, the sub-part of the strategic decision theory, plays an important role in the circumstances of fuzzy data. The major influence of this analysis is to initiate the mathematical ideology of cubic intuitionistic complex fuzzy (CICF) information and its well-known properties such as algebraic laws, score values, and accuracy values. It is also to determine various inequalities for finding the relation between any two CICF numbers (CICFNs). Further, we know that the Bonferroni mean (BM) operator is more generalized than the simple averaging/geometric aggregation operators due to parameters involved in the mathematical form of BM operators. Keeping the supremacy and consistency of BM operators, the idea of CICF Bonferroni mean (CICFBM) and CICF weighted BM (CICFWBM) operators are diagnosed. We try to describe their well-known results and properties such as idempotency, monotonicity, commutativity, and boundedness with various specific cases. Further, we investigate three different sorts of decision-making procedures such as MADM tool, TOPSIS (Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution) method using similarity measures, and TOPSIS method using aggregation operators to enhance the quality of the decision-making process. This analysis expressed how to make decisions when there is asymmetric data about companies. Finally, we compute the comparative analysis of the diagnostic approaches with various existing theories to demonstrate the feasibility and flexibility of the exposed work to try to illustrate with the help of geometrical expressions.
An Artificial Neural Network Approach for Solving Space Fractional Differential Equations
Authors: Dai Pingfei , Yu Xiangyu
Published: March 2022

The linear algebraic system generated by the discretization of fractional differential equations has asymmetry, and the numerical solution of this kind of problems is more complex than that of symmetric problems due to the nonlocality of fractional order operators. In this paper, we propose the artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm to approximate the solutions of the fractional differential equations (FDEs). First, we apply truncated series expansion terms to replace unknown function in equations, then we use the neural network to get series coefficients, and the obtained series solution can make the norm value of loss function reach a satisfactory error. In the part of numerical experiments, the results verify that the proposed ANN algorithm can make the numerical results achieve high accuracy and good stability.
Assessment of Dynamics of a Rail Vehicle in Terms of Running Properties While Moving on a Real Track Model
Authors: Dižo Ján , Blatnický Miroslav , Harušinec Jozef , Suchánek Andrej
Published: March 2022

Simulation computations represent a very effective tool for investigating operational characteristics and behaviours of vehicles without having a real product. The rail vehicles sector is typical, in that simulation computations including multibody modelling of individual vehicles (i.e., wagons) as well as entire trainsets are widely used. In the case of designing rail vehicles, running safety and ride comfort are two of the most important assessment areas. The presented work is focused on the research of the dynamical effects of a rail vehicle while running on a railway track created in a commercial multibody model. There is a lot of research focused on the investigation of dynamic performances while a rail vehicle is running on a flexible railway track. The real operation of a rail vehicle meets problems on track, where the stiffness-damping parameters of a railway track vary in transient sections (e.g., the exit of a tunnel). This work brings a contribution to research related to the assessment of the dynamic response of a rail vehicle on a chosen track section. A passenger railway vehicle is chosen as a reference multibody model. Simulation computations were performed for three different railway track models, i.e., for a rigid track model and for a flexible track model defined in two different manners. The stiffness-damping parameters of the rail vehicle are defined symmetrically in relation to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, e.g., they are the same values for the left and right side. The centre of gravity is not located symmetrically, but it is partially shifted in the lateral direction. This can be observed in the results of wheel forces and their waveforms. There are evaluated values and waveforms of the vertical wheel forces, the lateral wheel forces and the derailment quotient. The obtained results have revealed the influence of the railway track formulation in the model on the output parameters.
Redescription of Stolephorus ronquilloi Wongratana, 1983 and Description of Stolephorus hindustanensis, a New Anchovy from the Western Coast of India (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Engraulidae)
Authors: Hata Harutaka , Motomura Hiroyuki
Published: March 2022

The new anchovy Stolephorus hindustanensis n. sp., described on the basis of 11 specimens collected from Mumbai, western coast of India, closely resembles Stolephorus ronquilloi Wongratana, 1983 in sharing an indented preopercle posterior margin, long maxilla extending beyond the preopercle posterior margin, double pigmented lines on the dorsum behind the dorsal fin, and lacking a predorsal scute. However, the new species differs from S. ronquilloi in having lower counts of gill rakers on the first and second gill arches, higher counts of total vertebrae, a deeper body, greater distances between the snout tip and anal-fin origin, origins of the dorsal and anal fins, and pelvic-fin insertion and anal-fin origin, and longer pelvic fin, third dorsal-fin ray, third anal-fin ray, and postorbital length.
Impact of Alternate b-Value Combinations and Metrics on the Predictive Performance and Repeatability of Diffusion-Weighted MRI in Breast Cancer Treatment: Results from the ECOG-ACRIN A6698 Trial
Authors: Partridge Savannah C. , Steingrimsson Jon , Newitt David C. , Gibbs Jessica E. , Marques Helga S. , Bolan Patrick J. , Boss Michael A. , Chenevert Thomas L. , Rosen Mark A. , Hylton Nola M.
Published: March 2022

In diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), choice of b-value influences apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values by probing different aspects of the tissue microenvironment. As a secondary analysis of the multicenter ECOG-ACRIN A6698 trial, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of alternate b-value combinations on the performance and repeatability of tumor ADC as a predictive marker of breast cancer treatment response. The final analysis included 210 women who underwent standardized 4-b-value DW-MRI (b = 0/100/600/800 s/mm2) at multiple timepoints during neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment and a subset (n = 71) who underwent test–retest scans. Centralized tumor ADC and perfusion fraction (fp) measures were performed using variable b-value combinations. Prediction of pathologic complete response (pCR) based on the mid-treatment/12-week percent change in each metric was estimated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Repeatability was estimated by within-subject coefficient of variation (wCV). Results show that two-b-value ADC calculations provided non-inferior predictive value to four-b-value ADC calculations overall (AUCs = 0.60–0.61 versus AUC = 0.60) and for HR+/HER2− cancers where ADC was most predictive (AUCs = 0.75–0.78 versus AUC = 0.76), p < 0.05. Using two b-values (0/600 or 0/800 s/mm2) did not reduce ADC repeatability over the four-b-value calculation (wCVs = 4.9–5.2% versus 5.4%). The alternate metrics ADCfast (b ≤ 100 s/mm2), ADCslow (b ≥ 100 s/mm2), and fp did not improve predictive performance (AUCs = 0.54–0.60, p = 0.08–0.81), and ADCfast and fp demonstrated the lowest repeatability (wCVs = 6.71% and 12.4%, respectively). In conclusion, breast tumor ADC calculated using a simple two-b-value approach can provide comparable predictive value and repeatability to full four-b-value measurements as a marker of treatment response.