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This paper aims to reveal the effects of an organisation’s bargaining power on its negotiating behaviours (including integrating, obliging, compromising, dominating and avoiding) in the context of inter-organisational conflict in construction projects and investigate how organisational power distance orientation moderates the relationship between the organisation’s bargaining power and its negotiating behaviours.

The authors conducted a questionnaire survey among practitioners in the Chinese construction industry with the final sample consisting of 219 responses. A structural equation model was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that an organisation’s bargaining power is positively associated with dominating and integrating behaviours but negatively associated with obliging and avoiding behaviours. Additionally, bargaining power is found to be negatively associated with compromising behaviour when the organisation has a high power distance orientation. Finally, a higher degree of power distance orientation strengthens the positive effect bargaining power has on dominating behaviour.

The findings can help practitioners to predict the negotiating behaviours of a counterpart according to its bargaining power and the power distance in its organisational culture. This can then enable practitioners to adjust their strategies accordingly and steer the negotiations towards a win–win outcome.

This study applies the approach-inhibition theory of power to inter-organisational negotiations and empirically tests the relationship between an organisation’s bargaining power and its negotiating behaviours in the context of construction projects. Additionally, this study reveals that organisational power distance orientation moderates this relationship.

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed the concept of “One Belt and One Road” economic cooperation. “The Belt and Road Initiative (B&R)” is the short of “The Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st-century Maritime Silk Road,” which has got a series of remarkable achievements and worldwide attentions in past five years such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, B&R Forum for International Cooperation, etc. Especially, cross-border EC has greatly strengthened the trade links between countries along the way, which is a rare chance for Chinese Export-oriented Cross-border EC’s rapid growth. Thus, the authors take DHgate.com as a typical example to do a big data analysis. This chapter analyzes vast data from 2013 to 2017 about seven kinds of commodities including Fashion accessories, Jewelry, Sports & Outdoors, Security & Surveillances, Car accessories, Watches, and Hair & Styling by using data mining related software and algorithms. The authors do some monthly sale charts and find a few counter-intuitive but useful conclusions such as by taking association analysis, the study shows that sports products and jewelry products have strong association rules. In addition, for potential products (such as Fashion accessories and Jewelry), although their sales have a certain shock, the overall selling line keep rising. It is possible to put forward some practical suggestions for Chinese Export-oriented Cross-border EC that actively respond to the One Belt One Road Initiative based on these analysis results.

The purpose of this study is to explore the transient characteristics of mixed-flow pumps during startup process.

This study uses a full-flow field transient calculation method of mixed-flow pump based on a closed-loop model.

The findings show the hydraulic losses and internal flow characteristics of the piping system during the start-up process.

Large computational cost.

Improve the accuracy of current numerical simulation results in transient process of mixed-flow pump.

Simplify the setting of boundary conditions in the transient calculation.

Through this research study, the authors found that digital thread has made significant progress in the life cycle management of the US Air Force. The authors hope that by reviewing similar studies in the aerospace field, the meaning of digital thread can be summarized and applied to a wider range of fields. In addition, theoretically, the definition of digital twin and digital thread are not unified. The authors hope that the comparison of digital thread and digital twin will better enable scholars to distinguish between the two concepts. Besides, the authors are also looking forward that more people will realize the significance of digital thread and carry out future research.

Complete research about digital thread and the relevant concept of the digital twin is conducted. First, by searching in Google Scholar with the keyword “digital thread”, the authors filter results and save literature with high relevance to digital thread. The authors also track these papers’ references for more paper of digital thread and digital twin. After removing the duplicate and low-relevance literature, 72 digital thread-related literature studies are saved and further analyzed from the perspective of time development, application field and research directions.

Digital thread application in industries other than the aviation manufacturing industry is still relatively few, and the research on the application of digital thread in real industrial scenarios is mainly at the stage of framework design and design-side decision optimization. In addition, the digital thread needs a new management mechanism and organizational structure to realize landing. The new management mechanism and the process can adapt to the whole life cycle management process based on the digital thread, manage the data security and data update, and promote the digital thread to play a better effect on the organizational management.

Based on a review of digital thread, future research directions and usage suggestions are given. The fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example shows the effectiveness of the method and also partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.

This paper first investigates and analyzes the theoretical connotation and research progress of digital thread and gives a complete definition of digital thread from the perspective of the combination of digital thread and digital twins. Next, the research process of digital thread is reviewed, and the application fields, research directions and achievements in recent years are summarized. Finally, taking the fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.

Metaheuristic algorithms based on biology, evolutionary theory and physical principles, have been widely developed for complex global optimization. This paper aims to present a new hybrid optimization algorithm that combines the characteristics of biogeography-based optimization (BBO), invasive weed optimization (IWO) and genetic algorithms (GAs).

The significant difference between the new algorithm and original optimizers is a periodic selection scheme for offspring. The selection criterion is a function of cyclic discharge and the fitness of populations. It differs from traditional optimization methods where the elite always gains advantages. With this method, fitter populations may still be rejected, while poorer ones might be likely retained. The selection scheme is applied to help escape from local optima and maintain solution diversity.

The efficiency of the proposed method is tested on 13 high-dimensional, nonlinear benchmark functions and a homogenous slope stability problem. The results of the benchmark function show that the new method performs well in terms of accuracy and solution diversity. The algorithm converges with a magnitude of 10-4, compared to 102 in BBO and 10-2 in IWO. In the slope stability problem, the safety factor acquired by the analogy of slope erosion (ASE) is closer to the recommended value.

