bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Barriers for implementing solar energy initiatives in Nigeria: an empirical study
Authors: Abdullahi Dahiru , Renukappa Suresh , Suresh Subashini , Oloke David 
Published: February 2021

PurposeDespite the abundant renewable energy potential in the Nigeria, the power-sector stakeholder has not paid attention to the prospect of the natural resources that can be accrued when it is properly harnessed. Although a very negligible fraction of the population has invested in solar photovoltaics (PVs) for home solution, the initiative was only made public commercialised under the public-private partnership (PPP) and the objectives of the Power Sector Reform Act. 2005. It is, therefore, aimed to investigate the causes and insight of the barriers that are responsible for the slow implementation of the solar energy initiative in the Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study was performed in the Nigeria. The study was conducted qualitatively, through semi-structured face-to-face interviews of 25 participants. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, interpreted, coded, categorised into themes and analysed by content analysis.FindingsThe study reveals technological, financial, political and social barriers have been the reason for slowing down solar energy development in Nigeria. While the technical barrier is a challenge to the solar energy implementation, socio-cultural issues have also been an obstacle to the implementation process. It is suggested that, the stakeholders of the initiative endeavour to proffer sustainable policies to enable public and private promoters to be able to generate and distribute electricity through solar PV and to complement the inadequate conventional electricity sources from the grids.Originality/valueThe paper provides a richer insight into the understanding and awareness of barriers for implementing solar energy strategies in Nigeria.
Underpinnings of social contributions: conceptualizing behavioral patterns among socially contributive leaders in India
Authors: Bhumika Bhumika , Priya Kumar Ravi , Sinha Arvind Kumar 
Published: February 2021

Purpose
This study aims to explore how some organizational leaders are making successful attempts toward making “social contributions” toward the underprivileged or needy stakeholders in the society. This study suggests empirical themes about behavioral patterns of such organizational leaders and illustrates the need to transcend erstwhile “avoid harm” socially responsible leadership.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected on 52 Indian organizational leaders and were analyzed following the guidelines of constructionist grounded theory.

Findings
Findings suggested that organizational leaders who facilitated some form of social contributions in the life of different stakeholders had “unconditional adherence to social contributions,” they were “pertinacious about going the extra mile” to facilitate social contributions and at times their “existence as an enthusiastically innovative change agent” also facilitated social contributions to the lives of different stakeholders.

Social implications
This study might initiate discussion around the behavioral patterns of organizational leaders who are attempting to make society a better place by leading or facilitating social contributions. Identified exemplary behavioral patterns might encourage more exploratory studies directed toward the identification of other forms of socially contributive leadership attributes.

Originality/value
Emphasis on investigating corporate social responsibility (CSR) from individual-level perspective advocated the importance of the psychological foundation of CSR. This study empirically identifies behavioral patterns that characterize organizational leaders who had a strong commitment to make social contributions to society. Patterns identified corresponded to cognitive and behavioral approaches of organizational leaders that were instrumental in actualizing social contributions to the Indian society.
Dietary antioxidants reduce damage and rescue sperm viability and fertility following oxidative stress in Drosophila melanogaster
Authors: Lang Weily , Gertner Daniel , Radhakrishnan Preethi 
Published: February 2021

AbstractReactive oxygen species (ROS) in large amounts have been shown to cause peroxidative damage to tissues, thereby influencing life‐history trade‐offs such as between reproduction and survival. Reactive oxygen species production is heightened in stressful environments, such as after exposure to toxins. Our study analyzes the effects of antioxidants in reducing the damaging effects of ROS to rescue pre‐ and post‐copulatory reproductive efforts in Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae). We hypothesized that if male fruit flies were fed antioxidant‐enriched diets prior to environmental stress, then the antioxidants would quench the ROS. This would then reduce the lipid peroxidative damage to male sperm, resulting in increased pre‐ and post‐copula reproductive efforts. Two groups of fruit flies were fed antioxidant‐rich diets of lipoic acid (2.15 mM) or melatonin (0.43 mM). Males from all treatments were then fed an herbicide, paraquat (10 mM), which functions as an environmental stressor to shock their immune systems and increase ROS production. All males were then mated to virgin females and copula behavior, sperm viability, male fertility, and total antioxidant capacity were assessed. Our results showed significantly longer mating latencies, higher levels of viable sperm, and more offspring sired in antioxidant‐fed treatments compared to controls. Antioxidant assays reveal that post‐paraquat challenge, males up‐regulate the amount of antioxidants produced. These results draw light on the basis of life‐history trade‐offs such as between reproduction and survival under the context of the molecular mechanisms that govern them, such as pre‐ and post‐copulatory behavior, ROS production, fertility, and sperm viability.
Thermomechanical and thermochemical stability of HfSiO4 for environmental barrier coating applications
Authors: Ridley Mackenzie J. , Opila Elizabeth J. 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThermomechanical and thermochemical stability of hafnon (HfSiO4) was evaluated for application as an environmental barrier coating (EBC) candidate for SiC/SiC CMCs. High‐temperature X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that hafnon has an excellent coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) match with SiC as well as minimal CTE anisotropy, which supports hafnon as an EBC candidate. Alternatively, high‐velocity water vapor testing at 1,200‐1,400°C showed large amounts of silica depletion from chemical reaction at all velocities and excessive material erosion at steam velocities greater than 190 m/s. HfSiO4 is therefore not suitable as an EBC for turbine applications due to insufficient thermochemical stability in water vapor‐containing combustion environments.
For Richer, for Poorer: Bankers' Liability and Bank Risk in New England, 1867 to 1880
Authors: KOUDIJS PETER , SALISBURY LAURA , SRAN GURPAL 
Published: February 2021

