Search results

A successful process of design concept evaluation has positive influence on subsequent processes. This study aims to consider the evaluation information at multiple stages and the interaction among evaluators and improve the credibility of evaluation results.

This paper proposes a multi-stage approach for design concept evaluation based on complex network and bounded confidence. First, a network is constructed according to the evaluation data. Depending on the consensus degree of evaluation opinions, the number of evaluation rounds is determined. Then, bounded confidence rules are applied for the modification of preference information. Last, a planning function is constructed to calculate the weight of each stage and aggregate information at multiple evaluation stages.

The results indicate that the opinions of the evaluators tend to be consistent after multiple stages of interactive adjustment, and the ordering of design concept alternatives tends to be stable with the progress of the evaluation.

Updating preferences according to the bounded confidence rules, only the opinions within the trust threshold are considered. The attribute information of the node itself is inadequately considered.

This method addresses the need for considering the evaluation information at each stage and minimizes the impact of disagreements within the evaluation group on the evaluation results.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how people in a coastal community act upon anxieties about overexploitation of a shared resource and their attempts to ease the moral tension caused by the rapid industrialization of their fishery. This anthropological study contributes to the cross-disciplinary discussion of community-based resource management.

The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork done at the Nanfang'ao port located in northeastern Taiwan. This port has several prosperous offshore fisheries including a mackerel fishery. The mackerel fishery has undergone important transformations in recent decades. The first was a total transformation of fishing methods in 2013. The second was the government's formulation of the “Regulations for Fishing Vessels Catching Mackerels and Jacks,” implemented in 2014. This research illustrates how people in a community take various approaches to pursue sustainability for the human beings and the more-than-human world.

In Nanfang'ao port, local people have developed a meaningful cultural festival through the integration of various symbols and rituals from different contexts in an effort to call attention to moral issues associated with the mackerel fishery.

This research contributes to the discussion on community resource management of marine fishery.

This study is to reconfigure a hierarchical supply chain model utilizing databases and text files to understand future pathways due to COVID-19 pandemic has had a bullwhip effect, disrupting the global supply chain, and a mechanism is needed to address this disruptive event under pandemic uncertainties.

To address this mechanism, this study employs bibliometric analysis and text mining to reconfigure a hierarchical supply chain model under pandemic conditions and associates it with social media to conduct an intuitive visual analysis.

The current academic concerns are related to an overconcentration on risk management and a data-driven approach, generating an enormous gap between the concerns of academics and those of the public. The evidence shows that for both countries with outstanding performance and those that need improvement, the efficiency in terms of preventing the spread of the pandemic should be promoted.

This study contributes to (1) reconfiguring a hierarchical supply chain model under pandemic uncertainties and (2) bridging theory and practice by offering comparable interrelated attributes to guide post-COVID-19 strategies in the supply chain. The findings are that the supply management approach and big data are attributes that involve the concerns of world public and academics under pandemic uncertainties.

Conservation of green space is crucial to the sustainable urban development of China. Nanjing is a central city in the Yangtze River Delta cluster in eastern China. Owing to urbanization, the green spaces in this city have been affected significantly in terms of their scale and structure. Assessing such changes can provide a basis for environmental protection measures and sustainable development. Using Landsat remote-sensing image data from 1998 and 2007, we constructed a distribution map of the patches of green spaces in Nanjing, and analyzed and assessed the changes in scale and spatial layout of the green spaces using various landscape metrics including CA, PLAND, PD, MPS, LPI, NP, PD, TE, ED, MPI, and LSI. Coinciding with a sharp increase in urban population, the area of green spaces in Nanjing decreased by 27.06% between 1998 and 2007. The patches of green space increased by 39%, and the average area per patch decreased by about 47.52%. Green space patches were found to be unevenly distributed among the districts of Nanjing. In urban areas, significant numbers of such patches were found primarily in various types of parks, while in suburban areas, they were concentrated mainly in the hilly forestlands. Green spaces exhibited tendencies towards fragmentation, miniaturization, and discretization.

As a good absorbing material candidate, a functionally graded wave absorber can be tailored to satisfy the impedance match principle by gradually changing material property. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The electromagnetic wave absorption properties are discussed. An analysis model is proposed to provide an insight into its mechanical characteristics during wave absorption. Considering the energy-converting and thermal deformation properties, the thermoelastic behaviors of an absorber are analyzed by numerical method. The effects of material and geometrical properties are discussed in detail.

The results demonstrate that absorbing effect of graded composite is enhanced. Good performance of low reflectance and high absorption with gentle thermal stress distribution can be obtained by proper designing of the gradient absorber.

