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The purpose of this paper is to see whether the concept of autonomous ship is having an effect on pioneering the sea transportation as well as improvement of ship safety and the possibility of local development. Following the lead of the first autonomous surface ship by Norway that met to develop the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Application (AAWA) and introduce of autonomous operation to the region, this study also aims to compare the initiation of action by surface ships to that of the air and land vehicle automation.

The ideas for writing this paper came from meeting and interview with maritime professionals such as ship captains, marine chief engineers and naval architects. Through the review of various international journals, the development of Autonomy and Technology are explored and analysed. Owing to the practical approach of this paper, a qualitative research method is used with collecting and analysing information.

The findings of this paper are as follows: it brings out the importance on the potentials of unmanned vessels and its competitive advantages over existing cargo ships. Besides its contribution to reduce fatigue and workload of navigating officers, the improvement of navigational safety by eliminating human errors and reduction of harmful exhaust emission can make shipping safer and more sustainable. However, as the technology is still under development, it is too early for a final evaluation. That said, as the international regulation body, International Maritime Organisation is required to gain acceptance to future unmanned shipping and to designate routes and impose regulations for their safe operation.

Recently, there are many conferences and meetings on autonomous surface vessel focussing on regulation, technology, human-factor, legal and regulatory framework for such ships around the world. This paper summarises the current development of the autonomous surface ships, in term of the design and technology, their interaction and co-existence with manned ships and suggest some operation issues on board an autonomous surface ship during voyage. Taking Hong Kong as an example, this paper attempts to examine the feasibility for introducing the autonomous surface ships in local waters.

A range of managerial styles are commonly found in foreign companies in China. Multiple factors influencing management development in China require attention owing to differences of management practices and cultural values across nations. This paper discusses the relationship between values systems and managerial styles among foreign and indigenous managers in China.

This paper aims to obtain the film thickness, friction torque and pumping rate and analyze the effects of roughness and surface micro-dimple texture (circular, square and equilateral triangle) on the performance of the oil seal.

On the basis of elastohydrodynamic lubrication and the pumping mechanism of rotating shaft seal, this paper establishes a numerical model of hybrid lubrication of oil seal in sealing area. The model is coupled with fluid mechanics, rough peak contact mechanics and deformation analysis.

The results show that surface texture significantly improves the lubrication properties of the oil seal. The oil seal with the square texture has the largest oil film thickness, while the equilateral triangle texture has a better effect on the pumping rate.

To get closer to the real working environment of the oil seal, based on the surface roughness, this paper studies the effect of the texture shapes applied to the oil seal lip surface on the performance of the oil seal. The critical roughness and rotational speed values with zero pumping rate are obtained, which provides a theoretical basis for the correct selection of oil seals.

This paper aims to introduce a knowledge‐based managemental prototype entitled E+ for environmental‐conscious construction relied on an integration of current environmental management tools in construction area. The overall objective of developing the E+ prototype is to facilitate selectively reusing the retrievable knowledge in construction engineering and management areas assembled from previous projects for the best practice in environmental‐conscious construction. The methodologies adopted in previous and ongoing research related to the development of the E+ belong to the operations research area and the information technology area, including literature review, questionnaire survey and interview, statistical analysis, system analysis and development, experimental research and simulation, and so on. The content presented in this paper includes an advanced E+ prototype, a comprehensive review of environmental management tools integrated to the E+ prototype, and an experimental case study of the implementation of the E+ prototype. It is expected that the adoption and implementation of the E+ prototype can effectively facilitate contractors to improve their environmental performance in the lifecycle of projectbased construction and to reduce adverse environmental impacts due to the deployment of various engineering and management processes at each construction stage.

This paper aims to study the effect of isosceles triangle micro concave texture with different parameters on the performance of oil seal to obtain a reasonable combination of parameters.

Based on the theory of elastohydrodynamic lubrication, a numerical model is established by coupling the texture parameters of isosceles triangle with concave lip with the two-dimensional average Reynolds equation considering surface roughness.

The results show that there is an optimal combination of parameters to improve the performance of the oil seal. When hp = 5µm-6.5 µm, a = 110°−130°, O = 1.4, C = 1.6 mm-2.2 mm, the oil seal with isosceles triangle micro concave texture can show good lubrication characteristics, friction characteristics and sealing ability.

The model provides a new idea for the design of new oil seal products and provides a theoretical support for the application of surface texture technology in the sealing field in the future.

The previous decade has been characterized by emerging market firms expanding into international markets. This trend has led to scholars in the IB arena to grapple with the new phenomenon of emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs), specifically the relationship between internationalization and performance of the EMNEs. This paper seeks to add to the literature by capturing the impact of firm resources on the internationalization‐performance relationship. Empirical analysis on a sample of 787 Indian manufacturing firms indicates that there is a non‐linear relationship between internationalization and performance. Findings also indicate that a firm’s capabilities in cost efficiency and marketing have a moderating impact on this relationship.

Social media is a product that is co-created by consumers and multinational enterprises, that partially manage the customer experience and that has garnered significant attention in the field of international marketing. However, international marketing scholars have yet to address the societal costs of the use of social media, even as academics in other disciplines and business leaders are raising alarm that social media has created a digital ecosystem that may harm individuals within the global market. The objective of this research is to examine the generalizability of the relationship between the use of social media and the prevalence of depression across countries.

Employing social cohesion theory and the social network approach of the strength of ties, this work examines the relationship between the use of social media and time spent on social media at the country level and the prevalence of depression. The authors examine this issue within a 28-country, eight-year, unbalanced panel dataset, accounting for cultural, economic and structural factors.

The authors find that as more people within a country use social media, the prevalence of depression in that country increases. However, the authors also find that as the average time spent on social media in a country increases the deleterious relationship between the use of social media and the prevalence of depression diminishes.

Answering the calls in the international marketing literature for a greater understanding of the externalities (i.e. consumer well-being effects) of marketing activities of multinational companies, this study demonstrates the varying relationships of the use of and time spent on social media and the prevalence of depression at the population level, across a wide variety of countries, thus also contributing to the effort to improving generalizations from multi-country comparisons in international research.

The purpose of this paper is to study the pumping efficiency of oil seals with different surface textures at different speeds, and the influence of the rotation direction of triangular texture on the sealing performance was further analyzed.

Based on the theory of elastohydrodynamic lubrication and the pumping mechanism of rotary shaft seals, establishing a numerical model of mixed lubrication in oil seal sealing area. The model is coupled with the lip surface texture parameters and the two-dimensional average Reynolds equation considering the surface roughness.

The results show that the application of lip surface texture technology has obvious influence on the oil film thickness, friction torque and pumping rate of oil seal. The triangular texture has the most significant effect on the increase of pump suction rate. When the rotation direction of triangular texture is 315 degrees, the pumping rate of oil seal is the largest compared with the other seven directions.

The model has a comprehensive theoretical guidance for the design of new oil seal products, which provides a certain basis for the application of surface texture technology in the field of sealing in the future.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-06-2020-0198/