Search results

The paper seeks to bridge the already familiar benefits of 3D printing (3DP) to the rehabilitation of cultural heritage, still based on the use of complex and expensive handcrafted techniques and scarce materials.

A compilation of different information on frequent anomalies in cultural heritage buildings and commonly used materials is conducted; subsequently, some innovative techniques used in the construction sector (3DP and 3D scanning) are addressed, as well as some case studies related to the rehabilitation of cultural heritage building elements, leading to a reflection on the opportunities and challenges of this application within these types of buildings.

The compilation of information summarised in the paper provided a clear reflection on the great potential of 3DP for cultural heritage rehabilitation, requiring the development of new mixtures (lime mortars, for example) compatible with the existing surface and, eventually, incorporating some residues that may improve interesting properties; the design of different extruders, compatible with the new mixtures developed and the articulation of 3D printers with the available mapping tools (photogrammetry and laser scanning) to reproduce the component as accurately as possible.

This paper sets the path for a new application of 3DP in construction, namely in the field of cultural heritage rehabilitation, by identifying some key opportunities, challenges and for designing the process flow associated with the different technologies involved.

In the big data era, image compression is of significant importance in today’s world. Importantly, compression of large sized images is required for everyday tasks; including electronic data communications and internet transactions. However, two important measures should be considered for any compression algorithm: the compression factor and the quality of the decompressed image. In this paper, we use Frei-Chen bases technique and the Modified Run Length Encoding (RLE) to compress images. The Frei-Chen bases technique is applied at the first stage in which the average subspace is applied to each 3 × 3 block. Those blocks with the highest energy are replaced by a single value that represents the average value of the pixels in the corresponding block. Even though Frei-Chen bases technique provides lossy compression, it maintains the main characteristics of the image. Additionally, the Frei-Chen bases technique enhances the compression factor, making it advantageous to use. In the second stage, RLE is applied to further increase the compression factor. The goal of using RLE is to enhance the compression factor without adding any distortion to the resultant decompressed image. Integrating RLE with Frei-Chen bases technique, as described in the proposed algorithm, ensures high quality decompressed images and high compression rate. The results of the proposed algorithms are shown to be comparable in quality and performance with other existing methods.

The current research takes a closer look at the investment intention of Generation Z and its relation to investing in a speculative market. The study applies the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand the dominant factors leading to Generation Z investment decisions in speculative markets. The main objective is to identify whether these decisions are learnt decisions or herd behaviours.

Structural equation modelling is used to evaluate the research model, and examine the mediation effect of financial literacy using bootstrapping in AMOS software. Information was gathered from 271 students studying at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. The questionnaire used for the survey was adapted from previous related studies examining the TPB.

The findings show financial literacy and behavioural outcome (attitude) are key components associated with investment intention. Motivation to comply (subjective norm) affects the intention to invest if mediated by financial literacy. The subjective norm has no bearing on the intention to invest in a speculative market. This implies social peers have no bearing on their intention to invest unless mediated by financial literacy.

The main limitation of the study is that the group from which the sample is drawn consists of all students at a state-funded university who receive stipends. This limits the applicability of related findings. Furthermore, the variables have dynamic properties, which implies their impacts may vary over time.

Generation Z comprises a large number of small investors who can make a significant difference to the overall economic trends of the country. The digital world, which is time- and space-infinite, is shaping the next generation. It is only possible to reach and sway their opinions by conducting extensive behavioural science research.

Academic institutions ought to be viewed as a resource for conducting additional in-depth research on a variety of subjects to assist and shape the current generation for a better future.

Although the TPB has been used by many researchers to explore the behavioural intention of Generation Z, very few have used financial literacy as a perceived behaviour control to study its direct and indirect effects on behaviour intention.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is significant in the financial market. Despite plenty of existing research on CSR, few studies have quantified the fine-grained aspects of CSR and examined how diverse CSR aspects are associated with firms' trade credit. Based on the released CSR reports, this paper strives to measure the CSR fulfillment of firms and examine the relationships between CSR and trade credit in terms of textual features presented in these reports.

This research proposes a natural language processing-based framework to extract the overall readability and the sentiment of fine-grained aspects from CSR reports, which can signal the performance of firms' CSR in diverse aspects. Furthermore, this paper explores how the textual features are associated with trade credit through partial dependence plots (PDPs), and PDPs can generate both linear and nonlinear relationships.

