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Nowadays, the construction of lifelong education system has become the common trend of educational development in many countries. In China, credit accumulation and transfer as one of the effective measures to promote the lifelong education system was proposed in the National Medium and Long-term Educational Reform and Development Plan (2010 – 2020). It certainly poses a new opportunity and challenge to open universities in China, most of which are in transition from TV and radio universities and expected to play more important roles in the construction of lifelong education system in China. The paper presents the initial research and practice of Shanghai Academic Credit Transfer and Accumulation Bank for Lifelong Education (SHCB), which is led by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and operated by Shanghai Open University as one of the initiatives of open universities in China since 2010. Focusing on continuing education for Shanghai citizens and cooperating with other universities and related institutions, SHCB has been established with the organisational structure, accreditation criteria for credits, credit accumulation and transfer system, learners' learning portfolios, technology service platform, and the detailed operating mode. By now, accreditation criteria of learner's credits of 166 courses and 139 non-degree certificates, and recognition of 541 non-degree certificates and 1549 leisure courses have been completed. SHCB has been open to the public from 24 July, 2002 to promote the exchange and transfer among the academic education, even between academic education and non-academic education, and ultimately promote the construction of the lifelong education system in Shanghai.

As foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an important role in economic globalization. This paper examines the structural features of the global FDI network based on FDI flows data and changes in the position of countries within the network.

In order to study the structural characteristics of the global FDI network and the status and changes of countries in the global FDI network, the authors build the investment network and apply the QAP (Quadratic Assignment Procedure) analysis to examine the evolutionary characteristics of the network and its influencing factors.

The global FDI network becomes more interconnected and has a clear “core-periphery” structure. The network connections and volumes have increased dramatically and most countries spread their assets across multiple countries, while only a handful of countries have concentrated investments. The topological structure of the global FDI network has changed noticeably, although this process has been slow and stable and countries in the core position have remained largely intact. The authors find that trade relations between countries, geographic distance and differences in economic size, income levels and institutional environments all have a significant impact on the global FDI network.

Although we find some valuable results, some aspects need further investigation. For example, how a country uses the investment network to boost its economy and how the different industries in the investment network change over time. It is important to get the industry-level details to understand the impact of the global investment network from a government's perspective.

FDI affects the distribution of international capital and contributes to the development of the global economy. Therefore, it is important to study the characteristics of the global FDI network and its development patterns. With more understanding about the network as well as its evolutionary pattern, the government can possibly carry out some policies to promote direct investments as well as economic development.

All countries should actively engage in international direct investments and strengthen their economic ties. At the same time, they can put more emphasis on inward or outward FDI based on their own level of economic development to better establish the circulation channel for domestic and international capital.

This paper examines foreign direct investments through the lens of a global network. In contrast to traditional bilateral studies, this paper focuses on the network structure and evolution, reflecting the dynamics of the entire direct investment system as well as the changing positions of participating countries.

The authors designed those experiments to test the sensitivity of graphene when it is exposed to NO₂ gas, to find a way to decrease the recovery time of graphene and to find the difference effect between monolayer and bilayer graphene in the experiments.

The authors transferred graphene from film on Cu foil to NO₂ sensor sample and measured the resistances of on monolayer and bilayer graphene when they were exposed to NO₂ gas under different concentration; then, the authors obtained the results.

The results show that monolayer graphene exhibits a linear response when the NO₂ concentration is below 20 ppm. But the monolayer graphene will not be so sensitive to NO₂ gas when the concentration continues to reduce. The desorption time of monolayer graphene is longer when compared with bilayer graphene. It shows faster recovery time and higher response of bilayer graphene under low NO₂ concentration. And the limit detectable NO₂ concentration of bilayer graphene is 50 ppb. Desorption time of bilayer graphene is shortened to below 20 s under UV light.

The authors found a reliable way to decrease the recovery time of graphene when it is exposed NO₂ gas and got the concrete data.

In many cases, the external pipelines of aero-engine are subjected to random excitation. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the vibration response of the pipeline system effectively by adjusting the hoop layout.

In this paper, a spatial pipeline supported by multi-hoops is taken as the object, the methods of solution of the vibration response of the pipeline system by using pseudo excitation and hoop layouts optimization with amplitude reduction of vibration response as the goal are presented. First, the finite element model of the spatial pipeline system is presented. Then, an optimization model spatial pipeline is established. Finally, a case study is carried out to prove the rationality of the random vibration response analysis of the pipeline system. Furthermore, the proposed optimization model and genetic algorithm are applied to optimize the hoop layout.

The results show that the maximum response variance after optimization is reduced by 32.8%, which proves the rationality of the developed hoop layout optimization method.

The pseudo excitation method is used to solve the vibration response of aero-engine pipeline system, and the optimization of the hoop layout for aero-engine spatial pipelines under random excitation to reduce random vibration response is studied systematically.

Graphene is a two-dimensional material. Its use has many advantages in gas sensing, but its long desorption process is problematic. The aim of this paper is to design a graphene-based gas sensor, study the response to NO₂ gas concentrations and find ways to accelerate the desorption process.

In one group, the sensor was placed in air to measure its initial resistance. Then, it was exposed to the NO₂ gas at a certain concentration. Finally, the sensor was exposed to light immediately after NO₂ gas exposure was ended. In another group, the sensor was heated using a heating plate at a stable temperature, before taking the measurements. Then the adsorption and desorption experiments were carried on.

