bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Well‐being and sleep in stressful times of the COVID‐19 pandemic: Relations to worrying and different coping strategies
Authors: Saalwirth Christina , Leipold Bernhard 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe present study examined the relationships between emotional well‐being (positive and negative affect), sleep‐related variables (sleep quality, sleep duration, and change in sleep quality and duration compared to weeks before lockdown), and worrying about coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) challenges during the beginning of the outbreak in Europe. In addition, four different coping strategies were investigated. The study was conducted in Germany with data from 665 participants (53.8% female; 18–73 years), who completed an online questionnaire in April 2020. The results revealed that COVID‐19 worry was associated with impaired well‐being and sleep. Meaning‐ and problem‐focused coping were the most frequently used coping strategies, and showed positive associations with well‐being and sleep. Social and avoidance coping were associated with decreased well‐being and worse sleep outcomes. Three coping strategies showed moderating effects. People who worried more showed higher levels of positive affect when they used problem‐focused coping compared to those who did not. Similarly, highly worried participants showed lower levels of negative affect when they reported using meaning‐focused coping more often. In contrast, social coping increased the risk of high negative affect levels in worried participants. In conclusion, problem‐focused and meaning‐focused coping strategies seemed to be most effective in coping with COVID‐19 challenges.
Point‐Defect Engineering: Leveraging Imperfections in Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g‐C3N4) Photocatalysts toward Artificial Photosynthesis
Authors: Yu Xinnan , Ng Sue‐Faye , Putri Lutfi Kurnianditia , Tan Lling‐Lling , Mohamed Abdul Rahman , Ong Wee‐Jun 
Published: April 2021

AbstractGraphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) is a kind of ideal metal‐free photocatalysts for artificial photosynthesis. At present, pristine g‐C3N4 suffers from small specific surface area, poor light absorption at longer wavelengths, low charge migration rate, and a high recombination rate of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, which significantly limit its performance. Among a myriad of modification strategies, point‐defect engineering, namely tunable vacancies and dopant introduction, is capable of harnessing the superb structural, textural, optical, and electronic properties of g‐C3N4 to acquire an ameliorated photocatalytic activity. In view of the burgeoning development in this pacey field, a timely review on the state‐of‐the‐art advancement of point‐defect engineering of g‐C3N4 is of vital significance to advance the solar energy conversion. Particularly, insights into the intriguing roles of point defects, the synthesis, characterizations, and the systematic control of point defects, as well as the versatile application of defective g‐C3N4‐based nanomaterials toward photocatalytic water splitting, carbon dioxide reduction and nitrogen fixation will be presented in detail. Lastly, this review will conclude with a balanced perspective on the technical and scientific hindrances and future prospects. Overall, it is envisioned that this review will open a new frontier to uncover novel functionalities of defective g‐C3N4‐based nanostructures in energy catalysis.
Long noncoding RNA‐dependent methylation of nonhistone proteins
Authors: Jantrapirom Salinee , Koonrungsesomboon Nut , Yoshida Hideki , M. Candeias Marco , Pruksakorn Dumnoensun , Lo Piccolo Luca 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn the last decade, an intriguing new paradigm of regulation has emerged in which some transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides and no coding potential, long noncoding RNA (lncRNAs), exhibit the capability to control posttranslational modifications of nonhistone proteins in both invertebrates and vertebrates. The extent of such a regulation is still largely unknown. We performed a systematic review to identify and evaluate the potential impact of lncRNA‐dependent methylation of nonhistone proteins. Collectively, these lncRNAs primarily act as scaffolds upon which methyltransferases (MTases) and targets are brought in proximity. In this manner, the N‐MTase activity of EZH2, protein arginine‐MTase 1/4/5, and SMYD2 is exploited to modulate the stability or the compartmentalization of several nonhistone proteins with roles in cell signaling, gene expression, and RNA processing. Moreover, these lncRNAs can indirectly affect the methylation of nonhistone proteins by transcriptional or posttranscriptional regulation of MTases. Strikingly, the lncRNAs/MTases/nonhistone proteins networking seem to be relevant to carcinogenesis and neurological disorders.This article is categorized under:
Regulatory RNAs/RNAi/Riboswitches > Regulatory RNAs
The Decisions of Wannabe Dog Keepers in the Netherlands
Authors: Ophorst Susan , Bovenkerk Bernice 
Published: April 2021

AbstractDogs have for long been humans’ best friend, but the human–dog relationship can be problematic. A mismatch between dogs and their keepers can lead to welfare problems for both; for example: breeding for a specific look can result in health and welfare problems and importing dogs from other countries can lead to zoonoses. In our view, many of these problems could be avoided if wannabe dog keepers reflected better before deciding to obtain a specific dog. Attempting to influence this decision, however, assumes that we know what the right choice is. In this chapter, we discuss three cases: pups with pedigrees, pups without pedigrees, and adult dogs from (foreign) shelters. We show that, in each case, certain moral assumptions are made whose legitimacy can be problematised. We conclude that the decision about what dog to obtain is not a straightforward one and that it is often difficult to establish what is actually the right choice. However, we also pinpoint certain improvements that can be made to the current system and make a number of suggestions that make the right choice the easier choice. As Anthropocene conditions may lead to the domestication of an increasing number of wild species in the future, this analysis may support reflection on the ethical implications of domestication.
