Search results

This study aims to fabricate a cool phthalocyanine green/TiO₂ composite pigment (PGT) with high near-infrared (NIR) reflectance, good color performance and good heat-shielding performance under sunlight and infrared irradiation.

With the help of anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes, the PGT composite pigment was prepared using a layer-by-layer assembly method under wet ball milling. Based on the light reflectance properties and color performance tested by ultraviolet-visible-NIR spectrophotometer and colorimeter, the preparation conditions were optimized and the properties of PGT pigment with different assembly layers (PGT-1, PGT-3, PGT-5 and PGT-7) were compared. In addition, their heat-shielding performance was evaluated and compared by temperature rise value for their coating under sunlight and infrared irradiation.

The PGT pigment had a core/shell structure, and the PG thickness increased with the self-assembly layers, which made the PGT-3 and PGT-7 pigment show higher color purity and saturation than PGT-1 pigment. In addition, the PGT-3 and PGT-7 pigment showed 11%–16% lower light reflectance in the visible region. However, their light reflectance in the NIR region was similar. Under infrared irradiation the PGT-5 and PGT-7 pigment coating showed 1.1°C–3.4°C and 1.3°C–4.7°C lower temperature rise value than PGT-1 pigment coating and physical mixture pigment coating, respectively. And under sunlight the PGT-3 pigment coating showed 1.5–2.6°C lower temperature rise value than the physical mixture pigment coating.

The layer-by-layer assembling makes the core/shell PGT composite pigment possess low visible light reflectance, high NIR reflectance and good heat-shielding performance.

This paper examines whether target returns act as specific goals that impact risk-taking when individuals make investment decisions.

Using an experimental setting, the authors assign either a low or a high target return to participants and ask them to make independent investment decisions as the risk-free rate fluctuates around their target return and, for some of them, becomes negative.

Building on cumulative prospect theory, the authors find that the prevailing reference point of participants is the target return, regardless of the level of the risk-free rate. This result still holds even when the risk-free rate is negative, suggesting that (1) the target return drives risk-taking more than does a zero-threshold and (2) negative rates are limited as a tool to stimulate appetites for risk. In a follow-up study, the authors show that these conclusions remain valid when the target return is endogenously determined.

The authors' original approach, which pioneers the use of target returns in both the positive and negative interest rate contexts, provides insightful results about the “reach for yield” among regular people.

This paper aims to prepare third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) organic materials with large nonlinear optimization value, high damage threshold and ultrafast response time.

A series of novel symmetric and asymmetric compounds possessing third-order NLO properties were synthesized using 1,3,5-tribromobenzene as the basis. The photophysical and electrochemical properties, as well as the click reactions, were characterized by means of UV–VIS–NIR absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry.

The donor–acceptor chromophores were inserted into compound, making the molecule to have a broader absorption in the near-infrared regions and a narrower optical and electrochemical band gap. It also formed an electron-delocalized organic system, which has larger effects on achieving a third-order NLO response. The third-order NLO phenomenon of benzene ring complexes was experimentally studied at 532 nm using Z-scan technology, and some compounds showed the expected NLO properties.

The click products exhibit more NLO phenomena by performing different click combinations to the side groups, opening new perspectives on using the system in a variety of photoelectric applications.

Welfare reforms introduced conditionality into cash transfers often by diverse welfare-to-work programs achieving its vast legitimization. Meanwhile in-kind poverty alleviation policies maintained their universal character in the forms of national budgeting of municipal services. Utilizing justification work, the authors aim at showing how conditionality of in-kind support is replacing universalism. The authors ask which justification work assist administrators in shaping the relationship between in-kind and cash transfer and the changing meanings of poverty alleviation practices.

The authors conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with senior administrators in Israeli local governments analysing them along principles of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010). Further, seeking to elicit the justification work, the authors added some guidelines from the discourse interaction approach.

The findings identified administrators' justification work as taking two major shapes. The first is an emphasis on conditionality in their in-kind support projects, which is limited in time, contingent upon co-operation and sometimes even enhancing choice for those in need. The second is the manifestation of pride anchored in the skilful budget management enabling the achievement of conditional in-kind support projects based on the effort involved.

The authors did not prompt the interviewees for the proportions of specific categories, such as whether they are attending and benefitting of the in-kind support programs. This is a limitation of this study that prevented the authors from contrasting perceived achievements against the actual coverage of their projects.

It is important that government funding is increased for municipal anti-poverty policies engaging municipal administrator in the struggle for full and better coverage so that capability deprivation is combatted by a combination of cash transfer and quality social services that are universal and at the same time secure mentoring and supervision to all households in need.

Future research should present the analysis that associates different budgets of each city with its anti-poverty polices and its different socio-economic ranking. Critical social-policy scholars may apply this study’s findings in future analyses of municipal administrators' power position as reinforced by national level policy makers, particularly when introducing controversial policies.

Anti-poverty policy and the specific combination between conditional cash transfers and in-kind support have been explained at the level of political–economic decision making. The authors conceptualize the need to explain anti-poverty policy by focussing on municipal administrators’ embedded agency, particularly around controversial issues. By building the professional self of municipal welfare administrators, inter alia by ignoring past meanings of in-kind support as depriving recipients of autonomy, conditionality is extended into in-kind services.

This paper aims to concentrate on recent innovations in flexible wearable sensor technology tailored for monitoring vital signals within the contexts of wearable sensors and systems developed specifically for monitoring health and fitness metrics.

