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Additive Manufacturing (AM) conventionally necessitates an intermediary slicing procedure using the standard tessellation language (STL) data, which can be computationally burdensome, especially for intricate microcellular architectures. This study aims to propose a direct slicing method tailored for digital light processing-type AM processes for the efficient generation of slicing data for microcellular structures.

The authors proposed a direct slicing method designed for microcellular structures, encompassing micro-lattice and triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures. The sliced data of these structures were represented mathematically and then convert into 2D monochromatic images, bypassing the time-consuming slicing procedures required by 3D STL data. The efficiency of the proposed method was validated through data preparations for lattice-based nasopharyngeal swabs and TPMS-based ellipsoid components. Furthermore, its adaptability was highlighted by incorporating 2D images of additional features, eliminating the requirement for complex 3D Boolean operations.

The direct slicing method offered significant benefits upon implementation for microcellular structures. For lattice-based nasopharyngeal swabs, it reduced data size by a factor of 1/300 and data preparation time by a factor of 1/8. Similarly, for TPMS-based ellipsoid components, it reduced data size by a factor of 1/60 and preparation time by a factor of 1/16.

The direct slicing method allows for bypasses the computational burdens associated with traditional indirect slicing from 3D STL data, by directly translating complex cellular structures into 2D sliced images. This method not only reduces data volume and processing time significantly but also demonstrates the versatility of sliced data preparation by integrating supplementary features using 2D operations.

The study, grounded on the social cognitive career theory, seeks to analyze the upshot of psychological empowerment on career satisfaction via affective commitment. The study also aims to examine the impact of the interplay among affective commitment and resilience on the career satisfaction of Indian service industry professionals.

In this study, the data has been collected from 277 employees using standardized measures from the North Indian service industry. To test the proposed model, Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) (Hayes, 2013) was utilized.

The outcomes of the study offered substantial support for the theorized link between psychological empowerment, affective commitment, resilience and career satisfaction. The outcomes confirmed an affirmative association concerning psychological empowerment and career satisfaction through affective commitment as a mediator and resilience as a moderator. The study concludes that the workforce with extraordinary resilience will perceive a stronger influence of psychological empowerment on career satisfaction.

The study offers a few pertinent inputs for the organizations operating in high-power distance culture to comprehend the role of psychological empowerment and “resilient attributes” of personality in developing a sense of career satisfaction amongst Indian service sector employees.

The present research examines the association between psychological empowerment, affective commitment, resilience and career satisfaction for the first time as mediated moderation model and the same has neither been examined theoretically or empirically.

The paper aims to provide an understanding of how the transfer of progressive human resource management (HRM) practices may or may fail to render multinational enterprises (MNEs) institutional entrepreneurs creating change in job quality and decent work to underprivileged workers in the low-pay retail sector in Japan.

The paper draws on survey questionnaire data and interviews with workers and management in a foreign retailer in Japan.

The findings suggest that even where MNEs may provide some measurable material improvements in job quality, in this case equal pay for equal work, the total outcomes are nevertheless shaped by institutional context and constraints. In this case, the improvement in pay was intertwined with flexibility demands that were possible to meet for some workers but not others. In particular, women with care responsibilities and competing demands on their time were not able to experience “decent work” in the same way as others.

The study had a relatively low response rate, due to lack of discretion over time experienced by workers in Japan, as well as limited data on program outcomes, with interviews conducted with a small number of participants.

The study suggests that spaces and opportunities exist for MNEs to diverge from dominant practices in given host country locations and exercise a level of agency as emissaries of decent work but successful outcomes require a very thorough understanding of individual worker experiences within the institutional constraints of given environments.

The study offers insights into the complexities of initiatives by MNEs to contribute to the provision of decent work, particularly for workers in underprivileged positions including women in low-pay sectors such as retail, as firm-level practices lead to variable outcomes when filtered through local institutions.

The study brings together a focus on firm-level practices that inform much of the international HRM and international management scholarship with an emphasis on the experiences of workers, which is pursued in the sociology of work, to investigate whether MNEs can be actors in the realising of the Sustainable Development Goals around decent work.

This preliminary study aims to examine the use of a co-designed immersive virtual reality intervention programme in improving access to health care for people with intellectual disability.

A co-production approach was used to design a virtual reality intervention in collaboration with people with intellectual disability, their families and carers. A mixed-method single sample pre-test-post-test design examined using a virtual reality intervention simulating health-care environments to improve access of attending health-care appointments. Qualitative feedback was used to understand participants’ experience and opinions of using the digital technology.

