Excessive Rigidity Research Articles

Simultaneously Improving Stretchability and Efficiency of Flexible Organic Solar Cells by Incorporating a Copolymer Interlayer in Active Layer

AbstractMechanical stretchability is a vital criterion for the wearable application of organic solar cells (OSCs), while the excessive rigidity of fused‐ring small molecular acceptors make the photovoltaic film hard to meet the stretchable requirements. Herein, an effective strategy is developed to construct an intrinsically stretchable active layer by inserting copolymer PM6‐b‐PYSe as an interlayer between layer‐by‐layer processed D18 and BTP‐eC9. The copolymer interlayer shunts the penetration of BTP‐eC9 and facilitates an appropriate phase separation, favoring the enhanced crack onset strain of 17.69% compared to the D18/BTP‐eC9 film (9.67%). Combining with the optimal energy levels, prolonged carrier lifetime, and suppressed bimolecular recombination aroused by the incorporation of PM6‐b‐PYSe, the D18/PM6‐b‐PYSe/BTP‐eC9‐based OSC yields an encouraging efficiency of 17.97%. In particular, the device demonstrates excellent mechanical property, which can retain over 80% after 4000 bending cycles. This work provides an effective strategy to simultaneously enhance the intrinsic mechanical stretchability and photovoltaic performance of flexible OSCs.

Solvent Tolerance Improvement of Lipases Enhanced Their Applications: State of the Art.

Lipases, crucial catalysts in biochemical synthesis, find extensive applications across industries such as food, medicine, and cosmetics. The efficiency of lipase-catalyzed reactions is significantly influenced by the choice of solvents. Polar organic solvents often result in a decrease, or even loss, of lipase activity. Conversely, nonpolar organic solvents induce excessive rigidity in lipases, thereby affecting their activity. While the advent of new solvents like ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents has somewhat improved the activity and stability of lipases, it fails to address the fundamental issue of lipases' poor solvent tolerance. Hence, the rational design of lipases for enhanced solvent tolerance can significantly boost their industrial performance. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the structural characteristics and properties of lipases in various solvent systems and emphasizes various strategies of protein engineering for non-aqueous media to improve lipases' solvent tolerance. This study provides a theoretical foundation for further enhancing the solvent tolerance and industrial properties of lipases.

PROBLEMS OF RATIONING THE CONTENT OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS IN SOILS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICE

Ratuioning of the content of hazardous substances in soil as an object of environmental protection in the Russian Federation is provided by a set of normative acts establishing the principles of assessment, approaches to the use of soils of varying degrees of anthropogenic transformation, the level of their pollution, at which the responsibility of the land user for violation of legislation on soil protection occurs. The analysis of normative acts shows that the most stringent pollution regulation system has been established in Russia, which is based on determining the compliance of the content of chemical elements and compounds in soils with sanitary and hygienic standards in the territories of settlements and agricultural lands. On other lands, as a standard, the excess of which leads to the onset of economic responsibility for pollution, the value of the concentration of the pollutant in the adjacent territory of a similar purpose and type of use, which is not adversely affected by a specific type of violation, is applied. At the same time, chemical elements and compounds are considered as pollutants, regardless of their origin, degree of danger and biological significance. The application of this approach within the framework of law enforcement practice creates significant problems in establishing the fact of negative impact, calculating the amount of damage from pollution, and developing measures for soil remediation. Thus, the current regulations consider as pollutants substances of natural origin, including those that ensure soil fertility and are applied with mineral and organic fertilizers. The use of the background level of substances as the maximum permissible value does not take into account the natural variability of elements and compounds in soils, as well as the errors of their chemical analysis. The excessive rigidity of the applicable standards is the reason for the increased costs of soil remediation measures. The way out of this situation is to revise the rationing system, taking into account the biological significance of elements and compounds, and the need to introduce a multi-level system of soil quality indicators. There is a need to improve the conceptual framework as part of regulatory documents on soil protection.

