Search results

The main purpose of this study was to prepare the cotton fibers and cellulose powder by a layer of nano-crystalline-titanium dioxide (TiO₂) using the sol-gel sono-synthesis method to clean the wastewater containing reactive dye. Moreover, TiO₂ nano-materials are remarkable due to their photoactive properties and valuable applications in wastewater treatment.

In this research, TiO₂ was synthesized and deposited effectively on cotton fibers and cellulose powder using ultrasound-assisted coating. Further, tetra butyl titanate was used as a precursor to the synthesis of TiO₂ nanoparticles. Reactive dye (red 195) was used in this study. X-ray Diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were performed to prove the aptitude for the formation of crystal TiO2 on the cotton fibers and cellulose powder along with TiO₂ nanoparticles as well as to analyze the chemical structure. Decoloration of the wastewater was investigated through ultraviolet (UV-Visible) light at 30 min.

The experimental results revealed that the decolorization was completed at 2.0 min with the cellulose nano TiO₂ treatment whereas cotton nano TiO₂ treated solution contained reactive dyestuffs even after the treatment of 2 min. This was the fastest method up to now than all reported methods for sustainable decolorization of wastewater by absorption. Furthermore, this study explored that the cellulose TiO₂ nano-composite was more effective than the cotton TiO₂ nano-composite of decoloration wastewater for the eco-friendly remedy.

Cotton fibers and cellulose powder with nano-TiO₂, and only reactive dye (red 195) were tested.

With reactive dye-containing wastewater, it seems to be easier to get rid of the dye than to retain it, especially from dyeing of yarn, fabric, apparel, and as well as other sectors where dyestuffs are used.

This research would help to reduce pollution in the environment as well as save energy and cost.

Decoloration of wastewater treatment is an essential new track with nano-crystalline TiO2 to fast and efficient cleaning of reactive dyes containing wastewater used as a raw material.

In this paper, silk powder around 1.5 micrometer average in size was developed and its dyeing property was compared with normal silk fiber. The results show that silk powder has a very high dye uptake property and can be dyed at room temperature; it can also be used to improve the dyeing property of some materials when it acts as a kind of additive agent. The K/S value of silk fiber is higher than that of silk powder. Their K/S value of silk fiber and silk superfine powder are influenced largely by the dye concentration. The WXRD diffraction curves showed that the crystallinity of silk powder is lower than that of silk fiber. FTIR spectra of silk powder showed that the intensity peak of CH₂-antisymmetrical stretching vibration largely decreased, and the peak of C=O symmetrical stretching vibration of amid bond moved to the high wave-number. TG patterns of samples showed that water (moisture) could be easily removed from the powder when the temperature was over 70°C, and the initial decomposition temperature of silk powder increased from 262.5°C to 277.5°C. Moreover, the silk powder showed higher residue than that of silk fiber at 600°C.

In public firms, the largest shareholder can make decisions on cash dividends in favor of its own interests at the expense of other investors. While the second largest shareholder can actively participate in corporate governance and protect the interests of investors, its impact has not been fully understood. This research investigates how shareholding ratio and ownership type of the second largest shareholder moderate the relationship between controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio and cash dividends.

The authors conducted econometrics analysis based on a panel data of China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2017.

The authors find that the controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio has a significant negative impact on cash dividends. However, this influence is conditional on the shareholding ratio of the second largest shareholder. The negative impact is weakened when the second largest shareholder holds a large proportion of shares or when the shareholding gap between the second largest and the controlling shareholder is small.

This research extends the existing literature by highlighting the nuanced moderating effect of the second largest shareholder on the relationship between the controlling shareholder and cash dividends, thus making a unique contribution to the understanding of corporate governances in the emerging financial market in China.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of asymmetric trust on construction project management performance in China's construction industry. Moreover, the authors explore the mediating role of two types of knowledge sharing (explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing) in explaining the association between asymmetric trust and project management performance.

A theoretical model based on the research hypotheses proposed in this study was developed and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 271 professionals. The data collected was analyzed by the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

The results of this study indicate that there is a significant and negative association between asymmetric trust and project management performance. Moreover, two types of knowledge sharing (explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing) have different degrees of impact on improving project management performance. In addition, tacit knowledge sharing is a mediator between asymmetric trust and project management performance.

The data used in this study is from Chinese scenarios, so the research conclusions and application effects based on this are bound to have certain regional limitations. Besides, there are many factors that affect project management performance improving, and the relationships among them are so complex. The theoretical model proposed in this study may not be fully considered. Therefore, follow-up researchers can consider bringing more suitable variables into their researches, so that the theoretical researches can be more in line with the actual project management practice, and the specific mechanism for improving project management performance can be explained more deeply.

This research's value is as follows: Firstly, this paper contributes to the trust and relational governance literature by expanding the research perspective of mutual trust to asymmetric trust. Specially, this research designs a measurement scale for asymmetric trust and then reveals the impact mechanism of it on project management performance, which will certainly promote research paradigm change of trust. Secondly, this research is beneficial to knowledge sharing literature in the construction management field by expanding the research scope of knowledge sharing from a cross-organizational perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine visitors’ motivations for going to the South Luogu Alley, a famous hutong with an over 700-year history in Beijing, China.

The study applied a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from visitors on the main street of the South Luogu Alley.

It was found that most visitors of the hutong are casual tourists pursuing relaxation, including tension release and spending time with friends and family; seeking authenticity is not visitors’ most important motivation.

