Bi Ying Hu, Yuanhua Li, Chuang Wang, Barry Lee Reynolds and Shuang Wang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school climate and teacher stress. Specifically, the authors construct two parsimonious models to test two main…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school climate and teacher stress. Specifically, the authors construct two parsimonious models to test two main hypotheses. First, whether preschool collegial leadership predicts teachers’ job stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy; second, whether teacher professionalism influences teachers’ perceptions of occupational stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conceptualized the mediating role of teacher efficacy as an important mechanism that can help to explain the effect of school climate on teacher stress. School climate consisted of two dimensions: principal collegial leadership and professionalism. Therefore, the authors constructed and examined two mediation models by using Bootstrapping mediation modeling: first, preschool teacher self-efficacy as a mediator between preschool collegial leadership and teacher stress; second, preschool teacher self-efficacy as a mediator between preschool teacher professionalism and teacher stress.
Findings
Results from two mediation analyses showed that principal collegial leadership exerts a significant negative effect on preschool teachers’ stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy. Moreover, professionalism was also a significant predictor of preschool teachers’ stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the literature in terms of understanding the mechanism of how school climate helps to reduce teacher stress. First, the authors found that teachers’ individual well-being can be efficiently enhanced through a more collegial leadership. Second, the preschool leadership teams can create a supportive climate to reduce teachers’ stress by improving teachers’ professionalism.
Originality/value
This study offers a new perspective about understanding the internal and external mechanism of teacher stress. The authors discussed the results in light of the recent push by the Chinese Government to teacher quality improvement in early childhood education. The authors argued for prioritizing support for building a supportive school climate for teachers.
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Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…
Abstract
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.
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Yufeng Zhou, Ying Gong, Xiaoqing Hu and Changshi Liu
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new casualty scheduling optimisation problem and to effectively treat casualties in the early stage of post-earthquake relief.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new casualty scheduling optimisation problem and to effectively treat casualties in the early stage of post-earthquake relief.
Design/methodology/approach
Different from previous studies, some new characteristics of this stage are considered, such as the grey uncertainty information of casualty numbers, the injury deterioration and the facility disruption scenarios. Considering these new characteristics, we propose a novel casualty scheduling optimisation model based on grey chance-constrained programming (GCCP). The model is formulated as a 0–1 mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINP) model. An improved particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm embedded in a grey simulation technique is proposed to solve the model.
Findings
A case study of the Lushan earthquake in China is given to verify the effectiveness of the model and algorithm. The results show that (1) considering the facility disruption in advance can improve the system reliability, (2) the grey simulation technology is more suitable for dealing with the grey uncertain information with a wider fluctuation than the equal-weight whitening method and (3) the authors' proposed PSO is superior to the genetic algorithm and immune algorithm.
Research limitations/implications
The casualty scheduling problem in the emergency recovery stage of post-earthquake relief could be integrated with our study to further enhance the research value of this paper.
Practical implications
Considering the facility disruption in advance is beneficial to treat more patients. Considering the facility disruption in the design stage of the emergency logistics network can improve the reliability of the system.
Originality/value
(1) The authors propose a new casualty scheduling optimisation problem based on GCCP in the early stage of post-earthquake relief. The proposed problem considers many new characteristics in this stage. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the authors are the first to use the GCCP to study the casualty scheduling problem under the grey information. (2) A MINP model is established to formulate the proposed problem. (3) An improved integer-encoded particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm embedded grey simulation technique is designed in this paper.
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Abstract
Purpose
The Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted a lot of attention in both industrial and academic fields for recent years. Artificial intelligence (AI) has developed rapidly in recent years as well. AI naturally combines with the Internet of Things in various ways, enabling big data applications, machine learning algorithms, deep learning, knowledge discovery, neural networks and other technologies. The purpose of this paper is to provide state of the art in AI powered IoT and study smart public services in China.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviewed the articles published on AI powered IoT from 2009 to 2018. Case study as a research method has been chosen.
Findings
The AI powered IoT has been found in the areas of smart cities, healthcare, intelligent manufacturing and so on. First, this study summarizes recent research on AI powered IoT systematically; and second, this study identifies key research topics related to the field and real-world applications.
