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Barge-type offshore floating wind turbine (OFWT) commonly exhibits an under-actuated phenomenon in an offshore environment, which leads to a potential vibration-damping hazard. This article aims to provide a new robust output feedback anti-vibrational control scheme for the novel translational oscillator with rotational actuator (TORA) based five-degrees of freedom (5-DOF) barge-type OFWT in the presence of unwanted disturbances and modeling uncertainties.

In this paper, an active control technique called TORA has been used to design a 5-DOF barge-type OFWT model, where the mathematical model of the proposed system is derived by using Euler–Lagrange's equations. The robust hierarchical backstepping integral nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (HBINTSMC) with an adaptive gain is used in conjunction with extended order high gain observer (EHGO) to achieve system stabilization in the presence of unwanted disturbances and modeling uncertainties. The numerical simulations based on MATLAB/SIMULINK have been performed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and control law.

The numerical simulation results affirm the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed control law for the TORA based OFWT system. The results demonstrate that the proposed control law is robust against unwanted disturbances and uncertainties. The unknown states are accurately estimated by EHGO which enables the controller to exhibit improved stabilization performance.

A new mathematical model of the 5-DOF barge-type OFWT system based on TORA is the major contribution of this research paper. Furthermore, it provides a new adaptive anti-vibration control scheme by incorporating the EHGO for the proposed model.

Many work conditions require manipulators to open cabinet doors and then gain access to the desired workspace. However, after opening, the unlocked doors can easily close, interrupt a task and potentially break the operating end-effectors. This paper aims to address a manipulator's behavior planning problem for responding to a dynamic workspace released by door opening.

A dynamic model of the restricted workspace released by an unlocked door is established. As a whole system to treat, the interactions between the workspace and robot are analyzed by using a partially observable Markov decision process. A self-protective policy decision executed as a belief tree is proposed. To respond to the policy, this study has designed three types of actions: stay on guard in the workspace, using an elbow joint to defense the door and linear escape out of the workspace for self-protection by observing collision risk levels to trigger them. Finally, this study proposes self-protective motion controllers based on risk time optimization to act to the planned actions.

The elbow defense could balance robotic safety and work efficiency by interrupting the end-effector's work and using the elbow joint to prevent the door-closing in an active collision way. Compared with the stay and escape action, the advantage of the elbow defense is having a predictable performance to quick callback the interrupted work after the risk was relieved.

This work provides guidance for the safe operation of a class of robot operations and the upgrade of motion planning.

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.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes toward business ethics of Vietnamese business students based on gender and the experience of having taken a business ethics course.

A quantitative self-administered survey was conducted with a convenience sample of Vietnamese business students at a banking university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This study used the 30-item Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) constructed by Neumann and Reichel (1987) based on the work of Stevens (1979). The Vietnamese version questionnaire was distributed, and 282 surveys were used for analysis. An item-by-item analysis was conducted based on gender and the experience of having taken a business ethics course.

Significant differences were found on seven items based on gender and four items based on the experience of having taken a business ethics course. However, respondents appeared to have similar attitudes on the majority of the items.

Perhaps the greatest limitation of this study is the relatively uneven distribution of the respondents in the sample. The sample is skewed slightly toward women who are a bit older, fourth year or post-graduate and those who have not taken a business ethics course. In addition convenience sampling technique reduced its generalizability. This study is important because it supports the idea of ethics education to improve ethical decision-making of future business leaders and that education has an effect in Vietnam.

As business students are the main subjects of this research, it can be useful for those involved in development of management and business education in Vietnam to have an overview on how gender impacts business students’ ethics perception. For the executives of multinational corporations, this study provides important information and adds support to a decision to do business in Vietnam.

Although there may be a perception of a less than ethical climate in Vietnam based on its Corruption Perception Index scores, it appears that Vietnamese business students in general express an ethical viewpoint. This study emphasizes the importance of ethics education that is culture-specific to build a strong ethical business environment that can help Vietnam prevent bribery and corruption and achieve sustainable growth and prosperity.

This study contributes to the attitudes toward business ethics research and sheds light on the impact of gender and education (business ethics course) on Vietnamese business students’ ethical attitudes. There has been little research on business ethics in Vietnam. Academicians, managers, practitioners, policymakers, government leaders and the like can benefit from the findings of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain if age, gender, management experience and government work experience actually make a difference in the ethical development of respondents in Vietnam, an emerging economy in Southeast Asia.

A quantitative self-administered survey was conducted with a convenience sample of Vietnamese working adults obtained through educational institutions, businesses and entrepreneurs and private and public sector organizations. This study used Clark and Clark’s (1966) Personal Business Ethics Scores measure. The Vietnamese version questionnaire was distributed, and a total of 704 surveys were fully completed and analyzed.

Statistically significant differences were found in the variables of age, gender and government work experience. Management experience did not lead to any significant differences. Consequently, Kohlberg’s moral development theory regarding ethical development is partially supported.

This study used a convenience sample population. Future studies can compare specific populations in different parts of the country with similar working backgrounds and demographic variables. The small sample size is not necessarily representative of an entire country or the culture in Vietnam. Furthermore, it would be meaningful to investigate the relationship between ethical development and the demographic variables among other Asian countries near Vietnam. Finally, longitudinal studies can be implemented by future researchers to investigate the effects of changes in demographic variables on moral development.

Females should be studied more to determine the factors that they consider when making decisions that impact others. Having longer time “socializing” with organizational values might be a stronger influence on ethical behaviors of a person. Vietnamese people are less tolerant for unethical behaviors when they are much younger and when they are much older.

The importance of ethics education programs at the national and organizational levels is underscored as a key element to combat corruption. Several specific recommendations on how to enhance the fight against corruption and bribery were provided.

This study contributes to the moral development theory research and sheds light on the impact of age, gender, government work experience and management experience gained through the development process on ethical decision-making of Vietnamese people. Academicians, managers, practitioners, government leaders and the like can benefit from the findings of this paper.