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The purpose of this paper is to systematically investigate the dynamic strain aging (DSA) effect in solid solution treated IN718 at different temperatures through experiments and simulations to gain an understanding of the inelastic deformation mechanisms.

In the present work, uniaxial tensile tests have been carried out in conjunction with finite element (FE) simulations to investigate the behaviour of the solid solution treated Inconel 718 superalloy at different temperatures and strain rates. Dynamic strain aging (DSA) effects, which manifested during the tests in the form of a negative strain rate sensitivity and stress serrations, are investigated. The most significant DSA effect occurs at 500°C and at a strain rate of 10–4 s-1. In a newly proposed rate-dependent constitutive formulation, the DSA model, proposed by McCormick, Kubin and Estrin, was introduced into slip-assisted solute hardening, and an activation energy-dependent exponential flow rule was adopted.

The observed negative strain rate sensitivity and stress serrations are well predicted by a 3 D FE. The FE results indicate that the equivalent plastic strain rate distribution in the specimen gauge length is as highly inhomogeneous as in the other materials exhibiting DSA effects such as aluminium and titanium alloy. During inelastic deformation, propagating high strain rate bands can be closely correlated to the stress serrations.

For the DSA effect in solid solution treated IN718, the existing researching mainly focuses on the mechanical properties experiment and microstructure observation. In this study, a constitutive formulation, combined with the DSA model, has been proposed, and the mechanical behaviors, including the DSA effect, have been well predicted by a finite element model.

The brake controller is a key component of the locomotive brake system. It is essential to study its safety.

This paper summarizes and analyzes typical faults of the brake controller, and proposes four categories of faults: position sensor faults, microswitch faults, mechanical faults and communication faults. Suggestions and methods for improving the safety of the brake controller are also presented.

In this paper, a self-judgment and self-learning dynamic calibration method is proposed, which integrates the linear error of the sensor and the manufacturing and assembly errors of the brake controller to solve the output drift. This paper also proposes a logic for diagnosing and handling microswitch faults. Suggestions are proposed for other faults of brake controller.

The methods proposed in this paper can greatly improve the usability of the brake controller and reduce the failure rate.

The persistent growth of ‘nativists’ in Hong Kong not only highlighted people's consideration over mainlandization, it also stimulates Beijing's nerve on national security. This paper adopts a critical perspective to explore the development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ that emerged in 2015. It will show the development of ‘Hong Kong nationalism’ is a phenomenon compounded by the creation of critical academics, government exaggeration, and pro-Beijing media labeling. In fact, this phenomenon leads to the suppression of political space for critical opposition.

The interaction between Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, central government, critical academics, and pro-Beijing media will be used to adopt a conceptual framework to show how their interrelationship would derive tremendous impacts to the development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism.’ It will further investigate some implications for the further political development in Hong Kong.

The development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ illustrates the triangular relations between critical academic, HKSAR and the Beijing government, and pro-Beijing media. The critical academics create and imagine such ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ with Hong Kong's political destiny that stimulates the nerve of Beijing and HKSAR on territorial integrity. The ‘imagined nationalism’ advocated by critical and opposition academics and advanced by the activists not only opened the Pandora's box that derives a Trojan horse scenario for the development of pan-democratic camp which affects the democracy movement tremendously.

This paper is the first academic paper to explore ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ through analyzing the discourse advocated by critical academics. This paper can also fill in the gap from existing literature about social movement in Hong Kong as most of them ignored the influence of radical nativist movement.

This paper intends to explore the localist perspectives concerning Hong Kong’s political development. The persistent growth of localists in the polity of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has not only challenged the current political order but also aroused Beijing’s national security considerations. The oath-taking controversies of 2016 demonstrated the strife that now exists between Beijing and the localists in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the localists’ perceptions of the political decay, legitimacy crisis and reverse democratization in HKSAR to illuminate further their perceptions of Hong Kong’s political development.

This paper uses the theoretical discussion of the relations between political decay, legitimacy, the legitimacy crisis and reverse democratization as the key analytical framework to understand the localists’ perspective concerning Hong Kong’s political development. Based on an analysis of the localists’ discourse, the implication for the HKSAR regime’s legitimacy and for reverse democratization will be discussed.

