scholarly journals Frequency or Amplitude?—Rheo-Electrical Characterization of Carbon Nanoparticle Filled Epoxy Systems

Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hauke Meeuw ◽  
Valea Wisniewski ◽  
Bodo Fiedler
Keyword(s):  
Epoxy Resin ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Electrical Characterization ◽  
Electrical Network ◽  
Applied Frequency ◽  
Mechanical Dispersion ◽  
Oscillatory Shear Flow ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Network States ◽  
The Impact

Dispersion of carbon nanoparticles in epoxy resin is the key factor to adjust the resulting electrical and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite. A profound understanding of the driving forces of standard methods like ultrasonic and mechanical dispersion is necessary. To derive the impact of applied frequency and strain on the resulting dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-filled epoxy resin, this work addresses the strain and frequency dependency of oscillatory shear flow-induced network changes. Strain- and frequency-sweeps were performed for a wide parameter set with in-line measurement of electrical DC resistance to monitor changes in the MWCNT network. Changes in electrical resistance reveal destruction and formation of the MWCNT network. A fundamental novel finding is the governing dependency of changes in the electrical network on applied shear amplitude. The applied frequency barely induces network changes. Applied shear rates do not correlate with particular network states.

Competition Policy under Economic Crisis

2009 ◽  
pp. 54-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Shastitko ◽  
S. Avdasheva ◽  
S. Golovanova
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Competition Policy ◽  
Transition Economy ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Price Rigidity ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
The Impact

The analysis of competition policy under economic crisis is motivated by the fact that competition is a key factor for the level of productivity. The latter, in its turn, influences the scope and length of economic recession. In many Russian markets buyers' gains decline because of the weakness of competition, since suppliers are reluctant to cut prices in spite of the decreasing demand. Data on prices in Russia and abroad in the second half of 2008 show asymmetric price rigidity. At least two questions are important under economic crisis: the 'division of labor' between pro-active and protective tools of competition policy and the impact of anti-crisis policy on competition. Protective competition policy is insufficient in transition economy, especially in the days of crisis it should be supplemented with the well-designed industrial policy measures which do not contradict the goals of competition. The preferable tools of anti-crisis policy are also those that do not restrain competition.

Designing a CRM Framework for online & offline sports footwear retailers

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Cueva ◽  
Guillem Rufian ◽  
Maria Gabriela Valdes
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Running Shoes ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

The use of Customer Relationship Managers to foster customers loyalty has become one of the most common business strategies in the past years.  However, CRM solutions do not fill the abundance of happily ever-after relationships that business needs, and each client’s perception is different in the buying process.  Therefore, the experience must be precise, in order to extend the loyalty period of a customer as much as possible. One of the economic sectors in which CRM’s have improved this experience is retailing, where the personalized attention to the customer is a key factor.  However, brick and mortar experiences are not enough to be aware in how environmental changes could affect the industry trends in the long term.  A base unified theoretical framework must be taken into consideration, in order to develop an adaptable model for constructing or implementing CRMs into companies. Thanks to this approximation, the information is complemented, and the outcome will increment the quality in any Marketing/Sales initiative. The goal of this article is to explore the different factors grouped by three main domains within the impact of service quality, from a consumer’s perspective, in both on-line and off-line retailing sector.  Secondly, we plan to go a step further and extract base guidelines about previous analysis for designing CRM’s solutions focused on the loyalty of the customers for a specific retailing sector and its product: Sports Running Shoes.

