Search results

Mass participation sport events, such as running events, have the potential to foster social capital among event participants. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrelationships among sport event participation, social capital and various (behavioral, psychological, informational and negative) outcomes.

Following Putnam's social capital approach, a research model was developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, based on survey data from 301 runners with varied running histories and event experiences.

Results showed a limited impact of sport event participation on participants' social capital, indicating that the temporary interactions within the event timeframe were insufficient to generate sustainable social capital among event participants. Nevertheless, significant relationships were found between social capital and behavioral, psychological and informational outcomes of social capital, suggesting that social capital can be converted to a range of benefits for participants and the event community.

Event marketers and sponsors should take strategic actions to enhance participants' social experience and cultivate social capital, which may help them gain support from the event community irrespective of past experiences with participation.

This study extends Putnam's social capital framework into mass participation sport event context. As an initial effort to quantitatively test the linkage among event participation, social capital and various outcomes, this study offers empirical insights into the role of sport event participation in generating long-term social benefits for event participants.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of inspiration for active participants in sport events, and the link between inspiration sources and event-related outcomes (i.e. life satisfaction and behavioral intentions).

Research questions were examined using a Greek (n=264) and a US (n=103) sample of participants of two small-scale running events. Content analysis was used to identify and code the themes of inspiration, while a multivariate analyses of variance was performed to test the inspiration group differences on life satisfaction and behavioral intentions.

The qualitative findings revealed three categories of inspiration source identified in each sample. The quantitative results showed that the interaction between inspiration source and event type had an overall effect on participants’ life satisfaction and future participation intention. Specifically, findings highlighted the different roles of inspiration on influencing life satisfaction and participation intention of short-distance (i.e. 5 and 10k) event participants than those of long-distance (i.e. marathon) runners.

This study identifies the sources of inspiration in small-scale sport events and provides preliminary empirical evidence where inspiration source and event type jointly influence participants’ life satisfaction and behavioral intentions.

Understanding the sources of inspiration provides event leveraging opportunities to inspire citizens to become more active in sports. Given that the sources of inspiration vary among different segments of event participants, event managers need to adopt differential communication and promotional activities geared to the needs of these targets.

The study provides the first empirical work exploring the sources of inspiration among active participants in small-scale sport events.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of a non-contact full-field optical measurement technique known as digital image correlation (DIC).

The approach of this review paper is to introduce the research pertaining to DIC. It comprehensively covers crucial facets including its principles, historical development, core challenges, current research status and practical applications. Additionally, it delves into unresolved issues and outlines future research objectives.

The findings of this review encompass essential aspects of DIC, including core issues like the subpixel registration algorithm, camera calibration, measurement of surface deformation in 3D complex structures and applications in ultra-high-temperature settings. Additionally, the review presents the prevailing strategies for addressing these challenges, the most recent advancements in DIC applications across quasi-static, dynamic, ultra-high-temperature, large-scale and micro-scale engineering domains, along with key directions for future research endeavors.

This review holds a substantial value as it furnishes a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to DIC, while also spotlighting its prospective applications.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamic features of friction coefficient during running-in state based on recurrence analysis, so as to recognize the running-in state of crankshaft journal bearings.

The friction coefficient was measured in the friction experiments and the dynamic features are analyzed by recurrence plots (RPs), unthreshold recurrence plots (URPs) and recurrence quantification analysis.

During the running-in process, RPs have gone through disrupted patterns, drift patterns and homogeneous patterns successively. URP shows that the phase trajectory spirals in the disrupted pattern gradually converge in the drift pattern and remain stable in the homogeneous pattern. Three independent measures, recurrence rate, entropy and laminarity, are chosen to characterize friction coefficient from the perspective of point, diagonal line and vertical line structures of the RPs.

The results provide a feasible way to monitor the running-in process and recognize the running-in state.

The purpose of this paper is to examine some factors that influence the intensity of fertilizer use in Malawi.

The study uses Engle-Granger, Engle-Yoo three steps and autoregressive distributed lags (ARDLs) approaches to examine the long-run and the short-run dynamics among the variables using annual data from 1961 to 2006.

The econometric results indicate that all the variables exert significance influence on the quantity of fertilizer demanded excluding population growth, while the results of the short-run model indicate that the responsiveness of fertilizer demand to all the variables is significant.

Although, this study has provided some helpful results in understanding the major factors responsible for low fertilizer consumption in the study but some time series data on important factors are lacking.

The work is different from already existing literature in Malawi. The authors included subsidy and real gross domestic product to account for the effect of macroeconomic shocks and policies, which has not been accounted for by other related empirical studies. Moreover, this study used ARDLs techniques that can overcome the problem of insufficiently long time series data which is a significant contribution to the existing literature.

To address the problem that the current train operation mode that train selects one of several offline pre-generated control schemes before the departure and operates following the scheme after the departure, energy-saving performance of the whole metro system cannot be guaranteed.

A cooperative train control framework is formulated to regulate a novel train operation mode. The classic train four-phase control strategy is improved for generating specific energy-efficient control schemes for each train. An improved brute force (BF) algorithm with a two-layer searching idea is designed to solve the optimisation model of energy-efficient train control schemes.

Case studies on the actual metro line in Guangzhou, China verify the effectiveness of the proposed train control methods compared with four-phase control strategy under different kinds of train operation scenarios and calculation parameters. The verification on the computation efficiency as well as accuracy of the proposed algorithm indicates that it meets the requirement of online optimisation.

