bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Circulation of Swedish Urban Sustainability Practices: To China and Back
Authors: Hult Anna
Published: March 2015

This paper explores the effects and underlying intentions of Swedish practices of exporting sustainable development models to Chinese ecocities. Under the ‘best-practice’ banner, international architectural firms are often invited to masterplan ecocity developments. The ‘sustainable city’ has thus become an export commodity, supported by the Swedish government and seen as especially suited to the Chinese ecocity market. Two cases are examined, where Swedish architecture firms have been commissioned to masterplan Chinese ecocities: the Caofedian and Wuxi Eco-cities. In particular, I examine three kinds of ‘effects’: first, the planning discourse manifested in the planning documents; second, how these plans materialize on the ground; and, third, the effects of this exported planning practice on Swedish policy and practice at home. This paper advances our understanding of how transnational urban sustainability practices are constructed and circulated. It further adds to the field of planning mobilities by examining not only the discourse and diffusion of transnational master planning but also how the ‘export’ circulates and returns. I argue that the two intentional logics of exporting the Swedish ‘sustainable city’—to shape a better world and to export clean-tech products—could both be seen as having failed in these two cases. Instead, the naming and branding of the ecocities seem to boost a certain repetitive problematic idea and practice of sustainable urban development. I argue that the Swedish exported practice strengthens and legitimizes a circulating narrative establishing a sustainable urban planning practice fostering a paradoxically generic image of upper-middle-class consumers as ecocity inhabitants in China as well as in Sweden.
Fostering meaningful partnerships in public–private partnerships: innovations in partnership design and process management to create value
Authors: Roberts David J , Siemiatycki Matti
Published: March 2015

While public–private partnerships have become increasingly popular for delivering large-scale public infrastructure around the world, a common critique is that the structure of the relationship is typically more akin to contracting out than a truly meaningful collaboration between the partners. In this paper we aim to demonstrate how innovative public–private partnership models can be designed to deepen cooperation and deliver project outcomes that are better than any one partner could achieve on their own. To support our argument, we analyze the case study of a novel partnership between the Toronto District School Board and a condominium developer to redevelop a public high school in Toronto. Our results show that a process management orientation to partnership can build trust between the partners, effectively share project risks, and foster the public support necessary to realize controversial projects.
Tactical developments for achieving just and sustainable neighborhoods: the role of community-based coalitions and bottom-to-bottom networks in street, technical, and funder activism
Authors: Anguelovski Isabelle
Published: March 2015

Over the past two decades community activists in distressed urban neighborhoods have been organizing to improve environmental quality and livability for residents through parks, playgrounds, gardens, farms, or sports facilities, and this across political systems and contexts of urbanization. To date, however, limited research has been conducted on the development and intricacies of neighborhood activism for long-term environmental justice in marginalized neighborhoods, and little work has been done in a comparative manner and through a place-based approach. Through three historically marginalized neighborhoods in Boston, Barcelona, and Havana, I analyze how internal dynamics and external contexts shape community organization towards improved environmental quality and livability, and how mobilization unfolds over time and space. Findings reveal that activists tend to resort to similar tactical choices to achieve their objectives, including broad and flexible coalitions, and what I call bottom-to-bottom networks encompassing three forms of activism: street activism, technical activism, and funder activism.
Phase Transfer Catalysis Extends The Scope of The Algar–Flynn–Oyamada Synthesis of 3-Hydroxyflavones
Authors: Nhu Duong , Hawkins Bill C. , Burns Christopher J.
Published: March 2015

The Algar–Flynn–Oyamada reaction is the classical method to synthesize 3-hydroxyflavones from chalcones. Despite its relative simplicity, the reaction has several drawbacks including variable and often low product yields. We have found that phase transfer catalysis improves the yields and expands the scope of the Algar–Flynn–Oyamada reaction of a series of 4-benzyloxy-2-hydroxy chalcones.
A qualitative study of smoking within a Western Sydney Arabic‐speaking community: a focus on men in the context of their families
Authors: Phillips Anastasia , Monaem Abdul , Newman Christine
Published: March 2015

Issue addressed

Smoking rates are high among Arabic‐speaking populations, particularly men, and there is limited evidence to formulate effective tobacco‐control strategies in this group. This study explored smoking within an Arabic‐speaking community in Sydney, focusing on men's smoking in the context of their families.

Methods

We conducted six focus groups with a total of 60 Arabic‐speaking participants recruited through health workers, counsellors and community leaders in Western Sydney, Australia. The focus groups, conducted in Arabic or English, discussed smoking experiences, family issues and quit attempts. Focus group data were recorded, transcribed and analysed for emerging themes.

