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This paper aims to make clear the sensitive zone of subsea pipeline to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) under a disbonded coating.

The change of microenvironment under a disbonded coating in artificial seawater was analyzed by using a rectangular crevice cell. The SCC behavior of subsea pipeline was studied by slow strain rate tensile tests.

The microenvironment at the crevice bottom exhibits obvious acidification, Cl- aggregation and cathodic protection potential (CP) rise. Accordingly, the susceptibility of X70 steels to SCC is high due to the intensive anodic dissolution effect. At the opening, hydrogen atom can access into the steel and induce hydrogen embrittlement effect on account of the applied over-protected CP potential, resulting in a relatively high susceptibility to SCC. The corrosiveness of the microenvironment at crevice middle, however, is mild with proper CP potential; thus, the susceptibility of X70 steel to SCC here is lower than that obtained at the opening and the crevice bottom.

A rectangular crevice cell is built to survey the microenvironment evolution under a disbonded coating in situ. The sensitive zone of subsea pipeline to SCC under a disbonded coating is clarified.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of underwear on the microenvironment of human clothing.

Based on the basic laws of energy and mass conservation, the paper combined the theory of heat and mass transfer to establish the simulation of the influence of underwear on human thermal reaction in microclimate and prediction model of human thermal reaction law.

The impact on the microenvironment affected by tighter underwear is less than the effect of loose underwear and computational flow dynamics (CFD) can accurately predict the thermal reaction parameters’ values of the human body.

It can be effectively used for the prediction of heat exchange between human body and environment in high-temperature environment and human thermophysiological parameters, and overcomes the individual differences of human experiments and the danger and repeatability of high-temperature environmental experiments.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate combined exposure factor (CEF) due to impact of different transport-related environmental pollutants, air quality and noise level in Delhi city.

The Estimation of CEF takes into account the potential relative uptake of each pollutant (CO, NO, NO₂, O₃, SO₂, PM10 and PM_2.5) by the boarding and alighting of commuters at Public Transport facility and using motorcycle. With the help of CRRI mobile air pollution monitoring laboratory and previous CRRI reports.

Combined exposure to environmental pollutants is determined based on the taking weighting factor of pollutant stressor. Results shows average stressor for CO, NO, NO₂, SO₂, PM_2.5 and noise were 2.79 mg/m3, 331.83, 210.25, 16.70, 241.3883 µg/m3, and 72.5 dB(A), respectively. Similarly for motorcyclist, results shows average stressor for CO, NO, NO₂, SO₂, PM_2.5 and noise were 5.1 mg/m3, 483, 398, 19.3, 295 µg/m3, and 82.7 dB(A), respectively. The results show higher exposure value for motorcyclist.

Knowledge of exposure factor due to air and noise pollutant for bus commuter in sitting and standing and motorcyclist is not known for Delhi city.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of air and vapor permeability of jacket materials on ventilation, heat and moisture transfer.

Clothing ventilation (V), thermal insulation (I) and vapor resistance (R _e ) of three jackets made of different materials (normal textile, PVC and “breathable” membrane coated textile), worn on an articulated thermal manikin in a controlled climate chamber, were measured under various conditions, respectively. The various conditions of microenvironment ventilation were created by making the manikin stand and walk, combined with three wind speeds of <0.2, 0.4 and 2.0 m/s, respectively.

In the condition without any forced convection, the air permeability makes no big difference to dry and evaporative heat transfer among the jackets, while the vapor permeability plays a big role in the evaporative heat loss. In the condition with forced convection, the dry heat diffusion is strongly coupled to the evaporative heat transfer in air and vapor permeable textile material.

The effects of ventilation on heat and moisture transfer varies because of different ways of ventilation arising: penetration through the fabric is proven to be the most effective way in vapor transfer although it does not seem as helpful for dry heat diffusion.

The achievements in this paper deepens the understanding of the process of the dry and evaporative heat transfer through clothing, provides clothing designer guidance to choose proper materials for a garment, especially work clothing.

The purpose of this study is to refine and expand an emerging US government communication model, the government communication decision wheel, by testing the differences between the communication practices of US public sector communicators working for non‐elected officials versus those employed by elected officials.

Drawing from surveys of 781 US government communicators, the study compares the communication practices and influences of government communicators working for elected officials versus non‐elected officials.

The study identifies four significant differences and five similarities in how the public sector environment affects non‐elected and elected officials’ communicators’ public relations practices.

While the study and underlying model focus on US government communication, this study provides valuable theoretical insights. It supports the model's underlying premise that the public sector is unique from the private sector while also further refining the significant differences within the US government sector.

This study helps US government communicators identify unique environmental attributes that affect communication activities in the public sector. It helps identify how these attributes affect communication practices within individual and collaborative contexts. Finally, it helps non‐governmental communicators and communicators outside of the US to understand how the attributes may affect communication practices when they collaborate with government communicators from the four levels of US government as well as with those who work for elected and non‐elected officials.

