How Intrinsic Motivation Facilitate Employee Creativity in Work Process

In this article, we examined how intrinsic motivation influence employee creativity in work process. Using survey data from 398 professional or technical workers and their direct supervisors in a large automobile manufacturing enterprise, the results of our study showed that intrinsic motivation influenced every sub-process of creative process engagement, while creative process engagement had a positive influence on employee creativity. We further discuss the limitations of the study

Ultrasonic Fatigue of E319 Cast Aluminum Alloy in The Long Lifetime Regime.

The fatigue behavior of an E319 cast aluminum alloy used in the production of automotive cylinder heads, was studied by using both ultrasonic and conventional fatigue techniques in order to understand the potential effect of frequency on fatigue behavior of cast aluminum alloys. The effect of frequency, environment and temperature on S-N behavior, fatigue crack initiation and propagation behavior of E319 cast aluminum alloy was investigated. It was observed that, at room temperature, in the lifetime regime of less than 107 cycles, fatigue lives at 20 kHz are approximately five to ten times longer than fatigue lives at 75 Hz; while at 107 cycles, the effect of frequency is substantially reduced. At elevated temperature (150 and 250oC), however, the difference in fatigue lives between 20 kHz and 75 Hz persists over the entire range of stress examined. The effect of frequency on fatigue resistance is attributable to an environmental effect on fatigue crack growth rate at all temperatures. For E319 cast aluminum alloy, fatigue crack growth rates increase with increasing water exposure, P/f, which can be estimated by a modified superposition model. Fatigue resistance decreased with increasing temperature and the temperature dependence of fatigue strength at 108 cycles follows closely the temperature dependence of yield and tensile strength. The effect of temperature on fatigue resistance primarily results from the intrinsic effect of temperature on Young’s modulus and yield strength. The environmental contribution to fatigue crack growth rates modestly decreases with increasing temperature. At room temperature, an endurance limit is demonstrated in the lifetime regime beyond 107 cycles and the fatigue strength at 108 cycles was investigated using the ultrasonic fatigue technique. The fatigue strength is correlated with both size and location of the initiating pores through a threshold stress intensity factor for fatigue crack growth. A probabilistic model was developed to establish the relationship between the casting porosity population and the fatigue strength of the alloy. Based on this model, the influence of mean pore size, standard deviation and number density of the porosity population, and the specimen volume and shape on the fatigue strength was described.Ph.D.Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57590/2/zhux_1.pd

The positive response in grape secondary metabolites under controlled stresses: a review

Grapevine is cultivated worldwide with great economic importance. In recent years, our knowledge of the physiological and molecular basis of berry quality regulation has substantially increased. Abiotic and biotic stresses, such as deficit irrigation, low temperature, light/UV and microbes, to a certain extent, could improve grape berry quality by enhancing flavor metabolites, colorization or aroma compounds. This review summarizes recent data related to the stress of grape berry development, with special emphasis on secondary metabolism and its response to stresses. A full understanding of how grape berry metabolism responds to different stresses is important to improve the biochemical qualities of grapes and resultant products, such as wine in practice

Eco-efficient based logistics network design in hybrid manufacturing/ remanufacturing system in low-carbon economy

Purpose: Low-carbon economy requires the pursuit of eco-efficiency, which is a win-win situation between economic and environmental efficiency. In this paper the question of trading off the economic and environmental effects embodied in eco-efficiency in the hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing logistics network design in the context of low-carbon economy is examined. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model to find the optimal facility locations and materials flow allocation is established. In the objective function, three minimum targets are set: economic cost, CO2 emission and waste generation. Through an iterative algorithm, the Pareto Boundary of the problem is obtained.Findings: The results of numeric study show that in order to achieve a Pareto improvement over an original system, three of the critical rates (i.e. return rate, recovery rate, and cost substitute rate) should be increased.Practical implications: To meet the need of low-carbon dioxide, an iso- CO2 emission curve in which decision makers have a series of optimal choices with the same CO2 emission but different cost and waste generation is plotted. Each choice may have different network designbut all of these are Pareto optimal solutions, which provide a comprehensive evaluation of both economics and ecology for the decision making.Originality/value: This research chooses carbon emission as one of the three objective functions and uses Pareto sets to analyze how to balance profitability and environmental impacts in designing remanufacturing closed-loop supply chain in the context of low-carbon economy

System quality, information quality, satisfaction and acceptance of online learning platform among college students in the context of online learning and blended learning

The paper was based on the User Satisfaction and Technology Acceptance Integration Theory (USATA). The authors analyzed the factors that affect college students’ acceptance and satisfaction of online learning platform, as well as the differences in the relationship between various factors in blended learning scenario and online learning scenario. The results showed that the quality of online learning platform and information quality affect user satisfaction, and satisfaction affects usefulness and ease of use, and then affect attitude and intention. The comparison between the two groups showed that there were significant differences in the impact of information quality on information satisfaction and the impact of perceived usefulness on usage intention. In the online learning scenario, the endogenous latent variables of the model had higher explanatory power, which indicates that learners are more dependent on the quality and relevant characteristics of the learning platform in the online learning scenario