Taking Animal Perspectives into Account in Animal Ethics
Authors: Meijer Eva , Bovenkerk Bernice 
Published: April 2021

AbstractRecent years have seen an explosion of interest in nonhuman animal agency in different fields. In biology and ethology, new studies about animal languages, cultures, cognition and emotion are published weekly. In the broad field of animal studies, the symbolic and ontological human-animal distinction is challenged and other animals are presented as actors. These studies challenge existing approaches to animal ethics. Animals are no longer creatures to simply think about: they have their own perspectives on life, and humans can in some instances communicate with them about that. Animal ethics long determined individual moral rights and duties on the basis of nonhuman animal capacities, but this often measures them to human standards and does not take into account that nonhuman animals are a heterogeneous group in terms of capabilities as well as social relations to humans. The questions of whether animals have agency, and how we should morally evaluate their agency, are especially urgent because we live in an age in which humans dominate the lives of large numbers of other animals. The Anthropocene has shaped the knowledge and technology for humans to realize that animals have more agency than has been assumed, but ironically it is also an epoch where animal agency is increasingly curtailed. This leads to new conflicts and problems of justice. How should animal ethics deal with the new knowledge and challenges generated in the Anthropocene? In this chapter we defend a relational approach to animal ethics, viewing other animals as subjects capable of co-shaping relations.
Comment: Evolution 2.0—Rewriting the Biosphere
Authors: van den Belt Henk 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe chapters in this section deal with rather diverse topics like gene drives and de-extinction, the resurrection of the heath hen, cultured meat and the (dis)enhancement of domesticated anmals, but they all explicitly or implicitly engage with ecomodernism. I have chosen the various ways in which the authors confront ecomodernist views as the red thread of my commentary.
Development of an Advanced Solar Tracking Energy System
Authors: Davies Samuel , Sivanathan Sivagunalan , Constant Ewen , Thanapalan Kary 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper describes the design of an advanced solar tracking system development that can be deployed for a range of applications. The work focused on the design and implementation of an advanced solar tracking system that follow the trajectory of the sun’s path to maximise the power capacity generated by the solar panel. The design concept focussed on reliability, cost effectiveness, and scalability. System performance is of course a key issue and is at the heart of influencing the hardware, software and mechanical design. The result ensured a better system performance achieved. Stability issues were also addressed, in relation to optimisation and reliability. The paper details the physical tracker device developed as a prototype, as well as the proposed advanced control system for optimising the tracking.
Integration of Building Information Modelling and Augmented Reality for Building Energy Systems Visualisation
Authors: Dudhee Vishak , Vukovic Vladimir 
Published: April 2021

AbstractBuildings consist of numerous energy systems, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and lighting systems. Typically, such systems are not fully visible in operational building environments, as some elements remain built into the walls, or hidden behind false ceilings. Fully visualising energy systems in buildings has the potential to improve understanding of the systems’ performance and enhance maintenance processes. For such purposes, this paper describes the process of integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) models with Augmented Reality (AR) and identifies the current limitations associated with the visualisation of building energy systems in AR using BIM. Testing of the concept included creating and superimposing a BIM model of a room in its actual physical environment and performing a walk-in analysis. The experimentation concluded that the concept could result in effective visualisation of energy systems with further development on the establishment of near real-time information.
Enhancing Methane Production from Spring-Harvested Sargassum muticum
Authors: Maneein Supattra , Milledge John J. , Nielsen Birthe V. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractSargassum muticum is a brown seaweed which is invasive to Europe and currently treated as waste. The use of S. muticum for biofuel production by anaerobic digestion (AD) is limited by low methane (CH4) yields. This study compares the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of S. muticum treated in three different approaches: aqueous methanol (70% MeOH) treated, washed, and untreated. Aqueous MeOH treatment of spring-harvested S. muticum was found to increase CH4 production potential by almost 50% relative to the untreated biomass. The MeOH treatment possibly extracts AD inhibitors which could be high-value compounds for use in the pharmaceutical industry, showing potential for the development of a biorefinery approach; ultimately exploiting this invasive seaweed species.
