The sharing economy is seen as an important building block for transitions to sustainability. Although the sharing economy concept is widely used, comprehension varies about what makes a sharing ...economy business model. This study aims to review and categorize the field of sharing economy business model research, by reviewing the fundamentals of the concept of sharing and feeding them back into the business model literature. A comprehensive framework of business model categories is proposed, distinguishing four market segments of the sharing economy: Singular Transaction Models, Subscription-Based Models, Commission-Based Platforms and Unlimited Platforms. The study's framework is grounded in an analysis of sharing economy fundamentals and business model literature, contributing to a better understanding of the potentials of sharing economy for sustainability transitions and the implementation of business model innovations.
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•The literature on sharing economy business models is abundant though fragmented.•This research reviews the literature on sharing economy business models.•Analyze sharing literature through Value Proposition, Value Creation, Value Capture.•This work proposes a comprehensive framework of sharing economy business models.•Present four market segments, covering all business models of sharing economies.
Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and challenges that are part of our complex and ...fast-changing world. The question as to what facilitates creative cognition-the ability to come up with creative ideas, problem solutions and products-is as old as the human sciences, and various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored. The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to 'happy music' (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed.
Control of thermal radiation at high temperatures is vital for waste heat recovery and for high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic (TPV) conversion. Previously, structural resonances utilizing gratings, ...thin film resonances, metasurfaces and photonic crystals were used to spectrally control thermal emission, often requiring lithographic structuring of the surface and causing significant angle dependence. In contrast, here, we demonstrate a refractory W-HfO2 metamaterial, which controls thermal emission through an engineered dielectric response function. The epsilon-near-zero frequency of a metamaterial and the connected optical topological transition (OTT) are adjusted to selectively enhance and suppress the thermal emission in the near-infrared spectrum, crucial for improved TPV efficiency. The near-omnidirectional and spectrally selective emitter is obtained as the emission changes due to material properties and not due to resonances or interference effects, marking a paradigm shift in thermal engineering approaches. We experimentally demonstrate the OTT in a thermally stable metamaterial at high temperatures of 1,000 °C.
The biomolecule is among the most important building blocks of biological systems, and a full understanding of its function forms the scaffold for describing the mechanisms of higher order structures ...as organelles and cells. Force is a fundamental regulatory mechanism of biomolecular interactions driving many cellular processes. The forces on a molecular scale are exactly in the range that can be manipulated and probed with single molecule force spectroscopy. The natural environment of a biomolecule is inside a living cell, hence, this is the most relevant environment for probing their function. In vivo studies are, however, challenged by the complexity of the cell. In this review, we start with presenting relevant theoretical tools for analyzing single molecule data obtained in intracellular environments followed by a description of state-of-the art visualization techniques. The most commonly used force spectroscopy techniques, namely optical tweezers, magnetic tweezers, and atomic force microscopy, are described in detail, and their strength and limitations related to in vivo experiments are discussed. Finally, recent exciting discoveries within the field of in vivo manipulation and dynamics of single molecule and organelles are reviewed.
An ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Characterization of the histopathology and cellular ...localization of SARS-CoV-2 in the tissues of patients with fatal COVID-19 is critical to further understand its pathogenesis and transmission and for public health prevention measures. We report clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, and electron microscopic findings in tissues from 8 fatal laboratory-confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States. All cases except 1 were in residents of long-term care facilities. In these patients, SARS-CoV-2 infected epithelium of the upper and lower airways with diffuse alveolar damage as the predominant pulmonary pathology. SARS-CoV-2 was detectable by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy in conducting airways, pneumocytes, alveolar macrophages, and a hilar lymph node but was not identified in other extrapulmonary tissues. Respiratory viral co-infections were identified in 3 cases; 3 cases had evidence of bacterial co-infection.
Creative thinking is among the most sought-after life and work skills in the 21st century. The demand for creativity, however, exceeds the degree to which it is available and developed. The current ...project aimed to test the effectiveness of a one-year creativity training program for higher education. The creativity of students following the training was measured before, halfway, and after the training. In addition to the within-subjects comparison across time, performance was compared to a matched control group. At each of the measurement points, different versions of seven well-validated creativity tasks (capturing divergent and convergent creative thinking skills) were employed. The creativity training increased students' ideation skills and, more importantly their cognitive flexibility. However, no difference in originality was observed. Finally, an increase in performance was observed for one of the convergent creativity tasks, the Remote Associate Test. Implications for educational settings and directions for future research are discussed.
Recent experiments with metallic nanowires devices seem to indicate that superconductivity can be controlled by the application of electric fields. In such experiments, critical currents are tuned ...and eventually suppressed by relatively small voltages applied to nearby gate electrodes, at odds with current understanding of electrostatic screening in metals. We investigate the impact of gate voltages on superconductivity in similar metal nanowires. Varying materials and device geometries, we study the physical mechanism behind the quench of superconductivity. We demonstrate that the transition from superconducting to resistive state can be understood in detail by tunneling of high-energy electrons from the gate contact to the nanowire, resulting in quasiparticle generation and, at sufficiently large currents, heating. Onset of critical current suppression occurs below gate currents of 100fA, which are challenging to detect in typical experiments.
A two-step process, in which circulating levels of amyloid P are reduced and then anti–serum amyloid P antibody is given to activate macrophage clearance mechanisms of tissue deposits, appears to ...reduce amyloid deposits in liver and some other organs.
In systemic amyloidosis, the extracellular deposition of normally soluble plasma proteins as insoluble amyloid fibrils damages the structure and function of tissues and organs.
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Current treatment consists of support or replacement of failing organs and measures to reduce the abundance of the amyloid fibril precursor protein.
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A sufficient reduction of precursor supply arrests the accumulation of amyloid and can reduce morbidity and mortality. However, amyloid regression is very slow and often does not occur at all, in contrast to the usually swift clearance of other extracellular debris and efficient tissue remodeling — for example, after trauma. At least 65% . . .
We experimentally investigate the stochastic phase dynamics of planar Josephson junctions (JJs) and superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) defined in epitaxial InAs/Al ...heterostructures, and characterized by a large ratio of Josephson energy to charging energy. We observe a crossover from a regime of macroscopic quantum tunneling to one of phase diffusion as a function of temperature, where the transition temperature T^{*} is gate-tunable. The switching probability distributions are shown to be consistent with a small shunt capacitance and moderate damping, resulting in a switching current which is a small fraction of the critical current. Phase locking between two JJs leads to a difference in switching current between that of a JJ measured in isolation and that of the same JJ measured in an asymmetric SQUID loop. In the case of the loop, T^{*} is also tuned by a magnetic flux.
Optical fiber links have become ubiquitous for links at the metropolitan and wide area distance scales, and have become common alternatives to electrical links in local area networks and cluster ...networks. As optical technology improves and link frequencies continue to increase, optical links will be increasingly considered for shorter, higher-bandwidth links such as I/O, memory, and system bus links. For these links closer to processors, issues such as packaging, power dissipation, and components cost assume increasing importance along with link bandwidth and link distance. Also, as optical links move steadily closer to the processors, we may see significant differences in how servers, particularly high-end servers, are designed and packaged to exploit the unique characteristics of optical interconnects. This paper reviews the various levels of a server interconnect hierarchy and the current status of optical interconnect technology for these different levels. The potential impacts of optical interconnect technology on future server designs are also reviewed. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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