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This paper identifies the forces that drive digital adoption among SMEs from low and high-tech industries in Malaysia.

This research uses multiple case analyses based on data gathered by in-depth interviews with key representatives of 20 firms from low and high-tech industries in Malaysia.

The findings suggest that digital adoption among SMEs derives by four fundamental forces, which are sales, marketing, process improvement and product development.

This study employed qualitative research, but lack of geographic diversity limits the generalisability of the case findings. This study provides several suggestions to policymakers and technology suppliers on how to encourage adoption of digitalisation among SMEs.

This study proposes a model that presents the critical forces that drive digital adoption for export-oriented firms, thus enriching the knowledge in SME digitalisation literature.

To avoid braking accidents caused by excessive wear of brake pad, this study aims to achieve online prediction of brake pad wear life (BPWL).

A simulated braking test bench for automobile disc brake was used. The correlation and mechanism between the three braking condition parameters of initial braking speed, braking pressure and initial braking temperature and the tribological performance were analyzed. The different artificial neural network (ANN) models of wear loss were discussed. Genetic algorithm was used to optimize the ANN model. The structure scheme of the online prediction system of BPWL was discussed and completed.

The results showed that the braking conditions were positively correlated with the wear loss, but negatively correlated with the friction coefficient. The prediction accuracy of back propagation (BP) ANN model was higher. The model was optimized by genetic algorithm, and the average deviation of prediction results was 4.67%. By constructing the online monitoring system of automobile braking conditions, the online prediction of BPWL based on the ANN model could be realized.

The research results not only have important theoretical significance for the study of BPWL but also have practical value for guiding the maintenance and replacement of automobile brake pads and avoiding the occurrence of braking accidents.

This paper aims to overcome the defect of single-source temperature measurement method and improve the measurement accuracy of FTR. The friction temperature rise (FTR) of brake affects braking performance seriously. However, it was mainly detected by single-source indirect thermometry, which has obvious deviations.

A three-point temperature measurement system was built based on three kinds of single-resource thermometry. Temperature characteristics of these thermometry were analyzed to achieve a standard FTR curve. Two fusion-monitoring models for FTR based on multi-source information were established by artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM).

Finally, the two models were verified based on the experimental results. The results showed that the fusion-monitoring model of SVM was more accurate than that of ANN in monitoring of FTR.

Then the temperature characteristics of the three single-source thermometry were analyzed, and the fusion-monitoring models based on multi-source information were established by ANN and SVM. Finally, the accuracy of the two models was compared by the experimental results. The more suitable fusion-monitoring model for FTR monitoring was determined which would be of theoretical and practical significance for remedying the monitoring defect of FTR.

The friction between brake pair causes an intense temperature rise on interface during braking, which affects the braking performance seriously. Therefore, building an accurate testing method for frictional temperature rise (FTR) is a prerequisite.

Facing braking conditions of automobiles, an experimental system for testing of FTR based on preset thermometry method (PTM) was established. The FTR was collected by the PTM and the variation laws as well as the cause of errors were analyzed by experiments. The deviations between tested and real temperature were corrected based on tribology and heat theories. Finally, an online prediction method for FTR was pointed out.

After correction, the temperature curve accords well with the laws of tribology and thermal theories. The corrected FTR at braking end point is approximately equal to the authentic temperature test by hand thermometer.

This study eliminated the hysteresis phenomenon of temperature rise sequence and lays a foundation for online accurate monitoring and warning of brake friction temperature rise. It has important theoretical and practical value for expanding the monitoring and improvement of brake performance.

The purpose of this study is to establish an effective method for characterizing the tribological properties of friction brakes during continuous braking because they have direct influences on the reliable operation of transport vehicles and industrial equipments.

First, tribological tests were carried out with the X-DM type friction tester, and changing curves of friction coefficient and temperature were obtained. Second, a novel tribological characteristic parameter set characterizing the tribological properties of brake pair in continuous braking was extracted from some important experimental data such as friction coefficient, wear rate and temperature. Finally, the influence of law and mechanism of braking number on dynamic tribological parameters was studied through continuous braking experiments.

The extracted tribological characteristic parameter set includes two subsets: dynamic characteristic parameter subset and overall characteristic parameter subset, which is composed of ten parameters: dynamic parameters of friction coefficient (including average, trend coefficient and stability coefficient), dynamic wear rate, dynamic average temperature, dynamic temperature rise, overall average friction coefficient, overall wear rate, overall average temperature and overall temperature rise.

Conclusively, the novel tribological characteristic parameter set is more comprehensive and objective, and it can provide a theoretical basis for the study of tribological properties in continuous braking.

This study aims to develop magnetic field-controlled friction braking technology, the preparation process of hard magnetic brake friction material was optimized and analyzed in this paper.

