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Unlike previous research that primarily utilized structural equation modelling (SEM) to evaluate safety hazards in subway projects, this research aims to utilize a hybrid approach to investigate and scrutinize the key indicators of safety hazards leading to accidents, thereby hindering the progress of subway projects in China, taking into cognizance the multiple stakeholder’s perspective.

By administering a survey questionnaire to 373 highly involved stakeholders in subway projects spanning Changsha, Beijing and Qingdao, China, our approach incorporated a four-staged composite amalgamation of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) to develop an optimized model that determines the causal relationships and interactions among safety hazards in subway construction projects.

The optimized model delineated the influence of individual safety hazards on subway projects. The feasibility and applicability of the model developed was demonstrated on an actual subway project under construction in Changsha city. The outcomes revealed that the progress of subway projects is significantly influenced by risks associated with project management, environmental factors, subterranean conditions and technical hazards. In contrast, risks related to construction and human factors did not exhibit a significant impact on subway construction progress.

While our study provides valuable insights, it is important to acknowledge the limitation of relying on theoretical approaches without empirical validation from experiments or the field. In future research, we plan to address this limitation by assessing the SEM using empirical data. This will involve a comprehensive comparison of outcomes derived from CB-SEM with those obtained through SEM-ANN methods. Such an empirical validation process is crucial for enhancing the overall efficiency and robustness of the proposed methodologies.

The established hybrid model revealed complex non-linear connections among indicators in the intricate project, enabling the recognition of primary hazards and offering direction to improve management of safety in the construction of subways.

In the creation of coal consumption reduction policy, the Chinese Government selected eight provinces as key provinces and encouraged them to replace coal with other non-coal energy, involving Kaldor-Hicks improvement. The purpose of this paper is to answer how much coal can be conserved if Kaldor-Hicks improvement is considered.

A DEA model reflecting Kaldor-Hicks improvement is suggested to calculate the potential of coal reduction, and an endogenous directional distance function model is proposed to calculate the energy consumption efficiency.

The results show that the non-key provinces wasted more coal than the key provinces, although the latter are of more concern. From the Kaldor-Hicks criterion, ten non-key provinces in a certain year can save more coal from an energy substitution policy and eight key provinces cannot. Through measurement of coal and energy efficiency, it is also found that provinces with an abundance of coal perform the worst in China.

Previous studies measuring Chinese saving potential of coal mainly focused on Pareto-Koopmans criterion, not consistent to policy practices. This study changes to Kaldor-Hicks criterion, allowing to make some factors better off and other factors worse off.

This paper aims to study the Gramian solutions and solitonic interactions of a (2 + 1)-dimensional Broer–Kaup–Kupershmidt (BKK) system, which models the nonlinear and dispersive long gravity waves traveling along two horizontal directions in the shallow water of uniform depth.

Pfaffian technique is used to construct the Gramian solutions of the (2 + 1)-dimensional BKK system. Asymptotic analysis is applied on the two-soliton solutions to study the interaction properties.

N-soliton solutions in the Gramian with a real function ζ(y) of the (2 + 1)-dimensional BKK system are constructed and proved, where N is a positive integer and y is the scaled space variable. Conditions of elastic and inelastic interactions between the two solitons are revealed asymptotically. For the three and four solitons, elastic, inelastic interactions and soliton resonances are discussed graphically. Effect of the wave numbers, initial phases and ζ(y) on the solitonic interactions is also studied.

Shallow water waves are studied for the applications in environmental engineering and hydraulic engineering. This paper studies the shallow water waves through the Gramian solutions of a (2 + 1)-dimensional BKK system and provides some phenomena that have not been studied.

Many studies on witch killings in Africa suggest that “witchcraft is the dark side of kinship.” But in Chinese history, where patriarchal clan system has been emphasized as the foundation of the society, there have been few occurrences of witch-hunting except a large-scale one in the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The purpose of this paper is to explain the above two paradoxes.

Theoretical analysis based on preference falsification problem with regard to the effect of social structure on witch-hunting is carried out.

There is a “bright side of kinship” due to two factors: first, it would be more difficult to pick out a person as qualitatively different in Chinese culture; second, the hierarchical trust structure embedded in the Chinese culture can help mitigate the preference falsification problem, which acts as the leverage for witch-hunting. In this sense, an important factor for the Cultural Revolution is the decline of traditional social institutions and social values after 1949.

This paper is the first to advance the two paradoxes and offer an explanation from the perspective of social structure.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze long-term institutional causes and consequences of preference falsification by studying the evolution of China’s patriarchal clan system.

The historic study shows that although the clan system was abolished in the Qin dynasty, it re-emerged among high-standing families in the Han dynasty and spread to common people after the Tang dynasty.

The author submits that the clan system was an institutional response to the preference falsification problem that arose due to the dictatorial political institutions first established in the Qin dynasty. It helped people to take collective action by themselves and also opened a back door to influence government decisions. A piece of clear evidence is the co-evolution of the clan system and government personnel system.

In this sense, the clan system probably also helped to prolong the political institutions for 2,000 years.

This is the first institutional study on the clan system in China.