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This paper aims to develop an efficient algorithm combining straightforward response surface functions with Monte Carlo simulation to conduct seismic reliability analysis in a systematical way.

The representative slip surfaces are identified and based on to calibrate multiple response surface functions with acceptable accuracy. The calibrated response surfaces are used to determine the yield acceleration in Newmark sliding displacement analysis. Then, the displacement-based limit state function is adopted to conduct seismic reliability analysis.

The calibrated response surface functions have fairly good accuracy in predicting the yield acceleration in Newmark sliding displacement analysis. The seismic reliability is influenced by such factors as PGA, spatial variability and threshold value. The proposed methodology serves as an effective tool for geotechnical practitioners.

The multiple sources of a seismic slope response can be effectively determined using the multiple response surface functions, which are easily implemented within geotechnical engineering.

This paper aims to develop an effective framework which combines Bayesian optimized convolutional neural networks (BOCNN) with Monte Carlo simulation for slope reliability analysis.

The Bayesian optimization technique is firstly used to find the optimal structure of CNN based on the empirical CNN model established in a trial and error manner. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a two-layered soil slope and a cohesive slope with spatially variable soils at different scales of fluctuation.

The size of training data suite, T, has a significant influence on the performance of trained CNN. In general, a trained CNN with larger T tends to have higher coefficient of determination (R²) and smaller root mean square error (RMSE). The artificial neural networks (ANN) and response surface method (RSM) can provide comparable results to CNN models for the slope reliability where only two random variables are involved whereas a significant discrepancy between the slope failure probability (P_f) by RSM and that predicted by CNN has been observed for slope with spatially variable soils. The RSM cannot fully capture the complicated relationship between the factor of safety (FS) and spatially variable soils in an effective and efficient manner. The trained CNN at a smaller the scale of fluctuation (λ) exhibits a fairly good performance in predicting the P_f for spatially variable soils at higher λ with a maximum percentage error not more than 10%. The BOCNN has a larger R² and a smaller RMSE than empirical CNN and it can provide results fairly equivalent to a direct Monte Carlo Simulation and therefore serves a promising tool for slope reliability analysis within spatially variable soils.

A geotechnical engineer could use the proposed method to perform slope reliability analysis.

Slope reliability can be efficiently and accurately analyzed by the proposed framework.

The paper aims to construct a method to simulate the relationship between the parameters of soil properties and the area of sliding mass of the true slip surface of a landslide.

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) algorithm is used to calibrate a response surface function which is adopted to quantify the area of sliding mass of the true slip surface for each failure sample in Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed method is illustrated through a homogeneous and a heterogeneous cohesive soil slope.

The comparison of the results between the proposed method and the traditional method using the slip surface with minimum factor of safety (FS_min) to quantify the failure consequence has shown that the landslide risk tends to be attributed to a variety of risk sources, and that the use of a slip surface with FS_min to quantify the consequence of a landslide underestimates the landslide risk value. The difference of the risk value between the proposed method and the traditional method increases dramatically as the uncertainty of soil properties becomes significant.

A geotechnical engineer could use the proposed method to perform slope failure analysis.

The failure consequence of a landslide can be rationally predicted using the proposed method.

This study aims to understand the impact of market power and competition on earnings management, particularly discretionary accruals, in the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries. China and Taiwan differ not only in their political and social systems but also in their economic systems. The research aims to provide managers and investors with stock selection strategy in the decision-making process.

Accounting data consisted of 60 publicly traded travel companies in China and Taiwan from 2000 to 2014. Methodology included correlation matrix for the variables, univariate and multivariate regression and competition analysis.

Based on empirical results, the authors found a significant negative correlation between market power and discretionary accruals and market concentration (or lower market competition) and discretionary accruals in both the Chinese or Taiwanese markets. Although the Chinese travel companies enjoyed higher market power and market concentration, they engaged in less earnings manipulation than their Taiwanese counterparts as a result of the Chinese Government regulation.

Based on listed travel companies, generalization of the research results to entire tourism industry is limited. This study compares the travel companies’ practices of smoothing out earnings between China and Taiwan, thus helping managers and investors in making their financing, investment decisions.

This research contributes to the earnings management literature by examining a specific industry of tourism. This paper is original in two ways. The authors linked market power and market competition with earnings management simultaneously and then compared the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries in manipulating earnings.

The purpose of this paper is to review the application of digital holography in studies of the corrosion of metallic materials.

Digital holography is used for in situ observation of the dynamic processes at the electrode | electrolyte interface and on the electrode surface during the corrosion dissolution of metallic materials.

Digital holography is an effect method to in situ observe the corrosion processes, and it can provide a direct experimental foundation for studying the corrosion mechanism.

Even though there are several challenges, digital holography will play a significant role in studying corrosion processes.

The conventional wisdom suggests that the lack of prior host country-specific experience and a higher institutional distance deter multinational enterprises (MNEs) from entering a foreign country. However, past studies report that Chinese MNEs show an unconventional risk-taking behavior choosing foreign locations, where they have no prior experience or there is an increased institutional distance. Drawing on the institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that Chinese Government official visits to the host country may act as a risk-reduction device, thus providing an explanation for such an unconventional behavior.

