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Stab-resistant body armor (SRBA) is used to protect the body from sharp knives. However, most SRBA materials currently have the disadvantages of large weight and thickness. This paper aims to prepare lightweight and high-performance SRBA by 3D printing truss structure and resin-filling method.

The stab resistance truss structure was prepared by the fused deposition modeling method, and the composite structure was formed after filling with resin for dynamic and quasi-static stab tests. The optimized structural plate can meet the standard GA68-2019. Digital image correlation technology was used to analyze the local strain changes during puncture. The puncture failure mode was summarized by the final failure morphologies. The explicit dynamics module in ANSYS Workbench was used to analyze the design of the overlapped structure stab resistance process in this paper.

The stab resistance performance of the 3D-printed structural plate is affected by the internal filling pattern. The stab resistance performance of 3D-printed structural parts was significantly improved after resin filling. The 50%-diamond-PLA-epoxy, with a thickness of only 5 mm was able to meet the stab resistance standard. Resins are used to increase the strength and hardness of the material but also to increase crack propagation and reduce the toughness of the material. The overlapping semicircular structure was inspired by the exoskeleton structure of the demon iron beetle, which improved the stab resistance between gaps. The truss structure can effectively disperse stress for toughening. The filled resin was reinforced by absorbing impact energy.

The 3D-printed resin-filled truss structure can be used to prepare high-performance stab resistance structural plates, which balance the toughness and strength of the overall structure and ultimately reduce the thickness and weight of the SRBA.

Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship between immortality and the wellness and medical tourism industry to seek potential relationships between them and ultimately, asks difficult questions about the growth of these tourism sectors and the potential need for greater regulation of them.

Taking a pragmatic philosophical approach and through the examination of refined information from secondary sources and published material and reports, the study presents original theoretical knowledge and a model exploring tourism and human immortality.

This paper argues that continued growth in the wellness and medical markets today could lead to a world where transhumanists and cyborgs are present in our world, even taking over from Homo sapiens. The study presents a model highlighting the potential role of wellness and medical tourism markets, illustrating the potential for future consumer services that could further fuel the search for immortality. Thus, how such markets and consumer desires are (in)directly supporting humanities desire for (non-human) immortal existence.

Today, individuals are driven by wellness practices and medical and cosmetic desires and are willing to travel the globe in search of companies who are either capable of carrying out the desired procedures or seeking prices more affordable to them. This research offers novel insights into these complex relationships and maps the affiliation between wellness and medical practices and the concept of immortality.

The article aims to present a new aspect of “the emergent identities” in Thailand with a correlation between morality and religiosity. The research deals with the perception of 65 Thai male-to-female transgender sex workers who are currently working in sex tourism in Pattaya and Bangkok. This article explores the role religion plays, the linkages between sexualities, and the potential for Thai Theravada Buddhist individuals to understand the way that they cope with life and interpret its meaning among these sexual minorities. Finally, the article shows how Thai marginalized Theravada Buddhists are negotiating their gendered religious spaces in Thailand.

The study investigates perceptions of religion and its role in the lives of Thai Buddhist male-to-female transgender sex workers. Almost all the qualitative data was collected sequentially through (1) focus group discussions, (2) small group discussions, and (3) in-depth interviews. All interview sessions took place over six months in 2019. The researcher is a native Thai speaker and conducted the interviews in Thai with selected sex workers over 20 years old who have at least one year of experience engaging in sex work.

The research found three principal characteristics of “lived religion” in which emergent identities negotiate sexuality and morality: (1) Buddhist dequeering (the way Buddhism operates conservatively to reinforce heteronormativity), (2) queering Buddhism amidst multiple oppressions (how Buddhism operates to complement queer identity and empowerment), and (3) queering Buddhism as enlightenment (Buddhism with an emphasis on “practice” and “spiritual development”). The paper discusses how institutional Buddhism creates and recreates gendered identities in complex ways.

The article shows how Thai marginalized Theravada-Buddhism are negotiating their gendered religious spaces and “buy” the right to sexual and anatomy within their families and society by providing financial support, engaging in religion practices, donating in social charity projects base on their faith and capacity.

The paper is supporting human right movements and dignity for sexual minorities gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender questioning, intersex (LGBTQI+) in Thailand. The paper also promotes equality to all human beings and shows a struggle for the basic human rights of sexual minorities in religion. The paper is raising awareness to religion's rights for all to look beyond distinctions of gender and class which may help to shape future history.

This article examines how Thai transgender sex workers utilize the non-essentialist philosophy of Theravada Buddhism. The paper finds that respondents are negotiating their religious spaces through the linkages among their gender, body, embodiment, identities, and sexualities. Despite most respondents believe that being born “a kathoey” as a result of bad karma, they use the Buddhist teachings of karma to explain their identities and even to lead a meaningful life to gain more merits for a better rebirth.

Thailand still lacks research on queer spiritualities and Buddhism. The article has seen challenges to the human rights of sexual minorities in religion. The solution is to increase awareness of the concepts of sex, gender, and sexualities and broaden the understanding of “endless performativity” and “gender diversification” (Butler, 1990) for gender sensitivity and gender responsiveness in creating “social equality” for all member societies in public campaigns, and media launched by the state and NGOs.

There is sufficient literature on green knowledge regarding supplier selections. Notwithstanding, there are hardly any empirical studies that analyze green knowledge toward supplier selection through the lenses of green intellectual capital (GIC). This paper aims to analyze green knowledge development toward supplier selection through the lenses of GIC.

