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Green space is one of the main measures to alleviate urban heat islands (UHI). The transformation mechanism of daytime and nighttime scale sensitivity of vegetation coverage to reduce the UHI effect in a daily cycle has been unclear. As a result, we propose a scale sensitivity measurement algorithm to study the spatial and temporal response relationship between UHI and green coverage. Based on the scale theory of landscape ecology and the method of geostatistical analysis, we adopted ArcGIS, MATLAB, SPSS, and other data processing software as well as a large amount of measured and high-resolution satellite imagery data of Beijing and Tianjin to quantitatively study their spatial scale sensitivity and daily variation features of urban green spaces to reduce summer UHI. The results show that first, the green coverage rate and the UHI intensity experience positive and negative correlations during the daytime, and negative correlations at night. When the correlation coefficient is significant, there is a linear relationship between the UHI intensity and the core green rate. Second, the reduction of the UHI by green spaces displays spatial and temporal change scale sensitivity characteristics. The radius scale of daytime sensitivity is 15m, and the radius scale of nighttime sensitivity is 60m. The study's conclusion enriches the theoretical parameters of landscape ecological scales and patterns, and provides spatial and temporal scales for systematic planning of green space to reduce UHI.

This study aims to ensure the operation safety of high speed trains, it is necessary to carry out nondestructive monitoring of the tensile damage of the gearbox housing material in rail time, yet the traditional tests of mechanical property can hardly meet this requirement.

In this study the acoustic emission (AE) technology is applied in the tensile tests of the gearbox housing material of an high-speed rail (HSR) train, during which the acoustic signatures are acquired for parameter analysis. Afterward, the support vector machine (SVM) classifier is introduced to identify and classify the characteristic parameters extracted, on which basis the SVM is improved and the weighted support vector machine (WSVM) method is applied to effectively reduce the misidentification of the SVM classifier. Through the study of the law of relations between the characteristic values and the tensile life, a degradation model of the gearbox housing material amid tensile is built.

The results show that the growth rate of the logarithmic hit count of AE signals and that of logarithmic amplitude can well characterize the stage of the material tensile process, and the WSVM method can improve the classification accuracy of the imbalanced data to above 94%. The degradation model built can identify the damage occurred to the HSR gearbox housing material amid the tensile process and predict the service life remains.

The results of this study provide new concepts for the life prediction of tensile samples, and more further tests should be conducted to verify the conclusion of this research.

Due to social transformation in China, more than 100,000,000 people are migrating within the country. Many parents are forced to leave their children behind when they migrate. In 2008, 58,000,000 children were living as left‐behind children, mainly in the rural parts of China (Zhang, 2009).Migration and its accompanying stressors may affect the mental health of the left‐behind children. This unique literature review of Chinese literature summarises the present state of knowledge and reviews the influential factors. Possible approaches to intervention and system reforms are discussed.A literature review was performed of published studies between 2001 and 2008. Databases used were Fujian Medical University Library Interface, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, and VIP Information. The Chinese word for ‘left‐behind’ was used as a key word. Books, book chapters, monographs and studies on caring were searched electronically and by hand. Altogether, 53 items were found, discussed and grouped together. Migration affected the mental health of the left‐behind children in a passive way, especially their emotions and social behaviour.There is still controversy over how serious mental health problems are among children who have been left behind. Life events, personality, coping strategies and social suppor t can be regarded as four main factors that are predictive of mental health, which provides theoretical guidance for intervention. Suppor t and prevention of mental health problems in schools, in families and in primary care should be developed and studied.

The paper aims to address concerns that valuers' choice of depreciation models in their cost approach to value is not sustainable (is incapable of preserving patronage in present and future generations).

The paper draws up conceptual expectations regarding how seven UK and US depreciation models pass or fail four identified sustainability indicators: reliability, consistency, usability and separate treatment of depreciation components. Valuation surveyors in Nigeria were offered as a case study of how valuers in one country respond to such conceptual investigations.

