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1 – 10 of over 6000
Article
Publication date: 2 October 2019

Huailing Wang, Jie Liu, Xiaoyu Liu and Zhigang Liu

Blueberry contains bioactive compounds which are beneficial to organisms, such as phenolics and flavonoids. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential protective…

Abstract

Purpose

Blueberry contains bioactive compounds which are beneficial to organisms, such as phenolics and flavonoids. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential protective effects of blueberry extracts (BE) on H2O2-induced HepG2 cells.

Design/methodology/approach

Cell protection was evaluated via the survivals of the cell. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, antioxidant enzyme and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected. Western blot was carried out to analysis protein which was related to the cell apoptosis pathway. Changes in morphology including: cell total apoptosis/necrosis and G0/G1 cycle arresting were also concomitant.

Findings

The levels of ROS and malondialdehyde (MDA) reduced after the BE treatment while the contents of superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) increased in HepG2 cells induced by H2O2. Furthermore, mechanistic studies indicated that BE regulated the activation of mitochondrial apoptosis signal-regulating (Bcl-2, Bax). Qu was used as a positive control group. All these results demonstrated that the BE have a potential against oxidative stress in vitro.

Originality/value

Few studies have focused on the bioactivities of blueberry on oxidative stress. Taken together, the results confirm that polyphenol-enriched BE have the ability to protect against oxidative stress in cells. It has a great potential as a functional food ingredient to health benefits. Furthermore, this work showed the value of using simple biological models to screen for compounds that are of interest for food and pharmacological industry.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 October 2021

Mario Iván Tarride and Mario Italo Contreras

The paper aims to propose a model and a comprehensive diagnostic method of organizational health status based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to propose a model and a comprehensive diagnostic method of organizational health status based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is qualitative/interpretive and uses of the concept of functional homomorphism of WR Ashby is used, establishing similarities between the way in which this ancient medicine considers the human being and their condition as healthy to transfer it to an organization that produces goods and/or services.

Findings

A healthy organization is conceived as one constituted by an association of people regulated by a set of norms based on certain purposes in a state of harmonious balance of their physical and energetic dimensions. In that the physical refers to storage functions, regulation and allocation of resources; transformation of raw materials and inputs into goods and services; waste disposal, distribution and coordination and with information systems for management control, while energy is associated with the ability to act with its management and policies.

Research limitations/implications

The current paper is a first theoretical proposal, which should be enriched with practical applications that feedback its conceptual formulation, thus contributing to its validation.

Practical implications

A comprehensive organizational diagnostic method is made available.

Social implications

The proposed method allows a comprehensive organizational diagnosis, considering the participation of all the actors that make up this type of social systems.

Originality/value

Although the methodological resource is old, the way it is used here is considered original, and it is also part of an original investigative process by the authors, oriented toward the search for comprehensive organizational diagnostic methods.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 52 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2023

Peiwen Sun, Jianwei Yang, AiHua Zhu, Zhongshuo Hu, Jinhai Wang, Fu Liu and Xiaohui Wang

The CL60 steel wheels of subway vehicles operating on specific lines require frequent refurbishment due to rapid wear and tear. Considering this issue, MoS2-based and…

Abstract

Purpose

The CL60 steel wheels of subway vehicles operating on specific lines require frequent refurbishment due to rapid wear and tear. Considering this issue, MoS2-based and graphite-based solid lubricants are used to reduce the wear rate of subway wheels and extend their service life.

Design/methodology/approach

Under laboratory conditions, the effect of MoS2-based and graphite-based solid lubricants on the friction and wear performance of subway wheels and rails was evaluated using a modified GPM-60 wear testing machine.

Findings

Under laboratory conditions, MoS2-based solid lubricants have the best effect in reducing wheel/rail wear, compared to the control group without lubrication, at 2 × 105 revolutions, the total wheel-rail wear decreased by 95.07%. However, when three types of solid lubricants are used separately, the hardness evolution of the wheel-rail contact surface exhibits different characteristics.

Practical implications

The research results provide important support for improving the lifespan of wheel and rail, extending the service cycle of wheel and rail, reducing the operating costs of subway systems, improving the safety of subway systems and providing wear reduction maintenance for other high wear mechanical components.

Originality/value

The experiment was conducted through the design and modification of a GPM-60 testing machine for wear testing. The experiment simulated the wheel-rail contact situation under actual subway operation and evaluated the effects of three different solid lubricants, MoS2-based and graphite-based, on the wear performance and surface hardening evolution of subway wheel-rail.

