Zhifeng Huang, Xiaoyang Ma, Zemin Qiao, Shujuan Wang and Xinli Jing
This paper aims to disclose the evolution of pendulum hardness of two-component acrylic polyurethane coatings during the cure process and attempts to describe the quantitative…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to disclose the evolution of pendulum hardness of two-component acrylic polyurethane coatings during the cure process and attempts to describe the quantitative relationship between pendulum hardness and curing time. These findings are helpful for the study of fast curing acrylic polyurethane coatings.
Design/methodology/approach
The pendulum hardness method was used to monitor the hardness of two-component acrylic polyurethane coatings during curing. The quantitative relationship between pendulum hardness and curing time can be obtained with Avrami equation.
Findings
The evolution of coating pendulum hardness can be divided into three stages. By using the Avrami equation that explained the influence of both the acid value and the curing temperature on the drying speed of hydroxyl acrylic resin, the evolution of coating pendulum hardness during curing can also be accurately described.
Research limitations/implications
It should be noted that the physical meaning of the Avrami exponent, n, is not yet clear.
Practical implications
The results are of great significance for the development of fast-curing hydroxyl-functional acrylic resins, with the potential to improve the drying speed of the coatings used in automotive refinish.
Originality/value
It is novel to divide the pendulum hardness into three stages, and, for the first time, the Avrami equation is utilized to describe the evolution of coating pendulum hardness during curing.
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Taiki Ogata, Ayanori Nagata, Zhifeng Huang, Takahiro Katayama, Masako Kanai-Pak, Jukai Maeda, Yasuko Kitajima, Mitsuhiro Nakamura, Kyoko Aida, Noriaki Kuwahara and Jun Ota
For self-training of nursing students, this paper developed a mannequin to simulate and measure the movement of a patient’s arms while nurses changed the patient’s clothes on a…
Abstract
Purpose
For self-training of nursing students, this paper developed a mannequin to simulate and measure the movement of a patient’s arms while nurses changed the patient’s clothes on a bed. In addition, using the mannequin the purpose of this paper is to determine the difference in the handling of a patient’s arms between nursing teachers and students.
Design/methodology/approach
The target patient was an old man with complete paralysis. Three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) shoulder joints and one-DOF elbow joints were applied to the mannequin. The angles of all joints were measured using a potentiometer, and those angles were transmitted to a computer via Bluetooth.
Findings
In a preliminary experiment, the two nursing teachers confirmed that the mannequin arms simulated the motion of the arms of a paralyzed patient. In the experiment, two teachers and six students changed the clothes of the mannequin. The average joint angle of the left elbow and the moving frequency of the left elbow, right shoulder adduction/abduction and right shoulder internal/external rotation were lower in the case of teachers dressing the mannequin than when students were dressing it.
Originality/value
The proposed system can simulate a completely paralyzed patient that nursing students would normally be almost unable to train with. Additionally, the proposed approach can reveal differences between skilled and non-skilled people in the treatment of a patient’s body.
Nimesh Salike, Yanghua Huang, Zhifeng Yin and Douglas Zhihua Zeng
This research examines the effects of firm ownership and size on innovation capability using data from the World Bank China Enterprise Survey (WBCES), which provides directly…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines the effects of firm ownership and size on innovation capability using data from the World Bank China Enterprise Survey (WBCES), which provides directly measurable innovation-related variables. Key consideration is given to the role and innovation capability of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) compared with domestic and foreign private enterprises in the Chinese economy.
Design/methodology/approach
In its quest for technological self-reliance and a new developmental path, China is focusing on its enterprise innovation capability.
Findings
The findings suggest that SOEs and domestic private enterprises are similar in terms of innovation participation but differ in terms of innovation diversification, which implies ownership-specific innovative advantages. In general, the authors find that SOEs are more innovative with respect to processes innovation but less so with respect to product, management and promotion innovations. Foreign-owned enterprises are superior in all types of innovation except product innovation.
