Configuration Of Elements Research Articles

ВЫБОР МОДЕЛИ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ПРЕОБРАЗОВАНИЯ ДАТЧИКА ДЛЯ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ПОГРЕШНОСТЬЮ ПРИ ИЗМЕРЕНИИ ФИЗИЧЕСКИХ ВЕЛИЧИН

On the example of a pressure sensor, the problem of selecting a model and parameters ofthe conversion function of a microprocessor sensor is considered. The conversion function isbased on a mathematical model that associates the electrical signal coming from the sensor'smeasuring transducer with the value of a physical quantity. The model of the conversion functionof a microprocessor sensor must repeat the real spatial dependence of the electrical signal on themeasured value and take into account the influence of external factors, such as temperature. Microprocessorsensors are used to measure the parameters of an object with a given accuracy. Themain contribution to the measurement error is made by the inaccuracy of the approximation of thereal transformation function by its model. The need to achieve the optimal level of parametermeasurement error in the system, taking into account the complexity and cost of measurements,requires the control of the sensor error. For this purpose, various models and methods of approximationare presented. For efficient error control, a method of multi-segment spatial approximationbased on models of linear or non-linear spatial elements is proposed. The error control procedureis formulated. The procedure for using the model of multi-segment spatial approximationof the transformation characteristic for pressure calculations taking into account the influence oftemperature is based on the combined use of linear and non-linear spatial elements within thesame model. The segment type selection procedure should begin with an assessment of the possibilityof using a linear spatial element first, and if it is impossible to meet the accuracy requirements,an analysis of the use of a non-linear element. The method allows you to change the typesand configuration of spatial elements and in this way influence the measurement error. The advantagesof this approach are confirmed by the simulation results.

The impact of visual complexity on perceived safety and comfort of the users: A study on urban streetscape of Sri Lanka.

Increase in the variety of development in urban context has made it more complicated and complex for the users of public spaces. Absence of sufficient information to read the surrounding causes psychological anxiousness leading to perceived danger or discomfort for the urbanites. Consequently, perceived safety and comfort of the users is distinctively low in urban contexts, creating neglected and underused spaces. Complexity is one of the information processing variables as per Kaplan and Kaplan’s informational model which helps users to comprehend the surrounding environment. The streetscape plays a vital role in the daily movement patterns within the urban cities and is the transition boundary between the public and private realms. Visual complexity of these streets is a result of different configurations of elements within the urban areas. This research is conducted to ascertain the relationship between visual complexity levels of the streets with the perceived safety and comfort of the users. Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) and Fractal dimension analysis were conducted with 48 SVIs (Street View Images) selected within 1km radius of Colpetty junction, Colombo Sri Lanka covering all the possible compositions found within the context. The visual index data extraction had identified ten major components within the selected 48 SVIs. 78 subjective ranking responses for perceived safety, comfort (preference) and perceived complexity were collected from snowball sampling. Findings of the study revealed that perceived safety levels and preference scores for the SVIs are related to the Shannon Diversity Index calculation in an inverted ‘U’ shape where the highest and lowest SDI values are related with low preference scores and low safety levels. The SVIs with medium SDI values are perceived as the safest and most preferred by the users of urban streets of Colombo Sri Lanka. The SDI and fractal dimension values were significantly correlated with the perceived complexity scores of the users. The results of this study can be accommodated in the planning and designing of urban streetscapes of tropical climates for sustainable and friendly urban expansions.

