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The safety and reliability of high-speed trains rely on the structural integrity of their components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. This paper aims to define and substantiate the assessment of the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains in both theory and practice. The key principles and approaches will be proposed, and their applications to high-speed trains in China will be presented.

First, the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are defined, and their relationship is introduced. Then, the principles for assessing the structural integrity of structural and dynamical components are presented and practical examples of gearboxes and dampers are provided. Finally, the principles and approaches for assessing the dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are presented and a novel operational assessment method is further presented.

Vehicle system dynamics is the core of the proposed framework that provides the loads and vibrations on train components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. For assessing the structural integrity of structural components, an open-loop analysis considering both normal and abnormal vehicle conditions is needed. For assessing the structural integrity of dynamical components, a closed-loop analysis involving the influence of wear and degradation on vehicle system dynamics is needed. The analysis of vehicle system dynamics should follow the principles of complete objects, conditions and indices. Numerical, experimental and operational approaches should be combined to achieve effective assessments.

The practical applications demonstrate that assessing the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains can support better control of critical defects, better lifespan management of train components and better maintenance decision-making for high-speed trains.

For Chinese companies that cross-list in Chinese A share and Hong Kong (H share) markets, the H share price has been consistently lower than the A share price by an average of 85% in recent years. This is puzzling because most institutional differences between the two markets have been eliminated since 2007. The purpose of this study is to explain the puzzle of the price difference of A+H companies.

Using all A and H share Chinese firms in the period 2007–2013 and a simultaneous equations approach, this study identifies three new explanations for the recent price difference.

First, utilizing a unique earning quality measure that is directly related to non-persistent components of fair value accounting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), this study finds that the lower the earnings quality, the lower the H share price relative to the A share price, and hence the greater the price difference. Second, the higher the myopic investor ownership in A share firms, the larger the A share price relative to the H share price. Third, the short-selling mechanism introduced to the A share market since 2010 helps reduce the price difference.

First, this study identifies three new explanations for the puzzle of the AH price difference which remains substantial even after the institutional and accounting standards differences between the two markets were eliminated. Second, we examine the impact of the implementation of fair value accounting under IFRS in an emerging market on the pricing difference of cross-listed shares and reveal that it can induce an unintended negative consequence on the pricing difference of cross-listed shares. Third, this study contributes to the literature on short sales by providing its mitigating role in pricing differences across two different markets. Finally, this study makes improvements in research design, which utilizes a unique measure of earnings quality that is directly related to the implementation of IFRS and a simultaneous equations approach that minimizes endogeneity concern.

With the yearly increase of mileage and passenger volume in China's high-speed railway, the problems of traditional paper railway tickets have become increasingly prominent, including complexity of business handling process, low efficiency of ticket inspection and high cost of usage and management. This paper aims to make extensive references to successful experiences of electronic ticket applications both domestically and internationally. The research on key technologies and system implementation of railway electronic ticket with Chinese characteristics has been carried out.

Research in key technologies is conducted including synchronization technique in distributed heterogeneous database system, the grid-oriented passenger service record (PSR) data storage model, efficient access to massive PSR data under high concurrency condition, the linkage between face recognition service platforms and various terminals in large scenarios, and two-factor authentication of the e-ticket identification code based on the key and the user identity information. Focusing on the key technologies and architecture the of existing ticketing system, multiple service resources are expanded and developed such as electronic ticket clusters, PSR clusters, face recognition clusters and electronic ticket identification code clusters.

The proportion of paper ticket printed has dropped to 20%, saving more than 2 billion tickets annually since the launch of the application of E-ticketing nationwide. The average time for passengers to pass through the automatic ticket gates has decreased from 3 seconds to 1.3 seconds, significantly improving the efficiency of passenger transport organization. Meanwhile, problems of paper ticket counterfeiting, reselling and loss have been generally eliminated.

E-ticketing has laid a technical foundation for the further development of railway passenger transport services in the direction of digitalization and intelligence.

What is the relation between the land system with Chinese characteristics and the country's high-speed economic growth in the past decades? There is a lack of rigorous academic research based on the general equilibrium theory of macroeconomics on this issue.

By building a multisector dynamic general equilibrium framework with land system, this paper explores how the land supply mode with Chinese characteristics affects China's economic growth as well as its transmission mechanism.

This paper confirms the importance of land system with Chinese characteristics in explaining the mystery of China's high-speed economic growth. Counterfactual analysis shows that if China adopts a land system similar to that of other developing countries, GDP will drop 36% from the current level under the baseline model.

As the industrial sector shrinks relatively and the output elasticity of infrastructure decreases, this inhibitory effect will become more apparent. China should improve its land supply mode, especially expand the supply of commercial and residential land and reduce the cost of land in the service sector. This can promote better economic development in the future and thus improve household welfare and the structure of aggregate demand, replace “land-based public finance” and thus inhibit the “high leverage” risks of local governments.

This study aims to propose a semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the high-speed railway (HSR) subgrade under cyclic load.

According to the basic framework of critical state soil mechanics and in view of the characteristics of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade to bear the train vibration load repeatedly for a long time, the hyperbolic empirical relationship between particle breakage and plastic work was derived. Considering the influence of cyclic vibration time and stress ratio, the particle breakage correction function of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was proposed. According to the classical theory of plastic mechanics, the shearing dilatation equation of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade considering particle breakage was modified and obtained. A semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was further established. The backward Euler method was used to discretize the constitutive equation, build a numerical algorithm of “elastic prediction and plastic modification” and make a secondary development of the program to solve the cyclic compaction model.

