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As green buildings have become more widely accepted, constructors (general contractors, construction managers and subcontractors) have become more involved and are playing an increasing role in the success of these projects. As a result, constructors need and want a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) projects, while exploring ways to provide a “value‐added” service to the projects. Past research has identified “Innovation in Design (ID)” credits as a potential “value‐added opportunity” for constructors to become preferred members of LEED project teams. Similar opportunities may also exist on Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) project teams. This paper seeks to address these issues.

The methodology encompassed an overview of “Innovation Credits (IC)” in LEED‐NC, BREEAM green building guidelines and an analysis of the ID category in LEED‐NC from a constructor's viewpoint in general, and electrical contractors in particular.

The findings of this research have identified ID credits as a potential “value‐added opportunity” for constructors to become preferred members of the LEED project teams. In contrast to LEED, this research has identified that similar opportunities for constructors do not exist for ICs under BREEAM as past or current ICs are not available in the public domain unless accessed by a BREEAM Assessor or Approved Person. This lack of access to information could have a negative impact and stifle future innovations and is an area worthy of further research.

This research provides an understanding of the constructor's role in the ID category and contributes to the broader literature related to the role of the construction industry in the green building movement. It is envisioned that the research output will serve as easy to use reference resources for the electrical contracting industry for proposing and achieving ID credits on LEED projects. It is also envisaged that this research will lead to recognition of the need for BREEAM ICs to be accessed within the public domain.

This paper aims to explore the impact of Sc element on the microstructure and corrosion properties of Mg-0.5Zn alloy.

Three kinds of Mg-0.5Zn-xSc (x = 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 Wt.%) alloys were obtained, and the microstructure and corrosion properties were both analyzed.

As the Sc concentration increases, the corrosion resistance of the alloys initially improves and subsequently deteriorates. The trace addition of Sc can effectively reduce the grain size of Mg-Zn-Sc alloys and enhance the density of the corrosion products film. Consequently, an appropriate amount of Sc can reduce the corrosion rate of Mg-0.5Zn alloy.

However, the addition of Sc also introduces the second phase particles in the alloy, leading to galvanic corrosion, which adversely affects the corrosion resistance of Mg-0.5Zn alloy. Therefore, the amount of Sc added should be carefully controlled.

As a typical resource energy-intensive industry, the scale of construction industry has been expanding rapidly owing to the large-scale urbanization and the economic booming in China, which results in a sharp increase in the energy consumption of construction industry. However, it is infeasible to mitigate the energy consumption by reducing the production activities of construction industry. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of construction industry is essential for energy saving. Construction industry has close relationships with other industries. The production activities have not only consumed a great deal of energy but they have also generated a massive energy consumption from other industries. Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry. However, no research has been found focusing on the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry and indirectly by the related industries. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a total energy efficiency evaluation framework to measure the energy efficiency of construction industry in depth.

This paper employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the framework of embodied energy efficiency (EEE) to establish a total energy efficiency evaluation model. Next, the comprehensive analysis of direct energy efficiency (DEE) and EEE in different provinces with various levels of urbanization and various economic levels is conducted.

The results show that the embodied energy intensity and its regularities differ greatly between provinces. From the comparison of DEE and EEE, the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu remain DEA-effective and Hainan is the only province in which the EEE is higher than DEE in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Besides, the DEE and EEE in the provinces with higher levels of urbanization and high economic levels are not more effective than those in the provinces with relatively lower levels of urbanization and low economic levels.

Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry while ignoring the energy consumed indirectly by the related industries. Besides, no research has been found focusing on the regulation of energy efficiency in different provinces with different levels of urbanization and different economic levels. It can be concluded that the increasing levels of urbanization and higher economic levels have not brought development and benefits for improving DEE and EEE. Therefore, under the condition that the self-regulation of construction industry and market fail to facilitate the improvement of DEE and EEE in China, policymakers should develop policies and market incentive mechanism to encourage construction industry for employing new technologies to improve the energy efficiency. Since the EEE can reveal the energy efficiency in depth, the evaluation method of EEE should be paid more attention. Besides the fact that the EEE is lower than the DEE in almost all provinces, except Hainan province, the industrial structure is essential to develop the EEE. Hence, improving the energy structure, increasing the energy efficiency and developing new and renewable energy are the basic energy strategies in China.

The purpose of this paper is establishing a general mathematical model and theoretical design rules for 3D printing of biomaterials. Additive manufacturing of biomaterials provides many opportunities for fabrication of complex tissue structures, which are difficult to fabricate by traditional manufacturing methods. Related problems and research tasks are raised by the study on biomaterials’ 3D printing. Most researchers are interested in the materials studies; however, the corresponded additive manufacturing machine is facing some technical problems in printing user-prepared biomaterials. New biomaterials have uncertainty in physical properties, such as viscosity and surface tension coefficient. Therefore, the 3D printing process requires lots of trials to achieve proper printing parameters, such as printing layer thickness, maximum printing line distance and printing nozzle’s feeding speed; otherwise, the desired computer-aided design (CAD) file will not be printed successfully in 3D printing.

Most additive manufacturing machine for user-prepared bio-material use pneumatic valve dispensers or extruder as printing nozzle, because the air pressure activated valve can print many different materials, which have a wide range of viscosity. We studied the structure inside the pneumatic valve dispenser in our 3D heterogeneous printing machine, and established mathematical models for 3D printing CAD structure and fluid behaviors inside the dispenser during printing process.

