The Impact of Boundary Spanning Capability on Success of Offshore IS Outsourcing: From the Vendors’ Perspective

Past research has shown that most offshore IS outsourcing projects were failed. Communication and coordination problems caused by culture differences between clients and vendors are important reasons for the failures. The theory of boundary spanning capability provides a new theoretical perspective for research of coordination and communication mechanisms between clients and vendors in offshore IS outsourcing. This paper takes culture differences as mediator to study the impact mechanisms of vendors’ boundary spanning capability on success of offshore IS outsourcing. The research model is empirically tested on a sample of 102 offshore IS outsourcing projects from 20 vendors in China. The results suggest that vendors’ boundary spanning capability significantly improves outsourcing success. Moreover, vendors’ boundary spanning capability has a negative impact on culture differences and culture differences negatively influence the outsourcing success. Finally, we find that culture differences mediate partly the relationship between boundary spanning capability and outsourcing success

Cold storage condensation heat recovery system with a novel composite phase change material

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Using condensation heat from cold storage refrigeration systems to provide heat for domestic hot water preparation and industrial hot water supply promotes energy conservation. However, few studies have investigated cold storage condensation heat recovery using phase change materials (PCMs). In this study, a cold storage condensation heat recovery system that uses PCMs has been designed and analysed. According to the principle of energy cascade recycling, different operation modes could be effectively switched to recycle condensation heat. Furthermore, a novel and suitable phase change composite material is developed for cold storage condensation heat recovery, which has a relatively large latent heat, high thermal conductivity, and an appropriate phase change temperature (i.e. 80 °C). With carnauba wax (CW) as the PCM and expanded graphite (EG) as the additive, a composite was developed with an optimal mass ratio of CW:EG = 10:1. The thermal and physical properties and the interior structure of the composite were then investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermal constants analyser (Hot Disk), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). Furthermore, experiments on the melting and solidification processes and accelerated thermal cycling were also conducted. It was found that at the optimal mass ratio of 10:1, the temperatures of the CW/EG composite in the melting and solidification processes were 81.98 °C and 80.43 °C, respectively, while the corresponding latent heats were 150.9 J/g and 142.6 J/g, respectively. During both processes, CW could retain its original worm-like structure after being completely adsorbed by EG. Compared to only CW, the melting and solidification time of the CW/EG composite were reduced by 81.7% and 55.3%, respectively, while its thermal conductivity was 16.4 times higher. After 1000 runs of accelerated thermal cycling, the endothermic/exothermic phase change temperatures of CW and the CW/EG composite increased by only 0.42%/0.42% and 0.23%/0.27%, respectively, while their endothermic/exothermic latent heats decreased by 4.96%/4.78% and 2.05%/3.44%, respectively. These results indicate that both CW and the CW/EG composite have excellent thermal reliability, while the CW/EG composite exhibits a slightly better performance. Finally, the experiments show that the CW/EG composite has desirable thermal and physical properties such as high thermal conductivity and reliability; Hence, it has good potenti al as a material for facilitating condensation heat recovery from cold storage refrigeration systems

Dietary Probiotic Bacillus licheniformis TC22 Increases Growth, Immunity, and Disease Resistance, against Vibrio splendidus Infection in Juvenile Sea Cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus

In this study we examined the effects of probiotic Bacillus licheniformis TC22 on growth, immunity, and disease resistance against Vibrio splendidus in juvenile sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus. For 30 days, sea cucumbers were fed diets with TC22 at 0 (control), 105, 107, and 109 CFU/g respectively. Results showed that dietary TC22 at 109 CFU/g significantly improved (P0.05). Dietary TC22 at 109 CFU/g significantly improved phagocytosis, and total nitric oxide synthase activity in sea cucumbers (P0.05). Respiratory burst in sea cucumbers fed dietary TC22 at 109 CFU/g was significantly higher than those fed dietary TC22 at 107 CFU/g (P<0.05). Cumulative mortality after V. splendidus challenge decreased significantly in the sea cucumbers fed with TC22 at 109 CFU/g (P<0.05). The present study confirmed dietary B. licheniformis TC22 at 109 CFU/g could significantly improve immunity and disease resistance in juvenile A. japonicus

Construction of microbial consortia for microbial degradation of complex compounds

Increasingly complex synthetic environmental pollutants are prompting further research into bioremediation, which is one of the most economical and safest means of environmental restoration. From the current research, using microbial consortia to degrade complex compounds is more advantageous compared to using isolated bacteria, as the former is more adaptable and stable within the growth environment and can provide a suitable catalytic environment for each enzyme required by the biodegradation pathway. With the development of synthetic biology and gene-editing tools, artificial microbial consortia systems can be designed to be more efficient, stable, and robust, and they can be used to produce high-value-added products with their strong degradation ability. Furthermore, microbial consortia systems are shown to be promising in the degradation of complex compounds. In this review, the strategies for constructing stable and robust microbial consortia are discussed. The current advances in the degradation of complex compounds by microbial consortia are also classified and detailed, including plastics, petroleum, antibiotics, azo dyes, and some pollutants present in sewage. Thus, this paper aims to support some helps to those who focus on the degradation of complex compounds by microbial consortia

