Yufu Chen, Yue Han and Liankai Guo
Rapid development of China's rural industry since 1980s has a massive ripple effect on rural China. However, recent rural industrial development in China has received little…
Abstract
Purpose
Rapid development of China's rural industry since 1980s has a massive ripple effect on rural China. However, recent rural industrial development in China has received little scholarly attention. The study aims to investigate the development process and spatial differences of China's rural industry as well as its driving forces.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on the panel data constituting 30 provinces of China during 1984–2011. The factor analysis is used to identify the most significant factors affecting the growth of China's rural industry. The multiple regression analysis is applied to distinguish the driving forces affecting spatiotemporal variations in China's rural industry.
Findings
China's rural industry developed rapidly at an average rate of 26% per year during the period 1984–2011. The period 1990–2011 was characterized by remarkable increased spatial disparities in China's rural industrial development. Specifically, such development was markedly better in the east coast areas than in the inland areas in the west. Five driving forces of rural industrial development were recognized representing regional economic fundamentals of market, industry foundation, transportation, communication and degree of opening-up.
Originality/value
This paper explores the trajectory of the development of China's rural industry and the related regional economic factors. It suggests that the development of rural enterprises across the regions should be valued by Chinese government as a driving force for reducing regional disparities and future rural revitalization.
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Daoyi Wu, Yufu Xu, Lulu Yao, Tao You and Xianguo Hu
This paper aims to study the upgradation of the lubricating performance of the renewable base oil , and to study the tribological behavior of graphene oxide (GO) sheets used as…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the upgradation of the lubricating performance of the renewable base oil , and to study the tribological behavior of graphene oxide (GO) sheets used as lubricating additives in bio-oil for iron/steel contact.
Design/methodology/approach
A multifunctional end-face tribometer was used to characterize the friction coefficient and wear loss of the tribosystem under different lubricants.
Findings
The experimental results show that GO sheets with small size benefit lubricating effects and the optimal concentration of GO sheets in bio-oil is 0.4-0.6 per cent, which can form a complete lubricating film on the frictional interfaces and obtain a low friction coefficient and wear loss. Higher concentration of GO sheets can result in a significant aggregation of the sheets, reducing the content of the lubricating components in the bio-oil, which results in the increase in friction and wear; at this stage, the main wear pattern was ascribed to adhesive wear.
Practical implications
These results show a promising prospect of improving the tribological performance of renewable base oil with the introduction of GO sheets as additives.
Originality/value
No literature has covered the tribological behaviour of GO sheets in bio-oil. This study contributes to accelerating the application of bio-oil.
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Xuwei Pan, Jihu Li, Jianhong Luo and Wenbang Zhan
It is widely known that fast-fashion retailers are struggling to keep up with consumer attention for quick responses within the fashion industry. With the advance of Internet and…
Abstract
Purpose
It is widely known that fast-fashion retailers are struggling to keep up with consumer attention for quick responses within the fashion industry. With the advance of Internet and e-commerce, consumers prefer to purchase online. Online platform information has become an essential source for exploring consumer attention. However, there is often a mismatch between the information provided by retailers and the feedback received from consumers, leading to an imbalance between the supply side and demand side of online information. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide a unified approach to discover consumer attention from the design topic aspect by revealing the information imbalance between supply side and demand side.
Design/methodology/approach
To address the issue of online information imbalance and discover consumer attention, this study proposed an approach that focuses on the design topic perspective. The design topic is a collection of design elements that represent a clothing-design feature more comprehensively and accurately compared to a single design element. The proposed approach begins with generating design topics through topic modeling based on online information provided by retailers on e-commerce platforms. Two indicators, influence degree and attention degree, are then used to quantify the intensity of supply information and consumer attention related to design topics. Finally, design topic strategy diagrams are constructed to reveal information imbalance and discover consumer attention.
Findings
The experimental case demonstrates the existence of information imbalance, indicating that the intensity of supply information and consumer attention from the perspective of design topics is not uniform, although both follow the Pareto principle. The results of consumer attention distribution with heavy power-law tails are consistent with current research findings. This further demonstrates that the proposed approach is capable of discovering consumer attention in the design topic strategy diagrams.
Practical implications
The issue of information imbalance between retailers and consumers poses a challenge in keeping up with customer attention. The proposed approach offers a practical solution by visually identifying the symptoms of information imbalance and discovering consumer attention through design topic strategy diagrams. This approach provides fast-fashion retailers with a valuable reference to seize market opportunities, improve product design and adjust marketing or management strategies.