Stable formulation of dermal fillers based on carboxymethylcellulose, hyaluronic acid, and keratin: An advanced to reduce signs of aging

Facial fillers play a crucial role in reducing wrinkles and fine lines, restoring lost facial volume due to aging, and providing immediate rejuvenating results with minimal discomfort compared to invasive surgical procedures. In this context, a proposed gel, comprised of 4% carboxymethylcellulose (CMC4), 20 mg/ml of hyaluronic acid (HA), and 5 mg/ml of keratin (K), denoted as (CMC4+HA+K5), demonstrates outstanding rheological parameters: a storage modulus (G’) of 463 Pa, a loss modulus (G’’) of 290 Pa, and a complex viscosity of 117 Pa•s. In essence, it provides skin support and firmness without excessive rigidity, adapting to natural facial movements. The gel swells by 95.87%, retains water for skin hydration and elasticity, and its controlled swelling is advantageous. Safety is confirmed through potential toxicity studies. This gel resists degradation when exposed to ROS, ensuring an extended useful life as a potential facial filler. It offers a compelling alternative, rivaling commercial fillers without the need for hyaluronic acid cross-linking.

Absorbable Sutures Repair Without Meniscopexy, Results in Superior Outcomes for Discoid Lateral Meniscus With Meniscocapsular Anterior Detachment in Children.

Despite the fact that meniscocapsular anterior detachment is the most common location of instability in children with a Discoid Lateral Meniscus (DLM), there is a lack of consensus about the type of repair that should be utilized for stabilization. The aim of this study was to determine the best fixation method for anterior detachment of DLM in children. Our hypothesis was that excessive rigidity with fixation would restrict meniscal mobility and increase the rate of failure or prevent full knee flexion. This study was a retrospective single-center study consisting of 51 consecutive knees (45 children) with menico-capsular anterior detachment that underwent stabilization and minimal saucerization of the meniscus between 2007 and 2018. We aimed to compare the need for revision surgery and knee flexion between the different types of fixations utilized; namely we compared meniscopexy using anchors on the tibia (n=30) with outside-in arthroscopic soft tissue fixation (n=21), and absorbable (n=18) and nonabsorbable sutures (n=33) were compared. The mean age at surgery was 10.4 years (3 to 17) with a mean follow-up of 52 months (18 to 148). The group of knees treated with absorbable sutures had a significantly better rate of full knee flexion (15/18) compared with the nonabsorbable group (17/33) ( P =0.03). Despite the absence of significance ( P =007), there was a lower rate of revision surgery due to suture failure in the soft tissue fixation group (0 revision operations) compared with the meniscopexy group (5 revision operations). For anterior meniscocapsular detachment of DLM, it is recommended to perform soft tissue fixation with absorbable sutures, as this technique resulted in better knee flexion and a lower rate of revision surgery when compared with meniscopexy and nonabsorbable suture fixation. Level III-retrospective case studies.

Optimality criteria for the process of technical operation of locomotives

The efficiency of a locomotive fleet as a complex system depends significantly on the mode and conditions of its operation, which, in many cases, are determined both by its own condition and by the state of the maintenance system. In reality, changes in the state of the system, and its further behaviour in most cases can be described by the Markov process. It should be noted the excessive rigidity of the hypothesis about the Markov character of the behaviour in the process of technical operation of the locomotive fleet that makes the resulting model insufficiently adequate. The article proposes a methodology to assess the efficiency in the functioning of the locomotive fleet as a semi-Markov system. Relationships for calculating the main statistical characteristics of the efficiency indicators in the process of technical operation of locomotives have been obtained. The choice of optimality criteria for the process is justified. A procedure for constructing an ordered sequence of enhancing maintenance and repair strategies, considering the condition of a particular locomotive has been offered. Determining the optimality criteria for the technical operation process of the locomotive fleet based on the research of stochastic estimates in the efficiency of the semi-Markov model. Obtaining a sequence of maintenance and repair strategies. The efficiency of locomotive fleet operation significantly depends on the quality of service. The quality of service is determined by the effectiveness of diagnostic tools for technical conditions. The process of operating a locomotive fleet is described by a semi-Markov model. The semi-Markov model used makes it possible to more fully take into account, in the general case, the diagnostic support of the locomotive and the restoration process. The unit cost function the average unit cost, the average unit loss coefficient the coefficient of average, and operating factor was selected as target functions. A procedure has been proposed for constructing an ordered sequence of improving maintenance and repair strategies, considering the condition of a particular locomotive.

