Xingdong Shi, Weili Han, Yinsheng Li and Ying Huang
An enterprise application can be quickly built up by service composition. Business process composition is the essence of service composition. To build up such service‐oriented…
Abstract
Purpose
An enterprise application can be quickly built up by service composition. Business process composition is the essence of service composition. To build up such service‐oriented enterprise application, the developer needs an integrated design tool. The purpose of this paper is to present and integrated business‐process driven design for service‐oriented enterprise applications.
Design/methodology/approach
In the approach, there are three phases: business environment modeling, business process modeling, and script compiling. Business environment modeling adopts a new modeling technique which combines both the advantages of use case diagram and sequence diagram in UML. Business process modeling builds a concrete model according to business environment modeling. The mapping algorithms from business environment model to business process model are also given. At script compiling phase, the business process model is compiled into several deployable files. And then the paper presents a demonstration which shows how to apply our approach to developing a supply chain management system for the retail industry.
Findings
The analysis shows that the approach can meet the requirement of service‐composition. The approach can help business expert freely express their business requirement at business environment modeling phase; and help IT expert quickly design service‐oriented enterprise application according to business environment model at business process modeling phase.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a novel integrated approach to model and implement business‐process driven service composition, and presents an integrated tool based Eclipse to implement this approach.
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This paper aims to examine how the official discourse of frugality evolved in China between 1979 and 2015.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how the official discourse of frugality evolved in China between 1979 and 2015.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses historical and textual analysis. It divides the Chinese official discourse on frugality between 1979 and 2015 into four periods: 1979-1992, 1993-2002, 2003-2012 and 2013-2015.
Findings
A Chinese official discourse on frugality persisted between 1979 and 2015, even though during the same period, China transformed from a socialist economy of central planning and insufficient supply to a market economy of excessive supply and weak consumer demand. The intensity of this official discourse frequently vacillated, adjusting to both economic and political conditions of the time as part of the larger political-economic contestation between competing ideas and policies.
Originality/value
There have been calls for more studies on how frugality discourses have evolved in international markets, especially in terms of how they are shaped by local historical antecedents and long-standing tensions. Through the Chinese case, this article illuminates why some traditional values persist and obtain a paradoxical co-existence with consumerist ethos in our modern society.
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Zhiqiang Xie, Lei Wang, Zhengyang Zhu, Zhi Fu and Xingdong Lv
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interval finite element method (IFEM) to simulate the temperature field of mass concrete under multiple influence uncertainties e.g…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interval finite element method (IFEM) to simulate the temperature field of mass concrete under multiple influence uncertainties e.g. environmental temperature, material properties, pouring construction and pipe cooling.
Design/methodology/approach
Uncertainties of the significant factors such as the ambient temperature, the adiabatic temperature rise, the placing temperature and the pipe cooling are comprehensively studied and represented as the interval numbers. Then, an IFEM equation is derived and a method for obtaining interval results based on monotonicity is also presented. To verify the proposed method, a non-adiabatic temperature rise test was carried out and subsequently simulated with the method. An excellent agreement is achieved between the simulation results and the monitoring data.
Findings
An IFEM method is proposed and a non-adiabatic temperature rise test is simulated to verify the method. The interval results are discussed and compared with monitoring data. The proposed method is found to be feasible and effective.
Originality/value
Compared with the traditional finite element methods, the proposed method taking the uncertainty of various factors into account and it will be helpful for engineers to gain a better understanding of the real condition.
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Meng Zhang, Allan David Walker and Haiyan Qian
This study aims to describe and analyze an innovative mechanism of teacher-led, system-wide professional learning that has been widely adopted since the beginning of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to describe and analyze an innovative mechanism of teacher-led, system-wide professional learning that has been widely adopted since the beginning of the twenty-first century in China – the Master Teacher Studio (MTS).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper drew from policy documents, published Chinese literature relating to MTSs and personal fieldwork experience in Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang province.
Findings
The article first outlines the context framing the system change, including its policy background and evolution, and then the MTS's purpose, formative process and structure. It finally examines major teacher learning activities and the leadership roles of the MTS hosts (leaders).