ABSTRACTWe study whether banks are riskier if managers have less liability. We focus on New England between 1867 and 1880 and consider the introduction of marital property laws that limited liability for newly wedded bankers. We find that banks with managers who married after a law had higher leverage, delayed loss recognition, made more risky and fraudulent loans, and lost more capital and deposits in the Long Depression of 1873 to 1878. These effects were most pronounced for bankers with the largest reduction in liability. We find no evidence that limiting liability increased firm investment at the county level.
Capabilities, capacity, and consent: sexual intimacy in the Court of Protection
Authors: LINDSEY JAIME , HARDING ROSIE 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThis article uses original data from research at the Court of Protection to explore capacity to consent to sex in practice. It argues that the approach under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 fails to place appropriate focus on consent as central to understanding sexual capacity. The capabilities approach to justice is then used to demonstrate the limitations of the existing legal approach to capacity to consent to sex, and to argue that the protective focus of the legal test would be better centred on the social risks resulting from non‐consensual sex and exploitation. Finally, the article argues that, rather than focusing on a medicalized approach to understanding sexual intimacy, an analysis based on capabilities theory provides conceptual tools to support arguments for additional resources to help disabled people to realize their rights to sexual intimacy.
Harnessing the potential of bacterial oxidative folding to aid protein production
Authors: Slater Sabrina L. , Mavridou Despoina A.I. 
Published: February 2021

AbstractProtein folding is central to both biological function and recombinant protein production. In bacterial expression systems, which are easy to use and offer high protein yields, production of the protein of interest in its native fold can be hampered by the limitations of endogenous posttranslational modification systems. Disulfide bond formation, entailing the covalent linkage of proximal cysteine amino acids, is a fundamental posttranslational modification reaction that often underpins protein stability, especially in extracytoplasmic environments. When these bonds are not formed correctly, the yield and activity of the resultant protein are dramatically decreased. Although the mechanism of oxidative protein folding is well understood, unwanted or incorrect disulfide bond formation often presents a stumbling block for the expression of cysteine‐containing proteins in bacteria. It is therefore important to consider the biochemistry of prokaryotic disulfide bond formation systems in the context of protein production, in order to take advantage of the full potential of such pathways in biotechnology applications. Here, we provide a critical overview of the use of bacterial oxidative folding in protein production so far, and propose a practical decision‐making workflow for exploiting disulfide bond formation for the expression of any given protein of interest.
Nonparametric detection of changes over time in image data from fluorescence microscopy of living cells
Authors: Bissantz Kathrin , Bissantz Nicolai , Proksch Katharina 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThe question whether structural changes in time‐resolved images are of statistical significance or merely emerge from random noise is of great relevance in many practical applications such as live cell fluorescence microscopy, where intracellular diffusion processes are investigated. Using bootstrap‐methods, we construct nonparametric confidence bands for time‐resolved images from fluorescence microscopy and use these to detect and visualize temporal changes between individual frames in imaging of living cells. We model the images frames as two‐dimensional fields of Poisson random variables and provide a strong approximation result for independent and standardized but not necessarily identically distributed Poisson random variables. The latter result is used to derive a limit result for the maximal difference between the reconstructed and the true image. This provides the theoretical foundation of our method. We apply regularization techniques to cope with the ill‐posedness of the convolution problem induced by the imaging system. Our approach provides a criterion to assess time‐resolved small scale structural changes, for example, in the nanometer range. It can also be adopted for use in other imaging systems. Moreover, a data‐driven selection method for the regularization parameter based on statistical multiscale methods is discussed.
Highly efficient multiplex editing: one‐shot generation of 8× Nicotiana benthamiana and 12× Arabidopsis mutants
Authors: Stuttmann Johannes , Barthel Karen , Martin Patrick , Ordon Jana , Erickson Jessica L. , Herr Rosalie , Ferik Filiz , Kretschmer Carola , Berner Thomas , Keilwagen Jens , Marillonnet Sylvestre , Bonas Ulla 
Published: February 2021