Based on theoretical modeling, we found that the bio-material’s viscosity, surface tension coefficient and pneumatic valve dispenser’s dispensing step time will affect the final structure directly. We verified our mathematical model by printing of two kinds of self-prepared biomaterials, and the results supported our modeling and theoretical calculation.

For a certain kinds of biomaterials, the mathematical model and design rules will have unique solutions to the functions and equations. Therefore, each biomaterial’s physical data should be collected and input to the model for specified solutions. However, for each user-made 3D printing machine, the core programming code can be modified to adjust the parameters, which follows our mathematical model and the related CAD design rules.

This study will provide a universal mathematical method to set up design rules for new user-prepared biomaterials in 3D printing of a CAD structure.

Musculoskeletal conditions are a major health concern in the USA because of a large aging population and increased occurrence of sport‐related injuries. Bone tissue engineering may offer a less painful alternative to traditional bone grafts with lower risk of infection. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel porogen‐based fabrication system for tissue engineering scaffolds using sucrose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁) as the porogen building material.

A new solid freeform fabrication system has been developed and tested, which uses pressurized extrusion to print highly biocompatible and water soluble sucrose bone scaffold porogens (or negtives). Polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds are manufactured by injecting molten polymer into the porogens, and the porogens are subsequently dissolved with water. The resultant scaffolds demonstrate the defined porous structure designed into the sucrose porogen manufacturing computer‐aided design model.

To optimize the porogen manufacturing process, the viscosity of sucrose mixtures is measured. Design of experiments is used to plan and analyze the relationships between the porogen characteristics and the process parameters. Reservoir pressure and print head speed are identified as the dominant factors affecting sucrose flow rate and porogen strut diameter, respectively. The biocompatibility of the new system is assessed by in vitro cell culture testing. Endothelial hybridoma cells (EAhy 926) and osteoblasts (7F2) seeded on the fabricated PCL scaffolds adhered to the scaffold and proliferated over four to six days. Epifluorescence and scanning electron microscopy images reveal cell spreading and multiple layers of cells on the scaffold surface. The results demonstrated the potential of the structured sucrose porogen‐based fabrication method in manufacturing bone tissue scaffolds.

This paper describes the first time use of biomaterials‐sucrose to make scaffold porogens and how an injection molded biopolymer scaffold can then be received.

Hydrodynamic forces and efficiency of bare propeller and ducted propellers with a wide range of advance ratio (J) and attack angle (θ) are examined. The thrust and torque coefficients and the efficiency are presented and discussed in detail. The present results give a reliable guidance to the improvement of the hydrodynamic characteristics of ducted propellers.

The effect of a duct on the hydrodynamic performance of the KP458 propeller is numerically investigated in this study. Finite volume method (FVM)-based simulations are performed for a wide range of advance ratio J (0 ≤ J ≤ 0.75) and attack angle θ of the duct (15° ≤ θ ≤ 45°). A cubic computational domain is employed in this study, and the moving reference frame (MRF) approach is adopted to handle the rotation of the propeller. Turbulence is accounted for with the RNG k-ε model. The present numerical results are first compared against available experimental data and a good agreement is achieved.

The simulation results demonstrate that the hydrodynamic forces and efficiency increases and decreases with J, respectively, at the same attack angle. In addition, it is demonstrated that the hydrodynamic forces and efficiency are both improved due to the presence of the duct, which eventually leads a better hydrodynamic performance at high advance ratios. It is further revealed that as the attack angle increases, the pressure difference between the suction- and pressure-surfaces of the propeller is also augmented, which results in a larger thrust. The wake field is more uniform at θ = 30°, suggesting that a higher efficiency can be obtained.

The present study aims to investigate the effect of a duct on the KP458 propeller subjected to uniform inbound flow. The relationship between the uniform incoming flow and the attack angle of the duct is mainly focused, and the design of the ducted propellers for any ship hull can be improved according to this relationship.

This study examines how responsible leadership drives sustainable reconfiguring in multi-tier supply chains, addressing the recognized challenges of implementing sustainable practices in complex, global value chains, particularly in the face of the management challenges posed by the high complexity of multi-tier supply chains.

Data were collected from 475 Chinese manufacturing firms between December 2023 and June 2024. Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to assess linear relationships, followed by least-squares linear regression to verify model robustness. Neural network modeling was then applied to explore potential nonlinear relationships among variables.

The study empirically confirms that responsible leadership was a direct driver of sustainable reconfiguring, and social capital partially mediated the relationship between responsible leadership and sustainable reconfiguring. In addition, it was found that in highly complex supply chains, responsible leadership has a more significant driving effect on sustainable reconfiguring, i.e. supply chain complexity positively moderates the relationship between responsible leadership and sustainable reconfiguring.

This study contributes to the field by uniquely examining responsible leadership as a driver of sustainable supply chain reconfiguration, highlighting its role in resource acquisition through social capital from a resource dependence perspective. Unlike prior studies that treat supply chain complexity primarily as a management obstacle, this research uncovers its role as a “demand driver” in sustainable reconfiguration, offering fresh insights into complexity’s strategic impact. This approach provides a novel framework for understanding the nuanced pathways through which leadership style and situational factors collectively shape sustainable practices in supply chains.

China's defense industry is analyzed by comparing the technical level of the military and civilian products manufactured by China's nuclear, space, aviation, shipbuilding, ordnance, and electronics industries with their advanced counterparts. Generally, China's defense industry is about 20 years behind the global leaders. Thus, it is inappropriate to declare China's emergence as the world’s second military power. However, if it continues on its current development trajectory, it will attain that status in the near future.