Despite the critical importance of communication in the public sector, very little research focuses specifically on government communication outside of political communication. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners and contribute to public relations theory development for the under‐researched public sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine how corporate communication of their social programs on their websites affects the ratings of those programs by independent rating agencies. Firms expend resources on corporate social programs (CSPs) to promote their corporate social responsibility and sustainability credentials. Stakeholders, however, often respond to such “self-promotion” with skepticism because they believe that there are inconsistencies between corporate claims and actions. This research draws on attribution theory as a framework to examine how the perceived CSP performance of firms by uncontrollable sources are affected when firms disseminate CSP information on firm websites, i.e. a controllable source, where their claims may not be verifiable.

This study uses a two-step, mixed method study for the analysis using data from Fortune 500 companies. A qualitative content analysis process identifies the interfaces of CSP and their communications on firms’ website. The process allows the authors to collect CSP data systematically from firm websites and to identify relevant variables through the patterns that emerge from the analysis. The findings are used in a quantitative analysis to study how the patterns underlying CSP communication on their websites affect the ratings of firms’ CSP by independent rating agencies.

Results show that the location, the manner, the content and the scope of CSP information dissemination on firm websites, as well as perceived commitment to CSP identified on the website are important drivers of perceived CSP performance. A robustness check using an alternative independent rating of CSP also provides results that are supportive of the findings. In addition, the effects are found to differ by sector of operation, firm age and profitability.

This research suggests that communication of CSPs at controllable sources of firm information dissemination can have a significant effect on the evaluation of CSP at uncontrollable sources when such communication facilitates the assessment of other information from a firm to determine the motive underlying a firm’s CSP.

The findings show that firms and managers can influence the perceived ratings, rankings or scores of their CSP by stakeholders when they put the right information at the right place on their corporate websites. One of the findings shows that even moderate levels of CSP commitment demonstrated on firm websites result in positive perceptions of CSP, which has marked practical implications.

The findings show that integrating even a medium level of commitment to CSP increases the positive perceptions of a firm’s CSP. Thus, society benefits from the firm’s action without a substantial impact on the firm’s profits.

This research shows that firm-controlled sources of CSP information dissemination to stakeholders can affect uncontrollable sources of CSP information evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to prepare carboxylated attapulgite (APT-COOH) and then be used as one of the ligands to prepare metal organic framework (MOF) hybrid materials to reduce the cost of MOF materials and improve the dispersed condition of APT. And then the materials were used to enrich anionic dye Congo red from aqueous solution.

The MOF hybrid materials were designed by means of facile reflux method rather than hydrothermal method, characterized by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer and pore structure. The dispersed degree of APT-COOH in the MOF materials was validated according to adsorption efficiency for Congo red.

Due to introduction of APT-COOH, the microenvironment of the MOF materials changed, leading to different adsorption behaviors. Compared to the MOF material without APT-COOH, the adsorption capacities of the hybridized MOF materials with different amounts of APT-COOH introduced increased by 4.58% and 15.55%, respectively, as the initial concentration of Congo red solution of 300 mg/L. Meantime, hybridized MOF materials were suitable to remove Congo red with low concentration, while the MOF material without APT-COOH was appropriate to enrich Congo red with high concentration.

The microstructure of MOF hybrid materials in detail is the further and future investigation.

This study will provide a method to reduce the cost of MOF materials and a theoretical support to treat anionic dyes from aqueous solution.

APT-COOH was prepared and used as one of the ligands to synthesize MOF material to improve the dispersed degree of APT-COOH and reduce the cost of the MOF materials. The adsorption efficiency was greatly enhanced with low concentration of Congo red solution, and the results indicated that hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interaction, and p-p conjugation were involved in the adsorption process. The prepared MOFs materials exhibited excellent adsorption efficiency, which made the present materials highly promising and potentially useful in practical application as adsorbents to enrich anionic dyes such as Congo red from aqueous solution.

More than three decades support the research on the family business. The progress achieved, beyond the disagreements, is considerable. However, significant changes in the macro and microenvironment, and their influence on the companies lead to rethinking new perspectives. This new research agenda is multidimensional to achieve a deeper understanding of the essence of the family business. The objective is to find axes that allow hold up the family business to overcome new challenges. Renowned authors from all over the world have reflected on this and offered us new and high-quality perspectives to enrich debate and promote research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.

This article is a commentary on the structure, context and unsettling circumstances of prejudice, discrimination, racial violence and injustice in the contemporary US.

Using the narrating voices of victims of authority violence in part, the author presents a sociological analysis of the patterns of racial injustice, borders and racialized police violence. The author uses tenets of C.W. Mill's Sociological Imagination to dissect these patterns historically and social structurally.

Using contemplative narrative, the author stimulates reflection on the social structural forces that perpetuate racial injustice. The author deliberates on the role and responsibilities of universities and the broader community in the struggle for a just society. Echoing societal calls to tackle and eliminate systemic subjugation, the author reiterates the need for reformist advocacy, for civility and the preservation of the human rights of all citizens.

The author offers principles of reflective action to chart a pathway for a just and equitable society; ultimately shaping a mature system of democracy and collective liberation.