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Creators/Authors contains: "Zhu, Q"

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  1. Even though engineering programs, accreditation bodies, and multinational corporations have become increasingly interested in introducing global dimensions into professional engineering practice, little work in the existing literature provides an overview of questions fundamental to global engineering ethics, such as what global engineering ethics is, why it should be taught, how it should be taught, and when it should be introduced. This paper describes the what, why, how, and when of global engineering ethics – a form adopted from a 1996 article by Charles Harris, Michael Davis, Michael Pritchard, and Michael Rabins, which has influenced the development of engineering ethics for over twenty-five years. First, this paper describes global engineering ethics as a response to the increasingly cross-cultural, international characteristics of contemporary engineering, as well as four fundamental approaches to conceive and deliver this training (what). Next, it explains the motivations for global engineering ethics: Neither educators nor practitioners can necessarily assume a shared nationality or culture among students or between coworkers (why). Third, this paper discusses how global engineering ethics should be taught: One of the most prevalent approaches uses case studies with a cross-cultural and/or international dimension (how). Finally, it identifies spots within curricula for global engineering ethics: standalone courses, integrated modules, micro-insertions, competence-based training scenarios, and extracurricular activities (when). As the world becomes ever more cross-cultural and international, training in global ethics will be essential for both students and practicing engineers. 
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  2. The article argues that mainstream value-sensitive approaches to design have been based on narrow understandings of personhood and social dynamics, which are biased toward Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic cultures and contradicted by empirical evidence. To respond to this weakness, the article suggests that design may benefit from focusing on user behaviours from the joint perspective of values and norms, especially across cultural contexts. As such, it proposes Norm Sensitive Design as a complement to value-sensitive approaches when designing and implementing new technologies. Versus values, norms serve as more accurate predictors or descriptors of behaviours and can thus support valuesensitive approaches to realize the aspiration of informing user behaviour via design. The article makes two key contributions. On the theoretical side, it promotes the consideration of norms in design. On the practical side, it offers designers and instructors prompts for reflecting on design ethics from the perspective of norms. 
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  3. Abstract Large stocks of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in northern permafrost soils are vulnerable to remobilization under climate change. However, there are large uncertainties in present‐day greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets. We compare bottom‐up (data‐driven upscaling and process‐based models) and top‐down (atmospheric inversion models) budgets of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) as well as lateral fluxes of C and N across the region over 2000–2020. Bottom‐up approaches estimate higher land‐to‐atmosphere fluxes for all GHGs. Both bottom‐up and top‐down approaches show a sink of CO2in natural ecosystems (bottom‐up: −29 (−709, 455), top‐down: −587 (−862, −312) Tg CO2‐C yr−1) and sources of CH4(bottom‐up: 38 (22, 53), top‐down: 15 (11, 18) Tg CH4‐C yr−1) and N2O (bottom‐up: 0.7 (0.1, 1.3), top‐down: 0.09 (−0.19, 0.37) Tg N2O‐N yr−1). The combined global warming potential of all three gases (GWP‐100) cannot be distinguished from neutral. Over shorter timescales (GWP‐20), the region is a net GHG source because CH4dominates the total forcing. The net CO2sink in Boreal forests and wetlands is largely offset by fires and inland water CO2emissions as well as CH4emissions from wetlands and inland waters, with a smaller contribution from N2O emissions. Priorities for future research include the representation of inland waters in process‐based models and the compilation of process‐model ensembles for CH4and N2O. Discrepancies between bottom‐up and top‐down methods call for analyses of how prior flux ensembles impact inversion budgets, more and well‐distributed in situ GHG measurements and improved resolution in upscaling techniques. 
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  4. null (Ed.)
    Cable bacteria are multicellular filamentous bacteria that conduct electrons nonlocally between anoxic and oxic sediment regions, creating characteristic electrogenic pH fingerprints. These microbes aggregate in 3D patterns near biogenic structures, and filament fragments are also dispersed throughout deposits. Utilizing pH-sensitive planar optodes to investigate the dynamic response of electrogenic pH fingerprints to sediment reworking, we found that mobile bioturbators like nereid polychaetes (ragworms) can disturb the pH signatures. Sudden sediment disturbance associated with burrows at sub- to multi-centimeter scales eliminates detection of pH signatures. However, electrogenic pH fingerprints can recover in as little as 13 h near abandoned, closed burrows. Sequential collapse and regeneration of electrogenic pH fingerprints are associated with occupied and dynamic burrow structures, with the response time positively related to the scale of disturbance. In the case of relatively stable tube structures, built by benthos like spionid polychaetes and extending mm to cm into deposits, the electrogenic pH fingerprint is evident around the subsurface tubes. Cable filaments clearly associate with subsurface regions of enhanced solute exchange (oxidant supply) and relatively stable biogenic structures, including individual tubes and patches of tubes (e.g. made by Sabaco , a bamboo worm). Physically stable environments, favorable redox gradients, and enhanced organic/inorganic substrate availability promote the activity of cable bacteria in the vicinity of tubes and burrows. These findings suggest complex interactions between electrogenic activity fingerprints and species-specific patterns of bioturbation at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and a substantial impact of electrogenic metabolism on subsurface pH and early diagenetic reaction distributions in bioturbated deposits. 
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  5. Bosansky, B.; Gonzalez, C.; Rass, S.; Sinha, A. (Ed.)