Research limitations/implications
This study contributed to the knowledge base of system teacher leaders and how they lead cross-school leading.
Practical implications
The MTS initiative described in this article shows the power of central system leadership to spread and embed effective teacher learning practices at schools.
Originality/value
This article provides implications for understanding and practicing teacher system leadership to support teacher professional learning in different societies.
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Yansui Liu, Yuanzhi Guo and Yang Zhou
Poverty alleviation is a global challenge. Human society has never ceased to fight against poverty. China was once the developing country with the largest rural poor population in…
Abstract
Purpose
Poverty alleviation is a global challenge. Human society has never ceased to fight against poverty. China was once the developing country with the largest rural poor population in the world. Remarkable achievements have been made in China’s antipoverty program over the past decades, shaping a unique poverty reduction strategy with Chinese characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to first review the history of China’s rural reform and antipoverty, and then analyze the related policy systems, mechanism innovations and future challenges in poverty alleviation and development. At last, some specific policy implications were provided.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature on China’s antipoverty history was reviewed and mechanism innovations on targeted poverty alleviation strategy were investigated.
Findings
Along with the deepening of the rural reform, the poverty alleviation and development in new China have undergone six stages, and experienced a transformation from relief-oriented to development-oriented poverty alleviation. The object of poverty alleviation has gradually targeted with a transformation from poor counties/areas to villages/households, and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation is also gradually improved. However, the increase in the difficulty of antipoverty, fragile ecological environment, rapid population aging and rural decline poses challenges to the construction of a well-off society in an all-round way in China. Specific antipoverty measures were put forward based on the investigation. Finally, the authors emphasize the importance of strengthening the study of poverty geography.
Originality/value
This study investigates the history of China’s antipoverty policy and analyzes the future challenges for implementing targeted poverty alleviation policy. These findings will lay a foundation for the formulation of China’s antipoverty policies after 2020, and provide experience for poverty alleviation in other developing countries around the world.
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Lihua Yang, G. Zhiyong Lan and Shuang He
This study aims to investigate scholars’ roles in resolving environmental community conflict, as environmental community conflict is becoming an increasingly serious problem in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate scholars’ roles in resolving environmental community conflict, as environmental community conflict is becoming an increasingly serious problem in contemporary China, and it explored the underlying factors and mechanisms that influence successful conflict resolution.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a combination of three types of sources – interviews, participant observation and existing literature, the study compared and contrasted 35 cases through a two-stage study project with 25 environmental community conflict cases in the first stage and ten non-environmental cases in the second.
Findings
Results indicate that scholars serve seven roles in community conflict resolution: identification persons for potential sources of community conflict and supporters for the people who evaluate conflict problems before attempting to solve them; advisers for conflict protagonists; leaders of many knowledge-related activities; organizers of entrepreneurial activities for other community members; information brokers between community members and other stakeholders; representatives of the government, firms, community members and other stakeholders; and self-interested participants. While scholars’ participation is important for resolving community conflict, their actions are often not effective. Successful community conflict resolution involving scholars must satisfy eight underlying factors: local scholars’ sustained participation; high capacity; improvement on the organizational level of community members; emphasis on high efficiency knowledge and information transmission; effective finding and use of the community’s social capital; continual optimization on their action strategies; obtainability of some benefits; and non-local scholars’ sustained external support through social capital. The more closely these rules are followed, the more successful scholars’ participation in community conflict resolution will be.
Originality/value
The findings have practical implications for improving the effectiveness of scholars’ participation in community conflict resolution in contemporary China and even in other countries.
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Along with the “reform and open door” policy launched in the late 1970s, China has experienced an annual average GDP growth rate of 9.8% between 1978 and 2002 (Hu, 2003, October 19…
Abstract
Along with the “reform and open door” policy launched in the late 1970s, China has experienced an annual average GDP growth rate of 9.8% between 1978 and 2002 (Hu, 2003, October 19). China's economy system has also gone through a fundamental transition from a central planning system to a socialist free market economy. To cope with the booming economy and radical social changes, the higher education system of China has been undergoing a process of expansion with marketization (World Bank, 1997).
