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Over the past decades, there has been significant research effort dedicated to the development of autonomous vehicles. The decision-making system, which is responsible for driving safety, is one of the most important technologies for autonomous vehicles. The purpose of this study is the use of an intensive learning method combined with car-following data by a driving simulator to obtain an explanatory learning following algorithm and establish an anthropomorphic car-following model.

This paper proposed car-following method based on reinforcement learning for autonomous vehicles decision-making. An approximator is used to approximate the value function by determining state space, action space and state transition relationship. A gradient descent method is used to solve the parameter.

The effect of car-following on certain driving styles is initially achieved through the simulation of step conditions. The effect of car-following initially proves that the reinforcement learning system is more adaptive to car following and that it has certain explanatory and stability based on the explicit calculation of R.

The simulation results show that the car-following method based on reinforcement learning for autonomous vehicle decision-making realizes reliable car-following decision-making and has the advantages of simple sample, small amount of data, simple algorithm and good robustness.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism of shared leadership on team members’ innovative behavior.

Paired questionnaires were collected from 89 scientific research teams in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China at two-time points with a time lag of 4 months. Then multilevel structural equation model method was applied to analyze the multiple mediating effects.

This study finds that: the form of shared leadership in scientific research teams of universities; shared leadership has a positive impact on team members’ innovative behavior; there are multiple mediations in the relationship including synchronization and sequence of creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation.

According to the “stimulus-organism-response” model, this paper has constructed a multi-level theoretical model that shared leadership influences individual innovation behavior and reveals the “black box” from the perspective of psychological mechanism. It not only verifies that “can-do” shapes “willing to do” but also makes up for the gap of an empirical test of the effectiveness of shared leadership in scientific research teams of universities. Besides, the formal scale of shared leadership in the Chinese situation is revised, which can provide a reference for future empirical research on shared leadership. The research conclusions provide new ideas for improving the management of scientific research teams in universities.

The purpose of this paper is to seek an efficient method to tackle the energy provision problem for smart grid with sparse constraints and distributed energy and storage devices.

A complex smart grid is first studied, in which sparse constraints and the complex make-up of different energy consumption due to the integration of distributed energy and storage devices and the emergence of multisellers are discussed. Then, a real-time pricing scheme is formulated to tackle the demand response based on sparse bilevel programming. And then, a bilevel genetic algorithm (BGA) is further designed. Finally, simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach.

The considered situation is widespread in practice, and meanwhile, the other cases including traditional model without the sparse constraints can be seen as its extensions. The BGA based on sparse bilevel programming has advantages of “no need of convexity of the model.” Moreover, it is feasible without the need to disclose the private information to others; therefore, privacies are protected and system scalability is kept. Simulation results validate the proposed approach has good performance in maximizing social welfare and balancing system energy distribution.

In this paper, the authors consider the sparse constraints due to the fact that each user can only choose limited utility companies per time slot. In reality, there exist some other sparse cases, which deserve further study in the future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the very first studies to address pricing problems for the smart grid with consideration of sparse constraints and integration of distributed energy and storage devices.

This paper seeks to build a mathematical model to deduct the twists distribution in the slub‐yarn.

The model, considering the shearing modulus and polar moment of inertia of the yarn, influenced by the yarn density, is established based on the bar torsion model. The twists distribution in the slub‐yarn is concluded based on the analysis of the results. The rules were verified via an indirect method, by testing the breaking strength of the slub‐yarn.

The results of the analysis showed that twists in every section of the slub‐yarn are in inverse proportion to the square of the line density of the corresponding section. Slub length is a key factor to the twist in the base yarn, and the increase of the slub length will increase the twist; while the multiple is the key factor to the slub twist, and the enhancement of the multiple will decrease the twist significantly.

The analysis cannot be verified via a direct method. A new, more conceivable direct method should be utilized to test the result.

The paper builds a base for the research of the mechanical properties of slub‐yarn and gives directions to the slub‐yarn production.

The objective of this chapter is to provide a first assessment on the evolution of spatial distribution of foreign firms in China.

We examine the overall changes in the location of foreign firms in China over the period 1999–2009. Then, we distinguish two time periods, 1998–2001 and 2002–2009 so as to analyze whether foreign firms’ agglomeration across regions has changed significantly after the China’s entry into the WTO (2001) and the first launch of the Chinese government policies to develop western internal areas.

