bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigating gender wage gap in employment
Authors: Mbratana Taoufiki , Fotie Kenne Andrée 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender wage disparity in paid employment and self-employment. To achieve this objective, the Cameroon Household Consumption Survey of 2007 is used. The main question considered in this paper is why women paid employment and self-employment wages are relatively low. In a whole, what are the underlying factors that generate and explain wage gap between men and women householders in employment?Design/methodology/approachFirst, the paper uses the Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition to explain wage gap. Thereafter, the Quantile Regression Decomposition using Machado and Mata approach is applied in order to see the gap at different levels of the wage distribution.FindingsThe main finding indicates that in both methods, the wage gap is due to an unexplained component in self-employment and explained component in paid employment, particularly with strong effects at the extreme of wage distribution.Research limitations/implicationsThe topic of this paper helps to explain and analyse the functioning of the Cameroonian labour market.Practical implicationsThe findings can be applied to narrow the gender wage gap by eliminating discrimination and approving the principle of equal opportunity, support policies that reduce obstacles preventing women from starting and developing their businesses to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs and achieve harmonisation between work and family life.Originality/valueUsing available data survey, this paper is the first to identify and decompose the causes of paid employment and self-employment gender wage gap in Cameroon.
The distribution of unlevered housing in American urban areas
Authors: Lijing Du , Huang Jian , Singer Daniel , Torna Gokhan 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of social and economic factors on home ownership as an investment in American urban areas.Design/methodology/approachThe authors run a spatial analysis using home ownership data on 817 American counties from US Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey.FindingsWhile the amenity value of home ownership is found to be important to overall housing tenure decisions, it is found to be less so for the ownership cohort without mortgages. Economic factors are found to impact the spatial pattern of owner-occupied housing without mortgage differently than that of all owner-occupied housing. The implications of these differences for investors are explored.Research limitations/implicationsThe results may lack generalizability outside of the American urban areas.Practical implicationsAs a result of the findings of this study, a shift in investor focus from minimizing initial housing costs to sustainable housing costs is recommended.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into the social and economic dimensions of owner-occupied housing in order to create a more profitable investing policy for promoting home ownership.
Dynamic characteristics of exponential slider bearings lubricated with a ferrofluid – Shliomis model
Authors: Lin Jaw-Ren , Chu Li-Ming 
Published: March 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of exponential slider bearings lubricated with a ferrofluid. Because of the development of modern engineering, the increasing use of ferrofluids in lubrication fields has shown great importance. Understanding the dynamic characteristics of exponential film bearings is helpful for engineers in bearing selection.

Design/methodology/approach
Applying the Shliomis ferrohydrodynamic flow model and considering the squeezing action of bearing pads, a dynamic Reynolds equation is obtained for an exponential film slider bearing lubricated with a ferrofluid in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Analytical solutions of dynamic characteristics are obtained.

Findings
According to the results, the ferrofluid-lubricated exponential film bearing provides better dynamic stiffness and damping characteristics than the non-ferrofluid ones, especially the bearing operating at higher values of the volume concentration parameter and the magnetic Langevin parameter.

Originality/value
Numerical tables of stiffness and damping coefficients for different values of the volume concentration parameter and the Langevin parameter are also included for engineering references.
Effect of slurry concentration on erosion wear behavior of AISI 5117 steel and high-chromium white cast iron
Authors: Al-Bukhaiti Mohammed Ahmed , Mohamad Ahmed Abouel Kasem , Emara Karam Mosa , Ahmed Shemy M. 
Published: March 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the influence of slurry concentration on the erosion behavior of AISI 5117 steel and high-chromium white cast iron by using a whirling-arm rig. In this study, the slurry erosion mechanism with particle concentration has been studied.

Design/methodology/approach
The tests were carried out with particle concentrations in the range of 1-7 Wt.%, and the impact velocity of slurry stream was 15 m/s. Silica sand with a nominal size range of 500-710 µm was used as an erodent. The study revealed that the failure mode was independent of concentration.

Findings
The results showed that the erosion rate decreases with the increase in particle concentration and the variation in the reduction depends on the material. It was found that the variation of fractal dimension calculated from slope of linearized power spectral density of eroded surface image for different concentrations can be used to characterize the slurry erosion intensity in a similar manner to the erosion rate. It was also found that the variation of fractal dimension versus concentration of sand has a general trend that does not depend on magnification factor.

