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This study aims to investigate the effect of combined use of granular graphite and petroleum coke on the properties of copper-based friction materials and the friction and wear mechanisms.

Copper-based friction materials with different proportions of petroleum coke and granular graphite were prepared by using powder metallurgy. The friction surfaces were analyzed.

Changing the ratio of petroleum coke/granular graphite affects the formation of oxides and sulfides on the surface of the materials. Increasing the petroleum coke promotes the production of metal sulfide and sulfate in the friction materials and reduces coefficient of friction (COF) and wear. Increasing petroleum coke also increases the amount of carbonic oxide (CO) released during the braking process and promotes the reduction process of iron oxide on the friction surface.

The synergistic effect of carbon materials on copper-based friction materials was studied in terms of the tribological chemical reaction. This research provides useful information for the selection of carbon materials in friction materials.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-02-2020-0075/

Hydro-viscous drive (HVD) clutches are widely used in equipment requiring soft start, such as fans and pumps, to transmit torque and adjust speed by changing the gap distance between friction pairs. This paper aims to propose a novel two-parameter evaluation method for HVD during the mixed lubrication stage. The objective is to develop an effective model that establishes the relationship between these parameters and the actual surface topography.

In the presented methods, the fractal features of the real manufacturing surface are calculated based on the power spectrum function by the ultra-depth three-dimensional microscope. After that, the hybrid friction model of the friction plate is established based on mixed elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication theory, boundary friction model and fractal theory. Then the torque and load bearing characteristics of the clutch are obtained, and the influences of the surface fractal features are investigated and discussed. Finally, the Weierstrass–Mandelbrot function is adopted for the surface topography characterization and evaluation.

The results indicate that the proposed method exhibits good accuracy, while the speed difference between the friction pair exceeds 2,500 rpm. It is concluded that this paper proposed a way to evaluate the torque and loading capacity of HVD considering the real manufacturing surface topography and is helpful for surface optimization.

The originality and value of this study lie in its development of a novel torque and load bearing capacity evaluation method for HVD in mixed lubrication stage, considering manufacturing surface topography and describing the real manufacturing surface.

Inspired by the dynamic changes in our daily lives enabled via quantified-self technologies and the urgent need for more studies on the human-computer interaction design mechanisms adopted by these applications, this study explores the value of user affective experience mirroring and examines the empowerment effect of meaningful gamification in a psychological self-help system (PSS) that aids people in work stress relief.

Based on an analysis of the existing systems and theories in relevant fields, we conducted mixed-method research, involving semi-structured interviews, experience sampling experiments and user bio data triangulations, to identify the benefits of user affective experience mirroring and examine the impact of visual impact metaphor–based (VIM) meaningful gamification on PSS users.

For a gamified PSS, users generally perceive VIM as arousing more feelings of enjoyment, empathy, trust and usefulness, empowering them to gain more mastery and control over their emotional well-beings, especially with relieving their occupational stress and upbringing their level of perceived happiness. Overtime, VIM-based meaningful gamification further boosts such value of a PSS.

Weaving together meaningful gamification and psychological empowerment theories, the results emphasized that successful empowerment of user through gamification in PSSs relies heavily on whether a deeper and meaningful affective connection can be established with the users, in short, “meaningful gamification for psychological empowerment”. Such an understanding, as demonstrated in our research framework, also sheds light on the design theories for persuasive technology and human influence tactics during human computer interactions.

The results of the study demonstrate to practitioners how to make the best use of gamification strategies to deeply relate to and resonate with users. Even without complicated game-play design, meaningful gamification mechanisms, such as VIM facilitate the empowerment of users while gaining their appreciation, establishing a deeper connection with them and eventually generating persuasive effects on intended future behavioural outcomes.

The effective management of work-related stress with handy tools such as a VIM-based PSS can be beneficial for many organizations and, to a large extent, the society.

This study proposed and empirically demonstrated the empowerment effect of meaningful gamification for PSS users. In this cross-disciplinary study, theories from different research domains were synthesized to develop a more thorough and multi-faceted understanding of the optimal design strategies for emerging information systems like this VIM-based PSS.

This paper aims to examine the role of local/provincial government in influencing corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) in China, and more specifically, how the underlying economic and political factors associated with local government have influenced the quality of CSER.

The authors used 234 environmentally sensitive companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges during 2013 and 2015 as the research sample to test the relationship between CSER and local government’s political connection and economic prioritisation and the potential mediating effect of local economic prioritisation.

The analysis provides evidence that local/provincial government’s political geographical connectedness with the central government has directly and positively influenced the level of CSER, while local prioritisation of economic development has a direct but negative effect on CSER in China. In addition, local/provincial prioritisation of economic development has mediated the relationship between local–central political geographical connectedness and CSER.

While local/provincial governments are heavily influenced by the coercive pressure from the central government, they also act in their own political and economic interests in overseeing CSER at the local level. This study raises the question about the effectiveness of the top-down approach to improving CSER in China and suggests that the central government may need to focus more on coordinating and harmonising different local/provincial governments’ interests to enable achieving a common sustainability goal.

The authors provide evidence revealing how the economic and political contexts of local government have played a significant role in shaping CSER in China. More specifically, this paper addresses a gap in the literature by highlighting the importance of local government oversight power for CSER development and how such oversight is determined by local prioritisation of economic development and political geographical connectedness of local and central governments.

This paper aims to analyze the situation of knowledge dissemination in Chinese rural areas and explore factors that affect the efficiency of knowledge dissemination, to provide some suggestions for further improvements.

A survey was conducted to collect data in 17 provinces of China, with 267 questionnaires returned out of 300. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis with LISEREL 8.8.