Distributed Activation Energy Model for Thermal Decomposition of Polypropylene Waste
Authors: Kartik S. , Balsora Hemant K. , Sharma Abhishek , Chakinala Anand G. , Asthana Abhishek , Goel Mukesh , Joshi Jyeshtharaj B. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThermal decomposition kinetics of Polypropylene (PP) waste is extremely important with respect to valorisation of waste plastics and production of utilizable components viz. chemicals, fuel oil & gas. The present research study focuses on pyrolysis kinetics of PP waste, which is present as a fraction of municipal plastic waste through distributed activation energy model (DAEM). The decomposition kinetics for PP follows a Gaussian distribution, where the normal distribution curves were centred corresponding to activation energy of 224 kJ/mol. The standard deviation of the distribution for the PP sample was found to be 22 kJ/mol indicating its wider distribution of decomposition range. The data validation has been carried out by comparing the rate parameter and extent of conversion values calculated through DAEM model with the Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) experiments carried out for PP at various heating rates of 5, 10, 20 and 40 °C/min.
Innovative Strategy for Addressing the Challenges of Monitoring Off-Shore Wind Turbines for Condition-Based Maintenance
Authors: Al-Habaibeh Amin , Boateng Ampea , Lee Hyunjoo 
Published: April 2021

AbstractOff-shore wind energy technology is considered to be one of the most important renewable energy source in the 21st century towards reducing carbon emission and providing the electricity needed to power our cities. However, due to being installed away from the shore, ensuring availability and performing maintenance procedures could be an expensive and time consuming task. Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) could play an important role in enhancing the payback period on investment and avoiding unexpected failures that could reduce the available capacity and increase maintenance costs. Due to being at distance from the shore, it is difficult to transfer high frequency data in real time and because of this data transferring issue, only low frequency-average SCADA data (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) is available for condition monitoring. Another problem when monitoring wind energy is the massive variation in weather conditions (e.g. wind speed and direction), which could produce a wide range of operational alerts and warnings. This paper presents a novel case study of integrated event-based wind turbine alerts with time-based sensory data from the SCADA system to perform a condition monitoring strategy to categorise health conditions. The initial results presented in this paper, using vibration levels of the drive train, indicate that the suggested monitoring strategy could be implemented to develop an effective condition monitoring system.
Impact of Replacing Conventional Cars with Electric Vehicles on UK Electricity Grid and Carbon Emissions
Authors: Milev George , Al-Habaibeh Amin , Shin Daniel 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper estimated the effect of electric vehicle transition on UK road and how it impacts on electricity supply and the reduction of carbon emissions. It used a scenario in which all cars that utilise internal combustion engines will be replaced by EVs in the UK. The methodology is based on speculating the future number of EVs in Great Britain, which helped in estimating the amount of additional electricity usage that would be required for the scenario. The results revealed that approximately 81 TWh of additional electricity must be produced annually to compensate for such expansion of EV. With that increase in electricity generation, the levels of carbon emissions from the electrical grid will rise slightly, by about 8.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Given that combustion vehicles contribute to about 42% of the carbon emissions from the transport sector in the UK, it is concluded that the total amount of CO2 in the country will decrease by approximately 12% of all cars with internal combustion engines are replaced by electric vehicles.
First Step Towards a System Dynamic Sustainability Assessment Model for Urban Energy Transition
Authors: Gudlaugsson Bjarnhedinn , Dawood Huda , Pillai Gobind , Short Michael 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis paper presents a conceptual model that describes the correlation between an urban energy system and sustainability. The model captures the complexity of the urban energy transition, and the task of achieving sustainable development needs to embrace all aspects of sustainability. This paper portrays the aspects of sustainability as four-dimensional—Environment, Economic, Society, and Technology. The relationship between these four dimensions and the urban energy system is presented in a simplified and aggregated-qualitative based causal-loop diagram. The causal-loop diagram illustrates the causal and interconnective relationships between the four dimensions and their different variables. The causal-loop diagram describes the complex dynamic relationships within a simple urban energy system. The paper also provides a brief description of balancing and reinforcing loops, with the causal-loop diagram present. The conceptual model along with the causal-loop diagrams visually illustrate the dynamic relationship between the four dimensions as well as highlights the complexity and challenging problems that decision-makers are facing today when it comes energy planning and energy system development.
