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Drawing upon affective events theory and regulatory focus theory, the current study examines the relationship between customer gratitude and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (customer-oriented OCB), and the mediating role of positive affect and the moderating role of trait promotion focus.

Three-wave time-lagged data from 674 nurses nested within 125 department supervisors was collected. Multilevel modeling and Monte Carlo simulation were performed using Mplus 7.1 software to test all hypotheses.

Customer gratitude was positively associated with nurses’ customer-oriented OCB, and the relationship was mediated by positive affect. Nurse trait promotion focus strengthened the positive relationship between patient gratitude and positive affect, such that the relationship was stronger for those with a higher level of trait promotion focus.

This paper extends research on the effects of customer gratitude by extending our understanding of customer gratitude as a positive workplace event that can potentially promote employees’ positive behaviors toward customers, especially those with a stronger promotion focus.

This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between customer gratitude and employee customer-oriented OCB and uncover potential mechanisms to understand how this relationship unfolds and to whom this relationship is stronger. These findings can inform practices for service organizations.

The fabric self-lubricating liners are the key factors impacting the performances of self-lubricating spherical plain bearings. The purpose of this paper is to improve the friction and wear properties of self-lubricating radial spherical plain bearings by modification of the liners.

The liners of hybrid woven PTFE/Kevlar fabrics were treated respectively by the LaCl₃ and CeO₂ solutions. The tribological properties of self-lubricating spherical plain bearings with treated or untreated liners under continuous swaying conditions were investigated with the bearing tester at the swaying frequency of 2.5 Hz and the swaying angle of ±10°. The film formation and wear mechanisms were analyzed based on the observation of worn surfaces with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS).

Results show that the tribological properties of the bearings treated by the LaCl₃ or CeO₂ solution were improved compared with those of the untreated bearings. In particular, the wear resistance of bearings treated by the CeO₂ solution was remarkably improved under higher swaying cycles, but the anti-friction properties and cooling effects of bearings treated by the LaCl₃ solution were better under lower swaying cycles. Through SEM analysis, the reasons were analyzed. The bearings with treated liners only produced slight adhesive and abrasive wear, but the bearings with untreated liners produced more serious adhesive and abrasive wear under higher swaying cycles.

The paper proposed a new pretreatment process for the self-lubricating liners. The investigation on the friction and wear behaviors of the bearings is beneficial for prolonging the service lives of the radial spherical plain bearings.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare, characterise and evaluate nano-emulsions of copolymers of various compositions as eco-friendly binders for flexographic ink industry.

Various nano-emulsions of copolymers were prepared using styrene (St), butyl acrylate (BuAc), acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AAm) monomers by means of a conventional seeded emulsion polymerisation technique, using K2S2O8 as the initiator. The characterisation of the prepared emulsions was performed using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A selection of copolymers was formulated with pigments and additional ingredients, as water-based flexographic inks. The inks were characterised for their viscosity, pH, degree of dispersion, water resistance and colour density.

It was found that the low viscosity of the prepared copolymers may reduce the film thickness of the flexographic inks and may also increase the spreading of the ink on the surface. As a result, stable modified polyacrylate-based latex with improved physico-mechanical properties were obtained. The prepared latexes were showed improving and enhancing in water resistance; gloss values, and the print density that ranged from 2.06 to 2.51 and the maximum gloss values (39 and 48) were also obtained. Also, these binders provide excellent adhesion properties for both the pigment particles and the base paper.

This study focuses on the preparation of new water-based copolymer nanoparticles and their use as eco-friendly binders for flexographic ink industry.

The ink formulations developed could find use in industrial-scale printing.

Eco-friendly environment ink formulations for printing on paper substrates are novel.