Wu Yan and Lisa Catherine Ehrich
The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of principal preparation and training in China by providing a background discussion of principal preparation in a number…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of principal preparation and training in China by providing a background discussion of principal preparation in a number of countries. As an illustration, it provides an overview of the curriculum used in the initial preparation of school principals at Beijing Normal University.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws mainly on writing and research from China, Australia and the USA to explore principal preparation and training in China.
Findings
In addition to providing a rich description of principal preparation in China, the paper's main findings comprise seven key challenges that confront China as it endeavours to provide quality principal preparation. These challenges include China's diversity and uneven social, cultural and educational development; limited resources in some regions throughout China; the place and importance of study tours for principal preparation; the teaching approach used to train principals; the process used for assessing principal learning during their training programs; the limited transfer of learning from the classroom to the school environment; and the timing of training for principals.
Practical implications
Each of the challenges arising here raises important practical implications for developers of principal training programs.
Originality/value
The paper paints a picture of principal preparation in China and raises a number of issues and challenges with which it continues to grapple. Of note is that China is not alone in facing some of these ongoing concerns.
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Peng Xue, Songbai Xue, Yifu Shen, Zhengxiang Xiao, Hong Zhu, Weimin Long and Xinquan Yu
The purpose of this paper is to improve the properties of Sn−9Zn solder, so as to meet the requirements of industrial applications.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the properties of Sn−9Zn solder, so as to meet the requirements of industrial applications.
Design/methodology/approach
The effects of Praseodymium on property and Sn whisker growth under aging treatment in Sn−9Zn lead‐free solder were investigated.
Findings
The results indicate that with the addition of rare earth Pr, the wettability and mechanical properties of Sn−9Zn solder were improved. The best wettability and comprehensive property of soldered joint is obtained when the content of Pr is 0.08 wt.%. After aging treatment at 150°C for 360 h, the mechanical properties of Sn−9Zn−0.08Pr decreased but are still obviously higher than that of Sn−9Zn. Moreover, when the content of Pr reached 0.1 wt.%, plenty of Sn−Pr compounds were found in the Sn−9Zn solder. The inevitable oxidation of Sn−Pr compounds would cause a high stress accumulated within PrSn3 phases, which would be served as driving force to induce the Sn whisker sprout and growth after aging treatment at 150°C for 120 h to 360 h. Compared with the results in Sn−9Zn−0.5Ga−0.7Pr solder that Sn whisker observed until the addition of Pr reached 0.7 wt.%, it could be inferred that the addition of Ga may react against the sprout of Sn whisker.
Originality/value
It is found that the addition of Pr can improve the properties of solder and avoid Sn whisker growth in the right range and proper conditions. The cost of the solder with added Pr is limited to RMB 2 yuan/kg so it can be widely used in industry.
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José-Antonio Corral-Marfil and Gemma Cànoves-Valiente
The proceedings of the 17 editions of the conference of the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism constitute a valuable archival resource within the research on…
Abstract
The proceedings of the 17 editions of the conference of the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism constitute a valuable archival resource within the research on Spanish tourism. But so far their contents have not been analyzed. The aim of this chapter is to examine the research that has been presented at its conference by means of a bibliometric analysis of the proceedings of 17 editions. The study focuses on the origin of the research (countries, regions, institutions, and authors), as well as its characteristics in terms of themes dealt with, geographical areas researched, methodologies, disciplinary areas, and attitudes toward tourism. Implications for the evolution of the research are discussed in terms of knowledge contributions and the shaping of major tourism research traditions.
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It is of a great significance for the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine to build an accurate and reliable fault prediction model. The thrust of a liquid rocket engine is…
Abstract
Purpose
It is of a great significance for the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine to build an accurate and reliable fault prediction model. The thrust of a liquid rocket engine is an important indicator for its health monitoring. By predicting the changing value of the thrust, it can be judged whether the engine will fail at a certain time. However, the thrust is affected by various factors, and it is difficult to establish an accurate mathematical model. Thus, this study uses a mixture non-parametric regression prediction model to establish the model of the thrust for the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes the characteristics of the least squares support vector regression (LS-SVR) machine . LS-SVR is suitable to model on the small samples and high dimensional data, but the performance of LS-SVR is greatly affected by its key parameters. Thus, this study implements the advanced intelligent algorithm, the real double-chain coding target gradient quantum genetic algorithm (DCQGA), to optimize these parameters, and the regression prediction model LSSVRDCQGA is proposed. Then the proposed model is used to model the thrust of a liquid rocket engine.
