Xiaoning Li, Xinbo Liao, Qingwen Zhong, Kai Zheng, Shaoxing Chen, Xiao-Jun Chen, Jin-Xiu Zhu and Hongyuan Yang
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influencing factors of patients’ financial burden through a case study of hospital on public‒private partnerships (PPP) model (Chaonan…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influencing factors of patients’ financial burden through a case study of hospital on public‒private partnerships (PPP) model (Chaonan Minsheng Hospital of Guangdong Province) and provide some useful information to policymakers for better development of hospitals on PPP model.
Design/methodology/approach
There are total six indicators that are defined as patients’ financial burden, basing on the policy of “indicators of medical quality management and control on the third level large general hospital (2011 edition),” issued by Chinese Government. In total, 23 potentially influencing factors of patients’ financial burden for hospital on PPP model were chosen from the above policy. The five-year (2007‒2011) data for the above 29 indicators come from statistic department of hospital on PPP model. Grey relational analysis (GRA) was applied to analyze the influencing factors of patients’ financial burden for hospital on PPP model.
Findings
A clear rank of influencing factors of patients’ financial burden is obtained and suggestions are provided from results of GRA, which provide reference for policymakers of hospital on PPP model. The five main influencing factors of patients’ financial burden for hospital on PPP model, in sequence, are rescuing critical ill patients on emergency, rescuing critical ill inpatients, inpatient bed occupancy rate, working days per bed and medical building area.
Originality/value
The study on the influencing factors of patients’ financial burden for hospital on PPP model not only provides decision-making for policymaker of hospital and controlling of medical expenditure but also contributes to release patients’ financial burden for hospitals on PPP model.
Details
Keywords
Noel Scott, Brent Moyle, Ana Cláudia Campos, Liubov Skavronskaya and Biqiang Liu
Jian Sun, Junran Huang, Zhonghao Tian, Jinmei Yao, Yang Zhang and Lu Wang
This paper aims to understand the vibration characteristics of full ceramic ball bearings under grease lubrication, reduce the vibration of the bearings and improve their service…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the vibration characteristics of full ceramic ball bearings under grease lubrication, reduce the vibration of the bearings and improve their service life.
Design/methodology/approach
The Hertz contact stiffness formula for full ceramic ball bearings is constructed; the equivalent comprehensive stiffness calculation model and vibration model of full ceramic ball bearings are established. The dynamic characteristic test of full ceramic ball bearing under grease lubrication was carried out by using the bearing life testing machine, and its vibration was measured, and its vibration acceleration root-mean-square was obtained by software calculation and compared with the simulation results.
Findings
At the rotational speed of 12,000 r/min, the root-mean-square value of vibration acceleration is maximum 10.82 m/s2, and the error is also maximum 7.49%. As the rotational speed increases, the oil film stiffness decreases. In the radial load of 600 N, the vibration acceleration root-mean-square is minimum 6.40 m/s2, but its error is maximum 6.56%. As the radial load increases, the vibration of the bearing decreases and then increases, so under certain conditions increasing the radial load can reduce the bearing vibration. With different types of grease, the best preload is also different; low-speed heavy load should be used when the viscosity of the grease is large, and high-speed light load should be used when the choice of smaller viscosity grease is made.
Originality/value
It provides a theoretical basis for the application of full ceramic ball bearings under grease lubrication, which is of great significance for reducing the vibration of bearings as well as enhancing the service life of bearings.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-03-2024-0094/
Details
Keywords
Yuxia Ji, Li Chen, Jun Zhang, Dexin Zhang and Xiaowei Shao
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pose control of rigid spacecraft subject to dead-zone input, unknown external disturbance and parametric uncertainty in space…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pose control of rigid spacecraft subject to dead-zone input, unknown external disturbance and parametric uncertainty in space maneuvering mission.
Design/methodology/approach
First, a 6-Degree of Freedom (DOF) dynamic model of rigid spacecraft with dead-zone input, unknown external disturbances and parametric uncertainty is derived. Second, a super-twisting-like fixed-time disturbance observer (FTDO) with strong robustness is developed to estimate the lumped disturbances in fixed time. Based on the proposed observer, a non-singular fixed-time terminal sliding-mode (NFTSM) controller with superior performance is proposed.
Findings
Different from the existing sliding-mode controllers, the proposed control scheme can directly avoid the singularity in the controller design and speed up the convergence rate with improved control accuracy. Moreover, no prior knowledge of lumped disturbances’ upper bound and its first derivatives is required. The fixed-time stability of the entire closed-loop system is rigorously proved in the Lyapunov framework. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme are proved by comparison with existing approaches.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed NFTSM controller can merely be applied to a specific type of spacecrafts, as the relevant system states should be measurable.
Practical implications
A NFTSM controller based on a super-twisting-like FTDO can efficiently deal with dead-zone input, unknown external disturbance and parametric uncertainty for spacecraft pose control.
Originality/value
This investigation uses NFTSM control and super-twisting-like FTDO to achieve spacecraft pose control subject to dead-zone input, unknown external disturbance and parametric uncertainty.
Details
Keywords
Douqing Zhang, Mingjun Li, Xiang Ji, Jie Wu and Yilun Dong
The purpose of this paper is to generate quantitative managerial insights for the improvement of the energy-saving potential and the coordinated development between economic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to generate quantitative managerial insights for the improvement of the energy-saving potential and the coordinated development between economic growth and environmental protection.
Design/methodology/approach
A novel data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, based on the classical DEA theory, is developed from the perspective of emission reduction.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that China’s overall environmental efficiency is low and that there is huge improvement space for energy saving. Under the concerns of emission reduction, the energy-saving potential of the central region exceeds that of both the eastern and western regions. With regard to water, electricity and gas consumption, the electricity-saving potential exceeds the potential for both water saving and gas saving.
