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The textile sector is one of the sectors where competition is intense and requires the production of high-value-added products. This study aims to conduct patent analysis to find the technology status, recent trends, applications and technological evaluations of protective textile technologies in practice.

More than 36,840 patent documents related to protective textile technologies are available for researchers, patent examiners and patent researchers. Patent analysis is conducted to report the technology status, recent trends and applications of protective textile technologies. This analysis provides insights into the possible future directions of protective textile technologies in practice. Additionally, association rule mining (ARM) is performed to find the hidden patterns among protective textile technologies.

The development of protective textile technologies is revealed by the technology evaluation in this study. In addition, the sub-technology classes affecting protective textile technologies are examined using the cooperative patent classification (CPC) codes of the patent documents. Technology status and recent trends of protective textile technologies are provided in detail. The results of this study show that (1) protective textile technologies are constantly being developed, (2) the working areas of medical protective textiles are increasing, (3) there are frequent studies on fabric structures for saving lives within the framework of human needs and (4) there are four technology classes, namely A41D, Y10T, B32B and A62B impacting the other technology classes related to textile technologies such as D10B, Y10T, F41H, A62D, D04H, Y10S and D10B.

To have a competitive advantage in the marketplace, evaluation of textile technologies is critical in developing “functionalized” and “technologized” textile products. In particular, evaluating technologies in developing protective textile products is extremely important to meet customer demands and present competitive products in the market. Examining these patents for technology developers, decision-makers and policymakers is an urgent and necessary job. However, studies examining the development of protective textile technologies with patent analysis are very limited in the literature. To fill this gap, technology status, recent trends and applications of protective textile technologies are reported based on patent analysis and ARM in this study.

Drawing upon a political economy approach, this article aims to analyze the transformations in the labor market within the context of contemporary capitalism, focusing on the phenomenon of financialization.

Financialization is defined as a distinct wealth pattern marked by a growing proportion of financial assets in capitalist wealth. Within financial markets, corporate performance is continuously assessed, in a process that disciplines management to achieve expected financial results, with consequences throughout corporate management.

We find that this phenomenon has implications for labor management, resulting in the intensification of labor processes and the adoption of insecure forms of employment, leading to the fractalization of work. These two mechanisms, added to the indebtedness of workers, constitute three elements for disciplining labor in contemporary capitalism.

We argue that these forms of discipline constitute a subsumption of labor to finance, resulting in an increase in labor exploitation. This formulation of the relationship between financialization and changes in the realm of labor also contributes to understanding the unrealizing potential of social free time in contemporary capitalism.

Face masks are the most recommended precautionary measure since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 since 2020 and the most useful PPE against this virus and its variants so far. This study aims to develop reusable and biodegradable mask from 100% regenerated bamboo or/and its blend. Selection of natural and regenerated textile materials is to minimize generation of solid waste. This attempt will eventually protect our earth by minimizing or better discontinuing the production of the disposable nonbiodegradable face masks available worldwide.

Hundred percent regenerated bamboo and 50:50 bamboo:cotton were selected to knit plain and interlock fabrics for manufacturing of reusable sustainable face masks. A 2³ 3²-mixed-level factorial design was applied to study the effect of liquor ratio and temperatures, fabric structure, blend ratios and finishes at three different levels. Model 2³ 3² has two factors (liquor ratio and temperatures) at three levels and three factors (fabric structure, blend ratios and type of finish) at two levels. Knitted fabrics were then applied with antibacterial finishes; sanitized T99-19 and sanitized T27-22, separately at three different liquor ratios (1:10, 1:12 and 1:15) and temperatures (45, 55 and 65 °C) via exhaust method. After completing processing, fabric thickness, pilling resistance, dimensional stability, bursting strength, Berger whiteness index, air permeability and antibacterial properties of each trial were evaluated using standard test procedures.

Selected fabrics treated either by sanitized T27 or sanitized T99 in a liquor ratio of 1:15 against 65 °C, showed excellent bacteriostatic/bactericidal activity. However, 100% regenerated bamboo interlock knitted fabric treated with sanitized T99 in a liquor ratio of 1:15 at 65 °C has the most desired values of dimensional stability, pilling resistance, Berger whiteness, fabric thickness, air permeability and bursting strength which made it the best for the manufacturing of the masks. Reusable mask is comprised of three layers in which the first and the third layers were of selected 100% regenerated bamboo fabric while a PM2.5 filter was inserted in between. Bacterial filtration efficiency, particle filtration efficiency, biocompatibility and microbial cleanliness will be evaluated in future, to compare the performance of proposed reusable and biodegradable face mask with N95 masks and other fabric masks available commercially.

This study resulted in a development of reusable eco-friendly facemask which was not attempted by the preceding investigations. Outcomes of this work pave the way for a greener and safer earth by using easily obtainable regenerated bamboo fabrics, antibacterial finishes and knitted structures.