Hybridization of statistical machine learning and numerical models for improving beam, diffuse and global solar radiation prediction

Prediction, separation, and improvement of beam (Hb), diffuse (Hd), and global solar radiation (H) using an efficient Gumbel probabilistic model (GP) and hybridization of GP with auto-regression integrated moving average (ARIMA) is essential in regions of Southern Africa and the Middle East. This is because, most of the inhabitants of these localities are not connected to the national grid due to extreme cost implications, frequent power outages, and in most cases, unavailability of the national power supply; as well as the fact that most government meteorological stations are technologically or financially unable to routinely measure these radiometric parameters in most metropolitan cities, developing cities, and remote villages, where there is a severe need for electricity. Although the prediction of H has many advantages in adapting and deploying clean and affordable energy infrastructure through solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, the separation of H into Hb and Hd will further increase cleaner and more affordable systems like solar PV thermal/concentrators, which require Hb for its use. In this era of climate change, Hb, Hd, and H information are needed to detect and adapt climate mitigation plans in places adversely affected by climate change and global warming externalities. Eight different configurations of input combination elements were assembled to stimulate their hybrid evolutionary ARIMA-GP controlled, swapped model through the instrumentality of generalized solar meteorological datasets needed for modeling. The result revealed that the swapped ARIMA models outperformed the controlled and controlled ARIMA models using Gumbel's numerical approach. The best min beam and diffuse irradiance frocontrolled ARIMA models were probabilistically optimized using the Gumbel (GP) probabilistic model to produce ARIMA-GP. From the evaluations of the error metrics, the ARIMA-GP models outperformed the swapped and controlled ARIMA models, as well as the Gumbel models used to separate HB and Hd from H. The selected best performing models produced the RMSE-induced decrease and increase in R2 of 73.73% and 15.25% respectively for GSRML-GP3 (model H), 71.71%, and 14.19% for DSRML-GP5 (model Hd), and 61.91% and 11.70% for DNIML-GP5 (model Hb). These high values of the percentage improvement of the suitable model obtained for the Hb, Hd, and H modeling suggest that the proposed hybrid evolutionary ARIMA-GP model can be adopted to improve the prediction of solar beam, diffuse and global radiation in any region of the world, as the input parameters incorporate the data sets on geo-climatic conditions needed for global modeling. This study also suggests that it is more realistic to use the generalized functional forms GP and ARIMA-GP to separate Hb and Hd from the parameter H and also to generate their corresponding coefficients in the studied regions than applying empirical and machine learning models consolidated in the literature. The proposed ARIMA-GP models are sufficient as a valid evolutionary hybrid model that will accelerate a holistic understanding of the solar resources available in the selected regions and beyond, as well as spread the application of solar photovoltaic/thermal technologies within these countries.

Optimization of Coil Element Configurations Based on Matrix Gradient Coil

Matrix gradient coils (also named multi-coils or arrays) have been introduced for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and shimming with amount of coil elements. However, equipping each coil element with a power amplifier is not always convenient because of expensive cost and complex control system. This study aims to analyze the effect of coil elements on generating magnetic fields and reduce the number of amplifiers, which is fewer than the number of coil elements for similar system performance, low cost, and simple control of matrix gradient coil system. A matrix gradient coil with 48-channels is created to generate the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Y$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z$ </tex-math></inline-formula> gradient magnetic fields, respectively. The metric role of coil element is implemented, and the relationship between the distribution of coil elements and the target fields is analyzed. Eliminating the coil elements that have no effect on the target field and connecting the coil elements that have the same amplitude of current in series, the coil element configurations are obtained. Different configurations have different groups and coil elements in the same group are driven via an amplifier. Three power amplifiers are sufficient to generate the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Y$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z$ </tex-math></inline-formula> gradient fields, respectively, in this study. Comparing the results of using full 48 amplifiers and using three amplifiers, the performances of the coil system for producing the magnetic fields are similar. Experiments for generating all linear gradient fields demonstrate that using fewer amplifiers to drive coil elements can also achieve acceptable results. The optimization method for configurating the coil elements is simple and time-saving to reduce the number of amplifiers to drive the matrix gradient coil.