The Structural Properties of (2, 6)-Fullerenes

A (2,6)-fullerene F is a 2-connected cubic planar graph whose faces are only 2-length and 6-length. Furthermore, it consists of exactly three 2-length faces by Euler’s formula. The (2,6)-fullerene comes from Došlić’s (k,6)-fullerene, a 2-connected 3-regular plane graph with only k-length faces and hexagons. Došlić showed that the (k,6)-fullerenes only exist for k=2, 3, 4, or 5, and some of the structural properties of (k,6)-fullerene for k=3, 4, or 5 were studied. The structural properties, such as connectivity, extendability, resonance, and anti−Kekulé number, are very useful for studying the number of perfect matchings in a graph, and thus for the study of the stability of the molecular graphs. In this paper, we study the properties of (2,6)-fullerene. We discover that the edge-connectivity of (2,6)-fullerenes is 2. Every (2,6)-fullerene is 1-extendable, but not 2-extendable (F is called n-extendable (|V(F)|≥2n+2) if any matching of n edges is contained in a perfect matching of F). F is said to be k-resonant (k≥1) if the deleting of any i (0≤i≤k) disjoint even faces of F results in a graph with at least one perfect matching. We have that every (2,6)-fullerene is 1-resonant. An edge set, S, of F is called an anti−Kekulé set if F−S is connected and has no perfect matchings, where F−S denotes the subgraph obtained by deleting all edges in S from F. The anti−Kekulé number of F, denoted by ak(F), is the cardinality of a smallest anti−Kekulé set of F. We have that every (2,6)-fullerene F with |V(F)|>6 has anti−Kekulé number 4. Further we mainly prove that there exists a (2,6)-fullerene F having fF hexagonal faces, where fF is related to the two parameters n and m

Improved Iterative Closest Contour Point Matching Navigation Algorithm Based on Geomagnetic Vector

The geomagnetic matching aided positioning system based on Iterative Closest Contour Point (ICCP) algorithm can suppress the accumulation error of the inertial navigation system and achieve the accurate positioning of the vehicle. Aiming at the problem that the ICCP algorithm is sensitive to heading error and easily mismatches in regions with similar geomagnetic general features, an improved ICCP matching algorithm based on geomagnetic vector is proposed. The ant colony algorithm is designed to improve the search strategy in a large probability range. The geomagnetic three-dimensional vector feature and the Hausdoff distance are employed as the objective function for multiple iterations, improving matching efficiency and accuracy. Simulation results show that compared with the traditional ICCP algorithm, the positioning error of the matching track, the heading error, and the matching time of the improved ICCP algorithm are reduced by 69.6%, 44.0% and 39.0%, respectively

Land Use Scenario Simulation and Ecosystem Service Management for Different Regional Development Models of the Beibu Gulf Area, China

Land use change is an important way for human activities to affect ecosystems. Based on the land use demands and policies, the simulation of future land use changes under different scenarios can test the rationality of socio-economic and policy-oriented land use changes. In this study, we set three scenarios of regular growth, ecological protection, and ecotourism development in 2030 for the Beibu Gulf area, China. We simulated the spatial distribution and evolution characteristics of the future landscape pattern using the Scenario Generator Rule Based Module of InVEST. Meanwhile, the ecosystem service value (ESV) was estimated by the improved unit area value equivalent method to reveal the trend of ESVs under different regional development models. The results indicated that the land use changes in the Beibu Gulf during 1999–2014 showed significant spatial heterogeneity. The farmland was mainly distributed in Beihai, the forestland was located in Fangchenggang, while the orchard was concentrated on Qinzhou. Due to economic construction and urban expansion, construction land and aquaculture land were gradually growing, while farmland and mud flat continued to decrease. Between 2014 and 2030, the total ESV decreased in the regular growth scenario and gradually increased in the ecological protection scenario and ecotourism development scenario. In addition, by comparing the three scenarios, the ecotourism development scenario is a more reasonable model for Guangxi Beibu Gulf area, which realized the trade-off between tourism development and resource conservation. Therefore, regional planners should not only consider maximizing ESVs when planning for ecosystem services, but also strive to maintain a reasonable structure of ecosystem services. Some suggestions were provided in this paper at the macro level and the local development model level respectively, which offered some references for the rational allocation of land resources, ecological environmental protection and ecotourism development in the coastal area of Beibu Gulf

Calculation Method and Application of Inter-Regional and Inter-Provincial Market Trading Space for Promoting the Consumption of Clean Energy

Inter-provincial market trading is putting up with to implement the national energy strategy, increasing clean energy consuming and optimization energy allocation in large-scale. To promote energy consumption, the inter-province power transmission channel’ potential needs to be full excavate to deal with clean energy fluctuation, improving trading frequency and reduce transaction period. This article puts up with an inter-province power market trading space calculation method to calculate the available power transmission ability of inter-provincial transmission channel, discovering transmission channel and releasing transaction space. Besides, for certain transmission channel or supply-demand province’s electricity requirements, the calculation method can explore the trading market space, organizing clean energy evacuation to improve transmission channel utilization and safety checking pass rates, reducing blocking