Yu Liu, Shan-Shan Huang and Ian Burgess
In order to improve the robustness of bare-steel and composite structures in fire, a novel axially and rotationally ductile connection has been proposed in this paper.
Abstract
Purpose
In order to improve the robustness of bare-steel and composite structures in fire, a novel axially and rotationally ductile connection has been proposed in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
The component-based models of the bare-steel ductile connection and composite ductile connection have been proposed and incorporated into the software Vulcan to facilitate global frame analysis for performance-based structural fire engineering design. These component-based models are validated against detailed Abaqus FE models and experiments. A series of 2-D bare-steel frame models and 3-D composite frame models with ductile connections, idealised rigid and pinned connections, have been created using Vulcan to compare the fire performance of ductile connection with other connection types in bare-steel and composite structures.
Findings
The comparison results show that the proposed ductile connection can provide excellent ductility to accommodate the axial deformation of connected beam under fire conditions, thus reducing the axial forces generated in the connection and potentially preventing the premature brittle failure of the connection.
Originality/value
Compared with conventional connection types, the proposed ductile connection exhibits considerable deformability, and can potentially enhance the robustness of structures in fire.
Details
Keywords
Junchao Li and Shan Huang
Under the background of the overall increase of China's economic policy uncertainty and the urgent need for the transformation and upgrading of the substantial economy, this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Under the background of the overall increase of China's economic policy uncertainty and the urgent need for the transformation and upgrading of the substantial economy, this paper studies the time-varying causality between China's economic policy uncertainty and the growth of the substantial economy through bootstrap rolling window causality test, further refines economic policies and studies the causal differences between different types of economic policies and substantial economic growth, refining the conclusions of previous studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper first studies the causal relationship between China's economic policy uncertainty and substantial economic growth in the full sample period through bootstrap Granger causality test. Then, the paper tests the short-term and long-term stability of the parameters of the VAR model, and it is found that the model parameters are unstable in both the short and long term, so the results of the Granger causality test of the full sample are not credible. Finally, we conduct a dynamic test of the causal relationship between China's economic policy uncertainty and substantial economic growth by means of rolling window, so as to comprehensively analyze the dynamic characteristics and sudden changes of the relationship between them.
Findings
The research shows that economic policy uncertainty in China has a significant inhibiting effect on the growth of substantial economy. Growth in the substantial economy will drive up economic policy uncertainty before 2016 and restrain it after that. In addition, this paper further subdivides economic policy uncertainty to explore the causal differences between different types of economic policy uncertainty and substantial economic growth. The test results show that the relationship between them has obvious policy heterogeneity. The fiscal policy uncertainty and the monetary policy uncertainty, as the main policy means in China, has a significant impact on the growth rate of substantial economy in multiple ranges, but the effect time is short. Although trade policy uncertainty has a significant impact on the growth rate of substantial economy only during the financial crisis, the effect lasts for a long time. The impact of exchange rate and capital account policy uncertainty on the growth rate of substantial economy is mainly reflected after 2020.
Originality/value
The values of this paper are as follows: First, the economic policy uncertainty is combined with the growth of substantial economy, which makes up the gap of previous studies. Second, the economic policy uncertainty is further subdivided. The paper explores the causal differences between different types of economic policy uncertainties and the growth of substantial economy, so as to make the research more detailed. Finally, different from the previous static analysis, this paper uses dynamic model to examine the relationship between China's economic policy uncertainty and the growth of substantial economy from a dynamic perspective, with richer research conclusions.
Details
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Yin Kedong, Zhe Liu, Caixia Zhang, Shan Huang, Junchao Li, Lingyun Lv, Xiaqing Su and Runchuan Zhang
In recent years, China's marine industry has maintained rapid growth in general, and marine-related economic activities have continued to improve. The purpose of this research is…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, China's marine industry has maintained rapid growth in general, and marine-related economic activities have continued to improve. The purpose of this research is to analyze the basic situation of China's marine economy development, identify the problems therein, forecast development trends and propose policy recommendations accordingly.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conducts a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the development of China's marine economy with rich data in diversified aspects. The current situation of China's marine economy development is analyzed from the perspective of scale and structure, and the external and internal development environment of China's marine economy is discussed. With the application of measurement and prediction method such as trend extrapolation, exponential smoothing, grey forecasting and neural network method, the future situation of China's marine economy development is forecasted.
Findings
In a complex environment where uncertainties at home and abroad have increased significantly, China's marine economy development suffers tremendous downward pressure in recent years. As China has achieved major achievements in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, the marine economy development will gradually return to normal. It is estimated that the gross marine production value in 2022 will exceed 10 trillion yuan. China's marine economy will continue to maintain a steady growth trend in the future, and its development prospects will remain promising.