Originality/value
This research is of importance and significance to both industrial and academic fields researchers who need to understand the current and future development of intelligence in IoT. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to review the literature on AI powered IoT from 2009 to 2018. This is also the first literature review on AI powered IoT with a case study of smart public service in China.
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Khalid Hussain, Fengjie Jing, Muhammad Junaid, Farasat Ali Shah Bukhari and Huayu Shi
The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the effects of service quality (SQ) on outcome variables may shift over time. However, scant attention has been paid to capturing that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the effects of service quality (SQ) on outcome variables may shift over time. However, scant attention has been paid to capturing that shift. The current study uses the theory of relationship dynamics to capture the rate and direction of change in the effects of SQ attributes on customer satisfaction (CS) and emotional attachment (EA). For this purpose, the study takes CS-velocity and EA-velocity as dynamic outcomes of SQ.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 306 restaurant consumers responded to a structured questionnaire at three points in time. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out, followed by analysis of the data through latent growth curve modeling using MPlus (Version 8.1).
Findings
SQ attributes positively affect CS and EA, but these effects diminish over time, as SQ attributes negatively influence CS-velocity and EA-velocity. In addition, the study demonstrates that dynamic elements strongly impact behavioral intentions (BI).
Practical implications
The study enables service and relationship marketing managers to better understand the role of SQ attributes in maintaining longitudinal satisfaction, attachment and BI. The insights from this longitudinal investigation help managers to formulate long-term service management and relationship management strategies.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt to examine SQ’s dynamic outcomes using longitudinal panel data. It is the first study to introduce EA-velocity as a dynamic construct of EA and the first to examine the relationships of CS-velocity and EA-velocity with BI.
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Lin Li, Mingheng Fu, Tie Zhang and He Ying Wu
To improve production efficiency, industrial robots are expected to replace humans to complete the traditional manual operation on grasping, sorting and assembling workpieces…
Abstract
Purpose
To improve production efficiency, industrial robots are expected to replace humans to complete the traditional manual operation on grasping, sorting and assembling workpieces. These implementations are closely related to the accuracy of workpiece location. However, workpiece location methods based on conventional machine vision are sensitive to the factors such as light intensity and surface roughness. To enhance the robustness of the workpiece location method and improve the location accuracy, a workpiece location algorithm based on improved Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) is proposed.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed algorithm integrates a weighted bi-directional feature pyramid network into SSD. A feature fusion architecture is structured by the combination of low-resolution, strong semantic features and high-resolution, weak semantic features. The architecture is built through a top-down pathway, bottom-up pathway, lateral connections and skip connections. To avoid treating all features equally, learnable weights are introduced into each feature layer to characterize its importance. More detailed information from the low-level layers is injected into the high-level layers, which could improve the accuracy of workpiece location.
Findings
It is found that the maximum location error at the center point calculated from the proposed algorithm is decreased by more than 22% compared with that of the SSD algorithm. Besides, the average location error evolves a decrease by at least 5%. In the trajectory prediction experiment of the workpiece center point, the results of the proposed algorithm demonstrate that the average location error is below 0.13 mm and the maximum error is no more than 0.23 mm.
Originality/value
In this work, a workpiece location algorithm based on improved SSD is developed to extract the center point of the workpiece. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is beneficial for workpiece location. The proposed algorithm can be readily used in a variety of workpieces or adapted to other similar tasks.
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Hu Qiao, Qingyun Wu, Songlin Yu, Jiang Du and Ying Xiang
The purpose of this paper is to propose a three-dimensional (3D) assembly model retrieval method based on assembling semantic information to address semantic mismatches, poor…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a three-dimensional (3D) assembly model retrieval method based on assembling semantic information to address semantic mismatches, poor accuracy and low efficiency in existing 3D assembly model retrieval methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes an assembly model retrieval method. First, assembly information retrieval is performed, and 3D models that conform to the design intention of the assembly are found by retrieving the code. On this basis, because there are conjugate subgraphs between attributed adjacency graphs (AAG) that have an assembly relationship, the assembly model geometric retrieval is translated into a problem of finding AAGs with a conjugate subgraph. Finally, the frequent subgraph mining method is used to retrieve AAGs with conjugate subgraphs.
Findings
The method improved the efficiency and accuracy of assembly model retrieval.
Practical implications
The examples illustrate the specific retrieval process and verify the feasibility and reasonability of the assembly model retrieval method in practical applications.