Originality/value
Using the gravitational measurement and image analysis, the variation of the wear with slurry concentration has been analyzed to investigate the implicated mechanisms of erosion during the process.
Investigation on inner flow field characteristics of groove textures in fully lubricated thrust bearings
Authors: Wang Wei , He Yongyong , Li Yang , Wei Bin , Hu Yutong , Luo Jianbin 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the inner flow field characteristics of groove textures in thrust bearings. Cavitation and vortex are studied simultaneously to enrich the theories of surface texture.Design/methodology/approachNavier–Stokes equations are solved using computational fluid dynamics. The MIXTURE model is adopted to study the gas–liquid mixture flow under the cavitation condition.FindingsRe number, the depth ratio as well as the area ratio of the groove texture and the bottom shape are all influencing factors of the inner flow field characteristics. When cavitation region and vortex region occupy the bottom of the groove texture, these do not overlap because of the pressure gradient. The positive pressure gradient in the non-cavitation region introduces nonlinearity into the velocity profiles, which affects the load-carrying capacity and friction.Originality/valueCavitation and vortex are studied simultaneously only in this study. The characteristics of the textured thrust bearing can be analyzed and explained with the combined effect of cavitation and vortex.
Development of a mathematical model to determine optimum hollowness in layered cylindrical hollow rolling element using FE analysis
Authors: Solanki Mitul Thakorbhai , Vakharia Dipak 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical model to determine optimum hollowness of a layered cylindrical hollow rolling element when it contacts with a flat plate.Design/methodology/approachIn this work, finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out for different hollowness percentages ranging from 10 to 90 layered cylindrical hollow rolling elements corresponding to five standard NU 22 series bearings, i.e. 2206, 2210, 2215, 2220 and 2224. An experimental investigation is carried out for the NU 2206-layered cylindrical hollow roller bearing (LCHRB) at optimum hollowness under static loading condition.FindingsDifferent parameters, such as bending stress (von Mises stress at the bore of the roller), von Mises stress, contact pressure and deflection in loaded contact are presented here.Originality/valueThe value of this research work is the development of a generalized solution that can be used to find the exact value of optimum hollowness for the layered cylindrical hollow rolling element, which is dependent on the yield strength of the material and the geometry of the roller under static loading condition. A static load test rig is designed to observe the load carrying capacity of the LCHRB as compared to the hollow cylindrical roller bearing.
“Conspicuous consumption in the context of consumer animosity”
Authors: Abraham Villy , Reitman Abraham 
Published: March 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of consumer animosity on conspicuous consumption in two research settings: Israel and Russia. The study also examines: the relationship between susceptibility to norm influence (SNI) and consumer animosity, whether SNI affects consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) products from a country toward which they harbor animosity, and the relationship between consumer animosity and WTB in contexts differing in the level of animosity harbored toward a target country.

Design/methodology/approach
To probe generalizability, the hypothesized model was tested in two different contexts: Study 1 was conducted in Israel using the context of the Holocaust and Study 2 was conducted in Russia using the context of the recent political discord with the USA. A convenience sample of Israeli-Jewish (n=264) and Russian (n=259) consumers yielded a total of 523 questionnaires.

Findings
In both contexts, the results from the SPSS and AMOS analyses indicated a negative and significant relationship between consumer animosity and conspicuous consumption. Moreover, SNI was positively associated with consumer animosity. Finally, the study findings point to a negative association between consumer animosity and WTB, regardless of the level of animosity.

