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Design, fabricate and evaluate all-solid-state wearable sensor systems that can monitor ion concentrations in human sweat to provide real time health analysis and disease diagnosis capabilities.

A human health monitoring system includes disposable customized flexible electrode array and a compact signal transmission-processing electronic unit.

Patterned rGO (reduced-graphene oxide) layers can replace traditional metal electrodes for the fabrication of free-standing all solid film sensors to provide improved flexibility, sensitivity, selectivity, and stability in ion concentration monitoring. Electrochemical measurements show the open circuit potential of current selective electrodes exhibit near Nernst responses versus Na+ and K+ ion concentration in sweat. These signals show great stability during a typical measurement period of 3 weeks. Sensor performances evaluated through real time measurements on human subjects show strong correlations between subject activity and sweating levels, confirming high degree of robustness, sensitivity, reliability and practicality of current sensor systems.

In improving flexibility, stability and interfacial coherency of chemical sensor arrays, rGO films have been the developed as a high-performance alternative to conventional electrode with significant cost and processing complexity reduction. rGO supported solid state electrode arrays have been found to have linear potential response versus ion concentration, suitable for electrochemical sensing applications. Current sweat sensor system has a high degree of integration, including electrode arrays, signal processing circuits, and data visualization interfaces.

This paper aims to find a new method that could be applied to the high and mid-grade prosthesis knee joint.

Based on analysis, calculation, modeling, simulation and experimental study of the motion law of knee joint, this paper not only determines the structure and parameters of the knee joint and calculates the instantaneous center but also analyzes the stance stability and completes the optimization. With the help of experimental tests (fatigue test and gait curve test), the quality and performance of the designed knee joint is verified.

The experimental results show that the gait curve of the designed knee joint is much closer to health people. The designed prosthesis knee joint, with adjustable swing speed and gait curve which are close to health limb, has a better performance when compared to the ordinary knee joint with four-bar linkage structure.

This paper developed a prosthesis knee joint based on a novel design method that could be applied to the “high and mid” grade prosthesis knee joint and verified its function on an amputee performed the lower amputation, which could provide theoretical support for researches and designs related to prosthesis knee joint in future.

The purpose of this study is to clarify both tensile and shear strength for self-drilling screws, which are manufactured from high-strength, martensitic-stainless and austenitic stainless-steel bars, and the load-bearing capacity of single overlapped screwed connections using steel sheets and self-drilling screws at elevated temperatures.

Tensile/shear loading tests for the self-drilling screw were conducted to obtain basic information on the tensile and shear strengths at elevated temperatures and examine the relationships between both. Shear loading tests for the screwed connections at elevated temperatures were conducted to examine the shear strength and transition of failure modes depending on the test temperature.

The tensile and shear strengths as well as the reduction factors at the elevated temperature for each steel grade of the self-drilling screw were quantified. Furthermore, either screw shear or sheet bearing failure mode depending on the test temperature was observed for the screwed connection.

The transition of the failure modes for the screwed connection could be explained using the calculation formulae for the shear strengths at elevated temperatures, which were proposed in this study.

This paper aims to explore patient to care provider reverse exchanges to improve the care processes and service supply chain using an online feedback platform. This paper demonstrates how a better understanding of timely and unsolicited feedback (“voice of the patient as a customer”) stimulates local interventions to improve service delivery and enact the essential characteristics of highly reliable organisations (HRO).

A realist approach involving an exploratory hospital case study using user feedback from an IT patient feedback platform. The methodology included interviews, secondary data and access to thousands of patient feedback narratives.

The findings show that a systems approach to the supply chain, using real-time feedback to enact process improvement is beneficial and a fruitful source of innovation for professional services staff. The setting of the improvement focusses on a true “voice of the customer” rather than attempting to improve arbitrarily internal process efficiency has major benefits for staff and their engagement with the right interventions to support higher performance.

The findings show major positive benefits for the adaptation and constant reflection of staff on the service provided to patients. The approach provides a means of reflecting as to whether the current supply chain and service provision are fit for purpose, as well as reliable, efficient and of value to the consumer.

This study is one of a few that adopt the consumer orientation needed to fully exploit the concepts of patient-centric improvement by including dynamic feedback in the supply chain and systems approach to care.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of attachment to social media influencer between authenticity and enjoyment and then travel intention while watching social media influencer video.

This study used the survey approach to collect responses from respondents who have watched the social media influencer video. Partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was applied for the data analysis.

The results indicated that authenticities positively impact tourist attachment to social media influencer, enjoyment and hence visit intention. Attachment to social media influencer mediates the relationships between authenticities and enjoyment.

This study proposes and examines the role of attachment to social media influencers as a mediator between authenticities and tourist responses, which provided meaningful theoretical and practical insights for the future research on social media influencers.

