Focus Of Academic Research Research Articles

Sharing economy business models for sustainability

BackgroundThe predominant focus of academic research on the sharing economy has been on Airbnb and Uber; to this extent, the diversity of business models ascribed to the sharing economy has not yet been sufficiently explored. Greater conceptual and empirical research is needed to increase understanding of business models in the sharing economy, particularly attributes that deliver on its purported sustainability potential. ObjectiveWe aimed to elaborate an improved sharing economy business modelling tool intended to support the design and implementation of sharing economy business models (SEBMs) with improved sustainability performance. MethodsWe used a structured approach to business modelling, morphological analysis, to articulate relevant business model attributes. Our analysis was informed by a narrative literature review of business and platform models in the sharing economy. We also iteratively tested, refined, and evaluated our analysis through three structured opportunities for feedback. ResultsThe output of the morphological analysis was a sharing economy business modelling tool for sustainability, with stipulated preconditions and descriptions of all business model attributes. ConclusionThe sharing economy is not sustainable by default, so we must be strategic and deliberate in how we design and implement SEBMs. The sharing economy business modelling tool should be of interest not only to researchers and practitioners, but also to advocacy organisations and policymakers who are concerned about the sustainability performance of sharing platforms.

Slot milling of titanium alloy with hexagonal boron nitride and minimum quantity lubrication and multi-objective process optimization for energy efficiency

The implementation of sustainable manufacturing techniques to make machining processes more eco-friendly is a challenging topic that has attracted significant attention from the industrial sector for many years. As one of the dominant manufacturing processes, machining can have a considerable impact in terms of ecology, society, and economics. In certain areas, this impact is a result of using certain cutting fluids, especially during the machining of difficult-to-cut alloys such as titanium, where a large amount of cutting fluid is wasted to ease the cutting process. In such scenarios, identifying suitable machining conditions to supply cutting fluids using eco-friendly techniques is currently a major focus of academic and industrial sector research. In this study, effects of minimum quantity lubrication with different concentrations of hexagonal boron nitride nanoparticles on the surface roughness and cutting force of slot-milled titanium alloy is investigated using analysis of variance and response surface methodology. The results reveal that all responses are sensitive to changes in the feed per tooth, cutting depth, and cutting fluid flow rate. The regression functions generated were combined with particle swarm optimization in order to improve energy-efficiency, as well. Possible sectorial scenarios were generated for wider industrial adoption. With this study, it was proven that utilizing minimum quantity lubrication with hexagonal boron nitride nanoparticles can reduce both cutting force and surface roughness, which makes it to be a promising alternative as a nanoparticle augmented minimum quantity lubrication method for machining titanium alloys.

Pacific Studies in China: Policies, Structure and Research

ABSTRACTThe expansion of Chinese influence in the Pacific has aroused growing attention from academics and policymakers. Although China has established six main Pacific research centres, there has been little investigation into what motivates this increasing interest. Building on the author's recent interviews with 39 Chinese mainstream scholars on the subject of Pacific Studies, this paper aims to fill this gap by providing an in-depth analysis of Pacific Studies in China, especially how centres are structured and what motivated their establishment. It is argued that the initiation, structure and scholarly focus of academic research on the Pacific in China has been largely driven by government policies, but also that government interest has fluctuated under President Xi Jinping. Government policy dependence is a double-edged sword that both promotes and hinders Pacific scholarship.

A Research Review and Taxonomy Development for Decision Support and Business Analytics Using Semantic Text Mining

By 2018, business analytics (BA), believed by global CIOs to be of strategic importance, had for years been their top priority. It is also a focus of academic research, as shown by a large number of papers, books, and research reports. On the other hand, the BA domain suffers from several incorrect, imprecise, and incomplete notions. New areas and concepts emerge quickly; making it difficult to ascertain their structure. BA-related taxonomies play a crucial role in analyzing, classifying, and understanding related objects. However, according to the literature on taxonomy development in information systems (IS), in most cases the process is ad hoc. BA taxonomies and frameworks are available in the literature; however, some are excessively general frameworks with a high-level conceptual focus, while others are application or domain-specific. Our paper aims to present a novel semi-automatic method for taxonomy development and maintenance in the field of BA using content analysis and text mining. The contribution of our research is threefold: (1) the taxonomy development method, (2) the draft taxonomy for BA, and (3) identifying the latest research areas and trends in BA.

