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The overall aim of this research work was the improvement of the failure behavior of printed circuit boards (PCBs). In order to describe the mechanical behavior of PCBs under cyclic thermal loads, thin copper layers were characterized. The mechanical properties of these copper layers were determined in cyclic four-point bend tests and in cyclic tensile-compression tests, as their behavior under changing tensile and compression loads needed to be evaluated.

Specimens for the four-point bend tests were manufactured by bonding 18-μm-thick copper layers on both sides of 10-mm-thick silicone plates. The silicone was characterized in tensile, shear and blow-up tests to provide input data for a hyperelastic material model. Specimens for the cyclic tensile-compression tests were produced in a compression molding process. Four layers of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin (thickness 90 μm) and five layers of copper (thickness 60 μm) were applied.

The results showed that, due to the hyperelastic material behavior of silicone, the four-point bend tests were applicable only for small strains, while the cyclic tensile-compression tests could successfully be applied to characterize thin copper foils in tensile and compression up to 1 percent strain.

Thin copper layers (foils) could be characterized successfully under cyclic tensile and compression loads.

Component‐based software development is a potential reuse paradigm for the future. While the required technologies for a component‐style system development are widely available (e.g. Sun's Enterprise Java Beans), the breakthrough of the component paradigm in business application domains is impeded by the following problem: compared with traditional engineering disciplines there is a lack of standardized methods to describe business components. The objective of this paper is to develop a holistic approach to specify business components.

In this paper, a design science approach is used. Based on well‐known specification notations, a new specification framework is proposed. The usefulness of the framework is demonstrated by an example.

It is argued that a specification framework for business components has to address several aspects: what services are offered and requested by a business component? How can these services be used? Are there any interdependencies between the services of a set of business components? What quality characteristics do the offered services fulfil? And so on. The proposed approach consists of seven specification levels addressing both technical and business aspects.

According to the authors' knowledge the developed specification framework is the first one which allows a holistic description of business components. The proposed approach can be used to precisely specify business components in practice. The main contribution is to tie together various well‐known and preferably standardized specification notations. Furthermore, the authors develop a meta‐model for the proposed specification framework that facilitates the communication about the framework, supports training on the framework, and simplifies the implementation of the framework. To conclude, this work is meant to implement theory in practice.

This study aims to develop a specialized and economically feasible educational model using a combination of conventional approach and additive technology with a precision that proves to be sufficient for educational use. With the use of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing models in educational stages, the possibility of infectious diseases transmission can be significantly reduced.

The proposed process involves the planning and development of specialized anatomical three-dimensional (3D) models and associated structures using omnipresent additive technologies. A short survey was conducted among dental students about their knowledge of applying additive technologies in dental medicine and their desire to implement such technologies into existing curricula.

The results revealed how an educational 3D model can be developed by optimizing the mesh parameters to reduce the total number of elements while maintaining the quality of the geometric structure. The survey results demonstrated that the willingness to adapt to new technologies is increasing (p < 0.001) among students with a higher level of education. A series of recent studies have indicated that the lack of knowledge and the current skill gap remain the most significant barriers to the wider adoption of additive manufacturing.

An economically feasible, realistic anatomical educational model in the field of dental medicine was established. Additive technology is a key pillar of new specialized-knowledge digital skills for the enhancement of dental training.

The novelty of this study is the introduction of a 3D technology for promoting an economically feasible model, without compromising the quality of dental education.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a computational model for the simulation of heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices with a specific application to a light harvesting capacitor (LHC) consisting of a double layer of organic materials connected in series with two insulating layers and an external resistive load.

The model is based on a coupled system of nonlinear partial and ordinary differential equations describing current flow throughout the external resistive load as the result of exciton generation in the bulk, exciton dissociation into bonded pairs at the acceptor-donor material interface, and electron/hole charge generation and drift-diffusion transport in the two device materials.

Numerical simulation results are shown to be in good agreement with measured on-off transient currents and allow for novel insight on the microscopical phenomena which affect the external LHC performance, in particular, the widely different time scales at which such phenomena occur and their relation to the overall device dynamics.

The LHC demonstrates the viability of a novel approach for converting light energy into an electric current without a steady state flow of free charge carriers through the semiconducting layers. The new insight about the microscopic working principles that determine the macroscopically observed behavior of the LHC obtained via the model proposed in this paper are expected to serve as a basis for studying techniques for exploiting the full potential of the LHC.

Patient-centred strategies should be applied in health-care facilities management (HcFM) to guarantee service quality to meet patients’ needs and ensure quality patient health-care experience. This paper aims to examine the intervening influence of the quality of health-care administrative process (QAP) on the association between health-care facilities service quality and patients’ experiences with medical care.

A quantitative technique was used for this cross-sectional study in three Ghanaian teaching hospitals. A total of 622 relevant questionnaires were used for the analysis of the study using SEM-PLS.

The intervening influence of the QAP on the relationship between HcFM service quality (empathy and tangibility) and patients’ health-care experience (PHcE) were reinforced whilst that of reliability, responsiveness and assurance were not reinforced. The association between the QAP and PHcE was also established.