In recent decades, wearable sensors for monitoring vital signals in sports and health have advanced greatly. Vital signals include electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, electromyography, inertial data, body motions, cardiac rate and bodily fluids like blood and sweating, making them a good choice for sensing devices.

This report reviewed reputable journal articles on wearable sensors for vital signal monitoring, focusing on multimode and integrated multi-dimensional capabilities like structure, accuracy and nature of the devices, which may offer a more versatile and comprehensive solution.

The paper provides essential information on the present obstacles and challenges in this domain and provide a glimpse into the future directions of wearable sensors for the detection of these crucial signals. Importantly, it is evident that the integration of modern fabricating techniques, stretchable electronic devices, the Internet of Things and the application of artificial intelligence algorithms has significantly improved the capacity to efficiently monitor and leverage these signals for human health monitoring, including disease prediction.

To examine the effects of the metaverse on firms’ marketing activities.

A conceptual paper.

It provides evidence of the growing importance of different value capture mechanisms in the metaverse.

Among the first articles on this topic.

This study aims to develop a novel approach for predicting default risk in bancassurance, which plays a crucial role in the relationship between interest rates in banks and premium rates in insurance companies. The proposed method aims to improve default risk predictions and assist with client segmentation in the banking system.

This research introduces the group method of data handling (GMDH) technique and a diversified classifier ensemble based on GMDH (dce-GMDH) for predicting default risk. The data set comprises information from 30,000 credit card clients of a large bank in Taiwan, with the output variable being a dummy variable distinguishing between default risk (0) and non-default risk (1), whereas the input variables comprise 23 distinct features characterizing each customer.

The results of this study show promising outcomes, highlighting the usefulness of the proposed technique for bancassurance and client segmentation. Remarkably, the dce-GMDH model consistently outperforms the conventional GMDH model, demonstrating its superiority in predicting default risk based on various error criteria.

This study presents a unique approach to predicting default risk in bancassurance by using the GMDH and dce-GMDH neural network models. The proposed method offers a valuable contribution to the field by showcasing improved accuracy and enhanced applicability within the banking sector, offering valuable insights and potential avenues for further exploration.

This paper aims to present demographic characteristics and postgraduate employment trends of business doctoral graduates, especially the proportion that are underrepresented minorities (URMs) over time.

The authors analyze the near census of individuals receiving doctoral degrees in a wide range of business disciplines from US-accredited universities from 1973 to 2018 (n = 50,091) contained with the National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates. The authors analyze how the proportion of URM graduates, by discipline, has changed over time both in terms of receiving a doctoral degree and entering an academic position.

The proportion of URM graduates fluctuated between approximately 5% and 15% annually, steadily increasing across decades. Overall, 64.4% of all graduates entered an academic position, with notably higher rates among whites (72.1%) compared to Blacks (51.8%), Hispanics (60.4%) and other URMs (56.4%) (p < 0.001). In adjusted models, the proportion of URMs that entered academic positions significantly increased overtime, beginning in the 1990s and peaked in the 2000s. Although the few institutions that graduated the highest number of URMs do not currently have an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited business school, the authors identify several exemplar institutions where URM graduates entered academic jobs at the highest rates.

The authors provide demographic trends that shed light on ways to influence an increase in URM doctoral graduates from business disciplines into academic careers. This discussion is of interest to university administrators and other stakeholders interested in diversity issues in higher education.

Accurate information is the basis for well-informed decision-making, which is particularly challenging in the dynamic reality of a pandemic. Search engines are a major gateway for obtaining information, yet little is known about the quality and scientific accuracy of information answering conspiracy-related queries about COVID-19, especially outside of English-speaking countries and languages.

The authors conducted an algorithmic audit of Google Search, emulating search queries about COVID-19 conspiracy theories in 10 different locations and four languages (English, Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew) and used content analysis by native language speakers to examine the quality of the available information.

Searching the same conspiracies in different languages led to fundamentally different results. English had the largest share of 52% high-quality scientific information. The average quality score of the English-language results was significantly higher than in Russian and Arabic. Non-English languages had a considerably higher percentage of conspiracy-supporting content. In Russian, nearly 40% of the results supported conspiracies compared to 18% in English.

This study’s findings highlight structural differences that significantly limit access to high-quality, balanced, and accurate information about the pandemic, despite its existence on the Internet in another language. Addressing these gaps has the potential to improve individual decision-making collective outcomes for non-English societies.

The paper aims to design the optimum formulation of the nano-titanium dioxide (TiO2) hydrophilic coating system using the synthetic polypropylene glycol (PPG), which can create the reflection and absorption property.

TiO2 nanoparticles are used as fillers, and PPG has been blended at the proper ratio of 1PPG: 0.2TiO2. The prepared resin has been applied onto the glass substrate at different numbers of glass immersions during the dip-coating fabrication process. One-time glass immersion is labeled as T1 coating, two-time glass immersion is labeled as T2 coating and three-time glass immersion is labeled as T3 coating. All the prepared coating systems were left dry at ambient temperature.

T3 coating showed the lowest reading of WCA value at 40.50°, due to higher surface energy at 61.73 mN/m. The T3 coating also shows the greatest absorbance property among the prepared coating systems among the prepared coating. In terms of reflectance property, the T2 coating system has great reflectance in UV region and near-infrared region, which is 16.47% and 2.77 and 2.73%, respectively. The T2 coating also has great optical transmission about 75.00% at the visible region.

The development of thermal insulation coating by studying the relationship between convection heat and reflectance at different wavelengths of incident light.

The developed coating shows high potential for glass window application.

The application of the hydrophilic coating on light absorption, reflectance and transmission at different wavelengths.