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Article
Publication date: 12 April 2022

Yingsi Wu, Kai Yang Thum, Hui Ting Yong, Aleksander Gora, Alfred Iing Yoong Tok and Vitali Lipik

Personal thermal management in functional textiles is in increasing demand for health care, outdoor activity and energy saving. Thus, developing new strategies is highly desired…

Abstract

Purpose

Personal thermal management in functional textiles is in increasing demand for health care, outdoor activity and energy saving. Thus, developing new strategies is highly desired for radiative cooling and/or heating by manipulation of the transmissivity, reflectivity and absorptivity of the textiles within solar energy and human body heat radiation ranges.

Design/methodology/approach

Inorganic additives including TiO2, Fe2O3, carbon black (CB), graphene and mica were incorporated into polymer films. The inorganic additives' full spectrum properties and thermal responses were comprehensively investigated.

Findings

The CB composite film showed the highest absorptivity over the full solar to human body radiation spectrum. The mica-white (mica-w) (mica coated with TiO2) and mica-red (mica-r) (mica coated with Fe2O3) composites showed the lowest solar energy absorptivity and a strong body heat radiation reflectivity. Furthermore, according to composites' thermal responses to the simulated solar and human body radiations, CB and mica are promising for both cooling and heating when applied in dual-functional thermal management textiles.

Research limitations/implications

Research has limitation related the amount of additives which can be added to textile. When powder is added to polyester yarn, the amount is limited by 2–3%. When powder is added to the composite which is used for printing, the amount of powder is limited by 5%.

Practical implications

A lot of apparel, especially sport apparel, contains prints. Decoration is one part of print application. Now, a lot of companies work under development of different additives, which provide additional properties to apparel. The closest targets for powder added to prints are cooling and heat retention. Quite often, inorganic additives possess dual properties: the inorganic additives may be heat reflective which his needed for heat retention, but may have high-thermal conductivity, which works well for cooling. Human body has complicated mechanism of heat exchange: convection, radiation and moisture evaporations play main role. The same additive may be cooling if there is a contact with skin but may be heating (IR reflective) if placed in the second or third layer. Thus, effect is needed to be studied first before real application.

Originality/value

This work could provide a comprehensive guideline for the rational design and application of thermal management composite textile materials by revealing the full solar to human body radiation performance of a series of inorganic materials.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Yong Liu, Bing-ting Quan and Hui Li

The purpose of this paper is to construct a novel delay grey incidence analysis model to analyze drivers and obstacles of university R&D performance.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to construct a novel delay grey incidence analysis model to analyze drivers and obstacles of university R&D performance.

Design/methodology/approach

With respect to the fact that university R&D activities typically experience two stages of knowledge creation and technology transfer, and different drivers and obstacles come into play to affect the conversion of R&D investment to outcomes at each stage, based on the thought of grey incidence analysis and the specific characteristics of science and technology (sci-tech) development, a novel delay grey incidence analysis model is proposed in this paper, and then according to the yearbook statistical data, Chinese university R&D activities are investigated and the drivers and obstacles of university R&D performance are analyzed.

Findings

The results show that the R&D full-time staff and R&D funds of basic research are the key drivers of influencing factors, and the sci-tech innovation talents in universities’ R&D institutions and experiment development funds are the restraining factors to improve R&D performance in the stage of knowledge creation; the expenses of R&D achievement application and technology service and the full-time staff of achievement application and technology service are the key drivers and obstacles of influencing the aggregate amount of patent sale respectively.

Practical implications

This research helps policy makers to reflect on their university R&D policies and understand how to enhance the technology transfer rate in China.

Originality/value

The paper succeeds in identifying key drivers and obstacles of affecting university R&D performance in China by examining the input and output incidence at both the knowledge creation and technology transfer stages.

