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This study aims to validate the impact of waiting staff’s attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on customer dissuasion from over-ordering and identify their antecedents using an extended theory of planned behaviour.

We selected three categories of restaurants (30 in total, including fine dining, casual dining, and fast food) in Macao and Zhuhai (China) for conducting the survey using a purposive sampling approach. The respondents were waiting staff who took customers’ orders in the past three months. In total, 393 valid responses were used for a structural-equation-modelling analysis.

The results show that restaurant waiting staff’s attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control have positive effects on their intention to dissuade customers from over-ordering. Our study further reveals that perceived behavioural control is far more influential than attitudes and subjective norms on restaurant employees’ intentions to intervene with over-ordering. We also validate seven antecedents, including environmental concern and communication for attitudes, peer influence, supervisor influence, and organisational support for subjective norms, and self-efficacy and training for perceived behavioural control.

The food-waste literature tends to focus on consumers in home and restaurant settings and has paid scarce attention to the role of restaurant waiting staff in intervening in consumers’ waste behaviours. We fill in this research gap by revealing a formation mechanism for waiting staff’s intention to dissuade over-ordering.

The purpose of this paper is to identify electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) customers from customer reviews. Thus, firms can precisely leverage eWOM customers to increase their product sales.

This research proposed a framework to analyze the content of consumer-generated product reviews. Specific algorithms were used to identify potential eWOM reviewers, and then an evaluation method was used to validate the relationship between product sales and the eWOM reviewers identified by the authors’ proposed method.

The results corroborate that online product reviews that are made by the eWOM customers identified by the authors’ proposed method are more related to product sales than customer reviews that are made by non-eWOM customers and that the predictive power of the reviews generated by eWOM customers are significantly higher than the reviews generated by non-eWOM customers.

The proposed method is useful in the data set, which is based on one type of products. However, for other products, the validity must be tested. Previous eWOM customers may have no significant influence on product sales in the future. Therefore, the proposed method should be tested in the new market environment.

By combining the method with the previous customer segmentation method, a new framework of customer segmentation is proposed to help firms understand customers’ value specifically.

This study is the first to identify eWOM customers from online reviews and to evaluate the relationship between reviewers and product sales.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference of credit enhancement of variously secured bonds issued by local government financing platform bond (LGFPB).

The approaches to secure the bonds usually include mortgage, collateral, guarantee, etc.

Using a sample of LGFPBs issued during the 2007-2013 period, the authors find that all of the approaches to secure the bonds would increase the bond rating and that compounded approaches have a higher credit enhancement effect than single approaches. Among these approaches, the requirement of collateral has the strongest enhancement effect. Moreover, the authors find that the guarantee provided by a state-owned bank or enterprise increases the bond rating more than the guarantee provided by other local government financing platforms.

The findings in this study suggest that the credit enhancement would be deeply affected by the approach used to secure the bond.

These results can help the local government make better decisions when issuing bond.

This study empirically analyzes the different credit enhancement approaches for securing LGPFBs for the first time and contributes to the literature regarding credit ratings of local government bonds.

An investigation was conducted into the impact of various process parameters on the surface and subsurface quality of glass-ceramic materials, as well as the mechanism of material removal and crack formation, through the use of ultrasonic-assisted grinding.

A mathematical model of crack propagation in ultrasonic-assisted grinding was established, and the mechanism of crack formation was described through the model. A series of simulations and experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of process parameters on crack depth, surface roughness, and surface topography during ultrasonic-assisted surface and axial grinding. Additionally, the mechanism of crack formation was explored.

During ultrasonic-assisted grinding, the average grinding forces are between 0.4–1.0 N, which is much smaller than that of ordinary grinding (1.0–3.5 N). In surface grinding, the maximum surface stresses between the workpiece and the tool gradually decrease with the tool speed. The surface stresses of the workpiece increase with the grinding depth, and the depth of subsurface cracks increases with the grinding depth. With the increase of the axial grinding speed, the subsurface damage depth increases. The roughness increases from 0.780um/1.433um.