The primary objective of this article is to examine current procurement, inventory control and management practices in modern healthcare, with a particular focus on the procurement and management of surgical supplies in a prominent public, highly specialized healthcare sector.

This study was conducted in three phases. In Phase 1, the study team interacted with various hospital management stakeholders, including the surgical hospital store, examined the current procurement process and identified challenges. Phase 2 focused on selecting items for a detailed study and collected the qualitative and quantitative details of the store department of the healthcare sector chosen. A detailed study analyzed revenue, output/demand, inventory levels, etc. In Phase 3, a decision-making framework is proposed, and inventory control systems are redesigned and demonstrated for the selected items.

It was observed that the demand for many surgical items had increased significantly over the years due to an increase in disposable/disposable items, while inventories fluctuated widely. Maximum inventory levels varied between 50 and 75%. Storage and availability were important issues for the hospital. It is assumed the hospital adopts the proposed inventory control system. In this case, the benefits can be a saving of 62% of the maximum inventory, 20% of the average stock in the system and optimal use of storage space, improving the performance and productivity of the hospital.

This study can help the healthcare sector administration to develop better systems for the procurement and delivery of common surgical items and efficient resource allocation. It can help provide adequate training to store staff. This study can help improve management/procurement policies, ordering and delivery systems, better service levels, and inventory control of items in the hospital business context. This study can serve as a pilot study to further investigate the overall hospital operations.

This study can help the healthcare sector administration develop better systems for procuring and delivering common surgical items and efficient resource allocation. It can help provide adequate training to store staff. This study can help improve management/procurement policies, ordering and delivery systems, better service levels and inventory control of items in the hospital business context. This study can serve as a pilot study to further investigate the overall hospital operations.

This study is an early attempt to develop a decision framework and inventory control system from the perspective of healthcare inventory management. The gaps identified in real hospital scenarios are investigated, and theoretically based-inventory management strategies are applied and proposed.

This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers.

In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.

The shipbreaking sector in Bangladesh has spurred extensive academic and policy debates on relations between shipbreaking industries, environmental degradation and the health security of their workers. As shipbreaking is an economically significant industry in Bangladesh, it needs to implement both domestic and global mechanisms for environmental conservation and the protection of the labourers’ health from environmental risks. The purpose of this paper is to primarily explore the environmental and health security issues in shipbreaking activities in Bangladesh. It also identifies the challenges in implementing the rules and regulations for protecting the health of the workers at shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh and preserving the marine environment.

This is a qualitative paper based on secondary materials, including journal articles, books and national and international reports. It critically reviews the existing literature, rules, regulations and policing on shipbreaking with a particular focus on the environment and health security of the workers.

This paper finds that the implementation of the rules and regulations in shipbreaking in Bangladesh is complicated because of weak implementation mechanisms, political and economic interests of the yard owners, lack of coordination among different agencies, lack of adequate training and awareness among the workers and workers’ poor economic condition, which contribute to the degradation of marine and local environments and trigger health hazards among the workers. Therefore, degrading the environment and undermining occupational health and safety regulations have become regular; thus, accidental death and injury to the workers are common in this sector.

This paper is an important study on the issues of workers' health and safety and environmental hazards in the shipyard. It reports how the health security of the workers in shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh is vulnerable, and environmental rules are challenged. Finally, this paper frames some policy implications to safeguard the workers’ health rights and the marine environment.

This research focuses on exploring a psychological mechanism between abusive supervision and job engagement via job insecurity and job alternative to understand how frontline construction workers' perceived abusive supervision impacts on their work engagement.

This study draws on the conservation of resources theory (COR) to postulate that workers' job insecurity acts as a mediation between abusive supervision and work engagement, and the perception of job alternative moderates the impact of abusive supervision on job insecurity. This study empirically tests survey data from 357 frontline construction workers and adopts partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed model.

This paper proved the dark-side of abusive supervision, dual character of job insecurity and moderating role of job alternative. The game-changing mediation effects of job insecurity were examined, which suggested that work engagement would be higher when abusive supervision stimulates stronger job insecurity. Furthermore, the result indicated that the relationship between abusive supervision and job insecurity should be weaker when job alternative is high.

This research suggests construction project managers (CPMs) must take steps such as enhancing supervisors' emotional management skills to control frequency of abuse and thus lessen compromising engagement. Moreover, overall understanding frontline workers' job insecurity is meaningful for better construction performance management.

This research contributes to the disputed leadership style (abusive supervision) and positive psychology knowledge (work engagement) in construction projects by unveiling the psychosocial mechanism (game-changing effects of job insecurity) of construction frontline workers positive engaged feeling. This study highlights the function of personal and job resources in process of resource conservation.

The COVID-19 pandemic offered a unique glimpse into the resilience of construction projects, shedding light on several learning opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions for the improvement of resilient performance in construction in the post-pandemic era.

