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In the coupling of aircraft pipeline structures, current research works mainly focus on fluid-solid coupling effects or a single part of structure vibration like a pipeline. Because of the clamp, the pipe vibration caused by fluid pulsation was transmitted to the body, and the body vibration was also transmitted to the pipe structure. Thus, the relationship between the airframe and the pipeline system cannot be separated, and the influence of airframe needs to be considered when coupling structure under vibration. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of pipeline layouts on airframe-clamps-pipeline (ACP) structure’s dynamic response by experiment and simulation method. First, ACP structures are established including three parts. The natural frequencies and mode shapes are obtained by hammering experiment. The mode results are in agreement with numerical simulation. By using electromagnetic vibration shaker, extinction is applied on ACP structure, and then the dynamic responses of structure can be obtained by test equipments. The influence principle of pipeline layouts is obtained by dynamic response analysis. The present study provides a method for pipeline layout design in aerospace engineering.

Under the ACP’s first-order resonance frequency excitation, the maximum stress increases when the Z-shaped pipeline bending position changes from 1/2 to 1/5. The opposite way occurs under the only pipeline resonance frequency excitation. The stress amplitudes near both sides (inner and outer) of the clamp on the plate surface change with the excitation frequency. Under the ACP’s first-order resonance frequency excitation, the outer side stress is larger than the inner side stress, but under the only pipeline resonance frequency excitation, the inner side stress is larger than the outer side stress.

The study of the effect of pipeline layout parameters on ACP structure provides a method for pipeline layout design in aerospace engineering.

This paper aims to introduce a model-based stress-testing methodology for Islamic finance products. The importance of stress testing was indeed clearly underlined by the adverse developments in the global finance industry. One of the key takeaways was the need to strengthen the coverage of the capital framework. Cognisant of this fact, Basel III encapsulates provisions to enhance the financial sector’s ability to withstand shocks arising from possible stress events, thereby reducing adverse spillovers into the real economy. Similarly, the Islamic Financial Services Board requires Islamic financial institutions to run stress tests as part of capital planning.

The authors perform thorough backtests on Islamic and conventional portfolios under widely used risk models, which are characterised by an underlying conditional volatility framework and distribution, to identify the most suitable risk model specification. Associated with an appropriate initial shock and estimation window size, the paper also conducts a model-based stress test to examine whether the stress losses estimated by the selected models compare favourably to the historical shocks.

The results suggest that the model-based framework, when combined with an appropriate risk model and distribution, can successfully reproduce past stress periods. The conditional empirical risk model is the most effective one in both long and short portfolio cases – particularly when combined with a long-enough estimation window. The relative performance of normal vs heavy-tailed distributions and symmetric vs asymmetric risk models, on the other hand, is highly dependent on whether the portfolio is long or short. Finally, the authors find that the Islamic portfolio is generally associated with lower historical stress losses as compared to the conventional portfolio.

The model-based framework eliminates some of the key problems associated with traditional scenario-based approaches and is easily adaptable to Islamic finance.

NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that there exists a considerable amount of literature published in various forms on the subject of brittle lacquers and their applications to a multitude of diverse problems a brief resume of some of the general principles involved would seem not to be out of place.

The car body stiffness of express freight sliding side covered wagon decreased for the sliding and the resonance vibration based on the flexible car body has affected the dynamics performances. Dynamic loading will cause fatigue cracks and eventually lead to fatigue failure of the car body. This paper aims to investigate the influence of car body flexibility on the evaluation of the failure.

In this paper, the railway vehicles random analysis procedure (RVRAP) is employed to study the fatigue failure of the rigid-flexibility model. Following the analysis process, the rigid-flexibility model is established and four contrastive schemes for simulation analysis are designed. To verify the results, an experimental test using the real car body structure on the vibration test plant is carried out; the RMS of dynamic stress is obtained and compared with the simulation results.

The results show that the flexibility of the car body has a crucial influence on the fatigue life.

The reliability is verified regarding the use of RVRAP at an appropriate stage on the antifatigue design of the vehicle.

The primary purpose of this paper is to review and critique Taleb's notion of black swan blindness for a subset of the broader field of financial economics – the search for capital adequacy rules for financial institutions who invest in residential mortgages. This search entails the analysis and prediction of extreme events in housing and mortgage markets.

The focus of this paper concerns efforts to assess the likelihood and consequences of extreme and consequential economic events prior to their occurrence. The goal is to assess the criticism offered by Taleb that economists overstate the understanding of extreme events. One piece of evidence consists of a case study of the literature and policies regarding capital adequacy for financial institutions who invest in residential mortgages. The other is a review of recent literature about the crisis that offers similar conclusions.

The evidence suggests that the criticism is valid. The case study reviews a number of areas in which the search for capital adequacy reflected the traits of black swan blindness as described by Taleb. The review of the recent literature about the crisis highlights a number of papers that reach similar conclusions. These include high level overviews of the literature on the crisis, e.g. Lo, a number of papers that specifically focus on housing and mortgage markets, and some very recent work about agent based modeling and complexity theory presented at the 2012 ARES meetings.

The conclusion suggests a number of ways in which economists can combat the potential of black swan blindness is our search for extreme events. One suggestion is to combat the error of confirmation with ongoing testing. Combating overly simplistic narratives can also be addressed by listening more carefully to the criticisms by people outside the field. Pay more attention to silent evidence by having more substantial and ongoing consumer testing of new products, more work to identify best practices, and more resources to enforce lending laws. Finally, more attention needs to be focused upon assumptions in the models that are based upon limited empirical evidence and, if found later to be false, may lead to dire outcomes.