A mathematical model of crack propagation in ultrasonic-assisted grinding was established, and the mechanism of crack formation was described through the model. The deformation involved in the grinding process is large, and the FEM-SPH modeling method is used to solve the problem that the results of the traditional finite element method are not convergent and the calculation efficiency is low.

Water-based graphite lubricants have good lubricity in the process of metal forming, especially for hot-rolling seamless pipe. Although the use of water as a working fluid system instead of conventional mineral oil has many advantages for the fuel consumption, post cleaning and a new type of lubricant, the graphite contaminated the machine and workers for its physical properties. From the global environmental protection viewpoint, it is urgent to develop a kind of benign material.

Magnesium hydroxide which has the average particle size of 10 μm was chosen as a base material without further modification and pretreatments. On the HT-1000 high-temperature tribometer, the influence of temperature and lubricant materials on the friction coefficient was studied. The tribological performance at 900^°C provided evidence under high temperature for exploring a new lubricant material.

Tap water-based brucite lubricant will open a new chapter in the industrial lubrication, effectively avoiding many unfavorable factors caused by graphite lubrication, such as conductivity, pollution and energy loss. Meanwhile, it expanded the application of brucite as flame-retardant agent, catalyst, water treatment agent and so on.

It is a new and environmental lubricant to tap water-based brucite lubricant. And specially, the preparation process of lubricant is simple and economical.

This paper aims to investigate whether Islamic indexes, Bitcoin and gold still act as hedges or/and “safe-haven” assets during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This paper examines the role of the Morgan Stanley Capital International all-country world index, Islamic index, gold and Bitcoin as a hedge or safe-haven asset for the world conventional stock market over the period from April 30, 2015 to March 27, 2020.

In this paper, the authors re-evaluate the hedge and safe haven properties of Islamic indexes, gold and Bitcoin following Baur and Lucey’s (2010) and Baur and McDermott’s (2010) methodology.

Empirical results show that the Islamic index is not a hedge or a safe haven asset for the world conventional stock market during the recent coronavirus crisis period. Different from the whole period, the authors find that gold is a strong hedge but only a weak safe or is not a safe haven during the coronavirus sub-period. Bitcoin reports distinctive properties, as it acts as a weak hedge and not a safe-haven asset.

This paper is the first study that investigates whether the global Islamic index still acts as hedges or “safe-haven” assets during the new COVID-19 crisis period. The results can help investors make informed decisions when adding cryptocurrencies and Islamic indexes to their portfolios during the coronavirus crisis.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of the clean development mechanism (CDM) established by the Kyoto Protocol in channelling foreign technology to China. Appraising the experience of CDM remains of key importance when drawing lessons for the post-2012 climate regime.

Descriptive analysis of the sources and the determinants of foreign technology transfer based on the examination of 1,355 registered projects. Econometric analysis of the probability of having a foreign supplier of technology in any project.

The prominence of German firms as technology providers and the absence of a strong relationship between technology suppliers and credit buyers. The econometric analysis finds that project size and cost, project location, credit buyers’ and consultants’ characteristics, as well as technology diffusion are all relevant factors in determining the probability of having a foreign supplier of technology.

China is a particularly interesting case for analysing technology transfer in CDM projects since, after a slow start, the country has become the largest and most dynamic CDM recipient worldwide. Furthermore, the analysis of CDM projects may offer some insights into the complex web of technological links between Chinese and foreign firms.

The transfer of emission-saving technologies to developing countries is expected to play a major role in addressing environmental problems worldwide.

This study analyses the sources and determinants of international technology transfer in CDM projects in China, and offers some insights into how the characteristics of the major players and the links between them affect this phenomenon.

This study aims to determine how and through what mechanisms the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) promotion effect of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI-OFDI) affects domestic investment. It is motivated by the context that China is fostering a new development pattern, as well as by the impetus from the Belt and Road initiative for the new pattern.