Our analysis suggests that foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) with higher foreign capital shares are more geographically clustered in coastal regions than other enterprises with lower foreign capital shares. This group with the highest intensity of foreign involvement in firm capital also experienced the most relevant changes over the decade of our analysis becoming more localized between the core-periphery divide (coastal provinces and the rest of mainland China).

The main limitation refers to poor data availability, data matching problems, and measurement errors in the database used, as highlighted by Nie, Jiang, and Yang (2012).

A general analysis of location patterns and the role of public policies may inform foreign companies in their entry strategy in the Chinese market.

Very few studies have explored location patterns with detailed geographical data and, at the same time, with data disaggregated by foreign ownership shares.

This paper aims to identify Australian consumer segments based on sustainable lifestyles and attitudes towards food waste and model the factors (socio-demographic, attitudinal and lifestyle) contributing to different levels of food waste.

This study uses a face-to-face survey of 334 respondents. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to identify consumer segments, and econometric analysis is used to model the factors contributing to different levels of food waste.

A total of six lifestyle segments are identified: the freshness lovers, the vegetarian and organic food lovers, the recycle/reuse advocates, the waste-conscious consumers, the label-conscious/sensory consumer and the food waste defenders. This research distinguishes between low and medium levels of food waste based on marginal effects analysis. At low levels of food waste, consumers who worry about the food waste cost, making efforts to reduce food waste are less likely to waste food. Affluent consumers, who claim to be waste conscious, have young children and frequently eat outside, are more likely to waste food than others, lying in the medium waste group.

Australia, like many other countries, has high levels of food waste and despite policy efforts, curbing household food waste remains a challenge. In addition, there are limited food waste studies that focus on consumers who practice sustainable lifestyles. The current paper contributes to the market segmentation literature and has several implications for food policy and practice.

This research investigates the influence of bank loans on Chinese listed companies’ performance by collecting data on bank loan amounts and indicators used to measure performance, such as return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, semiannually from 2015 to 2020. Pooling panel regression models are employed to determine the relationship between firms’ performance and their amount of bank loans. This study contributes to the literature by controlling for additional bank loan characteristics and comparing the relevance between bank loans and bond issuance. The authors also find that the relationship between firm performance and bank loans shows a nonlinear concave relationship, suggesting the negative impact is more severe in the high loan-to-asset region. The subsample after 2018 shows a significantly positive relationship, indicating that the impact of COVID-19 might alter the prevalent relationship. In addition, short-term debt has a more noticeable negative impact on firm performance than long-term debt. Both results become weaker after COVID-19. This chapter can help listed companies to trade off using long-term or short-term bank loans as their debt financing methods and approach a better capital structure.

Given the significance of innovation in enabling firms to maintain a long-term competitive edge and secure excess profits, this paper aims to investigate whether and how stakeholders’ attention to innovation (SATI) influences corporate innovation.

This paper introduces a novel variable, SATI, which is achieved by segmenting stakeholders’ attention into two categories: attention to innovation and attention to other facets, using textual analysis methods. Subsequently, this paper empirically examines the influence of SATI on corporate innovation.

This paper finds that SATI positively affects corporate innovation input, and the result remains true after addressing possible endogeneity issues using instrumental variable regression. Furthermore, the positive effect of SATI on corporate innovation is stronger in firms facing greater financing constraints, thus verifying the financing constraints hypothesis. The positive effect is also stronger in firms with lower risk-taking levels, thus confirming the innovation failure tolerance hypothesis. Further analysis suggests that SATI increases both corporate innovation output and efficiency, thus ruling out the catering hypothesis.

This paper highlights the importance of SATI in driving corporate innovation. It enriches the literature on the repercussions of stakeholders’ attention and determinants of corporate innovation. In addition, it provides practical suggestions for further implementing China’s national innovation-driven development strategy.

Though often considered “the weaker sex,” women have led entrepreneurship to a popular phenomenon. Given their unique characteristics, women face different situations and difficulties than men, but they also enjoy unique advantages as entrepreneurs. SWOT analysis is used in this paper to draw a comprehensive evaluation of women from the aspects of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to give some suggestions for entrepreneurial platforms. Finally, a better vision is raised that more research will be proposed to provide theoretical guidance for female entrepreneurship.