SUMMARYGenome editing by RNA‐guided nucleases, such as SpCas9, has been used in numerous different plant species. However, to what extent multiple independent loci can be targeted simultaneously by multiplexing has not been well documented. Here, we developed a toolkit, based on a highly intron‐optimized zCas9i gene, which allows assembly of nuclease constructs expressing up to 32 single guide RNAs (sgRNAs). We used this toolkit to explore the limits of multiplexing in two major model species, and report on the isolation of transgene‐free octuple (8×) Nicotiana benthamiana and duodecuple (12×) Arabidopsis thaliana mutant lines in a single generation (T1 and T2, respectively). We developed novel counter‐selection markers for N. benthamiana, most importantly Sl‐FAST2, comparable to the well‐established Arabidopsis seed fluorescence marker, and FCY‐UPP, based on the production of toxic 5‐fluorouracil in the presence of a precursor. Targeting eight genes with an array of nine different sgRNAs and relying on FCY‐UPP for selection of non‐transgenic T1, we identified N. benthamiana mutant lines with astonishingly high efficiencies: All analyzed plants carried mutations in all genes (approximately 112/116 target sites edited). Furthermore, we targeted 12 genes by an array of 24 sgRNAs in A. thaliana. Efficiency was significantly lower in A. thaliana, and our results indicate Cas9 availability is the limiting factor in such higher‐order multiplexing applications. We identified a duodecuple mutant line by a combination of phenotypic screening and amplicon sequencing. The resources and results presented provide new perspectives for how multiplexing can be used to generate complex genotypes or to functionally interrogate groups of candidate genes.
MADEsmart: An Integrated Design Environment
Authors: Barrett Tom , Coen Gary , Hirsh Joel , Obrst Leo , Spering Judith , Trainer Asa 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Technology is within reach today to significantly improve the design/build environment for large scale engineering efforts such as those undertaken by the aerospace industry and defense contractors. On large and possibly geographically distributed teams, strong task management and easy information distribution is required to minimize the time necessary to develop designs. Broadening the scope of design constraints to include producibility issues, particularly with respect to design optimization, can significantly improve the quality of the designs and reduce the number of times they must be adjusted. Further, the ability to automatically evaluate designs with respect to requirements documentation can contribute additional improvements in quality and reductions in rework. The MADEsmart1 distributed concurrent engineering environment addresses these needs by providing task coordination and easy access to needed information. It will also provide integration of a number of multidisciplinary tools for design optimization and the ability to automatically evaluate designs with respect to existing, textually specified, requirements.
A Tuning Mechanism for Feature Recognition
Authors: De Martino Teresa , Falcidieno Bianca 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
In this paper a flexible feature recognition mechanism that can be tuned by the user in order to meet the specific application requirements, is presented. The recognition process is performed at different levels of detail and is based on topological, morphological and geometric reasoning. Invariant shape characteristics are studied and used for defining shape equivalence relations among features, on which the tuning mechanism provided to the user is based. The system supports the recognition of both classes and specific instances of features.
Using Spreadsheet Modules to Augment the Design and Analysis of Journal Bearings
Authors: Shoup Terry E. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This paper presents three easy-to-use spreadsheet modules in Microsoft Excel ’97 for solving the load and friction problems associated with the design of journal bearings. The modules make use of numerical approximations to data from the literature, and contain numerical interpolation procedures that are highly accurate. These modules allow designs that are more accurate than was possible with previous, graphical methods.
Non-Linear FE Approach for Flexible Multibody Simulation of Mechanism Dynamics
Authors: Sivertsen Ole Ivar 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The simulation approach presented in this paper is based on a nonlinear Finite Element (FE) formulation for modelling of multibody systems (MBS). This formulation is developed to include a comprehensive library of MBS elements as links, joints, springs, dampers and external forces. The links are modelled as FE substructures and reduced to super elements by component mode synthesis (CMS). Super nodes are used for modelling of the mechanism elements referred to above.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Traditional and Virtual Reality Interfaces in Spherical Mechanism Design
Authors: Evans Paul T. , Vance Judy M. , Dark Veronica J. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) interfaces have the potential to enhance the engineering design process, but before industry embraces them, the benefits must be understood and documented. The current research compared two software applications, one which uses a traditional human-computer interface (HCI) and one which uses a virtual reality HCI, that were developed to aid engineers in designing complex three-dimensional spherical mechanisms. Participants used each system to design a spherical mechanism and then evaluated the different interfaces. Participants rated their ability to interact with the computer images, their feelings about each interface, and their preferences for which interface device to use for certain tasks. The results indicated that participants preferred a traditional interface for interaction tasks and a VR interface for visual tasks. These results provide information about how to improve implementation of VR technology, specifically for complex three-dimensional design applications.
