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Article
Publication date: 18 April 2017

Heeran Lee, Kyunghi Hong and Yejin Lee

The seams of slim fit outdoor pants can be uncomfortable or even restrict body movement. To reduce discomfort, the authors need to determine optimal cutting lines in various…

Abstract

Purpose

The seams of slim fit outdoor pants can be uncomfortable or even restrict body movement. To reduce discomfort, the authors need to determine optimal cutting lines in various designs that do not interfere with body movement. The purpose of this paper is to apply skin deformation mapping during movement to the ergonomic design of outdoor pants, focusing in particular on the 2D pattern generation of the crotch area in a 3D shape during movement.

Design/methodology/approach

A 3D shape and skin length deformation of the lower body were observed, including the crotch area, which is difficult to examine on the human body. To design ergonomic and streamlined outdoor pants, the authors selected seam lines where the changes in skin deformation are at their minimum based on the skin deformation mapping. In addition, the inseam along the medial thigh close to the crotch was removed to adjust the skin length of these areas, thereby increasing the extensible area of fabric necessary to adjust to a skin deformation. After selecting the seam lines, each of the 3D pattern blocks was generated by means of a 2D flattening method. In addition, the stress distribution of overlapped replica blocks along the crotch line during the 2D flattening process is a main independent factor to avoid deteriorating lower body movement as well as a good appearance.

Findings

Based on the results of skin deformation mapping of a human subject, this study suggested that it is best that the design line crosses where there is no skin deformation possible. And the pants were developed without the inner seam line at the upper medial thigh because of skin deformation of a large range of ±6 percent in the upper medial thigh during a 90° knee flexion or in the squatting down position. In a wear test, the developed 3D pattern without an inseam was rated higher than that with an inseam. This verified that removing the inseam, to prevent skin deformation of the medial upper thigh during knee flexion and squatting, is a logical decision. Regarding the correction of the overlapping area during arrangement of the replica, the appearance of the front of the pants was improved when 80 percent of the overlapping area was distributed near the point of the error source, which is the front of the male’s crotch line.

Originality/value

In this study, the crotch area, which has been difficult to observe in previous studies, were observed thoroughly and it was found that the length of the crotch curve did not increase during movement. In addition, skin deformation was mapped during a 90° knee flexion or in the squatting down position. It is expected that the overall process of developing 3D streamlined outdoor pants from 3D skin deformation mapping can be expanded to the development of patterns for other customized functional pants.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 December 2017

Malak Al Hattab, Emile Zankoul, Mohammad Barakat and Farook Hamzeh

With tower cranes being the site hubs, thoroughly planning and managing their operations can result in better construction performance. As urban spaces become more constricted…

Abstract

Purpose

With tower cranes being the site hubs, thoroughly planning and managing their operations can result in better construction performance. As urban spaces become more constricted, overlapping working radii of tower cranes becomes inevitable. While project planners are concerned with safety hazards, research has not comprehensively addressed workload distribution and synchronization of overlapping cranes. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the impact of overlapping cranes, used on high-rise buildings, on operational flexibility which is the balance between schedule duration, crane utilization and safety.

Design/methodology/approach

A simulation model was developed and applied on a real project to analyze and compare the impacts of different overlap sizes. Seven scenarios of different overlap sizes, i.e. different number of tasks falling in the overlap space, were executed in the model; their results were plotted and analyzed.

Findings

The outcomes result from several compounded factors such as the experience of planners and crane operators, the sequencing of critical versus non-critical activities and the overall effort and care taken when planning operations of overlapping cranes. Increasing overlap size can be beneficial or unfavorable depending on how properly planners allocate overlapping cranes to workload demand, keeping in mind that there are certain trade-offs while achieving operational flexibility.

Originality/value

While project planners are concerned with safety hazards associated with crane overlaps, research has not been comprehensively nor proactively addressing the workload distribution and synchronization of overlapping crane processes. This study contributes to science by addressing the need to harness the flexibility in using overlapping tower cranes while minimizing the resulting interruptions and safety risks. This study sheds light on the potential benefits of allowing cranes to overlap while considering their collision free operations. Operational flexibility is seen as the balance between achieving shorter schedule durations and higher crane utilizations while maintaining collision free motion paths.

Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2008

Joseph Deutsch and Jacques Silber

This paper is an extension of Blinder's (1973) and Oaxaca's (1973) famous decomposition. While they looked at the determinants of the wage gap between two groups, this paper not…

Abstract

This paper is an extension of Blinder's (1973) and Oaxaca's (1973) famous decomposition. While they looked at the determinants of the wage gap between two groups, this paper not only considers any number of groups but it also proposes a decomposition technique that permits to analyze the determinants of the overall wage dispersion. The approach presented combines two techniques. The first one, popular in the field of income inequality measurement, concerns the breakdown of inequality by population subgroups. The second one, very common in the labor economics literature, uses Mincerian earnings functions to derive a decomposition of wage differences between two groups into components measuring, respectively, group differences in the average values of the explanatory variables, in the coefficients of these variables in the earnings functions and in the unobservable characteristics. This methodological novelty allows one to determine the exact impact of each of these three elements on the overall wage dispersion, on the dispersion within and between groups, and on the degree of overlap between the wage distributions of the various groups.

This paper goes, however, beyond a static analysis in so far as it succeeds in breaking down the change over time in the overall wage dispersion and its components (between- and within-groups dispersion and group overlapping) into elements related to changes in the value of the explanatory variables and the coefficients of these variables in the earnings functions, in the unobservable characteristics and in the relative size of the various groups.

The empirical illustration of this paper looks at data obtained from income surveys conducted in Israel in 1982, 1990, and 1998, special emphasis being put on the comparison between the earnings of new immigrants and those of natives or older immigrants.

Details

Work, Earnings and Other Aspects of the Employment Relation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-552-9

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2015

He-yong Xu, Shi-long Xing and Zheng-yin Ye

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and improve a new method of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids, which can be used to simulate the unsteady flows around…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and improve a new method of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids, which can be used to simulate the unsteady flows around rotational parts of aircraft.

Design/methodology/approach

The computational domain is decomposed into two sub-domains, namely, the rotational sub-domain which contains the rotational boundaries, and the stationary sub-domain which contains the remainder flow field including the stationary boundaries. The artificial boundaries and restriction boundaries are used as the restriction condition to generate the entire computational grid, and then the overset grids are established according to the radius parameters of artificial boundaries set previously. The deformation of rotational boundary is treated by using the linear spring analogy method which is suitable for the dynamic unstructured grid. The unsteady Navier-Stokes/Euler equations are solved separately in the rotational sub-domain and stationary sub-domain, and data coupling is accomplished through the overlapping area. The least squares method is used to interpolate the flow variables for the artificial boundary points with a higher calculating precision. Implicit lower-upper symmetric-Gauss-Seidel (LU-SGS) time stepping scheme is implemented to accelerate the inner iteration during the unsteady simulation.

Findings

The airfoil steady flow, airfoil pitching unsteady flow, three-dimensional (3-D) rotor flow field, rotor-fuselage interaction unsteady flow field and the flutter exciting system unsteady flow field are numerically simulated, and the results have good agreements with the experimental data. It is shown that the present method is valid and efficient for the prediction of complicated unsteady problems which contain rotational dynamic boundaries.

Research limitations/implications

The results are entirely based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the 3D simulations are based on the Euler equations in which the viscous effect is ignored. The current work shows further applicable potential to simulate unsteady flow around rotational parts of aircraft.

Practical implications

The current study can be used to simulate the two-dimensional airfoil pitching, 3-D rotor flow field, rotor-fuselage interaction and the flutter exciting system unsteady flow. The work will help the aircraft designer to get the unsteady flow character around rotational parts of aircraft.

Originality/value

A new type of rotational dynamic overset grids is presented and validated, and the current work has a significant contribution to the development of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, vol. 87 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2016

Peter Ping Li

The author argues and explains that the indigenous Eastern epistemological system of Yin-Yang balancing should be taken as a novel system or frame of thinking, which is deeply…

1919

Abstract

Purpose

The author argues and explains that the indigenous Eastern epistemological system of Yin-Yang balancing should be taken as a novel system or frame of thinking, which is deeply rooted in the indigenous Eastern culture traditions, but it has significant global implications, especially in the domain of paradox management. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a detailed elaboration of the indigenous Eastern epistemological system of Yin-Yang balancing in contrast to the Western logic systems; and second, to provide a roadmap for applying the system of Yin-Yang balancing to complex issues in the area of management, in general, and paradoxical issues, in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper with a focus on theory-building.

