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The Internet of Things (IoT), as one of the new digital technologies, has created wide applications in various industries, and one of the most influential industries of this technology is the transportation industry. By integrating the IoT with the transportation industry, there will be dramatic changes in the industry, and it will provide many entrepreneurial opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new businesses. Opportunity identification is at the heart of the entrepreneurial process, and entrepreneurs identify innovative goods or services to enter a new market by identifying, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities. Despite the desire of transportation managers to invest in the IoT and the increase in research in this area, limited research has focused on IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the transportation industry. Therefore, the present study aims to identify IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the transportation industry and examine their importance.

To achieve the research objective, the authors applied a mixed approach. First, adapting the lens of the industry value chain theory, a comprehensive literature review, besides a qualitative approach including semi-structured interviews with experts and thematic analysis, was conducted to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities. The identified opportunities were confirmed in the second stage using a quantitative survey method, including the Student t-test and factor analysis. Finally, the identified opportunities were weighted and ranked using the best worst method (BWM).

Entrepreneurial opportunities are classified into five main categories, including “smart vehicles”, “business partners/smart transportation supply side”, “supporting services”, “infrastructures”, and “smart transport management and control”. The infrastructures group of opportunities ranked the highest amongst the identified groups.

This study adds to the digital entrepreneurship opportunity recognition literature by addressing opportunities in a smart industry propelled by digital technologies, including developing new products or new applications of the available technologies. Additionally, inspired by the industry value chain theory, this article develops a framework including various digital entrepreneurial opportunity networks which are necessary to add value to any industry and, thus, could be applied by entrepreneurs to recognize opportunities for new intermediaries to enter other digital-based industries. Finally, the present study identifies the IoT-based entrepreneurial opportunities in the smart transportation industry and prioritizes them, providing practical insights regarding the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in the field of smart transportation for entrepreneurs and policymakers.

This study aims to comprehend the application of analytics in the supply chain during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and identify the emerging themes.

The author downloaded a list of research articles on the application of analytics to the supply chain from SCOPUS, conducted a systematic literature review for exploratory analysis and proposed a framework. Notably, the author used the topic modeling technique to identify research themes published during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and thereby underscore some future research directions.

The author found that artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of thing and blockchain are trending topics. Additionally, the author identified five themes by topic modeling, including the theme “Social Media information in Supply chain.”

The results were derived from a data set extracted from SCOPUS. Thus, the author excluded all studies not listed in SCOPUS from the analysis. Future research with articles indexed in other databases should be investigated to get a more holistic perspective of specific themes.

This study provides a deeper understanding and proposes a framework for applications of analytics in the supply chain that researchers could use for future research and industry practitioners to implement in their organizations to make a more sustainable and resilient supply chain.

This study provides exploratory information from published articles on the use of analytics in the supply chain during the COVID-19 crisis and generates themes that help understand the emerging and underpinned area of research.

This paper aims to study the effect of the flavonoid fraction of chayote (Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw) leaves (FFCL) on uric acid (UA) levels, oxidative stress and inflammatory markers in hyperuricemia rats.

In total, 30 Sprague–Dawley rats were divided randomly into 5 groups. A healthy control group was established. Hyperuricemia was induced by the administration of block broth and potassium oxonate for three weeks. FFCL at dosages of 50 and 100 mg/200 g BW/d or allopurinol at a dosage of 1.8 mg/200 g BW/d was given orally for 2 weeks. Statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate differences among groups before and after the intervention.

Treatment with two different doses FFCL (50 and 100 mg/200 g BW/d) and one dose of allopurinol (1.8 mg/200 g BW/d) for 2 weeks significantly reduced UA from 8.04 ± 0.23 to 3.88 ± 0.10; 8.03 ± 0.18 to 2.87 ± 0.10; 8.23 ± 0.21 to 2.53 ± 0.19 (p < 0.05), respectively. The oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde levels were reduced (p = 0.001) from 9.68 ± 0.28 to 4.06 ± 0.58; 10.01 ± 0.23 to 2.12 ± 0.09; 9.88 ± 0.21 to 2.02 ± 0.17 (p = 0.001). The inflammatory marker tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels were also reduced from 26.43 ± 0.87 to 12.20 ± 0.32; 27.38 ± 0.53 to 9.60 ± 0.53; 27.55 ± 0.68 to 8.83 ± 0.21 with p = 0.001. The 100 mg/200 g BW/d FFCL decreased UA levels, oxidative stress and inflammatory markers more extensively compared to 50 mg/200 g BW/d FFCL.