Originality/value
The research findings suggest that consumer animosity may be a stronger predictor for the consumption of conspicuous products than for the consumption of necessity goods.
Is commercial bank lending in South Africa procyclical?
Authors: Akinsola Foluso Abioye , Ikhide Sylvanus 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between commercial bank lending and business cycle in South Africa. This paper attempts to know whether commercial bank lending in South Africa is procyclical.Design/methodology/approachThe model assumed that the lending behaviour is related to the business cycle. In this study, vector error correction model (VECM) is used to capture the relationship between bank lending and business cycle to accurately elicit the macroeconomic long-run relationship between business cycle and bank lending, as some banks might slow down bank lending due to some idiosyncratic factors that are not related to the downturn in the economy. This paper uses data from South African Reserve Bank for the period of 1990-2015 using VECM to understand the extent to which business cycle fluctuation can affect credit crunch in the financial system. The Johansen cointegration approach is used to ascertain whether there is indeed a long-run co-movement between credit growth and business cycle.FindingsResults from the VECM show that there are significant linkages among the variables, especially between credit to gross domestic product (GDP) and business cycle. The influence of business cycle is seen vividly after a period of four to five years, where business cycle explains 20 per cent of the variation in the credit to GDP. South African banks tend to change their lending behaviour during upturns and downturns. This result further confirms the assertion in theory that credit follows business cycle and can amplify credit crunch. The result shows that in the long run, fluctuations in the business cycle can influence the credit growth in South Africa.Research limitations/implicationsThe impulse analysis result shows that the impact of business cycle shock is very persistent and lasting. This also demonstrates that the shocks to the business cycle result have a persistent and long-lasting impact on credit. This study finds that commercial bank lending in South Africa is procyclical. It is suggested that the South African economy needs forward-looking policies that will mitigate the flow of credit to the real sector and at the same time ensure financial stability.Originality/valueMost research papers rarely distinguish between the demand side and supply side of credit procyclicality. This report is presented to develop an econometric model that will examine demand side procyclicality. This study adopts more realistic and novel methods that will help in explaining the relationship between bank lending and business cycle in South Africa, especially after the global financial crisis. This report is presented with a concise and detailed analysis and interpretation.
Modeling multiple levels of targets in operational efficiency evaluation with DEA
Authors: Long Xia , Xia Qiong 
Published: March 2018

PurposeResearchers have noticed that in efficiency assessment, some attributes exhibit specializations including non-discretionary, non-controllable or undesirable. This paper aims to focus on other special factors which have target levels to achieve, i.e. the inputs (outputs) are no longer the-less-the-better (the-more-the-better).Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors further study the target variables when some attributes have multiple levels of targets. Such a situation can be found in many operational efficiency evaluations with various targets or bounded scale in inputs or outputs. They suppose that decision-making units (DMUs), reaching any target level, are identical efficient. To some extent, it is mitigation between common targets and individual targets. Using the closest target rule, the authors propose a target-level-oriented method to evaluate DMUs locally.FindingsFirst, the authors found that some factors have multiple levels of targets to improve its efficiency in real world practice. Second, the proposed technique is able to deal with the multiple-levels-targets problems in data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework. Third, the decision-maker can select the improvement directions more freely than that in the traditional setting.Originality/valueFirst, this is the first paper to discuss the multiple-levels-targets problems in DEA framework. Second, the proposed technique can help the decision-maker to select the best improvement strategies. Third, the technique developed in this paper can be used in many areas. For example, it can support the environmental efficiency evaluation with different standards of pollution emission.
Managing a retailer’s dual-channel supply chain under price- and delivery time-sensitive demand
Authors: Saha Subrata , Modak Nikunja Mohan , Panda Shibaji , Sana Shib Sankar 
Published: March 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to explore optimal pricing policies and characteristics of a two-level dual-channel supply chain under price- and delivery time-sensitive demand. Besides price of the product, the delivery lead time is also a crucial factor in customers’ purchase decisions. A longer delivery lead time would diminish customers’ acceptance and faithfulness on the online channel, while a shorter delivery lead time would lead to incorporation of a substantial amount of logistics costs. In formulation of mathematical model, the effects of delivery lead time on the manufacturer and the retailer’s pricing strategies and profits in cooperative and non-cooperative dual-channel supply chain are explained analytically.Design/methodology/approachThe analytical models are formed for both non-cooperative and cooperative scenarios under inconsistent and consistent pricing. The authors examine whether revenue sharing (RS) contract or delivery cost sharing contract can solely coordinate the dual-channel supply chain. If a single contract fails, then the combination of RS contract with delivery cost sharing to achieve channel coordination is discussed.FindingsIt is found that the RS or delivery cost sharing contract cannot coordinate the channel individually but revenue and delivery cost sharing contract jointly coordinate the channel. All analytical results are illustrated numerically, along with sensitivity analysis.Research limitations/implicationsThere are many correlated issues that need to be further investigated. First, one good extension to this research may include the consideration of the channel structure with competitive retailers. It will be interesting to analyze the performance of coordination mechanisms by considering the retailer as a Stackelberg leader in retailing.Originality/valueThe findings and subsequent methodological discussions aim to provide practical guidance to retailers who are allowing customers to choose how, when and where they interact and purchase by offering a combination of websites (fully functional and mobile-enabled), catalogs and stores with increasing convergence of channels.
Text mining based theme logic structure identification: application in library journals
Authors: Zhu Qing , Wu Yiqiong , Li Yuze , Han Jing , Zhou Xiaoyang 
Published: March 2018