A Brief Review on Nano Phase Change Material-Based Polymer Encapsulation for Thermal Energy Storage Systems
Authors: Hayat Muhammad Aamer , Chen Yong 
Published: April 2021

AbstractIn recent years, considerable attention has been given to phase change materials (PCMs) that is suggested as a possible medium for thermal energy storage. PCM encapsulation technology is an efficient method of enhancing thermal conductivity and solving problems of corrosion and leakage during a charging process. Moreover, nanoencapsulation of phase change materials with polymer has several benefits as a thermal energy storage media, such as small-scale, high heat transfer efficiency and large specific surface area. However, the lower thermal conductivity (TC) of PCMs hinders the thermal efficiency of the polymer based nano-capsules. This review covers the effect of polymer encapsulation on PCMs while concentrating on providing solutions related to improving the thermal efficiency of system.
Reformulating Ceramic Body Composition to Improve Energy Efficiency in Brick Manufacture
Authors: Wie-Addo G. , Jones A. H. , Palmer S. , Starinieri V. , Renshaw J. , Bingham P. A. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe influence of inorganic minerals (colemanite and nepheline syenite) as additives for sustainable clay brick manufacture has been examined. Each additive was added at 4 wt% to 96 wt% brick clay and samples were fired to 950 °C and 1040 °C and then compared with samples of 100% brick clay. Multiple analytical techniques (X-ray fluorescence, dilatometry, boiling water absorption, volumetric shrinkage, and mercury porosimetry) were used for analysis. Dilatometry shows that the additives influenced the temperature at which shrinkage began and the extent of that shrinkage. The use of colemanite reduced the temperature at which the shrinkage began by 120 °C and nepheline syenite reduced it by 20 °C. A linear shrinkage in dilatometry of 1% (from the maximum expanded length) was achieved at 1000 °C for 100% clay, 875 °C for colemanite additions and 970 °C for nepheline syenite additions. However, for samples fired at 1040 °C for 2 h colemanite containing samples had significantly lower volumetric shrinkage and higher water absorption than 100% clay and nepheline syenite samples, suggesting the presence of higher amounts of open porosity caused by the decomposition of the colemanite on heating. Samples containing nepheline syenite had a lower volumetric shrinkage but also a marginally lower water absorption than the 100% clay. The further optimisation of these or similar additives could potentially provide energy saving opportunities and reductions in CO2 emissions for brick manufacturers.
Damage Characterisation in Composite Laminates Using Vibro-Acoustic Technique
Authors: Andersen Kristian Gjerrestad , Jombo Gbanaibolou , Ismail Sikiru Oluwarotimi , Chen Yong Kang , Dhakal Hom Nath , Zhang Yu 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe need to characterise in-service damage in composite structures is increasingly becoming important as composites find higher utilisation in wind turbines, aerospace, automotive, marine, among others. This paper investigates the feasibility of simplifying the conventional acousto-ultrasonic technique set-up for quick and economic one-sided in-service inspection of composite structures. Acousto-ultrasonic technique refers to the approach of using ultrasonic transducer for local excitation while sensing the material response with an acoustic emission sensor. However, this involves transducers with several auxiliaries. The approach proposed herewith, referred to as vibro-acoustic testing, involves a low level of vibration impact excitation and acoustic emission sensing for damage characterisation. To test the robustness of this approach, first, a quasi-static test was carried out to impute low-velocity impact damage on three groups of test samples with different ply stacking sequences. Next, the vibro-acoustic testing was performed on all test samples with the acoustic emission response for the samples acquired. Using the acoustic emission test sample response for all groups, the stress wave factor was determined using the peak voltage stress wave factor method. The stress wave factor results showed an inverse correlation between the level of impact damage and stress wave factor across all the test sample groups. This corresponds with what has been reported in literature for acousto-ultrasonic technique; thus demonstrating the robustness of the proposed vibro-acoustic set-up. Structural health monitoring, impact damage, acousto-ultrasonic testing, non-destructive testing.
The Happy Migrant? Emigration and its Impact on Subjective Well-Being
Authors: Guedes Auditor Jean , Erlinghagen Marcel 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe chapter asks about possible causal effects of migration on subjective well-being (SWB) measured by self-reported overall life satisfaction. By combining the emigration sample of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) with a quasi-counterfactual sample of internationally non-mobile Germans provided by the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) the difference-in-difference analyses show that emigration is actually accompanied by an increase in SWB. Based on propensity score matching procedures and compared to non-mobile German stayers, German first-time emigrants show a significant increase in SWB shortly after arrival in their host country. For most emigrants, migration pays off not only economically via increasing incomes but also with regard to an increase in life satisfaction. However, the underlying analysis has certain limitations and we therefore discuss the significance of the presented evidence and consequences and challenges for future research.