Search results

The purpose of this paper is to increase wear resistance of aluminum.

The authors have studied the ways to improve the tribological performance of aluminum by assembling stearic acid on aluminum coated by sol-gel-derived TiO₂ film. The samples were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, contact angle measurements and a macro friction and wear tester.

Enhanced wear resistance was clearly obtained after functionalization of TiO₂ film on aluminum by stearic acid.

The relevant results might be helpful for guiding the surface modification of aluminum devices in industrial applications.

Community question answering (CQA) platforms play a significant role in knowledge dissemination and information retrieval. Expert recommendation can assist users by helping them find valuable answers efficiently. Existing works mainly use content and user behavioural features for expert recommendation, and fail to effectively leverage the correlation across multi-dimensional features.

To address the above issue, this work proposes a multi-dimensional feature fusion-based method for expert recommendation, aiming to integrate features of question–answerer pairs from three dimensions, including network features, content features and user behaviour features. Specifically, network features are extracted by first learning user and tag representations using network representation learning methods and then calculating questioner–answerer similarities and answerer–tag similarities. Secondly, content features are extracted from textual contents of questions and answerer generated contents using text representation models. Thirdly, user behaviour features are extracted from user actions observed in CQA platforms, such as following and likes. Finally, given a question–answerer pair, the three dimensional features are fused and used to predict the probability of the candidate expert answering the given question.

The proposed method is evaluated on a data set collected from a publicly available CQA platform. Results show that the proposed method is effective compared with baseline methods. Ablation study shows that network features is the most important dimensional features among all three dimensional features.

This work identifies three dimensional features for expert recommendation in CQA platforms and conducts a comprehensive investigation into the importance of features for the performance of expert recommendation. The results suggest that network features are the most important features among three-dimensional features, which indicates that the performance of expert recommendation in CQA platforms is likely to get improved by further mining network features using advanced techniques, such as graph neural networks. One broader implication is that it is always important to include multi-dimensional features for expert recommendation and conduct systematic investigation to identify the most important features for finding directions for improvement.

This work proposes three-dimensional features given that existing works mostly focus on one or two-dimensional features and demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly proposed features.

User engagement is critical for online health Q&A communities. Financial incentives, which vary across different communities and reward schemes, are expected to motivate such contribution behaviors. Even though financial incentives have been extensively examined in prior studies, the impact of newly designed contingent financial incentives of a new pay-for-answer reward scheme has not been empirically examined in any online health Q&A community. Given this research gap, our study aims to perform an exploratory investigation of the effects of contingent financial incentives on user engagement in terms of knowledge contribution and social interactions.

Based on expectancy-value theory and equity theory, a research model was developed to reflect the influences of contingent financial incentives on user engagement. A unique dataset was gathered from a large online health Q&A community utilizing this contingent financial incentive reward structure, and the Heckman selection model was applied using a two-step procedure to test these hypotheses. Possible endogeneity issues were also addressed in the robustness check.

Our results demonstrate that the effect of contingent financial incentives on answer quantity and quality is quadratic. Additionally, our study reveals that this contingent financial incentive enhances both comment and emotional interactions among users.

Our study enriches the literature on financial incentives, knowledge contribution and user engagement by revealing the nuanced effects of financial incentives within a novel pay-for-answer scheme. This study also offers significant implications for practitioners involved in online community incentive design.

This paper reviews scientific publications in the field of logistics underlying cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) to China. A focus on the role played in this complex process by other countries of the Greater China is carried out. The purpose of this paper is to outline directions for future research to encourage CBEC development.

The review is based on 32 papers published from 2002 to 2016 in international peer-reviewed journals or proceedings of international conferences, retrieved from bibliographic databases and science search engines.

CBEC to China is gaining increasing interest, as shown by the rising amount of publications from 2013 onwards. Within these contributions, however, studies specifically investigating the relation between logistics and e-commerce, commonly acknowledged as critical, seem to lack. Many contributions are descriptive and do not provide specific insights on how to manage the complexities of CBEC logistics in this region. Stemming from the review, a set of possible development areas are identified, including distribution network design, i.e. deciding how to shape the CBEC distribution structure, and logistics outsourcing, i.e. determining whether to manage logistics activities in-house or through third parties.

To the extent of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to classify the existing body of knowledge on logistics supporting CBEC. Its main contribution is the critical identification of current research gaps and the proposal of key themes for future research. From a managerial perspective, it helps export and logistics managers identify the key challenges of managing CBEC logistics to Greater China.