Results

Male smoking was normalised in home, social and religious settings. There was concern about children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), but less concern for adults, particularly wives. Smoking created conflict within families and quit attempts were often made without assistance. There was a lack of enthusiasm for telephone support services with participants suggesting free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and programs in religious settings as potential strategies.

Conclusions

Smoking is normalised in Arabic‐speaking society and is socially acceptable. Strategies to de‐normalise smoking, particularly among men, are critical. Ongoing ETS exposure of wives is concerning and suggests the need to empower women to control their exposure. There is an opportunity to create locally tailored interventions by engaging leaders in religious settings and to improve perceptions of telephone support services.
Corrigendum to: Video-surveillance system for remote long-term in situ observations: recording diel cavity use and behaviour of wild European lobsters (Homarus gammarus)
Authors: Steen Ronny , Ski Sondre
Published: March 2015

Long-term studies of subtidal marine animals in the wild are a demanding enterprise. Traditionally, data collection has been limited to direct observations during SCUBA diving. In the past decade, video technology has improved rapidly and behavioural monitoring of marine organisms has successfully been conducted by using modern video-recording equipment. Here, we describe a video-monitoring system that employs video motion detection (VMD) and describe its use with the European lobster (Homarus gammarus). There is a shortage of detailed information on lobster behaviour in the wild, with virtually no published data on the fine-scale behaviour of the European lobster under natural conditions. This dearth of information reflects the difficulties in observing behaviour in nocturnal marine animals. Here, we explore whether a remote video-surveillance system is suitable for long-term monitoring of European lobsters inhabiting an artificial cavity in a natural habitat. From the video recordings, we were able to register diel cavity use and categorise behavioural elements such as resting, feeding, burrowing and substrate moving, self-cleaning, burrow occupancy and interactions among individuals. We propose that this novel system will contribute to more efficient data sampling of lobsters and facilitate non-invasive, long-term behavioural studies of other marine and freshwater animals.
Vegetation and topography interact with weather to drive the spatial distribution of wildfires in the eastern boreal forest of Canada
Authors: Cavard Xavier , Boucher Jean-François , Bergeron Yves
Published: March 2015

It is crucial to better understand and predict how burnt areas in the boreal forest will evolve under a changing climate and landscape. The objective of the present study was to predict burnt areas at several spatial and temporal scales in the Quebec continuous boreal forest and to compare the influence of weather, vegetation and topographic variables by including them and their interactions in logistic regressions. At the largest spatial scale (350 km2), the best model explained 66% of the data variability and was able to predict burnt areas with reasonable accuracy for 11 years (r = 0.48). Weather and vegetation or topographic variables had an equivalent importance, though no single vegetation or topographic variable was mandatory to the model performance. Interactions between weather and non-weather variables largely improved the model, particularly when several weather indices were used, as the sign of the interaction with a non-weather variable could differ between weather indices. Vegetation and topography are therefore important predictors of fire susceptibility, but risk factors may vary between wind- and drought-driven fire weather. Including at least some vegetation and topographic variables in statistical models linking burnt areas to weather data can greatly improve their predictive power.
Tobacco, Eurasian Trade, and the Early Modern Iranian Economy
Authors: Kazemi Ranin
Published: March 2015

This article focuses on the development of the tobacco industry in Iran during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It uses this discussion as an entry point to inquire about the early modern Iranian economy. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it makes several historiographical interventions. In explaining what the development of a completely new agrarian industry means in Iranian society, the paper suggests that innovation and intensification may not have been completely absent in agriculture and that in contrast to the way some of the available literature tends to argue, the Iranian economy may not have experienced continuous decline in all sectors throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, this article contends that the tobacco industry helped bring about the rise of merchants and landowners in Iranian society, and with that the further development of mass consumption and ever-increasing cycles of production and accumulation that expanded the commercialization of agriculture, domestic and international trade networks, and Iran’s agrarian economy.
Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess
Authors: Calore Francesca , Cholis Ilias , Weniger Christoph
Published: March 2015

