Construction professionals are prone to work-family conflict and job burnout, which in turn can affect project performance during implementation of delivery. To cope with this, a questionnaire survey was undertaken with construction professionals in the Chinese construction industry and 373 valid responses were received. A theoretical model introducing organizational support as a moderating variable was developed and tested with structural equation modeling. The results showed that there is a positive correlation between work-family conflict and job burnout for construction professionals. Involving organizational support can alleviate the impact of work-family conflict on professionals’ job burnout. Meanwhile, both work-family conflict and job burnout have negative effects on project performance. Therefore, an atmosphere and culture of humanized management should be established within the construction enterprises. Additionally, organizational incentives such as regulations and rules should be formulated assisting employees achieve work-family balance. Such incentives could contribute to the construction industry and improve project performance. Furthermore, this study provides a new theoretical perspective for the management of job burnout and work-family conflict in the construction industry, complementing the existing body of knowledge.

Hydrogels, as the most typical elastomer materials with three-dimensional (3D) network structures, have attracted wide attention owing to their outstanding features in fields of sensitive stimulus response, low surface friction coefficient, good flexibility, and bio-compatibility. Because of numerous fresh polymer materials (or polymerization monomers), hydrogels with various structure diversities and excellent properties are emerging, and the development of hydrogels is very vigorous over the past decade. This review focuses on state-of-the-art advances, systematically reviews the recent progress on construction of novel hydrogels utilized several kinds of typical polymerization monomers, and explores the main chemical and physical cross-linking methods to develop the diversity of hydrogels. Following the aspects mentioned above, the classification and emerging applications of hydrogels, such as pH response, ionic response, electrical response, thermal response, biomolecular response, and gas response, are extensively summarized. Finally, this review is done with the promises and challenges for the future evolution of hydrogels and their biological applications.

Multiple-band metamaterial absorber at terahertz regime using periodically arranged surface structure placed on ultra-thin thickness of insulating dielectric slab backed by a metallic ground plane is demonstrated in this paper....

Heavy metal ions (Ni(2+), Zn(2+), and Cr(3+)) can be effectively removed from real polynary metal ions-bearing electroplating wastewaters by a carbonation process, with ∼99% of metal ions removed in most cases. The synchronous formation of layered double hydroxide (LDH) precipitates containing these metal ions was responsible for the self-purification of wastewaters. The constituents of formed polynary metals-LDHs mainly depended on the Ni(2+):Zn(2+):Cr(3+) molar ratio in wastewaters. LDH was formed at pH of 6.0-8.0 when the Ni(2+)/Zn(2+) molar ratio ≥ 1 where molar fraction of trivalent metal in the wastewaters was 0.2-0.4, otherwise ZnO, hydrozincite, or amorphous precipitate was observed. In the case of LDH formation, the residual concentration of Ni(2+), Zn(2+), and Cr(3+) in the treated wastewaters was very low, about 2-3, ∼2, and ∼1 mg/L, respectively, at 20-80 °C and pH of 6.0-8.0, indicating the effective incorporation of heavy metal ions into the LDH matrix. Furthermore, the obtained LDH materials were used to adsorb azoic dye GR, with the maximum adsorption amount of 129-134 mg/g. We also found that the obtained LDHs catalyzed more than 65% toluene to decompose at 350 °C under ambient pressure. Thus the current research has not only shown effective recovery of heavy metal ions from the electroplating wastewaters in an environmentally friendly process but also demonstrated the potential utilization of recovered materials.