Rethinking Industry 4.0: is there life beyond manufacturing

Industry 4.0 is a concept born within the business and institutional domain. As a result of its popularity, it has been a focus of academic research since 2012. Industry 4.0 is the result of the convergence of different digital technologies in industrial productive systems. It refers to a digitised model of manufacturing, but there is no consensus on what exactly Industry 4.0 is, where its borders are, what organisational domains it comprises, or what technologies support this model. In practical terms, any company operating under an Industry 4.0 framework is subjected to intense technological change. Therefore, Industry 4.0 must be understood as a dynamic and evolving concept. From the academic perspective, it is necessary to clarify the term, understand the underlying factors and connect Industry 4.0 with other management research streams, such as digital transformation, open innovation or corporate venturing. At the crossroads between Industry 4.0 and these fields, new research opportunities appear.

STUDENTS’ MUTUAL DIAGNOSIS AS EFFECTIVE PRACTICE OF ACTIVE APPROACH IN PROCESS OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT UNIVERSITY

In the last decade, the problems of pedagogic diagnostics, monitoring, self-monitoring and self-diagnosis have become the focus of academic research. Diagnostic competence is considered to be an important component of the modern professional standard for a pedagogue. The article is devoted to the currently central problem of modern pedagogy and methodology, i.e. the development of students’ diagnostic thinking. The article presents the analysis of the views of Russian and foreign researchers on the importance of pedagogic diagnostics in the educational process. It is underlined that the organisation of the cognitive activity by a pedagogue involves the transformation of the function of training and education into the function of educational assistance. The authors of the article expand on the concept of mutual diagnosis of students, characterizing its components and listing the skills formed during the educational process. The article summarizes the authors’ practical experience, proposes an algorithm for working with diagnostic maps in foreign language classes and analyses a set of measures to test the skills of oral and written foreign language speech. According to the researchers’ point of view, when forming diagnostic competence, a number of framework conditions must be observed and certain algorithms, followed. The authors of the article emphasise the special educational value of mutual diagnosis, which implies not only evaluating progress in performance, but also predicting cognitive problems. This technique can be applied to other disciplines of the educational programme.

Metadata

Meta­data in various forms pervades our institutions, technologies, and daily lives. Meta­data is a distinct focus of academic research and professional practice for many people within the library and information sciences (LIS). This article is an exploration of the concept of “meta­data.” It presents a high-level introduction to the topic with analysis of key research problems and practical challenges. The paper discusses varying understandings of what “meta­data” means, the origin and evolution of meta­data as an important topic within information and data fields, and the central characteristics of that which gets called “meta­data.” Meta­data can be understood as both process and product and can result from both human effort and computational techniques. Given the central role meta­data have in the establishment of know­ledge, evidence, and truth, it is necessary for researchers and professionals within LIS to think critically about our meta­data practices and systems.

Mixed Methods Development of a Leadership Framework for Generation Y Bedside Nurses

This study addresses the global leadership crisis in healthcare, which leaves an unprepared nursing workforce who are unable to achieve acceptable patient outcomes. Generation Y nurses will soon form the majority cohort of nurses; they therefore represent the future of the nursing profession worldwide. Their leadership ability will no doubt impact on healthcare globally. There has been a lack of academic research focusing on the leadership needs of Generation Y nurses, specifically bedside nurses who are closest to the point of care. There is also a lack of mixed methods research in this field. This research answers the question: How can the nursing profession prepare Generation Y nurses to become effective leaders? A multistage mixed methods advanced framework design was used, with data integration occurring at multiple levels. Data was collected on Generation Y nurses working at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, through the Values in action (VIA)-24 strengths survey, the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) leadership survey on ‘The leader within’, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Data analysis included statistical measures and thematic analysis using Tesch’s coding. The aim of the study was to develop a sustainable leadership framework for generation Y bedside nurses, through data collected from them and for them. This study shows that Generation Y nurses have a clear leadership vision, and strongly desire leadership education that is creative, innovative, technology-driven and fun. It is vital that bedside nurses are given the opportunity to meet their full leadership potential, which will contribute towards the much needed transformation of healthcare globally.

Where Do We Draw the Line? Interlopers, (Ant)agonists, and an Unbounded Journalistic Field

Journalism’s once-neglected periphery has been a focus of academic research in recent years and the urge to make sense of interlopers from the periphery has brought about many approaches to understanding these changes. In this essay I reflect on an ongoing research agenda examining one particular category of interlopers: provocative media actors who have openly challenged the boundaries of the journalistic field. These actors raise questions as to how to account for interlopers at the edges of the journalistic field, including whether we should extend the field to include them. In this essay I argue we should continue to see the field as complex, and maybe now a bit more so. Reflecting on field and practice theories and understandings of boundaries, I reengage the complexity that is a core demand of conceptualizing the journalistic field, while offering ways to consider interlopers’ journalistic identities within its boundaries. Emphasizing similarities over differences, I argue we can move beyond binary distinctions between a field’s core members and interlopers on the periphery by focusing on the nature of interloper work.