The possible gamma-ray excess in the inner Galaxy and the Galactic center (GC) suggested byFermi-LAT observations has triggered a large number of studies. It has been interpreted as a variety of different phenomena such as a signal from WIMP dark matter annihilation, gamma-ray emission from a population of millisecond pulsars, or emission from cosmic rays injected in a sequence of burst-like events or continuously at the GC. We present the first comprehensive study of model systematics coming from the Galactic diffuse emission in the inner part of our Galaxy and their impact on the inferred properties of the excess emission at Galactic latitudes 2° < |b| < 20° and 300 MeV to 500 GeV. We study both theoretical and empirical model systematics, which we deduce from a large range of Galactic diffuse emission models and a principal component analysis of residuals in numerous test regions along the Galactic plane. We show that the hypothesis of an extended spherical excess emission with a uniform energy spectrum is compatible with theFermi-LAT data in our region of interest at 95% CL. Assuming that this excess is the extended counterpart of the one seen in the inner few degrees of the Galaxy, we derive a lower limit of 10.0° (95% CL) on its extension away from the GC. We show that, in light of the large correlated uncertainties that affect the subtraction of the Galactic diffuse emission in the relevant regions, the energy spectrum of the excess is equally compatible with both a simple broken power-law of break energyEbreak = 2.1 ± 0.2 GeV, and with spectra predicted by the self-annihilation of dark matter, implying in the case ofb̄bfinal states a dark matter mass ofmχ=49+6.4−5.4  GeV.
International Social Welfare
Authors: Androff David , Midgley James
Published: March 2015

There has been a rapid expansion of interest in international social welfare in recent years. Previously, the study of social welfare was focused on domestic issues and relatively little information about social welfare in other countries was available. Today, journal articles and books on the subject have proliferated, and with the advent of the Internet, it is relatively easy to obtain information about social welfare around the world. This bibliography summarizes some of the most important resources in the field including encyclopedia, handbooks, journals, and books and in some cases, particularly helpful journal articles are also included. Many of these sources address the issue of defining the term “international social welfare” which is still loosely used by scholars. In many cases, related terms such as “comparative social welfare” or “international social policy,” “international social work,” and “international social development” are used. Although the question of definition is discussed in the sources included in the General Overviews and Reference Works sections of this entry, different scholars take different positions on how the field should be defined. Many writings in the field of social policy focus only on government provision while social workers are obviously most concerned with comparing issues of professional practice between different countries. Transcending these narrower approaches, the term “international social welfare” is preferred because of its broad scope as reflected in the following sections. As will be seen, this definition includes governmental provision, professional social work, social development, the role of nonprofits and nonformal welfare institutions. It is hoped that this broad and inclusive perspective will be helpful as the complexities of social welfare around the world are examined. After discussing the most important reference works, textbooks, and journals, it examines different aspects of international social welfare. It begins with a discussion of the concept of globalization which is important for understanding the field and then focuses on the role of the nonformal sector, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations and government. Literature on the gender dimensions of international social welfare and social development is also included. The bibliography concludes with a discussion of international cooperation in social welfare paying particular attention to the work of international organizations.
Literacy, New Testament
Authors: Keith Chris
Published: March 2015

Although various New Testament texts reflect the importance of literacy and illiteracy in early Christianity (for example, Mark 13:14; John 7:15; Acts 4:13; 8:30; 1 Corinthians 16:21), these issues have taken on greater significance in New Testament studies since the 1980s. This period witnessed an explosion of interdisciplinary research on ancient literacy and illiteracy in cognate disciplines such as classics, cultural anthropology, literary criticism, and media criticism. Cumulatively, these interdisciplinary studies have established a new and sustained scholarly majority opinion that most ancient persons were illiterate. As a result, New Testament scholars now see literacy and illiteracy as important factors for interpreting New Testament and early Christian texts in their socio-historical contexts, especially for understanding the diffusion of social power in the text-centered cultures of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Such a perspective has breathed fresh life into old debates, such as the education of Jesus and his followers or the identity of Jewish scribes, and has introduced, or participated in, new perspectives, such as “performance criticism” and the “material turn” in studies of early Christian book culture. Most of these studies accept that the majority of the population in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity was illiterate and proceed to understand the social consequences of the use of books and literate skills in a predominantly oral environment. Along these lines, further studies have increasingly come to indicate the overall inadequacy of the terms “literate” and “illiterate” for understanding the complex manifestations of literate skills in practice. Complicating factors include the facts that reading and writing skills were acquired and used separately, reading and writing skills existed in varying levels and varying languages even for an individual, and that literacy (the ability to access written tradition for oneself) should not be confused with textuality (the awareness and appreciation of written tradition). These factors and others have impacted New Testament scholars’ understanding of the authorship, reception, and circulation of texts in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.
Literature and Linguistics
Authors: Fabb Nigel
Published: March 2015

