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The purpose of this paper is to conduct the synthesization of LiFePO₄-C (LFP-C) with fine particle size and enhanced electrochemical performance as the positive electrode material for Li-ion capacitors (LICs) with neutral aqueous electrolyte.

LFP-C was prepared by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a grain growth inhibitor, and the effects of the calcination temperature and PEG content on the structure and morphology of LFP-C were investigated. LICs using environment-friendly, safe and low-cost LiNO₃ aqueous electrolyte were assembled with LFP-C as the positive electrode and active carbon as the negative electrode. The electrochemical performances of LFP-C and LICs were studied.

The results show that the particle size of LFP-C decreases significantly through the introduction of PEG. Cyclic voltammetry results show that the LFP-C prepared at 550°C with 1.0 g PEG exhibits the highest C_pe of 725 F/g at the scanning rate of 5 mA/s. Compared to LFP prepared without PEG, the electrochemical performance of optimized LFP-C dramatically increases due to the decrease of the particle size. Moreover, the LIC assembled with the optimized LFP-C exhibits excellent electrochemical performances. The LIC maintains about 91.3 per cent of its initial C_ps after 200 cycles which shows a good cycling performance.

The LFP-C is the suitable positive electrode material for LICs with neutral aqueous electrolyte. LICs can be used in the field of automobiles and can solve the problems of energy shortage and environmental pollution.

Both the LFP-C with fine particle size and its optimal LIC using environment-friendly, safe and low-cost LiNO₃ aqueous electrolyte own good electrochemical performances.

The study investigates the inter-linkages between geopolitical risk (GPR) and food price (FP).

By employing the bootstrap full- and sub-sample rolling-window Granger causality tests.

The empirical results show that there is a time-varying bidirectional causality between GPR and FP. High GPR leads to a rise in FP, suggesting that geopolitical events usually may disrupt supply and demand conditions in food markets, and even trigger global food crises. However, the negative effect of GPR on FP does not support this view in certain periods. This is mainly because GPR is also related to the global economic situation and oil price, which together have impacts on the food market. These results cannot always be supported by the inter-temporal capital asset pricing model, which states that GPR affects FP in a positive manner. Conversely, there is a positive impact of FP on GPR, indicating that the food market is an effective tool that can reflect global geopolitical environment.

In the context of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, these analyses can assist investors and policymakers to understand the sensitivity of FP to GPR. Also, it will provide significant revelations for governments to attach importance to the role of food price information in predicting geopolitical events, thus contributing to a more stable international environment.

The sustainable success of infrastructures is becoming a driving force for advancing urbanization globally. However, to achieve infrastructure sustainable success (ISS), how project management practices (PMPs) play their role remains unexplored in current literature. To this end, an empirical study on whether PMPs play significant impacts on the accomplishment of ISS was conducted.

This research is based on an empirical survey of domestic and overseas infrastructure projects managed by Chinese companies. 162 data samples were collected and further analyzed deploying structural equation modeling (SEM) on the basis of goal-setting theory. PMP factors derived from the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) ideology, i.e. culture, strategy, implementation and reflection were hypothesized and validated to have direct and indirect relationships with ISS.

The results of this study indicate that both culture and reflection can directly drive the PMPs toward ISS. Furthermore, it is revealed that by affecting mediator factors of strategy, implementation and reflection, culture is found to present an indirect influence on ISS; by affecting mediator factors of implementation and reflection, Strategy is found to present an indirect influence on ISS and by affecting the mediator factor of reflection, implementation is found to present an indirect influence on ISS.

These findings contribute to the body of knowledge in measuring sustainability success of project management performances by clarifying critical relationships of how PMPs lead to ISS. Prospectively, the outputs of this research will generate informative insights for practitioners to improve their PMPs in the process of pursuing ISS in future infrastructure management practices.

Using survey research, the purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of diversity to examine perceptions of diversity and inclusion among majority and non-majority students at a predominately White university (PWI) and a historically Black university (HBCU) observing any patterns of difference between majority and non-majority groups to make inferences regarding students’ sense of belonging, given current national efforts to establish inclusive excellence on university campuses.

Results based on Likert-scale responses on a validated questionnaire were analyzed using independent samples t-tests to identify differences for each survey item. Eta squared was used as an effect size measure. The PWI and HBCU were then compared by item analysis. A two-way factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the independent impact of each of the universities (i.e. PWI, HBCU) and the interaction of those two factors in their effect on the dependent variables (i.e. race, gender, sexuality).