Blown film extrusion of poly(lactic)acid/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) blends for improved toughness and processability

AbstractPoly(lactic acid) is one of the most commonly used bioplastics thanks to its mechanical performance and low environmental impact. Strategies to overcome excessive rigidity of PLA are constantly investigated. Poor viscoelastic behavior and brittleness of PLA seriously limit its potential application as a common film material. Herein highly amorphous Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB)(4HB)) was introduced to improve toughness and reduce brittleness of PLA. Anti‐blocking (silica) and anti‐slipping agent (Ethylene bis‐stearamide (EBS)) were added to improve the processability of the blends, specifically to solve winding issues of the blown film and unfolding of the layflat. In this study three formulations containing PLA and different ratios of P(3HB)(4HB), specifically 10–20–30% were extruded. The mechanical, thermal and surface characterization of the films was performed. The tensile and the tear strength test results show that P(3HB)(4HB) increased the ductility of PLA based films. Increasing amounts of P(3HB)(4HB) provide a toughening effect on PLA/P(3HB)(4HB) blown films without altering transparency of PLA. Moreover, the processing additives proved to be efficient in improving film blowing stability and avoiding tackiness during the winding phase of the film.

Antiviral Activity against SARS-CoV-2 of Conformationally Constrained Helical Peptides Derived from Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2.

Despite the availability of vaccines, COVID-19 continues to be aggressive, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Therefore, the development of a specific therapeutic agent with antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 is necessary. The infection pathway starts when the receptor binding domain of the viral spike protein interacts with the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which acts as a host receptor for the RBD expressed on the host cell surface. In this scenario, ACE2 analogs binding to the RBD and preventing the cell entry can be promising antiviral agents. Most of the ACE2 residues involved in the interaction belong to the α1 helix, more specifically to the minimal fragment ACE2(24-42). In order to increase the stability of the secondary structure and thus antiviral activity, we designed different triazole-stapled analogs, changing the position and the number of bridges. The peptide called P3, which has the triazole-containing bridge in the positions 36-40, showed promising antiviral activity at micromolar concentrations assessed by plaque reduction assay. On the other hand, the double-stapled peptide P4 lost the activity, showing that excessive rigidity disfavors the interaction with the RBD.

Evaluation of Static Nonlinear Behavior of Coupled Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls with Steel Beams

The shear walls are divided into two types of reinforced concrete and steel, which behave differently. In the present study, the linear and nonlinear static behavior of coupled reinforced concrete shear walls is investigated. Therefore, to validate the results, Yuan Cheng and coworkers’ laboratory model is investigated. The results of this study show that the stresses caused by external loading in the coupled shear walls are lower compared to the separate shear walls. In addition, the behavior of this system depends on the rigidity of the coupling beams. The excessive rigidity of the coupling beams does not significantly affect the behavior of these structures. Therefore, by using the continuous analytical method and ABAQUS software, a formula is proposed to calculate the dimensions of the ideal coupling beams cross-section. Based on the reviews, the proposed formula accurately predicts the nonlinear performance of the systems under investigation.