Antecedents of Creating Business Models in the Field of Renewable Energy Based on the Concept of the New Age of Innovation

The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedence of business models for the renewable energy sector, characterise their concepts and structure, and assess the importance of innovation in the creation of value for the customer and for the business in the examined business models. According to the concept of K. Prahalad and M. S. Krishnan, an operational business model consists of three basic components. The first two are social architecture and technical architecture that represent specific resources. The third component comprises business processes. The operating business model according to the principles of the New Era of Innovation was used. The business models were presented as case studies of the following: a photovoltaic farm, a passive building and a local (communal) biogas plant. A desk research method was employed as well as triangulation of the research methods of non-participant observation, unstructured interview and business documentation review, in order to develop the case studies. The identification of antecedents for business models in renewable energy generation allows the argument that the business model can be treated as a system for the configuration of resources and interdependent activities, emphasising the role of the configuration of tangible and intangible elements. As the presented business models have been active for a relatively limited time, changes in competence and human capital attitudes, as well as social acceptance for those models, are not examined here. The absence of the upper and lower performance limit of the optimisation algorithm, or system variables, may be an interesting area for further research.

Rapid microwave hydrothermal processed spinel Co3O4 nanospheres infused N-doped graphene nanosheets for high-performance battery

Spinel Co3O4 nanospheres have been synthesized by the microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. The N-doped graphene nanosheets (NGN) were synthesized using Hummer’s method. The prepared spinel Co3O4 and NGN were mixed under certain proportions using an ultrasonication process and treated with microwave radiation to prepare a novel spinel Co3O4 nanospheres infused NGN. The synthesized samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Zetasizer, scanning electron microscope/transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for identifying crystal structure and phase, particle size, and the morphology of the nanostructure and the elemental configuration, respectively. The prepared spinel Co3O4/NGN were used as anode material and lithium metal as a reference electrode to fabricate half cell using Swagelok cell components. The electrochemical properties were studied and found to exhibit a larger specific capacity of 575 mAh g−1 compared to traditional graphite electrodes, after 100 cycles under 0.1 C rate with a coulombic efficiency of ≈100%. The good electrochemical properties ascribe to the distinctive surface morphological nanostructures of nanoporous nanospheres of spinel Co3O4 nanospheres and nanosheets of N-doped graphene that reduce the lithium-ion diffusion pathway. The developed anode material would be a potential electrode for lithium ion battery applications.

Bismuth oxide-doped graphene-oxide nanocomposite electrode for energy storage application

Nanocrystalline and porous bismuth oxide-doped graphene oxide nanocomposite (Bi2O3-GO NC) electrode material synthesized via microwave irradiation method has been envisaged for supercapacitor application. Surface morphology, elemental configuration, phase purity, surface area, porosity, and binding energy etc., are initially screened and then preferred in electrochemical measurement analysis. The as-obtained Bi2O3–GO NC electrode adduces a better performance with quasi-faradaic redox reactions in electrochemical measurements over pristine GO in 6 M KOH electrolyte solution. The specific capacitance of the Bi2O3–GO NC electrode measured at current densities 5–14 A/g is varied from 1250 to 933 F/g. The as-assembled Bi2O3–GO//Bi2O3–GO symmetric supercapacitor device reveals an exceptional electrochemical performance with 25.83 W-h/kg specific energy at 337 W/kg specific power, and excellent stability of about 80% for 5000 cycles, evidencing usability potential of metal oxide-GO composite electrode materials over solitary carbonaceous electrode. A demonstration of 42 LEDs ignited with full-bright intensity supports our claim as well.

