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In order to encourage the high-water-consumption (HWC) manufacturers to carry out water-saving transformation relying on self-strength or outsourcing to a water-saving service company (WSSC) during production processes, government subsidies are provided according to water-saving efforts (WSE) or investment cost. In this context, the authors derive the participant's equilibrium decisions and the manufacturer's water-saving strategy. Additionally, the effects of subsidies on WSE and stakeholders' profits are discussed.

Mathematical models including optimization model and Stackelberg game model are constructed under different subsidy schemes.

The study finds that (1) there exists a threshold related to the subsidy coefficient for the HWC manufacturer when choosing between self-saving and outsourcing-saving. (2) When the technological competitive advantage between WSSC and manufacturer is within a certain range, government's subsidy promotes HWC enterprises to choose outsourcing-saving. (3) Given a water-saving mode, subsidy on investment cost is more effective for the government to achieve more environmental performance.

First, subsidy endogeneity can be considered to explore the optimal interval for government subsidies to maximize social welfare. Second, in outsourcing-saving, other types of contract can be discussed. Another extension is about model uncertainties. Finally, other policies on improving water efficiency can be also examined.

The paper includes implication for HWC manufacturers to select the best water-saving mode under subsidy, and it allows policymakers to understand the efficiency of proposed subsidies.

Decisions on water-saving efforts, selection of water-saving modes and operational planning are also regarded as business strategies in the paper. Particularly, the influences of different government subsidies are also considered and compared.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and sustainability performance. In addition, this study also discusses how ambidextrous leadership affects sustainability performance through employees' green creativity and green product innovation.

This study obtained research data from a questionnaire survey of 307 manufacturing enterprise leaders in China and used regression and bootstrap analysis to test the research hypotheses.

(1) Ambidextrous leadership positively influences sustainability performance. (2) Employees' green creativity mediates the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and sustainability performance. (3) Green product innovation also mediates the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and sustainability performance. (4) The intermediary chain constructed by employees' green creativity and green product innovation has serial mediation effects on the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and sustainability performance.

This study contributes to the literature on leadership and corporate sustainability by clarifying the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and sustainability performance. Meanwhile, this study reveals the influence mechanism of ambidextrous leadership on sustainability performance by analyzing the serial mediation effects of employees' green creativity and green product innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on an optimizing maintenance policy with repair limit time for a new type of aircraft component, in which the lifetime is assumed to be an uncertain variable due to no historical operation data, and the repair time is a random variable that can be described by the experimental data.

To describe this repair limit time policy over an infinite time horizon, an extended uncertain random renewal reward theorem is firstly proposed based on chance theory, involves uncertain random interarrival times and stochastic rewards. Accordingly, the uncertain random programming model, which minimized the expected maintenance cost rate, is formulated to find the optimal repair limit time.

A numerical example with sensitivity analysis is provided to illustrate the utility of the proposed policy. It provides a useful reference and guidance for aircraft optimization. For maintainers, it plays an important guiding role in engineering practice.

The proposed uncertain random renewal reward process proved useful for the optimization of maintenance strategy with maintenance limited time for a new type of aircraft components, which provides scientific support for aircraft maintenance decision-making for civil aviation enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to predict the effect of bra pad specifications on breast deformation during jumping using a finite element (FE) method. Breast deformation is a key concern for women during exercise and can be effectively controlled with sports bras. In most studies, the deformation of breasts when wearing a sports bra is measured using motion capture devices to judge their effectiveness. However, the operation of such devices is highly complex and time-consuming. Computer-aided technology is an efficient way to simulate these experiments.

In this study, the breast model was obtained using three-dimensional (3D) scanning. Assembling models were obtained for FE analysis using reverse engineering and computer-aided design (CAD) software. The breast deformation results were obtained by completing pre-processing, solving and post-processing in the FE simulation software. To extend the application of these models, pads of different sizes and thicknesses within the bra were constructed to simulate the effect of pads on breast deformation.

The calculated root mean square errors were <1%, which indicated good agreement between the FE and experimental data in all the models. Nipple deformation was always the largest in most models. The smallest deformation occurred at the superior position of breasts in all models. In addition, larger pads were not effective in reducing breast deformation; however, thicker pads were.

The method developed in this study provides an effective way to predict breast deformation in multiple positions and is convenient for designing compression bras.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the software outsourcing teams, namely, vendors, transfer effective knowledge to enhance team performance; it reports on a study of transactive memory system (TMS) theory and makes deep analyses and discussions about the influence of the cooperative behaviors of TMS on software outsourcing team’s performance under the framework of three behavioral characteristics dimensions – specialization, credibility and coordination.

This paper is an empirical study based on investigation interviews to 28 software outsourcing teams and data of questionnaire surveys on 124 software outsourcing teams; structural equation model is used to test the data we collected.

This paper finds that both credibility and coordination have a significantly positive impact on knowledge transfer and project success, whereas specialization has a significant negative impact on project success. The results of data analysis show that TMS is an effective coordination mechanism.

The conclusion of the study can help us understand the coordination mechanism of knowledge transfer in software outsourcing team and provide theoretical support and paradigm reference for vendors in China to accumulate knowledge and improve the success rate of projects in the context of software project development.

Limited by the types of sensors, the state information available for musculoskeletal robots with highly redundant, nonlinear muscles is often incomplete, which makes the control face a bottleneck problem. The aim of this paper is to design a method to improve the motion performance of musculoskeletal robots in partially observable scenarios, and to leverage the ontology knowledge to enhance the algorithm’s adaptability to musculoskeletal robots that have undergone changes.