The emergence of the new localists leads to the belief that Hong Kong’s political development is experiencing the reverse of democratization as the government cannot fully absorb the demands made by the general public. The reverse democratization is directly impacting the regime’s legitimacy, but in the HKSAR’s case, the new localists see the root of the problem as stemming from Beijing, that is that the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy problem is due to its underdevelopment in the legal, political and cultural spheres. This underdevelopment has weakened the legitimacy of the HKSAR’s administration, especially with regard to political reform, the legal interpretation of the Basic Law, and the influx of immigrants and tourists from the Mainland into the Hong Kong’s society. The China factor, from the Localists’ viewpoint, is at the root of the political decay and the legitimacy crisis in Hong Kong. More significantly, the localists regard the involvement of Beijing in Hong Kong’s affairs as its way to disrupt the autonomous status of the HKSAR. As a result, public discontent has further intensified and created the legitimacy crisis for the HKSAR Government.

This paper is the first academic paper to provide a critical analysis of Hong Kong’s localists’ views regarding Hong Kong’s political development since becoming the HKSAR. In contrast with the existing literature about Hong Kong’s democratization and political development, this paper introduces localists’ views and advocates the idea of “reverse democratization” to explain their perceptions concerning Hong Kong’s political development.

The case, “Shivani Carriers Pvt. Ltd.: Managing Employee Motivation at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, has been designed to teach students about the basic principles of employee motivation. The case is also a representative example of the problems faced by small and medium-sized businesses in employee acquisition, motivation, and retention, especially at junior levels i.e. entry-level operational and front-line roles. The case documents the history and evolution of the driver management system (DMS) instituted by Vandana and Hemant Laddha at Shivani Carriers Pvt. Ltd. (SCPL). It looks at the constraints faced by the company and the challenges that emerged during the implementation of the new system. After initial success, Vandana Laddha faced a dilemma around the future direction of the DMS. The original incentive scheme had been a success: driver productivity and motivation had improved significantly. Given that the scheme had achieved its desired objectives, the firm had decided to modify it to further improve efficiency. However, employee discontent was brewing since the scheme had been modified. Vandana Laddha had to decide if she should she bring back the original incentive management scheme to quell employee discontent or should she introduce alternate initiatives to manage driver motivation? If she chose to introduce new initiatives, what could these be? What mechanisms would she need to put in place to support the new initiatives? What about the complaints of the drivers? What should she do to address the complaints of the drivers? The case provides students with an opportunity to understand the principles of employee motivation with the help of extant and contemporary research on motivation. It also sheds light on the link between initiatives aimed at increasing motivation and other managerial activities and mechanisms. Importantly, it helps students arrive at an integrated framework that links various aspects of employee motivation such as needs, cognitions, work design factors, organizational support and actions, organizational culture and industry context.

There are many entrepreneurial communities in the Asian subcontinent, which are known for their economic resilience and religious orientation but have received limited attention in extant literature. These communities include Memon, Delhiwala, Chinioti, Ismaili and Bohri, which have been persistent in keeping their members economically stable, as many centuries, while also retaining their religio-sociocultural identity. This paper aims to add to the body of literature by documenting the possible factors, which contribute toward advancing socio-economic justice for the members of respective communities.

This study uses Eisenhardth research strategy within a social constructivist paradigm to process data from in-depth interviews, memos and documentary sources to explore the internal dynamics of three most prominent of these communities (Memon, Delhiwala and Chinioti) in Pakistan.

The findings reveal that the secret to their resilience is, perhaps, rooted in their religio-sociocultural communal norms, which may not just ensure effective wealth redistribution among the deserving segments of the society but may also enable its deserving members to achieve self-reliance through community-supported–entrepreneurial–activity. This study proposes that a culture of community-based–family–entrepreneurship coupled with the spirit of cooperation, sacrifice and reciprocity may eliminate the possibility of socioeconomic injustice.