Literature is the artistic use of language, also called “verbal art,” to make clear that there are both oral and written literatures (and signed literature). The general discipline can be called “literary linguistics.” The field is eclectic, and the books and articles cited in this article are a mixture of descriptive, literary critical, and theoretical, alongside work by psychologists. The aspects of literature of most interest to linguists have included the ways in which language cues the structuring of texts (particularly narratives), the indirect meanings (such as irony or metaphor) characteristic of verbal art, and the types of repetition seen in parallelism and in rhyme and alliteration. The most intensive theoretical work has been devoted to poetic meter, the counting-and-rhythmic patterns seen in many kinds of verse. While most of the theoretical work deals with English or other literatures in European languages, literary linguists have also sought to emphasize the “endless forms most beautiful,” namely, the variety and complexity of verbal art found in the world’s cultures.
Dziga Vertov
Authors: Gadassik Alla
Published: March 2015

Dziga Vertov (b. 1896, Bialystok, Russian Empire–d. 1954, Moscow, USSR) was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker, whose films and manifestos played a central role in 20th century documentary, experimental film, and political cinema traditions. Working in the USSR in the 1920s–1950s, Vertov led the radical Kino-Eye (Cine-Eye) collective, which championed a new film language that would draw on the unique mechanical and audiovisual properties of cinematography, rather than on theatre or literature traditions. His polemical resistance to narrative fiction films contributed to the development of avant-garde documentary techniques in the Soviet Union and abroad. Long after Vertov fell out of favor in his native country, his work continued to influence international documentary cinema and political media groups. Born as David Abelevich Kaufman, Dziga Vertov adopted his pseudonym in early adulthood, and his subsequent work often blurs the lines between the filmmaker’s personal experiences and ideas ascribed to his alter ego. This split between Vertov’s personal life and his constructed persona reflected his belief that cinema, too, could simultaneously document observed reality and construct an entirely new reality from captured slices of life. Vertov maintained that filmmakers should seek out and expose the hidden social and political forces that govern life, using moving images and sound to shape spectator consciousness. His films were in dialogue with several avant-garde art movements, and he often experimented with different film techniques in hopes of both depicting and transforming reality. Moreover, Vertov argued that media technology, especially the movie camera and the wireless radio, would radically change how human beings navigated the world and how they understood their place in society. His theoretical writings are foundational to the discipline of film studies and to writings on film cinematography and montage. His seminal 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s Kinoapparatom) is a cornerstone of film courses worldwide.
Vienna
Authors: Silverman Lisa
Published: March 2015

Jews have long had a vexed relationship with Vienna. They count among the city’s most ardent fans as well as its loudest detractors. Facing much antisemitism both in the Middle Ages and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Vienna’s Jews nevertheless helped shape a great deal of what is considered to be the best of Austrian culture. Ranging from assimilated Jews to enthusiastic converts to ardent Zionists, they drove and supported some of the most well-known ideas and movements of the modern era, including psychoanalysis and Zionism. That they did so in a city that hosted Adolf Hitler as he developed his destructive antisemitic ideologies underscores the paradox of Jewish life in Vienna. Many people remain fascinated by Jews’ participation in high culture and modernism around the fin de siècle: the works of Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig, to name only a few, continue to mark the landscape of international popular culture. However, the history of Jews in Vienna reaches far beyond the clichéd world of Vienna’s coffeehouses. The city’s reputation as a cosmopolitan capital of an empire, as well as its location between Eastern and Western Europe, meant that Jews from varying cultures mixed together in ways they often did not in other cities. By 1945, of the roughly 200,000 Jews living in Austria before the war, 65,000 had been murdered; most of the rest had been able to flee Nazi persecution between 1938 and 1941 and found refuge mainly in the United States, Great Britain, and British Mandatory Palestine (now Israel). Few of those who survived returned. In recent decades, however, Austrians have begun to come to terms with their active involvement in the destruction of its Jewish population. The reconstruction of Vienna’s postwar Jewish population of between 8,000 and 11,000, which now numbers around 15,000, continues amid growing possibilities for public debate and discussion.
Energy efficiency assessment of grinding strategy
Authors: Salonitis Konstantinos
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to set the framework for measuring the energy performance of a manufacturing process. The availability and affordability of energy is becoming a critical parameter nowadays, affecting the whole lifecycle of the product, and hence the production phase as well. The energy efficiency of the grinding process, as a widely used manufacturing process in the industry, is assessed with regard to the selected process strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

– To assess the grinding machine tool energy performance, a measuring framework is designed, implemented and validated. The process strategy effect on the energy consumption is experimentally assessed through energy audits of the grinding machine tool. Such energy audits provide better insights into the way subsystems composing a machine tool affect the energy consumption.

