Yu Zhao, Guoyu Wang and Biao Huang
The purpose of this paper is to assess the predictive capability of the streamline curvature correction model (CCM) and investigate the unsteady vortex behavior of the cloud…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the predictive capability of the streamline curvature correction model (CCM) and investigate the unsteady vortex behavior of the cloud cavitating flows around a hydrofoil.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the paper is based on introducing the curvature correction method to the original k-ε model. Calculations of unsteady cloud cavitating flows around a Clark-Y hydrofoil are performed using both the CCM and the baseline model.
Findings
Compared with the baseline model, better agreements are observed between the predictions of the CCM model and experimental data, especially the cavity shedding process. Based on the computations, it is demonstrated that streamline curvature correction of the CCM model can effectively decrease predicted turbulence kinetic energy and eddy viscosity in cavity shedding region. This leads to the better prediction for the recirculation zone located downstream of the attached cavity, and dynamics of this recirculation zone contribute to the formation and development of the re-entrant jet.
Originality/value
The authors apply streamline curvature correction to the calculations of unsteady cloud cavitating flows and discuss the interactions between the cavitation unsteadiness and vortex structures to get an insight of the correction mechanics.
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Outside the US and Europe, to establish a good government requires more than Western-style democracy. Adopting universal suffrage fully from the Western model is no longer a…
Abstract
Purpose
Outside the US and Europe, to establish a good government requires more than Western-style democracy. Adopting universal suffrage fully from the Western model is no longer a panacea to reach the ultimate goal of good governance in the East, i.e., to keep promoting socio-economic renovation can be noted as a prerequisite to have further meaningful political advancement in an Asian polity. The purpose of this paper is to explain how to establish a good but authoritarian government in the East.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the good of comparative historical analysis, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore and Deng Xiaoping in China are selected as both cases for “method of agreement.” Further including “argument based on the contrary” to form a context for macro-historical analysis, this paper outlines two characteristics of the duo’s authoritarian leadership, namely, Ideologies and Policy-making; and Political Modernization, and hence provides a more balanced reevaluation of their governance.
Findings
Apart from noting how these two Asian giants more or less contributed to their good but authoritarian governments for long in the twentieth century, such a word of authoritarianism to the duo was quite positive to help legitimize their governance, which was far different from many negative views of the Western world.
Originality/value
As theories put forward by Western academics could not entirely justify modernization among Asian societies in the twentieth century, this paper attempts to answer one question: Does the meaning of authoritarianism remain unchanged in the discourse of the East and the West?
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Hesam Odin Komari Alaei and Alireza Yazdizadeh
This paper is concerned with the estimation of reservoir parameters in the presence of noise and outliers using neural network (NN) and Bayesian algorithm. The paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is concerned with the estimation of reservoir parameters in the presence of noise and outliers using neural network (NN) and Bayesian algorithm. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Outlier detection is of great importance to prediction of time series data. A reliable predictive methodology is proposed based on NN and Bayesian algorithm to efficiency estimates of the parameters of a petroleum reservoir. This strategy is applied to estimate the parameters of Marun reservoir located in Ahwaz, Iran utilizing available geophysical well log data.
Findings
For an evaluation purpose, the performance and generalization capabilities of Bayes-ANN are compared with the common technique of back propagation (BP).
Practical implications
The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid Bayes-NN algorithm is able to reveal a better performance than conventional BP NN algorithms.
Originality/value
Helped oil and gas companies to estimation of petroleum reservoir parameters more accurate than other methods in the presence of noise and outliers.
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Biao Liu, Qiao Wang, Y.T. Feng, Zongliang Zhang, Quanshui Huang, Wenxiang Tian and Wei Zhou
3D steady heat conduction analysis considering heat source is conducted on the fundamental of the fast multipole method (FMM)-accelerated line integration boundary element method…
Abstract
Purpose
3D steady heat conduction analysis considering heat source is conducted on the fundamental of the fast multipole method (FMM)-accelerated line integration boundary element method (LIBEM).