Findings

The author elaborates on the indigenous features of Yin-Yang balancing, in contrast to Aristotle’s formal logic and Hegel’s dialectical logic in the West, to further explore the former’s global implications for the increased attention to research on paradox management. In particular, the author posits that Yin-Yang balancing appears to be better suited for paradox management than the more commonly used logics available in the Western literature. Built upon the Yin-Yang balancing, a practical tool of Duality Map for paradox management is proposed.

Research limitations/implications

The system of Yin-Yang balancing proposed in this paper has the potential to embrace logical systems available in the West into a geocentric (East-meeting-West) meta-system. This paper further shows how to apply Yin-Yang balancing with the tool of Duality Map to the most salient paradoxes in the domain of management, including value-profit balance (triple bottom lines), exploration-exploitation balance (ambidexterity), cooperation-competition balance (co-opetition), globalization-localization balance (glocalization), institution-agency balance (institutional entrepreneurship), simultaneously positive and negative attitudes toward an entity (ambivalence), and etic-emic balance (geocentric) across all domains of management research.

Originality/value

The primary challenge for management researchers is to find a way to achieve a geocentric integration between the West and the East at the fundamental level of philosophy. The hope is that the philosophical traditions in the East will facilitate such integration. In particular, the Eastern philosophy of wisdom has a unique capacity to reframe paradox from a negative problem (i.e. a problem of inconsistency to be resolved by dualism in terms of separating opposite elements) to a positive solution (i.e. a solution of completeness or holism to be achieved by duality in terms of partially separating and partially integrating opposite elements).

Details

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5794

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 February 2023

Meng Li, Li Yuan Liu, Rui Zhou, Jun Yang, Qiong Qu and Haitao Song

Considering the industrial site environment and installation requirements, the straight-beam ultrasound probe with easy installation and good coupling agent adaptability is…

Abstract

Purpose

Considering the industrial site environment and installation requirements, the straight-beam ultrasound probe with easy installation and good coupling agent adaptability is adopted to replace the traditional water immersion focusing probe for film thickness measurement in cylindrical roller bearings. The straight-beam probe has a large echo receiving range, which will result in measurement regions overlapping and bring about large measurement errors. In this paper, an improved measurement method for film thickness of cylindrical roller bearing with the straight-beam probe is developed.

Design/methodology/approach

An improved method is proposed to enhance the spatial resolution of the straight-beam probe. By introducing a correction coefficient based on the percentage of the effective measurement area, the method improves the measuring accuracy successfully.

Findings

The experimental results demonstrate that the lubricant-film thickness can be measured to reasonable accuracy by this method and have a better agreement with the theoretical film thickness solutions.

Originality/value

This paper used analytical method and model that is helpful for the improvement of the spatial resolution, which has great influence on the measuring accuracy, is mainly determined by the echo reflection area size of the ultrasound transducer.

Details

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 75 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 November 2014

Jacques Defourny and Victor Pestoff

There is still no universal definition of the third sector in Europe, but it can be seen as including all types of non-governmental not-for-profit entities such as non-profit…

Abstract

There is still no universal definition of the third sector in Europe, but it can be seen as including all types of non-governmental not-for-profit entities such as non-profit organizations, mutuals, cooperatives, social enterprises and foundations. This article attempts to make sense of the current shifting conceptualization of the third sector in Europe. It is based on short country summaries of the images and concepts of the third sector in 13 European countries by EMES Network’s members, first presented in 2008 (Defourny and Pestoff, 2008; nine of them were recently revised and are found in the appendix to this article.). The perception and development of the third sector in Europe is closely related to the other major social governance institutions/mechanisms, like the market, state and community and through the third sector’s interaction with them. Moreover, many third sector organizations (TSOs) overlap with these other social institutions, resulting in varying degrees of hybridity and internal tensions experienced by them. TSOs can generate resources from their activities on the market, by providing services in partnership with the state and/or by promoting the interests of a given community or group. The country overviews document a growing professionalization of TSOs in most countries and a growing dependency of public funds to provide services. This has important theoretical and practical implications for orienting the articles included in this book. Thus, it can provide a key for better understanding the discussion and analysis in the remainder of this volume.

Details

Accountability and Social Accounting for Social and Non-Profit Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-004-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 March 2020

Salvatore Polizzi and Enzo Scannella

This paper aims to examine the market risk disclosure practices of large Italian banks. The contribution provides insights on the way banks should provide information about market…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the market risk disclosure practices of large Italian banks. The contribution provides insights on the way banks should provide information about market risk. The problem related to the asymmetric information between banks from one side, and investors and stakeholders on the other, represents a crucial issue that requires further considerations by scholars and regulators.