A high-quality health-care workforce (both core and supporting) and quality work environment provided by the FM department and QAP are essential during quality-of-care delivery, to reduce threats to patient safety to achieve exceptional PHcE. The constraint on the study is that information was gathered from only Ghana. Hence, the generalisation of the findings will be a challenge. Thus, in future, it is proposed that a comparative study across a developed country and a developing country can be conducted. Future research can assess the influence of the health-care internal appearance on patients’ satisfaction.

Practically, the administrative system can be improved by reducing patients overall waiting time. Steps must also be taken to reduce the problem of needless administrative tasks and practices to simplify administrative practices and improve patients’ total health-care experience (core health-care delivery and HcFM), as this influence patients’ total health-care experience.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this empirical validation is one of the initial studies in service quality and FM to examine how health-care administrative process quality affects the relationship between FM service quality and patients’ experiences with medical care. This framework can be adapted for research in different countries to extend knowledge.

In recent decades, higher education institutes (HEIs) have come under pressure to cooperate with society as a whole. This shift towards an increased focus on third mission and social innovation activities implies a substantial organizational change process for many HEIs, as they need to initiate both structural and cultural changes. This paper provides guidance for such change processes by examining the views and attitudes of academic and administrative staff, as well as students within the HEIs over a period in which the HEIs increase their focus on social innovation.

The study uses a longitudinal quantitative approach consisting of a survey of administrative and academic staff, as well as students at two German HEIs. The authors studied members’ attitudes towards third mission and social innovation activities (N = 3470).

Results suggest that the university members’ attitudes towards third mission and social innovation are positive but change to some extent over time. Different aspects shape the attitudes within the three groups (administrative staff, academic staff and students). Furthermore, attitudes vary among academic employees who are involved in the process and those who are not.

The findings provide useful information for university managers and anyone aiming to promote social innovation at HEIs.

The study examines how attitudes of university members change whenever social innovation takes place at HEIs. This study includes data on the participation and empowerment of all HEI members in view of the important role that HEIs can play as supporters of social innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of e-government usage on citizen engagement during the COVID-19 crisis in China, in relation to the mediating role of how citizens perceive the government. A model was also proposed to explain the relationship between e-government usage during the COVID-19 crisis and the mediating role that different perceptions of government play in influencing citizens level of engagement.

The research model was tested empirically through a survey conducted online with 866 research participants, comprising of Chinese citizens from three large cities, which include Hefei, Shanghai and Nanjing.

The results in structural equation modeling showed that e-government usage has a significant positive influence on citizens' perception about trust in government, government transparency and government reputation but not significant influence on citizens' engagements. However, an indirect relationship was found out in the mediation analysis. There was also a significant relationship between the different perceptions of government. Mediation analysis showed that all the different perceptions of government mediate the relationship between e-government usage and citizens' engagements during the COVID-19 crisis. The single mediation pathways were found to be most effective mediators, identifying citizens' perception about trust in government to be the most effective mediator.

This study filled the gap in literature by examining how e-government usage by Chinese citizens during the COVID-19 crisis helped influence their attitude and behavior. Specifically, this study is one of the first to integrate citizens' usage of e-government and citizens' engagement through the different citizens' perceptions of government such as trust in government, transparency of government and government reputation in a non-liberal country.

There is now a considerable literature on the Illyrian firm (that is, the firm which is assumed to maximise income per worker), and it has been argued that the analysis may have relevance for the labour‐managed or co‐operative enterprise. Significant contributions to this literature have been made by Domar (1966), Vanek (1970), Meade (1972, 1974) and others but the seminal paper is generally recognised to be that of Ward (1958).

This study aims to examine how lecturers in European higher education institutions perceive the service-learning approach as a teaching concept and feel prepared for its implementation after a short-term training. Service-learning connects theory and practice by allowing students to participate in a service that meets community needs, reflect on this experience and gain an enhanced sense of civic engagement.

The evaluation study drew on data from four focus group discussions with n = 21 lecturers from five European countries following a Winter School on service-learning in 2020. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

The findings indicate four themes of preparedness: (1) overall conceptions of service-learning, (2) continuum of preparedness for service-learning, (3) influential factors for preparedness and (d) transfer to home universities. The participants viewed themselves as multipliers for service-learning in their home universities; however, they were skeptical about being able to fully implement the service-learning approach after only one training and without a community of practice with lecturers with similar experiences in their home universities.

This study complements previous studies by adding a cross-national perspective of higher education lecturers. It underlines the importance of continuing training in didactics of university lecturers and a support network for the implementation of complex teaching concepts in higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the stability of high voltage DC power supply and reduce the ripple.

The study was conducted using the simulation analysis model and numerical calculation.

By increasing the output arm capacitance, the expression of ripple and times of the output arm capacitance and the auxiliary arm capacitance is derived. The output ripple is determined by the value of the output arm capacitance. Finally, the correctness of the method and the formula are verified using circuit simulation.

This paper presents a method to improve the power supply stability.