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Evaluating mechanical properties of simply made samples by 3D printing technology at nanoscale provides a clear path to better understand larger-scale responses of complex natural rocks. Therefore, to realize the similarity between synthetically manufactured materials and natural geomaterials, this study focused on nanoscale mechanical characterization of a 3D printed object with only two constituent components (gypsum powder and infiltrant).

The study method includes nanoindentation technique combined with numerical simulation via discrete element method (DEM).

Four typical load-displacement curves were identified from nanoindentation of total test points indicating a typical elastic-plastic behavior of the 3D printed gypsum rock sample. Mechanical parameters such as Young’s modulus and hardness were calculated by energy-based methods and a positive correlation was observed. The infiltrant was found to considerably be responsible for the majority of the sample nano-mechanical behavior rather than the gypsum particles, thus expected to control macroscale properties. This was decided from deconvolution and clustering of elastic modulus data. Particle flow modeling in DEM was used to simulate the nanoindentation process in a porous media yielding rock-alike mechanical behavior.

The results show a matching load-displacement response between experimental and simulation results, which verified the credibility of simulation modeling for mechanical behavior of 3D printed gypsum rock at nanoscale. Finally, differential effective medium theory was used to upscale the nanoindentation results to the macroscale mechanical properties, which provided an insight into the geomechanical modeling at multiscale.

Due to their very different contexts, the responses made by property hosts to online reviews can differ from those posted by hotel managers. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of the responding behavior of hosts on peer-to-peer property rental platforms.

This study applied a comprehensive framework based on the theory of planned behavior. Empirical models are constructed based on 89,967 guest reviews with their associated responses to reveal the responding pattern of property hosts.

Unlike hotel managers, property hosts are more likely to reply to positive than to negative reviews; moreover, when they do choose to respond to negative reviews, they are likely to do so negatively, in a “tit-for-tat” way. This study also finds that one reason for the difference of responding patterns between property hosts and hotel managers is the hosts’ lack of experience of consumer relationship management and service recovery.

This study provides a good start point for future theoretical development regarding effective responding strategy on peer-to-peer property rental platforms, as well as some useful implications for practitioners.

This study is an early attempt to analyze the impact of the particularity of emerging platforms on the responding behavior of service providers based on a comprehensive conceptual framework and empirical model thus provides a good starting point for the further investigation of effective response strategies on these emerging platforms.

By adopting retrospective evaluation theories, this study aims to explain how innovations provided by separate suppliers in the tourism value chain influence tourist’s perceived value of the overall experience and further uncover which innovative product attributes are more effective in improving tourist perceptions of the overall value.

A survey yielded 584 valid responses from tourists who had experienced specific tourist product innovations during their travels. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model.

The results reveal that tourists evaluate overall travelling experience value either by recalling an intense, impressive moment (i.e. a heuristic approach) or through an evaluation of the overall utility gained from the whole trip (i.e. a normative approach). Furthermore, innovations that are perceived as increasing convenience and enabling learning contribute to tourists’ overall value perception through both normative and heuristic approaches, while immersion resulting from innovation only contributes to overall perceived value through the heuristic approach.

Given the complex service ecosystem of tourism destinations, each tourism service provider should consider how innovations contribute to the experience of the whole trip and which attributes of innovations increase tourists’ overall perceived experience value.

This study complements existing knowledge by revealing the relationship between product innovation in tourism sectors and tourists’ perceived value of the whole trip. Moreover, it offers a theoretical framework for further investigation into service product innovation in hospitality and tourism industry.

Based on the self-concept perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the process of working mothers who conduct job crafting to build new role identities and self-efficacy, which ultimately affects work-to-family enrichment. The paper further explores the moderating role of inclusive leadership.

The authors collected data at two time points. The sample for the study consisted of 216 professional working mothers in China who returned to work after the birth of their first child.

Results show that working mothers' job crafting had a positive effect on work-to-family enrichment. In addition, working mothers' role identity and role self-efficacy played mediating roles between the links. Finally, inclusive leadership moderates the indirect effect of task crafting and relational crafting on work-to-family enrichment through role identity and role self-efficacy. The positive indirect relationships are stronger in high levels of inclusive leadership.

The employers should provide opportunities, support, and freedom for working mothers to craft their jobs according to their individual demands for better self and home outcomes.

This study focuses on the job crafting of working mothers. The authors extend the consequences of job crafting to the nonwork domain. In addition, this study uncovers the influence of job crafting from the perspective of self-concept (i.e. role identity and role self-efficacy). Furthermore, the authors demonstrate the moderating role played by inclusive leadership in this process.

This study aims to investigate the effect of brand personality and consumer ethnocentrism on perceived quality and purchase intentions in China's sportswear market.

In order to examine and compare the effect of brand personality and consumer ethnocentrism on the evaluation of product quality and purchase intention toward domestic and foreign brands, COB (the country with which the brand or firm is associated) and COM (the country in which final production takes place) cues were used in this study. Chinese college students represented the sample of 385 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the causal relationships among brand personality, consumer ethnocentrism, perceived quality, and purchase intention.

Results revealed that brand personality has a significant effect on Chinese consumers' product quality perceptions and purchase intentions toward both domestic and foreign brands. Furthermore, it is found that Chinese consumers' ethnocentric tendencies have no significant impact on their intentions to buy either domestic or foreign sportswear brands. However, ethnocentric Chinese consumers do positively evaluate the quality of domestic brands when domestic brands are also made domestically and negatively evaluate the quality of foreign brands when foreign brands are also manufactured non-domestically.