Geochemical, mineralogical and toxicological characteristics of coal fly ash and its environmental impacts

Coal and coal-based products (by-products), along with other fossil fuels should be used with caution because of their impact on human health and the global climate. In the light of the environmental impact these fossil fuels cause, it's essential to understand the elemental configuration of coal-derived samples and their impact on the ecosystem. Some reports in past have described, geochemical and mineralogical physiognomies of fly-ash and their impact on the environment. However, a comprehensive investigation of various aspects of fly ash like geochemistry, mineralogy, morphology, and toxicological effects has been very sparse and the present study reports the above aspects. The ICP-OES studies confirm the presence of various elements (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Na, P, S, Si, and Ti) in the samples. The XRD analysis exposed the presence of minerals like Quartz, H-Hematite, Anatase, Muscovite, and Rutile, in addition to the various phases such as amorphous and crystalline in the fly-ash. Specific samples also possessed Ilmenite which is uncommon in many other samples. Chromium and lead, the well-known heavy metals to cause soil and water pollution in the neighbourhood were found to be existing in higher concentrations in the fly-ash samples, whereas cadmium was found to be the least among the toxic elements found in the samples. The samples were subjected to FE-SEM analysis, which reveals the presence of irregularly shaped minerals and unburnt carbon known to reduce the burning efficiency of coal, especially in power plants. Toxicology studies reported in the work suggested that fly-ash is toxic to the environment at higher concentrations than at lower concentrations.

A synergic effect of N-Graphene wrapped [formula omitted]-Fe[formula omitted]O[formula omitted] nanofacets prepared by Microwave-assisted solvothermal method for Lithium-ion battery

α-Fe2O3 nanofacets have been synthesized by the microwave-assisted solvothermal method. The nitrogen-doped reduced Graphene oxide (N-Graphene) was synthesized using Hummer’s method. The prepared Fe2O3 and N-Graphene were mixed under certain proportions using a microwave treatment process to prepare a novel N-Graphene wrapped α-Fe2O3 nanofacets. The synthesized samples were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Semi Macro Elemental (CHNS-OX) Analyzer, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy for identifying crystal structure and phase, the morphology of the nanostructure and the elemental configuration, respectively. The prepared N-Graphene wrapped α-Fe2O3 nanofacets were used as anode material and lithium metal as a counter electrode to fabricate half cell using Swagelok type lithium ion half cells. The electrochemical properties were studied and exhibited a large specific capacity of 878mAhg−1 after 100 cycles measured under 100mAg−1 current rate due to the synergic effect of N-Graphene and Fe2O3 nanofacets. The obtained capacity values are higher than the conventional Graphite as anode material due to the synergic effect on the properties of N-Graphene and α-Fe2O3 nanofacets and would be a promising potential candidate for the electrochemical devices.

Photocatalytic removal of food colorant using NiO/CuO heterojunction nanomaterials

In recent days, the existence of several food colorants has an impact on human health issue that may induce major carcinogenic effects. Therefore, the removal of food colorants must be made in accordance with the necessity of health awareness in life. Photocatalyst treatment using semiconductors shows a promising way to solve these issues. In this relation, this paper presents the novel nanoflower shaped NiO/CuO (0.9:0.1 M and 0.5:0.5 M) photocatalysts developed via co-precipitation method for the destruction of methyl orange (MO) as a model food colorant under visible light irradiation. The X-ray diffraction result proposed that the composite catalysts consist of mixed heterostructures (cubic and monoclinic) with no other impurities. From the images of transmission electron microscope, the catalyst presents nano spherical and cubical mixed morphologies. Besides, NiO/CuO (0.5:0.5 M) catalyst exhibits agglomeration due to the highly contented CuO. The Energy Dispersive X-ray spectra gave the elemental configuration without other impurity traces. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of NiO/CuO (0.9:0.1 M) catalyst occupies higher surface area. Unfortunately, NiO/CuO (0.5:0.5 M) sample has lower surface area due to the agglomerated particles. The UV–vis spectra confirmed that the absorption of the catalyst lies in higher wavelength region occupying small band gap. Moreover, the visible light activity of the catalysts showed 75.3% (0.9:0.1 M) and 40.2% (0.5:0.5 M) degrading efficiencies. At the end, the highly efficient catalyst was experienced photocatalytic activity upto 5 repeated runs and the efficiency remained the same. Therefore, the catalyst NiO/CuO (0.9:0.1 M) has prompted the successful degradation of MO food colorant under visible light.