Purpose
Library intelligence institutions, which are a kind of traditional knowledge management organization, are at the frontline of the big data revolution, in which the use of unstructured data has become a modern knowledge management resource. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach
This research combined theme logic structure (TLS), artificial neural network (ANN), and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) to transform unstructured data into a signal-wave to examine the research characteristics.

Findings
Research characteristics have a vital effect on knowledge management activities and management behavior through concentration and relaxation, and ultimately form a quasi-periodic evolution. Knowledge management should actively control the evolution of the research characteristics because the natural development of six to nine years was found to be difficult to plot.

Originality/value
Periodic evaluation using TLS-ANN-EEMD gives insights into journal evolution and allows journal managers and contributors to follow the intrinsic mode functions and predict the journal research characteristics tendencies.
Insect pollination as an agronomic input: Strategies for oilseed rape production
Authors: Garratt Michael P. D. , Bishop Jacob , Degani Erika , Potts Simon G. , Shaw Rosalind F. , Shi Anmei , Roy Shovonlal 
Published: March 2018

Abstract

Ecological intensification involves the incorporation of biodiversity‐based ecosystem service management into farming systems in order to make crop production more sustainable and reduce reliance on anthropogenic inputs, including fertilizer and insecticides.

The benefits of effectively managing ecosystem services such as pollination and pest regulation for improved yields have been demonstrated in a number of studies, however, recent evidence indicates that these benefits interact with conventional agronomic inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation. Despite the important contribution of biodiversity‐based ecosystem services to crop production their management is rarely considered in combination with more conventional agronomic inputs.

This study combines a number of complementary approaches to evaluate the impact of insect pollination on yield parameters of Brassica napus and how this interacts with a key agronomic input, fertilizer. We incorporate data from a flight cage trial and multiple field studies to quantify the relationships between yield parameters to determine whether insufficient insect pollination may limit crop yield.

We demonstrate that, by producing larger seeds and more pods, B. napus has the capacity to modulate investment across yield parameters and buffer sub‐optimal inputs of fertilizer or pollination. However, only when fertilizer is not limiting can the crop benefit from insect pollination, with yield increases due to insect pollination only seen under high fertilizer application.

A nonlinear relationship between seed set per pod and yield per plant was found, with increases in seed set between 15 and 25 seeds per pod resulting in a consistent increase in crop yield. The capacity for the crop to compensate for lower seed set due to sub‐optimal pollination is therefore limited.

Synthesis and applications. Oilseed rape has the capacity to compensate for sub‐optimal agronomic or ecosystem service inputs although this has limitations. Insect pollination can increase seed set and so there are production benefits to be gained through effective management of wild pollinators or by utilizing managed species. Our study demonstrates, however, that increased insect pollination cannot simply replace other inputs, and if resources such as fertilizer are limiting, then yield potential cannot be reached. We highlight the need to consider insect pollination as an agronomic input to be effectively managed in agricultural systems.
Ideology and Effective Government: Lessons from Rudd–Gillard Labor
Authors: Edwards Lindy 
Published: March 2018

AbstractOur democracy is predicated on voters choosing between political parties with competing ideologies that translate into different policy outcomes. Nonetheless, claims that ideology is of declining importance are common, and were a feature of the Rudd–Gillard Labor government. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between ideology and policy outcomes under that government. It defines Labor ideology by identifying the areas of consensus between three competing Labor traditions, and then examines the party's budget decisions on those policy areas. It finds that on the ideological consensus issues of income redistribution, public health and public education they implemented a substantial and coherent reform agenda consistent with Labor ideology. The consistency on the consensus issues contrasts with the ‘flip‐flopping’ on issues that were ideologically contested within the party, suggesting that far from being irrelevant, ideology was central to explaining both the strengths and weaknesses of Rudd–Gillard Labor.