Early Industrial Research Articles

Practical Construction and Reflection on the Curriculum Development of Early Childhood Education Programs in Vocational Colleges

As society's demands for the quality of early childhood care services continue to rise, the construction of early childhood education programs in higher vocational colleges has become increasingly crucial. Scientific course design not only affects students' professional skill development but also has a profound impact on the overall advancement of the early childhood care industry. This paper first analyzes the definition and characteristics of early childhood education programs and outlines the theoretical framework for course construction. Next, it provides a detailed discussion of the practical aspects of constructing early childhood education programs in higher vocational colleges, including curriculum design, teaching methods, and evaluation mechanisms, as well as the implementation and management of practical teaching. Finally, based on actual conditions, the paper explores the challenges and issues encountered during the course construction process and proposes suggestions and strategies for improvement.

Reversing fortunes of German regions, 1926–2019: Boon and bane of early industrialization?

Reversing fortunes of German regions, 1926–2019: Boon and bane of early industrialization?

Hemp for health: a historical perspective on the marketing of cannabis-based foods in Sweden

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide the first comprehensive examination of the early cannabis-based food products industry, using Sweden as a case study. Drawing upon historical newspaper articles and advertisements from the Swedish Historical Newspaper Archive, the authors trace the short-lived development of the industry, from the initial exploitation of fears of tuberculosis in the late 19th century, followed by the “boom” in hempseed extract products and the widening of its claimed effects and, finally, increased skepticism and critiques of such products across the popular press in the early 20th century. Design/methodology/approach A rigorous search of the Swedish Historical Newspaper Archive was conducted to gather newspaper articles and advertisements on cannabis-based foods. The collected resources were scrutinized using critical discourse analysis to tease out key discourses at work, particularly around the concepts of health, nutrition and science. Findings The authors find that central to the marketization of cannabis-based foods was the construction of disease based on scientific and medical discourse, fearmongering to create a strong consumer base and individualization to place responsibility on consumers to take action to protect their family’s health. This demonstrates not only the long historical relationship between science and food marketing but also how brands’ health claims could often be fraudulent or overstated. Originality/value It is important to cast a historical lens on the commercialization of cannabis-based food products because demand for similar types of products has rapidly grown over the past decade. Now, just as before, manufacturers tap into consumers’ insecurities about health, and many of the same questions continue to be mooted about products’ safety. Paying greater attention to the broader and problematic history of commercial cannabis can, thus, serve as a reminder for both consumers and policymakers to think twice about whether hemp really is for health and if the claims it espouses are a mirage rather than a miracle.

Redefining Family Relationships: The Impact of Disability on Working-Class Families during the Industrial Revolution in Britain

The Industrial Revolution traditionally has been seen in Disability Studies as marking a decisive shift in the lives of disabled people. It is argued that the rise of mechanisation, time discipline and standardisation made the industrial workplace a hostile environment for people with non-standard bodies. According to this view, increasing demands to work outside the home also meant that families were less capable of caring for older and disabled members, leading to greater institutionalisation. This view of increasing segregation of disabled people from home and work has dominated understanding of disability in the British Industrial Revolution, but it does not reflect the variability of disabled people's experiences at the time. Drawing on official enquiries, fictional literature, journalism and social commentary from the 1830s and 1840s – a time when the impact of industrialisation on the bodies and family relationships of workers became matters of public, political concern – this article shows the continuing importance of family in the lives of disabled people. The legal duty of families to care for sick and disabled relatives was an enduring social principle throughout this period. Interpersonal relations were tested and sometimes re-drawn by disability, forcing a change in traditional familial roles and expectations. For working people and their families, the potentials for poverty resulting from disability could be great. However, disabled people continued to play significant roles in the lives of their families, and where possible continued to contribute to the domestic economy. Taking a disability perspective on the history of the family highlights the interdependence between family members in industrialising Britain.