Research limitations/implications
The authors also find that size is an important determinant of innovation capability, with the effect varying depending on location and industry. Moreover, the joint effect of firm ownership and size on innovation declines with increasing size. These findings provide new insights into the evaluation of China's major policies.
Originality/value
This research examines the effects of ownership and size on enterprise innovation capability, using the WBCES (2013) data, which include direct measurable innovation related variables.
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Zhifeng Wang, Chi Zuo and Chunyan Zeng
Recently, the double joint photographic experts group (JPEG) compression detection tasks have been paid much more attention in the field of Web image forensics. Although there are…
Abstract
Purpose
Recently, the double joint photographic experts group (JPEG) compression detection tasks have been paid much more attention in the field of Web image forensics. Although there are several useful methods proposed for double JPEG compression detection when the quantization matrices are different in the primary and secondary compression processes, it is still a difficult problem when the quantization matrices are the same. Moreover, those methods for the different or the same quantization matrices are implemented in independent ways. The paper aims to build a new unified framework for detecting the doubly JPEG compression.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the Y channel of JPEG images is cut into 8 × 8 nonoverlapping blocks, and two groups of features that characterize the artifacts caused by doubly JPEG compression with the same and the different quantization matrices are extracted on those blocks. Then, the Riemannian manifold learning is applied for dimensionality reduction while preserving the local intrinsic structure of the features. Finally, a deep stack autoencoder network with seven layers is designed to detect the doubly JPEG compression.
Findings
Experimental results with different quality factors have shown that the proposed approach performs much better than the state-of-the-art approaches.
Practical implications
To verify the integrity and authenticity of Web images, the research of double JPEG compression detection is increasingly paid more attentions.
Originality/value
This paper aims to propose a unified framework to detect the double JPEG compression in the scenario whether the quantization matrix is different or not, which means this approach can be applied in more practical Web forensics tasks.
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This study aims to investigate the relationship between climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. We attempt to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. We attempt to uncover the underlying rationale of how CPU influences corporate ESG performance and provides empirical evidence for companies’ strategic enhancement of ESG performance with risk reduction objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
We conduct a regression analysis using panel data from 4,490 Chinese listed companies spanning the period from 2011 to 2022. In addition, we use propensity score matching analysis (PSM), two-stage least squares (2SLS), system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) and difference-in-differences (DID) methods to analyze the enterprise systematic risk.
Findings
The empirical findings reveal a positive correlation between CPU and corporate ESG performance, with a stronger effect observed in non-state-owned enterprises, heavy-polluting industries and those facing fierce market competition and strict environmental regulation. Mechanism analysis suggests that as CPU increases, companies with higher systemic risk tend to improve ESG performance more significantly, highlighting risk mitigation as a primary motive. Robustness tests further validate the consistency of our conclusions. Additionally, we find that enhancing ESG performance helps mitigate the risks and improve total factor productivity arising from the increased CPU.
Originality/value
This study examines the impact of CPU on the ESG performance of Chinese listed companies and its underlying logic. The conclusions of this paper provide important policy references for coordinated development and security, as well as for effectively mitigating the adverse impact of CPU. We hope to offer insights for companies to identify potential risk factors, thereby enhancing their level of sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.
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We investigate the interconnectedness between the financial sectors and new energy companies in China from the perspective of the multilayer network, and analyze the static and…
Abstract
Purpose
We investigate the interconnectedness between the financial sectors and new energy companies in China from the perspective of the multilayer network, and analyze the static and time-varying characteristics of the multilayer network at system and company levels, respectively.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ the multilayer network containing the realized volatility (RV here after) layer, the realized skewness (RS here after) layer and the realized kurtosis (RK here after) layer. The three realized indicators adopted to construct the multilayer network are generated by the intraday trading data from 2012 to 2022.
Findings
(1) Different layers have different characteristics, and can provide supplementary information. (2) Banks tend to play the role of risk transmitters on the whole, while the insurances and new energy companies tend to play the role of risk receivers on average. (3) The connectedness strength of financial sectors and new energy companies varies over time, and climbs sharply during the major crisis events. The roles of financial sectors and new energy companies may change from risk transmitters to risk receivers, and vice versa.
