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This study aims to build on social comparison theory to develop a theoretical model of leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship to workplace ostracism through perceived organizational status by coworkers and envy. This study further proposes that warmth and competence may potentially moderate these two indirect effects.

This study tested the hypotheses in a battery manufacturing company located in South China by a survey of 216 employees organized in 55 work teams, using different sources. Additionally, the authors conduct two online vignette experiments to test this study’s mediation, proving the causality.

The authors found that high-level LMX leads to both envy and perceived organizational status by coworkers, which results in a mixed blessing on workplace ostracism toward the employee with high-level LMX. The focal employee’s warmth and competence moderate these indirect relationships.

The authors use LMX to explore antecedents of workplace ostracism and explain how and when these focal employees suffer workplace ostracism from their coworkers. The authors extend the research on LMX by examining the interpersonal risk of being a focal employee. The authors discover two critical boundary conditions – warmth and competence.

This study suggests that it is important to balance the level of the differential LMX; appropriately endorsing other members is a good way to avoid eliciting envy and opposition. Meanwhile, person-oriented citizenship behaviors such as demonstrations of concern or help may shortly build up an employee’s warm impression on their coworkers.

By discovering the bright and dark sides of LMX, this paper has the potential to advance theories on LMX and workplace ostracism. Therefore, the authors believe the current research will have an important impact on relevant research in the future.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is one of the most diffused AI technologies, capable of generating manifold forms of content, including music, text, images and synthetic data. The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants that affect GenAI acceptance and its outcomes on both the explorative and exploitative forms of innovation.

The study employs a conceptual framework based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) paradigm. Through Smart-PLS analysis, it examines empirical data retrieved from an online survey where 302 manufacturing companies took part.

It is found that GenAI has the potential to facilitate both exploratory and exploitative innovation, particularly via the moderating effect of environmental dynamism. Hence the adoption of GenAI has potential to improve organizational performance.

The study is the first empirical project to investigate factors that influence manufacturing firms' adoption of GenAI. As the first project to have integrated the TOE paradigm when examining the impact of environmental dynamism on exploratory and exploitative innovation, the study emphasizes the double innovation potential of GenAI in organizational performance improvement.

Dual design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) takes into account both the opportunities and constraints of AM simultaneously, which research shows is more effective than considering them separately. Unlike existing reviews, this paper aims to map DfAM research within the engineering design process, focusing solely on studies adopting dual DfAM. Additionally, it aims to suggest future research directions by analysing prominent research themes and their inter-relationships. Special emphasis is on theme inter-relationships concerning the conceptual, embodiment and detail design phases.

The study is based on a systematic literature review of 148 publications from January 2000 to February 2024. After screening, prominent research themes were identified and systematically analysed. Theme inter-relationships were explored using quantitative analysis and chord diagrams.

The findings reveal that studies either span the entire design process, the early design phases or the later design phases. Most research focuses on the later design phases, particularly within themes of design optimisation, design evaluation and AM-specific manufacturing constraints. The most frequent theme inter-relationship occurs between design optimisation and AM-specific manufacturing constraints. Overall, the findings suggest future research directions to advance dual DfAM research, such as development of design rules and guidelines for cellular structures.

This review proposes a model by mapping prominent themes of dual DfAM research in relation to the engineering design process. Another original contribution lies in analysing theme inter-relationships and visualising them using chord diagrams – a novel approach that did not exist before.

Recently, due to the practicability in several domains, generative adversarial network (GAN) has successfully been adopted in the field of natural language generation (NLG). The purpose of this paper focuses on improving the quality of text and generating sequences similar to human writing for several real applications.

A novel model, GAN², is developed based on a GAN with dual adversarial architecture. We train the generator by an internal discriminator with a beam search technique to improve the quality of generated sequences. Then, we enhance the generator with an external discriminator to optimize and strengthen the learning process of sequence generation.

The proposed GAN² model could be utilized in widespread applications, such as chatbots, machine translation and image description. By the proposed dual adversarial structure, we significantly improve the quality of the generated text. The average and top-1 metrics, such as NLL, BLEU and ROUGE, are used to measure the generated sentences from the GAN² model over all baselines. Several experiments are conducted to demonstrate the performance and superiority of the proposed model compared with the state-of-the-art methods on numerous evaluation metrics.

