'Inside the box': a cooperative game for co-creating energy efficient retail spaces

Although sustainability is one of the drivers of change in the retail sector, employees still treat energy management as a lower priority compared with other operational tasks. As digital technologies are flourishing, gamification is an emerging method of raising energy awareness, with most examples however targeting individuals, and therefore not supporting teamworking approaches to handling end user building energy demand. As such, combining behavioural incentivisation and technological development is a critical socio-technical challenge within the retail environments. The development of a new cooperative role-playing game that harnesses the participatory character of game theory to boost collegiality and encourage the energy-conscious behaviour of staff in a supermarket located in the UK, is described. By feeding the game with energy simulation results, this can be regarded as a novel synergy between behavioural science and game theory within the field of building energy. Future research will focus on testing the real-world potential of the game to engage retail staff in co-creating energy efficient stores

Investigation of stresses in adhesive joints

Adhesive joints are widely used as a structural element in automotive and in aerospace applications because of their main advantage of more uniform stress distributions within lap joints relative to conventional bonding for example riveting or bolting. Adhesives can produce a stronger joint and potentially lengthen its service life. However, the stress distribution in the joint is not uniform and stresses are concentrated at the edges of the overlap. This can cause fatigue and reduce the service life of the joint. Therefore, a large number of analytical and numerical studies have been carried out to study this effect. Comparatively speaking, there is lack of experimental data to prove or cast doubt on the theoretical results. One of the main disadvantages of adhesive joints is that they have low durability when exposed to hostile environments. Moisture is the most commonly encountered service environment among various environmental conditions, to be considered a critical factor to affect the service life of adhesive joints. In this thesis, strain gauge, neutron diffraction, and X-ray diffraction methods have been used to directly investigate residual strains and stresses and also strains and stresses under tensile load in the adherends within adhesive joints. The residual strains and stresses have also been studied indirectly by means of a bimaterial method. In addition, the effect of moisture on the joints has been investigated by means of bimaterial and bulk adhesive samples. Neutron diffraction and bimaterial experiment results have been compared to FE predictions and good agreement achieved. The diffraction studies show that residual stress in joints due to manufacture are small and that water diffusion into the joint is a main critical factor affecting the performance of adhesive and adhesive joints

Results of QAP regression in value-added in trade networks with TFA.

Results of QAP regression in value-added in trade networks with TFA.</p

Total decomposition of export value of China and ASEAN countries in different years.

Total decomposition of export value of China and ASEAN countries in different years.</p

Research area.

In the last decades, economic globalisation and the progress of ICT have promoted the international division of labour and optimisation of the global value chain. Moreover, improvements in incentives such as lower tariffs and more efficient border crossings have boosted international trade. Under this background, regional and sub-regional economic cooperation organizations, such as free trade area (FTA), have been developing rapidly and attracting many academic attentions. As the fastest growing FTA in the world, CAFTA is now the largest FTA in developing countries. This study focuses on the value-added network of various industries in the trade process inside CAFTA, and tries to explore the impact of trade facilitation on the DVA trade network of CAFTA. The results show that in the trade network of CAFTA, the proportion of added value of domestic trade in total exports keeps increasing, and the returned added value (RDV) increases significantly. Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand hold relatively high positions in the production network, while China has a relatively low position. On the other hand, China and Thailand become the main beneficiaries after the establishment of CAFTA, while Singapore and Malaysia play a lesser role in trading networks. The results also show that trade facilitation has a significant positive effect on the DVA-INTrex and RDV trade networks, indicating that trade facilitation can significantly increase the domestic indirect value added and returned value added in the trade process. Moreover, the business environment (bus) is the most important factor, with efficiency and transparency of border administration (cus), availability, and use of ICTs (ict) contributing to the improvement.</div

Results of degree centrality of value-added in trade network in CAFTA (2001,2016).

Results of degree centrality of value-added in trade network in CAFTA (2001,2016).</p

Value-added in trade network in CAFTA (2001, 2010, 2016).

Value-added in trade network in CAFTA (2001, 2010, 2016).</p

The trade facilitation evaluation index system.

In the last decades, economic globalisation and the progress of ICT have promoted the international division of labour and optimisation of the global value chain. Moreover, improvements in incentives such as lower tariffs and more efficient border crossings have boosted international trade. Under this background, regional and sub-regional economic cooperation organizations, such as free trade area (FTA), have been developing rapidly and attracting many academic attentions. As the fastest growing FTA in the world, CAFTA is now the largest FTA in developing countries. This study focuses on the value-added network of various industries in the trade process inside CAFTA, and tries to explore the impact of trade facilitation on the DVA trade network of CAFTA. The results show that in the trade network of CAFTA, the proportion of added value of domestic trade in total exports keeps increasing, and the returned added value (RDV) increases significantly. Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand hold relatively high positions in the production network, while China has a relatively low position. On the other hand, China and Thailand become the main beneficiaries after the establishment of CAFTA, while Singapore and Malaysia play a lesser role in trading networks. The results also show that trade facilitation has a significant positive effect on the DVA-INTrex and RDV trade networks, indicating that trade facilitation can significantly increase the domestic indirect value added and returned value added in the trade process. Moreover, the business environment (bus) is the most important factor, with efficiency and transparency of border administration (cus), availability, and use of ICTs (ict) contributing to the improvement.</div

Connotation of trade facilitation.

In the last decades, economic globalisation and the progress of ICT have promoted the international division of labour and optimisation of the global value chain. Moreover, improvements in incentives such as lower tariffs and more efficient border crossings have boosted international trade. Under this background, regional and sub-regional economic cooperation organizations, such as free trade area (FTA), have been developing rapidly and attracting many academic attentions. As the fastest growing FTA in the world, CAFTA is now the largest FTA in developing countries. This study focuses on the value-added network of various industries in the trade process inside CAFTA, and tries to explore the impact of trade facilitation on the DVA trade network of CAFTA. The results show that in the trade network of CAFTA, the proportion of added value of domestic trade in total exports keeps increasing, and the returned added value (RDV) increases significantly. Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand hold relatively high positions in the production network, while China has a relatively low position. On the other hand, China and Thailand become the main beneficiaries after the establishment of CAFTA, while Singapore and Malaysia play a lesser role in trading networks. The results also show that trade facilitation has a significant positive effect on the DVA-INTrex and RDV trade networks, indicating that trade facilitation can significantly increase the domestic indirect value added and returned value added in the trade process. Moreover, the business environment (bus) is the most important factor, with efficiency and transparency of border administration (cus), availability, and use of ICTs (ict) contributing to the improvement.</div