NdFeB, a rigid magnetic material, was selected as additive. Magnetic field orientation, a part of material preparation, was added to the preparation process. Experiments investigated the tribological properties of each brake lining sample. The preparation process of the hard magnetic friction material was optimized based on fuzzy theory by using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methods and SPSS software. The microscopic morphology and the distribution and content of elements of friction lining samples prepared with or without orientation excitation voltage were analyzed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

The results showed that the tribological properties of brake lining samples could be improved by process optimization and the oriented excitation voltage can effectively improve the properties of the brake lining.

The magnetic field orientation was added into the traditional preparation process, and a set of process parameters with the best tribological properties were obtained through optimization. It is believed that this research will be of great theoretical and practical significance to develop both new brake materials and active control technology of the braking process in the future.

This paper aims to develop of magnetic field controlled friction braking technology, a novel brake friction material with magnetic was designed and prepared in this paper.

The permalloy, a soft magnetic material, was selected as an additive to design and prepare the magnetic brake material. The friction, wear performance and permeability of each brake pads were investigated by experiments. By choosing the performance of friction coefficient fluctuation, friction coefficient deviation and mean wear rate as optimization parameters, the formulation of the magnetic friction material was optimized based on Fuzzy theory by using analytic hierarchy process methods and SPSS software.

The results showed that the developed soft magnetic friction material has not only superior friction coefficient, permeability and inferior wear rate but also good physical and mechanical properties.

Permalloy powder was added to the formulation of friction material to achieve a new functional friction material with high magnetic permeability. It is believed that this research will be of great theoretical and practical significance to develop both new brake materials and active control technology of the braking process in the future.

This study examines academic librarians' perceptions and attitudes toward Internet of Things (IoT) applications in Hong Kong academic libraries and the problems and possible improvements in using IoT technologies to strengthen library services.

This qualitative research used video conferencing software for semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. Participants were given introductory material about the IoT and asked to complete an interview. The data were analyzed using inductive theme clustering for this study.

The analysis identified three themes: perception about applying IoT technology to the library, problems and improvements in using IoT. Participants were generally optimistic about the potential benefits of IoT for improving library operations and providing personalized services. However, they also expressed concerns about privacy and security, errors and extra efforts for information literacy training. They suggested improvements such as incorporating facial recognition technology, advanced RFID technology and collections identification technology to enhance user experience.

Most studies examined users' views rather than librarians' on IoT applications, which few studies cover, especially in East Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to shed light on procurement innovation by examining two state-of-the-art procurement systems in China – an agent-construction system (ACS or in Chinese Dai Jian Zhi) and public-private partnership (PPP), with special consideration given to the systems’ particular political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) background.

The paper does so by using content analyses, semi-structured interviews, and a “PESTEL-Procurement Innovation” framework.

It is found that PPP has not been as popular as expected, while the ACS, which is little known to the international construction management community, is widespread in China. The study of ACS and PPP further reveals that congruence between a procurement system and its external PESTEL conditions is essential for procurement innovation.

The “PESTEL-Procurement Innovation” framework could be a useful tool for devising procurement innovation; although there are many questions yet to be answered by further research.

The paper provides useful insights into procurement innovation, particularly when governments worldwide are searching for innovative procurement systems to help deliver public projects and services.

The paper possesses originality in that it tackles procurement innovation, an area that is under researched in construction management. It exhorts the re-connection between a procurement system and its external PESTEL conditions for devising bona fide procurement innovations.

The purpose of this study is to establish a new temperature set for characterizing the frictional temperature rise (FTR) of disc brakes. The FTR produced by braking is an important factor which directly affects the tribological properties of disc brakes. Presently, most existing researches characterize the FTR only by several static parameters such as average temperature or maximum temperature, which cannot reflect accurately the dynamic characteristics of temperature variation in the process of braking. In this paper, a new temperature parameter set was extracted and the influences of braking conditions on these parameters were investigated by experiments.

First, several simulated braking experiments of disc brakes were conducted to reveal the dynamic variation rules and mechanisms of the FTR in braking. Second, the characteristic parameter subset of the FTR was extracted with five significant parameters, namely, initial temperature, average temperature, end temperature, maximum temperature and the ratio of maximum temperature time. Furthermore, the fitting parameter subset of the FTR was constructed based on the temperature rise curve. Finally, the influence and mechanisms of initial braking velocity and braking pressure on the new temperature parameter set were investigated through braking experiments.

This paper extracted a new temperature parameter set including a characteristic parameter subset and a fitting parameter subset and revealed the influences of braking conditions on it by experiments.

The results showed that the new temperature parameter set extracted in this paper can characterize the dynamic characteristics of disc brake’s FTR variations more objectively and comprehensively. The research results will provide a theoretical basis for extracting the fault feature of friction properties.