Design/methodology/approach

This contribution adopts a mixed methodological approach to analyse both qualitative and quantitative profiles of market risk disclosure in banking. This paper analyses the most important documents Italian banks are required to prepare for risk disclosure purposes, namely the management commentary, the Basel Pillar 3 disclosure report and the notes.

Findings

The results show that banks do not fully exploit the potentialities of management commentary and Pillar 3 disclosure report. Various areas of information overlapping between the different financial reports worsen the overall comprehensibility and relevance of bank risk reporting.

Practical implications

The reduction of the information overlapping, the careful choice of the location of the information and more appropriate use of the management commentary to provide qualitative information about market risk strategies represent crucial areas of improvement banks and regulators should take into account.

Originality/value

Providing an in-depth analysis of the market risk disclosure practices of a sample of large Italian banks, this paper detects the main drawbacks of their market risk reporting and provides useful recommendations to improve it.

Details

Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1358-1988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 August 2023

Ronnie Thomas Collins II, Claudia Algaze and Barry Z. Posner

The concepts associated with leadership and management have often been conflated, considered one and the same phenomenon by some and then considered by others to be quite…

2653

Abstract

Purpose

The concepts associated with leadership and management have often been conflated, considered one and the same phenomenon by some and then considered by others to be quite distinctive. The same ambiguity is even truer at the level of application and practicality. Only a handful of studies have attempted empirically to differentiate between the two concepts. The study sought to develop an instrument to discriminate between the two concepts.

Design/methodology/approach

A prospective study was conducted with two groups of scholars in the areas of leadership and management. They completed the exploratory Leadership/Management Concept Scale (LMCS), the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and provided demographic information. The results from the Initial group were compared with a validation group. Standard statistical techniques were used to analyze the two groups and investigate associations among the study measures.

Findings

The LMCS effectively differentiated actions associated with leadership from actions associated with management actions. There were four distinct choices consistently selected as most consistent with leadership: influencing, coaching, modeling and ensuring resilience. No significant correlations were found between scores on the LMCS and the LPI, providing evidence that the former was capturing actions other than those associated with leadership alone.

Research limitations/implications

It is empirically possible to differentiate between the actions typically associated with the concepts of leadership and management. This distinction can be invaluable in various educational programs designed to develop either or both leadership and management abilities, as well as assist in the identification of those with proclivities to one or other of the two concepts. The LMCS shows promise in reliably differentiating between the two concepts and can be useful for scholars aiming to investigate leadership or management without confounding the two.

Practical implications

There are numerous positions and organizational roles where leadership and management are differentiated, with one being much more needed than the other. The LMCS can differentiate empirically how potential candidates for leadership and/or management positions think about the two, which would allow a would-be employer to screen candidates for given opportunities and, depending on their conceptualization of leadership and management, assign them most appropriately.

Originality/value

This study fills a fundamental gap in both the leadership and management field: first in being able to provide evidence that the two concepts, while similar in some regards, are not the same and can be differentiated from each other and second, in developing an instrument (LMCS) that both practitioners and scholars can use to help their audiences better understand the differences between leadership and management and to develop actions appropriate to situational demands.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 44 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2016

Aleksey Martynov and Dina Abdelzaher

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity on the quality of problem-solving in teams that use the majority rule to aggregate…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity on the quality of problem-solving in teams that use the majority rule to aggregate heterogeneous knowledge of the team members.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses agent-based simulations to model iterative problem-solving by teams. The simulation results are analyzed using linear regressions to show the interactions among the variables in the model.

Findings

We find that knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity interact to jointly impact the optimal solution in the iterative problem-solving process of teams using majority rule decisions. Interestingly, we find that more complex problems require less knowledge overlap. Search width and knowledge overlap act as substitutes, weakening each other’s performance effects.

Research limitations/implications

The results suggest that team performance in iterative problem-solving depends on interactions among knowledge overlap, search width and problem complexity which need to be jointly examined to reflect realistic team dynamics.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that team formation and the choice of a search strategy should be aligned with problem complexity.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on problem-solving in teams. It is the first attempt to use agent-based simulations to model complex problem-solving in teams. The results have both theoretical and practical significance.

Details

Team Performance Management, vol. 22 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7592

Keywords

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