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This paper aims to investigate the corrosion resistance of two types of coatings – one is ceria sol coating and the other is ceria sol coating modified by ZnO nanoparticles on 7075 aluminum alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution.

Aluminum alloys were dipped into ceria sol and ceria sol modified by ZnO nanoparticles separately and removed after 10 min from the solutions and dried at 110°C for 30 min and heated at 500 °C for 30 min to form the coatings. The coatings have been characterized by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The EIS tests were performed in a corrosive solution of 3.5% NaCl.

The results showed that the coating of ceria sol modified by ZnO nanoparticles has higher corrosion resistance than the ceria sol coating and the bare sample. Also, the best efficiency is related to aluminum sample immersion after 1 h in NaCl corrosive solution for coating modified by ZnO nanoparticles.

In this research, the modification of ceria sol coating by ZnO nanoparticles had an effect on improving the corrosion behavior of aluminum alloy. It is also understood that modification of coatings is an effective parameter on corrosion resistance.

This study aims to assess the social network and perceived social support among community corrections offenders in China and compare the relationship between different sub-dimensions of social support and offenders’ social adaptation.

A descriptive design combined with self-administered questionnaires was used. A total of 54 valid responses were analysed, with participants displaying the following demographic characteristics: male offenders outnumbered female offenders, probationers constituted the highest proportion among all community corrections offenders and educational levels were generally low. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were conducted. The Lubben Social Network Scale, Interpersonal Support Evaluation List Scale and Person at Re-education-centre Social Adaptation Scale were used to measure the variables.

Participants exhibited generally good levels of social support, with moderately extensive social networks and perceived support. All sub-dimensions showed significant positive correlations with social adaptation, with the highest correlation for appraisal support (r = 0.743, p < 0.01), followed by instrumental support (r = 0.714, p < 0.01), emotional support (r = 0.687, p < 0.01), informational support (r = 0.685, P < 0.01) and social networks (r = 0.426, p < 0.01).

This study expands the understanding of community corrections offenders in China by focusing on the underexplored Sichuan Province, using empirical methods for data collection. It addresses a gap in previous research by examining both structural and functional support for offenders rather than focusing solely on one aspect. The study uses two scales, rarely used in Chinese research, to measure structural and functional support, thereby enhancing research on social support for offenders. Practically, it explores the correlation between social support and re-entry, offering valuable insights for improving offenders’ reintegration into society.

These results underscore the critical role of social networks and perceived social support in reintegrating Chinese community corrections offenders. Distinct from prior research, this study used a more comprehensive scale, less commonly used by Chinese scholars, to enable detailed measurement and analysis, highlighting the significance of both structural and functional support in informing practice in related fields.

The globalization of markets poses great challenges, and thus, the manufacturing businesses trying to expand their operations to cater to a global audience have to undergo significant transformations. Therefore, this research aims to identify key challenges and elucidate the critical success factors (CSFs) required for the global growth of manufacturing companies on a worldwide scale.

A range of interval-valued spherical fuzzy sets (IVSFs) and flexible methodologies such as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) have been employed to evaluate the issues in detail. It calculates the effectiveness delivered by each critical success factor (CSF) and identifies the factors acting as a barrier to global market penetration.

This research highlights the transformative potential of smart manufacturing in developing economies, identifying CSFs such as government support, cost optimization and resilient supply chain management as essential for overcoming obstacles like over-reliance on foreign technologies, regulatory rigidity and skill gaps. The integration of IVSFS with AHP and DEA models offers actionable insights to foster localized innovation, reduce foreign dependencies and promote user-centric designs, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This study shows that IVSFs, AHP and DEA can be used together to estimate the global challenges of manufacturing firms in developing markets. The combination of efficient decision-making and these strategies is novel as it provides ways in which businesses in developing countries can deal with their obstacles and improve their competitiveness on the global stage.

The significance of organizational culture (OC) pervades all workplaces, extending even to health systems. While numerous studies have examined the perceptions of OC among nurses and physicians, there is a notable gap in understanding the perspectives of non-patient-facing health system employees. This study aims to fill this void by investigating the perceptions and drivers of OC among non-patient-facing personnel within health systems.

This study employed a mixed-methods approach, starting with a 31-question survey disseminated to health system employees through trade organizations to capture diverse perspectives on OC. Subsequently, employees were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. A total of 23 interviews were conducted to explore the underlying factors shaping employees’ perceptions of OC.

A total of 67 surveys were completed, with 61 used in the analysis. The results revealed a predominantly positive outlook, highlighting the significance of supportive leadership and involvement in decision-making processes. The qualitative analysis identified four key themes: effective communication and transparency, coordinated teamwork, supportive leadership and the impact of external factors like the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Effective leadership should prioritize open communication, employee autonomy and involvement in decision-making. These strategies foster a culture of trust, accountability and engagement, enhancing employee morale and job satisfaction while promoting a collaborative and innovative work environment conducive to long-term success and growth.

This research examines the often-overlooked perspectives of non-patient-facing health system staff, providing valuable insights and strategies for leaders to improve OC and create a more positive, inclusive and supportive work environment.

