Despite being controversial, teacher tenure policies are understudied, particularly in higher education contexts outside the Western world. Using semi-structured interviews with 15 university faculty members, this study explored how tenure systems influence the teaching practices, motivations, and job satisfaction of language teachers in Macau's universities. It was revealed that Macau implemented competitive, “up or out” tenure policies that were based on research output. Faculty were anxious as vague expectations heightened research priorities over teaching quality and student support. Requirements also strained collegial relationships as faculty goals focused on promotion. Veteran professors demonstrated resilience, maintaining intrinsic motivation despite policies. They advocated improving policies by promoting transparency, balancing workloads, accommodating disciplines, and communicating effectively. Using empirical data, this study identifies key policy implications for supporting teacher motivation while balancing inequality constraints. It provides empirical insight into optimizing tenure for teacher engagement and fulfillment.

This research delves into the intricate dynamics of ethical leadership within the context of Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). By scrutinizing its impact on organizational effectiveness, the study unveils a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness between ethical leadership, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research investigates the mediating roles played by knowledge sharing and organizational learning in the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational effectiveness. Through empirical analysis and case studies, this study contributes valuable insights to the literature, offering practical implications for fostering ethical leadership practices in Vietnamese SMEs to enhance overall organizational effectiveness. The findings shed light on the nuanced mechanisms through which ethical leadership contributes to sustainable success, emphasizing the pivotal roles of knowledge sharing and organizational learning in this intricate relationship.

A new method has been proposed to estimate top heat losses of vertical flat plate liquid/air collectors with double glazing. Empirical relations have been developed for the temperatures of glass covers, thus facilitating the calculation of individual heat transfer coefficients. The values of individual heat transfer coefficients therefore obtained can be used in the proposed analytical equation for the estimation of the top heat loss coefficient of the vertical collector with double glazing. The analytical equation has been developed for collector tilt angle of 60 to 90 degrees, plate temperature of 323 K to 423 K, absorber coating emittance of 0.1 to 0.95, air gap spacing of 20 mm to 50mm between the plate and inner glass cover, air gap spacing of 20 mm to 50mm between glass covers, wind heat transfer coefficient of 5 W/m2K to 30 W/m2K, and ambient temperature of 263K to 313K. The accuracy of the analytical equation has been validated for the said range of variables in comparison to numerical solutions, and the values of the top heat loss coefficient are found to be within 2.5 percent compared to numerical solutions.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematologic cancer characterized by clonal proliferation of plasma cells within the bone marrow. It is the most serious form of plasma cell dyscrasias, whose complications—hypercalcemia, renal failure, anemia, and lytic bone lesions—are severe and justify the therapeutic management. Imaging of bone lesions is a cardinal element in the diagnosis, staging, study of response to therapy, and prognostic evaluation of patients with MM. Historically, the skeletal radiographic workup (SRW), covering the entire axial skeleton, has been used to detect bone lesions. Over time, new imaging techniques that are more powerful than SRW have been evaluated. Low-dose and whole-body computed tomography (CT) supplants SRW for the detection of bone involvement, but is of limited value in assessing therapeutic response. Bone marrow MRI, initially studying the axial pelvic-spinal skeleton and more recently the whole body, is an attractive alternative. Beyond its non-irradiating character, its sensitivity for the detection of marrow damage, its capacity to evaluate the therapeutic response and its prognostic value has been demonstrated. This well-established technique has been incorporated into disease staging systems by many health systems and scientific authorities. Along with positron emission tomography (PET)-18 fluorodeoxyglucose CT, it constitutes the current imaging of choice for MM. This article illustrates the progress of the MRI technique over the past three decades and situates its role in the management of patients with MM.

Based on the collective forest with common use rights, the social-ecological system analysis framework and autonomous governance theory proposed by Elinor Ostrom are introduced in the forest eco-economic system to analyze the interaction logic among the first-level subsystems and the secondary variables of the forest eco-economic system and the variables related to the autonomous governance of the system to explore the synergistic mechanisms affecting the forest eco-economic system. The results show that: in the case of information asymmetry, collective actions of governmental and non-governmental organizations will aggravate the dilemma of forest eco-economic synergistic development; actors extract forest resource units from the forest resource system to achieve economic benefits; and renewable resources of forest ecosystems can be sustained in the long term when the average extraction rate of humans from forest ecosystems does not exceed the average replenishment rate.

The effect of isocyanate trimer on the flame retardancy mechanism of polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam was studied in three aspects, including the mechanism of thermal decomposition in the condensed phase, the barrier mechanism of carbon layer formation on the surface in the condensed phase, and the mechanism in the gaseous phase, by using infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, a cone calorimeter, and high-temperature pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The results show that the trimmer can improve the thermal stability of the PIR foam and is not easily decomposed in the combustion. The trimmer can increase the carbon content of the PIR foam to 29.9% of that of the polyurethane (PU) foam. The carbon layer formed is denser, and it can retard heat and oxygen and thus improve the flame retardant properties; trimer can reduce the release of flammable polyol gas, decompose into more carbon dioxide, which is an inert gas, and it has certain flame retardant effects in the gaseous phase.