Search results

Wage reform is an important aspect of Chinese economic reform. The success of wage reform is likely to depend upon the following understanding: Neither use of the efficiency‐oriented market wage system nor use of the equity‐oriented planned wage system can solve the dual problem of economic growth and income distribution. A synergy of the two systems will therefore be needed. Such a synergetic wage system, which simultaneously solves the dual problem of production and distribution, can expedite the rise of social productivity – the fundamental mission in the preliminary stage of Chinese socialism. In other words, wages should be differentiated, and the differences should be related to workers′ effort and society′s demand for them. These differences, however, need not be very large.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Although an important facet of modernist architecture in which function plays a prominent role, building flexibility is not entirely a new concept. Its relevance transcends generations, allowing space and structure to evolve through time. This paper investigates the relationship among main building structures, infill elements, and space by studying examples in ancient Chinese architecture. It reveals the role of building owners, users, and craftsmen from a survey of historical documentation. In studying these examples, it is concluded that craftsmen in ancient China were involved not only during the construction phase but throughout the period of use as well. Thus, in select cases, the relationship between craftsmen and owners or users had been preserved for generations. Finally, this paper suggests potential strategies for the building industry and technology in the move towards sustainable development.

The study aims to devise a comprehensive evaluation model (CEM) for evaluating spatial equity in the layout of elderly service facilities (ESFs) to address the inequity in the layout of ESFs within city center communities characterized by limited land resources and a dense elderly population.

The CEM incorporates a suite of analytical tools, including accessibility assessment, Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient evaluations and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Utilizing this model, the study scrutinized the distributional equity of three distinct categories of ESFs in the city center of Xi’an and proposed targeted optimization strategies.

The findings reveal that (1) there are disparities in ESFs’ accessibility among different categories and communities, manifesting a distinct center (high) and periphery (low) distribution pattern; (2) there exists inequality in ESFs distribution, with nearly 50% of older adults accessing only 18% of elderly services, and these inequalities are more pronounced in urban areas with lower accessibility, and (3) approximately 14.7% of communities experience a supply-demand disequilibrium, with demand surpassing supply as a predominant issue in the ongoing development of ESFs.

The CEM formulated in this study offers policymakers, urban planners and service providers a scientific foundation and guidance for decision-making or policy amendment by promptly assessing and pinpointing areas of spatial inequity in ESFs and identifying deficiencies in their development.

China’s workforce is currently experiencing increased career-related stress. Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) may be used to help employees overcome these challenges. Little is known about how ESOPs affect employee career development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ESOPs and employee career sustainability and provide guidance for corporate management.

The authors employed a multiple linear regression model using a sample of 614 companies that implemented ESOPs between July 2014 and September 2017.

Employees’ career development benefited when ESOP funds originated from employee compensation and self-raised funds, and when the plan’s stock came from a source other than the secondary market. Career development also improved when employees and senior executives held a higher proportion of a firm’s total shares. In addition, the benefits to employee career development were greater in manufacturing enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and in Southern China.

This study combined individual and organization research using person–organization fit theory and demonstrated that well-designed ESOPs are beneficial for career stability and sustainability. This work was based on data from Chinese companies; future studies could usefully investigate the effects of ESOPs in other countries and their particular impact in technology-intensive industries.

Decision makers in firms or government can use ESOPs to address employees’ career-related stress and challenges, especially during industry transformation.

The paper fills a gap in ESOPs research by showing the positive effects of ESOPs on career development.

Nanosensors have a wide range of applications because of their high sensitivity, selectivity and specificity. In the past decade, extensive and pervasive research related to nanosensors has led to significant progress in diverse fields, such as biomedicine, environmental monitoring and industrial process control. This led to better and more efficient detection and monitoring of physical and chemical properties at better resolution, opening new horizons in the development of novel technologies and applications for improved human health, environment protection, enhanced industrial processes, etc.

In this paper, the authors discuss the application of citation network analysis in the field of nanosensor research and development. Cluster analysis was carried out using papers published in the field of nanomaterial-based sensor research, and an in-depth analysis was carried out to identify significant clusters. The purpose of this study is to provide researchers to identify a pathway to the emerging areas in the field of nanosensor research. The authors have illustrated the knowledge base, knowledge domain and knowledge progression of nanosensor research using the citation analysis based on 3,636 Science Citation Index papers published during the period 2011 to 2021.

Among these papers, the bibliographic study identified 809 significant research publications, 11 clusters, 556 research sector keywords, 1,296 main authors, 139 referenced authors, 63 nations, 206 organizations and 42 journals. The authors have identified single quantum dot (QD)-based nanosensor for biological applications, carbon dot-based nanosensors, self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator-based nanosensor and genetically encoded nanosensor as the significant research hotspots that came to the fore in recent years. The future trend in nanosensor research might focus on the development of efficient and cost-effective designs for the detection of numerous environmental pollutants and biological molecules using mesostructured materials and QDs. It is also possible to optimize the detection methods using theoretical models, and generalized gradient approximation has great scope in sensor development.

The future trend in nanosensor research might focus on the development of efficient and cost-effective designs for the detection of numerous environmental pollutants and biological molecules using mesostructured materials and QDs. It is also possible to optimize the detection methods using theoretical models, and generalized gradient approximation has great scope in sensor development.

This is a novel bibliometric analysis in the area of “nanomaterial based sensor,” which is carried out in CiteSpace software.

The purpose of this paper was to improve the frictional wear resistance properties of piston skirts caused by the low viscosity lubricant by studying the tribological performance of three novel coating materials.

Comparative tribological examinations were performed in a tribological tester using the ring-block arrangement under two viscosity lubricants, the loading force was applied as 100 N, the speed was set to 60 r/min and the testing time was 180 min.

Under low viscosity lubricant, the friction coefficient and wear of the three coatings all increase, and the friction coefficient and wear of the PTFE coating are the largest, while the MoS₂ coating has the lowest friction coefficient and wear. Under low viscosity lubricant, the friction coefficient of the MoS₂ coating is 2.1%–5.4% and 20.0%–24.3% lower than that of the SiO2 and PTFE coating, respectively. The friction coefficient and wear fluctuation rate of the MoS₂ coating is the smallest when the lubricant viscosity decreases, which indicates that the MoS₂ coating has excellent stability and adaptability under low viscosity lubricant.

To reduce the piston skirt wear caused by low viscosity lubricant in heavy-duty diesel engines, the friction and wear adaptability of three novel composite coating materials for piston skirts were compared under 0 W-20 low viscosity lubricant, which could provide a guidance for the application of wear-resistant materials for heavy-duty diesel engine piston skirt.