Details

Grey Systems: Theory and Application, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-9377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 June 2024

Joshua Jie Feng Lam, Amanda Yun Yee Ng, Emily Shu Ting Ng, Josephine Wei Ting Ng and Teem-Wing Yip

There are over 300,000 male migrant workers in Singapore. Around 600 major workplace injuries are reported in Singapore each year, mainly in the manufacturing and construction…

Abstract

Purpose

There are over 300,000 male migrant workers in Singapore. Around 600 major workplace injuries are reported in Singapore each year, mainly in the manufacturing and construction injuries. Migrant workers who are affected by workplace injuries often face many challenges, including not being able to work and thus may be repatriated to their home countries, which affects their financial status and that of their families, whom they support. This research aims to explore the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of injured migrant workers in Singapore, towards disability and vocational rehabilitation.

Design/methodology/approach

Fifteen male migrant workers, from Bangladesh, China and India, who had acquired disabling injuries in their workplaces in Singapore, were identified through purposive sampling. They were interviewed by a male interviewer, either in Mandarin Chinese or with the assistance of interpreters for Bengali-English and Tamil-English. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated to English, then analysed thematically.

Findings

The interviewees generally had a pessimistic outlook on their disability, which often impacted negatively on their self-worth and familial relationships. Many of them also had little knowledge of vocational rehabilitation and had not yet seriously considered future job prospects.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no similar studies exploring the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of injured migrant workers in Singapore towards disability and vocational rehabilitation.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Su Juan Zhang, Yong Qiang Chen and Hui Sun

This paper aims to investigate the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI), conflict management styles (CMSs) and innovation performance, and test the mediating effects of…

9794

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI), conflict management styles (CMSs) and innovation performance, and test the mediating effects of various types of CMSs. Innovation is playing a more and more critical role in the survival and development of companies. EI is assumed to be an antecedent of employees’ innovation performance. Conflict is an inevitable phenomenon in organizations, and different CMSs have different impacts on individual performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Research data were obtained from 159 employees in the construction industry in China. SPSS 19.0 was used to test and verify the hypotheses concerning the relationship among EI, CMSs and innovation performance. The authors also conducted a 500-times bootstrapping to verify the mediating roles of different CMSs.

Findings

Results indicate that EI is positively and significantly associated with integrating, compromising and dominating styles, as well as innovation performance in the construction industry. In addition, the integrating style has a significantly positive relationship with innovation performance. This research also confirms the mediating effect of integrating style on the relationship between EI and innovation performance.

Practical implications

The authors recommend that managers, especially in the construction industry, who are willing to maintain high levels of innovation performance of employees can provide EI training programs. In addition, to improve innovation performance, companies should provide employees with appropriate training emphasizing the importance of conflict management strategies, especially the integrating style.

Originality/value

Limited research has focused on the antecedents of conflict management strategies or the relationship between EI and innovation performance. A framework integrating EI, CMSs and innovation performance is put forward and empirical evidence of the relationship between EI and employees’ innovation performance is provided. This research helps to have a better understanding of the relationship between EI and innovation performance by introducing the integrating style as a mediating variable.

Details

International Journal of Conflict Management, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1044-4068

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Pengzhen Lu, Hua Shao and Jian Ting Cheng

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simplified optimization calculation method to assess cable force of self-anchored suspension bridge based on optimization theories.

177

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simplified optimization calculation method to assess cable force of self-anchored suspension bridge based on optimization theories.

Design/methodology/approach

A simplified analysis method construction using Matlab is developed, which is then compared with the optimization method that considers the main cable’s geometric nonlinearity with software ANSYS in an actual bridge calculation.

Findings

This contrast proves the weak coherence and the adjacently interaction theory unreasonable and its limitation.

Originality/value

This paper analyzes the calculation method to assess cable force of a self-anchored suspension bridge and its application effect.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2020

Chee Yin Yip, Abdelhak Senadjki, Hui Nee Au Yong and Azira Abdul Adzis

This paper aims to construct a model procedure to mitigate housing glut by using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The model applied in the Malaysian context analyzes…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to construct a model procedure to mitigate housing glut by using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The model applied in the Malaysian context analyzes the following: information contained in media articles and reports issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on the housing market to extract the true picture of the housing glut issue; the relative impact (effectiveness) of housing affordability, housing prices and economic growth in influencing housing glut, and how it can be overcome so that appropriate preferential policies can be taken to mitigate the problem.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses quarterly data from 2000 to 2017 to conduct economic analysis, economic theory analysis and cointegrating regression, whereas information from media-published housing articles and reports issued by BNM are examined and interpreted to draw the true picture of housing glut.

