nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
What influences the diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability? Investigating community currency niches
Venue: Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag.

Community action for sustainability is a promising site of socio technical innovation. Here we test the applicability of co evolutionary niche theories of innovation diffusion (strategic niche management, SNM) to the context of 'grassroots innovations' (GIs) We present new empirical findings from an international study of 12 community currency niches (such as Local Exchange Trading Schemes, time banks, and local currencies) These are parallel systems of exchange, designed to operate alongside mainstream money, meeting additional sustainability needs. Our findings confirm SNM predictions that niche level activity correlates with diffusion success, but we highlight additional or confounding factors, and how niche theories might be adapted to better fit civil society innovations. In so doing, we develop a model of GI niche diffusion which extends existing work and tailors it to this specific context. The paper concludes with a series of theoretically informed recommendations for practitioners and policy makers to support the development and potential of GIs.
Business Models for Sustainability

The relevance of business models for corporate performance in general and corporate sustainability in particular has been widely acknowledged in the literature while sustainable entrepreneurship research has started to explore contributions to the sustainability transformation of markets and society. Particularities of the business models of sustainable niche market pioneers have been identified in earlier research, but little is known about the dynamic role of business models for sustainable entrepreneurship processes aiming at upscaling ecologically and socially beneficial niche models or sustainability upgrading of conventional mass market players. Informed by evolutionary economics, we develop a theoretical framework to analyze co evolutionary business model development for sustainable niche pioneers and conventional mass market players aiming at the sustainability transformation of markets. Core evolutionary processes of business model variation, selection and retention, and evolutionary pathways are identified to support structured analyses of the dynamics between business model innovation and sustainability transformation of markets.
Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Core Shell Co0.16Fe2.84O4@NaYF4(Yb, Er) and Fe3O4@NaYF4(Yb, Tm) Nanoparticle as Trimodal (MRI, PET/SPECT, and Optical) Imaging Agents
Venue: Bioconjugate chemistry

Multimodal nanoparticulate materials are described, offering magnetic, radionuclide, and fluorescent imaging capabilities to exploit the complementary advantages of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) positron emission tomography/single photon emission commuted tomography (PET/SPECT) and optical imaging. They comprise Fe3O4@NaYF4 core/shell nanoparticles (NPs) with different cation dopants in the shell or core, including Co0.16Fe2.84O4@NaYF4(Yb, Er) and Fe3O4@NaYF4(Yb, Tm) These NPs are stabilized by bisphosphonate polyethylene glycol conjugates (BP PEG) and then show a high transverse relaxivity (r2) up to 326 mM( 1) s( 1) at 3T, a high affinity to (18)F] fluoride or radiometal bisphosphonate conjugates (e.g. (64)Cu and (99m)Tc) and fluorescent emissions from 500 to 800 nm under excitation at 980 nm. The biodistribution of intravenously administered particles determined by PET/MR imaging suggests that negatively charged Co0.16Fe2.84O4@NaYF4(Yb, Er) BP PEG (10K) NPs cleared from the blood pool more slowly than positively charged NPs Fe3O4@NaYF4(Yb, Tm) BP PEG (2K) Preliminary results in sentinel lymph node imaging in mice indicate the advantages of multimodal imaging.
Continuous preparation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles through Impinging Stream Rotating Packed Bed reactor and their electrochemistry detection toward heavy metal ions

We reported the continuous preparation and electrochemical behavior toward heavy metal ions of the Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (Fe 3 O 4 NPs) This Fe 3 O 4 NPs were fabricated through a novel Impinging Stream Rotating Packed Bed reactor with a high production rate of 2.23 kg/hour. The as prepared Fe 3 O 4 NPs were quasi spherical with a mean diameter of about 10 nm and shown the characteristics of superparamagnetism with the saturated magnetization of 60.5 emu/g. The electrochemical characterization of the as prepared Fe 3 O 4 NPs toward heavy metal ions were evaluated using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) analysis. The results indicated that the modified electrode could be used to individual detection of Pb(II) Cu(II) Hg(II) and Cd(II) In particular, the modified electrode exhibited the selective detection toward Pb(II) with higher sensitivity of 14.9 mA/mM, while the response to Cu(II) Hg(II) and Cd(II) were negligible. Besides, the modified electrode shown good stability and potential practical applicability in the electrochemical determination of Pb(II) This above results offered a simple method for continuous preparation sensing materials in the application field of electrochemical detection of toxic metal ions through the technology of process intensification.
Phytosynthesis and photocatalytic activity of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles using the Andean blackberry leaf

