Search results

Grey modeling technique is an important element of grey system theory, and academic articles applied to agricultural science research have been published since 1985, proving the broad applicability and effectiveness of the technique from different aspects and providing a new means to solve agricultural science problems. The analysis of the connotation and trend of the application of grey modeling technique in agricultural science research contributes to the enrichment of grey technique and the development of agricultural science in multiple dimensions.

Based on the relevant literature selected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Web of Science, SpiScholar and other databases in the past 37 years (1985–2021), this paper firstly applied the bibliometric method to quantitatively visualize and systematically analyze the trend of publication, productive author, productive institution, and highly cited literature. Then, the literature is combed by the application of different grey modeling techniques in agricultural science research, and the literature research progress is systematically analyzed.

The results show that grey model technology has broad prospects in the field of agricultural science research. Agricultural universities and research institutes are the main research forces in the application of grey model technology in agricultural science research, and have certain inheritance. The application of grey model technology in agricultural science research has wide applicability and precise practicability.

By analyzing and summarizing the application trend of grey model technology in agricultural science research, the research hotspot, research frontier and valuable research directions of grey model technology in agricultural science research can be more clearly grasped.

In an urbanising world, neighbouring is perceived to be steadily losing significance and a remnant of the past. The same belief can also be found in China where rapid urbanisation has had a tremendous impact on the social networks and neighbourhood life of urban residents. This chapter challenges the common perception of neighbouring in demise and argues that neighbouring remains an important form of social relationship, even if the meanings and role of neighbouring have changed. This chapter first charts the changing role of neighbouring from the socialist era to post-reform China. It then provides an account of four common types of neighbourhoods in Chinese cities – work-unit estates, traditional courtyards, commodity housing estates and urban villages – and considers how and why neighbouring in different ways still matters to them. In pre-reform socialist China, neighbourhood life and neighbouring comprised much of the daily social life of residents. Since the reform era, with the proliferation of private commodity housing estates, middle-class residents prioritise comfort, security and privacy, such that neighbouring levels have subsided. Nevertheless, in other neighbourhood types, such as work-unit housing estates, traditional courtyards and urban villages, neighbours still rely upon one another for various reasons.

The construction industry is notorious for high risks and accident rates, prompting professionals to adopt emerging technologies for improved construction workers’ health and safety (CWHS). Despite the recognized benefits, the practical implementation of these technologies in safety management within the Construction 4.0 era remains nascent. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms influencing the implementation of Construction 4.0 technologies (C4.0TeIm) to enhance CWHS in construction organizations.

Drawing upon integrated institutional theory, the contingency resource-based view of firms and the theory of planned behavior, this study developed and tested an integrated C4.0TeIm-CWHS framework. The framework captures the interactions among key factors driving C4.0TeIm to enhance CWHS within construction organizations. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey among 91 construction organizations and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results reveal that: (1) key C4.0TeIm areas are integrative and centralized around four areas, such as artificial intelligence and 3D printing, Internet of Things and extended reality; and (2) external coercive and normative forces, internal resource and capability, business strategy, technology competency and management (BST), organizational culture and use intention (UI) of C4.0 technologies, collectively influence C4.0TeIm-CWHS. The findings confirm the pivotal roles of BST and UI as mediators fostering positive organizational behaviors related to C4.0TeIm-CWHS.

Practically, it offers actionable insights for policymakers to optimize technology integration in construction firms, promoting industrial advancement while enhancing workforce well-being.

The novel C4.0TeIm-CWHS framework contributes to the theoretical discourses on safety management within the C4.0 paradigm by offering insights into internal strategic deployment and compliance challenges in construction organizations.

Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the public, represents essential resources of OHCs that have been shown to promote patient engagement, little is known about whether such knowledge-sharing can backfire when superfluous knowledge-sharing is perceived as overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Thus, this study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of general knowledge-sharing in OHCs by exploring the spillover effects of the depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing on patient engagement.

The research model is established based on a knowledge-based view and the literature on knowledge-sharing in OHCs. Then the authors test the research model and associated hypotheses with objective data from a leading OHC.

Although counterintuitive, the findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between general knowledge-sharing (depth and breadth of knowledge-sharing) and patient engagement that is positively associated with physicians’ number of patients. Specifically, the positive effects of depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing increase and then decrease as the quantity of general knowledge-sharing grows. In addition, physicians’ offline and online professional status negatively moderated these curvilinear relationships.

This study further enriches the literature on knowledge-sharing and the operations of OHCs from a novel perspective while also offering significant specific implications for OHCs practitioners.

Due to the strong reliance on element quality, there exist some inherent shortcomings of the traditional finite element method (FEM). The model of FEM behaves overly stiff, and the solutions of automated generated linear elements are generally of poor accuracy about especially gradient results. The proposed cell-based smoothed point interpolation method (CS-PIM) aims to improve the results accuracy of the thermoelastic problems via properly softening the overly-stiff stiffness.

This novel approach is based on the newly developed G space and weakened weak (w²) formulation, and of which shape functions are created using the point interpolation method and the cell-based gradient smoothing operation is conducted based on the linear triangular background cells.

