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The growth in social media use as a marketing tool continues to gain popularity among businesses in different sectors. Due to social media marketing, business-to-business relationships and the creation of networks in the market have proved to be attractive to the construction industry despite overreliance on the traditional marketing approaches. Despite its popularity, research regarding the social media marketing role in organisational business development is limited. This thesis explored the perception of managers in the construction industry on the role of social media marketing in organisational business development. With a focus on three large construction companies in Singapore, given the need to obtain an in-depth understanding of the managerial perspectives on social media marketing, a qualitative interpretivist approach has been adopted. The study involved 12 respondents in senior positions in the construction industry who were interviewed using a semi-structured interview technique and their responses analyzed using thematic analysis to answer the research questions. The review of literature, as well as the analysis of the information obtained from respondents, resulted in invaluable insights that added to the body of knowledge in social media marketing in organisational business development. The reviewed literature resulted in the creation of a theoretical framework that informs the exploration of the social media marketing role in organisational business development. Further, the results of the study show that social media marketing plays an important role in organisational business development among construction firms. As part of the contribution of this study, a set of model guidelines has been developed that shows the approaches that marketers can use to enhance the positive influence of social media marketing in organisational business development. The influence of social media marketing on marketing functions and its positive performance outcomes are also key contributions to the organisational business development among construction firms. The study has recommended the need to improve resource commitments to enhance social media marketing as an important contributor to organisational business development among the construction firms, increase involvement in social media marketing, and improve reliance on multiple social media marketing platforms to enhance positive influence on organisational business development. The findings from this study can guide the use and tailoring of social media marketing in organisational business development within the construction industry.

The existing methods of fault detection for Gas- Insulated metal-enclosed Switchgear (GIS) are mainly aimed at the discharge faults of GIS, and the related detection techniques for the abnormal noise and vibration of the GIS equipment are less reported. Therefore, the study of the vibration characteristics caused by the mechanical anomalies in the GIS equipment becomes particularly urgent. Based on the specific size of GIS equipment, the vibration characteristic simulation model of GIS busbar was constructed, and the vibration characteristics of the GIS equipment were simulated and analyzed. The simulation results show that there are five natural vibration frequencies of 416.62 Hz, 475.66 Hz, 504.77 Hz, 888.29 Hz and 1030.9 Hz near the natural frequency of 100 HZ. The vibration characteristics of the GIS equipment have low frequency characteristics. When the length of GIS shell is longer, the lowest natural vibration frequency tends to be lower; and when the GIS shell length is longer, the lowest natural vibration frequency is higher. When the insulator of the basin is loose, the vibration signal of the connection between the basin edge and the GIS shell is the strongest. The location of the sensor should be close to the connection between the basin insulator and the shell.

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a minimally invasive medical procedure, obtaining the transient temperature field of the target tissue is a key to study HIFU ablation. In this work, an inverse heat transfer scheme is proposed to investigate thermal effect of HIFU and further reconstruct the transient temperature field of the target tissue. In the inverse scheme, a prediction model is established between the measured temperature and heat source in the target tissue. Then, based on the prediction model, a model predictive inverse scheme is established to estimate heat source induced by HIFU in the target tissue. Finally, the inversed heat source is used to solve biological heat transfer equation to reconstruct temperature distribution in the target tissue of HIFU ablation. Numerical experiments are performed to study the effects of the form of heat source, the number of future time steps and measured error on the inverse results. The results have shown that the inverse scheme can significantly reduce the sensitivity of the inverse results on measurement noise, and the temperature distribution in the target tissue can be obtained by the inverse scheme, which provides theoretical guidance for treatment planning and efficacy evaluation of HIFU.

Three new triterpenoids and two new aristolane sesquiterpenoids, namely (24E)-3 beta -hydroxycucurbita-5,24-diene-26-oic acid (1), (24E)-3,4-secocucurbita-4,24-diene-3,26-dioic acid (4), (24E)-3,4-secocucurbita-4,24-diene-3,26,29-trioic acid (5), rulepidadiol (6), and rulepidatriol (7), were isolated from the fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes Russula lepida. Their structures were established by spectral methods. Acids 4, and 5 are the first examples of naturally occurring seco-ring-A cucurbitane triterpenoids. Alcohols 6 and 7, belonging to the aristolane-type sesquiterpenoids, are of a type rather rare in nature, especially among fungal species.

In this paper, we introduce the experimental methods and the main results of the induced polarization effect that we observed before the rupture of the instable rock under pressure stress. We lay special emphasis on the study of the induced polarization properties and its variation laws for sedimentary sandstone, mineralized limestone and some peridotite. We also deal with the relationship between rock's brittle-ductile properties and the rupture precursor. Experimental results show that: (i) The rock induced polarization effect is provided with obvious regularity and a great extent of variation under the action of pressure stress. (ii) With the increase of pressure stress, the polarizibility shows a regular variation wich was mainly associated with drop. The region of variation is from a few percent to several tens. (iii) Under many conditions, the abnormal variations of polarizability are recorded before the rupture of unstable rock. This kind of variation, i.e. steep rise or rapid drop of polarizibility, can be taken as the precursor of the rupture. The pattern of variation is related to the brittle-ductile properties of the rock. Finally, we will discuss the mechanism of pressure stress effects of induced polarization and its application in the research of earthquake prediction.

A novel compound, lepidolide [structure: see text], was isolated from the fruiting bodies of the Basidiomycete Russula lepida. Its structure was established by spectroscopic and chemical means.

A novel N-containing compound, neoengleromycin (1) was isolated from the fruiting bodies of the ascomycete Engleromyces goetzii together with two known cytochalasins: cytochalasin D (2) and 19,20-epoxycytochalasin D (3). Structures were established by spectroscopic (including 2D-NMR) and chemical means. Neoengleromycin (1) possesses the rare structure of an N-substituted hydroxamic acid and represents a new type of natural products.