This chapter discusses the impacts of David Maines's scholarship in communication research. The utilities of Maines's scholarship in communication research were first identified…
Abstract
This chapter discusses the impacts of David Maines's scholarship in communication research. The utilities of Maines's scholarship in communication research were first identified in a 1997 session in the annual convention of National Communication Association (NCA) by many leading scholars. This chapter documents the applications of Maines's scholarship in communication research in recent years when communication researchers utilized concepts and arguments constructed by Maines to investigate narratives in relations to Donald Trump's presidential election as well as the COVID-19 pendemic.
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Li Chen, Sheng-Qun Chen and Long-Hao Yang
This paper aims to solve the major assessment problem in matching the satisfaction of psychological gratification and mission accomplishment pertaining to volunteers with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to solve the major assessment problem in matching the satisfaction of psychological gratification and mission accomplishment pertaining to volunteers with the disaster rescue and recovery tasks.
Design/methodology/approach
An extended belief rule-based (EBRB) method is applied with the method's input and output parameters classified based on expert knowledge and data from literature. These parameters include volunteer self-satisfaction, experience, peer-recognition, and cooperation. First, the model parameters are set; then, the parameters are optimized through data envelopment analysis (DEA) and differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Finally, a numerical mountain rescue example and comparative analysis between with-DEA and without-DEA are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed model is suitable for a two-way matching evaluation between rescue tasks and volunteers.
Findings
Disasters are unexpected events in which emergency rescue is crucial to human survival. When a disaster occurs, volunteers provide crucial assistance to official rescue teams. This paper finds that decision-makers have a better understanding of two-sided match objects through bilateral feedback over time. With the changing of the matching preference information between rescue tasks and volunteers, the satisfaction of volunteer's psychological gratification and mission accomplishment are also constantly changing. Therefore, considering matching preference information and satisfaction at two-sided match objects simultaneously is necessary to get reasonable target values of matching results for rescue tasks and volunteers.
Originality/value
Based on the authors' novel EBRB method, a matching assessment model is constructed, with two-sided matching of volunteers to rescue tasks. This method will provide matching suggestions in the field of emergency dispatch and contribute to the assessment of emergency plans around the world.
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Kuo-Ping Lin, Chun-Min Yu and Kuen-Suan Chen
The purpose of this paper is to establish mechanisms for process improvement so that production efficiency and product quality can be expected, and create a sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish mechanisms for process improvement so that production efficiency and product quality can be expected, and create a sustainable development in terms of circular economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors obtain a critical value from statistical hypothesis testing, and thereby construct a process capability indices chart, which both lowers the chance of quality level misjudgment caused by sampling error and provides reference for the processes improvement in poor quality levels. The authors used the bottom bracket of bicycles as an example to demonstrate the model and methods proposed in this study.
Findings
This approach enables us to plot multiple quality characteristics, despite varying attributes and specifications, onto the same process capability analysis chart. And it therefore increases accuracy and precision to reduce rework and scrap rates (reduce), increase product availability, reduce maintenance frequency and increase reuse (reuse), increase the recycle rates of components (recycle) and lengthen service life, which will delay recovery time (recovery).
Originality/value
Parts manufacturers in the industry chain can upload their production data to the cloud platform. The quality control center of the bicycle manufacturer can utilized the production data analysis model to identify critical-to-quality characteristics. The platform also offers reference for improvement and adds the improvement achievements and experience to its knowledge management to provide the entire industry chain. Feedback is also given to the R&D department of the bicycle manufacturer as reference for more robust product designs, more reasonable tolerance designs, and selection criteria for better parts suppliers, thereby forming an intelligent manufacturing loop system.
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Peng Li and Huizhen Chen
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-criteria decision-making model based on the case-based reasoning (CBR) method for interval-valued probabilistic linguistic term set…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-criteria decision-making model based on the case-based reasoning (CBR) method for interval-valued probabilistic linguistic term set (IVPLTS), which can cluster different categories of building suppliers for targeted management.
Design/methodology/approach
First, a new score function and distance measure for IVPLTS are proposed. Second, a green building supplier evaluation criterion system is constructed from five aspects: operation management, green management, cooperation potential, service level and product information. Finally, the IVPLTS-CBR model is used to evaluate the green building suppliers and groups them into three preset categories.
Findings
The feasibility and validity of the proposed method are verified by comparing with the advanced TOPSIS method and the IVPLTS-based VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method. The compared results show that the proposed method is more consistent with the actual situation and has strong theoretical significance and practical value.
Research limitations/implications
This paper presents a new method for clustering construction suppliers. Decision makers can use this method to classify construction suppliers into different categories, so that they can be targeted management. In this way, suppliers can be better guided and motivated to accelerate the green transformation and contribute their share to achieve the strategic goal of carbon neutral and carbon peak as soon as possible.
Originality/value
A new score function and distance measure for IVPLTS are proposed. Besides, a novel IVPLTS-CBR method is applied to rank and cluster building suppliers.
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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.
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Xiaoyong Wei, Feng Ju, Bai Chen, Hao Guo, Dan Wang, Yaoyao Wang and Hongtao Wu
There is an increasing popularity for the continuum robot in minimally invasive surgery owing to its compliance and dexterity. However, the dexterity takes the challenges in…
Abstract
Purpose
There is an increasing popularity for the continuum robot in minimally invasive surgery owing to its compliance and dexterity. However, the dexterity takes the challenges in loading and precise control because of the absence of the shape tracking for the continuum robot. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new type of continuum manipulator with variable stiffness that can track the bending shape timely.
Design/methodology/approach
The low-melting-point alloy (LMPA) is used to implement the stiffness variation and shape detection for the continuum manipulator. A conceptual design for a single module is presented, and the principle of stiffness control based on the established static model is formulated. Afterward, a shape detection method is introduced in which the shape of the continuum manipulator can be detected by measuring the resistance of every LMPA. Finally, the effect of the proposed variable stiffness method is verified by simulation; the variable stiffness and shape detection methods are evaluated by experiments.
Findings
The results from the simulations and experiments indicate that the designed continuum manipulator has the ability of stiffness variation over 42.3% and the shape detection method has high precision.
Originality/value
Compared with conventional structures, the novel manipulator has a simpler structure and integrates the stiffness variation and shape detection capabilities with the LMPA. The proposed method is promising, and it can be conveniently extended to other continuum manipulators.