Chronometric data and stratigraphic evidence support discontinuity between Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in the Italian Peninsula

The process by which Palaeolithic Europe was transformed from a Neanderthal-dominated region to one occupied exclusively by Homo sapiens has proven challenging to diagnose. A blurred chronology has made it difficult to determine when Neanderthals disappeared and whether modern humans overlapped with them. Italy is a crucial region because here we can identify not only Late Mousterian industries, assumed to be associated with Neanderthals, but also early Upper Palaeolithic industries linked with the appearance of early H. sapiens, such as the Uluzzian and the Aurignacian. Here, we present a chronometric dataset of 105 new determinations (74 radiocarbon and 31 luminescence ages) from four key southern Italian sites: Cavallo, Castelcivita, Cala, and Oscurusciuto. We built Bayesian-based chronometric models incorporating these results alongside the relative stratigraphic sequences at each site. The results suggest; 1) that the disappearance of Neanderthals probably pre-dated the appearance of early modern humans in the region and; 2) that there was a partial overlap in the chronology of the Uluzzian and Protoaurignacian, suggesting that these industries may have been produced by different human groups in Europe.

"How handy was early hominin 'know-how'?" An experimental approach exploring efficient early stone tool use.

The appearance of early lithic industries has been associated with the gradual development of unique biomechanical and cognitive abilities in hominins, including human-like precision grasping and basic learning and/or communicating capacities. These include tools used for activities exclusively associated with hominin contexts (cutting flakes) and hammerstones utilized for behaviors shared with non-human primates (e.g., nut-cracking). However, no previous experimental research has focused on comparing the factors affecting efficiency between these two key behavioral patterns and their evolutionary implications. Here, we address this gap with an experimental design involving participants with varying tool-related experience levels (i.e., no experience, theoretical-only experience, and extensive practical knapping expertise) to monitor their success rates, biometrics, and surface electromyography (sEMG) recordings from eight important hand and forearm muscles. Our results showed that practical experience had a substantial impact on flake-cutting efficiency, allowing participants to achieve greater success rates with substantially less muscle effort. This relationship between success rates and muscle effort was not observed for the nut-cracking task. Moreover, even though practical experience did not significantly benefit nut-cracking success, experts exhibited increased rates of self-improvement in that task. Altogether, these experimental findings suggest that the ability to practice and retain tool-using knowledge played a fundamental role in the subsistence strategies and adaptability of early hominins, potentially providing the cognitive basis for conceptualizing the first intentional tool production strategies.

An empirical study on driving blockchain adoption in Maritime freight: an Asian business perspective

PurposeIn the existing era, international trade is boosted by maritime freight movement. The academicians and Government are concerned about environmental contamination caused by maritime goods that transit global growth and development. Digital technologies like blockchain help the maritime freight business to stay competitive in the digital age. This study aims to illuminate blockchain technology (BCT) adoption aspects to alleviate early industry adoption restrictions.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a two-stage approach comprising of structural equation modeling (SEM) with artificial neural networks (ANN) to analyze critical factors influencing the adoption of BCT in the sustainable maritime freight industry.FindingsThe SEM findings from this study illustrate that social, organizational, technological and infrastructual and institutional factors affect BCT execution. Furthermore, the ANN technique uses the SEM data to determine that sustainability enabled digital freight training (S3), initial investment cost (O5) and trust over digital technology (G1) are the most essential blockchain deployment factors.Originality/valueThe hybrid approach aims to help decision-makers and policymakers examine their organizational blockchain adoption goals to construct sustainable, efficient and effective maritime freight transportation.

