Search results

This study aims to (1) develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based model to accurately forecast rebar prices and (2) propose procurement strategies to reduce the subjectivity involved in rebar price trend forecasting and minimize procurement costs for construction project general contractors.

Correlation analysis was used to identify the key factors influencing changes in rebar prices over time. An AI-based inference model, symbiotic bidirectional gated recurrent unit (SBiGRU), was developed for rebar price forecasting. The performance of SBiGRU was compared with other AI techniques, and procurement strategies based on the SBiGRU model were proposed.

The SBiGRU model outperformed the other AI techniques in terms of rebar price forecasting accuracy. The proposed rebar price forecasting model (RPFM) and procurement patterns, which integrate inventory management principles and rebar price forecasts, were demonstrated to effectively optimize procurement costs, realizing a remarkable 6.13% reduction in procurement expenses compared to the conventional monthly procurement approach.

The accuracy of AI models may be impacted by disparities in the data used for model training. Future research should explore approaches incorporating price predictions and order factors.

This study significantly extends the bounds of traditional rebar price prediction by integrating AI-driven forecasting with inventory management principles, highlighting the potential of AI-based models to improve construction industry procurement practices, reduce related risks and costs, optimize project operations and maximize project outcomes.

This paper aims to develop an optimization model to enhance pipeline assembly performance. It focuses on predicting the pipeline’s assembly pose while ensuring compliance with clamp constraints.

The assembly pose of the pipeline is quantitatively assessed by a proposed indicator based on joint defects. The assembly interference between the pipeline and assembly boundary is characterized quantitatively. Subsequently, an analytical mapping relationship is established between the assembly pose and assembly interference. A digital fitting model, along with a novel indicator, is established to discern the fit between the pipeline and clamp. Using the proposed indicators as the optimization objective and penalty term, an optimization model is established to predict the assembly pose based on the reinforced particle swarm optimization, incorporating a proposed adaptive inertia weight.

The optimization model demonstrates robust search capability and rapid convergence, effectively minimizing joint defects while adhering to clamp constraints. This leads to enhanced pipeline assembly efficiency and the achievement of a one-time assembly process.

The offset of the assembly boundary and imperfections in pipeline manufacturing may lead to joint defects during pipeline assembly, as well as failure in the fit between the pipeline and clamp. The assembly pose predicted by the proposed optimization model can effectively reduce the joint defects and satisfy clamp constraints. The efficiency of pipeline modification and assembly has been significantly enhanced.

The home page design of a digital news website is a key factor in determining its attractiveness to readers. This study aims to propose an approach to manage the frequent adjustment of the dynamic layout of the news content on the website home page in a real-time environment to increase its attractiveness to readers.

This paper shows that this news website layout design problem can be modeled as an optimization problem based on the information of news contents that change within a multiple-period planning horizon similar to the dynamic facility layout problem. A hybrid genetic algorithm-based approach integrated with local search heuristic methods is also proposed to improve the solution.

This paper finds that the DPLP model is effective in modeling the changing layout of a digital news website. The problem can solved in a timely manner using the proposed hybrid genetic algorithm.

This paper was based on hypothetical data and on the assumption of equal section size. Actual data would help fine-tune the application of the dynamic facility layout model. As well the algorithm could be enhanced for unequal size sections.

The model should help online newspapers apply sophisticated algorithms to optimize the layout of news websites dynamically in a timely manner.

News websites are increasingly the desired medium to consume news. So it has an important role in educating society. Thus optimizing and improving the process will help in this regard.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to apply the DPLP model to the digital newspaper website dynamic design problem.

This study aims to prepare a low-formaldehyde and environmentally friendly glucose-lignin-based phenolic resin.

The authors directly used lignin to substitute formaldehyde to prepare lignin-based phenolic resin (LPF) with urea as formaldehyde absorbent. To improve the performance of the adhesive, the biobased glucose was introduced and the modified glucose-LPF (GLPF) was obtained.

