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The development of high-strength engineered cementitious composite (ECC) gains a significant leap in structural engineering. Engineers have been looking for new formulations that combine outstanding compressive strength with increased flexural resistance. This research focuses on the main characteristics, techniques and prospective applications of high-strength ECC. The proposed work explores the composition of such concrete, emphasizing the use of novel additives, fiber reinforcements and optimal particle packing to produce excellent mechanical characteristics and demonstrating how high-strength ECC contributes to incorporate sustainability by potentially lowering the need for supplemental reinforcing and resulting in a lower environmental effect.

This research involves on studying the composition of high-strength ECC and geopolymer-based ECC, the use of novel additives, fiber reinforcements and optimal particle packing. It examines the capacity of high-strength ECC to sustain high loads with an allowable deformation without any catastrophic collapse. It discusses the sustainability aspects of high-strength ECC and its potential alternative as geopolymer-based ECC.

High-strength ECC offers an excellent compressive strength while also providing increased flexural capacity. Employment of copper slag (CS) as a filler material for the production of ECC results in 28.92% lower cost, when compared to the mix developed using conventional river sand. Whereas in the case of geopolymer-based ECC, the cost of production was found to be 31.92% lower than that of the conventional.

High-strength ECC is developed using conventional river sand and industrial by-product, CS as a filler material. The combination of achieving higher compressive strength with an increased use of industrial by-products leads to the development of sustainable high strength ECC. The potential use of high-strength ECC reduces the need for supplementary reinforcing and increases the structural lifetime, resulting in a lower environmental impact.

Based on the weak seismic performance and low ductility of coupled shear walls, engineered cementitious composites (ECC) is utilized to strengthen it to solve the deformation problem in tall buildings more effectively and study its mechanical properties more deeply.

The properties of reinforced concrete coupled shear wall (RCCSW) and reinforced ECC coupled shear wall (RECSW) have been studied by numerical simulation, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The reliability of the finite element model is verified. On this basis, a detailed parameter study is carried out, including the strength and reinforcement ratio of longitudinal rebar, the placement height of ECC in the wall limb and the position of ECC connecting beams. The study indexes include failure mode and the skeleton curve.

The results suggest that the bearing capacity of RECSW is significantly affected by the ratio of longitudinal rebar. When the ratio of longitudinal rebar increases from 0.47% to 3.35%, the bearing capacity of RECSW increases from 250 kN to 303 kN, an increase of 21%. The strength of longitudinal rebar has little influence on the bearing capacity of RECSW. When the strength of the longitudinal rebar increases, the bearing capacity of RECSW increases little. The failure mode of RECSW can be improved by lowering the casting height of the ECC beam in a certain range.

In this paper, ECC is used to strengthen the coupled shear wall, and the accuracy of the finite element model is verified from the failure mode and skeleton curve. On this basis, the casting height of the ECC casting wall limb, the strength and reinforcement ratio of longitudinal rebar and the position of the ECC beam are studied in detail.

This paper describes the rationale and key aspects of how one school-university partnership leveraged resources to create, implement and refine an innovative professional pathway called the Early Childhood Certificate (ECC) program which reflects the National Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Essential Guideline 4: Reflection and Innovation. The ECC program is an innovative, career-building model that leverages resources between a predominantly white regional state university, a nonprofit organization serving as a Head Start grantee, a large urban school district and community-based education settings across a Midwestern metropolitan region.

This descriptive narrative documents how the ECC program developed as a professional pathway for early childhood educators to scale up their skills for teaching young children while strengthening their capacities and credentials within the early childhood education (ECE) profession pipeline. The narrative includes relevant literature and examples from the field.

This paper includes a discussion of the benefits and challenges related to the design, implementation and refinement of the professional learning ECC program.

This is a descriptive narrative. As such, generalizability is lacking. Research is needed to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of innovative teacher education programs.

Relevant research and lessons learned provide guidance for other school–university partnerships to consider how to meet workforce and career needs for educators in the field of ECE.

School–university partnerships can be change agents and positively impact early childhood educators' career development.

This paper addresses the need for understanding how predominantly white early childhood teacher education programs can partner with schools and agencies and then together leverage resources to support workforce and career development opportunities.

In most developing countries, indigenous emerging construction contractors (ECCs) face severe problems of not adopting a project management framework (PMF) in their business activities. It has increased their business risk and threatened their sustainability. Studies showed that government policy support (GPS) helps mitigate business risks. Thus, there is a paucity of literature concerning GPS on emerging Nigerian construction contractors' business sustainability. Therefore, the paper aims to investigate the moderating effect of GPS on the relationship between PMF and ECCs in Nigeria.

SmartPLS was used to analyse the collected data from the useable 310 questionnaires retrieved from respondents in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria. Systems Theory was used to support the developed framework.

Findings show that government policy support significantly moderates the relationships between PMF and ECCs in the Nigerian construction sector. It implies that the study's results offer more understanding regarding issues affecting construction entrepreneurs' sustainable business cycle via applying PMF to mitigate business sustainable associated risks.

The study will stir Nigeria's ECCs and policymakers to promote construction business sustainability for a new entrepreneur, emphasising business risk management via PMF and GPS to enhance the sustainable business cycle.

The research (PMF and GPS) is strategies to enhance ECCs business sustainability in the Nigerian construction sector and other developing countries with similar political and economic attributes. Besides the study guiding old and intending ECCs and policymakers in the developing countries industries, it would contribute to bridge the theoretical gap regarding PMF and ECC, especially ECCs in developing countries with similar business sustainability issues.