Multi-perspective evaluation on spent lithium iron phosphate recycling process: For next-generation technology option

The recycling of spent lithium iron phosphate batteries has recently become a focus topic. Consequently, evaluating different spent lithium iron phosphate recycling processes becomes necessary for industrial development. Here, based on multiple perspectives of environment, economy and technology, four typical spent lithium iron phosphate recovery processes (Hydro-A: hydrometallurgical total leaching recovery process; Hydro-B(H2O2/O2): hydrometallurgical selective lithium extraction process; Pyro: Pyrometallurgical recovery process; Direct: Direct regeneration process) were compared comprehensively. The comprehensive evaluation study uses environment, economy and technology as evaluation indicators, and uses the entropy weight method and analytic hierarchy process to couple the comprehensive indicator weights. Results show that the comprehensive evaluation values of Hydro-A, Hydro-B (H2O2), Hydro-B (O2), Pyro and Direct are 0.347, 0.421, 0.442, 0.099 and 0.857, respectively. Therefore, the technological maturity of Direct should be further improved to enable early industrialization. On this basis, this study conducted a quantitative evaluation of the spent lithium iron phosphate recycling process by comprehensively considering environmental, economic and technical factors, providing further guidance for the formulation of recycling processes.

The making of ‘the Hollywood of China’: A preliminary social network analysis of the early Hong Kong film industry (1914–1941)

This study conducts a digital social network analysis (SNA) of the early Hong Kong film industry from 1914 to 1941, focusing on the connections between directors and actors in different periods. Using Gephi and the online ‘Hong Kong Film Search System’ launched by the Hong Kong Film Archive, it attempts to identify, visualize, and analyze the different structural features of the industry, including nodes, connections, and communities. This structural analysis also helps reflect on the existing historical writing about the early Hong Kong film industry, especially the notable discourse on the Shanghai–Hong Kong connection.

The “Makarovo” Component of Sosnovyi Bor, Southern Angara, Revisited

The paper presents the findings of a revision of a flint assemblage subjected to aeolian corrasion from Sosnovyi Bor horizon VI, southern Angara, in the Angara-Belaya geoarchaeological region. Initially, the industry was attributed to the “Makarovo Paleolithic Horizon” and dated to the pre-Karga/pre-Murukta stage in accordance with the idea of extreme deflation periods in Siberia. Our revision has resulted in a more accurate assessment of the assemblage composition, correcting the views of the toolkit, flaking strategies, and aeolian corrasion of lithics. We challenge the earlier idea that narrow-faced cores were made on bifaces. Instead, the findings indicate the use of volumetric prismatic and flat-parallel cores with a maximal reduction of residual forms. Two types of blanks are described: blades and bladelets. Small tools include burins, implements with a fashioned tip (“nose” or “spur”), retouched blades (the retouch sometimes extends to proximal parts). Signs of aeolian corrasion range from weak luster to completely worn-off facets and pitted surfaces. Chronological and cultural proximity of Sosnovyi Bor to Makarovo IV industries is questioned despite similarities in post-deposition conditions and flaking, because the tool kits are markedly different. The closest parallels are found among Early Sartan small-blade industries of Trans-Baikal and Yeniseian Siberia. Abrasion could have occurred during the cold and arid maximum of the last glaciation. We conclude that the industry dates to the middle stage of the Upper Paleolithic.

Assessment of groundwater quality and the effects of chromium residues in the vicinity of shutdown tanneries

Tanneries, among India’s earliest industries, historically used chromium (Cr) in leather and vegetable tanning, leading to unsuitable effluent discharge on land and in nearby water bodies. This research investigates chromium dispersion and accumulation in environmental and biological samples from the vicinity of closed tanneries in the Sembattu region, Tiruchirappalli district, South India. The study reveals chromium in sediment and biological samples but not in water samples. Sediment from S3 showed higher Cr concentration (132.65 ± 7.48 µg/g), with paddy straw 1 (18.72 ± 1.17 µg/g) and neem tree bark 3 (15.03 ± 1.04 µg/g) exhibiting higher plant concentrations. Among animals, cow dung 1 (143.93 ± 1.32 µg/g) and cow dung 5 (37.74 ± 1.28 µg/g) recorded higher concentrations. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) values suggest “Uncontaminated-to-moderately contaminated” levels. The investigation reports permissible chromium concentrations in the Sembattu tannery area, yet groundwater salt levels exceed drinking water standards. The study highlights tanneries’ historical impact, stressing the need for increased awareness, strategic water management, and prudent land use planning. Future priorities include continuous monitoring, targeted remediation, community engagement, innovative research, and robust policy enforcement for sustainable environmental protection and resource management.

