Gan Cui, Zili Li, Lingyu Zhao and Xu Wei
The purpose of this investigation was to study these problems and design regional cathodic protection, using numerical simulation. Regional cathodic protection technology is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this investigation was to study these problems and design regional cathodic protection, using numerical simulation. Regional cathodic protection technology is immature at home and abroad. This is reflected in the fact that in gas stations, there are many underground pipelines, which can lead to serious interference and shielding phenomena, and there are many grounding networks that can cause substantial loss of the cathodic protection current.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the above, in this article, first of all, the mathematical model of the buried pipeline cathodic protection potential distribution was established and the control equations solved using the boundary element method. Second, the cathodic shielding effect in pipeline concentration areas, the effect of instrument equipment grounding systems on cathodic protection and the influence of DC stray current on the interference of pipeline corrosion were studied separately using BEASY software. Finally, the BEASY software was used for a regional cathodic protection design for a real gas station.
Findings
It was concluded that impressed current used in combination with sacrificial anodes for regional cathodic protection design is often the most economic and effective approach. However, the output current of the auxiliary anode is large with high energy consumption. In consequence, it may be recommended that the station pipelines should be laid on the ground, rather than under it.
Originality/value
It is considered that the results can guide regional cathodic protection design for real-life installations very well.
Details
Keywords
Jie Zhou, Lingyu Hu, Yubing Yu, Justin Zuopeng Zhang and Leven J. Zheng
Building supply chain resilience is increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to deal with supply chain challenges, risks and disruptions. Nevertheless, it remains unclear…
Abstract
Purpose
Building supply chain resilience is increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to deal with supply chain challenges, risks and disruptions. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how to build supply chain resilience and whether supply chain resilience could achieve a competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
By analyzing the data collected from 216 firms in China, the current study empirically examines how information technology (IT) capability and supply chain collaboration affect different forms of supply chain resilience (external resilience and internal resilience) and examines the performance implications of these two forms of supply chain resilience.
Findings
Results show that IT capability is positively related to external resilience, whereas supply chain collaboration is positively related to internal resilience. The combination of IT capability and supply chain collaboration is positively related to external resilience. In addition, internal resilience is positively related to firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study used only cross-sectional data from China for hypothesis testing. Future studies could utilise longitudinal data and research other countries/regions.
Practical implications
The findings systematically assess how IT capability and supply chain collaboration contribute to supply chain resilience and firm performance. The results provide a benchmark of supply chain resilience improvement that can be expected from IT capability and supply chain collaboration.
Originality/value
The study findings advance the understanding of supply chain resilience and provide practical implications for supply chain managers.
Details
Keywords
Lingyu Hu, Jie Zhou, Justin Zuopeng Zhang and Abhishek Behl
Supply chain resilience and knowledge management (KM) processes have received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Nevertheless, previous studies often treat…
Abstract
Purpose
Supply chain resilience and knowledge management (KM) processes have received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Nevertheless, previous studies often treat the two streams of literature independently. Drawing on the knowledge-based theory, this study aims to reconcile these two different streams of literature and examine how and when KM processes influence supply chain resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
This research develops a conceptual model to test a sample of data from 203 Chinese manufacturing firms using a structural equation modeling method. Specifically, the current study empirically examines how KM processes affect different forms of supply chain resilience (supply chain readiness, responsiveness and recovery) and examines the moderating effect of blockchain technology adaptation and organizational inertia on the relationship between KM processes and supply chain resilience.
Findings
The findings show that KM processes positively affect three dimensions of supply chain resilience, i.e., supply chain readiness, responsiveness and recovery. Besides, the study reveals that blockchain technology adoption positively moderates the relationships between KM processes and supply chain resilience, whereas organizational inertia negatively moderates these above relationships.
Originality/value
This research linked the two research areas of supply chain resilience and KM processes, further bridging the gap in the research exploration of KM in the supply chain field. Next, this study contributes to supply chain resilience research by investigating how KM systems positively impact supply chain readiness, responsiveness and recovery. In addition, this study found a moderating effect of blockchain technology adaption and organizational inertia on the relationship between KM processes and supply chain resilience. These findings provide a reference for Chinese manufacturing firms to strengthen supply chain resilience, achieve secure supply chain operations and gain a competitive advantage in the supply chain. This studys’findings advance the understanding of supply chain resilience and provide practical implications for supply chain managers.
Details
Keywords
Xianglu Hua, Lingyu Hu, Reham Eltantawy, Liangqing Zhang, Bin Wang, Yifan Tian and Justin Zuopeng Zhang
Achieving sustainability and sustainable performance has emerged as a critical area of focus for both academic research and practice. However, this pursuit faces challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
Achieving sustainability and sustainable performance has emerged as a critical area of focus for both academic research and practice. However, this pursuit faces challenges, particularly concerning the inadequacy of supply chain information. To address this issue, our study employs the organizational information processing theory to explore how adopting blockchain technology enables firms to learn from and collaborate with their supply chain partners, ultimately facilitating their sustainable performance even in the presence of organizational inertia.
