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This paper aims to focus on the preparation of Kevlar fiber (KF) and alkaline hydrolyzed KF (KF-H) to improve the dispersed condition of polyaniline (PAn), as the aggregation of PAn would lead to some adsorption sites buried. And then the materials were used to enrich anionic dye Congo red (CR) from aqueous solution.

The materials (KF@PAn and KF-H@PAn) were designed by means of “diffusion-interfacial-polymerization” under mild condition as high affinity due to the structural properties of PAn, KF and KF-H. The dispersed degree of PAn on the surface of KF and KF-H was validated according to adsorption efficiency for CR.

The content of PAn introduced was not beyond 20 wt.%, while adsorption capacity for CR was significantly enhanced by 4–8 times (on the basis of kinetic data) according to the calculation only by the content of PAn due to KF and alkaline hydrolyzed KF exhibited almost no adsorption for CR, indicating dispersed situation of PAn coating was greatly enhanced and more active sites exposed, which was favorable for the adsorption process. Presence of NaCl would exhibit a more or less positive effect on CR uptake, suggesting the materials could be used for high salt environment.

The investigated means of dispersed degree of PAn on the surface of KF and KF-H are the further and future investigation.

This study will provide a method to improve the dispersed situation of PAn and a theoretical support to treat anionic dyes from aqueous solution especially for salt environment.

The results showed that the dispersed condition of PAn on the surface of KF and KF-H was greatly improved. According to the adsorption capacities for CR, it can be concluded that part of adsorption sites were buried due to the aggregation of PAn, and introduction of KF and KF-H, buried adsorption sites decreased greatly. This study will provide a method to decrease buried adsorption sites of PAn and a contribution for their convenient application in wastewater treatment especially for high salt environment.

Marketing research has focussed more on in-group favoritism and out-group derogation (i.e. ethnocentrism) than out-group favoritism and in-group derogation (i.e. xenocentrism). The purpose of this paper is to explore the xenocentric behavior in the consumer sphere to explain why some consumers have a bias for foreign products even when domestic ones are qualitatively similar or better. As the Chinese economy has experienced more than three decades of near double-digit growth and increased openness to foreign products, it is important to examine phenomena related to the formation of Chinese attitudes toward foreign products with the rising tensions between the seemingly irreversible globalization and Chinese re-awakening nationalism.

This study is based on a review of the extant literature and focus groups in three cities in China.

This study has found that consumer xenocentrism (CX) is prevalent in China, especially among the new emerging wealthy classes, younger consumers, and the local elite. It appears that Chinese consumers are psychologically or sociologically orientated or predisposed toward foreign (Western) goods. The findings from this study suggest that both consumer ethnocentrism and CX are possible or even expected. The short review of Chinese history presented here has shown that these phenomena can be explained by traditional in-group/out-group theories. Specifically, when there are too many xenocentrics, national esteem is threatened and this prompts many individuals to become more ethnocentric.

This study is based on the literature and focus groups data, hence, the findings are not intended to be generalizable.

The findings from this study should be of interest to business practitioners and policy makers.

The historical and cultural perspectives taken in this study indicate that understanding consumers’ xenocentric behavior entails knowledge and deep understanding of how cultural values and contemporary social-political forces interplay within consumers’ formation and change of attitudes toward the choice of domestic and foreign products.

This study shows that the ability of foreign products to meet the individual’s need or enhance his/her self-esteem more so than domestic products is indicative of something more than simply an international, cosmopolitan, or modern orientation. The fact that consumer foreign bias is found with both mundane and widely available products, expensive and inexpensive products, and conspicuous and non-conspicuous goods challenges the assumption that this phenomenon is simply traditional prestige-consumption behavior. Future research needs to be directed at measuring the CX construct and examine potential antecedents of such a behavior.

Currently, the vision and depth information obtained from the eye-to-hand RGB-D camera can apply to the reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) environment for a robotic operation workspace. The reconstructed 3D space contributes to a symmetrical and equal observation view for robots and humans, which can be considered a digital twin (DT) environment. The purpose of this study is to enhance the robot skill in the physical workspace, although the artificial intelligence (AI) technique has high performance of the robotic operation in the known environments.

A multimodal interaction framework is proposed in DT operation environments.

A fast image-based target segmentation technique is combined in the 3D reconstruction of the robotic operation environment from the eye-to-hand camera, thus expediting the 3D DT environment generation without accuracy loss. A multimodal interaction interface is integrated into the DT environment.

The users are supported to operate the virtual objects in the DT environment using speech, mouse and keyboard simultaneously. The humans’ operations in 3D DT virtual space are recorded, and cues are provided for the robot’s operations in practice.

This study aims to assess the default risk of borrowers in peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platforms. The authors propose a novel default risk classification model based on data cleaning and feature extraction, which increases risk assessment accuracy.