Smooth operator: sleuthing Homo oeconomicus on social media platforms through a close reading of design

ABSTRACT This article argues for the excavation of a key design logic around which the user interfaces (UIs) of mainstream social media platforms are built but that has not yet received much critical attention: the Western neoliberal subject as market actor, or homo oeconomicus, ‘economic man.’ This article identifies and connects key features in UI design of social media platforms to histories of European thought that emerge from the colonial and industrial eras around this universal figure of ‘Man.’ It takes initial inspiration from existing research with queer and trans users of the platform Tumblr as a counterexample, or illiberal platform. Borrowing across disciplines, it offers a technique of ‘close reading’ of UI design decisions and outlines a specific rubric for locating the biases of homo oeconomicus baked in to these decisions, which alleviate as much friction as possible in the path from user data to monetization. It closes with attention to other kinds of design logics and platforms that do not take this figure as their building block, such as a digital platform for queer sociality in the Middle East, in which strategic opacity and collective vetting work as communal protectives instead of being designed around individual agency and market logics.

Transfer of ESTs in international law: A climate justice approach

Early industrialization of the developed countries has enabled their leadership in technological innovation, including environmentally sound technologies. ESTs are technologies that help prevent, control, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Endorsed as an integral part of climate action, a binding obligation to ensure access for global south to these technologies remains missing from international environment law and international intellectual property rights law. Transfer of technology also faces certain economic barriers such as lack of infrastructure and human resources that enable adoption and absorption of ESTs. Moreover, there exists ideological differences between developed countries and developing and least developed countries regarding mechanism of technology transfer, creating an impasse in international negotiations to achieve EST transfer. In this paper the author has attempted to reframe the discussion on transfer of ESTs through a climate justice perspective. An incorporation of the practical aspects of the common but differentiated responsibilities of the developed countries into the TRIPS regime, in the form of binding obligations to technology transfer and financial assistance, or relaxations in patent protections, may provide adequate resolution. A balanced and rational approach to EST transfer, beyond the exigencies of global politics, is necessary for the continued prosperity of the Earth.

Atlantic Economy and the British Industrial Revolution : Rethinking the Debate about the Endogenous and Exogenous Factors of Industrial Revolution

Atlantic Economy and the British Industrial Revolution : Rethinking the Debate about the Endogenous and Exogenous Factors of Industrial Revolution

Inequality and the Industrial Revolution

In this paper, we propose a new theory for why income inequality can be conducive to early industrial development. Technological advances in agriculture and population growth increase land rents relative to wages and as the landed elites become richer, demand for manufactured goods increases, which in turn facilitates industrialization. Using data for Britain over the period 1270–1940, we show that increasing inequality was a major contributor to the expansion of the manufacturing sector. Taking into account the more well-known drivers of modern growth, we find that inequality is a major contributor to the British Industrial Revolution, alongside foreign trade, education, technological knowledge and, to some extent, institutions.

Firm survival and the rise of the factory

AbstractThis paper uses longitudinal establishment‐level data to trace the rise of the factory during Sweden's industrialization between 1864 and 1890. We document a sharp shift from the small artisan shop to the mechanized factory, which can largely be ascribed to differences in survival. Whilst non‐mechanized establishments could compete with the factory during early industrialization, a distinct survival advantage of the factory appeared at later stages of industrialization. The evolving advantage of the factory can mainly be attributed to its larger scale, labour productivity, and technology use. By the end of the nineteenth century, these factors became increasingly important determinants of firm survival.

