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The purpose of this paper is to propose a numerical prediction method of buckling loads for shell structures under axial compression and thermal loads based on vibration correlation technique (VCT).

VCT is a non-destructive test method, and the numerical realization of its experimental process can become a promising buckling load prediction method, namely numerical VCT (NVCT). First, the derivation of the VCT formula for thin-walled structures under combined axial compression and thermal loads is presented. Then, on the basis of typical NVCT, an adaptive step-size NVCT (AS-NVCT) calculation scheme based on an adaptive increment control strategy is proposed. Finally, according to the independence of repeated frequency analysis, a concurrent computing framework of AS-NVCT is established to improve efficiency.

Four analytical examples and one optimization example for imperfect conical-cylindrical shells are carried out. The buckling prediction results for AS-NVCT agree well with the test results, and the efficiency is significantly higher than that of typical numerical buckling methods.

The derivation of the VCT formula for thin-walled shells provides a theoretical basis for NVCT. The adaptive incremental control strategy realizes the adaptive adjustment of the loading step size and the maximum applied load of NVCT with Python script, thus establishing AS-NVCT.

In his autobiography, Chen Shui-bian (1999, p. 40) condemned the Koumintang's (KMT's) corruption and praised the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for being free from money politics and corruption. The DPP fought the 1992 Legislative Yuan election campaign effectively on an anticorruption platform and used the same strategy in subsequent elections. If Chen Shui-bian had criticized the KMT for its involvement with “black gold” politics and had won the 2000 presidential election on his anticorruption platform, why was he and his family found guilty of corruption after his second term of office? The short answer is that even though he had promised to curb corruption, President Chen himself had succumbed to corruption after assuming office. In June 2002, Keesing's Contemporary Archives cited a poll in Taiwan that indicated that more respondents had perceived the DPP to be more corrupt than the KMT (Copper, 2006, p. 14).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between potential affecting factors and the local communities’ willingness to pay (WTP) for housing earthquake insurance (HEI) in the context of ethnic minority communities.

A literature review was done to identify possible factors affecting WTP for HEI. Fieldwork was conducted in 2017 in Dali Minority Autonomous Prefecture, where the first Chinese HEI was launched in 2015. Interviews were done in two earthquake-prone counties, as the main ethnic minority communities in the area. A total of 536 questionnaires were collected and used as empirical data for testing the impacts mechanism.

Respondents’ risk perception, risk exposure, self-prevention behaviors, government aid, insurance experience and sociodemographic characteristics were hypothesized as theoretical indicators correlated to WTP for HEI. Empirical analysis results predict that WTP for HEI is significantly influenced by risk perception, insurance experience, government aid, and age and out-migrating labors. It is evident that higher risk perception and more insurance experience lead to stronger desire for HEI coverage. However, dependency on government aid negatively affects WTP for HEI. Moreover, WTP for HEI is negative in relation to age and out-migrating labors. Surprisingly, ethnic-culture factors were not statistically significant to WTP for HEI.

This paper is an attempt to identify and verify factors affecting WTP for HEI, bridging the gap of inadequate research on WTP for HEI in ethnic minority communities.

Taking on a corporate political activity (CPA) perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how CPA affects environmental sustainability disclosure among firms in China and whether the disclosure level varies across ownership structures and environmental sensitivity statuses.

The sample comprises 652 corporate social responsibility reports released by firms in China during 2008-2010. Data are coded through a content analysis procedure before being analyzed using regression analysis.

The authors find a significant and positive association between CPA and environmental sustainability disclosure. However, the effect of CPA on environmental sustainability disclosure is significantly negative among firms in the environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). More specifically, a firm’s environmental disclosure level is lower when the proportion of board members with a significant status, such as party chief of the Communist Party, is higher among firms in ESIs and POEs. This implies that firms with guanxi (i.e. Chinese-specific CPA) are more likely to be free from trouble.

This empirical study offers important evidence on the fulfillment of environmental sustainability policies and the effectiveness of regulatory controls that China has used in the development toward a low-carbon economy.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the trade-off relationship between managerial ownership and corporate debts and whether this relationship is moderated by ownership structure and corporate tax rates, particularly in a transition and emerging market whose unique institutional characteristics considerably differ from those prevailing both in the West and East markets.

This research is semi-empirical in terms of method and practical in terms of purpose. The authors test their hypotheses by using simultaneous equations system methodology with two- and three-stages least squares regression (2SLS and 3SLS) and panel data technics on a sample of 952 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011-2018.

The findings indicate that, contrary to the current line of research, there is no trade-off relationship between managerial ownership and debt concerning the reduction of agency costs. Likewise, the study finds no convincing evidence that either the controlling shareholder or the corporate tax rate could influence or moderate this interrelationship. The conjecture lies in the fact that the fundamental environmental variations between the Tehran Stock Exchange and the institutional assumptions underpinning the Western models have led to the formation of such unexpected results.

The implications drawn from this study are constrained by two primary limitations. First, the present study is conducted in an Iranian setting; therefore, the data used for the study only contain companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The utilization of listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange is likely to affect the generalizability of the study in an international context. Second, in this study, we were unable to extend the sample time period because of some major deficiencies in the Tehran Stock Exchange library and its supplementary software. The usage of an extended time period could have provided more generalizable results. However, extended time period, per se, may impair the validity of the results as well.