Illumination and heating at a suitable temperature can expedite desorption of NO₂ molecules on graphene.

In the paper, two main methods are introduced to accelerate the desorption process when the NO₂ gas is absorbed on graphene. Through a series of experiments and analysis, the authors found that the recovery time could be reduced observably and the recovery performance of the graphene-based NO₂ sensor could be improved effectively.

This paper aims to estimate the international competitiveness of China’s biomass energy products during 2007-2016 in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In this paper, the authors used the constant market share model and the revealed comparative advantage index to analyze the evolution trend of China’s biomass products’ international competitiveness during the past decade from 2007 to 2016 based on the market structure of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The results show that: China’s major biomass energy products have no comparative advantages in the world market, nevertheless, their international competitiveness is on the rise; China’s biomass energy products have been agglomerated to the regional markets where the market demand growth is fast in the Belt and Road countries; and the unreasonable structure is an important factor influencing the international competitiveness of China’s biomass exports.

The authors analyzed the international competitiveness of China’s biomass energy products based on the “Belt and Road Initiative” with all the trading items, in an effort to propose policy implications for enhancing the comparative advantages of China’s biomass products in the international market especially in the Belt and Road regions.

Digital technology plays a vital role in empowering omnichannel integration. Research on digital technology has recently attracted attention and rapidly developed. However, a comprehensive assessment of the research status and potential gaps is yet to be conducted. Thus, this study investigated the current research status of digital technology-empowered omnichannel integration, and future research directions are proposed.

A three-stage bibliometric analysis was conducted on 764 articles published from 2000 to 2023, cited in the Web of Science database. Furthermore, performance and thematic analyses were performed.

The most productive contributors and influential articles in this field were identified, and four themes of focus were discovered: service quality, o2o commerce, omnichannel retailing, and digital transformation.

To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to enable researchers to understand the vast body of published scholarship on digital technology-empowered omnichannel integration.

To improve the problems as the heavy burden of sewage treatment and environmental pollution caused by the traditional sodium hydrosulfite reduction dyeing of indigo, this study aims to carry out the direct electrochemical reduction dyeing for indigo with the eco-friendly Cu(II)/sodium borohydride reduction system under normal temperature and pressure conditions.

The electrochemical behavior of Cu(II)/sodium borohydride reduction system was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. And, the dyeing performance of the Cu(II)/sodium borohydride reduction system was developed by optimizing the concentration of copper sulfate in the anode electrolyte, applied voltage and reduction time via single-factor and orthogonal integrated analysis.

The dyeing performance of the Cu(II)/sodium borohydride reduction system is superior to that of the traditional reduction dyeing with sodium hydrosulfite. In the case of the optimized condition, the soaping fastness and dry/wet rubbing fastness of the dyed fabric in the two reduction dyeing processes were basically comparable, the K/S value of electrocatalytic reduction of indigo by Cu(II)/NaBH4 is 11.81, which is higher than that obtained by traditional sodium hydrosulfite reduction dyeing of indigo.

The innovative electrocatalytic reduction system applied herein uses sodium borohydride as the hydrogen source combined with Cu(II) complex as the catalyst, which can serve as a medium for electron transfer and active the dye molecule to make it easier to be reduced. The electrochemical dyeing strategy presented here provides a new idea to improve the reduction dyeing performance of indigo by sodium borohydride.

In the modern business world, the main focus of the organizations is to improve the quality of the products and minimize the wastage of raw material. Keeping in view the green theory and improve the efficiency of the organization, the focus of the current study is to investigate the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and green innovation (GI), and examine how TQM practices can facilitate firms to achieve GI objectives. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also an important factor for organizations, and this study also focuses on the mediating role of CSR between the relationship of TQM and GI.

This is an empirical study. Data were gathered from the top management of 355 SMEs working in Pakistan through a questionnaire survey; the PLS-SEM approach was used to analyse the data.

Results of the study show that TQM has significant impacts on two aspects of GI namely green product innovation and green process innovation. Moreover, results also reveal that CSR partially mediates the relationship between TQM and GI.

This study is limited to manufacturing SMEs and future research should test this model on non-manufacturing sector too. The findings of the study provide significant roadmap to the management of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms that how they can reduce wastage and improve the product and process innovation in their organizations through TQM and CSR.

This study contributes to bridging research gaps in the literature and advances how TQM, directly and indirectly, help firms improve green innovation via mediating roles of CSR.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the main decisions for designing distribution centers (DCs) and the contextual characteristics of the distribution networks.

Experts were surveyed and responses analyzed quantitatively through multivariate data techniques. This study considered four contextual characteristics that were deemed as influential for DC design: types of routes in the distribution network, quantity of DCs, distribution network levels and company size.

This paper evidenced which decisions are affected by each contextual characteristic encompassed in this study. This paper identified that the characteristic types of route in the distribution network must be carefully considered, as it had the greatest amount of associations with the decisions for designing a DC.

Despite its importance, most studies on design of DCs disregard the effect of the context in which DCs are inserted. This research provides arguments to support decision-making process of DCs design, increasing assertiveness of their planning. This work fulfills a literature gap by empirically examining the effect of contextual variables on the decisions related to DC design. Regarding practice, this paper addressed a fundamental issue for managers looking to design a DC, as it evidenced how contextual characteristics impact the decision-making.