Exploring the impact of Big Data analytics capability on port performance: The mediating role of sustainability

Many ports are redefining business processes and operations by adopting digital technologies. These can help them to provide efficient and competitive port operations and meet the growing demand for comprehensive port logistics services. Digital technologies provide a harvest of immense amounts of data, known as Big Data. Port management needs the capability to store, process and analyse Big Data to provide meaningful information and thus to maximise organisational performance. Furthermore, one of the most important trends in port development is increased sustainability awareness by regulators and customers. Port managers can employ Big Data technology to reduce environmental pollution and use resources more efficiently, improving the sustainability of ports. Resource-based theory provides a useful theoretical framework to investigate these issues, including the impact on port performance. There is some evidence that port sustainability has a mediating role in the association between BDAC and port performance. However, more research is needed to investigate the association between BDAC and port performance and to explore the mediation role of port sustainability. To address this research gap, this thesis employs a multi-phase approach to investigate the impact of BDAC on port performance and the role of port sustainability in this context. In phase one of the empirical study, a conceptual model for the structural relationship between BDAC, port sustainability and port performance was developed by examining the existing research literature. After a pilot survey to examine the validity and reliability of the survey instrument, a survey was conducted in the world’s top 50 ports, which provided 175 valid responses for assessing the model. The results from these questionnaires were analysed by Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Analysis of the collected data revealed four main findings. Firstly, this study provides evidence that managerial skills and data-driven culture play a significant role in developing the BDAC of ports. The second major finding provides empirical evidence that BDAC positively enhances port performance. Thirdly, the finding shows that ports can improve sustainability by developing BDAC. Finally, the findings highlighted that port sustainability mediated the relationship between BDAC and port performance. Ports that aim to improve performance should leverage BDAC to implement sustainable port strategies. The study makes several theoretical and practical contributions. The main contribution of this study is developing a hierarchical model based on resource-based theory to evaluate the impact of BDAC on port performance, providing a better understating of how the port builds BDAC and their significant role in port performance. Moreover, this study reveals the mechanism driving the impact of BDAC on port performance, providing a deeper understanding of the significance of sustainability. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidance for port managers to assist them in making clear strategies to build and utilise BDAC. Port managers should leverage port sustainability to catalyse the impact of BDAC on port performance

Unpredictable Sharing Economy: Barbaric Growth, Deceptive Representation and Divergent Regulation

In the context of globalization and informatization, some traditionally lowtech and labor-intensive sectors have developed mobile Internet-based platforms and formed a new business format: the sharing economy. In the beginning, such a new business format lowered the threshold of participation, cut dealing costs, and enjoyed the relative advantage of being free from regulatory institutions. Therefore, it easily attracted investments and witnessed rapid development. Early-stage of the sharing economy features were “being shared, collaborative and on-demand.” For a variety of reasons, the development of the sharing economy has already been accepted and recognized by current society. It is expected to become a new growth point and has the chance to replace the established business format of our industrial society and subsequently trigger many more “pain points.” Regarding the regulation and governance of the sharing economy, there are divergences in its legality, platform nature, industrial impact and employment relationships. Identifying and resolving such regulatory divergences to the maximum degree is a prerequisite for the governance of the sharing economy and also a key to its smooth developmen

Structural Properties of Liquid SiC during Rapid Solidification

The rapid solidification of liquid silicon carbide (SiC) is studied by molecular dynamic simulation using the Tersoff potential. The structural properties of liquid and amorphous SiC are analyzed by the radial distribution function, angular distribution function, coordination number, and visualization technology. Results show that both heteronuclear and homonuclear bonds exist and no atomic segregation occurs during solidification. The bond angles of silicon and carbon atoms are distributed at around 109° and 120°, respectively, and the average coordination number is <4. Threefold carbon atoms and fourfold silicon atoms are linked together by six typical structures and ultimately form a random network of amorphous structure. The simulated results help understand the structural properties of liquid and amorphous SiC, as well as other similar semiconductor alloys