Findings

– It is revealed that the proper selection of process strategy can significantly reduce the energy consumption. The amount of energy consumed for the actual process is less than the energy required for maintaining the processing environment (e.g. for the coolant pump delivering coolant fluid in the processing area). The key finding is that the measuring framework can be used for the understanding and analysis of the energy consumption of the various machine tool components. Additionally, for the grinding process itself, the energy audits indicate that reducing the processing duration can significantly reduce the overall energy.

Originality/value

– The main novel contribution of the present paper is the development of a measurement framework for assessing the energy consumption of subsystems running simultaneously when processing a workpiece. Grinding process energy demand is analysed in detail, allowing for the first time to consider energy consumption as a manufacturing decision criterion.
Network analysis on Skype end-to-end video quality
Authors: Exarchakos George , Druda Luca , Menkovski Vlado , Liotta Antonio
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to argue on the efficiency of Quality of Service (QoS)-based adaptive streaming with regards to perceived quality Quality of Experience (QoE). Although QoS parameters are extensively used even by high-end adaptive streaming algorithms, achieved QoE fails to justify their use in real-time streaming videos with high motion. While subjective measurements of video quality are difficult to be applied at runtime, objective QoE assessment can be easier to automate. For end-to-end QoS optimization of live streaming of high-motion video, objective QoE is a more applicable approach. This paper contributes to the understanding of how specific QoS parameters affect objective QoE measurements on real-time high-motion video streaming.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper approached the question through real-life and extensive experimentation using the Skype adaptive mechanisms. Two Skype terminals were connected through a QoS impairment box. A reference video was used as input to one Skype terminal and streamed on one direction. The impairment box was stressing the stream with different conditions. Received video was stored and compared against the reference video.

Findings

– After the experimental analysis, the paper concludes that adaptive mechanisms based on QoS-related heuristics fail to follow unexpected changes to stream requirements. High-motion videos are an example of this variability, which makes the perceived quality sensitive to jitter more than to packet loss. More specifically, Skype seems to use if-else heuristics to decide its behavior to QoS changes. The weaknesses to high-motion videos seem to lie on this rigidity.

Research limitations/implications

– Due to the testbed developed, the results may be different if experiments are run over networks with simultaneous streams and a variety of other traffic patterns. Finally, other streaming clients and algorithms would contribute to a more reliable generalization.

Practical implications

– The paper motivates video streaming engineers to emphasize their efforts toward QoE and end-to-end optimization.

Originality/value

– The paper identifies the need of a generic adaptive streaming algorithm able to accommodate a big range of video characteristics. The effect of QoS variability to high-motion video streaming helps in modeling and design.
Service innovations enabled by the “internet of things”
Authors: Andersson Per , Mattsson Lars-Gunnar
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual framework that reflects network dynamics in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled service innovation processes.

Design/methodology/approach

– Based on literature on service innovations, business networks and IoT, dynamic concepts are selected. Aided by information about an evolving case “The connected vehicle”, propositions about interaction between the variables in the framework are formulated.

Findings

– A conceptual framework consisting of four interacting variables: overlapping, intermediating, objectification of actors and business modelling is developed, linking several streams of research. Propositions are motivated and issues for further research questions formulated.

Research limitations/implications

– The framework may stimulate further research on IoT-enabled service innovations.

Practical implications

– Understanding network dynamics for developing and implementing business models for service innovations.

Originality/value

– The conceptual framework provides an original contribution to understanding IoT-enabled service innovations.
Developing supply base strategies
Authors: Bygballe Lena Elisabeth , Persson Gøran
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the responses and strategies firms use in relation to their supply base when dealing with current trends in the business landscape, and the different options that they have.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper draws on case study research of a company within the international health care sector to illustrate the relationship between trends, supply base characteristics and supply base strategies.

Findings

– The paper presents a framework for a systematic approach that companies can use to develop supply base strategies. The framework illustrates that developing supply base strategies is a dynamic process that not only involves individual actions by the buying company, but also requires close interaction with suppliers.

Originality/value

– Previous literature has not specified how different trends affect a company’s supply base in terms of increased complexity and (inter)dependence, and which supply base strategies companies use and the options that they have. The research presented here contributes to fill this void.
A study on text entry methods based on eye gestures
Authors: Porta Marco
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the two main existing text input techniques based on “eye gestures” – namely EyeWrite and Eye-S – and compare them to each other and to the traditional “virtual keyboard” approach.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study primarily aims to assess user performance at the very beginning of the learning process. However, a partial longitudinal evaluation is also provided. Two kinds of experiments have been implemented involving 14 testers.