After three decades of development, the Chinese electric vehicle industry became the world’s largest electric vehicle market in 2015. However, little is understood about how the Chinese electric vehicle industry, as a latecomer in this strategic newly emerged industry, could catch up with international incumbents. The purpose of this paper is to study how the windows of opportunity emerge and interactively influence the catch-up process of Chinese electric vehicle industry.

This paper conducted a case study to examine how Chinese electric vehicle latecomers use the windows of opportunity along with the development of a sectoral system of innovation to reduce the gaps.

The results indicate that windows of opportunity appeared in the introduction stage (2005) and the transition from the introduction stage to the growth stage (2015) because of the sectoral changes in technologies, demand, policies and the interaction among these factors. Domestic electric vehicle latecomers currently follow the catch-up pattern of duplication, creative imitation and innovation.

To capture the previous windows of opportunity, domestic electric vehicle latecomers rely on technology transfer through international joint ventures, government support and local advantages from cheap labor. To seize future windows of opportunity, apart from progressively accumulating innovation capabilities, it is also essential for managers to recognize, break through and extend the windows of opportunity by anticipating and monitoring the process of changes of the sectoral system.

This paper provides a fine-grained study on how latecomers in a new industry with emerging markets can seize windows of opportunities to catch up with the international leaders.

This paper aims to propose a double-sided switched reluctance linxear generator (DSRLG) exclusively for wave power generation. The initial dimensions are given through design experience and principles. To ameliorate comprehensive performance of the DSRLG, the multi-objective optimization design is processed.

The multi-objective optimization design of the DSRLG is processed by adopting a modified entropy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) algorithm. First, sensitivity analyzes on geometric parameters of the DSRLG are conducted to determine several pivotal geometric parameters as optimization variables. Then, the multi-objective optimization is conducted on the basis of initial dimensions. After determination of synthetical evaluation value of each structure parameter, the best dimension scheme of the DSRLG is concluded.

After verification by finite element method simulation and dynamic simulation, the final dimension scheme proves to perform better than the initial scheme. Finally, experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of both the stable finite element DSRLG model and dynamic simulation system model so that the conclusion of this paper proves to be reliable and compelling.

This paper proposes an improved structure of the DSRLG, which is superior for wave power generation. Meanwhile, a novel modified entropy TOPSIS algorithm is applied to the field of electrical machine multi-objective optimal design for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to support companies’ risk-informed selection of a logistics solution to operate in China via cross-border e-commerce (CBEC).

Decision theory is applied to the recent field of CBEC. This theoretic setup involves a decision maker who must choose among a set of alternatives, whose consequences depend on uncertain factors (Savage, 1954). The study develops an activity-based model to calculate logistics costs in a deterministic setting. Simulations and probabilistic sensitivity analyses are later performed to evaluate the impact of uncertainty.

There are four main solutions to enter China, determined by the adopted international transport mean and the presence of a local warehouse. The most important risk factors affecting the choice of the logistics solution are change of CBEC regulation, product value, expected service level and demand level.

From a theoretical perspective, this study improves CBEC literature, so far characterised by descriptive papers, often lacking industry focus or empirical exploration. It also provides new application opportunities for decision theory, whereas previous contributions have proposed different theoretical approaches, such as transaction cost or institutional theory. From a practical viewpoint, the paper is the first to compare the costs of the main logistics solutions to sell online to China, by taking uncertainty into account. The results can be used to better understand the differences among solutions and identify the most critical parameters. Finally, this research provides some observations for policy implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible purposes of digital storytelling and discuss practical implementation in a community-based digital storytelling project.

This case study investigates the function of digital storytelling for archiving local history, specifically by journaling experiences during a digital storytelling grant project at a public library in Southern California.

This case study details a specific example of the impact digital storytelling can have on a community, both to foster community building and also to encourage documentation of local history. The main goal of the project was to present and archive filmed stories from local community members; however, the project also led to increased awareness of digital storytelling and the associated technology both within the library and the greater community.

This article should provide best practice guidelines for administering a community-based digital storytelling project including suggestions for outreach to the larger community, dealing with technical issues, and tackling operational issues.

Digital storytelling has had a profound impact on the way that society communicates and can be used effectively for purposes of outreach and activism, to educate using technology, or to document micro-histories. This case study provides an assessment of the current uses of digital storytelling and presents a successful implementation of a local history digital storytelling project at a public library.