The study found that cross‐sectional models, the breakdown model and hedonic modeling are the depreciation models perceived as most sustainable. However, popular model use follows easiest models rather than most sustainable models.

The paper suggests that the pursuit of sustainability in valuation modeling should involve provision of institutionalized best practice guidance beyond that currently provided so as to assist valuers/appraisers in more sustainable choices.

The paper is probably the first to address both UK and US depreciation models and to assess each using defined sustainability criteria.

Public hospitals in China usually rely on revenues from medical services and medications to compensate for major costs given their nonprofit nature. The lack of government subsidies and unreasonable prices of medical services have led to high medical costs and unbalanced reimbursement system for public hospitals. There is a critical need of research on improvement of reimbursement system that will create positive effect on China’s health-care system. This paper aims to focus on four dimensions of stakeholders (government, patients, medical insurance agencies and social organization) and six major expenditures to explore reimbursement scheme for public hospitals in China with the purpose of relieving unbalanced income and expenditure of hospitals, avoiding medication markups and reducing medical expenses from patients.

In this paper, the authors study reimbursement scheme for public hospitals from the perspective of four dimensions of stakeholders and how stakeholders reimburse six major expenditures of hospitals. A total of 128 effective samples were collected from financial data of 32 public hospitals through 2009-2012. This paper analyzes the econometric models of the selected revenue and expenditure. This paper analyzes the econometric models of the selected revenue and expenditure using linear regression. The linear relationship between each cost and different types of incomes (i.e. reimbursements from government, patients, insurance agencies and social organization) is analyzed before and after cancelling the medication markups.

Results from empirical research verify that government reimbursement is insufficient, and using medication markups to compensate for medical service costs has become a serious problem for China’s public hospitals. To avoid the medication markups and improve the reimbursement scheme, government should reimburse labor cost, fixed assets cost and research cost; patients and medical insurance agencies should reimburse the costs of medical service, medication and administration/operations; and social organization should supplement the fixed assets cost.

In this study, the authors defined and classified stakeholders of reimbursement scheme for public hospitals in China, which help understand the roles and effects that different stakeholders can play in compensation. Along with the proposed reimbursement scheme framework, this study will help make effective implementation of new health-care reform program in China.

This study aims to examine the impact of board characteristics on firm performance while also exploring the influential mechanisms that help Chinese listed companies establish effective boards of directors and strengthen their corporate governance mechanisms.

This paper uses machine learning methods to investigate the predictive ability of the board of directors' characteristics on firm performance based on the data from Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in China during 2008–2021. This study further analyzes board characteristics with relatively strong predictive ability and their predictive models on firm performance.

The results show that nonlinear machine learning methods are more effective than traditional linear models in analyzing the impact of board characteristics on Chinese firm performance. Among the series characteristics of the board of directors, the contribution ratio in prediction from directors compensation, director shareholding ratio, the average age of directors and directors' educational level are significant, and these characteristics have a roughly nonlinear correlation to the prediction of firm performance; the improvement of the predictive ability of board characteristics on firm performance in state-owned enterprises in China performs better than that in private enterprises.

The findings of this study provide valuable suggestions for enriching the theory of board governance, strengthening board construction and optimizing the effectiveness of board governance. Furthermore, these impacts can serve as a valuable reference for board construction and selection, aiding in the rational selection of boards to establish an efficient and high-performing board of directors.

The study findings unequivocally demonstrate the superiority of nonlinear machine learning approaches over traditional linear models in examining the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance in China. Within the suite of board characteristics, director compensation, shareholding ratio, average age and educational level are particularly noteworthy, consistently demonstrating strong, nonlinear associations with firm performance. Within the suite of board characteristics, director compensation, shareholding ratio, average age and educational level are particularly noteworthy, consistently demonstrating strong, nonlinear associations with firm performance. The study reveals that the predictive performance of board attributes is generally more robust for state-owned enterprises in China in comparison to their counterparts in the private sector.

