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This paper aims to provide a sensor for fast, sensitive and selective ethylene (C₂H₄) concentration measurements.

The paper developed a sensor platform based on tunable laser absorption spectroscopy with a 3,266-nm interband cascade laser (ICL) as an optical source and a hollow waveguide (HWG) as a gas cell. The ICL wavelength was scanned across a C₂H₄ strong fundamental absorption band, and an interference-free C₂H₄ absorption line located at 3,060.76 cm⁻¹ was selected. Wavelength modulation spectroscopy with the second harmonic detection (WMS-2f) technique was used to improve the sensitivity. Furthermore, the HWG gas cell can achieve a long optical path in a very small volume to improve the time response.

The results show excellent linearity of the measured 2f signal and the C₂H₄ concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.9997. Also, the response time is as short as about 10 s. The Allan variance analysis indicates that the detection limit can achieve 53 ppb with an integration time of 24 s.

The ethylene sensor has many meaningful applications in environmental monitoring, industrial production, national security and the biomedicine field.

The paper provides a novel sensor architecture which can be a versatile sensor platform for fast and sensitive trace-gas detection in the mid-infrared region.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a kind of novel and high‐performance rheological additive, an eco‐friendly composite of anatase nano‐TiO₂ particles and xanthan gum (NTX), for interior wall coatings.

NTX was prepared through heating and refluxing the mixture of TiO₂ hydrosol and xanthan gum, and five interior wall coating samples were fabricated with different NTX contents. The morphology of nano‐TiO₂ hydrosol and NTX were characterised with TEM, and the stability and rheological properties of these coating samples were studied.

TEM images showed a core‐shell structure of NTX, and that nano‐TiO₂ particles in it were encapsulated by xanthan gum, which was anticipated to weaken Van der Waals force among nano‐TiO₂ particles thus preventing the aggregation of nano‐particles. All of the five coating samples were found to be non‐Newtonian pseudo‐plastic fluid, and showed excellent stability and thixotropic property.

This paper focused on the preparation, the characterisation of NTX additive and the study of the rheological behaviours of the coating samples with NTX. Some other aspects, such as coating durability, photocatalytic ability and film properties, will be studied in the future.

It was proven that NTX was an effective eco‐friendly rheological additive for interior wall coatings. Consequently, this paper threw light on developing eco‐friendly interior wall coatings.

A kind of novel and effective rheological additive was developed for interior wall coatings in the study reported in the paper. A method was also developed to introduce functional nano‐particles into coating in a good dispersion state.

This paper aims to design a novel feature descriptor to improve the performance of feature matching in challenge scenes, such as low texture and wide-baseline scenes. Common descriptors are not suitable for low texture scenes and other challenging scenes mainly owing to encoding only one kind of features. The proposed feature descriptor considers multiple features and their locations, which is more expressive.

A graph neural network–based descriptors enhancement algorithm for feature matching is proposed. In this paper, point and line features are the primary concerns. In the graph, commonly used descriptors for points and lines constitute the nodes and the edges are determined by the geometric relationship between points and lines. After the graph convolution designed for incomplete join graph, enhanced descriptors are obtained.

Experiments are carried out in indoor, outdoor and low texture scenes. The experiments investigate the real-time performance, rotation invariance, scale invariance, viewpoint invariance and noise sensitivity of the descriptors in three types of scenes. The results show that the enhanced descriptors are robust to scene changes and can be used in wide-baseline matching.

A graph structure is designed to represent multiple features in an image. In the process of building graph structure, the geometric relation between multiple features is used to establish the edges. Furthermore, a novel hybrid descriptor for points and lines is obtained using graph convolutional neural network. This enhanced descriptor has the advantages of both point features and line features in feature matching.

The purpose of this paper is to extend game analysis to explore decision-making mechanisms for promoting a specific type of products, low energy consumption for individual one while the total energy consumption is huge due to the high quantity of sales, that is, low for individual and high for total (LIHT) in terms of energy consumption.

Game models are developed to compare decisions of optimal prices for newly developed and environmentally friendly (NDEF) and regular products as well as associated sales quantity, profits, carbon emissions under different governmental policies, along with a case of low energy-intensive broadband terminal products in the Chinese telecommunication industry under the carbon tax and subsidy policies.

For both NDEF and regular products, optimal prices decrease under the subsidy policy while both increase under the tax policy. Manufacturers’ decision of optimal prices is highly relevant with unit carbon tax/subsidy and the consumers’ preference. Both the tax and subsidy policies can improve consumption of NDEF products while the subsidy policy can be more effective at the current initial stage.

This paper provides decision support for manufacturers to promote sustainable consumption of LIHT products. Research ideas on models development and solutions for optimal prices can be applied to other LIHT products.

The results provide insights for governments on how to effectively evaluate and motivate sustainable consumption for LIHT products.

This paper first explores how to motivate sustainable consumption of LIHT products by developing models, examining effectiveness of potential governmental policies as well as associated carbon emissions.