In the present study, a simple, low cost, and ecofriendly synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) has been developed using Andean blackberry leaf extract. UV vis spectroscopy technique were used to study the initial formation of Fe3O4 NPs. Morphology, crystallinity and surface properties of nanoparticles were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) Dynamic light scattering (DLS) X ray diffraction (XRD) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermal gravimetric (TG) techniques. TEM and DLS characterization indicated the formation of spherical Fe3O4 NPs of average size 54.5 24.6 nm. XRD and FTIR studies confirmed the existence of the cubic spinel phase of Fe3O4 NPs and Fe O peak at 570 cm 1, whereas TG analysis indicated that the nanoparticles contain 94% metal and 6% capping ligand. It has been observed that, as synthesized Fe3O4 NPs exhibited photocatalytic activity for degradation of organic dyes such as methylene blue (k 0.0105475 min 1) congo red (k 0.0043240 min 1) and methyl orange (k 0.0028930 min 1) efficiently. The antioxidant activity of Fe3O4 NPs against 1, 1 diphenyl 2 picrylhydrazyl were also evaluated.
Multibody dynamics of pivot slipper pad thrust bearing in axial piston machines incorporating thermal elastohydrodynamics and mixed lubrication model

A model for the calculation of multibody dynamics incorporating a transient, three dimensional, thermal elastohydrodynamic pivot pad contact in swash plate axial piston pumps is presented. The simulation is based on the numerical solution of equations of motion, generalized Reynolds, energy and Fourier heat equations. The equation of motion of the hybrid pivot bearing is derived by Lagrangian formalism and solved in due consideration of friction in the spherical joint and piston barrel. Mass conserving cavitation, non Newtonian flow and a mixed friction model with consideration of real measured surface topologies are implemented. Results for a slipper pad with retain plate are presented. The impact of the retain device on slipper pad friction and temperature are discussed.
16S rRNA gene sequencing of mock microbial populations impact of DNA extraction method, primer choice and sequencing platform
Venue: BMC Microbiology

BackgroundNext generation sequencing platforms have revolutionised our ability to investigate the microbiota composition of complex environments, frequently through 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the bacterial component of the community. Numerous factors, including DNA extraction method, primer sequences and sequencing platform employed, can affect the accuracy of the results achieved. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of these three factors on 16S rRNA gene sequencing results, using mock communities and mock community DNA.ResultsThe use of different primer sequences (V4 V5, V1 V2 and V1 V2 degenerate primers) resulted in differences in the genera and species detected. The V4 V5 primers gave the most comparable results across platforms. The three Ion PGM primer sets detected more of the 20 mock community species than the equivalent MiSeq primer sets. Data generated from DNA extracted using the 2 extraction methods were very similar.ConclusionsMicrobiota compositional data differed depending on the primers and sequencing platform that were used. The results demonstrate the risks in comparing data generated using different sequencing approaches and highlight the merits of choosing a standardised approach for sequencing in situations where a comparison across multiple sequencing runs is required.
Effect Of Mold Temperature On Interfacial Welded Strength And Outer Shell Laminate Strength Of CF/PA6 Composites Manufactured By Press And Injection Hybrid Molding

The press and injection hybrid molding system is a novel molding technology with the combination of press molding and injection molding, and is expected for the mass production of FRTP (Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics) which have complicated shapes. The hybrid FRTP structure consists of the following two structures: the outer shell laminate structure that is molded by the press molding using continuous fiber, and the rib structures that are molded by the injection molding using short or long fibers. In a previous study, the hybrid composite has been reported to fracture at the welded interface between the laminate and injected material. The method, in which outer shell laminate penetrates into the rib structures, was developed to increase the interfacial welded strength. However, the continuous fiber of outer shell laminate waves at the welded interface and may lead to reduction in mechanical properties. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the reduction in the strength of outer shell laminate. In this study, the effects of mold temperature on the mechanical properties were evaluated by T shaped specimens for interfacial welded strength and by in plain tensile tests for the strength of outer shell laminate. As the mold temperature becomes higher, the penetrated height of continuous fiber into a rib becomes higher and higher interfacial welded strength is obtained.
Power and clock gating modelling in coarse grained reconfigurable systems
Venue: Conf. Computing Frontiers

Power reduction is one of the biggest challenges in modern systems and tends to become a severe issue dealing with complex scenarios. To provide high performance and flexibility, designers often opt for coarse grained reconfigurable (CGR) systems. Nevertheless, these systems require specific attention to the power problem, since large set of resources may be underutilized while computing a certain task. This paper focuses on this issue. Targeting CGR devices, we propose a way to model in advance power and clock gating costs on the basis of the functional, technological and architectural parameters of the baseline CGR system. The proposed flow guides designers towards optimal implementations, saving designer effort and time.
Reduction of Noise Using Continuously Changing Variable Clock and Clock Gating for IC Chips
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology

The performance of silicon chip depends on the operating voltage of the chip. The chip should be designed using proper power and ground bond pads to minimize the power supply noise. When the chip starts working from the sleep mode, then the sudden rise in current inside the chip causes LdI/dt noise. This noise reduces the power supply voltage, which in turn reduces the operating frequency of the chip. This makes the chip manufacturer to sell products of high performance chips at a lower operating frequency. In order to ramp this current slowly, an innovative and fundamentally new method is implemented. In this proposed method, we have increased the operating frequency inside the chip slowly (from fmin to fmax) to control the current ramp and at the same time performed clock gating (CG) to minimize noise by suppressing the current drawn by the device. We have applied this concept of variable frequency together with CG in a 3 b up counter to demonstrate that one can construct a design where the clock can be modulated during its functional operation without any functional failure.
A 90 nm leakage control transistor based clock gating for low power flip flop applications
Venue: 2016 IEEE 59th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS)

The continuous growing demand of portable battery powered electronics devices hunts for Nano electronic circuit design for ultra low power applications by reducing dynamic power, static power and short circuit power. In sequential circuit elements of an IC, a notable amount of power dissipation occurs due to the rapid switching of high frequency clock signals, which do not fetch any data bit or information. The needless switching of clock, during the HOLD phase of either 'logic 1' or 'logic 0' may be abolished using gated clock. In this paper, we have presented a new clock gating technique incorporating Leakage Control Transistor. The improvised technique is employed to trigger a D Flip Flop using 90nm PTM technology at 1.1V power supply. We have observed an impressive reduction in power, delay and latency using the proposed gating logic, which has outsmarted the existing works. The simulation is also performed in smaller technology nodes such as 65nm, 45nm and 32 nm to notice the change in delay, dynamic power and static power of the circuit.
Design of flip flops with clock gating and pull up control scheme for power constrained and speed insensitive applications
Venue: IET Comput. Digit. Tech.

In this study, a novel power efficient implicit pulsed triggered flip flop with embedded clock gating and pull up control scheme (IPFF CGPC) is proposed. By applying an XOR based clock gating scheme in the pulse generating stage, which conditionally disables the inverter chain when the input keeps unchanged, IPFF CGPC is able to gain low power efficiency by eliminating redundant transitions of internal nodes. Meanwhile, a pull up control scheme is applied to enhance the discharging path and save short circuit power when D makes '0' '1' transition. To further improve the robustness of the proposed design, the XOR based comparator in the clock gating scheme is replaced by a transmission gate based comparator, which results in an enhanced version (IPFF ECGPC) Based on the SMIC 65 nm technology, extensive post layout simulation results show that IPFF CGPC exhibits excellent power characteristic with a reduction of 32.06 85.89% against its rival designs at 10% data switching activity. Due to its power efficiency, its power delay product (PDP) gains an improvement of up to 73.94% in the same condition. Moreover, IPFF ECGPC also enjoys outstanding total power and PDP efficiency at 10% data switching activity. Therefore, the proposed designs are suitable for power constrained applications in very large scale integration designs which are speed insensitive.
A Review on Clock Gating Methodologies for power minimization in VLSI circuits

This research paper gives the introduction of the various clock gating techniques. It also provides the basic clock gating principles, benefits, limitations and enhancements in traditional clock gating scheme. Also it provides the details of parameters which can affect the implementation of the clock gating. As clock signal having great source of power consumption and this is a critical problem in every synchronous circuit. Clock gating is an effective way of reducing the dynamic power dissipation in digital circuits. In a typical synchronous circuit such as the general purpose microprocessor, only a portion of the circuit is active at any given time. Hence, by shutting down the idle portion of the circuit, the unnecessary power consumption can be prevented. One of the ways to achieve this is by masking the clock that goes to the idle portion of the circuit. In This project we will review existing clock gating approaches and also make a comparative analysis of those clock gating technique on some synchronous digital design like ALU (Arithmetic logical unit) and FIFO(first in first out) etc.
Applying value chain analysis to informal sector recycling: A case study of the Zabaleen