Through the comparison with the result of laboratory triaxial test under the cyclic loading of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade, the accuracy and applicability of the cyclic compaction model were verified. Results show that the model can accurately predict the cumulative deformation characteristics of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under the train vibration loading repeatedly for a long time. It considers the effects of particle breakage and stress ratio, which can be used to calculate and analyze the stress and deformation evolution law of the subgrade structure for HSR.

The research can provide a simple and practical method for calculating deformation of railway under cyclic loading.

Research about tourism impacts is abundant. However, existing studies often investigate tourism impacts from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives. The study targeting students is absent. The students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impact must be investigated independently to have more insights into improving the current education curriculum, which covertly addresses the impacts. Therefore, this study aims to examine university students’ perception of tourism impacts as young tourists to provide implications for better teaching of such content in the future.

Vietnam was chosen as the context, and a mixed method was employed. First, free elicitation with 118 university students was carried out to identify the students’ perceived impacts (109 items, four categories). Second, structured surveys using the previously generated content with 243 and 224 university students were implemented to identify the latent structures of the impacts (3-4 factors per impact category).

Tourism impacts can be dually perceived. In other words, they can come in positive or negative forms or are directed toward the destinations or the residents. However, being positive or negative, or affecting the place or the people, tourism impacts have some general and universal elements concerning the economic, sociocultural and environmental ones. In addition, they have some specific and contextual aspects, such as cross-border marriages, child labor and economic autonomy loss.

Tourism impacts seen from the perspective of university students are relatable and valuable for tourism education. Educators in Vietnam should consider revising the current curriculum to address all the tourism impacts overtly.

Research on grey systems is becoming more sophisticated, and grey relational and prediction analyses are receiving close review worldwide. Particularly, the application of grey systems in marine economics is gaining importance. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and review literature on grey models, providing new directions in their application in the marine economy.

This paper organized seminal studies on grey systems published by Chinese core journal database – CNKI, Web of Science and Elsevier from 1982 to 2018. After searching the aforementioned database for the said duration, the authors used the CiteSpace visualization tools to analyze them.

The authors sorted the studies according to their countries/regions, institutions, keywords and categories using the CiteSpace tool; analyzed current research characteristics on grey models; and discussed their possible applications in marine businesses, economy, scientific research and education, marine environment and disasters. Finally, the authors pointed out the development trend of grey models.

Although researches are combining grey theory with fractals, neural networks, fuzzy theory and other methods, the applications, in terms of scope, have still not met the demand. With the increasingly in-depth research in marine economics and management, international marine economic research has entered a new period of development. Grey theory will certainly attract scholars’ attention, and its role in marine economy and management will gain considerable significance.

In this article, the research objective is to empirically investigate the effect of the adoption of the Brazilian instant payment system, Pix, on the local credit market structure and the diversification of the banking system in Brazilian municipalities.

By analyzing the data, in this study, we compile and align data from supervisory and public sources, covering the period from 2019 to 2022 in Brazil. As of 2014, Brazil was comprised of 5568 municipalities distributed across five regions: North (450 municipalities), Northeast (1792), Midwest (467), Southeast (1668) and South (1191), according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Our analysis relies on the volume and quantity of Pix to the outstanding credit operations in Brazil.

This article provides evidence that the widespread adoption of Pix has impacted the financial structure of municipalities. This analysis of banking concentration in the country and municipalities, based on banking relationships, helped us assess whether the adoption of Pix had any correlation with the increase in credit lines. Overall, the results from the statistical tables suggest that the adoption of Pix may be having a positive impact on the local credit market structure.

The originality contribution of the study is to initiate an investigation into the impact of this instant payment system, Pix, on the Brazilian reality. Pix was launched in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and had significant numbers, such as over 61% of the adult population having at least one Pix key registered in a little over a year; about 100 million people made at least one payment with Pix; and more than 1.4 billion transactions per month, with 72% between individuals, as presented by the REB 2021.

The use of technological innovations to effectively deliver construction projects is gaining significant coverage. This study aims to assess the inhibiting factors to the utilisation of laser scanners for the delivery of construction projects in developing economies using South Africa as the study area.

Adopting a quantitative technique, this study elicited responses from construction professionals using a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. A four-pronged data analysis method was used, comprising descriptive statistics, Kruskal−Wallis h-test, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings from the study show that lack of awareness and high cost of acquisition are the barriers rated by the study’s respondents the most. Also, findings from the EFA and CFA conducted showed and affirmed the significance of three constructs inhibiting factors to the utilisation of laser scanners for construction project delivery: technical hindrances, financial impediments and institutional challenges.

This study makes practical contributions to the discourse of using innovative technologies for effective construction project delivery by inhibiting factors to the use of laser scanners.

Evidence from the literature shows that no study has assessed the barriers to the utilisation of laser scanning technology for construction projects in the South African construction industry. This study strives to close this gap in the literature.

This study aims to explore public coping strategies with government-imposed lockdown restrictions (i.e. forced compliance) due to a health crisis (i.e. COVID-19). This directly impacts the public's power, as they may feel alienated from their environment and from others. Consequently, this study explores the relationships between the public's power, quality of life and crisis-coping strategies. This is important to help governments understand public discourse surrounding perceived government health crisis communication, which aids effective policy development.

An online questionnaire distributed via Qualtrics received 371 responses from the South African public and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate the public's experience of powerlessness and resulting information-sharing, negative word-of-mouth and support-seeking as crisis coping strategies in response to government-imposed lockdown restrictions.

The public's perspective on health crisis communication used in this study sheds light on adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies that the public employs due to the alienation they feel during a health crisis with government-forced compliance. The findings add to the sparse research on crisis communication from the public perspective in a developing country context and provide insights for governments in developing health crisis communication strategies. The results give insight into developing policies related to community engagement and citizen participation during a pandemic.