The Role of Vascular Aging in Atherosclerotic Plaque Development and Vulnerability

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (29) ◽  
pp. 3098-3111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Liberale ◽  
Giovanni G. Camici
Keyword(s):  
Atherosclerotic Plaque ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Plaque Burden ◽  
Vascular Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Plaque Development ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Background: The ongoing demographical shift is leading to an unprecedented aging of the population. As a consequence, the prevalence of age-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis and its thrombotic complications is set to increase in the near future. Endothelial dysfunction and vascular stiffening characterize arterial aging and set the stage for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Atherosclerotic plaques evolve over time, the extent to which these changes might affect their stability and predispose to sudden complications remains to be determined. Recent advances in imaging technology will allow for longitudinal prospective studies following the progression of plaque burden aimed at better characterizing changes over time associated with plaque stability or rupture. Oxidative stress and inflammation, firmly established driving forces of age-related CV dysfunction, also play an important role in atherosclerotic plaque destabilization and rupture. Several genes involved in lifespan determination are known regulator of redox cellular balance and pre-clinical evidence underlines their pathophysiological roles in age-related cardiovascular dysfunction and atherosclerosis. Objective: The aim of this narrative review is to examine the impact of aging on arterial function and atherosclerotic plaque development. Furthermore, we report how molecular mechanisms of vascular aging might regulate age-related plaque modifications and how this may help to identify novel therapeutic targets to attenuate the increased risk of CV disease in elderly people.

Correlation of Altmetric Attention Scores with Citations in Major Pharmacy Journals (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave L Dixon ◽  
William L Baker
Keyword(s):  
Citation Count ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Scientific Output ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Article Type ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND The impact and quality of a faculty members publications is a key factor in promotion and tenure decisions and career advancement. Traditional measures, including citation counts and journal impact factor, have notable limitations. Since 2010, alternative metrics have been proposed as another means of assessing the impact and quality of scholarly work. The Altmetric Attention Score is an objective score frequently used to determine the immediate reach of a published work across the web, including news outlets, blogs, social media, and more. Several studies evaluating the correlation between the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations have found mixed results and may be discipline-specific. OBJECTIVE To determine the correlation between higher Altmetric Attention Scores and citation count for journal articles published in major pharmacy journals. METHODS This cross-sectional study evaluated articles from major pharmacy journals ranked in the top 10% according to the Altmetric Attention Score. Sources of attention that determined the Altmetric Attention Score were obtained, as well each articles open access status, article type, study design, and topic. Correlation between journal characteristics, including the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations, was assessed using the Spearman’s correlation test. A Kruskal-Wallis 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the Altmetric Attention Scores between journals. RESULTS Six major pharmacy journals were identified. A total of 1,376 articles were published in 2017 and 137 of these represented the top 10% with the highest Altmetric Attention Scores. The median Altmetric Attention Score was 19 (IQR 15-28). Twitter and Mendeley were the most common sources of attention. Over half (56.2%) of the articles were original investigations and 49.8% were either cross-sectional, qualitative, or cohort studies. No significant correlation was found between the Altmetric Attention Score and citation count (rs=0.07, P = 0.485). Mendeley was the only attention source that correlated with the number of citations (rs=0.486, P<0.001). The median Altmetric Attention Score varied widely between each journal (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The overall median Altmetric Attention score of 19 suggests articles published in major pharmacy journals are near the top 5% of all scientific output. However, we found no correlation between the Altmetric Attention Score and number of citations for articles published in major pharmacy journals in the year 2017.

Does the Contract Type Matter? Impact of Marketing and Production Contracts on Cashew Farmers’ Farm Performance in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Dubbert ◽  
Awudu Abdulai
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Spot Markets ◽  
Switching Regression ◽  
Farm Productivity ◽  
Production Contracts ◽  
Marketing Contracts ◽  
On Farm ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Substantial Heterogeneity

Abstract Many studies show that participation in contract farming has positive impacts on farm productivity and incomes. Most of the literature, however, does not take into account that contracts vary in their specifications, making empirical evidence scarce on the diverse impacts of different types of contracts. In this study, we investigate the driving forces of participation in marketing and production contracts, relative to spot markets. We also study the extent to which different contract types add additional benefits to smallholder farmers, using recent survey data of 389 cashew farmers in Ghana. To account for selection bias arising from observed and unobserved factors, we apply a multinomial endogenous switching regression method and implement a counterfactual analysis. The empirical results demonstrate that farmers who participate in production contracts obtain significantly higher cashew yields, cashew net revenues, and are more food secure compared to spot market farmers. We also find substantial heterogeneity in the impact of marketing and production contracts across scale of operation. Small sized farms that participate in production contracts tend to benefit the most. Marketing contracts, however, do not appear to benefit cashew farmers.