Details

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 75 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 May 2022

Hanliang Fu, Hong Zhu, Pengdong Xue, Xi Hu, Xiaotong Guo and Bingsheng Liu

This study applied eye-tracking techniques and questionnaires within the framework of the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model (SOR) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), to…

Abstract

Purpose

This study applied eye-tracking techniques and questionnaires within the framework of the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model (SOR) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), to investigate the influencing factors of the public acceptance of 5G base stations.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a combination of eye-tracking experiments and questionnaires. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

(1) The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) could be used to explain the effects on public acceptance of 5G base stations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The public's perceived usefulness and ease of use of 5G base stations positively affects public acceptance of 5G base stations. (2) The public's perceived risk of 5G base stations has a negative influence on the public acceptance of 5G base stations. (3) The public's visual attention to the different valence information about 5G base stations positively impacts the perceived ease of use while having negative impacts on perceived risk. (4) Visual attention to various valence information of 5G base stations can indirectly influence public acceptance through the perceived risk.

Originality/value

Applying the SOR and TAM to data obtained from eye-tracking experiments and questionnaires, this study analyzed the factors and mechanisms influencing public acceptance of 5G base stations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2024

Fu Liu, Haiying Wei, Zhaoyang Sun, Zhenzhong Zhu and Haipeng (Allan) Chen

This study aims to investigate the effect of the virtual spokesperson type on the consumers' preference for new products. To meet the consumer needs of Generation Z, virtual…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the effect of the virtual spokesperson type on the consumers' preference for new products. To meet the consumer needs of Generation Z, virtual spokespeople have become new assistants in brand marketing. However, how virtual spokespersons drive consumer preference for new products is minimally understood.

Design/methodology/approach

This research conducts three experiments to investigate the influence of virtual spokesperson type on consumers' preference for new products.

Findings

The research shows that, for radically new products, competent virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of self-efficacy and thus consumers' preference; for incrementally new products, warm virtual spokespersons improve consumers' perception of social connection and thus consumers' willingness to buy.

Originality/value

This study broadens research on brand spokespersons and virtual spokespersons. This research also enriches and expands research on the consideration of new product types in brand spokespersons.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2022

Xin Feng, Lei Yu, Weixin Kong and Jingya Wang

With the continuous improvement of social and economic development as well as the rising level of demand for spiritual life, the design of cultural and creative products has…

1115

Abstract

Purpose

With the continuous improvement of social and economic development as well as the rising level of demand for spiritual life, the design of cultural and creative products has ushered in new opportunities and challenges. Therefore the research related to cultural and creative products design is an inevitable choice for industrial innovation and market competition. The article aims to analyze the frontier hotspots and trend evolution of theoretical research on cultural and creative design in China by presenting different research fields, personnel and institutions embodied by cultural and creative products, thus providing a forward-looking development reference for China's special cultural and creative product design practice.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the visualized citation analysis tool — CiteSpace V is used to analyze and map the relevant literature of Chinese cultural and creative design in CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure) as the data sources, through bibliometric methods, in order to study the application development of Chinese cultural and creative design and provide reference for the application research of Chinese cultural and creative industries.

Findings

With the improvement of China's comprehensive strength, cultural self-confidence and strategy are being paid more and more attention by scholars; with the future research of China's cultural and creative design theory, cross-integration becomes the future trend; with the gradual maturity of China's cultural and creative design methodology, how to choose the right method for pioneering research is a difficulty for the future development of cultural and creative design; with the continuous development of China's economy, the method construction of innovative cultural and creative industry system becomes the focus of future research; with the continuous progress of science and technology, the integration of emotion and product industry is the mainstream of future development on cultural and creative design.

Originality/value

Through an objective empirical analysis of the development of Chinese cultural and creative products, it will broaden the research horizons of relevant scholars, understand the development direction of China's cultural and creative industries, enrich the design practice application of Chinese cultural and creative products, enhance the understanding of international counterparts on Chinese cultural and creative design research and promote the exchange among international counterparts.

Book part
Publication date: 20 January 2023

Cheng Chang and Wei Huang

In the platform era the informal employment in China is tremendously huge in quantities. This paper sets out the changes of traditional regulatory rules status, the new web of…

Abstract

In the platform era the informal employment in China is tremendously huge in quantities. This paper sets out the changes of traditional regulatory rules status, the new web of rules and, with a particular focus on, the impacts of main actors’ interacts, from an industrial relations ‘web of rule’ perspective. The subjects involved in this paper are multiple, including labour law, collective labour relations institution, enterprise human resources management, CSRs and NGOs in production supply chains. It argues the inappropriate impacts on the perseverance of right and interests of workers are consequences of the current national labour law and collective labour relations institutions. It witnesses the emerging innovative methods, employment relations system in a self-dependent economic transaction, the rule of production supply chain in a multi-stake-holder context and the new intervening method of NGOs. It is in scrutiny of the commence of such a transformation in China, nevertheless, transforming from the authoritarian regime to a more fair market establishing via the intervention of multiple social forces, and consequently the transformation from informal employments to formal ones in a comprehensively complex domestic and global context.