Design/methodology/approach
Due to considering the heat source, domain integral is generated in the traditional heat conduction boundary integral equation (BIE), which will counteract the well-known merit of the BEM, namely, boundary-only discretization. To avoid volume discretization, the enhanced BEM, the LIBEM with dimension reduction property is introduced to transfer the domain integral into line integrals. Besides, owing to the unsatisfactory performance of the LIBEM when it comes to large-scale structures requiring massive computation, the FMM-accelerated LIBEM (FM-LIBEM) is proposed to improve the computation efficiency further.
Findings
Assuming N and M are the numbers of nodes and integral lines, respectively, the FM-LIBEM can reduce the time complexity from O(NM) to about O(N+ M), and a full discussion and verification of the advantage are done based on numerical examples under heat conduction.
Originality/value
(1) The LIBEM is applied to 3D heat conduction analysis with heat source. (2) The domain integrals can be transformed into boundary integrals with straight line integrals by the LIM. (3) A FM-LIBEM is proposed and can reduce the time complexity from O(NM) to O(N+ M). (4) The FM-LIBEM with high computational efficiency is exerted to solve 3D heat conduction analysis with heat source in massive computation successfully.
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This study emphasises the importance of employee participation in total productive maintenance and identifies the key factors influencing employee participation. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This study emphasises the importance of employee participation in total productive maintenance and identifies the key factors influencing employee participation. The Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) framework is adopted to identify and categorise key factors.
Design/methodology/approach
An embedded case study with a power plant service provider in England was conducted with a variety of research methods, for example interviews and questionnaire surveys, to gain a wide range of data.
Findings
Following the MOA framework, this study shows various key aspects of employees' motivation, opportunity and ability when participating in total productive maintenance. It also compares first-line machine operators and maintenance specialists in terms of the drivers and barriers to total productive maintenance for them, and reveals that they need different mechanical skills in order to participate in total productive maintenance.
Originality/value
The study extends the applications of the MOA framework to total productive maintenance initiatives and provides managers with guidance on how to correctly consider and prioritise employee participation in their implementation. Moreover, this is the first study to identify differences between first-line machine operators and maintenance specialists, in terms of their willingness to participate in total productive maintenance.
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Biao Zhang, Zetian Fu, Jieqiong Wang, Xiaolin Tang, Yousen Zhao and Lingxian Zhang
Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the farmers’ selection behavior of vegetable marketing channels, and to determine the key factors which affected farmer’ decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 191 valid questionnaires were collected from 50 villages in seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2015, yielding a response rate of 86.8 percent. The multinomial logit model was used for analysis in this study.
Findings
The results revealed that the farmers mainly selected farmers’ market, cooperative, and wholesaler to sell their vegetables, which comprised 96.57 percent of total vegetable sales. Estimation results showed that cooperative, vegetable acreage, price satisfaction, and slow sales were most important factors which influence positively the probability of opting to sell vegetables at a cooperative rather than at the farmer’s market. For wholesalers, gender of the household head and cooperative had most significantly negative effect, and age had a positive impact on farmer’s choice of market channels.
Originality/value
The results and implications obtained in the present study could help policymakers to establish a scientific-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the circulation of vegetables in Beijing and guarantee their income in vegetable supply chain. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.
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This paper seeks to discuss the genealogical sources for Chinese immigrants as well as the settlement of Chinese in the USA and the historical evolution of Chinese names, their…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to discuss the genealogical sources for Chinese immigrants as well as the settlement of Chinese in the USA and the historical evolution of Chinese names, their origins, arrangement and development. It aims to cover the origins of various classes of Chinese surnames, followed by the content description of a traditional genealogical book for jiapu.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper researches the various ways that a Chinese person can find out about their ancestry.
Findings
The paper reveals the roles of libraries, including serving the needs of patrons interested in genealogical research, preserving and interpreting information through oral and family history projects and collaborating with other libraries through interlibrary loan, document delivery, library consortia, collection management and international resource‐sharing.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides information on where and how to locate the genealogical resources for researching the genealogy of a Chinese family.