Results indicated significant differences between the majority and non-majority groups on multiple items within each university site. Further, significant differences were observed between the universities in perceptions and experiences of diversity and inclusion.

Unique in this study was an examination of perceptions of inclusion at a PWI and an HBCU based not only on non-majority status of race, but also on gender and sexuality with the intention of expanding the research base associated with “sense of belonging” to other groups who have existed as “diverse others” in the context of majority culture dominance.

Cross-border e-commerce live streaming morphs into an epidemic shopping scenario, yet there is a paucity of research on impulse purchasing in this context. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the adoption motivation of cross-border e-commerce live streaming and its influence mechanism on intrinsic response and purchase impulse and to highlight the mediating role of browsing behavior.

Based on the use and gratification lens, a new conceptualization model is established to captivate the theoretical relationships between perceived stimuli, individual attitudes, browsing behavior and impulsive purchases. A questionnaire survey was used to collect cross-sectional data from 427 Malaysian consumers and the estimated framework was validated through AMOS-structural equation modeling technique.

The findings confirm that perceived interactivity, perceived information usefulness and perceived enjoyment significantly influenced positive attitudes toward live-streaming, which in turn induced impulsive purchases; however, perceived affective gratification did not stimulate positive attitudes. Consumers’ utilitarian browsing had a stronger effect on impulse purchases than hedonic browsing and utilitarian browsing behavior mediated the relationship between positive attitudes and impulse buying; however, hedonic browsing had neither a direct nor a mediating effect on impulsive purchases.

This research enhances the literature on the impact of cross-border e-commerce live streaming, an emerging technology, on consumer behavior and offers managerial implications for e-commerce practitioners to gain insights into consumer impulse purchasing behavior.

The findings revamp conventional knowledge and provide new angles for understanding the formation mechanisms of impulse purchases, motivations for virtual media use and browsing behavior mediating effects in the context of live streaming.

Three types of PbTe samples, e.g. nanoparticles, nanowires and bulk ingots, have been prepared. The investigation of the Seebeck coefficient of PbTe nanoparticles and nanowires clearly shows the sign change in the temperature range of 575~650 K, which is not observed for bulk ingots. Unfortunately, this temperature range is within the proposed operation temperature range for thermoelectric devices using PbTe and hence, such a change will affect their proper performance. The observed sign change of Seebeck coefficient is not simply caused by the composition variation at high temperature. It is mainly attributed to the extrinsic-to-intrinsic-semiconductor transition for PbTe nanocrystals due to the competing factors between quantum size effect increasing band gap and self-purification process decreasing their charge carrier concentration, which shift the transition point of nanocrystals to lower range as compare to that of bulk samples. Thus, such phenomenon should be considered carefully in the design of thermoelectric devices using semiconductor nanocrystals, which have attracted much attention recently.

Defines advertising and looks at the way it is part of the whole home environment. Considers the influence and power various media possess with particular emphasis on women. Addresses how advertising reinforces the existing power roles within society and questions if recent evidence shows any change in this position. Concludes that most individuals are aware of the unrealistic nature of some advertising but advertisers still often represent the “establishment” and stick to proven methods of success.

The aim of this chapter is to present the various and multifaceted effects that climate change has on tourism and investigate the paradox in which (1) the more the tourism industry flourishes, the more it intensifies climate change and (2) the more climate change is intensified, the more the tourism industry goes in decline. The chapter then aims to provide a suggestion for a viable solution that can mitigate the devastating effects of tourism on the environment, and effectively on itself, so that tourism and the environment can both flourish in harmony.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the hurdles, compared with that in the United States, for the implementation of Continuous Auditing in China. As a timely, cost-saving and efficient auditing method, continuous auditing is being increasingly adopted throughout the world. However, while it is increasingly applied in the USA, continuous auditing is still in its infancy in China.

This paper compares and contrasts China and the USA in three important dimensions that determine the “economic architecture” of assurance: the business environment, the audit profession and technology.

The authors find that excessive government intervention in business, the lack of competition, independence of auditors, the support from management and the continuous auditing-specific regulations, as well as the technology gap between these two countries, are the main barriers for the implementation of continuous auditing in China.

The findings of this paper provide better understanding of the drivers of continuous auditing adoption in the USA and the barriers toward doing so in China.

The term “continuous auditing” has never been formally introduced until the release of the draft of the Internal Control Audit Guide in 2011.

The paper highlights how technology by itself is not deterministic, but given the extraordinary rise in the Chinese economy in both its size and its sophistication, it has be to assumed that its “leapfrog” into parity if not outright leadership in continuous assurance is still a matter of “when” and not of “if”.