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The transistor circuit based on Moore's Law is approaching the performance limit. The three-dimensional integrated circuit (3-D IC) is an important way to implement More than Moore. The main problems in the development of 3-D IC are Joule heating and stress. The stresses and strains generated in 3-D ICs will affect the performance of electronic products, leading to various reliability issues. The intermetallic compound (IMC) joint materials and structures are the main factors affecting 3-D IC stress. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the design of the 3-D IC.

To optimize the design of 3-D IC, the numerical model of 3-D IC was established. The Taguchi experiment was designed to simulate the influence of IMC joint material, solder joint array and package size on 3-D IC stress.

The simulation results show that the solder joint array and IMC joint materials have great influence on the equivalent stress. Compared with the original design, the von Mises stress of the optimal design was reduced by 69.96 per cent, the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) was increased by 10.46 dB and the fatigue life of the Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu solder joint was increased from 415 to 533 cycles, indicating that the reliability of the 3-D IC has been significantly improved.

It is necessary to study the material properties of the bonded structure since 3-D IC is a new packaging structure. Currently, there is no relevant research on the optimization design of solder joint array in 3-D IC. Therefore, the IMC joint material, the solder joint array, the chip thickness and the substrate thickness are selected as the control factors to analyze the influence of various factors on the 3-D IC stress and design. The orthogonal experiment is used to optimize the structure of the 3-D IC.

Contractual services are characterized by features such as termination fees, long-term commitment, and complex terms. When customers find better deals from other providers, they may want to switch, but contractual obligations prevent them from doing so. Thus, this study aims to draw upon the stimulus-organism-response paradigm and theories of emotion regulation to examine how punitive switching costs (PSCs) can evoke negative emotions (NEs) from customers and, consequently, lead to negative behavioral responses in contractual service settings.

This study collected data from 395 customers of telecommunications companies, fitness centers, tutoring firms/centers, and house leasing companies in Taiwan. We tested the hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 3.0.

The results show that NEs partially mediate the relationship between PSC and customers’ switching intention and negative word-of-mouth. This study also finds alternative attractiveness (AA) and service recovery (SR) do not moderate the PSCs–NEs relationship, but AA does directly influence NEs.

First, this study contributes to the literature on switching costs by exploring how PSC exerts a detrimental impact on behavioral responses. Second, this study adds to the literature on service failures by identifying the mediating role of NEs in such a relationship.

The Old Farmer Pension Program (OFPP) represents Taiwan’s long-standing efforts aiming at improving farm household income and well-being; however, how effective the pension program is in terms of achieving the policy agenda has remained unclear. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on data drawn from the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure during 1999–2013, two identification strategies are used to examine the effect of OFPP. First the authors apply the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to address the concern if the program reaches the socially/economically disadvantaged farm households. The second identification strategy involves using the static and dynamic decomposition approaches to identify the major factors contributing to farm household income inequality and the redistribution role of the OFPP.

Results from the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition indicate that about 60 percent of the income gap can be eliminated if the pension recipients’ socio-economic characteristics are the same as the non-recipient group, suggesting it is the disadvantaged group that receives the old farmer pension. Moreover, the results suggest the significant contributions of household investments in health and human capital as well as diversification toward nonfarm activities, to income inequality among Taiwan’s farm households. Results from the dynamic decomposition suggest that the first-wave adjustment of the OFPP enlarges farm household income inequality, the following two waves of adjustment, however, plays an equalizing role.

This study adds to the literature by providing a methodological refinement promoting the view that it calls for the use of the dynamic (change) decomposition framework to investigate the inequality-enlarging or inequality-equalizing role each income determinant plays.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) of phytic acid on cupronickel B30 surface of anticorrosion and inhibiting mechanisms.

Electrochemical and photocurrent response methods were performed to determine the effect of phytic acid SAMs on cupronickel B30.

The results indicated that phytic acid was liable to interact with B30 as a result of formation of complexes on B30 surface for anti‐rust and anti‐corrosion. The SAMs changed the structure of the electrochemical double layer and made the value of double layer capacitance decrease significantly. The B30 electrode showed p‐type photoresponse, which came from Cu₂O layer on its surface. The photoresponse decreased greatly due to the SAMs of phytic acid as the corrosion resisting property was enhanced. This finding was in good agreement with the results obtained from EIS and polarization curves. Adsorption of phytic acid was found to follow the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the adsorption mechanism was typical of chemisorption.

The SAMs of phytic acid on cupronickel B30 was gained for the first time. The photo‐electrochemical method was an in situ method, which was effective for characterizing optical and electronic properties of passive films.

This paper examines the comparative corporate performance of logistics companies in Korea, China and Japan. Based on the annual data from the listed companies, the growth rate of Chinese companies has surpassed that of Korean and Japanese companies and has labeled China as the fastest growing economy. How ever, labor efficiency of Chinese firms when calculated by total revenue per employee is the lowest of the three countries. In addition, the profitability of Chinese multimodal logistics companies and sea transport companies is also lower than that of Korea and Japan.

Using Data Envelop Analysis(DEA), the primary results regarding corporate efficiency among Korean, Chinese and Japanese logistic companies are as follows: In the multimodal industries, Japanese firms have revealed the highest level of efficiency, with Korean firms coming in second, and Chinese firms ranking third with distinctly inferior performance. This trend has also been examined in the maritime industries, in which the efficiency levels have been deteriorating continuously. However, in the air transportation industry Chinese companies revealed the highest level of efficiency, which resulted from the business characteristics of the government supported conglomerate companies.

There is strong and growing evidence of the importance of leadership and management factors influence on employee engagement and discretionary effort. However, the problem is that there has been limited recent effort to review where research gaps exit and provide a direction to guide future research. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated perspective on the influence of leadership and management factors on employee engagement and discretionary effort.

The review of the literature includes empirical research and case studies related to employee engagement and discretionary effort from various databases such as Business Premier, Cambridge University Press, JSTOR, Springer, Emerald, Wiley, ProQuest and ISI Web of Science. Supporting material was also accessed from reference books regarding similar concepts and theories.

The review provides a current view of the key topics, identifies three key research gaps, suggests a refined, up-to-date definition of both employee engagement and discretionary effort, and proposes a conceptual framework to inform future research. In doing so, it offers new directions for progressing studies on these critical workplace practices and behaviours particularly the inclusion of national culture as a moderating variable when investigating or implementing employee engagement and discretionary effort strategies.

Findings are based on existing literature and require empirical testing. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Undertaking a review of the literature is an important part of any research and this review aims to organise, describe and appraise the current literature with a view to gaining a critical perspective for the benefit of researchers.