The implications of “miniaturism” for urban tourism destination futures – from micropubs to microbars

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the continued interest in the concept of “miniaturism” has seen the micropub develop into the new format of the microbar and examines the drivers of this trend. It then reflects on the possible implications of the rise of the microbar concept on the future of the urban tourism destination landscape. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that is built on the natural curiosity of future studies to use an understanding of the present to predict what will happen next and what the implications of those developments will be. Findings The paper provides a clear definition of the microbar and identifies four distinctive drivers behind its conception, linked to changes in consumer behaviour. These cover the rise of the micro-break, the need for responsible urban regeneration, consumers desire for immediate and unique experiences and increasingly diverse populations. The paper predicts that these trends will drive an increase in microbars leading to greater tourist mobility in the urban tourism destination, more fragmentation and heterogeneity of products and services as well as an intensification in the need for authentic experiences and opportunity driven development giving rise to a hybrid form of guerrilla hospitality. Ultimately the authors predict that the venue will become more important than the specific location when consumers view the landscape of the urban tourism destination. Originality/value The focus of previous academic research has been on the historic development of the micropub and its impact on regeneration and communities, but very little literature has examined the rise of the microbar and the potential implications for the urban tourism destination.

Policy-Based Security Management System for 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Advances in mobile phone technology and the growth of associated networks have been phenomenal over the last decade. Therefore, they have been the focus of much academic research, driven by commercial and end-user demands for increasingly faster technology. The most recent generation of mobile network technology is the fifth generation (5G). 5G networks are expected to launch across the world by 2020 and to work with existing 3G and 4G technologies to provide extreme speed despite being limited to wireless technologies. An alternative network, Y-Communication (Y-Comm), proposes to integrate the current wired and wireless networks, attempting to achieve the main service requirements of 5G by converging the existing networks and providing an improved service anywhere at any time. Quality of service (QoS), vertical handover, and security are some of the technical concerns resulting from this heterogeneity. In addition, it is believed that the Y-Comm convergence will have a greater influence on security than was the case with the previous long-term evolution (LTE) 4G networks and with future 5G networks. The purpose of this research is to satisfy the security recommendations for 5G mobile networks. This research provides a policy-based security management system, ensuring that end-user devices cannot be used as weapons or tools of attack, for example, IP spoofing and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. The results are promising, with a low disconnection rate of less than 4% and 7%. This shows the system to be robust and reliable.

Coworking space as a third-fourth place: changing models of a hybrid space in corporate real estate

Purpose This paper aims to review the concept and characteristics of coworking space, especially physical and operational characteristics and its objectives. The authors propose three models of coworking spaces, such as revenue, synergistic and customer contact, which organizations can use as a part of their corporate real estate strategies to build workplace flexibility and resiliency. This paper also addresses research gaps and a research agenda for future research. Methodology This paper is a literature review of academic research focusing on coworking spaces. Because of the relatively limited existing academic literature on the topic, industry sources and white papers are also reviewed. Findings The authors categorized common threads of the existing literature on coworking spaces to emergence and growth trends, the types of users, the type of work to be completed in these spaces, characteristics of coworking spaces and the desired outcomes of coworking space models. Coworking spaces are expected to grow worldwide because of the increase in knowledge-based economy, the “digital nomad” lifestyle and mobile technologies, however, there is limited research on the relationship between spatial and operational characteristics of coworking spaces and users’ collaboration, social well-being and creativity. No research identified fully articulated the nuanced differences between the types of coworking spaces now found in the real estate ecosystem. Research limitations There is limited academic, empirical research focusing on coworking spaces. Thus, the search for literature itself is limited to a small number of papers. Although the authors extended the search to non-academic sources, the conclusion of this study is tentative because of the prematurity of the topic. Originality/value This paper urges the identification of research questions, considering the fast growth of coworking spaces and suggests future research directions based on newly proposed models. Industry practitioners, including building owners, managers, coworking space providers and corporate real estate practitioners, can consider using variations of coworking space concepts and characteristics, as they understand the importance of social needs and connectivity among users. By addressing the history of the coworking space as a concept and business model, and updating the types of models to include new coworking spaces, the authors provide further options to industry practitioners as to how to integrate coworking into their real estate.

