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An inter-story isolation structure (IIS) for AP1000 nuclear power plants (NPPs) is provided to resolve the conflict of seismic safety and the optimal location of air intakes.

The effect of passive cooling system (PCS) is better with lower altitude of air intakes than that in the original design of AP1000 NPPs. Seismic performances of IIS NPPs, including the seismic responses, damping frequency bandwidth and seismic reduction robustness, are improved by combining the position of air intakes lower and the optimal design method.

Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are illustrated that the seismic reduction failure of IIS NPPs is the lowest probability of occurrence when PCS has highest working efficiency.

The IIS NPPs can transfer the contradiction between PCS work efficiency and seismic safety of NPPs to the mutual promotion of them.

Seismic isolation, as an effective risk mitigation strategy of building/bridge structures, is incorporated into AP1000 nuclear power plants (NPPs) to alleviate the seismic damage that may occur to traditional structures of NPPs during their service. This is to promote the passive safety concept in the structural design of AP1000 NPPs against earthquakes.

In conjunction with seismic isolation, tuned-mass-damping (TMD) is integrated into the seismic resistance system of AP1000 NPPs to satisfy the multi-functional purposes. The proposed base-isolation-tuned-mass-damper (BIS-TMD) is studied by comparing the seismic performance of NPPs with four different design configurations (i.e. without BIS, BIS, BIS-TMD and TMD) with the design parameters of the TMD subsystem optimized.

Such a new seismic protection system (BIS-TMD) is proved to be promising because the advantages of BIS and TMD can be fully used. The benefits of the new structure include effective energy dissipation (i.e. wide vibration absorption band and a stable damping effect), which results in the high performance of NPPs subject to earthquakes with various intensity levels and spectra features.

Parametric studies are performed to demonstrate the seismic robustness (e.g. consistent performance against the changing mass of the water in the gravity liquid tank and mechanical properties) which further ensures that seismic safety requirements of NPPs can be satisfied through the use of BIS-TMD.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the economic environment affects the merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the restaurant industry.

The M&A transactions in the restaurant industry between 1981 and 2013 (n = 1,415) were examined. Data were collected from the Securities Data Corporation (SDC) database. Using an autoregressive distributed lag approach, this study developed three error correction models to explore the short- and long-term relationships between restaurant M&A activities and four macro-economic factors.

This study found that there was a long-term equilibrium relationship between the M&A activities and the four economic factors and that economic outlook had a significantly positive impact in the long term, while the effect of cost of debt was significantly negative in both the short and long terms. The findings suggest that restaurant firms are more likely to adopt M&A strategy when they are optimistic about the future economy and can take on debt at a low cost.

The findings of this study are expected to help practitioners make informative M&A decisions in the restaurant industry taking into consideration the economic environment. They will also help investors effectively manage their portfolios by predicting and ascertaining the proper time to invest in the restaurant industry based on the changes of economic environment.

No known study has been identified that examined the relationship between macro-economic factors and M&A activities in the restaurant industry. The findings of the study are expected to fill the gap in the literature by demonstrating the economic environment and the M&A activities in the restaurant industry are in a long-term equilibrium achieved by self-correction of their short-term disequilibrium.

This paper takes the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect as a quasi-natural experiment and investigates the impact of capital market liberalization on the corporate debt maturity structure. It also aims to provide some policy implications for corporate debt financing and further liberalization of the capital market in China.

Employing the exogenous event of Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect and using the data of Chinese A-share firms from 2010 to 2020, this study constructs a difference-in-differences model to examine the relationship between capital market liberalization and corporate debt maturity structure. To validate the results, this study performed several robustness tests, including the parallel test, the placebo test, the Heckman two-stage regression and the propensity score matching.

This paper finds that capital market liberalization has significantly increased the proportion of long-term debt of target firms. Further analyses suggest that the impact of capital market liberalization on the debt maturity structure is more pronounced for firms with lower management ownership and non-Big 4 audit. Channel tests show that capital market liberalization improves firms’ information environment and curbs self-interested management behavior.

This research provides empirical evidence for the consequences of capital market liberalization and enriches the literature on the determinants of corporate debt maturity structure. Further this study makes a reference for regulators and financial institutions to improve corporate financing through the governance role of capital market liberalization.

Study on the internal legalization process of strategic change for a large number of ultra-large enterprises in China.

This paper takes formulation process of Suning Appliance Group’s 10-year strategy (2010–2020) as the research case, designs the research issues, propositions and analysis unit of the case study, and uses the data collection and analysis methods in the grounded theory to realize the theoretical development from data to viewpoint conceptualizing and to proposition categorizing.

There are four key concepts that affect the judgment of overall strategic legitimacy of super-large enterprises: Emerging-market opportunities and strategic operational positioning, legitimacy perspective mainly manifests as legitimacy judgment of strategic direction within organization. Positioning of core resources (including intangible resources) and their value identification methods or value evaluation criteria, the legitimacy perspective is mainly reflected in the organization's internal legitimacy judgment of functional planning, especially implementation path. The impact factors of the key performance of each SBU are positioned, and the legitimacy perspective is mainly reflected in the organization’s internal judgment on the legitimacy of strategic supporting measures, especially the resources needed for the implementation of the strategy and capacity development. The periodical strategic objectives and performance measurement indicators of each SBU are mainly reflected in the organization’s internal legitimacy judgment on strategic alignment and specific action plans for strategic operational units. The legitimacy of these four key concepts is strongly influenced by the rationality of these strategic concepts, which are closely related to their shaping patterns driven by right-brain and left-brain thinking modes.

This case is a longitudinal study of the strategic decision-making process, not a longitudinal follow-up of the actual implementation of the strategy. In addition, given that the case enterprise was facing the emerging market at that time and focused on pushing firms to seize opportunities, not much research has been done on the impact of external legitimacy on the strategic formulation process, a variable that is increasingly being focused on today.

