Impact of Intellectual Capital on Firm Performance: the Influence of Innovation Capability and Environmental Dynamism

The business values of intellectual capital (IntC) and innovation capability (InnoC) are enduring research questions, especially for high-tech firms. Although each one has been recognized as a critical factor for firm’s competitiveness, few studies discussed the influence of IntC and InnoC on firm performance in one integrated framework. Moreover, the moderating effects of environmental dynamism on IntC or InnoC to firm performance were often neglected. This paper developed a research model to explain IntC’s impact on firm performance, with InnoC as a mediating variable and environmental dynamism as a moderating variable. Using a survey study conducted in high-tech firms in China, we tested the research model and found that InnoC partly mediate the effect of IntC on firm performance. Environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between structural capital, relational capital, InnoC, and operational performance, as well as between structural capital and financial performance

Toward a new approach to Spanish pronominal forms of address. An analysis based on two TV series

Existe un cierto grado de acuerdo en consi-derar el tratamiento T (tú, vos, vosotros/as) como for-ma de familiaridad, acercamiento, informalidad, etc., mientras que V (usted, ustedes) reciben etiquetas como cortesía, formalidad, distanciamiento, etc. Sin embar-go, los estudios sobre las formas de tratamiento reali-zados en los últimos años, generalmente tomando co-mo referencia el marco de análisis propuesto por Brown y Gilman, coinciden en asignarles valores sig-nificativos diferentes a los que tradicionalmente se les ha atribuido. En esa misma línea, en esta contribución se hace una propuesta sobre otros posibles valores se-mánticos asociados a T y V, se intenta dar una explica-ción sobre la adquisición de estos valores y se establece la condición fundamental de su posible alternanciaPronominal forms of address in Spanish are typically assigned polarised semantic values: T-forms (tú, vos, vosotros/as) signaling familiarity, intimacy, or informal speech, and V-forms (usted, ustedes) indicating polite, formal speech. Responding to Brown and Gilman's analytical framework, recent research has stressed the need for more subtle and complex se-mantic values than those traditionally agreed upon. This paper advances a proposal for a set of new seman-tic values associated with T-forms and V-forms, ac-counting for their occurrence, and establishing the fundamental conditions for the alternation between the two form

Effects of Supervisors\u27 Technology-Mediated Interruption Behavior on Their Work-Life Balance

Although technology-mediated interruption has received substantial research attention over the past several years, most of the existing research investigates the effects of interruptions only from the perspective of the interrupted person. In this paper, we aim to answer the recent calls for research from the interrupters’ perspective and develop a research model based upon Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Action Regulation Theory (ART) to explore the effects of supervisors’ technology-mediated interruption behavior. In this model, we propose that supervisors’ technology-mediated interruption behavior leads to information overload and sense of control, which impact work/non-work exhaustion and work/non-work performance, and eventually affect the supervisors’ perception of work-life balance. We also propose that personal characteristics including supervisors’ sense of power and computer experience will moderate the relationships between supervisors’ technology-mediated interruption behavior and information overload/sense of control. We plan to test the proposed research model using experience sampling methodology (ESM)

Heat conduction mechanisms in nanofluids and suspensions

Nanofluids, liquids containing suspensions of nanoparticles, have been reported by some groups to exhibit substantially higher thermal conductivity than that of their corresponding base fluids that cannot be explained by existing theories. However, the reported high thermal conductivity sometimes cannot be reproduced by others. Potential mechanisms leading to this enhancement are still under scrutiny. In this paper, we first take a critical review of heat conduction mechanisms proposed in literature, and then summarize our work. Our experimental studies demonstrate that nanoparticle clustering is the key contributor to the thermal conductivity enhancement. Guided by this insight, we use graphite flakes as additives and develop a method to prepare stable graphite suspensions with large thermal conductivity enhancement in water and oil. We also observe thermal percolation phenomenon and explained the phenomenon based on combined optical and AC impedance spectroscopy studies. We demonstrate temperature regulation of electrical and thermal properties of graphite suspensions through solid–liquid phase change, which may potentially be useful in energy systems in the future.United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR FA9550-11-1-0174)China. Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universitie

Reconstruct-and-Generate Diffusion Model for Detail-Preserving Image Denoising

Image denoising is a fundamental and challenging task in the field of computer vision. Most supervised denoising methods learn to reconstruct clean images from noisy inputs, which have intrinsic spectral bias and tend to produce over-smoothed and blurry images. Recently, researchers have explored diffusion models to generate high-frequency details in image restoration tasks, but these models do not guarantee that the generated texture aligns with real images, leading to undesirable artifacts. To address the trade-off between visual appeal and fidelity of high-frequency details in denoising tasks, we propose a novel approach called the Reconstruct-and-Generate Diffusion Model (RnG). Our method leverages a reconstructive denoising network to recover the majority of the underlying clean signal, which serves as the initial estimation for subsequent steps to maintain fidelity. Additionally, it employs a diffusion algorithm to generate residual high-frequency details, thereby enhancing visual quality. We further introduce a two-stage training scheme to ensure effective collaboration between the reconstructive and generative modules of RnG. To reduce undesirable texture introduced by the diffusion model, we also propose an adaptive step controller that regulates the number of inverse steps applied by the diffusion model, allowing control over the level of high-frequency details added to each patch as well as saving the inference computational cost. Through our proposed RnG, we achieve a better balance between perception and distortion. We conducted extensive experiments on both synthetic and real denoising datasets, validating the superiority of the proposed approach

Un estudio contrastivo de la información pragmática en los libros de texto de español en China

Based on the Nuevo Español Moderno I-IV (2014, 2015, 2015, 2018) and the Nuevo Sueña I-IV (2015, 2015, 2016, 2016), which are published by Chinese and Spanish authors respectively, this study pretended to make a contrastive analysis about the development of the pragmatic competence. The most relevant conclusions are that, compared with the book of Spanish authors, the book of Chinese authors 1) contains little pragmatic information, 2) does not represent the main branches of the discipline of pragmatics, 3) leaves aside many frequent topics of speech acts and 4) has fewer strategies in presenting pragmatic information