The religious entrepreneurial communities may be seen as an alternate to free-market or state-driven methods to impart socioeconomic justice where needed. The voluntary inclination of entrepreneurs in such communities to facilitate those in need may, perhaps, reduce or even eliminate the need to involve state intervention to redistribute wealth through taxation, which may also eliminate the cost of the state bureaucracy, which is used for the collection and redistribution of taxes.

The findings add to the body of literature which could help similar communities to improve their socioeconomic stability in a just manner for all its members. Policymakers can also take notice of the religio-sociocultural norms at the source of socioeconomic justice within the respective communities to formulate policies conducive to sustaining such norms where necessary.

COVID-19 hits every country’s health-care system and economy. There is a trend toward using automation technology in response to the COVID-19 crisis not only in developed countries but also in those with lower levels of technology development. However, current studies mainly focus on the world level, and only a few ones report deployments at the country level. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of automation solutions in Vietnam with locally available materials mainly in the first wave from January to July 2020.

The authors collected COVID-related automation solutions during the first wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam from January to July 2020 through a search process. The analysis and insights of a panel consisting of various disciplines (i.e. academia, health care, government, entrepreneur and media) aim at providing a clear picture of how and to what extent these solutions have been deployed.

The authors found seven groups of solutions from low to high research and development (R&D) levels deployed across the country with various funding sources. Low R&D solutions were widely spread owing to simplicity and affordability. High R&D solutions were mainly deployed in big cities. Most of the solutions were deployed during the first phases when international supply chains were limited with a significant contribution of the media. Higher R&D solutions have opportunities to be deployed in the reopening phase. However, challenges can be listed as limited interdisciplinary research teams, market demand, the local supporting industry, end-user validation and social-ethical issues.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the use of automation technology in response to COVID-19 in Vietnam and also in a country in Southeast Asia. Lessons learned from these current deployments are useful for future emerging infectious diseases. The reality of Vietnam’s automation solutions in response to COVID-19 might be a reference for other developing countries with similar social-economic circumstances and contributes to the global picture of how different countries adopt technology to combat COVID-19.

This section of the book comprises three chapters written by Oksana Grybovych, Susan Slocum, Ken Backman, Elisabeth Baldwin and Chris Ryan. The first two by Grybovych (2012) and Slocum, Backman, and Baldwin (2012) respectively report research processes related to specific projects, while the last seeks to provide an analysis associated with cross-case study research. By definition cross-case analysis relates to comparisons being made across different places, or of the same place across different times (a longitudinal analysis such as that by Gu & Ryan, 2008, 2011, in their studies of Shi Chi Hai Hutong in Beijing) or indeed of different places at different times, but related to each other by the commonality of a theme identified by the researcher.

Little is known about how religious-related beliefs (i.e. karmic beliefs and beliefs in a just world) might affect consumers to engage in more environmentally friendly behavior. Drawing on the justice motive theory, this study aims to explore the individual, complementary, congruent and incongruent impacts of karmic beliefs and belief in a just world on consumers’ proenvironmental consumption.

A sample of 736 consumers was recruited by means of a mall-intercept survey in the most populus cities in Vietnam. An advanced technique – polynomial regression with response surface analysis – was used to test the hypothesized model, whereas the PROCESS macro approach was used to estimate indirect effects.

The findings indicate that while karmic beliefs do not directly affect proenvironmental consumption, they can inspire environmentally friendly behaviors through belief in a just world. High levels of both beliefs enhance proenvironmental consumption, but imbalanced levels erode such behaviors. Importantly, the findings revealed gender differences concerning the role of religious beliefs in influencing proenvironmental consumption among male and female consumers.

The findings of this study offered several theoretical and managerial implications for proenvironmental consumption.

The research provides new insights into how religious beliefs (karmic beliefs and belief in a just world) affect, interact, balance and imbalance with each other to trigger proenvironmental consumption. The research also contributes to the sustainable consumption literature by indicating the mediation roles of belief in a just world and proenvironmental consumption intention in the relationship between beliefs in karma and actual proenvironmental consumption behavior, as well as offering empirical evidence about the gender differences regarding these relationships.