Originality/value
This research explores the current situation and trends of China's marine economy development and puts forward policy recommendations to promote the steady and health development of China's marine economy accordingly.
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Keywords
Shan-Shan Huang, Ian Burgess and Buick Davison
Fire hazards and full-scale structural tests have provided evidence that the beam-column connections of building frames are the weakest structural elements, which are vulnerable…
Abstract
Fire hazards and full-scale structural tests have provided evidence that the beam-column connections of building frames are the weakest structural elements, which are vulnerable to fracture in fire. Connection fractures may lead to extensive damage or even progressive collapse. However, current design methods for connections are solely based on ambient-temperature behaviour, the additional forces and rotations generated in fire are not taken into account. The Structural Fire Engineering Research Group of the University of Sheffield is involved in a European-collaborative project which concerns the behaviour and robustness in fire of practical connections to composite columns. This includes two natural fire tests in a full-scale composite structure in Veselí, the Czech Republic. The Sheffield team was responsible for predicting the structural behaviour in the tests before they were conducted. This assessment was conducted using the specialist structural fire engineering FEA program Vulcan. This paper reports the results of this predictive analysis.
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Shan Shan Wen, Long Zhang, Kai Zhang and Min Ouyang
Silence is a commonly seen phenomenon at the workplace. However, little is known about the cause and effect of leader silence. Drawing on the affective events theory, we develop a…
Abstract
Purpose
Silence is a commonly seen phenomenon at the workplace. However, little is known about the cause and effect of leader silence. Drawing on the affective events theory, we develop a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of subordinates’ creative deviance on leader's authoritative silence and test the moderating effect of subordinates’ political skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Our research adopts a novel bottom-up perspective to investigate the subordinates’ influence on leader silence. A two-wave survey study involving 196 corporate team leaders in China was employed.
Findings
We found that leader’s workplace anxiety mediated the relationship between subordinates' creative deviance and leader's authoritative silence and subordinates’ political skills moderated the mediating effect.
Originality/value
Our research contributes to the leader silence literature in three folds. First, we employ the AET framework to study leader silence from the emotional perspective. Second, this research adopts a bottom-up angle to reveal the influence of subordinates’ behavior on leader silence. Third, the political skills lens offers novel explanation of why the anxious emotions triggered by followers’ creative deviance vary among leaders.
Details
Keywords
Xuan Liu, Shan Lin, Shan Jiang, Ming Chen and Jia Li
The authors empirically examined social capital factors affecting patients' social support acquisition with the aim of providing guidance to patients seeking social support online.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors empirically examined social capital factors affecting patients' social support acquisition with the aim of providing guidance to patients seeking social support online.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used social network analysis to extract data about social capital factors from online health communities and text mining to identify forms of informational support and emotional support grounded in online, text-based communication. Moreover, the authors employed a random coefficient model to understand the dynamic influence of social capital factors on both informational and emotional support.
Findings
The results from the empirical analyses show that structural connections have a lasting impact on the acquisition of both types of support; that is, social connections developed in the past will have an effect on the future. For relational capital, strong ties were less important; the quantity of connections mattered more than the quality when acquiring informational support. The use of health-related language increased the amount of informational support acquired. Over time, patients gained increasing social support, which primarily came from the patients' historical threads, likely via searches from peers facilitated by accumulated social capital.
Originality/value
The authors' research adds to the literature on social capital and social support in online health communities by exploring how the three dimensions of social capital affect social support acquisition. The authors' research also contributes to the online health care literature by examining social support from a dynamic perspective. Practically, the authors' findings provide guidance for patients on what decisions to make to acquire more social support.
Details
Keywords
Geng Zhang, Qinglu Ma, Dongbo Pan, Yu Zhang, Qiaoli Huang and Shan Jiang
In an intelligent transportation system (for short, ITS) environment, a vehicle’s motion is affected by the information in a large scale. The purpose of this paper is to study the…
Abstract
Purpose
In an intelligent transportation system (for short, ITS) environment, a vehicle’s motion is affected by the information in a large scale. The purpose of this paper is to study the integration effect of multiple vehicles’ delayed velocities on traffic flow.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper constructed a new car-following model to study the integration effect of multiple vehicles’ delayed velocities on traffic flow. The new model is analyzed by linear and nonlinear perturbation method theoretically and also verified by simulation.
Findings
It is found out that the integration of preceding vehicles’ delayed velocities affect the stability of traffic flow importantly, and three preceding vehicles’ delayed velocities information should be considered in real traffic.
