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This paper aims to investigate what motivates consumers to adopt one of the emerging mobile applications of the sharing economy, ridesharing application. Using social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework, this study develops a value adoption model to illustrate important factors that influence adoption of ridesharing applications.

Based on prior literature, a quantitative methodology was adopted using a survey questionnaire that allows for the measurement of the nine constructs contained in the hypothesized theoretical model. Data collected from a sample of 314 respondents in Beijing, China provided the foundation for the examination of the proposed relationships in the model.

First, the results indicate that self-efficacy is a fundamental factor that has a direct effect on consumers’ perceptions of value and an indirect effect on behavioral intentions. Second, the study demonstrates that functional value, emotional value and social value are critical antecedents of overall perceived value of ridesharing applications. On the other hand, learning effort and risk perception are not significant perceived costs for consumers in adopting ridesharing applications.

Although typical adopters of internet applications constitute a significant portion of younger consumers, the use of a college student sample in this study may affect the generalizability of the results.

The findings provide critical insight into consumer motivations behind adoption of ridesharing applications specifically, and for sharing economy platforms in general.

This study provides important theoretical implications for innovation adoption research through an empirical examination of the relationship between personal, environmental and behavioral factors in a framework of social cognitive theory.

The purpose of this study aims to shorten the running-in time and improve the running-in quality of cylinder liner piston rings (CLPRs), the running-in tests were carried out and running-in parameters of CLPRs were designed based on running-in attractor theory, which can guide the choice of optimal working conditions for other friction pairs.

The running-in state and time under different working conditions are identified by the evolution law of the running-in attractor phase trajectory and fractal and chaotic characteristic quantities. The CLPRs running-in tests under different conditions were conducted and the friction signals were collected. The constructed phase trajectories and calculated chaotic parameters of the running-in attractor are obtained and the running-in state and time are identified by the evolution law of phase trajectories and chaotic characteristic quantities. The running-in quality is obtained by the surface morphology fractal dimension and characteristic roughness parameters.

The running-in parameters for short running-in time and good running-in quality are designed based on the fractal and chaotic theory and the optimal solution method are used to verify the results through the single objective or multi-objective optimization, and the corresponding optimal running-in parameters are obtained.

The optimal working condition parameters obtained from the design have guiding significance for the selection of CLPR running-in parameters, and this work can provide ideas for the other friction pairs.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-05-2024-0179/

The purpose of this paper is to explore how curved road and lane-changing rates affect the stability of traffic flow.

An extended two-lane lattice hydrodynamic model on a curved road accounting for the empirical lane-changing rate is presented. The linear analysis of the new model is discussed, the stability condition and the neutral stability condition are obtained. Also, the mKdV equation and its solution are proposed through nonlinear analysis, which discusses the stability of the extended model in the unstable region. Furthermore, the results of theoretical analysis are verified by numerical simulation.

The empirical lane-changing rate on a curved road is an important factor, which can alleviate traffic congestion.

This paper does not take into account the factors such as slope, the drivers’ characters and so on in the actual traffic, which will have more or less influence on the stability of traffic flow, so there is still a certain gap with the real traffic environment.

The curved road and empirical lane-changing rate are researched simultaneously in a two-lane lattice hydrodynamic models in this paper. The improved model can better reflect the actual traffic, which can also provide a theoretical reference for the actual traffic governance.

The application of massive open online courses (MOOCs) helps integrate sustainable development goals (SDGs) into architectural curricula. The essence of MOOC development is building an education platform that promotes the sharing and continuing of global education resources.

This study establishes a four-dimensional evaluation model based on the four characteristics of MOOCs. The quadrilateral area evaluation method is used to create an evaluation radar chart to comprehensively evaluate satisfaction and demand in the traditional teaching model of architectural technology. This study discusses whether the curriculum is suitable for the development of MOOCs and how to optimize the sustainable pedagogical mode according to its characteristics to meet future teaching needs and realize the sustainable development of education.

Satisfaction evaluation found that current education is not open enough from the students' perspective; therefore, MOOCs enhance students' participation and significantly reduce future learning costs. Through demand evaluation, it was found that both teachers and students believed that the lack of direct and effective communication between them and the difficulty in ensuring the learning effect were problems that must be addressed in MOOCs.

This study focused on the sustainability of MOOCs in curriculum development. It emphasizes the combination of MOOCs' teaching modes and the course itself and provides specific guidance and suggestions for improving the course. It uses an evaluation method for objective analysis and visualization.

This paper aims to introduce a novel approach to the fabrication of photoluminescent materials by coating rare earth aluminate luminescent materials on metallic substrates and a readily manufacturable light source with robust structure in the form of photoluminescent sphere (APS).

The clean and dried stainless steel sphere was sprayed with UH 2593, a white undercoat, the luminescent coating and the weather resistance coating in chronological order.

After adhered onto the stainless steel sphere, the peaks corresponding to the N-H stretching vibrations were changed. The intensity of free N-H stretching at 3,536 cm⁻¹ dramatically decreased and the peak of hydrogen-bonded N-H stretching of PU moved to lower wavenumbers. The red shift of the infrared bands of functional groups was attributed to the strengthened hydrogen bonding. The hydrogen bonding interactions between the stainless steel substrates and the polyurethane coating endowed the APS with excellent adhesive property and also promoted the evenly distribution of the photoluminescent particles in the polymer coating matrix.