scholarly journals An Effective Method for Preparation of Liquid Phosphoric Anhydride and Its Application in Flame Retardant Epoxy Resin

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2205
Author(s):  
Qian Li ◽  
Yujie Li ◽  
Yifan Chen ◽  
Qiang Wu ◽  
Siqun Wang
Keyword(s):  
Flame Retardant ◽  
Epoxy Resin ◽  
Epoxy Resins ◽  
Oxygen Index ◽  
Decomposition Temperature ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Limiting Oxygen Index ◽  
Good Thermal Stability ◽  
Low Viscosity ◽  
The Impact

A novel liquid phosphorous-containing flame retardant anhydride (LPFA) with low viscosity was synthesized from 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and methyl tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MeTHPA) and further cured with bisphenol-A epoxy resin E-51 for the preparation of the flame retardant epoxy resins. Both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements revealed the successful incorporation of DOPO on the molecular chains of MeTHPA through chemical reaction. The oxygen index analysis showed that the LPFA-cured epoxy resin exhibited excellent flame retardant performance, and the corresponding limiting oxygen index (LOI) value could reach 31.2%. The UL-94V-0 rating was achieved for the flame retardant epoxy resin with the phosphorus content of 2.7%. With the addition of LPFA, the impact strength of the cured epoxy resins remained almost unchanged, but the flexural strength gradually increased. Meanwhile, all the epoxy resins showed good thermal stability. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of epoxy resin cured by LPFA decreased slightly compared with that of MeTHPA-cured epoxy resin. Based on such excellent flame retardancy, low viscosity at room temperature and ease of use, LPFA showed potential as an appropriate curing agent in the field of electrical insulation materials.

Approach to Quantify the Impact of Disruptions on Traffic Conditions using Dynamic Weighted Resilience Metrics of Transport Networks

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812199866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Henry ◽  
Angelo Furno ◽  
Nour-Eddin El Faouzi
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Traffic Load ◽  
Transport Networks ◽  
Traffic Conditions ◽  
Probe Vehicle ◽  
Vehicle Data ◽  
Network Operations ◽  
Network States ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Proper Operation

Transport networks are essential for societies. Their proper operation has to be preserved to face any perturbation or disruption. It is therefore of paramount importance that the modeling and quantification of the resilience of such networks are addressed to ensure an acceptable level of service even in the presence of disruptions. The paper aims at characterizing network resilience through weighted degree centrality. To do so, a real dataset issued from probe vehicle data is used to weight the graph by the traffic load. In particular, a set of disrupted situations retrieved from the study dataset is analyzed to quantify the impact on network operations. Results demonstrate the ability of the proposed metrics to capture traffic dynamics as well as their utility for quantifying the resilience of the network. The proposed methodology combines different metrics from the complex networks theory (i.e., heterogeneity, density, and symmetry) computed on temporal and weighted graphs. Time-varying traffic conditions and disruptions are analyzed by providing relevant insights on the network states via three-dimensional maps.

scholarly journals Exploring the Effects of Problematic Internet Use on Adolescent Sleep: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 760
Author(s):  
Ioulia Kokka ◽  
Iraklis Mourikis ◽  
Nicolas C. Nicolaides ◽  
Christina Darviri ◽  
George P. Chrousos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Internet Use ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Problematic Internet Use ◽  
Affecting Factors ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Adolescent Sleep ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Parental Educational Level ◽  
The Impact