Originality/value
The paper analyzes the value of genealogical research as a documentary source for population history, life expectancy in a clan, marriages and family connections, as well as lineage organizations and inter‐lineage relations.
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Juanjuan Yan, Biao Luo and Tanruiling Zhang
As artificial intelligence technology empowers service robots, they increasingly communicate with consumers in a human-like manner. This study aims to investigate the effect of…
Abstract
Purpose
As artificial intelligence technology empowers service robots, they increasingly communicate with consumers in a human-like manner. This study aims to investigate the effect of service robots’ different conversational styles (competent conversational style vs. cute conversational style) on consumer service acceptance and demonstrate the moderating role of consumers’ technology anxiety.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on anthropomorphism theory and social presence theory, the authors conducted two scenario-based experiments (restaurant scenario and hotel scenario) to investigate this issue.
Findings
The results indicate that service robots’ conversational styles impact consumers’ willingness to accept the use of service robots through perceived social presence and positive emotion. Moreover, consumers perceived social presence and positive emotion play a serial mechanism. In addition, the effect of competent conversational style on consumers perceived social presence is less effective than that of cute conversational style. Finally, the authors demonstrate the moderating role of consumer technology anxiety in the relationship between conversational styles and perceived social presence.
Practical implications
To provide consumers with a positive human–robot interaction experience at the service front line, managers need to make better use of the conversational styles of service robots by comprehensively considering the characteristics of consumer technology anxiety.
Originality/value
This research extends the literature on service robots by integrating consumer characteristics and robots’ conversational styles. These findings highlight the effectiveness of cute conversational style in alleviating consumer technology anxiety.
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Yanbing Ni, Biao Zhang, Wenxia Guo and Cuiyan Shao
The purpose of this paper is to develop a means of the kinematic calibration of a parallel manipulator with full-circle rotation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a means of the kinematic calibration of a parallel manipulator with full-circle rotation.
Design/methodology/approach
An error-mapping model based on the space vector chain is formulated and parameter identification is proposed based on double ball-bar (DBB) measurements. The measurement trajectory is determined by the motion characteristics of this mechanism and whether the error sources can be identified. Error compensation is proposed by modifying the inputs, and a two-step kinematic calibration method is implemented.
Findings
The simulation and experiment results show that this kinematic calibration method is effective. The DBB length errors and the position errors in the end-effector of the parallel manipulator with full-circle rotation are greatly reduced after error compensation.
Originality/value
By establishing the mapping relationship between measured error data and geometric error sources, the error parameters of this mechanism are identified; thus, the pose errors are unnecessary to be measured directly. The effectiveness of the kinematic calibration method is verified by computer simulation and experiment. This proposed calibration method can help the novel parallel manipulator with full-circle rotation and other similar parallel mechanisms to improve their accuracy.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between customer’s electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) regarding their direct service experiences with firms and these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between customer’s electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) regarding their direct service experiences with firms and these firms’ company value. The authors drew on the marketing-finance interface research approach to demonstrate how interactive social media adopted by individual customer relate to important firms’ financial performances.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used seven American airline companies’ customers’ tweets collected during a 52-week observation period and paired with their corresponding financial data using stock returns and volatilities. Sentiment analysis algorithm and a vector autoregressive (VAR) model quantified the strong association between customer’s eWOM and these firms’ stock returns and volatilities.
Findings
The results show that customer’s eWOM regarding a firm positively associate with the firm’s stock return but negatively associate with its stock volatility; as negative valence of customer’s eWOM increases, the positive effect of eWOM on firm’s stock return decreases; the negative eWOM impacts on the stock market more profoundly compared with when both positive and negative sensitivities are considered; and eWOM’s wear-out effect is much shorter than that of traditional WOM.
Originality/value
The authors address a literature gap where little is known for how customer’s eWOM, that is evaluating firm services, can ultimately impact on firms’ long-term financial performances. The authors discuss how findings from this study offer implications for marketing management as well as strategic insights for practitioners and investment analysts alike.