Delusions as Epistemic Hypervigilance

Delusions are distressing and disabling symptoms of various clinical disorders. Delusions are associated with an aberrant and apparently contradictory treatment of evidence, characterized by both excessive credulity (adopting unusual beliefs on minimal evidence) and excessive rigidity (holding steadfast to these beliefs in the face of strong counterevidence). Here we attempt to make sense of this contradiction by considering the literature on epistemic vigilance. Although there is little evolutionary advantage to scrutinizing the evidence our senses provide, it pays to be vigilant toward ostensive evidence—information communicated by others. This asymmetry is generally adaptive, but in deluded individuals the scales tip too far in the direction of the sensory and perceptual, producing an apparently paradoxical combination of credulity (with respect to one’s own perception) and skepticism (with respect to the testimony of others).

The Significance of Frank O. Gehry’s Museums in Contemporary Museum Design Methodology

Modern museums were born because of the spatial composition program, exhibition techniques, and the diversification of architectural styles. Frank Gehry is an architect pursuing extreme forms and thinks modern box-shaped architecture is bland and lacks feeling/passion/love. This paper aims to examine the characteristics and meaning of the museums designed by Gehry, Gehry's unique architectural view, and the elements of his museum designs. As a methodology, the classification of modern museums in Newhouse's "Towards a New Museum “and trends in modern museum architecture are classified into six categories in Montaner's book "Museums for the 21st Century," which are used as a framework for comparative analysis to point out the characteristics of the Gary Museum and derive the location and meaning in modern museum architecture. The result shows that his architectural tendencies of fragmentation and duality are applied to the Gary Museum, revealing complex characteristics in terms of composition by contrasting combinations of formality and irregularity in materials and forms. The intricate design of the Gary Museum reveals its strong presence by creating a sculptural museum that encourages a four-dimensional experience both inside and outside. It was statistically proven that the above characteristics of the Gary Museum represent an aspect of the modern museum that is becoming a popular entertainment medium. A relaxed and comfortable exhibition environment was promoted by weakening the excessive rigidity in the exhibition space through the changeable ceiling treatment. Gary's museums were born between radical experimentalism and a pragmatic professional temperament.

The Problem of Punishment for Nazi Criminals in the Post-War Germany: History and Historiography

Building on Ralph Giordano's narrative of the Germans' “second guilt”, the author presents and analyses four patterns of treatment of Nazi criminals in post-war Germany and their reflection in historiography. With regard to the Soviet practice of their legal prosecution, the author critically examines the theses about its “propaganda orientation” and “excessive rigidity” of the sentences handed down, while the actions of the Western occupation authorities are characterised by an arbitrary and politically motivated approach. Much of the article is devoted to a comparative analysis of how the problem of punishment for Nazi crimes was, or was not, addressed in the two German states and in unified Germany. The consistent efforts of the GDR authorities to identify and prosecute Nazi criminals have been duly highlighted and recognised. The author traces the winding path of “mastering the [Nazi] past” in West Germany: from the first wave of (largely ineffective) trials in the 1940s to the complete stagnation in the mid-50s and the relative growth of war crimes and crimes against humanity cases opened in subsequent years. The shortcomings of this judicial practice and the acquittal patterns reflected in German historiography are discussed and evaluated drawing on a broad source base.

Personalised Solutions for Universal Goals. A Home Adaptation Project for Disabled People in Italy.

Home adaptation is a practice that addresses accessibility issues in the domestic environment of disabled people, introducing modifications to the spatial environment or devices which improve their autonomy and wellbeing, and that of their caregivers. Protocols developed to define the right adaptations for each home mainly rely on checklists to verify the normative compliance of the physical environment to predefined accessibility standards. However, these protocols fail to address the complexity of the social, cultural, and economic dimensions that structure the person-environment relationship, thus compromising the efficacy of the adaptations. The excessive rigidity of such approach relates to the current debate on the limits of Universal Design when applied to the domestic environment, and especially when directed to people with specific needs. As an example of a more productive approach, this essay illustrates ADA, a public funded action-research project that proposes home adaptations for severely disabled people. The paper discusses the innovative strategy of ADA, based on a high level of personalization, and its main tactics: interdisciplinarity, relational setting, and centrality of activities, both in the assessment of the users' profiles and spaces, and in the design of the adaptations. This essay also evaluates the impact of the project, showing how in specific domains, such as those of ADA, personalization is the key to achieve the inclusive and sustainable goals of Universal Design.