Most existing studies optimised energy-efficient train timetable or train control strategies through an offline process, which has a defect in coping with the disturbance or delays effectively and promptly during real-time train operation. This paper studies an online optimisation of cooperative train control based on the rolling optimisation idea, where energy-efficient train operation can be realised once train running time is determined, thus mitigating the impact of unpredictable operation situations on the energy-saving performance of trains.

The objective of this paper is to determine fretting parameters of hoisting rope according to the hoisting parameters in coalmine and to explore the effect of contact load on fretting-fatigue behavior of steel wires.

Based on the mechanical model of hoisting rope in coalmine, the dynamic tension simulation of hoisting rope was performed. Static equations of hoisting rope under tension and torsion and theories of contact mechanics were applied to obtain fretting parameters. Fretting-fatigue tests of steel wires at different contact loads were conducted using a fretting-fatigue test rig. The fretting regime, normalized tangential force and fretting-fatigue life were studied. The morphologies of fretting contact scars and fracture surfaces were observed by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy to examine wear and failure mechanisms.

Dynamic tension changes from 0 to 30,900 N. In outer strand layer, contact loads between steel wires in certain wire layers are 60.5 and 38.3 N compared with 378 and 102.7 N between wire layers; relative displacements between wires are 62.5 and 113.2 μm, respectively. Mixed fretting regimes develop in all cases. Increasing contact load decreases the stabilized relative slip and normalized tangential force, reduces the fretting fatigue life, induces accelerated adhesive wear and fatigue wear and results in rougher fracture surface topographies. In all cases, fretting zone induces crack initiation; crack propagation and rupture zones present brittle cleavage and longitudinal splitting, respectively.

This paper presents the systemic study on determination of fretting parameters of hoisting rope according to the hoisting parameters in coalmine and the fretting-fatigue behavior of its internal steel wires. The results of fretting-fatigue tests show that the increase of contact load decreases the stabilized relative slip in mixed fretting regime and normalized tangential force, reduces the fretting fatigue life, induces accelerated adhesive wear and fatigue wear and results in rougher fracture surface topographies.

The authors warrant that the paper is original submission and is not being submitted to any other journal. And the research does not involve confidentiality, copyright infringement, leaks and other issues, all the responsibilities that the authors will take.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the following research question in partner selection decisions in business-to-business strategic partnerships/collaborations literature: How do inertia and uncertainty affect partner selection? Explicitly, the paper analyzes how inertia of previous alliance selection routines and uncertainty of entire market movement shape firms’ preferences regarding exploratory partner selection (i.e. selecting new partners who never collaborate with the focal firm).

Grounded on inter-firm partnerships, partner selection and network theory literature, the study empirically tests a fine-grained sample of 511 open-end funds initiated by 61 fund management firms in China. To do so, it runs Tobit regression for main analysis and applies a variety of sensitivity analyses to check the robustness.

Results show that inertia in previous partner selection has a negative effect on exploration. Importantly, these inertial forces impact domestic firms but not international firms. Market uncertainty also affects exploratory partner selection: short-term market uncertainty encourages exploration, whereas long-term uncertainty inhibits it. These effects also depend on firms’ type: long-term market uncertainty has a negative effect on exploration for international firms but not for domestic firms. Both types of firms exhibit a stronger tendency toward exploration when they encounter short-term uncertainty. However, this inclination is stronger in international firms.

Earlier research has examined how inertia affects exploitation but largely overlooked its effect on exploration. A critical examination of firm and environment level factors provides a deeper understanding of why and when firms have inconsistent preferences for specific partner selection strategies. Thus, this study offers a unique perspective for understanding firms’ exploratory partner selection by focusing on two important characteristics of focal firms: one internal (inertia) and one external (market uncertainty) in nature.

The purpose of this paper is to find the event memory characteristics hidden in trade data.

First, historical trade data are analyzed to define the events described by multi‐dimensional characteristic variables. The variables containing information are employed to build the event description patterns. Furthermore, a search engine is developed for calendar events, which can search for events in historical data and produce a collection of events. The search engine also extracts relevant system reaction phenomena described by trend distribution for each event pattern. Finally, both event patterns and system reactions construct the episodic memory model.

The event patterns and the system reactions are used to define the episodic memory model. The search methods for the episodic memory model obtained from trade data set are given.

Accessibility and availability of data are the main limitations affecting where the method can be applied.

The method is helpful for traders when judging the current trade situation from historical memory.

The paper presents a new episodic memory modeling method based on trade data.

In this work, the multi-objective optimization shuffled complex evolution is proposed. The algorithm is based on the extension of shuffled complex evolution, by incorporating two classical operators into the original algorithm: the rank ordering and crowding distance. In order to accelerate the convergence process, a Local Search strategy based on the generation of potential candidates by using Latin Hypercube method is also proposed.

The multi-objective optimization shuffled complex evolution is used to accelerate the convergence process and to reduce the number of objective function evaluations.

In general, the proposed methodology was able to solve a classical mechanical engineering problem with different characteristics. From a statistical point of view, we demonstrated that differences may exist between the proposed methodology and other evolutionary strategies concerning two different metrics (convergence and diversity), for a class of benchmark functions (ZDT functions).

The development of a new numerical method to solve multi-objective optimization problems is the major contribution.