This study includes some limitations that may affect the generalizability of its findings. First, the flavonoid levels of FFCL were not measured. Second, other oxidative stress biomarkers (e.g. superoxide dismutase) and inflammatory biomarkers (e.g. IL-6) were not investigated. Finally, the experiments were conducted on the model animals over a relatively short period of time. Further research is needed to evaluate the effect in humans at chronic use.

Chayote (Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw) leaves are rich in flavonoids, especially apigenin and luteolin, which can improve oxidative stress and inflammation conditions caused by hyperuricemia.

Hyperuricemia is a risk factor for non-communicable diseases, mostly caused by oxidative stress and inflammation in the body due to high levels of UA, one of the treatment strategies is through diet modification.

The results of this investigation imply that the administration of the flavonoid fraction of chayote leaves has significant effects on UA and oxidative stress and inflammatory markers. Further research is necessary to confirm the results.

To understand the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams confined by corroded stirrups, low-reversed cyclic loading tests were carried out on seven RC beam specimens with different stirrup corrosion levels and stirrup ratios to investigate their mechanical characteristics.

The failure mode, hysteresis behavior, skeleton curves, ductility, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation behavior of RC specimens are compared and discussed. The experimental results showed that the restraint of concrete provided by corroded stirrups is reduced, which leads to a decline in seismic performance.

For the specimens with the same ratios of stirrup, as the corrosion level increased, the load-carrying capacity, stiffness, plastic deformation capacity and energy-dissipation capacity dropped significantly. Compared with the uncorroded specimen, the failure modes of specimens with high corrosion level changed from ductile bending failure to brittle failure. For the specimens with the same levels of corrosion, the higher the stirrup ratio was, the stronger the restraint effect of the stirrups on the concrete, and the seismic behavior of the specimens was obviously improved.

In this paper, a total of seven full-size RC beam specimens at joints with different stirrup corrosion levels and stirrup ratios were designed and constructed to explore the influences of corrosion levels and stirrup ratios of stirrups on the seismic performances. The failure modes, strain of reinforcement, hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, stiffness degradation and ductility factor of RC specimens are compared and discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical background of genealogical records and analyze the value of Chinese genealogical research through the study of names and genealogical resources.

The paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records, with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names used by the people living in Guilin. The highlight of this paper includes the analysis and evolution of the Islamic Chinese names commonly adopted by the local people in Guilin. It concludes with the recommendations on emphasizing and making the best use of genealogical records to enhance the research value of Chinese overseas studies.

The paper covers the history of Islam and describes how the religion was introduced into China, as well as Muslims' ethnicity and identity. It also places focus on the importance of building a research collection in Asian history and Chinese genealogy.

This research study has a strong subject focus on Chinese genealogy, Asian history, and Islamic Chinese surnames. It is a narrow field that few researchers have delved into.

The results of this study will assist students, researchers, and the general public in tracing the origin of their surnames and developing their interest in the social and historical value of Chinese local history and genealogies.

The study of Chinese surnames is, by itself, a particular field for researching the social and political implications of contemporary Chinese society during the time the family members lived.

Very little research has been done in the area of Chinese local history and genealogy. The paper would be of value to researchers such as historians, sociologists, ethnologists and archaeologists, as well as students and anyone interested in researching a surname origin, its history and evolution.

The purpose of this study is determination of cadmium using silver-gold bimetallic nanoparticles (Ag-Au BMNPs) and an aptamer modified glassy carbon electrode.

The maximum response of modified electrode was obtained with, 50 mV pulse amplitude, 20 mV/s scan rate in phosphate buffer of pH 4.0. Ag-Au BMNPs, as the mediators improved electron transmit during the entire electron transfer process and the aptasensor response. Herein, the authors used aptamer as the capture probe to prepare an aptasensor with enhanced stability.

The proposed aptasensor exhibited a wide linearity to cadmium in the range of 0.001–0.100 µg/L with a low detection limit of 0.005×10⁻³ µg/L. The glassy carbon electrodes with Ag-Au BMNPs showed a lower detection limit.

This aptasensor has good reproducibility, stability and repeatability and is cost-effective to regenerate. The specificity and selectivity of the novel modified electrode is tested in the presence of other interfering metal ions such as Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sb³⁺ and Bi³⁺. The aptasensor shows 10 times more sensitivity and selectivity for Cd²⁺ ions.

The increasingly booming e-commerce development has stimulated vehicle consumers to express individual reviews through online forum. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the vehicle consumer consumption behavior and make recommendations for potential consumers from textual comments viewpoint.

A big data analytic-based approach is designed to discover vehicle consumer consumption behavior from online perspective. To reduce subjectivity of expert-based approaches, a parallel Naïve Bayes approach is designed to analyze the sentiment analysis, and the Saaty scale-based (SSC) scoring rule is employed to obtain specific sentimental value of attribute class, contributing to the multi-grade sentiment classification. To achieve the intelligent recommendation for potential vehicle customers, a novel SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to prioritize vehicle brand candidates from a big data analytical viewpoint.