This approach can be applicable in the fabrication of the photoluminescent materials. The APS can be used as signs and guiding post in remote areas without sufficient electricity supply and in the seas and rivers with complicated hydrological conditions.

This approach has provided a method to produce tough and durable luminescent signs for remote areas and dangerous seas and explained the functional mechanism of the combined application of metallic materials and non-metallic materials.

The purpose of this work is to comprehensively reveal the spatial distribution and evolution features of a running-in attractor.

The friction coefficient signals extracted from wear experiments are reconstructed. A projected matrix is obtained based on the reconstructed matrix. Then the approach of three-dimensional (3D) histogram of phase points is proposed, which is used to intuitively characterize the complex properties of the running-in attractor.

The space occupied by the running-in attractor gradually contracts, then stabilizes and finally expands; the maximum of phase points number in a certain bin initially decreases, then keeps stable and finally increases rapidly; yet the percentage of bins number storing phase points shows an inverse variation tendency. Consequently, 3D histogram evolves from a nonuniform state to a uniform state then returns back to the nonuniform state, which indicates the evolution rule of “formation, stabilization and disappearance” of the running-in attractor.

Characterization on the features of the running-in attractor can provide valuable information about friction systems and their dynamic behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to calculate the meshing stiffness of nutation face gear considering the roughness, establish the calculation method of time-varying meshing stiffness of rough tooth surface and analyze the influence of roughness, load and other factors on the meshing stiffness of tooth surface.

The Weierstrass–Mandelbrot (W-M) function in the Majumdar–Bhushan model is used to characterize the rough contact line of the tooth surface, the normal height and radius of the micro convex body are calculated and the contact flexibility of the contact point of the tooth surface is obtained. The contact flexibility and the bending shear deformation flexibility obtained previously are substituted into the improved deformation compatibility equation for iterative calculation, and the time-varying meshing stiffness of the nutation face gear considering the roughness is obtained.

Compared with ABAQUS finite element simulation results, it is found that the meshing stiffness curve of rough tooth surface is more gentle than that of smooth tooth surface, the meshing stiffness value is smaller and the meshing stiffness change is smaller at the position where the number of gear teeth coincide changes.

In the process of calculating contact deformation, the fractal theory W-M function is used to characterize the contact line of the rough nutation face gear, and the deformation coordination condition considering roughness is improved. Therefore, the method of time-varying meshing stiffness considering roughness can obtain more accurate results, which provides theory and data for the subsequent dynamics analysis of the nutation face gear transmission.

This study aims to empirically analyze the factors influencing digital financial inclusion in China.

Using panel data from 31 provinces in China for the years 2011-2018, the study constructed spatial econometric models for regression analysis at the national and regional levels.

Economic development, government intervention, internet penetration and the development of the credit level significantly affected the development of digital financial inclusion in China. However, the specific influence of the various factors varied by province. Provinces with less-developed economies generally had weaker economic foundations and underdeveloped digital financial services, making it more difficult to fully achieve digital financial inclusion.

Relevant government policies should strengthen digital infrastructure and improve the organizational systems and services of digital finance to support the balanced development of digital financial services in China.

China’s e-commerce development has been at the global forefront for decades, which suggests digital financial inclusion is also well-placed for strong development in China. However, quantitative research on the digital financial inclusion index has remained insufficient in China and worldwide, with most research ignoring the status of different development levels in a different region. To address this gap in the literature, this study empirically researched the status, regional differences and causes associated with these differences that impact digital financial inclusion in China.

Forecasts of commodity prices are vital issues to market participants and policy makers. Those of corn are of no exception, considering its strategic importance. In the present study, the authors assess the forecast problem for the weekly wholesale price index of yellow corn in China during January 1, 2010–January 10, 2020 period.

The authors employ the nonlinear auto-regressive neural network as the forecast tool and evaluate forecast performance of different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data splitting ratios in arriving at the final model.

The final model is relatively simple and leads to accurate and stable results. Particularly, it generates relative root mean square errors of 1.05%, 1.08% and 1.03% for training, validation and testing, respectively.

Through the analysis, the study shows usefulness of the neural network technique for commodity price forecasts. The results might serve as technical forecasts on a standalone basis or be combined with other fundamental forecasts for perspectives of price trends and corresponding policy analysis.

Under oil interruption, lubricant supply in the high-speed bearing cavity is interrupted, which reduces the bearing lubrication and cooling ability, thus leading to degradation of bearing performance or even its failure. This paper aims to study the effect of grooves at the noncontact outer ring area on the flow and thermal performance of high-speed bearings under oil interruption, which is expected to improve the resistance of existing bearings to oil interruption.

The groove was added to the noncontact outer ring area of the bearing, and a method of combining volume of fluid and MRF was adopted to systematically study and analyze the oil-gas flow field structure and the temperature field distribution in the bearing cavities.

Results show that the lubricating oil could be stored and guided by the grooves of the bearing outer ring into the key lubrication area inside the bearing cavity, which increased the oil content near the inner ring and made the oil distribution more uniform. As a result, lubrication cooling and heat dissipation performance of the bearing cavity was improved. Compared with the original bearing, the bearing with a V-shaped groove had the optimal lubrication and cooling performance.

A rolling bearing model of the noncontact outer ring area with grooves under oil interruption is established in the paper. The simulation results provide theoretical guidance for the research and development of high-speed bearings with stronger oil interruption resistance ability.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-06-2024-0199/