Social work developed using information and communication technologies (ICTs) within a techno-social sphere has been defined as ‘e-social work’. It is a social work field that includes, among others, the use of digital devices and digital platforms in the professional relationship (with individuals, groups and communities), social service programs' monitoring and social work education. Through a literature review, the chapter will explore some parts of the international debate on e-social work. It seems to especially emphasise the positive aspects of digitisation in social work; at the same time, questions and ethical issues are proposed, especially about the social work clients' digital gaps and the need to protect vulnerable people. Digitalisation influences clients' behaviour and affects processes of social exclusion and inclusion. With reference to the elders, for example, the impact of digital divides is very significant; hence, social workers need to promote every tool at their disposal to reduce it to the bare minimum. At the same time, social workers face some risks of using digital devices and digital platforms in the professional one-to-one relationship, which especially during the Covid-19 pandemic have been increased in the welfare system.

In this chapter, we emphasise how Creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) can and will transform the practice of financial operations (FinOps). To do this, we first place AI in the context of FinOps and how operations need to change, explicitly using Creative AI to be faster, more accurate and more creative when assessing client needs. This is achieved by explaining how traditional approaches fall well short of the mark by highlighting their fundamental limitations and showcasing how AI helps to address those shortcomings. We also provide a detailed discussion of how AI is transforming finance operations when we focus on four discursive areas: (1) risk, (2) fraud detection, (3) predictive analytics and (4) trading algorithms. In all four areas, Creative AI supports many decisions that benefit the clients, improves customer service and guides financial institutions to allocate their resources more effectively. We elaborate throughout this text how AI, in particular by using methods such as natural language processing, generative adversarial networks (GANs) and other related techniques, can be understood as what we have termed ‘Explainable AI’ to address operational issues in the modern financial world creatively. As AI offers great disarming power, we also discuss the threats, limitations and specific pitfalls of AI adoption and use in financial contexts. This includes addressing clearly ethical and regulatory concerns, in addition to the technical ones.

This study’s aim is to introduce a high-performance sorbent for the removal of both anionic (Congo red; CR) and cationic (methylene blue; MB) dyes from aqueous solutions.

Sodium silicate is adopted as a substrate for GO and AgNPs with positive charge are used as modifiers. The synthesized nanocomposite is characterized by FTIR, FESEM, EDS, BET and XRD techniques. Then, some of the most effective parameters on the removal of CR and MB dyes such as solution pH, sorbent dose, adsorption equilibrium time, primary dye concentration and salt effect are optimized using the spectrophotometry technique.

The authors successfully achieved notable maximum adsorption capacities (Qmax) of CR and MB, which were 41.15 and 37.04 mg g⁻¹, respectively. The required equilibrium times for maximum efficiency of the developed sorbent were 10 and 15 min for CR and MB dyes, respectively. Adsorption equilibrium data present a good correlation with Langmuir isotherm, with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.9924 for CR and R2 = 0.9904 for MB, and kinetic studies prove that the dye adsorption process follows pseudo second-order models (CR R2 = 0.9986 and MB R2 = 0.9967).

The results showed that the proposed mechanism for the function of the developed sorbent in dye adsorption was based on physical and multilayer adsorption for both dyes onto the active sites of non-homogeneous sorbent.

The as-prepared nano-adsorbent has a high ability to remove both cationic and anionic dyes; moreover, to the high efficiency of the adsorbent, it has been tried to make its synthesis steps as simple as possible using inexpensive and available materials.

The Q method is an inherently mixed-method approach suitable for tackling issues regarding theory, conceptualization and operationalization in the social sciences. Nevertheless, the application of this method in organizational behavior (OB) studies is still limited. This paper aims to delineate to what extent, regarding what topics, and in what ways the Q method has been applied in OB studies. Moreover, it aims to systematically explore the strengths and weaknesses of this method for the OB field.

We present a systematic literature review of 47 studies employing the Q method in OB research.

There is an upward trend in the application of Q in OB research. The studies in our sample address the following OB topics: Human resource management (HRM) (14), leadership (10), group decision-making (6), collaboration (4), culture (9) and organizational change and development (4). We describe how Q is used in a wide variety of ways.

This study shows how performance-oriented organizations can benefit from the Q method as a managerial diagnostic and intervention tool in organizational change and development and in human resources management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review on the Q method that spans the field of organizational behavior across topics and research levels, including the individual, team and organizational levels.

Financial inclusion is acknowledged as a critical facilitator of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda for 2030. Therefore, this study aims to examine the asymmetric role of overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population for the selected South Asian countries.

Applying the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration explores the impact of overall globalization on financial inclusion in the presence of additional variables like economic growth, urbanization and population in the designed financial inclusion function.

The estimated econometric outcomes show that increasing overall globalization fosters financial inclusion while decreasing overall globalization reduces financial inclusion. Furthermore, a positive (negative) change in economic growth leads to an increase (decrease) in financial inclusion while varying short-run findings. Moreover, both positive and negative changes increase financial inclusion in the long run in connection with urbanization. Although the short-run results are not significant, the study finds that an increase (decrease) in population leads to a decrease (increase) in financial inclusion. Finally, to support the promotion of financial inclusivity throughout South Asia, several policies pertaining to financial inclusion are suggested.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the asymmetries related to overall globalization on financial inclusion by controlling economic growth, urbanization and population.