Value creation dynamics in a project alliance

Project alliance requires all parties to work together in good faith, share project risks, and make unanimous decisions for the betterment of the project. A key feature of successful implementation of a project alliance is a focus on value creation and value for money. This paper proposes a qualitative system dynamics model to specify and explain dynamics of value creation processes in the context of project alliance. By synthesizing the existing literature and reports on project alliancing, this paper identifies four processes that have a strong influence on the value created in the project alliance context: work progression, rework, redesign and innovation, and rescheduling. In addition, we show how these value creation processes are interrelated and evolve over time. The effectiveness of these processes is influenced by the capability and motivation of the project alliance partners to discover works that do not fully utilize the available resources, and make quick decisions to capture these benefits.     

N2 explosive decompression pretreatment of biomass for lignocellulosic ethanol production

This paper presents a novel biomass pretreatment method that uses high pressured N₂ and temperature to break the hemicellulose and lignin seal around the cellulose macro fibrils in the cell walls of the lignocellulosic biomass in order to open up the biomass structure for more efficient enzymatic hydrolysis. In this method the biomass is exposed to a high pressure using N₂ gas, and temperature. Under pressure, cells of the lignocellulosic biomass are filled with a solution saturated with nitrogen. When the pressure is then suddenly released, the feedstock is exposed to an explosive decompression and the dissolved nitrogen is released from the solution. Sudden change in the volume breaks the cell walls and opens the biomass structure resulting in increased surface area of the substrate for enzymatic hydrolysis. No catalysts or chemicals were added in the process thereby, making it economically and environmentally attractive. In this research, a range of different pressures (1–60 bar) and temperatures (25–175 °C) were applied to barley straw to evaluate the efficiency of the pretreatment. The pretreatment was followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. Resulting glucose and ethanol concentrations were measured and the yields were considered as an estimate for the most suitable set of pretreatment conditions. The results indicate that the highest glucose yield and hydrolysis efficiency were gained at 150 °C and 10–30 bars. The fermentation efficiency was lower at higher temperatures. Nonetheless, the highest ethanol yield was still gained at the same conditions.     

Optimized laser processing of calibration blocks for grinding burn detection with Barkhausen noise

Calibration samples for the Barkhausen noise (BN) method were produced with laser processing. A planet gear wheel used for production quality control was subjected to laser irradiation to verify the BN sensor output. Different samples were found to respond similarly to the laser processing although the laser parameters needed to be adjusted for different surface qualities separately. The surface optimization for laser processing was studied with different surface qualities of samples. The ground surface was compared with a sandblasted and vibratory ground surface. The ground and sandblasted surfaces were both amenable to the laser processing whereas the vibratory grinding process created inhomogeneous surfaces for laser beam absorption. Laser processing was found to produce uniform changes in the residual stress values in two perpendicular measuring directions. The root mean square value of the BN voltage signal exhibited linear correlations with the values of the residual stress and surface hardness.     

Luminous tiles: A new building device for smart architectures and applications

Advanced building materials are nowadays an active research domain. The integration of traditional materials and technologies in the field of electronics, photonics and computer science are leading to a new class of smart components that provide advanced functionalities and enable original applications.The LUMENTILE H2020 EU funded Project aims at the integration of existing and state-of-the-art technologies in the domain of large area electronic circuits, LED based lighting, embedded systems and communication. These technologies are blended with advancements in the manufacturing of ceramic tiles to obtain a new building component that can be managed as a common tile, while providing the possibility to self-illuminate and to sense the neighbor environment by means of dedicated sensors. The applications of these new material and technologies include indoor and outdoor architectural design, smart environments (also targeting improved safety and security issues), smart and high-efficiency lighting and art installations. State-of-the-art advancements are expected in the field of large area circuits and successful integration of heterogeneous materials, mainly focusing on ceramics and electronics.     

A novel non-functional matchmaking approach between fuzzy user queries and real world web services based on rough sets

We propose in this paper a novel matchmaking approach between fuzzy user queries and real world Web services. The matchmaking spans over a domain dependent classification step that produces fuzzy classification rules for Web services. The elaborated rules leverage a core set of non-functional quality attributes, which is extracted using rough sets theory. Furthermore, these rules are leveraged to classify Web services into categories, which allows reducing the matchmaking space. The experimental results show that our proposed matchmaking approach provides good results in terms of efficiency and precision.     

In-vitro behavior of different fully dense calcium phosphate materials fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering

Results obtained during in-vitro experiments concerning human osteoblasts cultivated on the surface of dense samples produced by Spark Plasma Sintering from three types of hydroxyapatite powders are described and discussed. The sintered products display diverse composition and microstructures which are found to significantly influence the biological response of the cells. Osteoblasts adhesion, viability and proliferation are quantitatively comparable for the three classes of bioceramics, whereas matrix mineralization occurs only in products exclusively consisting of hydroxyapatite. Correspondingly, a calcium-phosphate layer exhibiting a trabecular-like microstructure is deposited on the materials surface. Matrix mineralization is favored when the substrate is composed of submicrometer-sized apatite grains. On the other hand, the latter phenomena is markedly suppressed, and so does the formation of the new apatite phase, when cells are seeded on sintered disks composed of β-Tri-Calcium Phosphate, which was formed during the sintering process from the decomposition of initial apatite.     

Key values driving continued interaction on brand pages in social media: An examination across genders

Brand pages in social media provide companies with a competitive marketing tool to create added value for their firms and customers. Past studies suggest that understanding what customers really value in brand pages is the most vital step in promoting their continued interaction, and that the relative impacts of customer values on continued interaction are contingent on individual demographic factors such as gender. However, little research has examined the relationships between customer values and their intention to engage in continued interaction, and how these relationships are moderated by gender, in the context of brand pages. This study identified eight value factors to measure customer values on brand pages, then examined their impacts on customers' continued interaction intention, and studied gender effects on the latter relationship. Our proposed hypotheses are mostly supported by data collected from users of Sina Microblog brand pages and analyzed by partial least squares.     

Development and preliminary evaluation of an integrated field scale model for perennial bioenergy grass ecosystems in lowland areas

Computer models are useful tools for evaluating environmental and economic sustainability of proposed dedicated cellulosic grass ecosystems for biofuel production. This study developed an integrated, field scale, and process-based ecosystem model (DRAINMOD-GRASS) for simulating hydrological processes, soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, and plant growth in cropping systems for producing bioenergy grasses in lowland areas. We tested the model using measurements from three replicated switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) plots located in eastern North Carolina, USA. Results showed that the model accurately predicted 5-year (2009–2013) biomass yield. Predicted daily water table depth closely matched field measurements with Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.86. The model also accurately predicted temporal dynamics of daily soil moisture and temperature with Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients of 0.7 and 0.9, respectively. Predicted seasonal changes in net N mineralization and nitrification rates were comparable to field measurements in 2011 and 2012.     

LOX1 inhibition with small molecules

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) are nonheme, iron-containing dioxygenases that catalyze the dioxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and are widely distributed among plant and animal species. Human LOXs, now identified as key enzymes in the pathogenesis of major disorders, have increasingly drawn the attention as targets and great effort has been made for the discovery and design of suitable inhibitors, to which end both pharmacological and computational methods have been employed. In the present work, using pharmacophore modeling and docking, we attempt to elucidate the inhibition of LOX1 with a new inhibitor, albidoside, an iridoid glucoside isolated from plants of the Scutellaria genus. Through a pharmacophore approach, complementarities between the ligand and the binding site are explored and a plausible mode of binding with the protein is suggested for albidoside.