The results show that factors of knowledge such as government participation, dissemination capability, learning motivation and trust have a positive effect on knowledge transfer. By contrast, factors of knowledge such as complexity and richness of knowledge carriers do not have a significant correlation with the knowledge sharing level.

This paper conducts a cross-sectional analysis while ignoring the longitudinal effects of some factors on knowledge dissemination, such as the reform and opening policy in China. An analysis on a more concrete problem could be conducted for future study.

This paper proposes some suggestions to enhance the efficiency of knowledge dissemination in rural areas from the knowledge dissemination mode, knowledge products and the role of government playing.

This paper is among the first attempts to conduct comprehensive and systematic research on the influential factors of knowledge dissemination. It contributes to literature by offering a systematical empirical study with the consideration of the role of government in knowledge dissemination.

We investigate the convergence of Chinese real GDP per capita at regional and provincial levels, looking separately at the sub‐periods before and after major economic reforms and paying attention to the possibility of structural breaks induced by the ‘Great Leap Forward’. At the regional level we reject convergence pre‐ and post‐reform. At the provincial level we find evidence of a common regional trend for the Eastern region and again for the Central region, but not for the Western region. We conclude that, contrary to the policy objectives of the Chinese government, the regions of China have not shared a common development path.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of ethnocentrism in attenuating the negative country of origin effect and latecomer brands. The literature has established the importance of the “country of origin” effect, and this study compares consumers in the Asian emerging markets to developed consumers' response to cars from China, India and Russia.

Data on consumers' willingness to purchase cars from emerging markets such as China, India and Russia were collected from 3,201 respondents in those three emerging markets and in the three most important Western car markets, the USA, the UK and Germany. The study employed a choice-based conjoint analysis.

The results of this study confirmed the hypothesised ethnocentrism in the emerging markets with a strong preference for their own latecomer brands (Great Wall, Tata and AvtoVAZ, respectively). Developed markets in contrast are more sceptical of the Chinese, Indian and Russian car brands, but there is nonetheless substantial potential, especially with consumers who have previously bought latecomer brands from Asia. Utility values per brand, price, brand-partnership, product features, warranties and also place of manufacturing/assembly have been calculated in the study.

This paper should prove valuable to academic researchers in establishing strong consumer preferences in emerging markets for their own products, and in establishing the potential of latecomer brands in developed markets.

During the early 1970s, faced with the serious demographic situation, China began to fully implement the policy of family planning in urban and rural regions. Nowadays, the problems of pension and medical care for aged parents confronted by the first generation of the one‐child family have begun to gradually appear. Meanwhile, China's population and the family planning are also faced with some problems that are difficult to solve, including unbalanced fertility rate of urban and rural population, the gender imbalance, the difficulty of the risk diversification in a one‐child family, as well as the profound contradiction between the stability of the family planning policy and the drive of administrative measures. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the integrated‐scheduled life security system of the one‐child family in urban and rural areas, in order to overcome the problems and to promote the transformation of the family planning policy. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the life security system for China's one‐child families.

The life security system for the one‐child family proposed by this paper consists of three issues: the basic security based on the level of social security, the additional security of the policy insurance and the supplementary security of the commercial insurance. The paper begins with the history of the family planning policy in the first section and then go through some relevant articles regarding complementary measures such as maternity insurance, rural endowment insurance that only focused on one aspect of issues associated with the family planning. In section three, four typical problems are listed for the purpose of following discussion of corresponding solutions which are full of deficiency in section four. In part five, the integrated planning of the life security system for Chinese one‐child family is elaborated with risk and fund management. In the last part, we conclude that the family planning policy maintains stable, whereas measures to be taken are adjusted along with changeable new problems.

The policy insurance plays an increasingly important role in dealing with the life security of older people in one‐child families. It may be better to promote the kind of insurance.

The paper comprehensively discusses the life security system for Chinese families in compliance with the family planning policy.

Notched fatigue life curves of welded joints were established and compared with International Institute of Welding (IIW) standards to verify the metal fatigue performance of welded joints treated with pneumatic impact (PIT).

This paper was based on the notched stress method, and this approach not only allows for the assessment of fatigue failure of welded structures with toes and roots but also for the assessment of fatigue strength of joints with localized post-treatments. The paper summarizes the nominal stress data of weld and pneumatic impact treated (PIT) steel joints of different strengths, fits the nominal stress curves of the joints without the use of strength and obtains the stress concentration factor of the joints through the establishment of the finite element (FE) method. Notched fatigue life curves for welded joints were established and compared with IIW standards.

Notched stress concentration data obtained by the FE method was more reliable. The slope of the fatigue life curve of welded joints treated with pneumatic impact (PIT) increases by at least 2.5%, and the stress concentration factor decreases by 20%.

In the fatigue study of notched systems, there were fewer studies on fatigue life assessment of joints processed by high frequency mechanical impact. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the fatigue test data of typical strength steel welded joints and fit fatigue life curves, and the research content provides an important reference for improving the safety and fatigue failure assessment of heavy steel structures.

The research in this paper aims to investigate the perception created by clothing style and semantic space to describe this perception. The results of study could be applied to establish relation between customers' feelings and design elements.

Women's overcoats were chosen as research objects. The technique of sensory engineering was applied to investigate the customers' feelings and demands related to product images. Card system, shape analytical method, and regression analysis were applied in this research.

Six word‐pair were selected to establish the semantic space. The product elements space with seven items and 25 categories was established. The relation between two spaces could be quantified according to the principle of sensory engineering.

The findings can be applied to women's overcoat and similar clothing for customer‐orientated design.

The theory of sensory engineering was applied for practical application purposes. Some useful parameters were obtained to explain the reliability of the research results and influences of design elements on perception judgment.