Findings

The results obtained from quantitative analysis show that housing affordability exerts very mild relative effect (0.0097) negatively on housing glut, whereas economic growth and housing price produce a relatively mild positive impact of (0.020) and (0.022), respectively, conflicting to the common consensus that the two factors have a significant effect on housing glut. Qualitatively, the results of this study show that housing glut seems to be relatively larger for affordable housing, which is contrary to the quantitative results, pointing to the existence of other influencing factors.

Research limitations/implications

There is an imperative need for a third-party survey to gain a comprehensive understanding of the market conditions and buyers’ sentiment and preference.

Originality/value

This study compares both quantitative and qualitative results with expected housing market movements and responses based on conventional wisdom.

Details

International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Xuhong Xu, Tiancheng Hu, Rui Guo, Shang Chen and Lutao Ning

This paper proposes a framework for director evaluation in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), taking into account the influences of traditional and modern…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper proposes a framework for director evaluation in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), taking into account the influences of traditional and modern Chinese ideologies.

Design/methodology/approach

Following the Delphi method, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese SOE directors.

Findings

The framework used has been validated by examining seven dimensions of virtue and four dimensions of competence functions in Chinese SOEs. Effective and representative characteristics of each dimension are identified through interviews.

Originality/value

First, through this research, indicators of virtue have been materialized and those of competence have been specified in a broader range. Second, this research provides advice for training of candidate directors whose experience were in private firms before they step in as SOE directors.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2008

Sheau‐yueh J. Chao

This paper seeks to discuss the genealogical sources for Chinese immigrants as well as the settlement of Chinese in the USA and the historical evolution of Chinese names, their…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to discuss the genealogical sources for Chinese immigrants as well as the settlement of Chinese in the USA and the historical evolution of Chinese names, their origins, arrangement and development. It aims to cover the origins of various classes of Chinese surnames, followed by the content description of a traditional genealogical book for jiapu.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper researches the various ways that a Chinese person can find out about their ancestry.

Findings

The paper reveals the roles of libraries, including serving the needs of patrons interested in genealogical research, preserving and interpreting information through oral and family history projects and collaborating with other libraries through interlibrary loan, document delivery, library consortia, collection management and international resource‐sharing.

Research limitations/implications

The study provides information on where and how to locate the genealogical resources for researching the genealogy of a Chinese family.

Originality/value

The paper analyzes the value of genealogical research as a documentary source for population history, life expectancy in a clan, marriages and family connections, as well as lineage organizations and inter‐lineage relations.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2008

Yujie Wei

This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of…

2403

Abstract

This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of purchase intention. Additionally, it examines consumer preferences for different products and consumption plans for the subsequent five years. The survey sample is drawn from a population of foreign product users from 34 cities in 18 provinces in China. Results provide evidence that brand sensitivity mediates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention; product cues moderate the effect of ethnocentrism on purchase intention. As the first study to link consumer ethnocentrism directly to brand sensitivity and purchase intention, this research provides some managerial implications. Global marketers can offset the negative effect of ethnocentrism by emphasizing brand image of its products, taking advantage of specific product cues, or by providing more comprehensive after‐sale service to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing imports. Also, price is still a hurdle that prevents Chinese consumers from mass consumption of foreign products. Global firms should not overestimate the purchasing power of Chinese consumers. This study represents a “snapshot” of Chinese consumers’ decision making at a time when their economic system is undergoing rapid change.

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1999

Zhang Weidong

Suggests that misunderstandings frequently occur when trying to understand Chinese language and culture, and so gives the implied meaning of various Chinese expressions and…

833

Abstract

Suggests that misunderstandings frequently occur when trying to understand Chinese language and culture, and so gives the implied meaning of various Chinese expressions and sayings such as greetings, thanks, respect, age, congratulations and taboo subjects.

Details

Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7606

Keywords

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