Originality/value
The assembly model retrieval method in the paper is an original method. Compared with other methods, good results were obtained.
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Song Wang, Ying Luo and Xinmin Liu
The overload of user-generated content in online mental health community makes the focus and resonance tendencies of the participating groups less clear. Thus, the purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The overload of user-generated content in online mental health community makes the focus and resonance tendencies of the participating groups less clear. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to build an early identification mechanism for users' high attention content to promote early intervention and effective dissemination of professional medical guidance.
Design/methodology/approach
We decouple the identification mechanism from two processes: early feature combing and algorithmic model construction. Firstly, based on the differentiated needs and concerns of the participant groups, the multiple features of “information content + source users” are refined. Secondly, a multi-level fusion model is constructed for features processing. Specifically, Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT)-Bi-directional Long-Short Term Memory (BiLSTM)-Linear are used to refine the semantic features, while Graph Attention Networks (GAT) is used to capture the entity attributes and relation features. Finally, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is used to optimize the multi-level fusion features.
Findings
The results show that the ACC of the multi-level fusion model is 84.42%, F1 is 79.43% and R is 76.71%. Compared with other baseline models and single feature elements, the ACC and F1 values are improved to different degrees.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in analyzing multiple features based on early stages and constructing a new multi-level fusion model for processing. Further, the study is valuable for the orientation of psychological patients' needs and early guidance of professional medical care.
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Yongyi Shou, Ying Li, Young Won Park and Mingu Kang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of supply chain integration (SCI) at the product level. More specifically, it aims to show the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of supply chain integration (SCI) at the product level. More specifically, it aims to show the relationship between product-level characteristics (i.e. product complexity and product variety) and different dimensions of SCI (i.e. internal, supplier and customer integration).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey-based research design is developed to measure different dimensions of SCI, product complexity and product variety. The authors use structural equation modelling to test the related hypotheses.
Findings
This research shows that internal integration is an enabler to supplier and customer integration. The results also show that under high product complexity, firms tend to implement internal and supplier integration, while product complexity does not have a direct impact on customer integration. Product variety is confirmed to be positively related to all dimensions of SCI.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the SCI literature by first, providing empirical evidence which supports the study of the product design-supply chain interface; and second, exploring the relationships between product complexity, variety and internal, supplier and customer integration based on a governance view.
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Shun Ying, Jin Hooi Chan and Xiaoguang Qi
The paper aims to identify the emergent themes of hotel guests’ satisfaction, to compare the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to identify the emergent themes of hotel guests’ satisfaction, to compare the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests and to compare the importance of the themes for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests from a cross-cultural perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting Python (a computer language), the word-frequency method was used to identify emergent themes of hotel guests’ satisfaction. Topic modeling was adopted to compare the attributes distribution of each theme and the features of satisfaction between Chinese and North American guests.
Findings
First, three themes were identified including functionality, staff and price. Functionality can be further categorized into five subthemes, namely, room, travel, food, environment and hotel facility. Second, the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests was compared from a cross-cultural perspective. Chinese guests tend to mention both lifestyles- and social norms–related attributes and expect personalized service, while North American guests mainly prefer to describe lifestyle-related attributes and prefer standardized service. Third, the study compared the changing importance of the themes (functionality, staff and price) for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests. As the satisfaction level decreases, the importance of functionality decreases, that of staff increases and that of price remain stable for Chinese guests. In contrast, the importance of each theme has fluctuated mildly from the high to the low satisfaction level for North American guests.
Practical implications
Proposed managerial implications are to highlight lifestyle- and social norms-related attributes, as well as personalized service for Chinese guests. However, lifestyle-related attributes and standardized service should be facilitated for North American guests. Specific suggestions were made to help improve hotel performance such as the good performance of functional-related attributes, which could enhance satisfaction and better staff performance, which would reduce dissatisfaction.
Originality/value
By mining big data, this study investigated hotel guests’ satisfaction from a dynamic instead of a static perspective. This study provides some rare insights into differences in key attributes influencing satisfaction levels of Chinese versus North American guests staying in luxury hotels in China. This study also takes a novel approach to examine the dynamics of the importance of the various themes at different satisfaction levels, and contrast these dynamics between Chinese and North American guests. The findings offer valuable insight into market segmentation and management in the hospitality industry.