The study’s results reveal that the overall readability of the reports is positively associated with trade credit, while the performance of the fine-grained CSR aspects mentioned in the CSR reports matters differently. The performance of the environment has a positive impact on trade credit; the performance of creditors, suppliers and information disclosure, shows a U-shaped influence on trade credit; while the performance of the government and customers is negatively associated with trade credit.

This study expands the scope of research on CSR and trade credit by investigating fine-grained aspects covered in CSR reports. It also offers some managerial implications in the allocation of CSR resources and the presentation of CSR reports.

In this chapter, rephrasing Spivak's question into ‘can subaltern children speak?’, I reorient the research on China's gigantic population of children and youths in rural migrant families towards a critical interpretative approach. Based on life history and longitudinal ethnographic interview gathered with three cases, I unpack the multiple meanings migrants' children attach to mobility in their childhood experiences. First, despite emotional difficulties, children see their parents' out-migration more as a ‘mobility imperative’ than their abandonment of parental responsibilities, which should be contextualized in China's long-term urban-biased social policies and the resultant development gaps in rural and urban societies. Second, the seemingly ‘unstable’ and ‘flexible’ mobility patterns observed in migrant families should be understood in relation to a long-term family social mobility strategy to promote children's educational achievement and future attainment. The combination of absent class politics in an illiberal society with an enduring ideology of education-based meritocracy in Confucianism makes this strategy a culturally legitimate channel of social struggle for recognition and respect for the subaltern. Last, children in migrant families are active contributors to their families' everyday organization amidst mobilities through sharing care and household responsibilities, and developing temporal and mobility strategies to keep alive intergenerational exchanges and family togetherness. The study uncovers coexisting resilience and vulnerabilities of migrants' children in their ‘doing class’ in contemporary China. It also contributes insights into our understanding of the diversity of childhoods in Asian societies at the intersection of familyhood, class dynamics and cultural politics.

This paper aims that mobile health (mHealth) applications have emerged as a key tool to support public health. However, there are only a few studies examining the influences of health-related ascribes on continuance intention to use mHealth apps and how these influences are contingent on gender in the mHealth app using context.

This study takes the protection motivation theory as a theoretical framework to examine the ordered relationship between threat and coping appraisals and their impacts on continuance intention to use mHealth apps. In addition, this study further extends the literature on gender differences into the mHealth app's context to investigate the moderating role of gender. The suggested hypotheses are confirmed by a structural equation modeling approach and multigroup investigation employing survey data of 345 users of Spring Rain Doctor in China, a typical mHealth app.

The findings suggest that the impact of perceived disease threat on user's continuance intention is mediated entirely by coping appraisals. Furthermore, the three coping appraisals' impacts are contingent upon gender. Specifically, response efficacy is more crucial for male users in forecasting continuance intention, whereas self-efficacy and response cost have a more salient influence on continuance intention for female users.

This study examines the ordered influences of threat and coping appraisal, moderated by gender, on continuance intention on use mHealth apps. These findings could contribute to relevant theoretical and practical implications.

This paper aims to study the reliability of the high-speed train operation control system in the Chinese Train Control System Level 3 (CTCS-3) operating mode.

Dynamic fault tree and Bayesian network method are adopted to analyze the reliability and weakness of the CTCS-3 system.

First, a physical architecture and data flow diagram of the CTCS-3 system are established according to the typical structure and functions of the CTCS-3 system. Second, the dynamic fault tree of the CTCS-3 system is constructed. Considering the prior probability of the bottom event and the existence of dynamic redundancy, the dynamic fault tree is transformed into a Bayesian net. The reliability of the CTCS-3 system is carried out based on the prior probability and the weakness that affects the reliability of the system based on the posterior probability is also analyzed by the Bayesian network. Finally, it is disclosed that the impact of the on-board subsystem on the reliability of the CTCS-3 system is generally greater than that of the ground subsystem. The two weakest modules in the onboard subsystem are the driver-machine interface (DMI) and balise transmission module (BTM) and the weakest one in the ground subsystem is Balise. The analysis results are generally consistent with the malfunctions in the field operation of China’s high-speed railway.

(1) By reasoning, the reliability of the train operation control system in the CTCS-3 operating mode meets the standard requirements.

(2) Through backward reasoning, it is found that the failure of the onboard subsystem leads to a greater probability of failure of the train control system.

(3) The DMI, BTM and automatic train protection computer unit modules are weak components in the onboard subsystem. Vital digit input&output, train interface unit and train security gateway are rarely involved in previous research, the result in this paper shows that these three modules are also weak components in the subsystem, which requires attention.