Adolescent suse internet via several devices to gather information or communicate. Sleep, as a key factor of adolescents’ development, contributes to their physical and mental health. Over the past decades insufficient sleep among adolescents has been wide spread, and one of its attributing factors is the increased availability of technology. This review aims to investigate the body of evidence regarding the impact of problematic internet use on adolescent sleep. Extensive search of databases was performed according to PRISMA guidelines for studies published within the last decade, regarding subjects aged 10–19. The final step of the search yielded 12 original studies. The quality of extracted data was evaluated with the AXIS tool, in order to estimate the risk of bias. All studies showed a negative correlation between adolescent sleep and problematic internet use. It was found to affect sleep quality and quantity and provoke insomnia symptoms. Interestingly, adolescent’s sex, parental educational level, type of family and use for leisure or academic reasons appeared as affecting factors of the problematic internet use-sleep relationship. Problematic internet use has several effects on adolescents’ sleep. Results of relevant studies should be embedded in educational interventions addressed to adolescents as well as parents, to eliminate the negative outcomes of problematic internet use on sleep and adolescence’s health in general.

scholarly journals The gut at war: the consequences of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection as a factor of diarrhea and malnutrition

2000 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulysses Fagundes-Neto ◽  
Isabel Cristina Affonso Scaletsky
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Diarrheal Disease ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Clinical Aspects ◽  
Small Intestinal Mucosa ◽  
Enteropathogenic Escherichia Coli ◽  
Important Public Health Problem ◽  
The Impact

Diarrheal disease is still the most prevalent and important public health problem in developing countries, despite advances in knowledge, understanding, and management that have occurred over recent years. Diarrhea is the leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age. The impact of diarrheal diseases is more severe in the earliest periods of life, when taking into account both the numbers of episodes per year and hospital admission rates. This narrative review focuses on one of the major driving forces that attack the host, namely the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and the consequences that generate malnutrition in an early phase of life. EPEC serotypes form dense microcolonies on the surface of tissue-culture cells in a pattern known as localized adherence (LA). When EPEC strains adhere to epithelial cells in vitro or in vivo they cause characteristic changes known as Attaching and Effacement (A/E) lesions. Surface abnormalities of the small intestinal mucosa shown by scanning electron microscopy in infants with persistent diarrhea, although non-specific, are intense enough to justify the severity of the clinical aspects displayed in a very young phase in life. Decrease in number and height of microvilli, blunting of borders of enterocytes, loss of the glycocalyx, shortening of villi and presence of a mucus pseudomembrane coating the mucosal surface were the abnormalities observed in the majority of patients. These ultrastructural derangements may be due to an association of the enteric enteropathogenic agent that triggers the diarrheic process and the onset of food intolerance responsible for perpetuation of diarrhea. An aggressive therapeutic approach based on appropriate nutritional support, especially the utilization of human milk and/or lactose-free protein hydrolyzate-based formulas and the adequate correction of the fecal losses, is required to allow complete recovery from the damage caused by this devastating enteropathogenic agent.

The impact of different proportions of knitting elements on the resistive properties of conductive fabrics

2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 881-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Liu ◽  
Yanping Liu ◽  
Li Li
Keyword(s):  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Reference Source ◽  
Wearable Electronics ◽  
Electronic Textiles ◽  
Knitted Fabrics ◽  
Conductive Yarns ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Resistive Networks ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Resistive Property

Conductive yarn is the key factor in fabricating electronic textiles. Generally, three basic fabric production methods (knit, woven, and non-woven) combined with two finishing processes (embroidery and print) are adopted to embed conductive yarns into fabrics to achieve flexible electronic textiles. Conductive yarns with knit structure are the most flexible and effective form of electronic textiles. Electronic textiles present many advantages over conventional electronics. However, in the process of commercialization of conductive knitted fabrics, it is a great challenge to control the complicated resistive networks in conductive knitted fabrics for the purpose of cost saving and good esthetics. The resistive networks in conductive knitted fabrics contain length-related resistance and contact resistance. The physical forms of conductive yarns in different fabrication structures can be very different and, thus, the contact resistance varies greatly in different fabrics. So far, study of controlling the resistive property of conductive fabrics has not been conducted. Therefore, establishing a systematic method for the industry as a reference source to produce wearable electronics is in great demand. During the industrialization of conductive knitted fabrics, engineers can estimate the resistive property of the fabric in advance, which makes the production process more effective and cost efficient. What is more, the resistive distribution in the same area of knitted fabrics can be fully controlled.

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