The big data analytics argue that “cost-effectiveness” characteristic is the most important factor that vehicle consumers care, and the data mining results enable automakers to better understand consumer consumption behavior.

The case study illustrates the effectiveness of the integrated method, contributing to much more precise operations management on marketing strategy, quality improvement and intelligent recommendation.

Researches of consumer consumption behavior are usually based on survey-based methods, and mostly previous studies about comments analysis focus on binary analysis. The hybrid SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to fill the gap from the big data perspective.

Building upon the framework of glocalization, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the development of National Basketball Association (NBA) in Chinese market, explore its successful and unsuccessful places, and propose strategies of glocalization for the NBA as well as other overseas sport leagues.

The current case study was organized by summarizing the developmental history of NBA in China, analyzing its current promotional practices, investigating into its marketing strategies, and extrapolating practical references for other sport leagues aiming to penetrating into the Chinese marketplace.

The current case study concluded that when facing the current challenges, the NBA needs to bring authentic American cultural commodities while adding Chinese characteristics to accommodate local fans. Meanwhile, the NBA management needs to continue seeking ways to work out and through the differences in government models and cultural contexts between China and USA. In addition, this study suggested that the research framework of glocalization would be an ever intriguing inquiry needed for other sport organizations or leagues seeking expansion to overseas markets.

A thorough case study with the NBA that has achieved huge successes in Chinese markets will provide valuable implications for sport leagues to broaden their overseas markets.

Technological innovation is one of the remarkable characteristics of electric vehicles (EVs). This study aims to analyze how consumers' technological knowledge affects their intention to adopt EVs.

Original data were collected via a survey of 443 participants in China. An extended technology acceptance model was constructed to identify the factors influencing consumers' intention to adopt EVs and related technological knowledge pathways.

The results show that consumer technological knowledge is positively and significantly related to EVs' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived fun to use and consumers' intention to adopt EVs. In addition, no direct and significant relationship is found between perceived fun to use and willingness to adopt EVs, from the technical knowledge dimension.

Imparting consumers with EV technological knowledge and usefulness may be an effective way to enhance their awareness and willingness to use EVs. Moreover, the role of females in the decision to adopt EVs should not be ignored, especially in decisions to purchase a family car.

Prior studies lack a technological knowledge-based view, and few studies have discussed how to explore the effects of consumer technological knowledge about EVs on their adoption intention. This study fills the research gap.

This study aims to examine decision factors for global sourcing, differentiated into transcontinental and continental sourcing to obtain insight into locational aspects of sourcing decisions and global trends. This study analyzed various country perceptions to reveal their influence on sourcing decisions. The country of origin (COO) theory explains why certain country perceptions and images influence purchasing experts in their selection of suppliers.

This study used a two-study approach. In Study 1, the authors conducted discrete choice card experiments with 71 purchasing experts located in Europe and the USA to examine the importance of essential decision factors for global sourcing. Given the clear evidence that location is a factor in sourcing decisions, in Study 2 the authors investigated purchasers’ perceptions and images of countries, adding country ranking experiments on various perceived characteristics such as quality, price and technology.

Study 1 provides evidence that the purchasers’ personal relationship with the supplier plays a decisive role in the supplier selection process. While product quality and location impact sourcing decisions, the attraction of the buying company and cultural barriers are less significant. Interestingly, however, these factors seem as important as price to respondents. This implies that a strong relationship with suppliers and good quality products are essential aspects of a reliable and robust supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Examining the locational aspect in detail, Study 2 linked the choice card experiments with country ranking experiments. In this study, the authors found that purchasing experts consider that transcontinental countries such as Japan and China offer significant advantages in terms of price and technology. China has enhanced its quality, which is recognizable in the country ranking experiments. Therefore, decisions on global sourcing are not just based on such high-impact factors as price and availability; country perceptions are also influential. Additionally, the significance of the locational aspect could be linked to certain country images of transcontinental suppliers, as the COO theory describes.

The new approach divides global sourcing into transcontinental and European sourcing to evaluate special decision factors and link these factors to the locational aspect of sourcing decisions. To deepen the clear evidence for the locational aspect and investigate the possible influence of country perceptions, the authors applied the COO theory. This approach enabled authors to show the strong influence of country perception on purchasing departments, which is represented by the locational effect. Hence, the success of transcontinental countries relies not only on factors such as their availability but also on the purchasers’ positive perceptions of these countries in terms of technology and price.