The results showed that when the replacing amount of lignin to formaldehyde reached 15 Wt.%, the physical properties of the prepared LPF met the Chinese national standard, and the bonding strength increased by 21.9%, from 0.75 to 0.96 MPa, compared with PF. The addition of glucose boost the performance of wood adhesive, for example, the free phenol content of the obtained GLPF was significantly reduced by 79.11%, from 5.60% to 1.17%, the bonding strength (1.19 MPa) of GLPF increased by 19.3% in comparison to LPF and the curing temperature of GLPF decreased by 13.08%.

The low-formaldehyde and environmentally friendly GLPF has higher bonding strength and lower curing temperature, which is profitable to industrial application.

The prepared GLPF has lower free formaldehyde and formaldehyde emission, which is cost-effective and beneficial to human health.

The joint work of lignin and glucose provides the wood adhesive with increased bonding strength, decreased free phenol content and reduced curing temperature.

Charitable giving in China has moved from being subjected to government attention and public skepticism to receiving government encouragement and public support. The role played by political connections in philanthropy is indisputable, although very few studies have explored their association from the perspective of the country’s first Charity Law of 2016. This study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the 2016 Charity Law and offers an understanding of the future trends in corporate charitable giving.

Using empirical analysis of data collected from listed companies in China, this study analyzes the impact of political connections on corporate charitable giving before and after the 2016 Charity Law. The study adopts three leading theories from previous research into corporate charitable giving and political connections: corporate social responsibility, resource dependence theory and stakeholder theory. A conceptual framework is outlined, and hypotheses are formulated accordingly.

The results show that political connections have a substantial positive impact on corporate charitable giving, both before and after the implementation of the 2016 Charity Law, which has significantly promoted and increased the amount and proportion of charitable giving. Although the 2016 Charity Law attempted to weaken the political connections of enterprises, the influence of political connections on corporate charitable giving has proved difficult to diminish or eliminate, as charity is dominated by the state.

This study explores the association between political connections and corporate charitable giving from the perspective of China’s Charity Law of 2016.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between academic motivations and the risk of Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) among university undergraduates and Vocational Education and Training (VET) undergraduates.

The sample included 402 Vietnamese university undergraduates and 250 VET undergraduates in the southern region of Vietnam. Students took part in a survey, with all participants being informed about the study’s purpose and assured that their involvement was entirely voluntary. In addition to descriptive statistics, the study employed linear regression in SPSS to examine hypotheses.

The findings indicate that, for university students, intrinsic motivation and mastery approach motivation are associated with reduced NEET risk, while performance avoidance motivation is positively linked to this tendency. In contrast, for VET students, extrinsic motivation and performance approach motivation are negatively associated with NEET risk, but mastery approach motivation may exacerbate the risk.

Grounded in the principles of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT), the study proposes that university students may prioritize competence improvement, knowledge acquisition and the satisfaction of their learning interests, which they believe will help them acquire valuable knowledge beneficial for their future careers. Conversely, VET students emphasize performance and external achievement, which may enhance their outcome and reduce NEET risk. These findings offer significant theoretical and practical insights into the adoption of SDT and AGT and also provide educators or policymakers with more detailed information regarding university and VET students’ learning and development.

The aim of this paper is to investigate and define employees' professionalism in the hotel industry. A professional employee has specific core competencies and personal attributes that improve the quality of service by resolving guest complaints, ensuring guest satisfaction and gaining a competitive advantage. In the hospitality industry, interaction with customers necessitates providing services of high standards that are characterised by professionalism.

This research deployed a quantitative methodology with self-administering questionnaires to hotel managers of 4-star and 5-star hotels.

The results of the study suggest that employees' professionalism in hotels includes skills combined with personality characteristics along with a passion for the profession. Thus, to attest to professionalism, managers must ensure that skills are adjusted to subject-specific knowledge and expertise while incorporating “social consciousness” as a constituent dimension of professionalism.

This study investigates the concept of professionalism as the main prerequisite for the delivery of exceptional hotel services and introduces the notion of “social consciousness” as an additional dimension of professionalism.