INCENTIVES, SOCIAL NORMS, AND BUSINESS CYCLE: AN EXAMPLE OF BUSINESS LOANS PROVISION BY ISLAMIC BANKS

The interaction of social norms and incentives is a subject of growing interest in economic literature. Basov and Bhatti (2013) pointed out that invoking a social norm is both a blessing, since it allows mitigating moral hazard problem, and a curse, since it restricts the class of admissible contractual arrangements. In this paper, we reiterate this point using particular example of the effects of restrictions imposed on contracts by Shariah law on the optimal risk-incentive trade-off. We show that extra rigidity imposed by Shariah law leads to a greater reluctance to invest into daring new ideas, which are profitable in expectation, but may also result in significant losses. A shared set of social norms between the lender and the entrepreneur allows mitigating adverse consequences of the excess rigidity through creation of good will and may even lead to an improved performance. The adverse consequences may vary according to the stages of business cycle. As a result, recessions can have negative long-term effects and longer booms may be followed by longer recessions. We also hypothesize that turning a social norm into a law will deprive it of the ability to generate good will, while leaving the negative aspects intact. We find a tentative support of this hypothesis by comparing relative performance of Islamic banks in three regions: South East Asia (primarily, Malaysia), Middle East, and the UK.

Plasma immersion ion‐implanted 3D‐printed PEEK bone implants: In vivo sheep study shows strong osseointegration

AbstractAdhesion of regenerating bone tissue to orthopaedic implants is critical to their long‐term success. Titanium has excess rigidity, interferes with imaging, and complicates radiation treatment. Poly(ether‐ether‐ketone) (PEEK) is a preferred material, but is limited by biological inertness. We show that plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) imparts osteoadhesion on 3D printed PEEK using in vitro pull‐off tests and in vivo torque tests in a sheep scapula model. PIII‐PEEK prints incubated with bone cells in vitro show 9–14 times higher pull‐off strength, compared to untreated implants. Treated implants in vivo require seven times higher torque for release from the sheep scapula. We propose PIII‐PEEK as a scaffold material with tensile properties analogous to collagen, the fibrillar component of bone, to produce fracture‐tough fully integrating scaffolds.

Риторика: актуальное слово в коммуникативной ситуации текущего времени

Based on the corpus of statements recorded in the Integrum database (https://www.integrum.ru), the article examines the actual meanings of the rhetoric lexeme, diagnosing the communicative situation at the current time (the chronological frame of the sample: 2021 - the first half of 2022). The analysis is based on the I.A. Sternin's works in the field of lexicology and communication theory. It has been established that the difference between rhetoric as a fundamental science and false rhetoric, or manipulative technologies of speech influence perceived by the Russian community, testifies to the enduring importance of the Russian, first of all, classical rhetoric. There preserved the primary systemic meaning of the analyzed word, fixed by the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, “the Science of Oratory”. Communicatively relevant actual meanings make it possible to clarify the formed secondary meaning: rhetoric is “insubstantial public speech, characterized by excessive rigidity and aggressiveness.” The reflexively evaluating perception of public speech, taking into account the scope of its functioning, mental originality, the presence / absence of the speaker's strategic attitude, allows fixing the pain points of the communicative situation at the current time.

