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The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the evolution of educational reform in Thailand. Three major phases are identified. The special focus of the paper is an assessment of the third reform which began with the passage of the Office of the National Education Commission (ONEC) (2002).

The methodology for the study is mixed methods including document analysis, direct participant observation, and compilation of major statistical performance indicators from diverse sources.

The success of the most recent reform has been clearly mixed. Major structural and legal changes have occurred but overall system performance remains disappointingly low, despite large Thai educational expenditures as a percent of national budget and the presence of much impressive educational leadership talent. The paper identifies what is called the “Thai educational paradox”. The essence of the paradox is Thailand’s failure to achieve its educational potential. The paper identifies key factors explaining the paradox.

The paper has significant theoretical, policy, and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, the study confirms the persistence of strong regional disparities and a lack of fiscal neutrality associated with a neoliberal model of capitalistic development. From a practical policy perspective, it is imperative for Thailand to improve the overall quality of its educational system and to reduce regional disparities. There have been numerous studies of each of Thailand’s three phases of reform, but this paper’s original contribution is its presentation of a historical, interdisciplinary, and integrated perspective on the evolution of educational reform and the many obstacles associated with its implementation.

Due to the lack of industrywide data, now there is only perceptual knowledge, through survey data, that construction firms may face great challenges in geographical diversification. The article aims to provide an objective description on the state of interregional market entry practices in the Chinese construction industry. How these practices are influenced by related set of regional and industry-related factors is further studied.

Description analysis of the practices is first performed based on a first-hand industrial data set including 1,020 projects and 404 construction firms. Combining provincial panel data in the National Bureau of Statistics of China, related regional and industry-related factors on these practices are further analyzed through hierarchical regression models.

(1) Interregional market entry practices are not quite prevalent during the past two decades, only involving 271 projects and 111 firms which accounts for 26.57% and 27.47% of the analyzed subjects respectively; (2) Large, state-owned and experienced firms are more frequently involved in the practices; (3) A number of regional factors such as local market protection and industry scale also significantly impact the practices.

The empirical analysis of this study was conducted using the specific dataset from the National Quality Award Projects where firms tend to be national, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to the whole industry contexts.

While most of the research on market entry practices in the project-based construction industry is undertaken at project or firm level based on survey data, this research represents an exploratory effort of using objective data to provide a macro overview of the practices at the industry level. The findings could contribute to a deepened understanding of how these practices are impacted by related regional- and industry-level factors.

This paper aims to investigate the thermal oxidation behavior of trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) base oil when exposed to Fe surfaces.

Samples of TMPTO bulk oil were placed in Fe vessels and heated in an oven to accelerate the oxidation at different time intervals, while others were placed in glass vessels and used as experimental controls. Subsequently, the physicochemical properties of the oxidized TMPTOs, including the kinematic viscosity and acid value, were measured and a structural analysis was conducted using the Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques.

The results demonstrate that the TMPTO bulk oil exhibited an exponential increase in the kinematic viscosity along with the increasing acid value over the oxidation time. The Fe surface significantly increased the kinematic viscosity of TMPTO, while only mildly impacting its acid value compared with the experimental controls. The structural analysis results of the TMPTO suggest that the C = C and = C-H bonds were the vulnerable sites. Furthermore, the results suggest that the Fe surface evidently accelerates the chemical reactions of the C = C and the = C-H bonds, and less alcohols and more carbonyl products were identified in the oil samples that were heated in the Fe vessels.

The results demonstrate that the Fe surfaces affected the oxidation behavior of the TMPTO base oil, and an interaction mechanism between the Fe and the TMPTO is developed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the religiosity of the chief executive officer (CEO) on Indonesian banks’ performance.

The research method used was a review of the annual reports of banking companies in Indonesia from 2015 to 2019 and a web-based search to determine the religiosity of the CEOs. This study comprised 88 banking companies in Indonesia that come under the supervision of the Financial Services Authority.

The results of this study show that banks led by religious CEOs had better financial performance, as measured by their ROA and ROE, than those led by not very spiritual CEOs. These results indicate the importance of religiosity in organizations, especially at the top management level, for achieving better bank performance.

This research results show that religiosity plays an essential role in the banking business sector. This research adds to the literature on CEOs’ characteristics based on their religiosity and the concomitant effect on banking performance.

This study shows how individual religious beliefs influence the corporate behavior of top management, particularly the CEOs, and why this is crucial for organizational decision-making. This study measures an individual's religiosity (i.e. a CEO) based on that individual's actions in their workplace environment.

This paper aims to investigate the thermal oxidation characteristics of the unsaturated bonds (C=C) of trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) and to reveal the high temperature oxidation decay mechanism of unsaturated esters and the nature of the anti-oxidation properties of the additives.

Using a DXR laser microscopic Raman spectrometer and Linkam FTIR600 temperature control platform, the isothermal oxidation experiments of TMPTO with or without 1.0 wt. % of different antioxidants were performed.

The results indicated that the Raman peaks of =C-H, C=C and -CH₂- weaken gradually with prolonged oxidation time, and the corresponding Raman intensities drop rapidly at higher temperatures. The aromatic amine antioxidant can decrease the attenuation of peak intensity, as it significantly reduces the rate constant of C=C thermal oxidation. The hindered phenolic antioxidant has a protective effect during the early stages of oxidation (induction period), but it may accelerate the oxidation of C=C afterwards.