Owing to the property of softened stiffness, the present method can generally achieve better accuracy and higher convergence results (especially for the temperature gradient and thermal stress solutions) than the FEM does by using the simplest linear triangular background cells, which has been examined by extensive numerical studies.

The CS-PIM is capable of producing more accurate results of temperature gradients as well as thermal stresses with the automated generated and unstructured background cells, which make it a better candidate for solving practical thermoelastic problems.

It is the first time that the novel CS-PIM was further developed for solving thermoelastic problems, which shows its tremendous potential for practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of multidimensional perceived value and perceived pressure on physicians’ continuous intention to use (CIU) online health communities (OHCs) based on perceived value (PV) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory.

This study developed a research model to test the proposed hypotheses, and the proposed model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) for which data were collected from 481 physicians with OHC experience using an online survey.

The empirical results show the following: (1) Physicians’ CIU is influenced by perceived value and perceived pressure, with attitude towards OHCs using (ATU) playing a crucial role in the pathways. (2) Additional value, work pressure, peer pressure and social pressure have a positive impact on CIU, with consultation value, relationship value, work pressure and peer pressure positively influencing CIU through ATU as a mediator. (3) Reputation value has a positive effect on CIU moderated by seniority (online seniority and offline seniority).

This study emphasises the importance of different dimensions of perceived value and perceived pressure in CIU. Meanwhile, we broaden the research scope of PV theory and COR theory and provide inspiration to OHC managers and healthcare institution managers.

Sustainable development is inseparable from rational and responsible use of resources and promotion of green entrepreneurship. The contemporary green development agenda encompasses climate, economic, technical, social, cultural, and political dimensions. International efforts to greening the global development are conducted by the major economies, including China as the world’s largest consumer of energy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. China is aware of its environmental problems, as well as of its part of the overall responsibility for the accomplishment of the sustainable development goals. By means of the decarbonization efforts, the latter are integrated both into the national development agenda (the concept of ecological civilization) and China’s international initiatives (the greening narrative within the Belt and Road Initiative). Over the past decade, China has made a breakthrough on the way to promoting green entrepreneurship and greening of its development (better quality of air and water, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and organic farming). On the other hand, emissions remain high, agricultural land loses productivity, and freshwater resources degrade due to climate change. In conventional industries (oil, coal mining, and electric and thermal energy), decarbonization faces an array of impediments. In this chapter, the authors summarize fundamental provisions of China’s approach to building an ecological civilization and measures to reduce emissions and achieve the carbon neutrality status within the nearest decades. The analysis of obstacles to the decarbonization of the economy and possible prospects for the development of green entrepreneurship summarizes China’s practices for possible use in other countries.

To solve the path planning problem of the intelligent driving vehicular, this paper designs a hybrid path planning algorithm based on optimized reinforcement learning (RL) and improved particle swarm optimization (PSO).

First, the authors optimized the hyper-parameters of RL to make it converge quickly and learn more efficiently. Then the authors designed a pre-set operation for PSO to reduce the calculation of invalid particles. Finally, the authors proposed a correction variable that can be obtained from the cumulative reward of RL; this revises the fitness of the individual optimal particle and global optimal position of PSO to achieve an efficient path planning result. The authors also designed a selection parameter system to help to select the optimal path.

Simulation analysis and experimental test results proved that the proposed algorithm has advantages in terms of practicability and efficiency. This research also foreshadows the research prospects of RL in path planning, which is also the authors’ next research direction.

The authors designed a pre-set operation to reduce the participation of invalid particles in the calculation in PSO. And then, the authors designed a method to optimize hyper-parameters to improve learning efficiency of RL. And then they used RL trained PSO to plan path. The authors also proposed an optimal path evaluation system. This research also foreshadows the research prospects of RL in path planning, which is also the authors’ next research direction.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the advances in grey system theory research and various application achievements in science and engineering. At the same time, it commemorates the 40th anniversary of the birth of grey system theory and the 10th anniversary of Grey Systems–Theory and Application.

Firstly, the innovations of theoretical research in grey system theory were summarized and some of the widely recognized new results are briefly described. By searching and combing the research results of grey system theory in China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) database and Web of Science by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), this paper shows the rapid development trend of grey system theory in the past 40 years, and the successful applications of grey system theory in the fields of social sciences, natural sciences and engineering technologies.

More than 227 thousands literature were found by input 10 phrases such as grey system, grey number and sequence operator etc. in CNKI database. After entering the new century, the number of grey system papers included in CNKI database is increasing rapidly. Since 2008, more than 10 thousands papers have been included per year and more than 15 thousands papers have been included per year since 2014. Grey system method and model are widely used in physics, chemistry, biology and other fields of natural science, as well as transportation, electric power, machinery and other fields of engineering technology, and a large number of valuable results have been achieved.

It can be seen that the grey system theory plays an important role in promoting China’s scientific and technological progress, innovation and development and high-level talent training from tens of thousands of literatures marked with important national science and technology projects and a large number of grey system literatures published by China’s double first-class universities and double first-class discipline construction universities.

Both innovations of theoretical research and practical application play important role in the growth of new theory. The innovations of theoretical research provide methods and tools for practical application, which is conducive to improve application efficiency and broaden application fields. A large number of practical applications needs have become the source of theoretical innovation and the solid background for the birth of theoretical innovation achievements.