Preparation and characterization of bioactive polyvinylpyrrolidone film via electrospinning technique.

Electrospinning technique became a very common and effective method to fabricate nonwoven films with a large surface area for different purposes especially in the biomedical field. Antimicrobial submicron fibrous films based on polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) doped with silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and (Ag-NPS/ZnO), were successfully fabricated via the electrospinning technique. The morphology and the elemental configurations of the as-prepared films were studied by using scanning electron microscope with EDX. While the phase formation and crystal structures were determined by using XRD analysis. The antibacterial effect was investigated against one of the most common Gram-negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae by using a modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The results showed that the doping nanoparticles were uniformly loaded on the surface of the fabricated film fibers. By using Scherrer equation the calculated average crystallite sizes of Ag-NPs, ZnO, and Ag-NPs/ZnO on PVP fibers were 63, 30, and 44 nm, respectively. The antimicrobial activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae showed the growth inhibition zones in the bacteria plates of 23.3, 54, and 60.6 mm for the samples of Ag-NPs/PVP, ZnO/PVP, and Ag-NPs/ZnO/PVP, respectively. The antimicrobial efficiency increased by forming nanocomposites of both ZnO nanoparticles and Ag nanoparticles inside the film. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Novel antimicrobial submicron electrospun membranes based on polyvinylpyrrolidone doped with silver, zinc oxide nanoparticles were successfully fabricated. The fabricated samples showed bactericidal activity against K. pneumoniae.

Antenna for 5G Mobile Communication at 28 GHz

Fifth generation (5G) mobile communications has become one of the trendiest issues in recent years, especially in the development of wireless technology for communications. As such, 5G mobile communications will also suffer severe path loss, due to the high frequency bands. This work presents the antennas for 5G mobile communication at 28 GHz on Rogers RT5880 with a dielectric constant, εr of 2.2, loss tangent, tan δ of 0.0009 and thickness, h of 0.787 mm. A rectangular microstrip patch are proposed in this work which consist of a single element and array configurations with two and four elements. Microstrip feed line and inset feed line are implemented to observe their performances. It can be observed from the simulation results that the gain and directivity increase from a single element up until four elements array antenna for both the microstrip feed line and inset feed line of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna. This confirm to the fact that array antenna produces high gain and directivity which could overcome the challenge of high free space path loss in millimeter-wave. The spacing between each element in the array antenna are spaced accordingly and not so close with each other in order to suppress the mutual coupling between the elements. It is shown that the mutual coupling is greatly reduced based on the greater values of reflection coefficient in two-element and four-element array antennas. Based on the gain, directivity and reflection coefficient, inset feed line antennas perform better than microstrip feed line antennas. In terms of dimensions, the size of the antenna with an inset feed line reduces as compared to microstrip feed line as the number of elements increases. Thus, it is safe to conclude that inset feed line antennas outperform microstrip feed line antennas when it comes to gain, directivity, reflection coefficient, and dimensions of antennas. Therefore, the proposed array antennas in this work are suitable to be used in 5G mobile communications.

Game Balancing in Dominion: An Approach to Identifying Problematic Game Elements

In the popular card game Dominion, the configuration of game elements greatly affects the experience for players. If one were redesigning Dominion, therefore, it may be useful to identify game elements that reduce the number of viable strategies in any given game configuration - i.e. elements that are unbalanced. In this paper, we propose an approach that assigns credit to the outcome of an episode to individual elements. Our approach uses statistical analysis to learn the interactions and dependencies between game elements. This learned knowledge is used to recommend elements to game designers for further consideration. Designers may then choose to modify the recommended elements with the goal of increasing the number of viable strategies.