Details

Protecting the Future of Work: New Institutional Arrangements for Safeguarding Labour Standards
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-248-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2020

Arieh Riskin, Peter Bamberger, Amir Erez and Aya Zeiger

Incivility is widespread in the workplace and has been shown to have significant affective and behavioral consequences. However, the authors still have a limited understanding as…

Abstract

Incivility is widespread in the workplace and has been shown to have significant affective and behavioral consequences. However, the authors still have a limited understanding as to whether, how and when discrete incivility events impact team performance. Adopting a resource depletion perspective and focusing on the cognitive implications of such events, the authors introduce a multi-level model linking the adverse effects of such events on team members’ working memory – the “workbench” of the cognitive system where most planning, analyses, and management of goals occur – to team effectiveness. The model which the authors develop proposes that that uncivil interpersonal behavior in general, and rudeness – a central manifestation of incivility – in particular, may place a significant drain on individuals’ working memory capacity, affecting team effectiveness via its effects on individual performance and coordination-related team emergent states and action-phase processes. In the context of this model, the authors offer an overarching framework for making sense of disparate findings regarding how, why and when incivility affects performance outcomes at multiple levels. More specifically, the authors use this framework to: (a) suggest how individual-level cognitive impairment and weakened coordinative team processes may mediate these incivility-based effects, and (b) explain how event, context, and individual difference factors moderators may attenuate or exacerbate these cognition-mediated effects.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-076-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 January 2015

Emel Esen

The United Nations Global Compact is a voluntary initiative in four areas as human rights, labor, environment, and anticorruption with 10 universal principles. This network brings…

Abstract

Purpose

The United Nations Global Compact is a voluntary initiative in four areas as human rights, labor, environment, and anticorruption with 10 universal principles. This network brings corporations, nongovernmental organizations, employees, and people together. There is a need to have responsible and committed leaders to promote good corporate citizenship in the framework of Global Compact. Leaders have a unique position through which they can influence factors concerning organizations’ and employees’ behavior. According to the areas of UN Global Compact, some leadership styles seem to better suit to benefit economies, societies, markets, and people all over the world than the others. By this way, from the theoretical perspectives, the primary purpose of this chapter is to investigate the leader’s behavior and different leadership styles in organizations that are the part of Global Compact platform. There are certain leadership theories – transactional, transformational, sustainable, ethical, and servant – which are examined in Global Compact initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

An extensive literature research is conducted in order to understand the different types of leadership styles while organizations are adapting and understanding the Global Compact principles.

Findings

Modern leadership styles especially ethical leadership behavior should be effective to comply with universal principles and organizations can also have commitment to disclose a report with powerful leadership.

Research limitations/implications

However, this research is a theoretical study; for further studies, longitudinal studies can be conducted to understand the leadership styles from the perspective of Global Compact principles, and these different managers’ behaviors can be measured.

Practical implications

This study may be useful for the board of directors and managers since they should participate and adapt themselves to this initiative about how they should behave in the right way.

Originality/value

There is a lack of behavioral studies while analyzing Global Compact principles. Especially examining leadership theories that are complied with these principles will add a value to the literature in this area.

Details

The UN Global Compact: Fair Competition and Environmental and Labour Justice in International Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-295-1

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 August 2021

Weiwei Zhu, Jinglin Wu, Ting Fu, Junhua Wang, Jie Zhang and Qiangqiang Shangguan

Efficient traffic incident management is needed to alleviate the negative impact of traffic incidents. Accurate and reliable estimation of traffic incident duration is of great…

1507

Abstract

Purpose

Efficient traffic incident management is needed to alleviate the negative impact of traffic incidents. Accurate and reliable estimation of traffic incident duration is of great importance for traffic incident management. Previous studies have proposed models for traffic incident duration prediction; however, most of these studies focus on the total duration and could not update prediction results in real-time. From a traveler’s perspective, the relevant factor is the residual duration of the impact of the traffic incident. Besides, few (if any) studies have used dynamic traffic flow parameters in the prediction models. This paper aims to propose a framework to fill these gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper proposes a framework based on the multi-layer perception (MLP) and long short-term memory (LSTM) model. The proposed methodology integrates traffic incident-related factors and real-time traffic flow parameters to predict the residual traffic incident duration. To validate the effectiveness of the framework, traffic incident data and traffic flow data from Shanghai Zhonghuan Expressway are used for modeling training and testing.

Findings

Results show that the model with 30-min time window and taking both traffic volume and speed as inputs performed best. The area under the curve values exceed 0.85 and the prediction accuracies exceed 0.75. These indicators demonstrated that the model is appropriate for this study context. The model provides new insights into traffic incident duration prediction.

Research limitations/implications

The incident samples applied by this study might not be enough and the variables are not abundant. The number of injuries and casualties, more detailed description of the incident location and other variables are expected to be used to characterize the traffic incident comprehensively. The framework needs to be further validated through a sufficiently large number of variables and locations.

Practical implications

The framework can help reduce the impacts of incidents on the safety of efficiency of road traffic once implemented in intelligent transport system and traffic management systems in future practical applications.

Originality/value

This study uses two artificial neural network methods, MLP and LSTM, to establish a framework aiming at providing accurate and time-efficient information on traffic incident duration in the future for transportation operators and travelers. This study will contribute to the deployment of emergency management and urban traffic navigation planning.

Details

Journal of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-9802

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 6000