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Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) have become an increasingly popular human resource management practice to attract, retain, and motivate employees. This is particularly true for those employees whose jobs require some level of creativity, as these types of jobs are often the ones that allow for or benefit most from these customized work arrangements. Using social cognitive theory that focuses on the development of self-efficacy as a conduit between environmental cues and behavioral outcomes, we explored the relationships between two predominant types of ideals-developmental i-deals and flexibility i-deals-and employee creativity through the mediating effect of creative self-efficacy (CSE). Results based on a study of 177 full-time employees from three organizations supported our hypotheses for developmental i-deals and employee creativity, with CSE fully mediating this relationship. We also discovered a curvilinear relationship between flexibility i-deals and creativity in additional post hoc analyses. There are three main contributions of our work. First, using social cognitive theory, we explored an internal motivational mechanism (i.e., CSE) of these customized employment arrangements, adding to the more traditional use of social exchange theory in the extant literature. Second, we found that the two different types of i-deals have differential effects on employees' creativity through the mediation mechanism of CSE. These results shed light on how the motivational properties of i-deals differentially affect employee creativity and suggest that there may be alternative intervening mechanisms for flexibility i-deals. Third, this study contributes to both the creativity and human resource management literatures by examining a new type of work condition, ideals, that could enable employees' creativity.

There is great interest in coupling the capabilities of electronics with the molecular-recognition properties of biology to generate hand-held devices that can diagnose diseases at the point-of-care, analyze environmental samples in the field, and assess food safety from the farm to the table. A key challenge is the integration of the labile biological recognition elements (e.g., proteins) at specific device addresses. Here, we report a simple, safe, and generic approach for assembling proteins in response to electrodeimposed electrical signals. This approach relies on the aminopolysaccharide chitosan that can be electrodeposited in response to cathodic signals and then electrochemically activated by anodic signals. The electodeposited and electroactivated chitosan films react with proteins to assemble them with spatial-selectivity and quantitative-control. The evidence presented indicates that the assembled proteins retain their native structure and biological functions. This method for on-demand biofunctionalization of individual electrode addresses should offer a generic approach to assemble proteins for multiplexed analysis.There has been considerable effort to discover mechanisms in which electrode-imposed electrical signals can promote the spatially-selective assembly of proteins at specific addresses. [1,2]

The network formation of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) within an epoxy resin during the curing process has been in-situ visualised for the first time, with its effect on electrical, mechanical, and multifunctional properties of these nanocomposites explored. Different initial states of dispersion and filler contents were employed to examine the nanofiller network formation process. Good electrical conductivity (10-3 S/m at 0.05 wt.% rGO) together with good mechanical reinforcement (12 % increase in flexural modulus at 0.2 wt.% rGO) were obtained at relatively low filler loadings. The integrated strain sensing capabilities based on the rGO network were explored with good sensitivity and repeatability. Joule heating was performed as a potential application for de-icing of multifunctional composite components with good heating capability from-20 °C to 20 °C within 2 min.

Since the discovery of graphene, various industries such as aerospace and automotive are trying to utilize this fascinating nanofiller to enhance components' performance. An important issue in the processing of nanoengineered composites is the interaction and potential filtration of nanofillers by the porous microfibre preform during liquid moulding processing. Here we demonstrate the filtration effect of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) during resin infusion of nanoengineered hierarchical composites, and for the first time we have successfully quantified this filtration effect by both electrical and optical methods. In addition, an alternative spraying method to deliver GNPs into composite laminates was also evaluated.

Carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRPs) are intensively used in modern aircraft structures because of their superb specific mechanical properties. Unfortunately their electrical and thermal conductivities are not sufficiently high for some applications like electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and lighting strike protection (LSP). The addition of external metallic structures, such as aluminium or copper mesh, is generally required, with a compromise in terms of increased mass and manufacturing cost as well as reduced corrosion resistance. In the present work spray coating of carbon nanoparticles was utilised as a simple method to locally increase the electrical and thermal suface conductivity of CFRPs. The combined use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) synergistically reduced the CFRPs surface resistivity by four orders of magnitude (from 2-3 Ω/sq to 3×10-4 Ω/sq) and increased the thermal conductivity by more than 7 times (from 200 W•m-1 •K-1 to 1500 W•m-1 •K-1), opening up possibilities for the replacement of metallic mesh structures for EMI shielding and LSP. An analytical model was introduced based on a one-dimensional heat conduction approach to predict the effective thermal conductivity for the hybrid nanofiller coating layer and its findings showed good agreement with experimental data.

With the emergence of stretchable/wearable devices, functions, such as sensing, energy storage/harvesting, electrical conduction, should ideally be carried out by a single material, while retaining its mechanical properties (e.g. ability...