The study found that the intervention did help people access health-care appointment and reduced their fear. Improvements were also found in quality-of-life post intervention. Positive feedback was provided from participants on using digital technologies indicating the novelty of the approach and potential further applications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which has used virtual reality to support people with intellectual disability access health care.

The communications industry faces a recruitment crisis. Despite the pivot to hybrid working and the ever-increasing number of young people opting to study the discipline, over half of recruiters in the public sector and three quarters of those recruiting for agencies struggle to fill vacancies. This chapter examines these trends from a radical feminist perspective, arguing the communications industry is squandering young, female talent by failing both new entrants and mothers returning to work after childbirth. This analysis is based on a series of surveys undertaken between 2020 and 2022 to examine the expectations and lived experience of women, and in particular communications students and mothers, working in or aspiring to work in the sector. Over 73% of the women surveyed had experienced gender-based discrimination and harassment, and 66% had been forced to choose between their careers and having a child. Of the young entrants to the profession surveyed, 88% believed becoming a mother would negatively impact their career, while 32% had experienced discrimination while undertaking their student placement. Analysis of these data indicates the sector faces a crisis of its own making by failing to provide a workplace culture worth working in. The chapter concludes only a direct challenge to male hegemony can redress the gender imbalance, free up talent to meet skills shortages and provide lasting change for women working in communications. It offers a series of recommendations for how professional bodies can address these issues and empower young women to achieve the career outcomes they deserve.

This study aims to investigate whether consumers and small businesses can transition from disposable to reusable coffee cups, using a community social marketing intervention, led by a Social Purpose Organisation.

An emergent case study approach using multiple sources of data developed an in-depth, multifaceted, real-world context evaluation of the intervention. The methodology draws on citizen science “messy” data collection involving multiple, fragmented sources.

Moving from single-use cups to reusables requires collective commitment by retailers, consumers and policymakers, despite the many incentives and penalties applied to incentivise behaviour change. Difficult post-COVID economics, austerity and infrastructure gaps are undermining both reusable acceptance and interim solutions to our dependence upon disposables.

Although the non-traditional methodology rendered gaps and omissions in the data, the citizen science was democratising and inclusive for the community.

Our practical contribution evaluates a whole community intervention setting to encourage reusable cups, integrating multiple stakeholders, in a non-controllable, non-experimental environment in contrast to previous research. This paper demonstrates how small community grants can foster impactful collaborative partnerships between an SPO and researchers, facilitate knowledge-exchange beyond the initial remit and provide a catalyst for possible future impact and outcomes.

To assess the impact at both the outcome and the process level of the intervention, we use Pawson and Tilley’s realist evaluation theory – the Context Mechanism Outcome framework. The methodological contribution demonstrates the process of citizen science “messy” data collection, likely to feature more frequently in future social science research addressing climate change and sustainability challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to exploit a new and robust method to forecast the long-term extreme dynamic responses for wave energy converters (WECs).

A new adaptive binned kernel density estimation (KDE) methodology is first proposed in this paper.

By examining the calculation results the authors has found that in the tail region the proposed new adaptive binned KDE distribution curve becomes very smooth and fits quite well with the histogram of the measured ocean wave dataset at the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) station 46,059. Carefully studying the calculation results also reveals that the 50-year extreme power-take-off heaving force value forecasted based on the environmental contour derived using the new method is 3572600N, which is much larger than the value 2709100N forecasted via the Rosenblatt-inverse second-order reliability method (ISORM) contour method.

The proposed method overcomes the disadvantages of all the existing nonparametric and parametric methods for predicting the tail region probability density values of the sea state parameters.

It is concluded that the proposed new adaptive binned KDE method is robust and can forecast well the 50-year extreme dynamic responses for WECs.

This study explores the influence of cultural heritage tourism perception on China's tourism image. It analyzes the role of the spiritual bond established between overseas Chinese youth and the motherland during their visit to the cultural heritage sites in China. This study constructs a theoretical model with 350 overseas Chinese youth as samples based on the identity theory, Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, and Howard-Sheth model. The results show that cultural heritage tourism perception directly and positively promotes cultural identity among overseas Chinese youth. It is also indirectly and positively associated with their cultural identity through enhancing the tourism image. Cultural intelligence plays a positive moderating role between cultural heritage tourism perception and cultural identity. The results provide significant implications for developing cultural heritage tourism and cultural communication.