Findings

– Results show that while the virtual keyboard is faster, EyeWrite and Eye-S are also appreciated and can be viable alternatives (after a proper training period).

Practical implications

– Writing methods based on eye gestures deserve special attention, as they require less screen space and need limited tracking precision. This study highlights the fact that gesture-based techniques imply a greater initial effort, and require proper training not only to gain knowledge of eye interaction per se, but also for learning the gesture alphabet. The author thinks that the investigation can drive the designers of gaze-controlled writing techniques based on gestures to put more consideration on the intuitiveness of gestures themselves, as they may greatly influence user performance in the first stages of the learning process.

Originality/value

– This is the first study comparing EyeWrite and Eye-S. Moreover, unlike other analyses, the investigation is mainly aimed at assessing user performance with the three text entry methods at the inception of the learning procedure.
Regulatory response to the financial crisis in Europe: recent developments (2010-2013)
Authors: Carbó-Valverde Santiago , Benink Harald A. , Berglund Tom , Wihlborg Clas
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper by the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (ESFRC) is to provide an account of the financial crisis in Europe during the period 2010-2013 and an analysis of how the relevant authorities reacted to the crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

– These actions included measures taken by central banks, governments or fiscal authorities, and by regulatory or supervisory bodies. In a previous study covering the regulatory developments during the financial crisis up until 2009, issues such as the implementation of Basel III rules in Europe and the (mostly ad hoc and unilateral) resolution mechanisms set in most European countries to fight the crisis were covered. This study focuses on developments since 2010 with a focus on the concerns and actions that emerged with the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area. In particular, the transition from the European Financial Stability Facility to the European Stability Mechanism is assessed. The focus after 2012 has progressively turned to the challenges of the European banking union.

Findings

– These issues are jointly covered, along with some updates on the views of the ESFRC on recent advances in other areas, such as solvency regulation. All in all, the authors find that the weaknesses of the global financial system remain to be addressed, and they believe that the banking union is one of the main tools and opportunities for an improved and efficient crisis management in Europe.

Originality/value

– The paper aims at contributing to the study of financial regulation after the banking crisis. The experience of the euro zone in this context is assessed in this article from a wide range of perspectives.
Japan’s financial regulatory responses to the global financial crisis
Authors: Harada Kimie , Hoshi Takeo , Imai Masami , Koibuchi Satoshi , Yasuda Ayako
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to understand Japan’s financial regulatory responses after the global financial crisis and recession. Japan’s post-crisis reactions show two seemingly opposing trends: collaboration with international organizations to strengthen the regulation to maintain financial stability, and regulatory forbearance for the banks with troubled small and medium enterprise [SME] borrowers. The paper evaluates the responses by the Japanese financial regulators in five areas (Basel III, stress tests, over-the-counter [OTC] derivatives regulation, recovery and resolution planning and banking policy for SME lending) and concludes that the effectiveness of the new regulations for financial stability critically depends on the willingness of the regulators to use the new tools.

Design/methodology/approach

– This report evaluates the post-crisis responses by the Japanese financial authorities in five dimensions (Basel III, stress tests, OTC derivatives regulations, recovery and resolution planning and bank supervision).

Findings

– The effectiveness of the new regulations for financial stability critically depends on the willingness of the regulators to use the new tools.

Originality/value

– The paper is the first attempt to evaluate the financial regulatory trends in Japan after the global financial crisis.
Infrastructure debt fund policy framework in India – issues and challenges
Authors: Khandelwal Mayank , Khanapuri Vivekanand
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to identify gaps and critical issues in policy framework for infrastructure debt fund (IDF) to become financially viable in the Indian context. Growth of any economy is dependent on successful implementation of infrastructure projects. However, infrastructure development is linked to availability of equity and debt funds to finance these projects. IDF is an instrument which aims at enabling financing of infrastructure.

Design/methodology/approach

– The exploratory research adopted is qualitative and based on secondary data related to infrastructure needs, challenges, factors influencing infrastructure financing and options available for infrastructure financing in the Indian context. It investigates the relationship between external factors, internal factors and viability of IDF and provides recommendations to policy makers to roll-out an enabling policy and regulatory environment.

Findings

– Findings show that issues such as entry barriers for banks, insufficient tax incentives, restrictions on type of projects to be considered for funding and meeting the expectation of low-cost funds need to be addressed so that IDFs can contribute toward funding requirement of the infrastructure sector.