Because the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia capital structure models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the findings of this study could provide substantial implications for the understanding of agency costs and capital structure literature. These significant institutional and ownership differences are the factors affecting firms’ leverage and capital choice decisions. Indeed, this study has laid some groundwork upon which a more detailed evaluation of the Iranian firms’ capital structure could be based. In addition, the examination of such relations may provide the ground for sound decision-making by various interested users of financial and accounting information.

This paper aims to investigate the electrocatalytic activity of CoFe_1.9Mo_0.1O₄-Ce_0.8Gd_0.18Ca_0.02O_2-δ composite (CFMo-CGDC) for the direct synthesis of ammonia from H₂O and N₂ under atmospheric pressure.

CoFe_1.9Mo_0.1O₄ nanoparticles (CFMo NPs) were synthesized via a sol-gel method. CFMo NPs were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) specific surface area measurement and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Double-chamber reactor was used to synthesize ammonia using H₂O and N₂ as precursors. The factors affecting the ammonia formation rate (applied voltage and temperature) were studied.

CoFe_1.9Mo_0.1O₄ nanoparticles (CFMo NPs) were synthesized via a sol-gel method. CFMo NPs were characterized using XRD, Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) specific surface area measurement and SEM. Double-chamber reactor was used to synthesize ammonia using H₂O and N₂ as precursors. The factors affecting the ammonia formation rate (applied voltage and temperature) were studied.

The usage of CFMo-CGDC composite as an electrocatalyst for the synthesis of ammonia directly from H₂O and N₂.

The purpose of the paper is to explore and analyse the history of the predominantly Malaysian Network of Overseas Students Collectives in Australia (NOSCA), that existed from 1985–1994.

The paper is based on extensive archival research in the State Library of New South Wales, the National Library of Australia and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Archives. It makes particular use of the UNSW student newspaper Tharunka and the NOSCA publications Truganini and Default. It also draws upon nine oral history interviews with former members of NOSCA.

The NOSCA was particularly prominent at the UNSW, building a base there and engaging substantially in the student union. Informed by anarchism, its activists were interested in an array of issues–especially opposition to student fees and in solidarity with struggles for democracy and national liberation in Southeast Asia, especially around East Timor. Moreover, the group would serve as a training ground for a layer of activists, dissidents and opposition politicians throughout Southeast Asia, with a milieu of ex-NOSCA figures sometimes disparagingly referred to as “the NOSCA Mafia.”

While there has been much research on overseas students, there has been far less on overseas students as protestors and activists. This paper is the first case study to specifically hone in on NOSCA, one of the most substantial and left wing overseas student groups. Tracing the group's history helps us to reframe and rethink the landscape of student activism in Australia, as less white, less middle class and less privileged.

In the past 10 years, the scale of running events in China has increased dramatically, and the forms of running events have also become rich and diverse. Running is not only a social phenomenon but also a historical and cultural phenomenon as an organic part of human culture with its own sociological values in China. This chapter offers insight into the development of Chinese running culture and how this has emerged from ancient and modern Chinese running cultures based on Foucault's disciplinary power theory, biopower and the technologies of the self. This chapter argues that running culture in China constructs the subjectivity of the Chinese runners under the joint action of the technologies of power and the technologies of the self. The findings acknowledge how Chinese Runners present and express themselves by showing a ‘sense of presence’. Runners illustrate the implicit or explicit meaning and value of a particular way of life through running. Runners regard running as the technology of the self for self-expression and self-creation so that individuals can control their bodies and soul, thoughts, behaviours and ways of existence. Emerging technologies of power provide possibilities for the production of running culture in China, and the current policy under the technologies of power meets the needs of runners. In Chinese running culture, power was not oppressive but productive.

The purpose of this study is to investigate when and why supervisor negative feedback is associated with employees' job performance via two different pathways (i.e. emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping) and to introduce proactive personality as a moderator.

Time-lagged data were collected using a field survey research design. Participants included 389 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors from five companies in China.

Supervisor negative feedback can lead to employees' emotion-focused coping, which in turn impairs their job performance. Meanwhile, supervisor negative feedback can trigger employees’ problem-focused coping, which subsequently promotes their job performance. Furthermore, proactive personality moderates the indirect effect of supervisor negative feedback on employee performance through emotion-focused coping.

This study explored the double-edged effects of supervisor negative feedback on employee job performance from a coping strategy perspective and investigated how proactive personality influences the choice of coping strategies.

The emergence of blockchain technology has the potential to bring about transformative changes in various industries, with supply chain management being a prominent domain of application. This study investigates the strategic performance benefits of using blockchain-enabled traceability systems for improving supply chain quality management.

The present study employed structural equation modelling to analyse data obtained from 200 practitioners working in Indian pharmaceutical companies.

The results reflect that blockchain-enabled traceability systems have a positive impact on multi-tier quality governance (MQG); supply chain process alignment and coordination (SPAC) and quality centric collaboration (QCC); all of which are the facets of supply chain quality management. Furthermore, when examining the impact of blockchain-enabled traceability systems on firm quality performance and economic performance, the mediation role of SPAC and QCC was confirmed, whereas the mediation role of MQG could not be established.

The study’s empirical insights offer practical guidance for pharmaceutical manufacturers, regulators and other industry participants seeking to harness the potential of blockchain technology for creating resilient and transparent supply chains that uphold product quality and safety standards.

These findings underscore the significance of blockchain-enabled traceability systems in revolutionizing supply chain quality management practices to achieve superior strategic performance in the pharmaceutical sector.