Modified Driving Safety Field Based on Trajectory Prediction Model for Pedestrian–Vehicle Collision

Pedestrian–vehicle collision is an important component of traffic accidents. Over the past decades, it has become the focus of academic and industrial research and presents an important challenge. This study proposes a modified Driving Safety Field (DSF) model for pedestrian–vehicle risk assessment at an unsignalized road section, in which predicted positions are considered. A Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) model is employed for pedestrian intention inference, and a particle filtering model is conducted to simulate pedestrian motion. Driving data collection was conducted and pedestrian–vehicle scenarios were extracted. The effectiveness of the proposed model was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations running 1000 times. Results show that the proposed risk assessment approach reduces braking times by 18.73%. Besides this, the average value of TTC−1 (the reciprocal of time-to-collision) and the maximum TTC−1 were decreased by 28.83% and 33.91%, respectively.

A Vendor-Independent Mobile Health Monitoring Platform for Digital Health Studies: Development and Usability Study.

BackgroundMedical smartphone apps and mobile health devices are rapidly entering mainstream use because of the rising number of smartphone users. Consequently, a large amount of consumer-generated data is being collected. Technological advances in innovative sensory systems have enabled data connectivity and aggregation to become cornerstones in developing workable solutions for remote monitoring systems in clinical practice. However, few systems are currently available to handle such data, especially for clinical use.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop and implement the digital health research platform for mobile health (DHARMA) that combines data saved in different formats from a variety of sources into a single integrated digital platform suitable for mobile remote monitoring studies.MethodsDHARMA comprises a smartphone app, a Web-based platform, and custom middleware and has been developed to collect, store, process, and visualize data from different vendor-specific sensors. The middleware is a component-based system with independent building blocks for user authentication, study and patient administration, data handling, questionnaire management, patient files, and reporting.ResultsA prototype version of the research platform has been tested and deployed in multiple clinical studies. In this study, we used the platform for the follow-up of pregnant women at risk of developing pre-eclampsia. The patients’ blood pressure, weight, and activity were semi-automatically captured at home using different devices. DHARMA automatically collected and stored data from each source and enabled data processing for the end users in terms of study-specific parameters, thresholds, and visualization.ConclusionsThe increasing use of mobile health apps and connected medical devices is leading to a large amount of data for collection. There has been limited investment in handling and aggregating data from different sources for use in academic and clinical research focusing on remote monitoring studies. In this study, we created a modular mobile health research platform to collect and integrate data from a variety of third-party devices in several patient populations. The functionality of the platform was demonstrated in a real-life setting among women with high-risk pregnancies.

ANÁLISES DA HISTORIOGRAFIA E DOS DOCUMENTOS INTERNACIONAIS DA ORGANIZAÇÃO DAS NAÇÕES UNIDAS SOBRE AS MULHERES, VOLTADOS PARA OS DIREITOS HUMANOS

Este artigo intercruza a historiografia de gênero, com as propostas das Conferências da Organização das Nações Unidas – ONU - sobre as mulheres, expressas em documentos nacionais e internacionais com os Direitos Humanos. Dessa forma, em se tratando de pesquisa historiográfica e documental a análise estruturou-se rigorosamente pela identificação e relação entre temas, focos e ações das mulheres e movimentos sociais femininos, segundo os contextos históricos; delineamento dos focos das pesquisas acadêmicas; classificação dos temas quanto à natureza nos registros/documentos plataformas de ação da conferência de Beijing e verificação das estratégias metodológicas, que salientaram as mudanças de paradigma no sentido dos métodos e abordagens. O corpus documental para análise circunscreveu-se na historiografia ou pesquisas acadêmicas sobre as mulheres, dos anos de 1950 até a conferência de Beijing, em 1995 e a plataforma de ação dessa conferência.
 Recebido em: 20/05/2019Aprovado em: 24/09/2019

BIG DATA IN EMISSION PRODUCING MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES – AN EXPLORATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract. Data management and intelligent systems provide new possibilities and trajectories for environmentally robust industrial production. Global climate change has evoked a number of fresh studies on data management, openness and environmental innovation. This literature review approaches current academic research focusing on big data, industry, and emissions. The paper is based on key word searches that returned publications from high-class scientific journals dedicated to this particular topic. The article reading illustrates that big data is utilised in various industries, and explores a large variety of polluting substances. The authors argue that innovative and insightful new ways of using big data provide tools for emission monitoring and clean technology utilisation. The diversity in the analysed articles proves the complexity of market operations and corporate responsibility. The paper concludes in addressing the need of using and combining data resources, particularly at the industry unit level, in order to develop more efficient tools for environmental monitoring and decision making.