Originality/value
Previous studies rarely focused on the energy-saving potential, while considering environmental pollution. This paper applies a novel DEA method to evaluate the energy-saving potential of 30 Chinese provinces for 2015 with a focus on emission reduction concerns. Furthermore, both regional differences and energy type differences of the saving potential were analyzed.
Details
Keywords
Tim Chen, Safiullahand Khurram and CYJ Cheng
This paper aims to deal with the problem of the global stabilization for a class of tension leg platform (TLP) nonlinear control systems.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deal with the problem of the global stabilization for a class of tension leg platform (TLP) nonlinear control systems.
Design/methodology/approach
It is well-known that, in general, the global asymptotic stability of the TLP subsystems does not imply the global asymptotic stability of the composite closed-loop system.
Findings
An effective approach is proposed to control chaos via the combination of fuzzy controllers, fuzzy observers and dithers.
Research limitations/implications
If a fuzzy controller and a fuzzy observer cannot stabilize the chaotic system, a dither, as an auxiliary of the controller and the observer, is simultaneously introduced to asymptotically stabilize the chaotic system.
Originality/value
Thus, the behavior of the closed-loop dithered chaotic system can be rigorously predicted by establishing that of the closed-loop fuzzy relaxed system.
Details
Keywords
Yi Sun, Quan Jin, Qing Cheng and Kun Guo
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new tool for stock investment risk management through studying stocks with what kind of characteristics can be predicted by individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a new tool for stock investment risk management through studying stocks with what kind of characteristics can be predicted by individual investor behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on comment data of individual stock from the Snowball, a thermal optimal path method is employed to analyze the lead–lag relationship between investor attention (IA) and the stock price. And machine learning algorithms, including SVM and BP neural network, are used to predict the prices of certain kind of stock.
Findings
It turns out that the lead–lag relationships between IA and the stock price change dynamically. Forecasting based on investor behavior is more accurate only when the IA of the stock is stably leading its price change most of the time.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation of this paper is that it studies China’s stock market only; however, different conclusions could be drawn for other financial markets or mature stock markets.
Practical implications
As for the implications, the new tool could improve the prediction accuracy of the model, thus have practical significance for stock selection and dynamic portfolio management.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first few research works that introduce individual investor data into portfolio risk management. The new tool put forward in this study can capture the dynamic interplay between IA and stock price change, which help investors identify and control the risk of their portfolios.
Details
Keywords
In smart cities striving for innovation, development, and prosperity, hydrogen offers a promising path for decarbonization. However, its effective integration into the evolving…
Abstract
In smart cities striving for innovation, development, and prosperity, hydrogen offers a promising path for decarbonization. However, its effective integration into the evolving energy landscape requires understanding regional intricacies and identifying areas for improvement. This chapter examines hydrogen transport from production to utilization, evaluating technologies’ pros, cons, and process equations and using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool to assess these technologies based on multiple criteria. It also explores barriers and opportunities in hydrogen transport within the 21st-century energy transition, providing insights for overcoming challenges. Evaluation criteria for hydrogen transport technologies were ranked by relative importance, with energy efficiency topping the list, followed by energy density, infrastructure requirements, cost, range, and flexibility. Safety, technological maturity, scalability, and compatibility with existing infrastructure received lower weights. Hydrogen transport technologies were categorized into three performance levels: low, medium, and high. Hydrogen tube trailers ranked lowest, while chemical hydrides, hydrail, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, hydrogen pipelines, and hydrogen blending exhibited moderate performance. Compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, ammonia carriers, and hydrogen fueling stations demonstrated the highest performance. The proposed framework is crucial for next-gen smart cities, cutting emissions, boosting growth, and speeding up development with a strong hydrogen infrastructure. This makes the region a sustainable tech leader, improving air quality and well-being. Aligned with Gulf Region goals, it is key for smart cities. Policymakers, industries, and researchers can use these insights to overcome barriers and seize hydrogen transport tech opportunities.
Details
Keywords
The interval multi-objective optimization problems (IMOPs) are universal and vital uncertain optimization problems. In this study, an interval multi-objective grey wolf…
Abstract
Purpose
The interval multi-objective optimization problems (IMOPs) are universal and vital uncertain optimization problems. In this study, an interval multi-objective grey wolf optimization algorithm (GWO) based on fuzzy system is proposed to solve IMOPs effectively.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the classical genetic operators are embedded into the interval multi-objective GWO as local search strategies, which effectively balanced the global search ability and local development ability. Second, by constructing a fuzzy system, an effective local search activation mechanism is proposed to save computing resources as much as possible while ensuring the performance of the algorithm. The fuzzy system takes hypervolume, imprecision and number of iterations as inputs and outputs the activation index, local population size and maximum number of iterations. Then, the fuzzy inference rules are defined. It uses the activation index to determine whether to activate the local search process and sets the population size and the maximum number of iterations in the process.
Findings
The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves optimal hypervolume results on 9 of the 10 benchmark test problems. The imprecision achieved on 8 test problems is significantly better than other algorithms. This means that the proposed algorithm has better performance than the commonly used interval multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. Moreover, through experiments show that the local search activation mechanism based on fuzzy system proposed in this study can effectively ensure that the local search is activated reasonably in the whole algorithm process, and reasonably allocate computing resources by adaptively setting the population size and maximum number of iterations in the local search process.
Originality/value
This study proposes an Interval multi-objective GWO, which could effectively balance the global search ability and local development ability. Then an effective local search activation mechanism is developed by using fuzzy inference system. It closely combines global optimization with local search, which improves the performance of the algorithm and saves computing resources.