Research on the structure changes of synthetic esters during oxidation by Raman spectroscopy will be of great importance in promoting the use of Raman spectroscopy to analyze the oxidation of lubricants.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize amines/phenolic antioxidants by a new method and to characterize the influence of antioxidants on thermo-oxidative degradation in trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO) base oil.

The molecule structures of antioxidants and lubricants were confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The oxidative stability of antioxidants and lubricants was evaluated by pressurized differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC).

These findings suggested that butyl-octyl-diphenylamine has obvious advantage on kinematic viscosity inhibition, and amine-phenol combination antioxidant has a slightly better suppression of total acid in TMPTO under thermal oxidation at 200°C for 96 h. The FTIR characterizations showed that all antioxidants could protect the basic structure of TMPTO in the early stage of thermal degradation.

Under the action of butyl-octyl-diphenylamine, the dehydrogenation of TMPTO is easily met with the alkenyl hydrogen = C–H bond in the unsaturated C = C. Meanwhile, as octadecyl 3-(3, 5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate protects TMPTO, the unsaturated C = C bond in the base oil molecule easily breaks down during transition.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the extent of religion in a firm’s social environment affects corporate innovation and innovation efficiency from the perspectives of religion-related risk aversion and religion-based social norms.

Using a sample of 8,601 Chinese firm-year observations from 2007 to 2012, this paper examines the relationship between religion and innovation intensity, as well as innovation efficiency. A battery of checks, that is, adopting Heckman selection model, using a province-level measure of religiosity and an alternative measure of innovation intensity, and taking the stochastic frontier analysis method to capture corporate innovation efficiency, are conducted to alleviate the concern of self-selection and to guarantee the robustness of the findings of this paper.

This paper finds strong evidence that firms registered in more religious regions, that is, regions with more Buddhist monasteries within a certain radius, undertake fewer innovation activities as measured by the ratio of R&D investment over total sales income but achieve higher innovation efficiency reflected by the value-relevance of R&D investment.

This paper complements the existing literature by suggesting that religion can serve as an informal social mechanism and performs a “less is more” effect in disciplining corporate innovation activities.

The purpose of this study to analyze the plastic anisotropy of 6061 aluminum alloy with finite deformation using crystal plasticity finite element method.

A representative volume element (RVE) model was constructed by Voronoi tessellation. In this model, grain shapes, grain orientations and distribution of grains were involved. The mechanical response of the component under composite loading was tested using specify cruciform specimen. Moreover, different stress and strain states in the specific central region were analyzed to reveal the effects of complex loading.

We calculated the influence of misorientation of adjacent grains as well as the evolution of the micro structure’s plastic deformation on the macroscopic deformation of the structure. Geometry design for the cruciform specimen helps obtain a homogenous distribution of the stress and strain at the specimen center. In this process, the initial grain orientation is also an important factor, and the larger misorientations between special grains may cause greater stress concentration.

The influence of micro-scale factors on macro-scale plastic anisotropy of AA6061 is analyzed using RVE model and cruciform specimen, and they offer a reference for related research.

This paper is an empirical attempt to verify the interplay between political change, fleet nationality, and the evolution of shipping networks. North Korea offers a good example of a socialist maritime country that has experienced much contrasting geopolitical contexts since 1990. A database of vessel movements between North Korean ports and other ports is analyzed. Main results show differences between North Korean and foreign fleets in terms of traffic (vessel size, age, berthing time) and geographical coverage. South Korean ports tend to play a new role in the reorganization of North Korean-related flows in Northeast Asia.

This paper aims to investigate the tribological behavior and online infrared spectra of three types of lubricating oils containing dinonyl diphenylamine (DNDA) antioxidant, which are mineral oil (MO), poly alpha olefin (PAO) and trimethylolpropane trioleate (TMPTO), during the friction process at high temperature (temperature rising at first and isothermal holding afterwards).

A platform of low speed four-ball tribometer equipped with a temperature controller combined with infrared spectrometer was established. MO, PAO and TMPTO base oils were mixed with 1.0 Wt.% DNDA antioxidant, coded as MO_a, PAO_a and TMPTO_a in sequence. The friction coefficient and online infrared spectra of the oils were tested during the friction process of temperature rising at first and isothermal holding afterwards, and the wear tracks of the upper balls were measured using a confocal scanning optical microscope.

The results indicated that the DNDA antioxidant was depleted to reduce the generation of alcohols and carbonyl products, and the depletion rate of DNDA followed the sequence of MO_a > PAO_a > TMPTO_a. In the temperature rising friction process, the critical transition of friction coefficient was confirmed. The addition of DNDA antioxidant reduced the temperature of the oils at the critical transition of friction coefficient, and the temperature followed the sequence of TMPTO_a > PAO_a > MO_a. After the critical transition, the friction coefficient was first increased and then declined to a steady value; the friction coefficient of MO_a increased and declined first, followed by PAO_a and TMPTO_a. In the steady stage of friction, there was no obvious effect of DNDA on the friction coefficient of the oils. Moreover, DNDA enhanced the wear properties of MO_a and PAO_a; no obvious improvement was revealed for the wear property of TMPTO_a.

The established platform of low speed four-ball tribometer combined with infrared spectrometer successfully realized online testing of the structure changes of lubricating oil during high temperature friction, which can give some reference on the oxidation and friction researches of lubricating oil.