Rare earths are essential materials for many high-tech industries critical to both economic development and national defense. China, the world's dominant supplier of rare earths…
Abstract
Purpose
Rare earths are essential materials for many high-tech industries critical to both economic development and national defense. China, the world's dominant supplier of rare earths, has recently been imposing stricter controls over its production and export. The purpose of this paper is to examine the domestic roots of the changes in China's rare earth industry production and exports in its three-decade rise to the current global monopoly.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts the historical institutionalism approach to analyze the trajectory of industry and trade development. The author analyzes data collected from government whitepapers and reputed scholarly and news sources.
Findings
This paper argues that the Chinese rare earth industry has gone through three periods of development, in which the state attempted to control the market and industry through reformulating rules and institutions to achieve state goals. Domestic state institutions, combined with macroeconomic environment and state governance strategy shaped the three-decade experience of rare earth industry and trade development in China.
Originality/value
This paper builds on existing findings about Chinese state regulations to provide a novel analytical framework to analyze the role of the state in industry and trade development in the rare earth industry. The focus on a single strategic industry seldom studied in the current literature also provides ample empirical value to further scholarly understanding about this industry.
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Studies in teacher research have seldom discussed the effects of writing publications and teachers’ views on it. This paper aims to examine how teachers in China regard the…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies in teacher research have seldom discussed the effects of writing publications and teachers’ views on it. This paper aims to examine how teachers in China regard the purpose of writing up research papers and its impact on their professional practice. It also investigates facilitating factors in preparing and writing publications.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study which mainly analyses interview data gathered from 14 teachers, who have experience in writing publications, from three schools in Shanghai, China. Documentary analysis includes selected published journal papers and book chapters of the interviewees.
Findings
Findings show that teachers perceive producing publications as serving both an instrumental purpose of career advancement and a developmental purpose of enhancing their individual professional competency which in turn improves the quality of the teaching profession through knowledge transfer and knowledge transportation.
Research limitations/implications
Contributing factors to help teachers to write include the provision of systematic training courses for teachers and the development of network and research partners.
Originality/value
Findings of this study help school leaders and teacher educators better their understanding of improving the quality of practice of teachers through equipping them with a “stance of inquiry”. Findings suggest ways to provide relevant support to enhance the writing capacity of teachers. More importantly, a revision of the existing teacher promotion system may make the practice of writing publications of more direct value to teachers’ daily practice.
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Qiuping Yang, Huizhi Li, Yubo Zhai, Xiaofeng Li and Peizhi Zhang
To prepare a new type of composite for selective laser sintering 3D printing, the surface of Al2O3 nanoparticles was modified by the coupling agent…
Abstract
Purpose
To prepare a new type of composite for selective laser sintering 3D printing, the surface of Al2O3 nanoparticles was modified by the coupling agent (3-methacryloxypropyl)-trimethoxy silane (KH570) before coated with thermoplastic epoxy resin (TER).
Design/methodology/approach
Laser diffraction confirmed that the size distribution of prepared powder materials in this study ranged between 20 to 80 µm. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the loading of organic matter was below 5 per cent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that the silane coupling agent molecule bound strongly with the alumina. X-ray diffraction confirmed the prepared powder materials to be α-alumina. Through the angle of repose (AOR) test, the AOR = 18.435º was obtained, suggesting the high flowability of prepared powder materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation demonstrated that the shape of the prepared powder materials was sphere-like grains.
Findings
Molding properties of prepared powder materials were studied on the basis of particle size distribution, particle size, sphericity, crystal structure and the reaction mode of the TER. This prepared powder materials can be well applied to the production of epoxy resin-coated Al2O3 composite parts with high precision and good mechanical performance.
Originality/value
This composite can be well applied to the production of epoxy resin-coated Al2O3 composite parts with high precision and good mechanical performance.