The study contributes theoretically and empirically to research on the effects of brand image and consumer ethnocentrism in emerging markets. The findings from this study will help domestic and international marketers have a better understanding of the role of brand personality and consumer ethnocentric tendencies in influencing young Chinese consumers' product evaluation and purchase intentions. In addition, few studies have simultaneously examined the effects of brand image and consumer ethnocentrism (moderated by COO) on consumers' product evaluations and purchase intentions, which provided new research and managerial implications.

This paper aims to report the influence of hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) on phosphate coatings formed on AZ31 magnesium alloys.

These phosphate coatings were obtained by immersing magnesium alloys in phosphate baths with HMTA. The morphology and composition of the phosphate coatings were investigated via scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction.

The phosphate coatings were mainly composed of CaHPO₄·2H₂O. The HMTA concentration in the phosphate bath influenced the crystallization and corrosion resistance of the phosphate coating.

The polarization curve shows that the anti-corrosion qualities of the phosphate coating were optimal when the HMTA concentration was 1.0 g/L in the phosphate bath. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows that the electrochemical impedances increased gradually when the HMTA concentration varied from 1.0 to 3.0 g/L.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on an optimizing maintenance policy with repair limit time for a new type of aircraft component, in which the lifetime is assumed to be an uncertain variable due to no historical operation data, and the repair time is a random variable that can be described by the experimental data.

To describe this repair limit time policy over an infinite time horizon, an extended uncertain random renewal reward theorem is firstly proposed based on chance theory, involves uncertain random interarrival times and stochastic rewards. Accordingly, the uncertain random programming model, which minimized the expected maintenance cost rate, is formulated to find the optimal repair limit time.

A numerical example with sensitivity analysis is provided to illustrate the utility of the proposed policy. It provides a useful reference and guidance for aircraft optimization. For maintainers, it plays an important guiding role in engineering practice.

The proposed uncertain random renewal reward process proved useful for the optimization of maintenance strategy with maintenance limited time for a new type of aircraft components, which provides scientific support for aircraft maintenance decision-making for civil aviation enterprises.

This study aims to propose a new airport gate assignment method to effectively improve the comprehensive operation capacity and efficiency of hub airport. Gate assignment is one of the most important tasks for airport ground operations, which assigns appropriate airport gates with high efficiency reasonable arrangement.

In this paper, on the basis of analyzing the characteristics of airport gates and flights, an efficient multi-objective optimization model of airport gate assignment based on the objectives of the most balanced idle time, the shortest walking distances of passengers and the least number of flights at apron is constructed. Then an improved ant colony optimization (ICQACO) algorithm based on the ant colony collaborative strategy and pheromone update strategy is designed to solve the constructed model to fast realize the gate assignment and obtain a rational and effective gate assignment result for all flights in the different period.

In the designed ICQACO algorithm, the ant colony collaborative strategy is used to avoid the rapid convergence to the local optimal solution, and the pheromone update strategy is used to quickly increase the pheromone amount, eliminate the interference of the poor path and greatly accelerate the convergence speed.

The actual flight data from Guangzhou Baiyun airport of China is selected to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the constructed multi-objective optimization model and the designed ICQACO algorithm. The experimental results show that the designed ICQACO algorithm can increase the pheromone amount, accelerate the convergence speed and avoid to fall into the local optimal solution. The constructed multi-objective optimization model can effectively improve the comprehensive operation capacity and efficiency. This study is a very meaningful work for airport gate assignment.

An efficient multi-objective optimization model for hub airport gate assignment problem is proposed in this paper. An improved ant colony optimization algorithm based on ant colony collaborative strategy and the pheromone update strategy is deeply studied to speed up the convergence and avoid to fall into the local optimal solution.

Entrepreneurial passion has important implications for entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being. But their connections are complicated by the fact that three entrepreneurial passions (passion for inventing, passion for founding and passion for developing) can be combined differently according to their level and shape difference. A variable-centered approach cannot explain their relationship very well, by only focusing on the level difference and ignoring the different combination of entrepreneurial passion in subpopulations. The purpose of this study is to explore the function of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being from a person-cantered approach.

In this study, the authors conducted latent profile analyses to identify different configurations of different entrepreneurial passions (passion for inventing, passion for founding, passion for developing) on two samples of Chinese students and entrepreneurs. Then in the sample of Chinese entrepreneurs, the authors utilized the DCON command in Mplus to provide comparisons among the profiles on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being.

Based on identity theory, the authors found four entrepreneurial passion profiles across two samples—fully passionate, action-driven, interest-driven and dispassionate. Furthermore, the authors found that fully passionate entrepreneurs showed the highest level of entrepreneurial success, followed by action-driven, and then by interest-driven and dispassionate showed the lowest level. Action-driven entrepreneurs experienced the highest level of psychological well-being, followed by fully passionate entrepreneurs, then by interest-driven and dispassionate.

The results provide new insights into the nature and influence of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial success and psychological well-being from a person-centered perspective.

The gait planning and control of quadruped crawling robot affect the stability of the robot walking on a slope. The control includes the position control in the swing phase, the force control in the support phase and the switching control in the force/position switching. To improve the passing ability of quadruped crawling robot on a slope, this paper aims to propose a soft control strategy.

The strategy adopts the statically stable crawling gait as the main gait. As the robot moves forward, the position/force section switching control is adopted. When the foot does not touch the ground, the joint position control based on the variable speed PID is performed. When the foot touches the ground, the position-based impedance control is performed, and a fuzzy multi-model switching control based on friction compensation is proposed to achieve smooth switching of force and position.

The proposed method offers a solution for stable passage in slope environment. The quadruped crawling robot can realize smooth switching of force/position, precise positioning in the swing process and soft control of force in the supporting phase. This fact is verified by simulation and test.

The method presented in this paper takes advantage of minimal tracking errors and minimal jitters. Simulations and tests were performed to evaluate the performance.