Research limitations/implications

– IDFs have been recently introduced in India and the use of primary and secondary data has been limited. Comparison of IDF guidelines in India with guidelines for similar instruments in developed countries has been left for a later stage.

Originality/value

– Value of this study is that it identifies the issues in current guidelines of IDF through the understanding of the policy and regulatory framework that governs IDF. The study also makes recommendations to the government and regulators which would enable IDF to become a viable instrument.
Modelling building construction durations
Authors: Ahmadu Hassan Adaviriku , Ibrahim Yahaya Makarfi , Ibrahim Ahmed Doko , Abdullahi Muhammed
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to develop a multivariate model that will be applicable to the Nigeria construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

– A self-administered questionnaire survey was used to source information on project scope factors and qualitative factors considered in the study. Principal component regression was used for data analysis and model development, using SPSS 16.0 for windows, while T-test was used for model testing and validation.

Findings

– The study found that delay in progress payment by owner, lateness in revising and approving design document by owner, delay in delivering the site to the contractor by the owner, change order by owner during construction, complexity of project design, poor site management and supervision by contractors, and rain effect on construction activities are qualitative/non-project scope factors with good predictive abilities.

Research limitations/implications

– Cost, gross floor area and number of floors were the only quantitative/project scope factors considered in the study. The developed models therefore do not account for any variation in duration which may arise from other project scope factors, such as location, procurement route and type of contract.

Originality/value

– The qualitative factors which emerged as predictors in the derived models increased the accuracy of the models. The models developed therefore serve as useful construction time prediction tools for both consultancy firms and contractor organizations in the Nigerian construction industry.
An empirical analysis of the discontinuance of business for startup contractors and property companies in Japan
Authors: Konno Yukiko
Published: March 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that affect the discontinuance of business of start-up contractors and property companies in Japan. It will help managers of start-up contractors and property companies to effectively manage their companies. Furthermore, it will be useful for stakeholders with links to start-up companies to analyse the credit risks associated with these businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study uses data from the Japan Finance Corporation Business Startup Panel Survey to empirically examine the factors that affect the discontinuance of business of start-up companies. A binary logit model is used as the statistical method. Utilising the resource-based view theory, this study explores the relationships between resources and company capabilities at both start-up and discontinuance of business.

Findings

– Start-up contractors tend to discontinue their business, as managers grow older and when a sufficient workforce cannot be found at start-up. On the other hand, start-up property companies tend to discontinue business when securing of orderers is not sufficient at start-up.

Originality/value

– This study analyses start-up contractors and property companies and finds that factors that affect the discontinuance of business differ across construction and property industries, with each industry facing important, sector-specific issues.
Latent Customer Needs Elicitation by Use Case Analogical Reasoning From Sentiment Analysis of Online Product Reviews
Authors: Zhou Feng , Jianxin Jiao Roger , Linsey Julie S.
Published: March 2015

Different from explicit customer needs that can be identified directly by analyzing raw data from the customers, latent customer needs are often implied in the semantics of use cases underlying customer needs information. Due to difficulties in understanding semantic implications associated with use cases, typical text mining-based methods can hardly identify latent customer needs, as opposite to keywords mining for explicit customer needs. This paper proposes a two-layer model for latent customer needs elicitation through use case reasoning. The first layer emphasizes sentiment analysis, aiming to identify explicit customer needs based on the product attributes and ordinary use cases extracted from online product reviews. Fuzzy support vector machines (SVMs) are developed to build sentiment prediction models based on a list of affective lexicons. The second layer is geared toward use case analogical reasoning, to identify implicit characteristics of latent customer needs by reasoning the semantic similarities and differences analogically between the ordinary and extraordinary use cases. Case-based reasoning (CBR) is utilized to perform case retrieval and case adaptation. A case study of Kindle Fire HD 7 in. tablet is developed to illustrate the potential and feasibility of the proposed method.
Hotspot Size-Dependent Thermal Boundary Conductance in Nondiffusive Heat Conduction
Authors: Ma Yanbao
Published: March 2015