China is among one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The massive land mass of China also means that the Chinese people are subject to weather extremes as well as topographical variety in a country which cuts across alpine heights, treacherous deserts, lush valleys, dusty plains and lengthy rivers. With these weather extremes as the backdrop, it is crucial for the Chinese people to develop appropriate environmental control techniques for their dwellings as well as to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. This paper discusses the protection, heating, anti‐seismic and dampness techniques developed and implemented in ancient China. It also documents the measures taken by the ancient Chinese to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. The examples highlighted in this paper suggest that the building science principles adopted in ancient China remain relevant in the construction industry today.

Under extensive pressure from normal market competition, frequent technological change and extreme exogenous shock, firms are facing severe challenge nowadays. How to withstand discontinuous crises and respond to normal risks through improving resilience (RE) is an important question worth researching. Thus, drawing on the strategic entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this study is exploring the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and RE, and combining digitization to discuss the role of digital business capability (DBC), digital business model innovation (DBMI) and environmental hostility (EH).

Based on survey data from 203 Chinese firms, using the methods of linear regression and bootstrap to test our hypothesis. Furthermore, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA) is used to identify previously unknown combinations which lead to strong/weak RE in digital context.

First, EO positively influenced DBC and RE. Second, DBMI promoted RE, DBC and DBMI served as sequential mediators that linked EO and RE. Third, EH positively moderated the effects of EO on RE. Further the study revealed that different configuration of DBMI and dimensions of EO and DBC can explain RE.

The study explains mechanism of RE from perspective of digitization. The conclusion is good for further consolidating strategic entrepreneurship theory, and providing a new frame for firms to build the ability of antifragile.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how China's rural public pension affects farmers' formal borrowing, which has always been rationed.

This paper uses a difference-in-difference (DID) estimation to evaluate the effect of the implementation of the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) at the end of 2009 on farmers' formal borrowing.

The results show that the NRPS significantly reduces farmers' formal borrowing from rural credit cooperatives (RCCs). The effect is significant among the elderly, eastern China and high-income groups.

This study contributes to the literature by identifying another potential reason for rural formal credit shortage. Policymakers and rural formal financial institutions should consider the demand side problem of lending.

Innovation ambidexterity is crucial for fostering growth and gaining a competitive advantage in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Previous research indicates that achieving a balance between exploration and exploitation is a multifaceted phenomenon occurring across various levels. This paper aims to examine the influence of individual, organizational and institutional factors on the ambidextrous innovation of Chinese niche leaders using a configurational perspective.

This study uses secondary data collected from 69 Chinese niche leaders in the new equipment manufacturing industry. The authors use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate how owner openness, age, digitization, the formal institutional environment and the informal institutional environment jointly influence innovation ambidexterity.

By using fuzzy set analysis, this study categorizes combinations of interdependent factors that promote innovation ambidexterity. In particular, the authors pinpoint three configurations that foster high innovation ambidexterity and two configurations that lack such high levels of innovation ambidexterity. The analysis results suggest that innovation paradoxes in SMEs are linked to a nested system comprising leadership, organizational factors and the institutional environment.

This study elucidates the mechanism of innovation ambidexterity through a configurational perspective. This research proposes and validates a framework that enables SMEs to develop ambidextrous innovation capabilities, thereby integrating organizational ambidexterity theory and shedding light on the intricately complex nature of innovation ambidexterity.

The study aims to empirically study the effect of venture capital on open innovation of China's enterprises.

This paper selects China's A-share listed companies on the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) board and the Growth Enterprise Market from 2014 to 2018 as research samples to empirically study the effect of venture capital on open innovation of China's enterprises.

The authors find that venture capital can significantly promote open innovation of enterprises. This promoting effect is more significant when the venture capital institutions have profounder industry experience, higher shareholding ratio and are syndicated. Further research finds that venture capital mainly promotes open innovation through three mechanisms: increasing monetary funds, improving absorptive capacity and strengthening executive incentives, and the effect of venture capital on open innovation is significantly different under the conditions of different regions, industries and property rights.

This paper not only reveals the effect of venture capital on enterprises' open innovation and the specific mechanism, but also provides empirical evidence for emerging economies to build a national innovation ecosystem and make use of capital markets to accelerate innovation strategies.

This study investigates firms' innovation behaviour under environmental change. Therefore, it examines the effect of trade disputes on corporate technological innovation and how product market competition moderates this relationship.

This research tests the hypotheses using the fixed effects model based on panel data of publicly listed enterprises in China from 2007–2020.

The empirical results validate the positive association between trade disputes and corporate research and development (R&D) intensity as well as the U-shaped relationship between trade disputes and radical innovation. Additionally, the moderating effect of product market competition is verified: a concentrated market with less competition flattens the U-shaped curve of radical innovation induced by trade disputes; as the market becomes more concentrated and less competitive, the U-shaped relationship eventually turns into an inverted U.

First, this study contributes to the corporate innovation and trade dispute literature by expanding the environmental antecedents of technological innovation and the firm-level consequences of trade disputes. Second, this study enriches the theoretical framework of the environment–innovation link through an integrated perspective of contingency theory and dynamic capabilities view. Third, instead of the traditional linear mindset which had led to contradictory results, this study explores a curvilinear effect in the environment–innovation relationship.