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The study aims to provide the decision support for airfreight forwarders regarding the air-land intermodal operation, for which shipments are transported to gateway airports by air transportation and then delivered to final destinations by trucking service. A mixed integer programming model has been formulated to tackle the integrated routing and consolidation decision, given the various types of air containers. This study has designed an approximate solution algorithm based on Lagrangian Relaxation. In the numerical experiment, the solution algorithm can achieve an objective function value very close to optimality or the Lagrangian lower bound within an acceptable computation time.

This paper presents evidence that household energy use in Uganda conforms to the energy ladder theory. As household income increases, solid and transitional fuel use evolves in an inverse U manner, while electricity consumption shows a direct relationship with income. Public infrastructure provision, income, and education are the key variables which can be targeted to reduce household dependence on solid-fuels while increasing non-solid fuel use. While education and public infrastructure have varying impacts on rural and urban households' energy mix, these variables generally reduce rudimentary fuel use and increase modern fuel consumption. Timely investment in electricity infrastructure is necessary to cater for burgeoning electricity demand as households become affluent. Strategies for reforestation, dissemination of improved cookstoves, relieving supply side constraints for modern fuels, and staggered payment options to lower the cost of entry for modern fuels can improve Ugandan households' energy security.

Electroactive waterborne polyurethane (EWPU) containing conjugated segments of electroactive amino-capped aniline trimer (ACAT) unit was successfully prepared and characterized. Iodine-doped EWPU with conductivity 1.2 × 10 −6 S cm −1 was detected. The electroactivity of EWPU was evaluated by performing electrochemical cyclic voltammetry studies. It was worth noting that the EWPU coating was found to exhibit enhanced corrosion protection effects on cold-rolled steel (CRS) electrodes as compared to the corresponding non-electroactive waterborne polyurethane (NEWPU) coating based on a series of electrochemical measurements in 3.5 wt% NaCl electrolyte. A possible mechanism for the enhanced corrosion protection ability of the EWPU coatings on the CRS electrode could be interpreted as the redox catalytic capabilities of the aniline trimer units existed in EWPU induce the formation of passive metal oxide layers on the CRS electrode, as further evidenced by SEM and XPS studies. The thermal stability of EWPU was also investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

The World Economic Forum evaluated and ranked global travel and tourism competitiveness using the three subindices and fourteen pillars of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). While measuring the overall scores, all subindices/pillars are inherently treated with equal importance. It is suggested this approach limits the quality of information for policymakers and inhibits better decision-makings. To add value to the TTCI, this study explores the causal relationships among the subindices and pillars affecting the overall rankings. A framework is proposed that integrates the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for benchmarking analysis, the Bayesian Network (BN) classifiers for cause–effect hypotheses development, and the Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling for hypotheses testing. Consequently it is suggested that this improved approach can facilitate policymakers to better understand the nature of a destination's competitive standing.

The World Economic Forum employs Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Indexes (TTCI) to measure the travel & tourism (T&T) global competitiveness of a country. The TTCI overall scores are calculated with an arithmetic mean aggregation from the scores of the fourteen composite pillars with a subjective assumption of all the pillars having the same weights. This paper attempts to release such a subjective assumption by proposing a new solution framework to explore an objective weighting system for the pillars. The proposed solution framework employs the Expectation Maximization (EM) clustering algorithm to group the 139 ranked countries into three classes and then performs the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analysis to explore the objective weighting system for the fourteen pillars. The results show that tourism infrastructure, ground transport infrastructure, air transport infrastructure, cultural resources, health and hygiene, and ICT infrastructure are the six most critical pillars contributing to the TTCI overall scores. Accordingly, the policy makers should allocate limited resources with priority to improve these six pillars to frog leap the T&T global competitiveness.

Factoring the most affective elements into a tangible product is the core of Kansei design. Accordingly, one promising means to innovate the local food is to incorporate essential features of renowned international cuisine into the local gastronomy to serve as a destination marketing enabler. This paper proposes an evaluation framework by employing Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Borda count method to select an icon dish of innovative Hakka-Kaiseki hybrid cuisine for a local Hakka restaurant in Taiwan. The decision group has selected “Shrimp Tofu” as the icon dish to promote food tourism. The results show that the Kaiseki features have surpassed the Hakka features; among which, the foremost feature is shape, followed by color, material, and savory. The findings provide useful culinary guides to facilitate the chefs to develop more Kansei cuisine dishes.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is regarded as a favorable solution to enhance a modern organization's IT performance and competitiveness; however, many organizations may still be reluctant to introduce SaaS solutions mainly because of the trust concern—they may perceive more risks than benefits. This paper presumes that an organization will augment the trust of adopting SaaS solutions when perceived risks decrease and/or perceived benefits increase. To gain insights into this issue, a solution framework using a modified Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach is proposed. The core logic is to treat perceived benefits and perceived risks as two distinct themes so that a visible cause-effect diagram can be developed to facilitate the decision makers. A case study is conducted on a Taiwanese company—one of the world's leading manufacturers in the niche and specialized resistor markets. The findings suggest that the case company concern more about strategic-oriented benefits than economic- oriented benefits and more about subjective risks than technical risks. Some implications are addressed accordingly.

It is the first time that a chemoselective EtPPh2-catalyzed three-component reaction of aromatic aldehyde, alkyl acrylate, and phthalimide or methyl toluenesulfonamide has been achieved. A variety of highly functional adducts can be generated efficiently in one step within 1–72 h in 38–93% yields. The reaction mechanism is proposed to undergo Morita–Baylis–Hillman reactions of aryl-substituted aldehydes and alkyl acrylates followed by Michael additions of amides. Our studies indicated that, in combination of EtPPh2, alkyl acrylate also catalyzed this process.