This study used only one hutong to assess visitors’ motivations in hutong tourism, so the results may not be applicable to all hutongs.

The research on the demographics and different motivations of the South Luogu Alley visitors can be useful to managers of tourism-related organizations.

This study shows that tourists with different motivations for visiting a hutong have varying requirements for authenticity. The reconstruction of some historical hutongs is not always perceived as negative, and the influence of Western cultural elements can be seen as positive if they contribute to the sustainable development of the local culture.

The term “hutonger,” which includes casual visitors, entertainment seekers, authenticity seekers and pure escapees, based on these respective motivations, is introduced to describe the specific groups of hutong visitors and contribute to the hutong tourism literature.

The purpose of this paper is to value put option contracts in hedging the risks in a supply chain consisting of a component supplier with random yield and a manufacturer facing stochastic demand for end products.

This paper adopts stochastic inventory theory, game theory, optimization theory and algorithm and MATLAB numerical simulation to investigate the manufacturer’s ordering and the supplier’s production strategies, and to study the coordination and optimization strategies in the context of random yield and demand.

The authors find that put options can not only facilitate the manufacturer’s order but also the supplier’s production, that is, the manufacturer and the supplier can effectively manage their involved risks and earn more expected profits by adopting put options. Further, the authors find that the single put option contract fails to coordinate such a supply chain. However, when combined with a protocol, it is able to coordinate the supply chain.

This paper is the first effort to study the intersection of put option contracts and random yield in the presence of a spot market. From a new perspective, the authors explore the supply chain coordination. The authors propose a mechanism to coordinate the supply chain under put option contracts.

The purpose of the paper is to predict the erosion rate of the components of centrifugal pump under certain operating condition to identify the maximum erosion area and to discuss the factors affecting them. This helps to optimize design and estimate service life.

In the paper, the Eulerian–Lagrangian approach method coupled with the erosion model to investigate the mixed sand characteristics on erosion characteristics of centrifugal pump flow-through wall. The hydraulic performance and wear characteristics experiment of the pump is used to verify the accuracy of the numerical simulation.

The blade erosion area mainly occurs near the blade inlet and the trailing edge of the pressure surface, the main erosion area of the impeller back shroud is near the outlet of the flow passage and the main erosion area of the volute is near the tongue and the I section. With the change of the average diameter and density of sand particles, the average erosion rate on different flow-through walls is positively correlated with the average mass concentration to a certain extent. However, for different sand shape factors, there is little correlation between the average erosion rate and the average mass concentration. In addition, compared with other erosion areas, the increase of average sand particle diameter and density has the greatest impact on the total erosion rate of blade pressure surface, while the shape of sand particles has a greater impact on the total erosion rate of each flow-through wall of centrifugal pump.

In this work, according to the characteristics of the mixed distribution of different sand diameters in the Yellow River Basin, the erosion characteristics of centrifugal pumps used in the Yellow River Basin are studied. The numerical calculation method for predicting the wall erosion of centrifugal pump is established and compared with the experimental results. The results can provide reference for optimizing design and increasing service life.

The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive structural model to demonstrate the interrelationships of factors influencing social networking service (SNS) fatigue and to identify the varying degrees of influence.

A total of 14 factors influencing SNS fatigue are identified through an extensive literature review. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqué à un Classement (MICMAC) analysis are employed to build a hierarchical model and classify these factors into four clusters.

The results revealed that ubiquitous connectivity and immediacy of feedback are key factors contributing to SNS fatigue through their strong influence on other factors. Privacy concern, impression management concern and work–life conflict lead directly to SNS fatigue. In contrast, system feature overload and system pace of change are relatively insignificant in generating SNS fatigue.

This study represents an initial step toward comprehensively understanding the interrelationships among the factors leading to SNS fatigue and reveals how determinants of SNS fatigue are hierarchically organized, thus extending existing research on SNS fatigue. It also provides logical consistency in the ISM-based model for SNS fatigue by grouping identified factors into dependent and independent categories. Moreover, it extends the applicability of the integration of the ISM and MICMAC approaches to the phenomenon of SNS fatigue.

The purpose of this study is to examine how knowledge integration influences entrepreneurial firms’ frugal innovation in the service industry. This study builds a moderated mediation framework to investigate the effect of knowledge integration on frugal innovation via entrepreneurial bricolage and under moderations of competitive intensity and government support.

This study uses a two-wave survey study among 278 entrepreneurial firms from the service industry in China.

The findings reveal that knowledge integration positively influences entrepreneurial firms’ frugal innovation via entrepreneurial bricolage. Competitive intensity strengthens both the direct effect of knowledge integration on entrepreneurial bricolage and the indirect effects of knowledge integration on frugal innovation via entrepreneurial bricolage. Government support buffers the effect of entrepreneurial bricolage on frugal innovation but does not influence the indirect effect of knowledge integration on frugal innovation.

This study advocates for managers in entrepreneurial firms to cultivate knowledge integration to improve frugal innovation through activating entrepreneurial bricolage strategy and to pay attention to competitive intensity and government support in the transformation process from knowledge integration to frugal innovation.

While the link between knowledge integration and frugal innovation of entrepreneurial firms in the service industry remains unexplored in the fields of knowledge and innovation management, this study contributes to the knowledge and innovation management literature by exploring the mediating role of entrepreneurial bricolage based on a knowledge-based view and the moderation roles of competitive intensity and government support in this relationship.