These include more and ongoing evaluation of stress tests. New rules to adjust capital requirements over the business cycle are consistent with the suggestions of the paper. Economists need to spend more time exploring and learning from outliers in the models.

The recent crisis has been driven by a wide variety of factors from within many sectors and agents. The outcome has been a major problem for people in many sectors and regions of the economy. The hope is that economists can do a better job in the future to help policymakers and others be more prepared for the potential of extreme events in the hopes of avoiding them in the future or at least reducing their likelihood and damage caused by them.

The paper draws upon a wide variety of literature to establish its main points. Central to it is a review of an issue on which the author had substantial experience – academic and professional – and that also played a major role in the crisis – inadequate capital for an extreme downturn in house prices.

Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Committee, Reports and Technical Notes of the United States National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and publications of other similar Research Bodies as issued

This research addresses the diverse characteristics of existing railway steel bridges in China, including variations in construction age, design standards, structural types, manufacturing processes, materials and service conditions. It also focuses on prominent defects and challenges related to heavy transportation conditions, particularly low live haul reserves and severe fatigue problems.

The study encompasses three key aspects: (1) Adaptability assessment: It begins with assessing the suitability of existing railway steel bridges for heavy-haul operations through comprehensive analyses, experiments and engineering applications. (2) Strengthening: To combat frequent crack defects in the vertical stiffener end structure of girder webs, fatigue performance tests and reinforcement scheme experiments were conducted. These experiments included the development of a hot-spot stress S-N curve for this structure, validating the effectiveness of methods like crack stop holes, ultrasonic hammering and flange angle steel. (3) Service life extension: Research on the cruciform welded joint structure (non-fusion transfer type) focused on fatigue performance over the long life cycle. This led to the establishment of a fatigue S-N curve, enhancing Chinese design codes.

The research achieved several significant outcomes: (1) Successful implementation of strengthening and retrofitting measures on a 64-m single-span double-track railway steel truss girder on an existing heavy-duty line. (2) Post-reinforcement, a substantial 26% to 32% reduction in live haul stress on bridge members was achieved. (3) The strengthening and retrofitting efforts met design expectations, enabling the bridge to accommodate vehicles with a 30-ton axle haul on the railway line.

This research systematically tackles challenges and defects associated with Chinese existing railway steel bridges, providing valuable insights into adaptability assessment, strengthening techniques and service life extension methods. Furthermore, the development of fatigue S-N curves and the successful implementation of bridge enhancements have practical implications for improving the resilience and operational capacity of railway steel bridges in China.

A regulatory wave will follow the current financial turmoil. The purpose of this paper is to warn that although new regulation is necessary, there is a danger of strangulation of the financial market which can only be avoided with a paradigm shift in the way data are collected and used.

The paper is based on more than 20 years of experience in the field of all types of financial analysis within banks. The idea has been laid down in a doctoral thesis which has been applied in more than 200 banks successfully, including the acceptance by regulators.

Regulators in order to be successful and to regain eye level contact with banks have to use similar techniques as used today within risk management departments or related areas. In addition, however, regulators have to enforce standards especially for the representation of financial contracts, which are called contract types (CT). This would create the long missing international financial language that can be understood by all market participants improving not only the communication between banks and regulators, but also inside the banking sector and the investor community. Within single banks, it would help overcoming the now prevalent silo architecture and mentality.

Such a standard would increase the quality of information drastically and reduce the cost in similar magnitudes not only for the regulator but also for the whole financial community as a whole. The “lemon problem” (Akerlof) responsible for much of the present problems could be drastically reduced.

This paper closes an important gap towards the development of an international financial language via a standardized parametric representation of financial contracts (CT) is closed.

This paper aims to argue for a China transmuting to fast overtake USA in innovation based on the extrapolation of past statistical trend. Case studies in self and co-innovation are provided so that the documentation of the dynamics of knowledge flows and a brain-linguistic explanation is given as to why, in the future, the Chinese are likely to lead in innovation.

This paper illustrates a multi-method approach in research for Chinese Management Studies. First, the sociological background of China is highlighted (Mao Zedong’s aphorism). Second, insights from OECD patent database are utilized. Third, the use of comparative research and development case-studies: self-innovation (Chinese) and co-innovation (contrasting Japanese versus French cooperation with Chinese). Fourth, is the inter-disciplinarily approach wherein the assimilating of knowledge is related to recent advances in brain research. Fifth, emphasizing the different levels in organizing for innovation: national (China), organizational (SOE), group processes and person-to-person, synapses within individual brains.

Statistical trend suggests that China is transforming and is on the path toward overtaking the USA in innovation. When will this happen? Using extrapolation as an indication, China may surpass the USA by the 50 per cent mark within the next decade. Insights into the processes of self-innovation and co-innovation are provided. Authors argue for a brain-linguistic explanation (Hebb, 1949) for further understanding why China will eventually lead ceteris paribus innovation, a function of the human brain.

This paper highlights on the basis of statistical trends (using OECD database) a rising, innovative China that is poised to overtake the USA in the near future. A major contribution is in providing insights of interactional processes required to foster innovation: self and co-innovation (comparing Japanese and French). The critical brain-linguistic role as the rationale as to why the Chinese are given a greater, more developed brain power that will eventually surpass the West in innovation.

The unfolding of the financial crisis in parts of Europe has highlighted a number of challenges which can be analysed through the prism of NPLs. These included the discrepancies across supervisory regimes, the limitations of macro-prudential supervision and the diversity of NPL resolution approaches.

The authors review policy lessons from the crisis in dealing with the NPL problem.

The paper highlights some key recommendations – the need for intrusive supervision, strong macro-financial surveillance and NPL resolution approaches that provide the right incentives.

These recommendations can help inform the current debate regarding regulatory and structural initiatives to tackle NPLs.