A large volume of works have addressed the importance of Knowledge management (KM). However, there are increasingly numerous concerns about whether the KM efforts can be fairly reflected and transformed into the business performance. Even though the KM contribution is qualitative and hard to measure, some works using statistical methods declare that a specific KM style may produce a better corporate performance. Statistical methods attempt to summarize yesterday's success rules, while data mining techniques aim to explore tomorrow's success clues. This study challenges the issue of what the hidden patterns between KM and its performance are, and whereby identifies the reality of whether a better performance is resulted from a special KM style. The analysis results using Bayesian network classifier and rough set theory show that it is not easy to support that a special KM style would produce a similar performance.

Competency development and management are widely regarded as vital tools to enhance competitiveness for organizations. A number of studies have suggested a variety of competency models, including a list of required competencies for use by organizations that wish to enrich their employees' competencies. However, all these required competencies do not necessarily share the same importance. To effectively implement competency development, it is desirable to distinguish the differences of perceived competency levels between high-performers and others. In doing so, a large number of required competencies can be reduced into a compact set that focuses on significant competencies of high-performers. To this end, this paper proposes a method based on the rough set theory to explore high-performers' required competencies. An empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method. Based on our findings, conclusions and implications for management are presented.

In this work, a stable de-aggregated solvent-swollen organic modified clay, ALA–MMT, suspension is prepared by an efficient solvent swelling process using a home-made shaking mixer. It is found that the estimated average size of the as-prepared organoclay particles in the suspension is reduced to about 155 nm, which has not been reported before. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that the d -spacing of the silicate layers of the solvent-swollen ALA–MMT expands from 1.4 nm to about 2.1 nm. The de-aggregated solvent-swollen ALA–MMT suspension is then used with polyurethane (PU) to prepare a series of highly exfoliated and high-organoclay-loading nanocomposites, PU/ALA–MMT. Both the XRD patterns and the TEM photographs of the as-prepared PU/ALA–MMT nanocomposites indicate that the organoclay is uniformly dispersed in the PU matrix with a highly exfoliated morphology structure of up to 7 wt% loading. Meanwhile, the TEM photographs give the first report for PU/clay nanocomposites which are almost completely exfoliated, and ∼1-nm thin silicate nanolayers are homogeneously dispersed in the polymer matrix with a high aspect ratio of 30–100. The thermal, mechanical, and anti-corrosion properties are all tremendously enhanced for the as-prepared nanocomposites. The results obtained for the PU nanocomposite with 7 wt% ALA–MMT loading (PUC7) reveal a 19 °C increment in T g , a 48 °C increment in T 5% , a 248% increase in the tensile strength, and a 123% increase in the elongation. The stainless steel disk (SSD) coated with PUC7 shows the lowest corrosion rate of 2.01 × 10 −6 mm/year, which is 469% lower than that of the SSD coated with pure PU. The reinforcements are much greater than the previously reported PU/clay nanocomposites with comparable clay loadings ascribed to the exceptional homogeneity of as-prepared nanocomposites, which are accredited largely to the stable de-aggregated solvent-swollen organoclay suspension generated by the efficient solvent swelling process.

For ensuring the successful implementation of knowledge management, here raises a critical issue of how companies can better evaluate and select a favorable knowledge management strategy before that implementation. However, selecting a proper knowledge management strategy is a kind of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem required to consider a large number of complex factors. Unlike many traditional MCDM methods that are based on the independence assumption, the analytic network process (ANP) is a relative new MCDM method which can deal with all kinds of dependences systematically. Since the ANP has these advantages, in this paper, we develop an effective method based on the ANP to help companies that need to evaluate and select knowledge management strategies. Additionally, an empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

Modern global managers are required to possess a set of competencies or multiple intelligences in order to meet pressing business challenges. Hence, expanding global managers’ competencies is becoming an important issue. Many scholars and specialists have proposed various competency models containing a list of required competencies. But it is hard for someone to master a broad set of competencies at the same time. Here arises an imperative issue on how to enrich global managers’ competencies by way of segmenting a set of competencies into some portions in order to facilitate competency development with a stepwise mode. To solve this issue involving the vagueness of human judgments, we have proposed an effective method combining fuzzy logic and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to segment required competencies for better promoting the competency development of global managers. Additionally, an empirical study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

Ketol-acid reductoisomerase (EC 1.1.1.86) catalyses the second reaction in the biosynthesis of the branched-chain amino acids. The reaction catalyzed consists of two stages, the first of which is an alkyl migration from one carbon atom to its neighbour. The likely transition state is therefore a cyclopropane derivative, and cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylate (CPD) has been reported to inhibit the Escherichia coli enzyme. In addition, this compound causes the accumulation of the substrate of ketol-acid reductoisomerase in plants. Here, we investigate the inhibition of the purified rice enzyme. The cDNA was cloned, and the recombinant protein was expressed in E. coli, purified and characterized kinetically. The purified enzyme is strongly inhibited by cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylate, with an inhibition constant of 90 nM. The inhibition is time-dependent and this is due to the low rate constants for formation (2.63 × 105 M−1 min−1) and dissociation (2.37 × 10−2 min−1) of the enzyme-inhibitor complex. Other cyclopropane derivatives are much weaker inhibitors while dimethylmalonate is moderately effective.