This model has guidance significance and practical demonstration role for a large number of enterprises that are implementing the “+Internet” strategic change under traditional offline operation.

According to the summary of the connection between data and propositions in several rounds, this paper constructs a theoretical model of left and right brain thinking mode driving key concepts to achieve the internal legalization process of strategic changes.

In the analysis process, the legalization theory and the sense-making method are introduced into enterprises’ strategy making process. Based on this analysis framework, this paper analyzes in detail that the top decision-making level and the middle and high executive level form key strategic concepts to promote the internal legalization process of strategic decision-making driven by the right-brain intuitive thinking mode and the left-brain rational thinking mode, which greatly improves the quality of strategy formulation and the operability of strategy implementation.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the recent recession affected Iowa's gaming industry by analyzing gaming volumes before and through the recession.

This study used autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) with intervention analysis to examine Iowa statewide aggregated monthly slot coin-in, table drop, and admission from December 2001 through June 2012.

The results of analyses show that: slot coin-in was not affected by the recession; table drop was slightly affected, but started to recover in late 2010; and monthly admission was not affected by the recession, and showed a significant increase after the recession. The results also indicate that the decrease in table drop in Iowa casinos represented only a very small amount of state gaming revenue in 2008. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that Iowa's gaming volume was not significantly affected by the recent recession. In other words, Iowa's gaming industry is still recession-proof.

Current economic conditions suggest that the threat of a double-dip recession is quite real. The findings of this study are expected to help casino managers in Iowa understand how non-destination casinos behaved differently through the recession and strategically plan for a possible future economic downturn. In fact, the significant increase of monthly admission during the last recession implies that the Iowa gaming industry has actually benefited from the recession by accommodating more patrons. Therefore, to capitalize on the next recession, Iowa's casino operators should consider reducing the number of table games and increasing the number of slot machines to accommodate more slot players and reduce operating costs.

Most existing gaming-related research focuses on gaming destinations such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City. No known study on gaming volume in non-destination gaming markets has been identified. By examining Iowa's gaming volume through the recession, this study provides initial empirical evidence of the impact of recession on non-destination gaming markets.

This study aims to attempt to examine whether the increase in hotel room capacity in the USA had a significant impact on nationwide aggregated weekly revenue per available room (RevPAR) during the recession of 2007-2009 and forecast average RevPAR, Occupancy and Average Daily Rate (ADR) for 2013 and 2014.

Using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Intervention analysis technique, this study examined the significance of the fluctuations in weekly RevPAR, room capacity and market demand through the recent recession and forecasted hotel performance for 2013 and 2014.

The results of time series analysis suggest that the fast growth of room capacity during the recession was one of the main causes of the decrease in RevPAR. The 9,878 more than expected increase in average weekly number of rooms probably caused at least $0.10 more than expected decrease in average weekly RevPAR. The findings of this study also suggest that the US lodging industry has been facing more severe oversupply since the recession and fully rebound of RevPAR cannot be expected in the very near future.

The findings of this study will help stakeholders make more informed decisions to cope with possible future economic downturns. By quantifying the capacity increase and forecasting future market demand, this study provides hotel investors with empirical evidence on the overdevelopment and insights into expected overall hotel performance in next two years. This study has also discussed the cyclical patterns of hotel development during the past two recessions.

By identifying overdevelopment as one of the main causes of RevPAR decrease during the recession, this study contributes to the literature by adding an alternative explanation of RevPAR fluctuations and deepens the understanding of the adverse effects overdevelopment has on the lodging industry. The findings of this study will help hotel investors develop more informed future expansion plans.

Stochastic computing which is an alternative method of the binary calculation has key merits such as fault-tolerant capability and low hardware cost. However, the hardware response time of it is required to be very fast due to its bit-wise calculation mode. While the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) components are difficult to meet the requirements aforementioned. For this, the stochastic computing implementation scheme based on the memristive system is proposed to reduce the response time. The purpose of this paper is to provide the implementation scheme based memristive system for the stochastic computing.

The hardware structure of material logic based on the memristive system is realized according to the advantages of the memristor. After that, the scheme of NOT logic, AND logic and multiplexer are designed, which are the basic units of stochastic computing. Furthermore, a stochastic computing system based on memristive combinational logic is structured and its validity is verified successfully by operating a case.

The numbers of the elements of the proposed stochastic computing system are less than the conventional stochastic computing based on CMOS circuits.

The paper proposed a novel implementation scheme for stochastic computing based on the memristive systems, which are different from the conventional stochastic computing based on CMOS circuits.

This study aims to develop a sol-gel-based coating to provide a long-lasting corrosion protection on AZ31 Mg alloy. Silane-based sol-gel coatings have been successfully applied to Mg alloys for corrosion protection. However, the micro or nano defects formed during condensation and solidification will cause the coating failure during a long-lasting immersion in a saline solution. More durable corrosion-protective sol-gel coatings are needed.

A sol-gel-based coating was modified on AZ31 Mg alloy by levodopa (DOPA). The long-lasting corrosion protection mechanism was studied by multiple electrochemical testing methods and surface characterization techniques.

Long-term testing by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in aqueous 0.1 M NaCl indicated that the modified DOPA@sol-gel coating exhibited significant corrosion protection performance (>14 days). In comparison, the DOPA-free sol-gel coating failed only after three days of testing. The improved corrosion protection is attributed to the self-polymerized DOPA filling to the micro or nano defects in the glassy cross-linked networks of the sol-gel coating, which greatly improves the compactness of the coating.

The method of this study is simple and easy to process, the raw materials are green and the protective effect is excellent, which is of significance for the study of magnesium alloy corrosion protection.