Incremental cost-benefit quantitative assessment of green building: A case study in China

As a resource-saving and environment-friendly building form, the green building aims to provide occupants with an ecological and humanistic living space. To promote the popularity of green buildings in the construction industry, effective incremental cost-benefit evaluation is an essential prerequisite. However, miscellaneous elements and fuzzy evaluation criteria often make challenges for accurate evaluation. Further, the fluctuation of incremental cost-benefit elements in the whole life cycle of green buildings also limits the applicability of static evaluation methods. To address these limitations, this study proposes to identify the elements of incremental costs and incremental benefits on the premise of extracting the phase characteristics. Simultaneously, we also introduced the concept of production efficiency (PE) in the manufacturing industry and developed the BCC model through data envelopment analysis (DEA) to quantitatively evaluate the PE of green building. Finally, six green buildings in China are taken as cases to implement the quantitative evaluation of PE. The results show that the divergence of PE mainly comes from the personalized configuration of various elements. Moreover, the PE is floating due to the influence of “input–output” balance adjustment in the whole life cycle. This study is a dynamic prediction of green building efficiency and provides suggestions for practitioners to reconstruct the allocation of project resources.

Dynamic spreading of chromatin-mediated gene silencing and reactivation between neighboring genes in single cells.

In mammalian cells genes that are in close proximity can be transcriptionally coupled: silencing or activating one gene can affect its neighbors. Understanding these dynamics is important for natural processes, such as heterochromatin spreading during development and aging, and when designing synthetic gene regulation circuits. Here, we systematically dissect this process in single cells by recruiting and releasing repressive chromatin regulators at dual-gene synthetic reporters, and measuring how fast gene silencing and reactivation spread as a function of intergenic distance and configuration of insulator elements. We find that silencing by KRAB, associated with histone methylation, spreads between two genes within hours, with a time delay that increases with distance. This fast KRAB-mediated spreading is not blocked by the classical cHS4 insulators. Silencing by histone deacetylase HDAC4 of the upstream gene can also facilitate background silencing of the downstream gene by PRC2, but with a days-long delay that does not change with distance. This slower silencing can sometimes be stopped by insulators. Gene reactivation of neighboring genes is also coupled, with strong promoters and insulators determining the order of reactivation. Our data can be described by a model of multi-gene regulation that builds upon previous knowledge of heterochromatin spreading, where both gene silencing and gene reactivation can act at a distance, allowing for coordinated dynamics via chromatin regulator recruitment.

Research on factors affecting ultrasonic phased array detection imaging quality for curved component

An in-depth analysis on the beam directivity of ultrasonic phased arrays has been made to solve the problems of low image quality and identification difficulties caused by a suboptimal configuration of array elements. The influence on the number and spacing of array elements on the imaging quality of curved components was studied. The simulation and experimental verification of the phased array sound field for curved components were carried out. The rules governing the influence of phased array transducer parameters on imaging quality were obtained, and an approach to the optimization of parameters was proposed. The results of this study have important significance for transducer design and the phased array detection of curved components.

Unattained geometric configurations of secondary structure elements in protein structural space

Discovery of new folds in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) has all but ceased. This could be viewed as evidence that all existing protein folds have been documented. Sampling bias has, however, been presented as an alternative explanation. Furthermore, although we may know of all protein folds that do exist, we may not have documented all protein folds that could exist. While addressing completeness in the context of entire protein structures is extremely difficult, they can be simplified in a number of ways. One such simplification is presented: considering protein structures as a series of α helices and β sheets and analysing the geometric relationships between these successive secondary structure elements (SSEs) through torsion angles, lengths and distances. We aimed to find out whether all substructures that could be formed by triplets of these successive SSEs were represented in the PDB. When SSEs were defined with the assignment program Promotif, a gap was identified in the represented torsion angles of helix-strand-strand substructures. This was not present when SSEs were defined with an alternative assignment program with a smaller minimum SSE length, DSSP. We also looked at representing proteins as one-dimensional sequences of SSE types and searched for underrepresented motifs. Completely absent motifs occurred more often than expected at random. If a gap in SSE substructure space exists that could be filled or if a physically possible SSE motif is absent, associated gaps in protein structure space are implied, meaning that the PDB as we know it may not be complete.