The authors use borrower data from the Lending Club and propose the risk assessment model based on low-rank representation (LRR) and discriminant analysis. Firstly, the authors use three LRR models to clean the high-dimensional borrower data by removing outliers and noise, and then the authors adopt a discriminant analysis algorithm to reduce the dimension of the cleaned data. In the dimension-reduced feature space, machine learning classifiers including the k-nearest neighbour, support vector machine and artificial neural network are used to assess and classify default risks.

The results reveal significant noise and redundancy in the borrower data. LRR models can effectively clean such data, particularly the two LRR models with local manifold regularisation. In addition, the supervised discriminant analysis model, termed the local Fisher discriminant analysis model, can extract low-dimensional and discriminative features, which further increases the accuracy of the final risk assessment models.

The originality of this study is that it proposes a novel default risk assessment model, based on data cleaning and feature extraction, for P2P online lending platforms. The proposed approach is innovative and efficient in the P2P online lending field.

A unified framework for solving the bending, buckling and vibration problems of rectangular thin plates (RTPs) with four free edges (FFFF), including isotropic RTPs, orthotropic rectangular thin plates (ORTPs) and nano-rectangular plates, is established by using the symplectic superposition method (SSM).

The original fourth-order partial differential equation is first rewritten into Hamiltonian system. The class of boundary value problems of the original equation is decomposed into three subproblems, and each subproblem is given the corresponding symplectic eigenvalues and symplectic eigenvectors by using the separation variable method in Hamiltonian system. The symplectic orthogonality and completeness of symplectic eigen-vectors are proved. Then, the symplectic eigenvector expansion method is applied to solve the each subproblem. Then, the symplectic superposition solution of the boundary value problem of the original fourth-order partial differential equation is given through superposing analytical solutions of three foundation plates.

The bending, vibration and buckling problems of the rectangular nano-plate/isotropic rectangular thin plate/orthotropic rectangular thin plate with FFFF can be solved by the unified symplectic superposition solution respectively.

The symplectic superposition solution obtained is a reference solution to verify the feasibility of other methods. At the same time, it can be used for parameter analysis to deeply understand the mechanical behavior of related RTPs. The advantages of this method are as follows: (1) It provides a systematic framework for solving the boundary value problem of a class of fourth-order partial differential equations. It is expected to solve more complicated boundary value problems of partial differential equations. (2) SSM uses series expansion of symplectic eigenvectors to accurately describe the solution. Moreover, symplectic eigenvectors are orthogonal and directly reflect the orthogonal relationship of vibration modes. (3) The SSM can be carried to bending, buckling and free vibration problems of the same plate with other boundary conditions.

Smart community construction (SCC) and efficiency require resident participation. This paper aims to explore the determinants of residents’ participation intention (RPI) in the SCC.

Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study proposed an extended conceptual model to deeply analyze the RPI in the SCC. The relationship between all constructs was verified by processing and analyzing online survey data using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation model (SEM), and bootstrapping method.

Participation attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and perceived usefulness significantly and positively affected the RPI. Furthermore, intermediary effects in the extended conceptual model had been confirmed.

To fill the critical gap in the research on the determinants of the RPI in the SCC context, this study developed a novel conceptual model by extending the TPB to analyze the effects of self-driven and externally-driven factors on the RPI from the perspectives of residents’ psychology and external environment. The findings not only clarify the complex process of forming the RPI in the SCC but also provide a theoretical foundation for studying the RPI in similar community construction projects. Additionally, several strategies have been proposed to encourage residents’ participation in the SCC and promote the development of smart communities, such as clarifying residents’ participation obligations, improving the convenience services of smart communities, and diversifying residents’ participation approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to develop initial evidence about the nature and features of crowdfunding in China, given it is largely unregulated regulatory frameworks.

The paper used extensive desk research using data collected from the public and private sectors, after which the data was analyzed parallel to existing academic literature, that is, institutional context by Bruton et al. (2014). This paper uncovered patterns of development, profiling crowdfunding platforms, examining the regulatory landscape and providing antecedents of successful crowdfunding projects in China.

When the traditional financial markets are hard to reach, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) were starved for capital. Crowdfunding can play a major role in funding and risk sharing. It is an innovative and dynamic vehicle for MSMEs as well as enthusiastic investors in China. Since its initial introduction to China in 2009, crowdfunding has gained substantial popularity in a relatively short period. Currently, there is still not an identifiable guideline on how to delineate the significance of the crowdfunding platform. The development of crowdfunding in China faces a few unresolved key issues. As researchers exploring this phenomenon in new ways, crowdfunding platforms can be enhanced in a manner that benefits the capital seeker, investors and society as a whole.

There is a dearth of information on start-up crowdfunding in Asia. With little data available to analyze, so this paper hopes to contribute to knowledge and provide valuable information to researchers and industry representations. Crowdfunding represents a potentially disruptive change in the way that new ventures are funded. This paper represents an initial analysis in the study of new ventures in China. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers as well as researchers and practitioners with suggestions about yet unexplored avenues of research.