Thermal transport across interfaces can play a critical role in nanosystems for thermal management and thermal energy conversion. Here, we show the dependence of the thermal boundary conductance (G) of the interface between a 70-nm Al transducer and a Si substrate on the size of a laser pump diameter (D) in the time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) experiments at room temperature. For D ≥ 30 μm, G approaches to a constant where diffusion dominates the heat transfer processes. When D decreases from 30 μm to 3.65 μm, G decreases from 240 to 170 MW/m2K due to the increasing nonlocal effects from nondiffusive heat transport. This finding is vital to our understanding of the thermal boundary conductance: it depends not only on inherent interfacial conditions but also on external heating conditions, which makes the accurate measurements and theoretical predictions of thermal transport across interfaces in micro/nanosystems more challenging.
Oscillating Heat Transfer Correlations for Spiral-Coil Thermoacoustic Heat Exchangers
Authors: Assawamartbunlue Kriengkrai , Wantha Channarong
Published: March 2015

Heat exchangers are the important parts in thermoacoustic refrigerators. Types and configurations of the heat exchangers affect flow behaviors through stacks, and heat transfer behaviors between working fluids and the heat exchangers. Steady-flow heat transfer correlations to design a heat exchanger are not suitable for the thermoacoustic refrigerators due to their oscillatory flow conditions in resonator tubes. In this paper, a heat transfer correlation for a spiral-coil heat exchanger is presented. The results from the experimental study were used to develop an empirical equation between the Colburn-j factor, the Prandtl number, and the Reynolds number to correlate the oscillating heat transfer coefficient at the spiral-coil heat exchangers. The results showed that using steady-flow heat transfer correlations for analyses and design of the heat exchanger could result in distinguished errors. The heat transfer correlations developed for oscillatory flows on fin heat exchangers are also not suitable to predict heat transfer coefficients for spiral-coil heat exchanger due to difference in flow behaviors on the heat transfer surface. For oscillatory flows, the heat transfer coefficients can be improved by using curved-liked surface such as spiral coil instead of straightlike surface such as fin coil. The relationships between the oscillating heat transfer coefficients at the heat exchangers, drive ratios, and operating frequencies are also presented. Higher drive ratios and operating frequency result in greater heat transfer coefficients.
Further Aspects of the UK Engine Technology Demonstrator Programme
Authors: Hughes D. W. , Chrispin W. J.
Published: March 2015

In 1987, a paper entitled ‘The United Kingdom Engine Technology Demonstrator Programme’ (ASME 87-GT-203) was presented at the Gas Turbine Conference in Anaheim. That paper postulated that a programme of engine technology demonstration ahead of commitment to full-scale development was essential if past problems of cost overrun and inadequate performance at service entry were to be avoided. The paper concluded that the UK had established a balanced programme of technology demonstration, emphasising that Industry and Government must invest this activity with the same commitment traditionally given to projects if the full benefits were to be realised. This follow-up paper presents an expanded view of future programme objectives and how the programme elements formulated for their achievement are to be managed.
New CCGT Plants for District Heating Using Advanced AFBC Technology
Authors: Bellofatto Oreste , Pessina Arturo
Published: March 2015

This paper considers the utilization of the high temperature Brayton closed cycle with air cooled atmospheric fluidized bed combustor in district heating plants.

The main features of a closed cycle plant are compared with those of a conventional steam cycle plant with flue gas desulphurization and with a steam plant fired by a circulating atmospheric fluidized bed boiler.

The characteristics of the main items are analyzed.
Multiple Row Blades for Blowers
Authors: Sheets Herman E.
Published: March 2015

A development is undertaken to determine possible configurations for multiple row or tandem blades for blowers. For the individual rows of the airfoils, changes in blade number, blade camber, and chord length are analyzed. Modifications in the arrangement between two blade rows are made and tests are presented to determine the optimum design. Tests are shown regarding the effects of changes in blade number and blade solidity. The tests indicate that two row blades are capable of larger flow deflection with associated flow deceleration than single airfoils. The development makes it possible to reduce the number of stages for multistage blowers.
Design and Test of Non-Rotating Ceramic Gas Turbine Components
Authors: Neuburger André L. , Carrier Gilles
Published: March 2015

This paper deals with elements of an on-going ceramics research and development program at a major manufacturer of turbine engines for general aviation and commuter aircraft. The program comprises design and test of non-rotating, ceramic components for two widely used turboprop engines. The design, analysis and test of three components are discussed: a simple ceramic turbine shroud, a metal and ceramic turbine shroud, and an all ceramic nozzle vane assembly. Fabrication and assembly of these components are described. A discussion of non-destructive evaluation and component prooftesting includes a prooftest strategy that seeks to retain the stronger half of a sample of specimens. Candidate ceramics, silicon carbide and silicon nitride, are assessed and chosen as the shroud and vane materials. The paper also includes assessment of improvements in fuel efficiency, specific power and operating cost, some based on test results and some on analysis.