Generally, reward sparsity and mode collapse are two main challenging issues when adopt GAN to real NLG applications. In this study, GAN² exploits a dual adversarial architecture which facilitates the learning process in the early training stage for solving the problem of reward sparsity. The occurrence of mode collapse also could be reduced in the later training stage with the introduced comparative discriminator by avoiding high rewards for training in a specific mode. Furthermore, the proposed model is applied to several synthetic and real datasets to show the practicability and exhibit great generalization with all discussed metrics.

The purpose of this study is to explore the interfacial adhesion between superhydrophobic coatings FC-X (X = 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) and the concrete substrate, along with the impact of FC-X on the water repellency characteristics of the concrete substrate.

One synthetic step was adopted to prepare novel F-SiO₂ NP hybrid fluororesin coating. The impact of varying mass fractions of F-SiO₂ NPs on the superhydrophobicity of FC-X was analyzed and subsequently confirmed through water contact angle (WCA) measurements. Superhydrophobic coatings were simply applied to the concrete substrate using a one-step spraying method. The interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate was analyzed using tape pasting tests and abrasion resistance measurements. The influence of FC-X on the water repellency of the concrete substrate was investigated through measurements of water absorption, impermeability and electric flux.

FC-4% exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity, with a WCA of 157.5° and a sliding angle of 2.3°. Compared to control sample, FC-X exhibits better properties, including chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

This study offers a thorough investigation into the practical implications of enhancing the durability and water repellency of concrete substrates by using superhydrophobic coatings, particularly FC-4%, which demonstrates exceptional superhydrophobicity alongside remarkable chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

Through the examination of the interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate, along with an assessment of FC-X’s impact on the water repellency of the concrete, this paper provides valuable insights into the practical application of superhydrophobic coatings in enhancing the durability and performance of concrete materials.

This study aims to investigate how digital technology influences the happiness of villagers in traditional ethnic minority communities, with Waipula Village as a focal case study. Recognized as a forerunner in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Waipula Village exemplifies how digital innovation can transform rural communities.

Using an exploratory case study approach, the research reveals that digital technology enhances villagers’ happiness by improving market access, mitigating geographical limitations and fostering entrepreneurship and innovation.

In addition, digital technology has led to new consumption patterns and cultural values, significantly contributing to the village’s sustainable development and overall well-being.

This analysis expands the understanding of the role of digital technology in ethnic minority villages and offers valuable insights for rural revitalization strategies, highlighting its importance in enhancing happiness and preserving cultural heritage.

This study aims to explore the spatio-temporal dynamic characteristics and influencing factors of the coordination degree of the three systems of digital economy, energy and human habitat in Western China and to provide academic research support for promoting coordinated and sustainable development in similar regions of the world.

Based on system theory and sustainable development theory, this study primarily uses the coupled coordination degree model to assess the degree of coordination between the three systems.

The findings of this study indicate that: The three systems’ overall coordination is low. The distribution of the degree of coordination has spatial differences and its coefficient of variation is small. The probability of the coordination type changing for the better is greater than that of the opposite, and neighboring provinces interact with one another. The old-age dependence ratio, the resident population’s urbanization rate and public budget expenditure have the strongest gray association with the degree of coordination.

This study’s findings will be valuable for policymakers in developing policies to promote the coordinated and sustainable growth of the region’s digital economy, energy and human habitat. Additionally, the findings will aid in facilitating regional exchanges and cooperation to enhance the level of sustainable development.

This study’s findings will contribute to increased social interest in coordinating sustainable growth in the digital economy, energy and human habitat.

This study examines the digital economy, energy and human habitat within the same framework and investigates spatial spillover effects using spatial Markov chains.

The purpose of this paper is to optimize a suitable electrochemical method in evaluating the corrosion rate of structural materials of 20# carbon steel, P280GH carbon steel, 17-4PH stainless steel, 304 stainless steel and Alloy 690TT in high-temperature and high-pressure (HTHP) water of pressurized water reactor secondary circuit system.