本研究旨在调查网络红人依赖在真实性和享受之间的中介作用, 以及在观看网络红人视频时的旅行意愿。

本研究采用问卷调查方法, 收集观看网络红人视频的受访者的回答, 使用PLS结构方程模型技术进行数据分析。

结果表明, 真实性对游客对网络红人的依赖、享受和参观意愿具有积极影响。网络红人依赖在真实性和享受之间起到中介作用。

本研究提出并检验了网络红人依赖作为真实性和游客反应之间的中介角色, 为未来关于网络红人的研究提供了有意义的理论和实践基础。

The business environment is fraught with risks and crises. Yet, in spite of the uncertainties faced, many construction companies were not aware of business continuity management (BCM), nor have they implemented BCM within their organizations. The purpose of this study is to understand the reasons behind this observation.

A questionnaire survey was conducted with large construction companies in China, Hong Kong and Singapore to identify the threats and crises faced by these organizations. The survey findings were aggregated with a view to understanding why BCM is not widely implemented in construction companies.

The survey findings were mapped against the Institutional Compliance Framework to explain the behavior of construction companies pertaining to BCM implementation. The study suggests that rational choice theory, normative theory and cultural‐cognitive theory provide useful pointers to understanding the decisions made and the actions that should be taken to encourage more construction companies to adopt, develop and implement BCM in their organizations.

Through a three‐country survey, the study presents the threats and crises that construction companies have identified in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. More significantly, the study provides, for the first time, a theoretical underpinning to explain how construction companies may receive BCM and the measures that decision makers can take to encourage these organizations to pay more attention strategically to BCM in their operations.

Internationalization has emerged as a vital catch-up strategy for firms in emerging markets. Although external knowledge search has been widely acknowledged as an important way within the internationalization process, there appear to be opposing views as to whether local or international knowledge search contributes more for firms’ internationalization. This paper aims to integrate organizational ambidexterity and external knowledge search theory to define the concept of external knowledge search ambidexterity and empirically test the impact of the balance dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and combined dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity on internationalization and the moderating effect of organizational slack and environmental munificence.

Survey.

Based on survey data of 219 Chinese manufacturing firms, the authors find that both relative balance and combined dimensions of external knowledge search ambidexterity are positively associated with internationalization. Organizational slack and environmental munificence both negatively moderate the relationship between balance dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and internationalization, both positively moderate the relationship between combined dimension of external knowledge search ambidexterity and internationalization.

It is essential for managers to take different external knowledge sources into consideration, so as to both maximize revenues and profits from advanced technological knowledge and foreign marketing knowledge in foreign markets and geographic proximity advantages in local market, while minimizing the risks of lacking of adaptive capacity for lacking of knowledge about international markets and cost of coordination and communication because of long geographical distance and cultural difference.

The findings help us better understand the knowledge seeking activities of emerging economy multinationals by proposing that the balance and combination of local and international knowledge search both can promote internationalization, especially on the background of China. The results also enrich the organizational ambidexterity research and extend it to external knowledge search field.

According to the current body of literature published, the outbreak of coronavirus is estimated to have an immense influence both on the supply and demand sides of the tourism industry. The lockdown and the risk of disease has in/directly forced consumers to respond to their regular life patterns in general and consumption patterns in tourism, travel and hospitality operations in particular. Consumers have mostly begun using online shopping platforms for varying reasons, and online platforms have become a great opportunity for businesses to transform their regular operations and collect the individualized data of consumers across the globe. On the other hand, the service providers have had a short break in their operations by thinking about different ways on how to respond to possible changes both in production and consumption patterns. For instance, passengers, particularly those who are elderly and less risk aversive, are less likely to board on flights and take cruise tours in the short term. Using own cars instead of benefiting from car rental services, on the other hand, have appeared to be an alternative way of travelling to short-haul destinations. As a result, this chapter aims to provide a generic discussion of how the coronavirus is likely to influence the services operated by the aviation industry. The chapter, to a greater extent, benefits from the results of existing conceptual/empirical studies, media news as well as the reports of various international organizations such as UNWTO and IATA.

This chapter explained the findings of a research that is aimed at studying the effectiveness of cross-border knowledge transfer from Japanese companies to their business affiliates in Malaysia by looking into Japanese organizational culture and the mediating effect of the business affiliate’s learning intent. By focusing on attributes identified by existing literature, there were three aspects being investigated to study their roles in influencing the effectiveness of cross-border knowledge transfer. These aspects are intensive and extensive job training, employee involvement and human relations, and leadership styles. The results indicate that all three aspects indeed led to a higher learning intention. The research also found that the business affiliates’ learning intent significantly mediates the relationship between organizational culture and the effectiveness of cross-border knowledge transfer. This study provides academicians and human resource managers deeper insights on how to improve knowledge transfer in cross-culture organizations by managing organizational culture more effectively.