Current Status and Future Prospects of Metal-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are a major focus of academic and industrial energy-storage research due to their high theoretical energy density and the use of low-cost materials. The high energy density results from the conversion mechanism that lithium-sulfur cells utilize. The sulfur cathode, being naturally abundant and environmentally friendly, makes lithium-sulfur batteries a potential next-generation energy-storage technology. The current state of the research indicates that lithium-sulfur cells are now at the point of transitioning from laboratory-scale devices to a more practical energy-storage application. Based on similar electrochemical conversion reactions, the low-cost sulfur cathode can be coupled with a wide range of metallic anodes, such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and aluminum. These new "metal-sulfur" systems exhibit great potential in either lowering the production cost or producing high energy density. Inspired by the rapid development of lithium-sulfur batteries and the prospect of metal-sulfur cells, here, over 450 research articles are summarized to analyze the research progress and explore the electrochemical characteristics, cell-assembly parameters, cell-testing conditions, and materials design. In addition to highlighting the current research progress, the possible future areas of research which are needed to bring conversion-type lithium-sulfur and other metal-sulfur batteries into the market are also discussed.

Neglected green street landscapes: A re-evaluation method of green justice

Urban green spaces can promote physical activity, well-being, and public health, but disparities in the distribution of such spaces predominantly benefit affluent communities. Therefore, green justice issues have become a focus of academic research. In this paper, we develop a new model, the comprehensive floating catchment area (CFCA), to measure the accessibility of urban green space. The CFCA models urban green space attractiveness as a function of park size and of street green views from residential zones to parks. Three transportation modes (walking, biking, and driving a car) are compared. We take the central urban area of Beijing as the research area and measure green justice across different economic residential zones using the ordinary least squares model. The results suggest that the spatial disparities of urban green space are significant when only polygon urban green spaces are considered, regardless of the transportation mode. However, green injustice is mitigated when we consider both urban green spaces and street greening. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study green justice by taking a street green view, and the results of this study can provide guidance on urban green space development for government leaders and researchers in the future.

Incorporating Sustainability in Business Model: A Literature Review

Purpose – Sustainability has become a multi-disciplinary concept rather than just an ecological concern and sustainable development will become a reality without a sustainable development of corporations. The business organizations must involve themselves in sustainable initiatives contributing to minimizing their environmental impact, contribute to the improvements of society, and in a process ensure the sustainability of the business itself. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of academic research in the topic area and find out an approach to address the sustainability agenda in the core of the business model. Design/methodology/approach – This study was done following a structured literature review method and relevant journals have been identified by string search in major databases – Scopus and Web of Science. After the systematic research, abstracts of the most cited articles have been read thoroughly and key ideas of the articles were identified. A detailed understanding was developed by reading the discussions and analysis parts and most relevant concepts that linked sustainability and business model innovation. Findings: Through this literature review it is found that though sustainability has gained a major attraction from academia in recent years and Originality/value – This study presents the current state of academic research focusing on sustainability in the area of the business model and through rigorous literature review proposes a step by step process describing how a business firm should approach to incorporate sustainability in the core of its business model.

Joint collection mode of waste mobile phones based on residents' preferences: A case of Dalian in China

The continuing increase of the popularity of mobile phones generates a large volume of waste mobile phones. The efficient collection of this waste has become a focus and frontier of both academic research and related business. This paper reviews the waste mobile phone collection in Dalian, China. The findings show that several challenges currently impede the implementation of collection, including unsmooth collection channels, poor convenience, and low environmental awareness of residents. A new joint collection mode is put forward to increase the waste mobile phone collection rate. In the mode, the responsibilities of each stakeholder (including the collecting enterprise, the third-party logistics company, the government, and the resident) are clarified. Moreover, a conjoint analysis method is applied to identify residents' willingness for collection. The obtained results show that compensation mode, collection price, and convenience degree are the three factors that influence the prevailing preferences of residents. Collection services with high market share must satisfy the concourse of three conditions. The collection price exceeds 30% of the mobile phone's original price, the compensation mode is cash and information service is provided. These results can provide a reference for the service design of collection mode and the formulation of relevant corporate strategies.