The authors develop two hypotheses regarding how Chinese Government official visits moderate the impact of host country-specific experience and institutional distance on the location choice of Chinese MNEs. The authors test the hypotheses using a sample of investment location decisions by Chinese MNEs in Latin America.

The authors find that government official visits mitigate the lack of firm’s prior host country experience. However, only high-level government visits reduce institutional distance.

The authors contribute to the international business literature by analyzing how home country government diplomatic activities may pave the way of host country institutional environment for foreign MNEs from that home country. In addition, the authors provide an additional explanation for the unconventional risk-taking behavior of Chinese MNEs. Finally, the authors also contribute to a better understanding of the decision-making process of emerging-market MNEs entering other emerging economies.

This paper aims to investigate the inhibition effect of sodium silicate (SS), sodium alginate (SA) and sodium tungstate (ST) on the corrosion behavior of AZ91D magnesium alloy in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution through polarization curve test at room temperature, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and weight loss measurement.

The influence of SA concentration on the inhibition efficiency of the corrosion inhibitor was mainly analyzed. The corrosion morphology and inhibition mechanism of the samples were also analyzed with scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy.

The results show that with the increase of SA concentration, the corrosion inhibition first increases and then decreases. When SA concentration is 0.03 mol/L, the inhibition efficiency is the highest, reaching 98 per cent. The adsorption film formed by SA and other deposition films produce a synergistic effect on the improvement of corrosion resistance of AZ91D magnesium alloy.

The adsorption film formed by SA with other deposition films produces a synergistic effect on the improvement of corrosion resistance of AZ91D magnesium alloy. With the increase of SA concentration, the corrosion inhibition first increases and then decreases. When the concentrations of SA, SS and ST are 0.03 mol/L, 0.015 mol/L and 0.02 mol/L, respectively, the inhibition efficiency of the inhibitor is the highest, reaching 98 per cent.

The purpose of this paper is to study the anodic dissolution processes of alloy 690 in NaCl + Na₂S₂O₃ solutions by using digital holography.

The digital holography technique was used to in situ observe the dynamic processes occurring at the electrode|electrolyte interface during the anodic dissolution of alloy 690 in NaCl + Na₂S₂O₃ solutions, both in the presence and absence of a magnetic field (MF).

In 3.5% NaCl + 0.01 M Na₂S₂O₃ solutions, MF inhibited intergranular corrosion (IGC) because it increased the defects in the oxide film and facilitated the uniform adsorption of low concentration of S on these defects due to its stirring effects, which resulted in a weakened adsorption of S at the grain boundaries. Conversely, in 3.5% NaCl + 0.1 M Na₂S₂O₃ solutions, MF promoted IGC by increasing the number of defects in the oxide film, with lots of S species preferentially adsorbing at the grain boundaries. The resultant salt films formed more readily, inhibiting the formation of the oxide film at the grain boundaries.

Through the use of digital holography, it was possible to in situ observe the initiation of IGC at a single grain boundary and its progression to adjacent grain boundaries, regardless of the presence or absence of MF.

The historic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an economic reform policy proposed by the Chinese Government that focuses on connectivity, improved collaboration and more robust economic relations. This paper aims to identify risks involved in BRI infrastructure project and establish a hierarchical relationship among them.

The methodology includes two phases, namely, identification of significant risks involved in the BRI project using systematic literature review and to develop a hierarchical relationship between the risks using interpretive structural modeling followed by the MICMAC analysis.

This work has identified the 11 risks of BRI infrastructure projects through academic literature. Based on the analysis, economic risk (R3), environmental risk (R1) and political risk (R2) are placed at level six in the ISM model and can significantly influence BRI infrastructure projects. These risks have high driving power, which exaggerates other risks.

This study would help Engineering Procurements and Construction contractors in strategic decision-making select risk mitigation strategies and make robust and efficient infrastructure projects. However, additional factors may be considered, which are essential for the BRI infrastructure project.

This research’s novelty lies in the advancement of expertise in project risk assessment. This study contributes by identifying the most significant risks involved in the BRI project. The integrated ISM-MICMAC approach provides a macro picture of BRI project risks to formulate better strategies for its success.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the audit of outgoing leading officials' natural resource accountability and environmental governance, as well as the internal mechanism of audit of outgoing leading officials' natural resource accountability that plays a role in national environmental governance.

Based on city-level panel data from 2012 to 2015, this paper adopts a difference-in-difference model to examine the role of government audit in national governance from an environmental perspective. Furthermore, using a mediating effect model, the study sheds light on the internal mechanism of audit of outgoing leading officials’ natural resource accountability that plays a role in national environmental governance.

This paper finds that: the implementation of the audit of outgoing leading officials’ natural resource accountability has significantly improved the water quality of the pilot area, but its effects on waste gas and smoke are not obvious; environmental supervision partly plays a mediating role in the improvement of regional environmental governance by the audit of outgoing leading officials’ natural resource accountability; the audit of outgoing leading officials’ natural resource accountability can complement the incentive mechanism of promotion. The older the local officials are, the more obvious the effect of the audit of outgoing leading officials’ natural resource accountability on the environmental quality of the pilot areas is.

This paper reveals the role of government audit from the perspective of environmental governance. It provides empirical evidence for policy regarding the audit of outgoing leading officials' natural resource accountability.