Weight-loss method has been used to obtain the corrosion rate value of each structural material in simulated HTHP water. Besides, linear polarization method and weak polarization curve-based three-point method and four-point method have been compared in obtaining a sound corrosion rate value from the potentiodynamic polarization curve. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope have been used to characterize the microstructure and corrosion morphology of each structural material.

Although there is deviation in gaining the corrosion rate value compared to weight-loss test, the weak polarization curve-based four-point method has been found to be a suitable electrochemical method in gaining corrosion rate value of structural materials in HTHP waters.

This paper proposes a suitable and reliable electrochemical method in gaining the corrosion rate value of structural materials in HTHP waters. The proposed weak polarization curve-based four-point method provides a timesaving and high-efficient way in corrosion rate evaluation of secondary circuit structural materials and thus has a potential application in nuclear power plants.

With an increasing array of new technologies and devices emerging as novel approaches to museum narratives, scholars are intrigued by the narrative effect they produce. Within this context, this study aims to conduct a quantitative case study on the influencing mechanisms among technology embodiment, technology attachment, museum narrative effect and perceived museum image based on embodied cognitive theory (ECT).

By introducing the Opium War Museum, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China, as an empirical case study, the authors collected data, through questionnaires, from 425 visitors who had experienced virtual reality (VR) technology in the museum. The data was then analyzed by using the maximum likelihood estimate for structural equation modeling.

Technology embodiment and technology attachment have significant positive correlations with the museum narrative effect. Technology attachment provides a partial mediating effect between technology embodiment and the museum narrative effect. The perceived museum image moderates such mediating effects of technology attachment.

This study brings the emerging idea of developing visitor experiences with VR through expanding the applications of ECT in the museum scenario. First, the authors identified the underlying interaction patterns between various factors that influence the museum narrative effect. Second, the authors verified that technology can optimize the museum narrative effect and help the creative transformation of cultural relics and culture. This study also provides practical recommendations to improve the technological service experience and strengthen the “audience-centric” management concept of museums

随着越来越多的新技术和设备作为博物馆新颖的叙事方法出现, 学者们对它们产生的叙事效果感到兴趣。在这一背景下, 我们基于具身认知理论对技术具身感、技术依恋、博物馆叙事效果和感知博物馆形象之间的影响机制进行了定量案例研究。

通过引入中国广东省东莞市鸦片战争博物馆作为实证案例研究, 我们从体验了博物馆VR技术的425名参观者中收集了问卷数据。然后, 我们使用极大似然法估计结构方程模型对数据进行了分析。

(1) 技术具身感和技术依恋与博物馆叙事效果存在显著正相关关系。 (2) 技术依恋在技术具身感与博物馆叙事效果之间起到了部分中介作用。 (3) 感知博物馆形象调节了技术依恋的上述中介效应。

本研究通过扩展具身认知理论在博物馆场景中的应用, 提出了利用VR优化访客体验的新兴理念。首先, 我们识别了影响博物馆叙事效果的各种因素之间的潜在互动模式。其次, 我们验证了技术可以优化博物馆叙事效果, 并有利于文物和文化的创造性转化。本研究还提出了实际建议, 以改善技术服务体验, 并加强博物馆“以观众为中心”的管理理念。

Air pollution poses a significant global threat to both human health and environmental stability, acknowledged by the World Health Organization as a leading cause of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and a notable contributor to climate change. This chapter offers a comprehensive review of the impacts of air pollution on health, highlighting the complex interactions with genetic predispositions and epigenetic mechanisms. The consequences of air pollution to health are extensive, spanning respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disorders, adverse pregnancy outcomes, neurodevelopmental disorders, and heightened mortality rates. Genetic factors play a pivotal role in shaping individual responses to air pollution, influencing susceptibility to respiratory illnesses and the severity of symptoms. Additionally, epigenetic changes triggered by exposure to pollutants have been linked to respiratory health issues, cancer development and progression, and even transgenerational effects spanning multiple generations. As countries, including the UK, pursue ambitious targets for reducing emissions, ongoing research into the complex interplay of air pollution, genetics, and epigenetics is essential. By unravelling the underlying mechanisms and advancing preventive and therapeutic strategies, we can protect public health and promote sustainable environmental practices in the face of this pervasive global challenge.