This paper introduces a periodic selection strategy and constructs a hybrid optimizer, which enhances the global exploration capacity of metaheuristic algorithms.

The construction industry accounts for a large proportion of the economy of developing countries, but the connotation and influencing factors of high-quality development (HQD) are still unclear. This study aims to gain a more comprehensive insight into the current development status of the regional construction industry under China's HQD orientation and the obstructive factors affecting its development and to provide informative suggestions for its HQD prospects.

In this study, the construction industry of 16 cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle (CCEC), a new region in southwest China, was used as the research object to collect data from the 2006–2019 yearbooks, construct an evaluation index system for HQD of the construction industry, derive the development level of the construction industry using the entropy value method and spatial autocorrelation method and then apply the barrier Diagnostic model was used to compare and analyze the impact level of each index.

In terms of the time dimension, the development of the construction industry in CCEC is characterized by “high in the twin core and low in the surrounding area”, with unbalanced and insufficient development; in terms of spatial correlation, some factors have positive aggregation in spatial distribution, but the peripheral linkage decreases; through barrier analysis, the impact of different barrier factors is different.

This paper will help governments and enterprises in developing countries to make urban planning and management policies to fundamentally improve the development of the construction industry in underdeveloped regions.

The paper proposed a fast procedure for solving the reliability-based robust design optimization (RBRDO) by modifying the RBRDO formulation and transforming it into a series of RBRDO subproblems. Then for each subproblem, the objective function, constraint function and reliability index are approximated using Taylor series expansion, and their approximate forms depend on the deterministic design vector rather than the random vector and the uncertain estimation in the inner loop of RBRDO can be avoided. In this way, it can greatly reduce the evaluation number of performance function. Lastly, the trust region method is used to manage the above sequential RBRDO subproblems for convergence.

As is known, RBRDO is nested optimization, where the outer loop updates the design vector and the inner loop estimate the uncertainties. When solving the RBRDO, a large evaluation number of performance functions are needed. Aiming at this issue, the paper proposed a fast integrated procedure for solving the RBRDO by reducing the evaluation number for the performance functions. First, it transforms the original RBRDO problem into a series of RBRDO subproblems. In each subproblem, the objective function, constraint function and reliability index caused are approximated using simple explicit functions that solely depend on the deterministic design vector rather than the random vector. In this way, the need for extensive sampling simulation in the inner loop is greatly reduced. As a result, the evaluation number for performance functions is significantly reduced, leading to a substantial reduction in computation cost. The trust region method is then employed to handle the sequential RBRDO subproblems, ensuring convergence to the optimal solutions. Finally, the engineering test and the application are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods.

The paper proposes a fast procedure of solving the RBRDO can greatly reduce the evaluation number of performance function within the RBRDO and the computation cost can be saved greatly, which makes it suitable for engineering applications.

The standard deviation of the original objective function of the RBRDO is replaced by the mean and the reliability index of the original objective function, which are further approximated by using Taylor series expansion and their approximate forms depend on the deterministic design vector rather than the random vector. Moreover, the constraint functions are also approximated by using Taylor series expansion. In this way, the uncertainty estimation of the performance functions (i.e. the mean of the objective function, the constraint functions) and the reliability index of the objective function are avoided within the inner loop of the RBRDO.

Aiming at the inefficiency of solving the Sobol index using the traditional mathematical analytical method, a Sobol global sensitivity analysis method is proposed.

In this paper, a support vector regression (SVR) surrogate model is constructed to solve the Sobol index. The optimal combination of SVR hyperparameters is obtained by using the improved beluga whale optimization (IBWO). Meanwhile, in order to solve the problem that Sobol sequences will form correlation regions in high-dimensional space leading to the uneven distribution of sampling points, a scrambled strategy is introduced in the Sobol sensitivity analysis using IBWO-SVR. Thus, the IBWO-SVR-SS sensitivity analysis model is established.

The results of two test functions show that the method further improves the accuracy of the sensitivity analysis. Finally, the first-order Sobol index and second-order Sobol index are solved by the IBWO-SVR-SS method using the metro bogie frame as an engineering example. Through the analysis results, the key design parameters of the frame and the design parameter combinations with more obvious coupling relationships are identified, providing a strong reference for the subsequent analysis and structural optimization.

Sobol sensitivity analysis using the surrogate model method can effectively improve the efficiency of the solution. In addition, IBWO is used for the optimization of the SVR hyperparameters to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the optimization, and finally, the correction of the Sobol sequence through the introduction of the disruption strategy also further improves the accuracy of the sensitivity analysis of Sobol.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of the village relationship influence different types of public goods provision in rural China.

The three components (clan-based relationship, neighborhood relationship and external relationship) were derived by employing factor analysis. The simultaneous discrete choice model was used to estimate the influence of these components on public goods provision, using the survey data from the China Household Income Project conducted in 2007.

The findings indicate that considering different components of village relationship allows for a better understanding of the public good provision. The results indicate that the neighborhood relationship has a significantly positive effect on rural public goods provision, particularly on water conservancy and irrigation, while the external relationship has a significantly positive effect on all types of public goods.

Local public goods provision is the core of the new rural construction in China. These findings imply that relationship in villages plays a vital role in the provision of public goods and is necessary in the construction of the new harmonious countryside in China. The results also have implications for rural public goods provision in other developing countries.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitatively model the impact of different relationships on public goods provision at the rural level. A consideration of the different components in village relationship allows for a more precise understanding of the pubic goods provision in the village.