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Article
Publication date: 6 May 2021

Ping Gui, Xiaotong Ji, Yanlan Mei and Zhicheng Quan

Community governance plays an important role in the prevention and control of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in China. Community workers, the main executors in…

305

Abstract

Purpose

Community governance plays an important role in the prevention and control of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in China. Community workers, the main executors in community governance, experience a huge amount of stress, which affects their physical and mental health. Thus, it is crucial to pay more attention to the stressors and stress responses of community workers and propose strategies to alleviate such responses. This paper aims to analyze the work stress of community workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a questionnaire survey of 602 community workers during COVID-19 in China, the four main stressors and 14 stress factors of community workers were identified and six factors at three levels of stress responses were defined. A stress analysis model is proposed that tests the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of organizational climate.

Findings

The results show that stressors influence stress responses through the moderating role of psychological capital, organizational climate plays a negative mediator role between stressors and psychological capital and the main stressors for community workers are work, safety and performance stress.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to existing research because it offers suggestions for reducing the impact of stress on the community workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, it can promote the control and prevention of the COVID-19.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 51 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 October 2024

Yang Li, Zhicheng Zheng, Yaochen Qin, Haifeng Tian, Zhixiang Xie and Peijun Rong

Drought is the primary disaster that negatively impacts agricultural and animal husbandry production. It can lead to crop reduction and even pose a threat to human survival in…

123

Abstract

Purpose

Drought is the primary disaster that negatively impacts agricultural and animal husbandry production. It can lead to crop reduction and even pose a threat to human survival in environmentally sensitive areas of China (ESAC). However, the phases and periodicity of drought changes in the ESAC remain largely unknown. Thus, this paper aims to identify the periodic characteristics of meteorological drought changes.

Design/methodology/approach

The potential evapotranspiration was calculated using the Penman–Monteith formula recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, whereas the standardized precipitation evaporation index (SPEI) of drought was simulated by coupling precipitation data. Subsequently, the Bernaola-Galvan segmentation algorithm was proposed to divide the periods of drought change and the newly developed extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition to analyze the periodic drought patterns.

Findings

The findings reveal a significant increase in SPEI in the ESAC, with the rate of decline in drought events higher in the ESAC than in China, indicating a more pronounced wetting trend in the study area. Spatially, the northeast region showed an evident drying trend, whereas the southwest region showed a wetting trend. Two abrupt changes in the drought pattern were observed during the study period, namely, in 1965 and 1983. The spatial instability of moderate or severe drought frequency and intensity on a seasonal scale was more consistent during 1966–1983 and 1984–2018, compared to 1961–1965. Drought variation was predominantly influenced by interannual oscillations, with the periods of the components of intrinsic mode functions 1 (IMF1) and 2 (IMF2) being 3.1 and 7.3 years, respectively. Their cumulative variance contribution rate reached 70.22%.

Research limitations/implications

The trend decomposition and periods of droughts in the study area were analyzed, which may provide an important scientific reference for water resource management and agricultural production activities in the ESAC. However, several problems remain unaddressed. First, the SPEI considers only precipitation and evapotranspiration, making it extremely sensitive to temperature increases. It also ignores the nonstationary nature of the hydrometeorological water process; therefore, it is prone to bias in drought detection and may overestimate the intensity and duration of droughts. Therefore, further studies on the application and comparison of various drought indices should be conducted to develop a more effective meteorological drought index. Second, the local water budget is mainly affected by surface evapotranspiration and precipitation. Evapotranspiration is calculated by various methods that provide different results. Therefore, future studies need to explore both the advantages and disadvantages of various evapotranspiration calculation methods (e.g. Hargreaves, Thornthwaite and Penman–Monteith) and their application scenarios. Third, this study focused on the temporal and spatial evolution and periodic characteristics of droughts, without considering the driving mechanisms behind them and their impact on the ecosystem. In future, it will be necessary to focus on a sensitivity analysis of drought indices with regard to climate change. Finally, although this study calculated the SPEI using meteorological data provided by China’s high-density observatory network, deviations and uncertainties were inevitable in the point-to-grid spatialization process. This shortcoming may be avoided by using satellite remote sensing data with high spatiotemporal resolution in the future, which can allow pixel-scale monitoring and simulation of meteorological drought evolution.

Practical implications

Under the background of continuous global warming, the climate in arid and semiarid areas of China has shown a trend of warming and wetting. It means that the plant environment in this region is getting better. In the future, the project of afforestation and returning farmland to forest and grassland in this region can increase the planting proportion of water-loving tree species to obtain better ecological benefits. Meanwhile, this study found that in the relatively water-scarce regions of China, drought duration was dominated by interannual oscillations (3.1a and 7.3a). This suggests that governments and nongovernmental organizations in the region should pay attention to the short drought period in the ESAC when they carry out ecological restoration and protection projects such as the construction of forest reserves and high-quality farmland.

Originality/value

The findings enhance the understanding of the phasic and periodic characteristics of drought changes in the ESAC. Future studies on the stress effects of drought on crop yield may consider these effects to better reflect the agricultural response to meteorological drought and thus effectively improve the tolerance of agricultural activities to drought events.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 November 2023

Fang Wang and Zhicheng Wang

The present study aimed to examining the association between work–family conflict and turnover intention by exploring the mediating effect of job satisfaction and the moderating…

620

Abstract

Purpose

The present study aimed to examining the association between work–family conflict and turnover intention by exploring the mediating effect of job satisfaction and the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on preschool teachers in China.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of 827 preschool teachers was conducted, and the data were analyzed using correlation analysis, hierarchical linear regression and path analysis with a structural equation model.

Findings

The results revealed that work–family conflict was significantly and positively associated with preschool teachers' turnover intention. Job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intention, while perceived organizational support moderated the association between work–family conflict and job satisfaction, thus mitigating the negative impact of work–family conflict on job satisfaction.

Originality/value

These findings contribute to the understanding of turnover among preschool teachers and suggest the need to enhance perceived organizational support to promote job satisfaction and reduce turnover in this profession.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 23 November 2012

Xun Gong, Yue Bai, Zhicheng Hou, Changjun Zhao, Yantao Tian and Qiang Sun

The quad‐rotor is an under‐actuation, strong coupled nonlinear system with parameters uncertainty, unmodeled disturbance and drive capability boundedness. The purpose of the paper…

504

Abstract

Purpose

The quad‐rotor is an under‐actuation, strong coupled nonlinear system with parameters uncertainty, unmodeled disturbance and drive capability boundedness. The purpose of the paper is to design a flight control system to regulate the aircraft track the desired trajectory and keep the attitude angles stable on account of these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering the dynamics of a quad‐rotor, the closed‐loop flight control system is divided into two nested loops: the translational outer‐loop and the attitude inner‐loop. In the outer‐loop, the translational controller, which exports the desired attitude angles to the inner‐loop, is designed based on bounded control technique. In consideration of the influence of uncertain rotational inertia and external disturbance, the backstepping sliding mode approach with adaptive gains is used in the inner‐loop. The switching control strategy based on the sign functions of sliding surface is introduced into the design procedure with respect to the input saturation.

Findings

The validity of the proposed flight control system was verified through numerical simulation and prototype flight experiment in this paper. Furthermore, with relation to the flying, the motor speed is kept in the predetermined scope.

Originality/value

This article introduces a new flight control system designed for a quad‐rotor.

Details

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, vol. 5 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-378X

Keywords

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