Drawing on data of Chinese-listed companies, this study uses a difference-in-difference method to explore the effect of the BRI-OFDI on domestic investment and a mediation model to illustrate the mechanisms.

The BRI-OFDI has a significantly positive effect on domestic investment, meaning that the Belt and Road initiative's OFDI promotion effect crowds in domestic investment. The results are heterogeneous: the crowding-in effect mainly exists in non-state-owned and technology-intensive enterprises, while a crowding-out effect is seen in state-owned and labor-intensive enterprises. The easing of corporate financing constraints and the expansion of market demand are two important mechanisms.

This study uses the Belt and Road initiative as an exogenous shock to investigate the impact of the initiative-induced OFDI promotion effect on domestic investment. It addresses the potential endogeneity issue confronting the studies on the relationship between OFDI and domestic investment in the literature. The authors focus on the possible spillover effects of the Belt and Road initiative discussing the impact of the BRI-OFDI on domestic investment from the micro-firm perspective. It offers a new perspective to objectively assess the initiative's policy effect.

The impact strength of solder joint under high strain rate was evaluated by board level test method. However, the impact shear test of single solder bump was more convenient and economical than the board level test method. With the miniaturization of solder joints, solder joints were more prone to failure under thermal shock and more attention has been paid to the impact reliability of solder joint. But Pb-free solder joints may be paid too much attention and Sn-Pb solder joints may be ignored.

In this study, thermal shock test between −55°C and 125°C was conducted on Sn-37Pb solder bumps in the BGA package to investigate microstructural evolution and growth mechanism of interfacial intermetallic compounds (IMCs) layer. The effects of thermal shock and ball diameter on the mechanical property and fracture behavior of Sn-37Pb solder bumps were discussed.

With the increase of ball size, the same change tendency of shear strength with thermal shock cycles. The shear strength of the solder bumps was the highest after reflow; with the increase of the number of thermal shocks, the shear strength of the solder bumps was decreased. But at the time of 2,000 cycles, the shear strength was increased to the initial strength. Minimum shear strength almost took place at 1,500 cycles in all solder bumps. The differences between maximum shear strength and minimum shear strength were 9.11 MPa and 16.83 MPa, 17.07 MPa and 15.59 MPa in φ0.3 mm and φ0.4 mm, φ0.5 mm and φ0.6 mm, respectively, differences were increased with increasing of ball size. With similar reflow profile, the thickness of IMC decreased as the diameter of the ball increased. The thickness of IMC was 2.42 µm and 2.17 µm, 1.63 µm and 1.77 µm with increasing of the ball size, respectively.

Pb-free solder was gradually used to replace traditional Sn-Pb solder and has been widely used in industry. Nevertheless, some products inevitably used a mixture of Sn-Pb and Pb-free solder to make the transition from Sn-Pb to Pb-free solder. Therefore, it was very important to understand the reliability of Sn-Pb solder joint and more further research works were also needed.

This study aims to the complex and unpredictable terrain environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau scientific research station, such as cement road, wetland, gravel desert, snowfield, ice surface, grassland, slimy ground, steep slope, step, etc., a reconfigurable walking mechanism based on two movement modes of wheel and triangular crawler was proposed.

By analyzing the deformation mechanism of the walking mechanism, a reconfigurable wheel-crawler-integrated walking mechanism and the configuration scheme are designed. The analysis of the kinematics and mechanical properties of the swing arm system and the deformation mechanism of the walking mechanism.

The reconfigurable wheel-crawler-integrated walking mechanism can be switched between the wheel and triangular crawler modes by driving the deformation mechanism. Through the numerical simulation of its movement process, and the trial production and experiment of the prototype, indicates the validity of the reconfigurable wheel-crawler-integrated walking mechanism design.

The work of this paper provides a reconfigurable wheel-crawler-integrated-walking mechanism, which can be used by robots in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau scientific research station. It has excellent reconfigurability and can effectively improve the robot’s adaptability to complex terrain.