Originality/value
This study proposes a novel approach to disclose the issue of information imbalance between supply side and demand side and therefore to discover consumer attention from the perspective of design topics. In addition, guidelines for applying the proposed approach for fast-fashion marketing and management are presented.
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Yufu Xu, Kequn Sun, Quan Zheng, Lulu Yao, Yinghui Dong and Ruhong Song
This paper aims to offeri novel nano-additives polymer microgels to precisely improve the lubrication properties of titanium alloy under different temperatures.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offeri novel nano-additives polymer microgels to precisely improve the lubrication properties of titanium alloy under different temperatures.
Design/methodology/approach
The surfactant-free emulsion polymerization method was used to prepare Poly(N-isoprolylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels. A ball-on-disk tribometer was applied to investigated the temperature-sensitive lubrication behavior of PNIPAM microgels.
Findings
The results show that the as-prepared microgels are ball-like nanoparticles with the size of 50–900 nm. In addition, potassium persulfate as initiator, complete mixing technic and high sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentration contribute to the formation of microgels with small size. The tribosystem shows a lower friction coefficient with the lubrication of PNIPAM microgels as aqueous solution additives when the temperature exceeding the critical temperature.
Originality/value
This work reports the temperature-sensitive lubrication of PNIPAM microgels. The critical temperature of PNIPAM microgels could be regulated by the addition of SDS in the solutions. This offers an effective and facile strategy for regulation of the critical temperature of smart microgels, which is helpful for the smart lubrication in the future.
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Abstract
Purpose
Industrial land renewal is a significant constituent of urban environment and sustainable development. Most implementation in planning of renewal of industrial land has been mainly conducted at the site level of industrial zones or parks and the larger scale of township planning deserve further attention in China. To fill this gap, this paper aims to investigate the implementation of industrial land renewal for a whole urbanized area under the township master planning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces a progressive approach to identify and evaluate the renewal of industrial land in township master planning to move toward a more practical understanding of industrial transition. The authors chose a typical industrialized town, Lijia in Changzhou City, under the development model of “Southern Jiangsu” to explain the measurement and assessment framework to identify and evaluate the renewable industrial land. Synthesizing the idea of sustainable development, the authors investigated the renewable industrial land with an econometric model including multiple-indexes of economic, social and ecological aspects, field observations and depth interviews.
Findings
The analysis demonstrated the spatial heterogeneity and complex generous structure of industrial land renewal in developing countries. It pointed out the major responsibility of enterprises as main industrial land users and indispensable responsibility of government and society. Following the idea of organic concentration and avoiding one-size-fits-all kind of deal, the master planning of Lijia emphasized the connection of industrial land and the combination of market force, social force and government regulation.
Originality/value
With original data and discussion, the authors provide more scientific renewal strategies for planners in sustainable development.
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Duen-Ren Liu, Yun-Cheng Chou, Chi-Ching Chung and Hsiu-Yu Liao
Due to the rapidly increasing volume of users and products in virtual worlds, recommender systems are an important feature in virtual worlds; they can help solve information…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the rapidly increasing volume of users and products in virtual worlds, recommender systems are an important feature in virtual worlds; they can help solve information overload problems. Virtual world users are able to perform several actions that promote the enjoyment of their virtual life, including interacting with others, visiting virtual houses and shopping for virtual products. This study aims to concentrate on the following two important factors: the social neighbors’ influences and the virtual house bandwagon phenomenon, which affects users’ preferences during their virtual house visits and purchasing processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors determine social influence by considering the interactions between the target user and social circle neighbors. The degree of influence of the virtual house bandwagon effect is derived by analyzing the preferences of the virtual house hosts who have been visited by target users during their successive visits. A novel hybrid recommendation method is proposed herein to predict users’ preferences by combining the analyses of both factors.
Findings
The recommendation performance of the proposed method is evaluated by conducting experiments with a data set collected from a virtual world platform. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional recommendation methods, and they also exhibit the effectiveness of considering both the social influence and the virtual house bandwagon effect for making effective recommendations.
Originality/value
Existing studies on recommendation methods did not investigate the virtual house bandwagon effects that are unique to the virtual worlds. The novel idea of the virtual house bandwagon effect is proposed and analyzed for predicting users’ preferences. Moreover, a novel hybrid recommendation approach is proposed herein for generating virtual product recommendations. The proposed approach is able to improve the accuracy of preference predictions and enhance the innovative value of recommender systems for virtual worlds.