Design/methodology/approach
Underpinned by the organizational information processing theory and drawing data from 220 manufacturing firms in China, we use structural equation modeling to test our conceptual model.
Findings
Our results demonstrate that blockchain technology adoption can significantly enhance sustainable performance. Furthermore, supply chain learning acts as a mediator between blockchain technology adoption and sustainable performance, while organizational inertia plays a negative moderating role between blockchain technology adoption and supply chain learning.
Originality/value
These findings extend the existing literature on blockchain technology adoption and supply chain management, offering novel insights into the pivotal role of blockchain in fostering supply chain learning and achieving sustainable performance. Our study provides valuable practical implications for managers seeking to leverage blockchain technology to enhance sustainability and facilitate organizational learning.
Details
Keywords
Jing Yuan and Lingyu Guo
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status quo of digital poverty among adolescents in China, analyze the characteristics and the causes, then propose countermeasures…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status quo of digital poverty among adolescents in China, analyze the characteristics and the causes, then propose countermeasures to provide reference for alleviating digital poverty among adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
The study developed an initial scale of digital poverty among adolescents and used survey data to revise the scale, on this basis, formed a questionnaire, which was distributed to nationwide adolescents. The study developed its findings from the 837 valid questionnaire respondents.
Findings
The digital poverty among adolescents is mainly shown in the poverty of digital ability, digital psychology and digital environment and presents the following characteristics, that is, insufficient information seeking ability and information selection ability needing to be improved; equipped with basic information awareness but lack of information evaluation ability; lack of patience in obtaining information and inclined to the principle of least effort; imperfect knowledge structure and immature psychological emotions and vulnerable to external interference; having a certain relationship with the information environment, but not significantly affected by regional economic differences. Finally, the study puts forward countermeasures to alleviate digital poverty among adolescents.
Practical implications
Understanding of the digital poverty among adolescents will likely demand rethinking into a number of issues ignored by information poverty studies.
Originality/value
Few studies focus on digital poverty among adolescents. This study developed an initial scale of digital poverty among adolescents and revised it by survey data, then conducted an empirical study through questionnaire, which could expand the understanding of information poverty in the field of library and information science.
Details
Keywords
Li Na, Xiong Zhiyong, Deng Tianqi and Ren Kai
The precise segmentation of brain tumors is the most important and crucial step in their diagnosis and treatment. Due to the presence of noise, uneven gray levels, blurred…
Abstract
Purpose
The precise segmentation of brain tumors is the most important and crucial step in their diagnosis and treatment. Due to the presence of noise, uneven gray levels, blurred boundaries and edema around the brain tumor region, the brain tumor image has indistinct features in the tumor region, which pose a problem for diagnostics. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble Support Vector Machine (SVM) structure. In the proposed technique, 124 features of each voxel are extracted, including Tamura texture features and grayscale features. Then, these features are ranked using the SVM-Recursive Feature Elimination method, which is also adopted to optimize the parameters of the Radial Basis Function kernel of SVMs. Finally, the bagging random sampling method is utilized to construct the ensemble SVM classifier based on a weighted voting mechanism to classify the types of voxel.
Findings
The experiments are conducted over a sample data set to be called BraTS2015. The experiments demonstrate that Tamura texture is very useful in the segmentation of brain tumors, especially the feature of line-likeness. The superior performance of the proposed ensemble SVM classifier is demonstrated by comparison with single SVM classifiers as well as other methods.
Originality/value
The authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble SVM structure.
Details
Keywords
Xiaofei Li, Chengfang Liu, Renfu Luo, Linxiu Zhang and Scott Rozelle
The paper aims to discuss whether the younger generation of China's rural labor force is prepared, in terms of education level or labor quality, for the future labor markets under…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to discuss whether the younger generation of China's rural labor force is prepared, in terms of education level or labor quality, for the future labor markets under China's industrial upgrading.
Design/methodology/approach
Using nationally representative survey data, the paper gives detailed discussions on the young rural laborers' education attainments, and their off‐farm employment status including job patterns, working hours, and hourly wage rates. The relationship between education and employment status is analyzed and tested. Through these discussions, an employment challenge is revealed, and some policy implications are made.
Findings
This paper finds that China's young rural laborers are generally poorly educated and mainly unskilled. They work long hours and are low paid. While they lack the labor quality that will be required to meet the industrial upgrading, an employment challenge may face them in the near future. This paper also finds a strong link between education levels and employment status for the young labor force, which implies the possible effect of policies such as improving rural education.