Recipe for single-pair-Weyl-points phonons carrying the same chiral charges

Recently, Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. B, 106, 195129 (2022)] challenged a widely held belief in the field of Weyl physics, demonstrating that single-pair-Weyl-points (SP-WPs) can exist in nonmagnetic spinless systems, contrary to previous assumptions that they could only exist in magnetic systems. Wang et al. observed that the SP-WPs with opposite and even chiral charges (i.e., |C| = 2 or 4) could also exist in nonmagnetic spinless systems. In this Letter, we present a novel finding in which SP-WPs have a partner, namely a charged nodal surface, in nonmagnetic spinless systems. In contrast to previous observations, we show that the SP-WPs can have uneven chiral charges (i.e., |C| = 1). We identify 6 (out of 230) space groups (SGs) that contain such SP-WPs by searching the encyclopedia of emergent particles in three-dimensional crystals. Our finds were confirmed through the phonon spectra of two specific materials Zr3O (with SG 182) and NaPH2NO3 (with SG 173). This discovery broadens the range of materials that can host SP-WPs and applies to other nonmagnetic spinless crystals

Genuine Dirac half-metal: A 2D d0-type ferromagnet Mg4N4

When the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is absent, almost all the proposed half-metals with the twofold degenerate nodal points at the K (or K') in two-dimensional (2D) materials are misclassified as "Dirac half-metals" owing to the way graphene was utilized in the earliest studies. Actually, each band crossing point at K or K' is described by a 2D Weyl Hamiltonian with definite chirality; hence, it must be a Weyl point. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of a genuine (i.e., fourfold degenerate) Dirac point half-metal in 2D yet. In this Letter, we proposed for the first time that the 2D d0-type ferromagnet Mg4N4 is a genuine Dirac half-metal with a fourfold degenerate Dirac point at the S high-symmetry point, intrinsic magnetism, high Curie temperature, 100% spin-polarization, robustness to the SOC and uniaxial and biaxial strains, and 100% spin-polarized edge states. The work can be seen as a starting point for future predictions of intrinsically magnetic materials with genuine Dirac points, which will aid the frontier of topo-spintronics researchers

A multifunctional nanoplatform based on MoS2-nanosheets for targeted drug delivery and chemo-photothermal therapy

Synergistic tumor treatment has recently attracted more and more attention due to its remarkable therapeutic effect. Herein, a multifunctional drug delivery system based on hyaluronic acid (HA) targeted dual stimulation responsive MoS2 nanosheets (HA-PEI-LA-MoS2-PEG, HPMP) for active interaction with CD44 receptor positive MCF-7 cells is reported. Melanin (Mel), a new type of photothermal agent and doxorubicin (DOX) are both loaded onto the HPMP nanocomposite and can be released by mild acid or hyperthermia. The prepared HPMP nanocomposite has a uniform hydrodynamic diameter (104 nm), a high drug loading (944.3 mg.g-1 HPMP), a remarkable photothermal effect (photothermal conversion efficiency: 55.3%) and excellent biocompatibility. The DOX release from HPMP@(DOX/Mel) can be precisely controlled by the dual stimuli of utilizing the acidic environment in the tumor cells and external laser irradiation. Meanwhile, loading of Mel onto the surface can enhance the photothermal effect of the MoS2 nanosheets. In vitro experiments showed that the HPMP@(DOX/Mel) nanoplatform could efficiently deliver DOX into MCF-7 cells and demonstrated enhanced cytotoxicity compared to that of the non-targeted nanoplatform. In vivo experiments in a breast cancer model of nude mice further confirmed that the HPMP@(DOX/Mel) significantly inhibited tumor growth under near infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, which is superior to any single therapy. In summary, this flexible nanoplatform, based on multi-faceted loaded MoS2 nanosheets, exhibits considerable potential for efficient pH/NIR-responsive targeted drug delivery and chemo-photothermal synergistic tumor therapy

Aspheric optical surface profiling based on laser scanning and auto-collimation

Nowadays the utilization of aspheric lens has become more and more popular, enabling highly increased degree of freedom for optical design and simultaneously improving the performance of optical system. Hence this also entails a stringent requirement for fast and accurate measuring the shape of these aspheric components. In this paper, the instrument is greatly developed to satisfy the growing need to test axially symmetric aspheric surface, which is implemented by converting the pose of reflective mirror in optical path to the coordinate of reflection point on the surface when laser rapidly scans . At each movement position managed by grating-rule sensor, the rotating angle of reflective mirror is defined using position sensitive detector based on the laser auto-collimating and beam center-fitting principle. Testing a convex and a concave surfaces with highly reproducible results, including coefficient of determination better than 0.999 and RMSE less than =10, validates the feasibility of this method. In comparison to the conventional computer-generated hologram tester or interferometer, the present instrument—essentially builds on the pure geometrical optics technology—is a powerful tool to measure the aspheric surface quickly and accurately with simple structure and algorithm