Seeking employment during Japan's early industrialisation: new engineering graduates and their struggles before 1900

Abstract This article examines the social background of engineers in Meiji Japan by analysing their employment-seeking activities and their role in fostering industrial development. In particular, it focuses on the graduates from the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in Tokyo. One of the most prestigious schools for technical education, the ICE was established by the Meiji government in 1871 and opened in 1873. In traditional Japanese society, the handicraft manufacturing sector was held in low regard. The difficulties that graduates faced while the industry was still developing serve as a stark reminder of the widespread contempt and disdain for manufacturing that existed in Japan before the new profession of engineer gained traction. By scrutinising the memoirs of these engineers, this study shows that new engineering graduates faced barriers to employment in industry due to the low social prestige of those working in manufacturing in the private sector and the conflict with traditional workers, as well as the fact that private companies could not afford to employ engineers in the early years of industrialisation.

The impact of low‐skilled migrants on firm productivity: Evidence from hukou reform in China

AbstractIn the past, China divided its citizens into “agricultural hukou” and “non‐agricultural hukou” to limit rural–urban migration, which contributed to China's early industrialization. However, the binary household registration system no longer suits China's development, and cities in China have successively carried out hukou reforms. Based on the reforms that trigger rural–urban migration, we investigate the impact of low‐cost and low‐skilled migrant workers on firm‐level total factor productivity (TFP). We employ a staggered difference‐in‐differences (DID) strategy to show the following results: (1) The hukou reform substantially reduces the listed firms' TFP by 6.9%. (2) The hukou reform has increased the number of employees and the labor intensity, as well as reduced average employee salaries, employee responsibility, and R&D in enterprises, revealing the mechanism by which hukou reform affects firm productivity. (3) Our findings are particularly pronounced in non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs), enterprises with more stringent financing constraints, and cities with wider rural–urban income gaps.

Development strategy of early childhood music education industry: An IFS-AHP-SWOT analysis based on dynamic social network.

Early childhood music education has garnered recognition for its unique contribution to cognitive, emotional, and social development in children. Nevertheless, the industry grapples with numerous challenges, including a struggle to adapt traditional educational paradigms to new curriculum reforms, and an excessive emphasis on skill training at the expense of nurturing a love for music and aesthetics in children. To navigate these challenges and explore growth strategies for the early childhood music education industry, we initiated a comprehensive approach that involved distributing surveys to practitioners and parents and engaging experts for insightful discussions. Consequently, we proposed an analytical method based on dynamic social networks in conjunction with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, collectively referred to as IFS-AHP-SWOT. This integrated methodology synergizes the capabilities of dynamic social networks, IFS, AHP, and SWOT analysis to offer a nuanced perspective on industry development strategies. The findings underscore that institutions within the early childhood music education industry need to adopt a development strategy that leverages their strengths and opportunities to foster sustainable growth. Ultimately, this research aims to provide critical decision-making support for industry practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, contributing significantly to the ongoing discourse on strategic development in the early childhood music education industry.

Spatial and temporal variations in the pollution status and sources of mercury in the Jiaozhou bay

In the past few decades, mercury (Hg) discharged into the coastal bays of China has significantly increased; however, long-term trends regarding the pollution status and sources of Hg in these bays have yet to be clear. Focusing on this issue, surface sediments and core sediments were collected in the Jiaozhou Bay (JZB), a typical bay highly affected by human activities in China, to analyze the concentrations and stable isotopic composition of Hg. Total mercury (THg) concentrations in surface sediment varied from 7 to 163 ng/g, with higher levels located in the eastern JZB, possibly attributed to intensive industrial and population density. THg in sediment cores 14 and 20 displayed fluctuating increasing trends from 1936 to 2019, reflecting the deterioration of Hg pollution. In contrast, THg in sediment core 28 near the river mouth exhibited a declining trend, possibly due to the river dam construction. Using a stable isotope mixing model, contributions of various sources (atmospheric, riverine, and industrial emissions) to Hg in the JZB were estimated. The results showed that industrial emissions were the main source (over 50%) of mercury in the JZB in 2019. Sediment cores recorded an increase in industrial Hg due to early industrialization and Reform and Opening-up before 2000. In addition, sediment core 20 demonstrated a rise in the percentage of riverine Hg due to land reclamation at the bay's mouth during 2000–2007.