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1 – 3 of 3Martin Cameron, Ludo Juul Cuyvers, Dahai Fu and Wilma Viviers
This paper aims to identify China’s realistic export opportunities (REOs) among the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) group of countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify China’s realistic export opportunities (REOs) among the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) group of countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used is a decision support model (DSM) that filters data based on country risk; macro-economic country performance; market potential in terms of import growth and import market size; and market access conditions. The high-potential REOs are revealed.
Findings
Out of the 84 BRI countries, 79 countries represent 42.5% of China’s REOs globally and 26.9% of China’s globally untapped potential value. Interestingly, 17.9% of this untapped potential is in the BRI countries Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic, thus providing a potentially important route into the European Union.
Research limitations/implications
If China wants to develop additional or new markets, focus should be put on the BRI markets outside of the top 20. China should also invest in the development of most BRI economies, to ensure their future growth and increased demand for import of products and services from China.
Practical implications
The shortlist of China’s REOs in the individual BRI countries makes for more efficient planning and prioritising of export development activities. It also highlights the need for policymakers to look beyond international trade and focus on how to also improve the domestic economies of the BRI partners.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to use the DSM to identify China’s REOs at HS6-digit level within the BRI group. The findings have important implications for China’s export promotion agencies, industry associations and individual companies.
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Keywords
Xin Zheng, Dahai Xia, Huihui Wang and Congwei Fu
The purpose of this paper is to report a novel electrochemical sensor designed to detect the corrosion of metal cans used for beverage packaging.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report a novel electrochemical sensor designed to detect the corrosion of metal cans used for beverage packaging.
Design/methodology/approach
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and electrochemical noise (EN) were performed to detect the corrosion degree of beverage cans that had been stored for 1 month (named s1), 3 months (named s2), 27 months (named s3) and 43 months (named s4).
Findings
The EIS results showed that the EIS plot of s1 samples had not developed to a characteristic of two time‐constants, indicating that the coating showed good protective performance. The EIS plots of s2, s3 and s4 showed characteristics of two time‐constants, indicating that the organic coatings of s2, s3, and s4 had lost their protective performance. EN results showed that quantities and amplitudes of transient peaks increased with the increasing storage time, indicating that an increasing degree of local corrosion occurred within the cans. A corrosion process for beverage cans is discussed and can be considered in three stages.
Originality/value
The designed electrochemical sensor was successfully applied to detect the performance of beverage cans and, further, provided scientific proof to evaluate the shelf life of metal cans for packaging.
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Haitao Liu and Shuai Zhu
Based on the non-local piezoelectricity theory, this paper is concerned with two collinear permeable Mode-I cracks in piezoelectric materials subjected to the harmonic stress…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the non-local piezoelectricity theory, this paper is concerned with two collinear permeable Mode-I cracks in piezoelectric materials subjected to the harmonic stress wave. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
According to the Fourier transformation, the problem is formulated into two pairs of dual integral equations, in which the unknown variables are the displacement jumps across the crack surfaces.
Findings
Finally, the dynamic non-local stress and the dynamic non-local electric displacement fields near the crack tips are obtained. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the effects of the distance between the two collinear cracks, the lattice parameter and the circular frequency of the incident waves on the entire dynamic fields near the crack tips, which play an important role in designing new structures in engineering.
Originality/value
Different from the classical solutions, the present solution exhibits no stress and electric displacement singularities at the crack tips in piezoelectric materials. It is found that the maximum stress and maximum electric displacement can be used as a fracture criterion.
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