Element Matching and Configuration Path of Corporate Social Responsibility Performance

With rapid progress in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) theories and the up-gradation of the global market information disclosure system, enterprises have increased their attention toward relevant stakeholders and social responsibility. CSR exerts a substantial impact on the sustainable development of enterprises and markets in the economic and social fields. On the one hand, the increasingly perfect supporting facilities promote the financial growth of the entire society. While on the other hand, the profit-seeking trend of capital is also on the rise. The incongruity between the rapid progress of enterprises and the lack of social responsibility limits the benign development of the market. This study discusses the antecedents of CSR from the variable combination perspective using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. It also investigates which combination of characteristics has better CSR performance. After the configuration analysis, it is identified that four paths lead to high CSR performance. These include the market-developed type, political link type, financial performance type, and state-owned enterprise subsidy type, and the level of each type is explained in-depth. Finally, this study provides management inspiration for the government and enterprises to formulate a sound social responsibility strategy and improve CSR performance by optimizing the matching of CSR activities and business objectives.

Landscape Complexity has Mixed Effects on an Invasive Aphid and Its Natural Enemies in Sorghum Agroecosystems.

Landscapes with more complex composition and configuration are generally expected to enhance natural enemy densities and pest suppression. To evaluate this hypothesis for an invasive aphid pest of sorghum, Melanaphis sorghi Theobald (Hemiptera: Aphididae), sampling in sorghum fields for aphids and natural enemies was conducted over two years in a southern U.S. coastal production region. Landscape composition and configuration of crop and noncrop elements were assessed using correlation and multivariate regression modeling to detect relationships with insects at different spatial scales. Significant models found more complex landscape configuration, particularly the amount of habitat edges, was associated with increased aphid and natural enemy abundance. Composition associated with noncrop habitats had the opposite effect. Numerical response of natural enemies was taxa dependent, with parasitism lower as landscape complexity increased, while predator numerical response was not affected by landscape complexity. These results indicate landscape complexity may increase both aphid and natural enemy abundance, but with decreasing parasitism and little association with predator numerical response. These relationships are likely contingent on overall environmental suitability to aphid population increase as results were less evident in the second year when average aphid abundance regularly exceeded the economic threshold. This study supports the importance of configuration, especially habitat borders, as a critical metric for determining pest-natural enemy dynamics within a large-scale cereal agroecosystem.

Optimization Design of the Landscape Elements in the Lhasa Residential Area Driven by an Orthogonal Experiment and a Numerical Simulation.

Landscape elements have become an important means to improve the quality of life of residents because of their direct influence on the thermal environment, but the selection and configuration of landscape elements have different effects on human thermal comfort in different climate conditions. In this research, the typical residential area of Lhasa in Tibet was taken as the research object, the experimental scheme was prepared using an orthogonal test, and the simulation was carried out using ENVI-met to explore the influences of the green configuration, water area, and ground reflectance, as well as their interaction with the thermal environment in winter and summer under alpine climate conditions. Taking the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) as the optimization index, the optimal design scheme for the synergistic effect of the residential landscape elements was determined. The results were as follows. (1) The order of the landscape configuration factors was as follows: green configuration > water area > leaf area index > ground reflectance in summer. In winter, the order was green configuration > water area > ground reflectance > leaf area index (LAI). (2) With the combined driving of the orthogonal test and the numerical simulation, the optimal scheme of the landscape elements was determined, which was “tree shrub lawn, water area ratio 16%, ground reflectance 0.5, and LAI = 3 m2/m3”. (3) Finally, the optimal design strategy of the landscape configuration was proposed for the typical outdoor active space of the Lhasa residential area.