Дополнительные доказательства и правила допустимости: характер взаимодействия

Introduction. Evidence obtained in violation of the law has no legal force and cannot be used as the basis for a court decision. However, the rules for the admissibility of evidence and the practice of their application are far from unambiguous. The purpose of the work is to show a rather contradictory approach in the practice of courts, including high-level courts. Methodology. The work uses: formal-legal, analysis, synthesis, formal-logical methods. Results. It is substantiated that the excessive rigidity of the formulated rule of admissibility of evidence does not contribute, but, on the contrary, hinders the establishment of the truth in the case, makes it impossible to really protect the rights and interests of citizens and legal entities. It is pointed out that in some cases the proposal of the court to the parties to provide certain additional evidence is unreasonable, the court actually expands the boundaries of the rule of admissibility of evidence. It should be borne in mind that the ban on the use of certain means of proof must be enshrined in acts not lower than the level of federal law, and Art. 60 of Civil Procedural Code only refers to them. The emerging trend of unreasonable expansion by the courts of the boundaries of the rule of admissibility became the reason for the intervention of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to identify the meaning of the provisions of Art. 60 of Civil Procedural Code. Conclusion. Based on the analysis of the practice of applying the admissibility rules, it should be recognized as unsettled.

Innovative solutions for acoustic disturbances occurring in slender buildings

Many tall, slender residential building have risen from the streets of Manhattan and other cities over the past decade. Numerous problems have been recently published about acoustic disturbances present in these slender buildings due to deflection, principally from wind. These disturbances occur, not due to any structural weakness of the building, but due to excessive rigidity and lack of resiliency of the interior architectural elements, such as wall studs, tracks and gypsum board. These components must be designed and installed for resiliency in order to respond to the slender building movement, which is essential in order to ensure the building’s structural integrity. This movement consists of deflection and torquing of the slabs relative to each other. These acoustic disturbances cause occupants to lose sleep and cause them to feel unsafe, as though structural failures are occurring. Additionally, interior finishes become warped and lose aesthetic quality. These issues are detrimental to the value of units within these slender buildings. This paper presents case studies of innovative methodologies to solve these acoustic disturbances present in slender buildings. These include methodologies which ensure resiliency of the interior architectural elements. These case study examples have been successfully implemented during the base-unit design and also retrofitted after construction.

Hierarchical optimization of a novel vehicle door system under side impact based on integrated weighting method

Door system plays a very important role in the domain of automobile passive safety. In order to improve its side crashworthiness, some affiliated impact components are assembled. Conventional impact parts can make the door system possess enough stiffness and strength so as to ensure the integrity of car body when side collision occurs. But for occupant protection, the excessive rigidity may increase the risk of occupant injury. To address this problem, this work first introduces a kind of negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) structure, and proposes a novel door system which is composed of NPR energy-absorbing block, NPR impact beam, inner panel, outer panel, and reinforcing plate. Next, parameter sensitivity analysis for each performance index is conducted to determine the corresponding variables when constructing the approximate model. Then, aiming at the disadvantages of the Technology for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and the Mean Square Deviation Method (MSDM) in processing performance index data, a novel integrated weighting method is used to determine the weighting coefficient of each performance index. Finally, considering side structural crashworthiness, occupant protection, and lightweight, the hierarchical optimization for the novel door system is conducted to further enhance its overall performance. The result demonstrates that compared with the conventional door, the optimal door can improve the performance of occupant protection and ensure the side crashworthiness more effectively.

Providing the spatial rigidity of a multi-story wood-based frame building

Objective. The article deals with the problem of ensuring the rigidity of a frame wooden multi-story building and ways to achieve the necessary spatial rigidity, taking into account the requirements of preserving the internal volume and free space. The case of excess spatial rigidity and measures to optimize it are provided to increase the economic efficiency of the project.Methods. A simpler and less time-consuming method is the initial estimation of the cross-sectional area of the rigid elements that take the wind load. The authors propose a method for the preliminary calculation of building stiffness with subsequent adjustment in the calculation scheme.Results. The design scheme of the building frame is made in the Scad Office software package to take into account the influence of the own structure weight, the redistribution of forces and movements due to the spatial work of the frame, with subsequent adjustment of the cross-sections of rigid elements.Conclusion. The most rational and least time-consuming method for numerical calculation of stiffness is the initial estimation of the cross-sectional area of the system of rigid elements. With its help, it is possible to avoid an excess of spatial rigidity of the building and reduce the time and labor costs for selecting the location of rigid elements.