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There is a pressing need to increase investments in sustainable infrastructure to promote low carbon economic growth and ensure environmental sustainability. Consequently, this study examines the socio-political factors underlying the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects.

Primary data was gathered from experts with advanced experience in, or knowledge of green bonds in the Kumasi Metropolis. To identify respondents with pertinent knowledge that is relevant to the study, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used. One-sample t-test and relative importance index were used in this study's statistical analysis.

‘Training and experience with sustainable finance’ was seen as the most important social factor underlying the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects by the respondents and ‘Governmental tax-based incentives’ was rated as the leading political factor.

This pioneering research attempts to ascertain the socio-political factors affecting the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects. Emergent results of analysis and concomitant discussions add knowledge to fill a void in literature on the social and political factors affecting the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects in developing countries.

There is a tremendous need for the valuation of small businesses. Oftentimes, small businessowners do not have the wherewithal to gather the data and keep it up to date for use in situations that require valuation. Formal valuations are necessary because they provide objective evidence of value, in contrast to value set by markets on which public companies are traded. This article focuses on some factors that impact the valuation of the business and will help small businessowners feel more comfortable talking with financial professionals about how the business might be valued.

New educators may feel overwhelmed by the options available for engaging students through classroom participation. However, it may be helpful to recognize that participatory pedagogical systems often have constructivist roots. Adopting a constructivist perspective, our paper considers three meta-practices that encourage student participation: designing activities, leading others, and assessing peers. We explored the consequences of these meta-practices for important student outcomes, including content knowledge, engagement, self-efficacy, sense of community, and self-awareness. We found that different meta-practices were associated with different combinations of outcomes. This discovery demonstrates the benefit of studying meta- practices so as to reveal the nuanced effects that may arise from pedagogical choices. In addition, an understanding of meta-practices can help leadership educators to be more discerning and intentional in their course designs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of remelting each layer on the homogeneity of nickel-titanium (NiTi) parts fabricated from elemental nickel and titanium powders using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). In addition, the influence of manufacturing parameters and different melting strategies, including multiple cycles of remelting, on printability and macro defects, such as pore and crack formation, have been investigated.

An LPBF process was used to manufacture NiTi alloy from elementally blended powders and was evaluated with the use of a remelting scanning strategy to improve the homogeneity of fabricated specimens. Furthermore, both single melt and up to two remeltings were used.

The results indicate that remelting can be beneficial for density improvement as well as chemical and phase composition homogenization. Backscattered electron mode in scanning electron microscope showed a reduction in the presence of unmixed Ni and Ti elemental powders in response to increasing the number of remelts. The microhardness values of NiTi parts for the different numbers of melts studied were similar and ranged from 487 to 495 HV. Nevertheless, it was observed that measurement error decreases as the number of remelts increases, suggesting an increase in chemical and phase composition homogeneity. However, X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the presence of multiple phases regardless of the number of melt runs.

For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, elementally blended NiTi powders were fabricated via LPBF using remelting scanning strategies.

As of 2007, there were an estimated 10.4 million businesses in the United States that were owned and operated by women. The number of women-owned firms has continued to grow at around twice the rate of all firms for the past two decades (Center for Women℉s Business Research, 2008). On the other hand, women comprise only 15.4 percent of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies (Catalyst, 2007b) and, in 2003, held only 14.8 percent of board seats in the Fortune 500 (Catalyst, 2007a).To better understand the glass ceiling faced by both female entrepreneurs and women leaders, the research on women℉s issues is examined from a number of different vantage points. Women℉s entrepreneurship and women℉s leadership research on leadership, decision-making, and gender differences was examined to discover commonalities. Then female single-sex education literature was reviewed for insights on developmental issues that might influence future women entrepreneurs and leaders. In this exploration of research, it was found that both women entrepreneurs and women leaders in the corporate environment tend toward the same leadership styles and ways of interacting with others; they also experience a lack of role models and possible lack of self-efficacy.The literature on single-sex education provides observations that young women may thrive in environments in which there are fewer male competitors, hold less stereotyped views on gender, hold higher aspirations, may have greater opportunities for training of leadership skills, and may have increased self-confidence that may be the result of exposure to successful women role models. Implications for future research are explored and suggestions are provided to meet the needs of developing women entrepreneurs.