This study uses an exploratory case study approach involving seven public universities in Ghana. A purposive sampling technique was used in selecting respondents who were interviewed through face-to-face and focus group discussions with a semistructured interview guide. Atlas ti software was used to generate themes for discussion.

The findings of this study attribute the nonapplication of green criteria to supplier selection to low knowledge among practitioners. Training, collaboration, opportunities for further studies and affiliation with professional bodies were identified as means to enhance green knowledge. Green human capital factors that support knowledge enhancement include commitment, capability, skills and ease of understanding.

Green procurement practitioners in public universities in developing countries stand little chance of integrating green criteria into supplier selection if they do not develop their level of knowledge.

Selecting green suppliers is a complex issue for public organizations, particularly universities. This study would therefore help equip managers of public universities and procurement practitioners with the relevant GIC knowledge for the successful integration of green credentials into supplier selection.

This paper highlights the importance of knowledge in green supplier selection. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, analyzing the role of GIC in knowledge development is considered the first of this kind of study.

While exploring the information experience within multispecies families, the subjective nature of humans and non-human entities, living beings and non-living objects becomes evident. This paper aims to reveal the underlying significance of information within socio-physical living environments shared among humans, cats and dogs as companions.

Gaining inspiration from the information experience approach and posthumanism, this is a phenomenological paper. Empirical material related to lived experiences of participating families were gathered through multispecies ethnography methods, followed by phenomenological reflections. The paper has been written based on excerpt-commentary-units and the inclusion of videos and images as an approach to convey the richness of the lived experiences and multiple perspectives.

Findings are organised into three main sections, each capturing lived experiences of information and its utilization from various frames. The paper shows how living beings, both human and animal, use their physical, sensual and moving bodies to acquire and convey information to and from each other. Moving beyond the living beings, the study discusses how non-living objects in the physical environment of a multispecies family also shape information. Material objects, spatial locations and even plants became sources of information for the family members. Lastly, the paper delves into the social environment of the family, where all members, human and animal, are actively shaped by information within their social interactions and companionship.

Considering information distributed across species and material objects in a shared, more-than-human environment, the article suggests implications for an information experience approach. It emphasizes how information shapes the in-between humans, animals and their environment, highlighting their reliance on each other for understanding and living a good shared life. There is a need for future research to explore the information experience within the internal subjective minds of members of multispecies families, bridging the gap in the understanding of these external information and their internal information processes.

This paper is determined to examine the role of body image and materialism in predicting the identity exploration of university students when conspicuous consumption is a mediator variable.

The study used a quantitative method. Data were collected from students of three federal universities in Nigeria. The sample size was 331. A self-report questionnaire was used to collect data and analysis was performed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Findings reveal that materialism has a negative association in predicting the identity exploration of students. At the same time, there was a significant full and partial mediating effect of conspicuous consumption on the relationship between body image and materialism on identity exploration, respectively.

The study provides valuable information for parents in understanding how conspicuous consumption may influence their children’s identity formation. The findings can also be helpful for educators in the design of discussions and interventions for students on the social-psychological antecedents of conspicuous consumption and identity exploration. Government and regulatory agencies can use the study’s findings to shape student financial literacy and consumer protection policies.

This study makes both theoretical and methodological contributions to the existing literature. It provided concrete empirical evidence establishing a subtle connection between the symbolic self-completion theory and the identity status paradigm. It is also amongst the first single research conducted within the scope of these two theories in the Nigerian higher education context.

This paper aims to develop a specific type of mobile nonrigid support friction stir welding (FSW) robot, which can adapt to aluminum alloy trucks for rapid online repair.

The friction stir welding robot is designed to complete online repair according to the surface damage of large aluminum alloy trucks. A rotatable telescopic arm unit and a structure for a cutting board in the shape of a petal that was optimized by finite element analysis are designed to give enough top forging force for welding to address the issues of inadequate support and significant deformation in the repair process.

The experimental results indicate that the welding robot is capable of performing online surface repairs for large aluminum alloy trucks without rigid support on the backside, and the welding joint exhibits satisfactory performance.

Compared with other heavy-duty robotic arms and gantry-type friction stir welding robots, this robot can achieve online welding without disassembling the vehicle body, and it requires less axial force. This lays the foundation for the future promotion of lightweight equipment.

The designed friction stir welding robot is capable of performing online repairs without dismantling the aluminum alloy truck body, even in situations where sufficient upset force is unavailable. It ensures welding quality and exhibits high efficiency. This approach is considered novel in the field of lightweight online welding repairs, both domestically and internationally.

Resin-based friction materials are the most widely used key materials in industry for braking and transmission. However, the friction coefficient of resin-based friction materials significantly decreases at temperatures above 300°C, which reduces their friction performance.

This study combines elevated-temperature mechanical experiments with friction and wear experiments to explain the thermal degradation resistance performance and temperature recovery performance of resin-based friction materials. It also investigates the influence of friction material strength and worn morphology on the friction coefficient of materials at elevated temperature.

The experimental results show that the increase in friction coefficient of friction materials below 300°C is mainly due to the increase in worn morphology characterization parameters, and the thermal degradation phenomenon above 300°C is mainly due to the decrease of shear strength of friction film. Basalt fiber can significantly improve the thermal degradation resistance of friction materials. The friction coefficient of basalt fiber-reinforced specimens after thermal degradation reaches 0.421–0.443, which is 19–25% higher than the original. The thermal decay rate is 9.03–11.0%, which is 7.9–9.87% lower than the original. Moreover, the friction coefficient has good cooling recovery performance.

Revealed the thermal degradation mechanism of resin-based friction materials, verified that basalt fibers can improve the thermal degradation resistance of friction materials and provided reference for the development of new friction materials.