Gathering, analyzing and securing electronic data from various digital devices for use in legal or investigative procedures is the key process of computer forensics. Information retrieved from servers, hard drives, cellphones, tablets and other devices is all included in this. This article tackles the challenging problem of how to prioritize different kinds of computer forensics and figure out which kind is most useful in cases of cybercrime, fraud, theft of intellectual property, harassment and espionage.

Therefore, we first introduce enhanced versions of Hamacher power aggregation operators (AOs) within the framework of bipolar complex fuzzy (BCF) sets. These include BCF Hamacher power averaging (BCFHPA), BCF Hamacher power-weighted averaging (BCFHPWA), BCF Hamacher power-ordered weighted averaging (BCFHPOWA), BCF Hamacher power geometric (BCFHPG), BCF Hamacher power-weighted geometric (BCFHPWG) and BCF Hamacher power-ordered-weighted geometric (BCFHPOWG) operators. Employing the devised AOs, we devise a technique of decision-making (DM) for dealing with DM dilemmas with the BCF set (BCFS).

We prioritize different types of computer forensic by taking artificial data in a numerical example and getting the finest computer forensic. Further, by this example, we reveal the applicability of the proposed theory. This work provides a more elaborate and versatile procedure for classifying computer forensics with dual aspects of criteria and extra fuzzy information. It allows for better and less biased DM in the more intricate digital investigations, which may lead to better DM and time-saving in real-life forensic scenarios. To demonstrate the significance and impression of the devised operators and techniques of DM, they are compared with existing ones.

This research is the first to combine Hamacher and power AOs in BCFS for computer forensics DM. It presents new operators and a DM approach that is not encountered in the existing literature and is specifically designed to deal with the challenges and risks associated with the classification of computer forensics. The framework’s capacity to accommodate bipolar criteria and extra fuzzy information is a major development in the field of digital forensics and decision science.

Establishing and developing digital science and education evaluation platforms (DSEEPs) have several practical implications for the development of China's science, technology and education. Identifying and analyzing the key factors influencing DSEEP user experience (UX) can improve the users' willingness to use the platform and effectively promote its sustainable development.

First, a literature survey, a five-element model of UX and semi-structured interviews were used in this study to develop a DSEEP UX-influencing factor model, which included five dimensions and 22 influencing factors. Second, the model validity was verified using questionnaire data. Finally, the key influencing factors were identified and analyzed using a fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy-DEMATEL) method.

Fourteen influencing factors, including diverse information forms and comprehensive information content, are crucial for the DSEEP UX. Its optimization path is “‘Function Services’ → ‘Information Resources’ → ‘Interaction Design’ → ‘Interface Design’ and ‘Visual Design’.” In this regard, platform managers can take the following measures to optimize UX: strengthening functional services, improving information resources, enhancing the interactive experience and considering interface effects.

This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine the key influencing factors and optimization path of DSEEP UX. Optimization suggestions for UX are proposed from the perspective of platform managers, who provide an effective theoretical reference for innovating and developing a DSEEP.

To overcome the shortcomings of traditional dynamic parameter identification methods in accuracy and efficiency, this paper aims to propose a dynamic parameter identification method based on improved iterative reweighted least squares (IIRLS) algorithm.

First, Newton–Euler method is used to establish the dynamic model of the robot, which is linearized and reorganized. Then, taking the improved Fourier series as the excitation trajectory, the optimization model with objective function is established and optimized. Then, the manipulator runs the optimized trajectory and collects the running state of the joint. Finally, the iterative process of iterative reweighted least squares (IRLS) algorithm is improved by combining clustering algorithm and matrix inversion operation rules, and the dynamic model of robot is identified by using the processed collected data.

Experimental results show that, compared with the IRLS algorithm, the root mean square of the proposed IIRLS algorithm is reduced by 4.18% and the identification time is reduced by 94.92% when the sampling point is 1001. This shows that IIRLS algorithm can identify the dynamic model more accurately and efficiently.

It effectively solves the problem of low accuracy and efficiency of parameter identification in robot dynamic model and can be used as an effective method for parameter estimation of robot dynamic model, which is of great significance to the research of control method based on robot model.