Originality/value
Based on a solid foundation of a national rural household survey, this paper updates the understanding of the education and employment situations of the young rural labor force in contemporary China. The concern about the employment challenges raised in the paper is related to the future of China's rural labor transition and the whole economy.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore how China uses a social credit system as part of its “data-driven authoritarianism” policy; and second, to investigate how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore how China uses a social credit system as part of its “data-driven authoritarianism” policy; and second, to investigate how datafication, which is a method to legitimize data collection, and dataveillance, which is continuous surveillance through the use of data, offer the Chinese state a legitimate method of monitoring, surveilling and controlling citizens, businesses and society. Taken together, China’s social credit system is analyzed as an integrated tool for datafication, dataveillance and data-driven authoritarianism.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines the personal narratives of 22 Chinese citizens with policy analyses, online discussions and media reports. The stories were collected using a scenario-based story completion method to understand the participants’ perceptions of the recently introduced social credit system in China.
Findings
China’s new social credit system, which turns both online and offline behaviors into a credit score through smartphone apps, creates a “new normal” way of life for Chinese citizens. This data-driven authoritarianism uses data and technology to enhance citizen surveillance. Interactions between individuals, technologies and information emerge from understanding the system as one that provides social goods, using technologies, and raising concerns of privacy, security and collectivity. An integrated critical perspective that incorporates the concepts of datafication and dataveillance enhances a general understanding of how data-driven authoritarianism develops through the social credit system.
Originality/value
This study builds upon an ongoing debate and an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance and digital sociology while filling empirical gaps in the study of the global South. The Chinese social credit system has growing recognition and importance as both a governing tool and a part of everyday datafication and dataveillance processes. Thus, these phenomena necessitate discussion of its consequences for, and applications by, the Chinese state and businesses, as well as affected individuals’ efforts to adapt to the system.
Details
Keywords
Zhixue Liao, Xinyu Gou, Qiang Wei and Zhibin Xing
Online reviews serve as valuable sources of information, reflecting tourists’ attentions, preferences and sentiments. However, although the existing research has demonstrated that…
Abstract
Purpose
Online reviews serve as valuable sources of information, reflecting tourists’ attentions, preferences and sentiments. However, although the existing research has demonstrated that incorporating online review data can enhance the performance of tourism demand forecasting models, the reliability of online review data and consumers’ decision-making process have not been given adequate attention. To address the aforementioned problem, the purpose of this study is to forecast tourism demand using online review data derived from the analysis of review helpfulness.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a novel “identification-first, forecasting-second” framework. This framework prioritizes the identification of helpful reviews through a comprehensive analysis of review helpfulness, followed by the integration of helpful online review data into the forecasting system. Using the SARIMAX model with helpful online review data sourced from TripAdvisor, this study forecasts tourist arrivals in Hong Kong during the period from August 2012 to June 2019. The SNAÏVE/SARIMA model was used as the benchmark model. Additionally, artificial intelligence models including long short-term memory, back propagation neural network, extreme learning machine and random forest models were used to assess the robustness of the results.
Findings
The results demonstrate that online review data are subject to noise and bias, which can adversely affect the accuracy of predictions when used directly. However, by identifying helpful online reviews beforehand and incorporating them into the forecasting process, a notable enhancement in predictive performance can be realized.
Originality/value
First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to focus on the data issue of online reviews on tourism arrivals forecasting. Second, this study pioneers the integration of the consumer decision-making process into the domain of tourism demand forecasting, marking one of the earliest endeavors in this area. Third, this study makes a novel attempt to identify helpful online reviews based on reviews helpfulness analysis.
Details
Keywords
Tingyu Weng, Wenyang Liu and Jun Xiao
The purpose of this paper is to design a model that can accurately forecast the supply chain sales.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design a model that can accurately forecast the supply chain sales.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposed a new model based on lightGBM and LSTM to forecast the supply chain sales. In order to verify the accuracy and efficiency of this model, three representative supply chain sales data sets are selected for experiments.
Findings
The experimental results show that the combined model can forecast supply chain sales with high accuracy, efficiency and interpretability.
Practical implications
With the rapid development of big data and AI, using big data analysis and algorithm technology to accurately forecast the long-term sales of goods will provide the database for the supply chain and key technical support for enterprises to establish supply chain solutions. This paper provides an effective method for supply chain sales forecasting, which can help enterprises to scientifically and reasonably forecast long-term commodity sales.
Originality/value
The proposed model not only inherits the ability of LSTM model to automatically mine high-level temporal features, but also has the advantages of lightGBM model, such as high efficiency, strong interpretability, which is suitable for industrial production environment.