Originality/value
We adopt three realized indicators to construct the three-layer network, which provides a more comprehensive perspective for understanding the connectedness between the financial sectors and new energy companies in China.
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Juan Antonio Fernandez, Emily M. David and Shaohui (Sophie) Chen
Tingting Zhang, Desheng Wei, Zhifeng Liu and Xihao Wu
This paper studies the effects of lottery preference on stock market participation at the macro level.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studies the effects of lottery preference on stock market participation at the macro level.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the abnormal search volume intensity for lottery-related keywords from the Baidu search engine to capture retail investors' lottery preference. To measure stock market participation, they use five different macro-level measures from various angles. They perform the time series regression analysis in their empirical study.
Findings
First, the validation tests show that the lottery preference index in this study is reasonable. Further, the authors find that lottery preference increases people's propensity to enter and trade in the stock market. Besides, they find that the effect on trading behavior is asymmetric, that is, high lottery preference has a more significant impact on trading behavior than low lottery preference. However, lottery preference has no significant effect on the stockholding.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the growing literature that examines the determinants of stock market participation and the role of lottery/gambling preference in the financial market. It also provides direct and novel evidence for Statman's (2002) conclusions about the similarity of lottery players and stock traders.
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Wei Liu, Xiyan Han, Xiuwei Cao and Zhifeng Gao
Due to ginger holds a special and indispensable place in Chinese cuisine, understanding consumers’ preferences for organic ginger is of significance, especially given the growing…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to ginger holds a special and indispensable place in Chinese cuisine, understanding consumers’ preferences for organic ginger is of significance, especially given the growing interest in organic food products and sustainable agriculture. This study thus examines Chinese consumers’ preference for fresh ginger and the sources of their preferences heterogeneity for organic ginger consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is using choice experiment (CE) method and mixed logit (MXL) modeling with 1,312 valid samples. The participants are regular consumers who are 18 years old or above and had bought fresh ginger within the past 12 months.
Findings
The results show that consumers prefer organic product certification labeling ginger to conventional ginger, preferred to purchase ginger at wet markets to at supermarkets or online, and preferred either ginger with regional public brand or private brand to unbranded ginger. Results also indicate that age, education level, income, purchasing experience of organic and branded ginger, and cognition of ginger health benefits are the sources of heterogeneity in consumer preferences for organic ginger.
Originality/value
This study contributes to ginger growers, marketers and policy makers. This study tracks how consumers' preferences change under different attribute combinations, capture the complex preference structure of consumers, and help reveal the motivations behind consumers' preferences for organic ginger. These findings will be crucial for developing marketing strategies, promoting organic products, and meeting consumer needs.
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Xiaoxian Yang, Zhifeng Wang, Qi Wang, Ke Wei, Kaiqi Zhang and Jiangang Shi
This study aims to adopt a systematic review approach to examine the existing literature on law and LLMs.It involves analyzing and synthesizing relevant research papers, reports…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to adopt a systematic review approach to examine the existing literature on law and LLMs.It involves analyzing and synthesizing relevant research papers, reports and scholarly articles that discuss the use of LLMs in the legal domain. The review encompasses various aspects, including an analysis of LLMs, legal natural language processing (NLP), model tuning techniques, data processing strategies and frameworks for addressing the challenges associated with legal question-and-answer (Q&A) systems. Additionally, the study explores potential applications and services that can benefit from the integration of LLMs in the field of intelligent justice.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper surveys the state-of-the-art research on law LLMs and their application in the field of intelligent justice. The study aims to identify the challenges associated with developing Q&A systems based on LLMs and explores potential directions for future research and development. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the advancement of intelligent justice by effectively leveraging LLMs.
Findings
To effectively apply a law LLM, systematic research on LLM, legal NLP and model adjustment technology is required.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the field of intelligent justice by providing a comprehensive review of the current state of research on law LLMs.