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The workforce of growing globalization has led to a large number of expatriate employees working overseas for short term employment. An expatriate assignment is strongly correlated with a variety of difficulties that affect expatriates' adjustment abroad. Therefore, the aim of this article is: (1) to determine the challenges encountered by Chinese expatriates in Pakistan and (2) to determine the role of cross-cultural training for a successful international assignment. The paper adopts a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews; the interviews were conducted with 22 males and eight females, forming a total of 30 Chinese employees with the average age of 34.5 years, working in different Chinese organizations in Pakistan in 2018. The findings of this study revealed that the most significant challenges faced by Chinese expatriates in Pakistan were cultural differences and language barriers in both work and non-work factors, whereas, those Chinese expatriates who were trained through formal and informal learning techniques could facilitate their cross-cultural adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensors for environmental radioactivity based on two novel setups using photodiodes, on the one hand, and an advanced tablet-based hybrid pixel detector, on the other hand, are presented. Measurements of four kinds of terrestrial and every-day radiation sources are carried out: Airborne radon, a mineral containing traces of uranium, edible potassium salt, and an old radium watch. These measurements permit comparisons between different types of ambient radioactive sources and enable environmental monitoring. Available data comprise discrimination between α - and β − -particles in an energy range of 33 keV to 8 MeV and under ambient air conditions. The diode-based sensor is particularly useful in portable applications since it is small and sturdy with little power consumption. It can be directly connected to a smartphone via the headset socket. For its development, the low-cost silicon positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) diodes BPX61 and BPW34 have been characterised with capacitance versus voltage (C-V) curves. Physical detection limits for ionising radiation are discussed based on obtained depletion layer width: (50 ± 8) μ m at 8 V. The mobile and low-cost character of these sensors, as alternatives to Geiger counters or other advanced equipment, allows for a widespread use by individuals and citizen science groups for environmental and health protection purposes, or in educational settings. Source code and hardware design files are released under open source licenses with this publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]