Functionally graded materials exhibit a progressive compositional gradient change along certain dimension of structures, which can be used as absorbing materials for the gradual change of material property tailored to satisfy the principle of impedance match. The design of functionally graded absorbing materials usually should consider not only the electromagnetic performance, but also the mechanical properties simultaneously. Therefore, few investigations have addressed the mechanical characteristics of absorbers. This paper presents some studies on the electromagnetic, especially mechanical behaviors during electromagnetic wave absorption. It is helpful to provide mechanical reference for designing an absorber.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cultural beliefs on governance in a business network without a legal institutional framework. Particular emphasis is placed on the cross-country remittance mail operating network in Chaoshan, China, during the period 1860-1949. This investigation builds on Greif’s business governance theory and develops an analytical framework that considers cultural beliefs, agency relationships and multilateral punishment mechanisms. Furthermore, it uses the institutional analysis method to identify the institutional factors that sustained the remittance mail operating networks and their underlying mechanisms.

This paper adopts the qualitative research method. First, it investigates the history of the remittance mail operating network and agency relationships by searching through the contents of the relevant historical documents preserved in the official archives and information found in other records. Thereafter, it summarizes and demonstrates the cultural beliefs inferred from that research. The archival materials permit analysis of the interactions between cultural beliefs, agency relationships and multilateral punishment mechanisms by the institutional analysis method.

Due to the lack of legal institutions in China during the period under review, cultural beliefs played a central institutional role in cross-country business relations. Network governance was coupled with clan cultural beliefs in the remittance mail operating network. This relationship was the key to sustain the efficient operation of the remittance mail network.

In the West, corporate governance has been influenced by and has become an integral feature of Western culture and values. This is not necessarily so for the corporate governance in terms of Chinese culture and values. Thus, instead of mimicking the modes of developed countries, it is important for Chinese enterprises to seek a mode of corporate governance that is in accord with their local cultures. This may be an important focus for enterprise development.

Studies of Tianhou-Mazu cult have been focused on three themes: studies in Taiwan emphasize hegemonic order; studies in Hong Kong reveal a relationship of “sisterhood” alliances; and studies in Singapore highlight the important role of ethnic groups. The rebuilding of the goddess’s ancestral temple in early 1980s and her acquiring a world intangible cultural heritage status in the early twenty-first century facilitate the redefinition of overseas Chinese’s religious affiliation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this global development of the cult from the 1980s and its ritual implication in overseas Chinese communities.

This paper, by comparing the Tianhou-Mazu cult in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asian Chinese settlements, argues that from sisters to descended replicas, or from local alliances to global hegemony, the cult of Tianhou-Mazu since the 1980s has not only replaced local culture with an emphasis on “high culture,” but also represents a religious strategy regarding local people’s interpretation of correctness and authority.

This paper argues that despite the imposition of hegemonic power from various authorities, popular religion is a matter of choice. This reflects how local religious practice is construed according to the interpretation of global cultural languages by the elite Chinese; their decision of when and how to reconnect with the goddess’s ancestral temple or the “imperial state,” or to form alliances with other local communities; and the implementation of the local government’s cultural policy.

This paper is one of the few attempts comparing development of a folk cult in various communities.

Thirty years of rapid development and economic change have created organizations and work relations in China that would have been unthinkable at the start of transition. In December of 1978, the Chinese Communist Party agreed with Deng Xiaoping to allow agricultural privatization, a stark contrast to the communes of Mao Zedong's era. This change established the financial foundation that would lead to development in eastern, coastal cities and that would ultimately fuel an extraordinary transformation of China's economy and its global position. As a result, organizational structures have changed, and new organizational forms have emerged. There have also been dramatic changes in the way work organizations behave and in the nature and implications of work. This volume provides a glimpse into the state of organizations and work at the 30-year mark. The contributors are top scholars in the field, including many who have observed and studied China's transition for decades, who are drawing on some of the most up-to-date and innovative data sources available. The chapters are samples of the current work of these researchers that, taken together, provide a snapshot of the state of research on China's organizations and work behaviors as transition enters its fourth decade.

The adverse effects of temperature on the lubricating properties of nano magnetorheological grease are reduced by applying of a magnetic field.

Nano magnetorheological grease was prepared via a thermal water bath with stirring. The lubricating properties of the grease were investigated at different temperatures. Then the lubricity of the prepared nano magnetorheological grease was investigated under the effect of thermomagnetic coupling.

As the temperature rises, the coefficient of friction of grease lubrication gradually increases, surface wear gradually increases and lubrication performance gradually decreases. Compared with grease, magnetorheological grease has a decreased coefficient of friction and enhanced lubrication effect under the action of a magnetic field at different temperatures.

A lubrication method using a magnetic field to reduce the effect of temperature is established, thereby providing new ideas for lubrication design under a wide range of temperature conditions.