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Discusses the 6th ITCRR, its breadth of textile and clothing research activity, plus the encouragement given to workers in this field and its related areas. States that, within the newer research areas under the microscope of the community involved, technical textiles focuses on new, ‘smart’ garments and the initiatives in this field in both the UK and the international community at large. Covers this subject at length.

For those who plan research funds and assess the research performance from the funds, it is necessary to overcome the limitations of the conventional classification of evaluated papers published by the research funds. Besides, they need to promote the objective, fair clustering of papers, and analysis of research performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find the optimum clustering algorithm using the MATLAB tools by comparing the performances of and the hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithms using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the conventional K-means clustering method.

The clustering analysis experiment for each of the three fields of study – health and medicine, physics, and chemistry – used the following three algorithms: “K-means+Simulated annealing (SA)+Adjustment of parameters+PSO” (KASA-PSO clustering), “K-means+SA+PSO” clustering, “K-means+PSO” clustering.

The clustering analyses of all the three fields showed that KASA-PSO is the best method for the minimization of fitness value. Furthermore, this study administered the surveys intended for the “performance measurement of decision-making process” with 13 members of the research fund organization to compare the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm and the group clustering by research funds. The results statistically demonstrated that the group clustering by the clustering analysis method of KASA-PSO algorithm was better than the group clustering by research funds.

This study examined the impact of bibliometric indicators on research impact of papers. The results showed that research period, the number of authors, and the number of participating researchers had positive effects on the impact factor (IF) of the papers; the IF that indicates the qualitative level of papers had a positive effect on the primary times cited; and the primary times cited had a positive effect on the secondary times cited. Furthermore, this study clearly showed the decision quality perceived by those who are working for the research fund organization.

There are still too few studies that assess the research project evaluation mechanisms and its effectiveness perceived by the research fund managers. To fill the research void like this, this study aims to propose PSO and successfully proves validity of the proposed approach.

Sports ethics is a growing concern in Korean society, marked by recent revelations of unethical behavior in sports ranging from doping and match-fixing to violence and abuse of power. These incidents prompt critical reflections on the state of sports ethics in Korea and the need for reforms. Key challenges are the intense pressure to win in Korean sports culture, often leading to a focus on short-term success over ethical considerations, and the lack of transparency and accountability in Korean sports organizations. Numerous instances of corruption and abuse of power within these organizations have been reported, which have contributed to a lack of trust among the public. This study examines these challenges and social contexts of sports ethics discourse in Korean society, aiming to provide valuable insights for fostering a more ethical and inclusive sports culture.

The purpose of this research is to conduct a literature review on the evolution, antecedents, and outcomes of luxury consumption (LC). To accomplish our goal, we used a combination of bibliometrics and systematic approaches to review 165 articles published between 1998 and 2019. The investigation revealed that the evolution of LC is mostly driven by consumer motivation and is influenced by cultural and psychological variables. Furthermore, we explored the aforementioned antecedents of LC along four major axes. Antecedents related to (1) individual characteristics, (2) brand components, (3) cultural and social values, and (4) organizational strategies. Furthermore, based on the outcomes of LC, we found two categories (individual traits and social values). The chapter concludes by proposing a broader research agenda for the future.

Looks at the eighth published year of the ITCRR and the research, from far and near, involved in this. Muses on the fact that, though all the usual processes are to the fore, the downside part of the industry is garment making which is the least developed side. Posits that the manufacture of clothing needs to become more technologically advanced as does retailing. Closes by emphasising support for the community in all its efforts.

London, Stockholm and Sydney 1840–1970 Ted Robert Gurr of Northeastern University studied the trend of common crime in England (London), Sweden (Stockholm) and Australia (Sydney) over the period from 1840 to 1970. Common crime includes crimes of aggression (murder, attempted murder, wounding and assault) and crimes of acquisition (burglary, robbery, larceny, receiving stolen goods, fraud, embezzlement and forgery).

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Planning an accelerated life test (ALT) for a product is an important task for reliability practitioners. Traditional methods to create an optimal design of an ALT are often computationally burdensome and numerically difficult. In this paper, the authors introduce a practical method to find an optimal design of experiments for ALTs by using simulation and empirical model building.

Instead of developing the Fisher information matrix-based objective function and analytic optimization, the authors suggest “experiments for experiments” approach to create optimal planning. The authors generate simulated data to evaluate the quantity of interest, e.g. 10th percentile of failure time and apply the response surface methodology (RSM) to find an optimal solution with respect to the design parameters, e.g. test conditions and test unit allocations. The authors illustrate their approach applied to the thermal ALT with right censoring and lognormal failure time distribution.

The design found by the proposed approach shows substantially improved statistical performance in terms of the standard error of estimates of 10th percentile of failure time. In addition, the approach provides useful insights about the sensitivity of each decision variable to the objective function.

More comprehensive experiments might be needed to test its scalability of the method.

This method is practically useful to find a reasonably efficient optimal ALT design. It can be applied to any quantities of interest and objective functions as long as those quantities can be computed from a set of simulated datasets.

This is a novel approach to create an optimal ALT design by using RSM and simulated data.

The ability for learners to interact online via their avatars in a 3-D simulation space means that virtual worlds afford a host of educational opportunities not offered by other learning technology platforms, but their use also raises several pertinent issues that warrant consideration. This chapter reviews the educational use of virtual worlds from a design perspective. Virtual-world definitions are explored, along with their key educational characteristics. Different virtual-world environments are briefly contrasted, including Second Life, Active Worlds, Open Sim, and Minecraft. A wide variety of virtual-world uses in schools and universities are examined so as to understand their versatility. Key educational benefits of virtual worlds are distilled from the literature, such as the ability to facilitate 3-D simulations, role-plays, construction tasks, and immersive learning. Emergent issues surrounding the use of virtual worlds are also analyzed, including cognitive load, safety, and representational fidelity. One higher education and one school level vignette are provided in order to offer more detailed insight into the use of virtual worlds in practice. Recommendations for learning design and implementation are presented, based on the thematic analysis of contemporary virtual-worlds research.