Findings
The simulation results show that: the average relative error (ARE) on the test samples is 0.37% when using LS-SVR, but it is 0.3186% when using LSSVRDCQGA on the same samples.
Practical implications
The proposed model of LSSVRDCQGA in this study is effective to the fault prediction on the small sample and multidimensional data, and has a certain promotion.
Originality/value
The original contribution of this study is to establish a mixture non-parametric regression prediction model of LSSVRDCQGA and properly resolve the problem of the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine along with modeling the thrust of the engine by using LSSVRDCQGA.
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Xiao Xue, Shufang Wang and Hao Chao
The purpose of this paper is to provide strong theoretical and technical support for the dynamic evolution of service system in “Cluster Supply Chain”(CSC), which can deal with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide strong theoretical and technical support for the dynamic evolution of service system in “Cluster Supply Chain”(CSC), which can deal with two kinds of context changes: the internal service component changes and the external customer requirement changes.
Design/methodology/approach
A “feedback-based” evolution mechanism of service system for CSC is proposed in this study. By means of the feedback update of enterprise service’s Quality of Service (QoS) attribute and the adjustment of the assumed QoS evaluation model, the evolution of service system can be achieved to suit the dynamic market demands.
Findings
Results of the study suggest: by means of the “feed-back” evolution mechanism of service system, the enterprises in CSC can handle the context changes effectively to maintain the optimized operation status.
Practical implications
The implementation of evolution mechanism in service system can keep the effectiveness of enterprise service composition to face the frequent service component changes and the unpredictable market turbulence.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a method to realize the autonomous evolution of service system in CSC, which can support the flexibility and adaptability of enterprise service composition in the changing environment.
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Blanca A. Camargo, Tazim Jamal and Erica Wilson
Pressing sustainability issues face the 21st century, as identified by the Millennium Development Goals and its post initiatives, and ethical principles related to fairness…
Abstract
Pressing sustainability issues face the 21st century, as identified by the Millennium Development Goals and its post initiatives, and ethical principles related to fairness, equity, and justice are increasingly important to address climate change and resource scarcities. Yet, such ethical dimensions remain surprisingly little addressed in the tourism literature. Ecofeminist critique offers insights into this gap, identifying historical antecedents in patriarchal, Enlightenment-driven discourses of science where positivistic approaches facilitate the control and use of nature and women. This chapter draws from this critique to propose a preliminary, justice-oriented framework to resituate sustainable tourism within an embodied paradigm that covers intangibles such as emotions, feelings, and an ethic of care.
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This chapter explores the potential for and value of imagining a humanist paradigm for tourism studies. It explores how the idea of a “paradigm” in tourism can be conceptualized…
Abstract
This chapter explores the potential for and value of imagining a humanist paradigm for tourism studies. It explores how the idea of a “paradigm” in tourism can be conceptualized, arguing that dominant thoughtlines in other fields regarding the meaning of a paradigm are not sufficient for making sense of this idea in the context of tourism studies. The chapter introduces humanism as a philosophical position in the academy and as a lived cultural practice, explores examples of extant work in tourism studies that might be seen to provide the seeds of a humanist paradigm, and offers reflections on the value of imagining such a paradigm for our field.
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Richard Ek and Mekonnen Tesfahuney
In the Western thought tradition, the tourist has not been a subject worthy of intellectual musings and philosophical deliberations. Indeed, the tourist has been portrayed in…
Abstract
In the Western thought tradition, the tourist has not been a subject worthy of intellectual musings and philosophical deliberations. Indeed, the tourist has been portrayed in primarily derisive ways. Nietzsche’s remark, “Tourists—they climb mountains like animals, stupid and perspiring, no one has told them that there are beautiful views on the way,” epitomizes the dominant attitude. Why does the figure of the tourist elicit such negative reactions? Do the sentiments perhaps imply something else, or is the tourist a doppelgänger, not anomalous or marginal but normative—a paradigmatic figure? If so, then what can be said of the poetics and politics of the tourist conceptualized as a paradigmatic subject?
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The purpose of this chapter is to propose a theory which may lead to a holistic description of the mechanism of touristic phenomena. In so doing, the central discussion is to…
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to propose a theory which may lead to a holistic description of the mechanism of touristic phenomena. In so doing, the central discussion is to provide descriptive answers to basic questions. It will not be a sociological or anthropological discourse. Instead, it will use perspectives from environmental psychology, genetics, and a theory of information energy in elementary particle physics. The study of tourism, though it is not a distinct disciplinary field, must provide a grand theory. In this chapter, the discussions mainly focus on the concept of tourist to provide several ideas to amend its definition, which may directly correspond to an overall view of touristic phenomena.