The propositions were developed based on an empirical study in Brazil. Data collection involved the analysis of regulations, interviews with health experts, managers, and workers, in addition to non-participant observations of the use of 37 control practices in 39 construction sites comparing the work-as-imagined and the work-as-done. The practices were classified in a hierarchy of controls.

Seven propositions for the improvement of resilient performance were developed, addressing collaboration between construction companies, slack resources, new health and safety practices, production planning and control, digital technologies, visual management, and organizational culture. These propositions emphasize organizational support for resilience. This is in contrast to the nature of most observed practices (57%) that relied on administrative controls and personal protective equipment, which are measures dependent on behaviors that resemble resilience at the individual level.

Although much has been studied on COVID-19 implications for construction projects, previous empirical studies have not adopted the organizational resilience perspective as the main theoretical background.

The Covid-19 pandemic appears to have engendered heterogeneous effects on individuals’ labour market prospects. This paper focuses on two possible sources of a heterogeneous exposition to labour market risks associated with the pandemic outbreak: the routine task content of the job and the teleworkability. To evaluate whether these dimensions played a crucial role in amplifying employment and wage gaps among workers, we focus on the case of Italy, the first EU country hit by Covid-19.

Investigating the actual effect of the pandemic on workers employed in jobs with a different degree of teleworkability and routinization, using real microdata, is currently unfeasible. This is because longitudinal datasets collecting annual earnings and the detailed information about occupations needed to capture a job’s routine task content and teleworkability are not presently available. To simulate changes in the wage distribution for the year 2020, we have employed a static microsimulation model. This model is built on data from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (IT-SILC) survey, which has been enriched with administrative data and aligned with monthly observed labour market dynamics by industries and regions.

We measure the degree of job teleworkability and routinization with the teleworkability index (TWA) built by Sostero et al. (2020) and the routine-task-intensity index (RTI) developed by Cirillo et al. (2021), respectively. We find that RTI and TWA are negatively and positively associated with wages, respectively, and they are correlated with higher (respectively lower) risks of a large labour income drop due to the pandemic. Our evidence suggests that labour market risks related to the pandemic – and the associated new types of earnings inequality that may derive – are shaped by various factors (including TWA and RTI) instead of by a single dimension. However, differences in income drop risks for workers in jobs with varying degrees of teleworkability and routinization largely reduce when income support measures are considered, thus suggesting that the redistributive effect of the emergency measures implemented by the Italian government was rather effective.

No studies have so far investigated the effect of the pandemic on workers employed in jobs with a different degree of routinization and teleworkability in Italy. We thus investigate whether income drop risks in Italy in 2020 – before and after income support measures – differed among workers whose jobs are characterized by a different degree of RTI and TWA.

This paper attempts to study the relationship between the level of urban innovation and subjective well-being (SWB). The following questions are discussed: (1) Does improving the level of innovation in cities affect the SWB of residents? (2) If urban innovation levels affect residents' SWB, can improving urban innovation level improve residents' SWB? (2) If urban innovation level improves residents' SWB, what is the possible mechanism? (3) Is there any difference in the effect of urban innovation level on the SWB of different groups?

This paper chooses the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method for baseline regression with robust standard errors, and the regression results of Oprobit will be presented in detail in the robustness test section. The model is constructed by matching the micro data and the macro data. Meanwhile, the instrumental variable (IV) method is also used to deal with the possible endogeneity problem.

This paper finds that urban innovation has significantly improved the SWB of residents. This finding still holds after considering the endogeneity issue and conducting a series of robustness tests. Moreover, the level of innovation positively influences residents' SWB mainly through the paths of increasing income levels, improving environmental quality and promoting convenience in life. What's more, urban innovation has a more significant effect on the SWB of low-income groups and those with low education levels. Finally, based on the findings, this paper also proposes some policy recommendations to further improve the SWB of residents.

Given the limitations of the data, the above study deals with China. In the future, international data can be further used to further explore the impact of the innovation level of international cities on the SWB of residents and then the research conclusions can be applied to the international community to provide theoretical basis and empirical support for policy makers of various countries, which will help improve the SWB of residents of various countries and enrich the theoretical and empirical research on the impact of innovation on the SWB of residents.

Well-being is a goal constantly pursued by human beings. This paper shows that urban innovation has significantly improved the SWB of residents. The findings provide guides to improve the SWB of residents and provide a certain theoretical basis and empirical reference for policy makers.

The possible innovations or contributions of this paper include: (1) based on the China Household Income Survey (CHIP) and the “Report on Innovation of Chinese Cities and Industries”, this paper studies the impact of urban innovation levels on residents' SWB, supplementing the gaps in existing literature; (2) through group analysis, the heterogeneity of the impact of urban innovation level on groups with different incomes and education levels was discussed and (3) the mechanism of urban innovation level on residents' SWB was identified. These studies and discussions provide a basis for more effective improvement of residents' SWB and provide a valuable reference for promoting people's pursuit of a better life.