Development and Application of Design Concept Ontologies for Contextual Conceptualization
Authors: Horváth Imre , Vergeest Joris S. M. , Kuczogi György 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This study focuses on two specific problems of knowledge intensive computer aided design: (a) how can design concepts be modeled and represented in a form that is understandable for human beings and can be processed by computers, (b) how can they be arranged in structures that enables a computer-based functional design of products. First, a methodology for definition of very high level modeling entities based on the ontology theory is presented. It formalizes design concepts in terms of all concerned entities, phenomena and situations and describes them by attributes, parameters and descriptors, respectively. Validity and interactions of design concepts are governed by constraints. The very high level modeling entities are arranged into domain oriented design ontologies based on their contents and semantic relationships. The formalism used for logical specification of design ontologies is based on a library of declarative expressions called ACN-Code. A design ontology lends itself to a specific knowledge base called associative concept network (ACN). The inference engine that works on an application oriented ACN selects the appropriate design concepts against a set of user specified functional requirements. Due to the pre-defined associations incomplete functional specifications can be completed to result in a fully functional design solution. The paper also presents an application example.
PEDAL: A Knowledge-Based Design Assistant for Automotive PEDAL Packaging
Authors: Lomangino Paul , Wang Nanxin 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Pedal packaging is a complex and tedious design process involving trade-offs among many related activities, including driver placement and engine compartment layout. Pedal layout design requires checks of candidate designs against large libraries of standards. Designers of pedal assemblies must carefully follow these regulations and standards, and manually come up with the pedal layout design. Differences in interpretation of the regulations result in inconsistent designs. A knowledge-based design assistant, named PEDAL, has been designed and developed to help automotive package designers overcome these problems. This paper reviews the needs of the pedal package designer in the framework of the abilities of knowledge-based engineering. PEDAL’s prototype implementation and its combined knowledge base of design standards are described.
Influence of Imperfections in the Working Media on Diesel Engine Indicator Process: Part 2 — Results
Authors: Danov Stanislav N. , Gupta Ashwani K. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
In the companion Part 1 of this two-part series paper several improvements to the mathematical model of the energy conversion processes, taking place in a diesel engine cylinder, have been proposed. Analytical mathematical dependencies between thermal parameters (pressure, temperature, volume) and caloric parameters (internal energy, enthalpy, specific heat capacities) have been obtained. These equations have been used to provide an improved mathematical model of diesel engine indicator process. The model is based on the first law of thermodynamics, by taking into account imperfections in the working media which appear when working under high pressures and temperatures. The numerical solution of the simultaneous differential equations is obtained by Runge-Kutta type method. The results show that there are significant differences between the values calculated by equations for ideal gas and real gas under conditions of high pressures and temperatures. These equations are then used to solve the desired practical problem in two different two-stroke turbo-charged engines (8DKRN 74/160 and Sulzer-RLB66). The numerical experiments show that if the pressure is above 8 to 9 MPa, the working medium imperfections must be taken into consideration. The mathematical model presented here can also be used to model combustion process of other thermal engines, such as advanced gas turbine engines and rockets.
Automatic Tolerance Assignment Using Fuzzy Logic
Authors: Srikanth K. , Liou F. W. , Balakrishnan S. N. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Tolerance design is interdisciplinary in nature and requires input from various stages of product development such as design, manufacturing, and assembly. The factors involved, such as equipment and labor costs, process information, and required rate of successful assembly, are highly uncertain, especially in the early design stage. This paper presents a fuzzy logic approach to model all uncertain parameters in the process for automatic optimal tolerance assignment. A method based on fuzzy logic to evaluate assembly rate is proposed, and the comparison between the fuzzy logic approach and the statistical method is discussed. It is found that using fuzzy logic, a relatively smaller sample size is needed to estimate the assembly rate with reasonable accuracy. Two cases studies are used to demonstrate the process of integrating cost, manufacturing processes, and assembly rates and their uncertainties using fuzzy logic.