Correlation between toll-like receptor 9 expression in peripheral blood dendritic cells and interferon-α antiviral sustained virological response in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Purpose: To investigate the link between dendritic cells (DC cells), toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TFN-α) expressions in peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and CD cells were prepared from CHB patients and healthy volunteers, and the cell  proliferation was assessed. The surface expressions of CD83, CD86, CD40 and human leukocyte antigen DR (HLA-DR) on DC cells were assayed by flow cytometry, while the expressions of mRNAs of TLR9, MyD88 and NF-κB in each cell-group were determined by fluorescent quantitation PCR. Protein expressions of TLR9, MyD88 and NF-κB were analyzed by Western blot.Results: The rate of proliferation of DC cells in the CHB patients was slower than the rate in healthy volunteers (p < 0.05), and the expression of co-stimulatory molecules was significantly lower in CHB patients than in healthy volunteers (p < 0.05). The ability to stimulate T-lymphocyte proliferation of the CHB-DC group was much weaker than that of the D-NC group (p < 0.05). In fluorescent quantitation assays, the relative expressions of mRNAs of TLR9, MyD88 and NF-κB in cells of CpG-Stimulate ODN (CpG-S ODN) group were higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05), but the relative expressions of mRNAs of TLR9, MyD88 and NF-κB in the cells of the CpG-S ODN group were significantly lower (p < 0.05). Moreover, IFN-α level in the CpG-S ODN group was much higher than that in the control group (t = 6.633, p = 0.014 < 0.05). However, results from  Western blot showed that the relative expressions of TLR9, MyD88 and NF-κB in the CpG-S ODN group were lower than in the control group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: These results indicate that TLR9 on the surface of DC cells of CHB patients can eliminate HBV by generating IFN-α via regulation of MyD88 and NF-κB.Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B, Dendritic cells, TLR9, IFN-

How Does Information Sharing of a Supervisor Influence Proactive Change Behavior of an Employee? The Chain Mediating Role of Family-Like Employee–Organization Relationship and Relationship Energy

The proactive change behavior of an employee is the key to promoting organizational innovation. However, the proactive change has a certain risk, and many employees are unwilling to implement initiatively. How to promote the occurrence of a proactive change behavior of an employee has become a hot issue in the theoretical and practical areas. Based on the self-disclosure theory, this study uses the questionnaire survey method, containing a total of 32 items, and uses the 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree), with the Mplus and SPSS statistical software to analyze the impact mechanism of work-related information sharing of supervisors on the proactive change behavior of employees through the structural equation model. The regulatory effect of non-work information sharing of leaders is analyzed using the latent regulatory structural equation method. The conclusions are as follows: work-related information sharing positively of supervisors influences the family-like employee–organization relationship of employees; the family-like employee–organization relationship and relationship energy play serial mediating roles in the relationship between work-related information sharing of supervisors and the proactive change behavior of employees; non-work information sharing of supervisors moderates the serial mediating path by enhancing the positive influence of work-related information sharing of supervisors on the family-like employee–organization relationship. Theoretically, this study has complemented and enriched the research on the influence mechanism between the information sharing of supervisors and the proactive change behavior of employees. Practically, this study has important implications for supervisors to promote the proactive change behavior of employees by sharing work-related information and non-work information with employees

Comparative Analysis of Clinical Epidemiology and Pathological Characteristics of 908 Patients with Primary Lung Cancer of Hunan Province in 1997 and 2007

Background and objective Epidemiology of lung cancer will be changed along with time and region. The aim of this study is to acknowledge the tendency of primary lung cancer in hunan province in recent years by comparing and analyzing the distribution of gender, age, area, smoking and pathology of patients who were initial diagnosed lung cancer and ancestral or permanent residence of hunan province in 1997 and 2007. Methods Clinical data of 908 patients with primary lung cancer hospitalized in Xiangya hospital were collected and evaluated. Results Compared patients in 2007 with those in 1997, ratio between male and female dropped from 3.8:1 to 2.98:1, while the proportion of young patients who were under 40 years old raised from 4.4% to 8.6% (χ2=4.465, P=0.035), patients living in the county raised from 19.9% to 40.1% (χ2=30.670, P < 0.001), smoking rate of patients from county raised from 16.9% to 39.9% (χ2= 24.939, P < 0.01). In addition, the proportion of rare histological types of lung cancer were also increased from 1.3% to 4.5% (χ2= 5.142, P=0.023). Conclusion Female patients, young patients, rural patients and rare histological types of lung cancer may have a tendency of increase in hunan province in recent years, whereas smoking cessation education should be strengthened

Diffusion of False Information During Public Crises: Analysis Based on the Cellular Automaton Method

The progress of false information diffusion in the public crisis is harmful to the society. When the public crisis occurs, the public respond in different ways and the public also want to tell others what they think right. But what they think is right is not recognized by the government. Thus the false information forms and it begins to diffuse. As the false information spreads, the harm to society magnifies gradually. Particularly in network society, false information diffusion can easily cause secondary hazards and accelerate public crises to a devastating degree. Thus intervening and controlling the false information diffusion is an important aspect of the public crisis management. From the perspective of the social network theory, this study analyzes the progress of false information diffusion in terms of different public crisis management strategies and presents the result of false information diffusion through simulation on cellular automaton of different public crisis management strategies. In simulations on cellular automaton, interventions are also carried to control false information diffusion and alternatives are proposed to help reduce public crises. This study also extends the theory of false information management, which is significant for the government to improve the ability to evaluate the false information and carry out interventions effectively to control the false information when it begins to diffuse