A memory and attention-based reinforcement learning method is proposed for musculoskeletal robots with prior knowledge of muscle synergies. First, to deal with partially observed states available to musculoskeletal robots, a memory and attention-based network architecture is proposed for inferring more sufficient and intrinsic states. Second, inspired by muscle synergy hypothesis in neuroscience, prior knowledge of a musculoskeletal robot’s muscle synergies is embedded in network structure and reward shaping.

Based on systematic validation, it is found that the proposed method demonstrates superiority over the traditional twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradients (TD3) algorithm. A musculoskeletal robot with highly redundant, nonlinear muscles is adopted to implement goal-directed tasks. In the case of 21-dimensional states, the learning efficiency and accuracy are significantly improved compared with the traditional TD3 algorithm; in the case of 13-dimensional states without velocities and information from the end effector, the traditional TD3 is unable to complete the reaching tasks, while the proposed method breaks through this bottleneck problem.

In this paper, a novel memory and attention-based reinforcement learning method with prior knowledge of muscle synergies is proposed for musculoskeletal robots to deal with partially observable scenarios. Compared with the existing methods, the proposed method effectively improves the performance. Furthermore, this paper promotes the fusion of neuroscience and robotics.

In this study the aim was to investigate under-deposit corrosion (UDC) behavior and the action effects of amino trimethylene phosphonic acid (ATMP) in the oxygen-contained solution.

Electrochemical methods and wire beam electrode techniques were used for the study of ATMP action effect for X65 steel under silica sand and CaCO₃ particle deposit. Electronic coupon technique was used for the study of galvanic effect caused by the deposits and the action effect of ATMP.

ATMP would cause localized corrosion for the silica sand-covered steel. However, it could inhibit the localized corrosion of the steel beneath CaCO₃ particle deposit. Galvanic effect test showed that the galvanic effect caused by the deposits was an important factor for the acceleration of UDC. ATMP had an obvious promotion effect for the galvanic current between bare coupon and silica sand covered coupon and different degrees of localized corrosion were observed beneath both deposits.

The authors believe that the paper may be of particular interest to the readers of the journal as the measurement methods for the UDC of X65 pipeline steel. The experiment they did in the laboratory found that the inhibitor ATMP has a good inhibition effect for bare steel, but it would accelerate the UDC. Different kinds of deposits would have different influences for the UDC behavior with inhibitor added.

This paper aims to evaluate the inhibition efficiency of thiadiazole derivatives, such as 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMTD), 5-methly-2-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (MMTD) and 2,5-dithiododecyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DDTD), in 50 mg/L hydrogen sulfide for silver strip.

Evaluation was carried out by corrosion-inhibiting test, electrochemical measurement and surface analysis techniques. 3D surface profiler, atom force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis were applied and finally confirmed the existence of the adsorbed film.

The electrochemical measurement showed that the inhibition efficiency increases with increasing inhibitor concentration in 50 mg/L hydrogen sulfide solution, while the corrosion rate and the corrosion current decrease. Weight-gained measurements also indicated that inhibitor decreases the corrosion rate in the studied solution. The adsorption of DMTD and MMTD on the silver surface obeys Temkin’s adsorption isotherm, but the adsorption of DDTD follows Langmuir’s adsorption isotherm. That means that the inhibition mechanism is different between DMTD, MMTD and DDTD. The ΔG0_ad values of DMTD, MMTD and DDTD were −37.47, −37.29 and −38.69 kJ/mol, respectively. It showed that there was an adsorption bond between silver surface and inhibitor, and the adsorption belongs to chemical adsorption.

The inhibitors have an excellent inhibition efficiency, and the best inhibition efficiency is 91.76 per cent. Inhibitors can effectively inhibit metal corrosion in the oil and gas.

This study focuses on establishing relations with some important but underestimated elements of knowledge dynamics and firm orientations to characterize organizational circular economy activities through eco-innovation (EIN). The advent of the circular economy (CE) in this post-pandemic era has brought unpredictable sustainable challenges for the manufacturing industries. This research paper aims to bring more clarity to the extant literature on the relationship between environmental innovation (EI) and CE.

In this study, a systematic literature review methodology was used to research the determinants of EI in the knowledge environment that drives the implementation of a CE.

This paper proposes a framework that articulates organizational learning and orientation dynamics and offers a new set of internal knowledge resources for a corporate CE. It is found that change toward CE requires connection with EI. However, successful CE growth largely depends on leveraging knowledge resources and orientation dynamics (stakeholder orientation, sustainability orientation, organization learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation). CE techniques are still in their early phases of adoption and their implementation is still in its development. Circular knowledge economy (CKE) has the potential to be a useful alternative to achieving thriving CE to achieve sustainability in local and global businesses operations.

This study helps companies to understand the organizational learning and different orientation dynamics for achieving CE principles. The research findings imply that EI is critical in establishing a sustainable transition toward CE through organizational learning and orientation dynamics and has garnered significant attention from academics, public policymakers and practitioners. The proposed framework can guide managers to develop sustainable policies related to the CE. This research recognizes that firm-level CKE is important in shaping how knowledge resources relate to CE within transition management literature.

This paper abridges the knowledge gap in identifying key drivers and presents the current eminence, challenges and prognostications of sustainable EI parameters in the changing climate of CE. This study builds a framework that combines insights from different viewpoints and disciplines and extends one’s understanding of the relationship between EI and CE. From a theoretical perspective, this study explains the knowledge management complexity links between EI and CE. It builds a theoretical bridge between EI and CE to illustrate how firms transition toward CE following the recommendations. Thus, researchers should continue to support their research with appropriate theories that have the potential to explain EI and CE relationship phenomena, with a particular emphasis on some promising but underutilized theories such as organizational learning, dynamic capabilities and stakeholder theories.