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The purpose of this paper is to analyze theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ) in terms of knowledge, skill, workload and affect to understand its effectiveness in enabling designers to achieve their optimized mental performance.

TASKS framework, which aims to capture the causal relations among Task workload, affect, skills, knowledge and mental stress, is adopted as our methodology. The framework supports the analysis of how a methodology influence designer’s affect, skills, knowledge and workload. TRIZ-related publications are assessed using the TASKS framework to identify the barriers and enablers in TRIZ-supported design.

TRIZ has limitations on its logic and tools. Nevertheless, it could create a beneficial impact on mental performance of designers.

This paper provides a theory-driven TRIZ usability analysis based on the materials in the literature following the TASKS framework. The impact of TRIZ, as an enabler or a barrier, has been analyzed in accomplishing a design task.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism how the platform obtains and uses undisclosed information to determine individual borrowers’ credit score and to examine the effectiveness of credit scoring in predicting default. The motivation stems from the fact that there is little evidence about the role of P2P platform, which has been positioned as a kind of information intermediary.

Using a sample of 5,176 unsecured P2P loans having expired before December 31, 2015 on Renrendai.com and an approach of two-stage regression, the paper first estimates the undisclosed information embedded in credit score by regressing credit score on four types of public information about a borrower’s creditworthiness. Then, the authors use a Logit regression to examine the role of the excess information in predicting the default probability.

The certification information provided by the platform is the most important determinant for a borrower’s credit score and the undisclosed information embedded in credit score can predict the loan performance better than the public information of posted listings. Moreover, the predictive ability of the undisclosed information is better for high-risk borrowers than for low-risk ones.

Providing a credit score for each individual is a way for P2P platforms to play an information intermediary role. More evidence about whether or how a platform plays its role are worthy to be exploited by investigating a platform’s operating policies in detail and doing cross-platform comparative studies.

The results about the effect of various types of information on loan performance can provide an insightful guidance for P2P platforms to optimize their mechanism on information disclosure and credit scoring.

The existing literature mainly focuses on the effects of information voluntarily disclosed by borrowers and the behaviors of investors on P2P lending outcomes. The paper highlights the information intermediary role played by the platform and presents empirical evidence that credit scoring for individual borrowers is a way for P2P platforms to promote the direct lending for individual.

Vector Autoregression (VAR) has been a standard empirical tool used in macroeconomics and finance. In this paper we discuss how to compare alternative VAR models after they are estimated by Bayesian MCMC methods. In particular we apply a robust version of deviance information criterion (RDIC) recently developed in Li, Zeng, and Yu (2014b) to determine the best candidate model. RDIC is a better information criterion than the widely used deviance information criterion (DIC) when latent variables are involved in candidate models. Empirical analysis using US data shows that the optimal model selected by RDIC can be different from that by DIC.

The time complexity of most multiple sequence alignment algorithm is O(N2) or O(N3) (N is the number of sequences). In addition, with the development of biotechnology, the amount of biological sequences grows significantly. The traditional methods have some difficulties in handling large-scale sequence. The proposed Lemk_MSA method aims to reduce the time complexity, especially for large-scale sequences. At the same time, it can keep similar accuracy level compared to the traditional methods.

LemK_MSA converts multiple sequence alignment into corresponding 10D vector alignment by ten types of copy modes based on Lempel-Ziv. Then, it uses k-means algorithm and NJ algorithm to divide the sequences into several groups and calculate guide tree of each group. A complete guide tree for multiple sequence alignment could be constructed by merging guide tree of every group. Moreover, for large-scale multiple sequence, Lemk_MSA proposes a GPU-based parallel way for distance matrix calculation.

Under this approach, the time efficiency to process multiple sequence alignment can be improved. The high-throughput mouse antibody sequences are used to validate the proposed method. Compared to ClustalW, MAFFT and Mbed, LemK_MSA is more than ten times efficient while ensuring the alignment accuracy at the same time.

This paper proposes a novel method with sequence vectorization for multiple sequence alignment based on Lempel-Ziv. A GPU-based parallel method has been designed for large-scale distance matrix calculation. It provides a new way for multiple sequence alignment research.

The circular economy (CE) represents an industry-wide transition from linear to circular processes. There has been a proliferation of literature on CE in the last decade. However, the existing studies on the adaption of CE in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are scarce. This study aims to develop a research agenda and the way forward for future researchers focusing on the adoption of CE.

This article analyses the CE concepts through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Coding and content analysis are performed to generate emergent themes with the help of “Atlas.ti” software.

The authors uncovered the contemporary significance of adopting CE and the state-of-the-art literature on CE. The study's findings fall into four broad themes: Technical know-how, resource and process optimization, reverse practices and technology and innovation. Ten thought-provoking questions were identified in the four themes that researchers can explore further in embracing CE to achieve sustainability in SMEs.

The study has highlighted the importance of CE adoption and CE's benefits to stakeholders across all three dimensions, i.e. social, economic and ecological. Practitioners can use the agenda in four themes to strengthen the practitioners' existing practices in SMEs to promote CE.

The study's uniqueness is the supply of current knowledge from diverse literature and practical consequences for SMEs. This study opens new lines of inquiry to adopt CE in SMEs, streamlining the existing literature into four themes to focus future research.