A methodology has been developed to apply value chain analysis (VCA) to the informal recycling sector, and demonstrated using the Zabaleen in Cairo, Egypt as a case study. The VCA methodology provides a toolkit comprising four stages. The first involves mapping the value chain and has been demonstrated using the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles as the particular example. Stage 2 tabulates the value added at each step in the value chain; this has been demonstrated for different types of plastics as well as other recycled fractions. Stage 3 identifies and then applies a set of indicators for the development of the informal sector recycling value chain in order to address technical and socio economic challenges. The indicators proposed are in three categories: connections in the value chain, waste valorisation and the enabling environment. Stage 4 involves developing a system dynamic map that shows connections between the indicators, and the stocks and flow variables in the value chain. In particular, it identifies the most highly connected indicators on which to focus interventions, as these are likely to have the greatest impact on the overall system. For the Zabaleen, these are improving the quality of waste inputs into the value chain through source segregation, optimising access to waste and upgrading recycling activities through access to finance and technical knowledge.
Rice value chain analysis in Tanzania: identification of constraints, opportunities and upgrading strategies

The importance of rice Oryza sativa L. as a food and cash crop in Eastern Africa, is increasing, but its value chain is becoming complex. In 2012/13, rice value chain analysis was conducted in rice farming systems of Lake, Eastern and Southern Highlands zones of Tanzania. A sample of 240 producers, 60 traders and 30 processors was involved in the study. The aim of this study was to enhance rice actors with knowledge of the rice value chain, and identify feasible upgrading strategies. The study results revealed that rice was staple crop for more than 50% of the communities in Kilombero, Kyela and Mvomero districts; and less than 30% in Rorya, Mbarali and Maswa districts. It was also an important cash crop (79 100% in all districts. About 44 and 61% of the total crop area cultivated per household, in lowland rainfed and irrigated ecosystems, respectively were under rice cultivation. SARO 5 was the only improved variety widely grown by 27% of farmers out of 32 varieties. Rice yield ranged from 1.5 to 4.3 t ha 1 and varied greatly by ecosystem and variety. About 61 93% of farmers sold their rice paddy to collectors, used non standard measurements. Farmers profits ranged from US 206.63 to 994.85 per hectare. Producer's share of selling rice ranged from 34 to 40% This implies that upgrading strategies are required that can increase producers' market share and improve competitiveness of rice value chain.  Lowland rainfed, Oryza sativa
Value chain analysis: an iterative and relational approach for agri food chains

Chain Analysis (VCA) is established as a diagnostic tool. The purpose of this study is to extend existing applications and develop an iterative and relational method. to facilitate the application of VCA to agri food chains as a strategic process rather than a diagnostic tool.  Using a multiple case study design, the new approach to VCA was applied to four Australian prawn fisheries. These fisheries varied in size, location, management structures and marketing arrangements and allowed the general applicability of the approach to be explored.  The application of the revised VCA revealed the importance of undertaking a strategic approach, with the outcome for all fisheries being a greater understanding of their consumers and an enhanced realisation of commercial opportunities. Two fisheries completed the revised VCA, and the findings show that a relational approach is crucial in creating value. In addition, it was shown that formalised structures and the informal behaviours of the value chain members have a strong positive impact on the relationship process.  The research furthers the value chain literature and contributes an iterative approach to the application of VCA. The research also shows that obtaining improvements is not achievable for all chains, and, if the entire chain is not engaged with the process, the value of the results will be compromised. Further research is needed to confirm the validity of findings in other food industries.  The relational approach is an original contribution to the area of VCA research and provides industry with a blueprint for creating successful value chains. Specifically, the areas of implementation and evaluation make an original contribution to the theoretical and practical knowledge of value chains.
Retrospective analysis of institutional scabies outbreaks from 1984 to 2013: lessons learned and moving forward
Venue: Epidemiology and Infection

Scabies outbreaks can be disruptive in institutional settings, and are associated with considerable but under researched morbidity, especially in vulnerable populations. In this paper, we describe key findings from a retrospective review of scabies outbreaks reported in the literature over the past 30 years. We undertook this review to gain insights into the impact of institutional outbreaks, the burden in terms of attack rates, economic costs, treatment trends, the types of index cases and outbreak progression. We found 84 reports over 30 years, with outbreaks most frequently reported in aged care facilities (n 40) and hospitals (n 33) On average, scabies outbreaks persisted for 3 months, and the median attack rate was 38% While 1% lindane was once the most commonly employed acaricide, 5% permethrin and oral ivermectin are increasingly used. Crusted scabies represented the index case for 83% of outbreaks, and scabies was misdiagnosed in 43% outbreaks. The frequency of reported scabies outbreaks has not declined consistently over time suggesting the disease is still highly problematic. We contend that more research and practice emphasis must be paid to improve diagnostic methods, surveillance and control, health staff education and management of crusted scabies to prevent the development of scabies outbreaks in institutional settings.