Originality/value
The new car-following model by considering the integration effect of multiple vehicles’ delayed velocities is firstly proposed in this paper. The research result shows that three preceding vehicles’ delayed velocities information is the best choice to stabilizing traffic flow.
Details
Keywords
Shan Shan Lu, Ruwen Tian and Dickson K.W. Chiu
The study aims to investigate the characteristics of the current situation of library programs and explore the possible reasons behind the low participation in Hong Kong. It…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to investigate the characteristics of the current situation of library programs and explore the possible reasons behind the low participation in Hong Kong. It focuses on the development of library programs in the era of digital technology, which can lead to discussion and reflections on the further development of library programs with innovative technology services.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied a mixed-method research approach to investigate the current situation of library programming and the reasons for low participation in Hong Kong. The first part analyzes the characteristics of library programs offered by the Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) through data collection from the HKPL website. The second part of this study investigated the reasons behind the low participation in library programs through quantitative research through an online survey.
Findings
The findings show that current library programs were dominated by reading activities and children's programs to a great extent, which both users and non-users are not very interested in. Further, most respondents expressed more interest in cultural and leisure events and hands-on activities (especially new technologies related) than traditional library programming. Many lapsed and non-users chose not to attend the library programs for boredom and uselessness. As a result, there is a need for HKPL to adjust its services to stay relevant to the needs and interests of local communities.
Originality/value
Scant studies explored the reasons behind non-users of public library programs, especially in Asia. This research contributes to the literature by analyzing and proposing the characteristics of the current situation of library programs and exploring the possible reasons behind the low participation in Hong Kong.
Details
Keywords
Yujuan Zheng, Shan Liu, Wei Huang (Wayne) and James Jiunn-Yih Jiang
The purpose of this paper is to formulate and test a theoretical model to explain inter-organizational cooperation behaviors among suppliers in automotive new product development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to formulate and test a theoretical model to explain inter-organizational cooperation behaviors among suppliers in automotive new product development (NPD) projects. This study aims to investigate the effects of cost and benefit factors on trust and inter-organizational cooperative behaviors among suppliers in automotive NPD projects from the perspective of social exchange theory (SET).
Design/methodology/approach
The structural equation modeling method is applied to test the proposed model, which is based on the analysis of survey data from 272 product managers of automotive part suppliers.
Findings
Knowledge sharing and coordination effort influence inter-organizational cooperation indirectly through trust. Specially, trust is negatively influenced by coordination effort but positively affected by knowledge sharing. Requirement uncertainty moderates the relationship between cost–benefit factors and trust differently. Specifically, requirement uncertainty increases the negative influence of coordination effort on trust but also strengthens the positive effect of knowledge sharing on trust.
Originality/value
This study provides a relatively comprehensive cost–benefit framework for further understanding the formation mechanism of inter-organizational cooperation among suppliers. It also contributes to SET by incorporating the contextual factor to explain the moderating effect of requirement uncertainty on the relationships between cost–benefit factors and trust in the context of automotive NPD projects.
Details
Keywords
Xiaosong (Jason) Wu, Wei (Wayne) Huang, James Jiang, Gary Klein and Shan Liu
Two challenges faced by automotive component design projects within contracted design agencies are (1) specification changes requested by the manufacturers and (2) product…
Abstract
Purpose
Two challenges faced by automotive component design projects within contracted design agencies are (1) specification changes requested by the manufacturers and (2) product information or core technology knowledge leakage to external actors. We examine the effects of targeted boundary activities that address these challenges under the contingencies of environmental uncertainty and project complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Boundary management theory, a bidirectional model of boundary buffering was conceptualized in the context of design agency teams developing automotive components. A survey is derived from the proposed model. Regression analysis is performed using empirical data from 234 auto component design projects in Chinese design agencies.
Findings
Boundary buffering activities that strengthen outside-in boundaries and inside-out boundaries directly improve the final design quality. Further, the magnitude of effect for outside-in buffering on design quality is enhanced under environmental uncertainty, while the impact of inside-out buffering on design quality is enhanced under project complexity.
Research limitations/implications
Boundary activities should consider differences in boundary targets, directional flow of information, and context of scope.
Practical implications
Automotive component design agents should attend to both outside-in and inside-out boundary buffering, especially under conditions of environmental uncertainty or project complexity.
Originality/value
The proposed bidirectional view on boundary buffering adds perspective to team boundary management theory. Specific contingencies include common risk elements of project complexity and environmental uncertainty not typically associated with the need for buffering activities.