This paper aims to investigate the effects on coatings performance in the epoxy silicone resin system owing to the existence of the different chain length of open-chain epoxy monomer. In this paper, [4-Methylphenyl-(4–(2-methylpropyl) phenyl)]iodonium as photoinitiator was added into epoxy silicone resin by ultraviolet (UV)-cured polymerization to investigate the effects on coatings performance owing to the existence of the different chain length of open-chain epoxy monomer.

A simple hydrosilylation reaction was used to synthesize epoxy-based silicone prepolymers by using hydrogen-terminated polydimethylsiloxane, 1,2-epoxy-5-hexene, 1,2-epoxy-7-octene and 1,2-epoxy-9-decene as precursors.

The results revealed that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) and hydrophobicity increased with the chain length of open-chain epoxy monomer in the UV curable epoxy-based silicone coatings, and these films had excellent heat resistance, hydrophobicity, antigraffiti and ink removal properties.

The cationic photocuring systems are not susceptible to the effect of oxygen inhibition. However, the limitation of cationic light curing process is that it requires a long curing time.

The coatings prepared via the UV curing approach can provide superior antismudge effects, and thus they are promising candidates for use in various industries, especially in fields such as antismudge coatings and antigraffiti coatings.

Business Model Analysis is acquiring increasing visibility in the European banking regulatory framework, following the European Banking Authority guidelines on common procedures and methodologies for the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP), developed to assess business and strategic risks (EBA, 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c). Starting from a selected literature review, in the paper, the authors analyse business models set up by financial intermediaries, bank and non-banks, for the distribution of investment services, first by comparing European niche players with European banking global players, and second, comparing European niche players among themselves to understand the evolution of business models for the distribution of investment services at European level. The research is supported by the Baffi–Carefin Research Centre at the Bocconi University (Italy), in collaboration with ANASF, the Italian Association of Financial Advisors (Italy).

The authors consider a sample of European financial players from 2009 to 2014. The authors’ focus is on France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and the UK; overall the authors’ handmade data set is based on 162 annual reports. The authors follow two main questions: Do the niche players, as they are focused on the distribution of investment services, have an upper limit to profitability, compared to the global players, as risk-takers in many financial areas? How is the business model of niche players changing, facing increasing competition and regulatory pressures?

Answering the first research question, the highest net profitability is found in the niche players group; the global players, as risk-takers, achieve lower remuneration, in contrast with the risk premium theory. The results were assessed over a limited period, however, deemed in line with the company’s strategic planning horizon. Answering the second research question, the authors focus on the case of niche players, using a cluster analysis. The authors identify three different business models: most dynamic niche players, which combine investment services, insurance and welfare services, achieving the highest margins and stability; players mainly focused on asset management, whose key vulnerability is the degree of open architecture, especially in light of future MiFID 2 implementation; and players mainly focused on the creation of well-structured on-line platforms, which offer also brokerage services, thereby reducing their marginality and potentially increasing their business risk.

Despite the limited time series, the authors’ research gives some inputs for those interested in deepening the business model analysis focus on the distribution of investment services and the business and strategic risk assessment, both for the global banks and the niche players (banks and non-banks).

The authors’ results could be of some interest during the strategic assessment of global banks and niche players, both adopting an internal perspective or an external one, as regulator.

By giving some specific insights into the assessment and comparison of business and strategic risks among global and niche players, the authors’ research provides the basis for further research in the field of the distribution of investment services.

The originality mainly regards the business model risk perspective and the focus of the authors’ analysis: the distribution of investment services. This sector, unlike the asset management, does not have an easily recognisable group of comparables at European level, all the European countries analysed have very different business models. This research avails of an original database, that is unique to Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel multivariate fractional grey model termed GM(a, n) based on the classical GM(1, n) model. The new model can provide accurate prediction with more freedom, and enrich the content of grey theory.

The GM(α, n) model is systematically studied by using the grey modelling technique and the forward difference method. The optimal fractional order a is computed by the genetic algorithm. Meanwhile, a stochastic testing scheme is presented to verify the accuracy of the new GM(a, n) model.

The recursive expressions of the time response function and the restored values of the presented model are deduced. The GM(1, n), GM(a, 1) and GM(1, 1) models are special cases of the model. Computational results illustrate that the GM(a, n) model provides accurate prediction.

The GM(a, n) model is used to predict China’s total energy consumption with the raw data from 2006 to 2016. The superiority of the GM(a, n) model is more freedom and better modelling by fractional derivative, which implies its high potential to be used in energy field.

It is the first time to investigate the multivariate fractional grey GM(α, n) model, apply it to study the effects of China’s economic growth and urbanization on energy consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to ensure adequate thermal management to remove and dissipate the heat produced by a light-emitting diode (LED) and to guarantee reliable and safe operation.

A three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to analyze the distribution of fluid velocities among microchannels at four different aspect ratios.

The results showed that at the same inlet flow rate, the larger the aspect ratio of the microchannels, the better the uniformity of the internal fluid velocity and thus better the heat dissipation performance on the surface of the high-power LED chip. In addition, the thermal performance of a high-power LED water cooling system with four different aspect ratios’ microchannel structures is further studied experimentally. Specifically, the coupling effect between the fluid velocity distribution in the microchannels and the heat dissipation performance of a high-power LED water cooling system is qualitatively analyzed and compared with the simulation results of the fluid velocity distribution. The results fully demonstrated that a larger aspect ratio of the microchannels results in better heat dissipation performance on the surface of the high-power LED chip.

Optimizing the structural parameters to facilitate a relatively uniform velocity distribution to improve the water cooling system performance may be a key factor to be considered.