In recent years, the quality and environment of global corporate governance have drawn attention from researchers and practitioners. Based on the public information of Chinese listed companies (CLCs), the Evaluation Research Group of China Academy of Corporate Governance at Nankai University developed the first corporate governance index system that includes six dimensions to evaluate the status of the governance of CLCs.

This paper reports the findings of the annual evaluation in 2017.

The authors found that five of the six dimensions of CLC governance index increased, except for shareholder governance index. Management-level governance and information disclosure index increased most significantly.

Through the evaluation, the authors discovered some governance problems of CLCs and proposed some corresponding suggestions to improve the effectiveness of corporate governance of these companies.

This study investigates the different effects of the (mis)alignment between servitization strategies (i.e. product-oriented and customer-oriented services) and inter-organizational information technology (IT) capabilities (i.e. IT reconfiguration and integration) concerning the environmental performance of servitized manufacturing firms.

Using hierarchical regression analysis, this study examines the theoretical model based on multi-respondent survey data from 1,149 senior managers of 383 manufacturers in China.

Product-oriented services have a non-significant effect on environmental performance, whereas customer-oriented services exert a significantly positive effect. The alignment between product-oriented services and IT reconfiguration, and that between customer-oriented services and IT integration, improve environmental performance. In contrast, the misalignment between product-oriented services and IT integration, and that between customer-oriented services and IT reconfiguration, hurt environmental performance.

This study elucidates the different effects of the (mis)alignment between servitization strategies and inter-organizational IT capabilities on environmental performance. It also resolves the inconsistency regarding the implications of servitization on environmental performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine if the international experience of a family firm’s chairman, second-generation managers and other top managers all have impacts of different strengths using information about Chinese family firms’ international expansion.

Matching tactics and dynamic Heckman 2-stage analysis were applied to data on 766 publicly-listed Chinese family businesses covering 2008–2014.

The international experience of the chairman, second-generation family managers and other senior managers all were found to correlate with the proportion of a firm’s revenue earned abroad, as well as with the number of its cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The impact of a chairman’s international experience is stronger than the impact of the other two groups when internationalization is measured in terms of the proportion of revenue earned overseas. The second-generation managers’ international experience is the most influential when internationalization is measured in terms of the number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

This paper bridges agency theory with upper echelons theory in the context of the family business. The findings contribute to the scholarly understanding of family business by illuminating the mechanisms through which second-generation managers may influence family firms’ internationalization. They also enrich the knowledge of family firms in China.

This paper aims to study the wear properties of electron beam melted Ti6Al4V (EBM-Ti6Al4V) in simulated body fluids for orthopedic implant biomedical applications compared with wrought Ti6Al4V (Wr-Ti6Al4V).

Wear properties of EBM-Ti6Al4V compared with Wr-Ti6Al4V against ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃ have been investigated under dry friction and the 25 Wt.% newborn calf serum (NCS) lubricated condition using a ball-on-disc apparatus reciprocating motion. The microstructure, composition and hardness of the samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction and a hardness tester, respectively. The contact angles with 25 Wt.% NCS were measured by a contact angle apparatus. The wear parameters, wear 2D and 3D morphology were obtained using a 3D white light interferometer and SEM.

EBM-Ti6Al4V yields a higher contact angle than the Wr-Ti6Al4V with the 25 Wt.% NCS. EBM-Ti6Al4V couplings exhibit lower coefficients of friction compared with the Wr-Ti6Al4V couplings under both conditions. There is only a slight difference in the wear resistance between the Wr-Ti6Al4V and EBM-Ti6Al4V alloys. Both Wr-Ti6Al4V and EBM-Ti6Al4V suffer from similar friction and wear mechanisms, i.e. adhesive and abrasive wear in dry friction, while abrasive wear under the NCS condition. The wear depth and wear volume of the ZrO₂ couplings are lower than those of the Al₂O₃ couplings under both conditions.

This paper helps to establish baseline bio-tribological data of additively manufactured Ti6Al4V by electron beam melting in simulated body fluids for orthopedic applications, which will promote the application of additive manufacturing in producing the orthopedic implant.