The purpose of this study is to propose a decentralized multi-party cross-trading scheme based on a certificate transaction mechanism for the transaction of excess consumption certificates (ECCs) of renewable energy. The aim is to address the problems associated with the existing centralized transaction mode and to promote the development of the green electricity industry.

The proposed scheme involves calculating the quotation difference for the same type of certificate transaction based on the quotations of all users of both buyers and sellers. The transaction volume is then determined based on the order of quotation difference from large to small, and the total interests of cooperation are calculated. The nucleolus method is adopted to allocate the total interests to each member of the alliance and calculate the final transaction price. The blockchain technology is used for the transaction to achieve accurate traceability and efficient supervision, and a corresponding smart contract is designed and simulated in the Ethereum consortium chain.

The results of the simulation show the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The decentralized multi-party cross-trading scheme can overcome the problems associated with the existing centralized transaction mode, such as low transaction efficiency, difficulty in obtaining the optimal transaction strategy and efficient supervision. The proposed scheme can promote the development of the green electricity industry by stimulating users' demand potential for green electricity.

The proposed scheme is original in its use of a certificate transaction mechanism to facilitate the trading of ECCs of renewable energy. The scheme adopts a decentralized multi-party cross-trading approach that overcomes the problems associated with the existing centralized transaction mode. The use of the nucleolus method for the allocation of total interests to each member of the alliance is also original. Finally, the use of blockchain technology for accurate traceability and efficient supervision of the transaction is an original contribution to the field.

Uncontrolled and unsustainable urban development has a significant impact on the overall quality of the environment. Contemporary spatial management does not take into account the non-economic conditions of ecosystem functions and their biophysical limits, which results in a deterioration of the environment. Furthermore, urban development continues all over the world, which is associated with a projected population increase, particularly in cities. Therefore, there is need to include analyses in the field of environmental carrying capacity (ECC) for more sustainable spatial management and development. The ECC concept is a tool for sustainable development of human settlements. It could be defined as threshold level of anthropopressure, which the environment is able to balance and withstand without serious degradation and irreversible changes. The use of ECC assessment will help ensure the needs of the city’s residents, which are conditioned by the environment. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This review study presents an overview of the ECC concept and its potential for use in spatial management at local level, especially for cities. The content analysis introduces definitions of spatial management and others main actions of spatial economy as well as the definitions of ECC. The overview of existing ECC models is a part of presented review.

The paper shows the ECC approach from global to local level on Poland as an example country.

The literature review identified that the idea of ECC could be a useful concept and tool for sustainable spatial development and management. This concept allows for verification of the resources and environmental state of given territory unit. Therefore, the assessment of ECC allows to verify if development of given area, for instance country, region or even city, is conducted within the framework of sustainable principles. Despite this, the assessment of ECC is not taken into account when future spatial management is defined. Thus, this circumstance could be a reason for this research area development.

This study aims to explain the internationalization speed of e‐commerce companies (ECCs).

Based on the archive data of the American ECCs, the study used multiple regression analysis to estimate the influences of a number of micro‐ and macro‐factors.

The results show that the speedy foreign market entry by ECCs was positively influenced by top management team's international experience, and innovative and marketing capabilities.

The study did not deal with the entry mode of ECCs inviting more future research efforts in this direction. Additionally, as established MNEs have integrated e‐commerce into existing business, future research can be devoted to examine the impact of this integration on the internationalization of firms.

Extant literature has addressed the internationalization of ECCs with a focus on the level of internationalization. This study contributes to the current literature by extending research on globalization of ECCs and incorporating both micro‐ and macro‐level factors affecting the speed of international expansion.

The growth of global e-commerce presents significant opportunities for global expansion. Yet it has not leveled the playing field between emerging markets e-commerce corporations (EM-ECCs) and advanced markets ECCs (AM-ECCs). While AM-ECCs have been expanding overseas with considerable success, EM-ECCs have been less disposed to internationalize and have been content to serve and defend their home turfs against foreign rivals who wield monopolistic advantages. Leveraging the network, ownership, location and internalization (N-OLI) theoretical framework, this paper aims to examine the variables affecting the internationalization of AM-ECCs and EM-ECCs.

This paper adopted an exploratory research method using multiple corporate cases to focus on understanding the dynamics present within single settings, capture corporate context and allow comparison between cases.

The findings suggest that AM-ECCs, in comparison to EM-ECCs, are endowed with favorable and strong network-based advantages, ownership-based advantages, location-based and internalization-based advantages that make them more capable of pursuing internationalization aggressively. However, EM-ECCs are induced to pursue regionally-focused internationalization due, on the one hand, to capital scarcity, weaknesses on network-based and internalization-based advantages and, on the other hand, to geographical strength and strong location-based advantages emanating from knowledge of the home region.

This paper identifies the internationalization challenges that EM-ECCs face with respect to AM-ECCs. While extending the theoretical discussion of the N-OLI framework in light of EM-ECCs, this paper also extends the EM-ECC strategies within local and regional markets, including emerging markets such as India and the Middle East. This extension supports the assertion that regional focused strategies are not immune to technological advantages which support the notion of a regional strategic growth strategy because of localization advantages and capital leverage limitations. Finally, the paper expands the analysis to some emerging markets that have attracted less attention in the literature, namely, India and the Middle East.

Spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRMs) are the most commonly used passive fire protection for steel structure in the USA. However, they are often called into question because of their poor durability (cohesive and adhesive) performance. Being an inherently brittle material with low tensile strength, SFRM tends to dislodge and delaminate under extreme loads and service loads. Such loss of fire protection greatly endangers the steel structures, especially under multi-hazards like post-earthquake/impact fires. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new technology of a ductile cement-based SFRM, namely, spray-applied fire-resistive engineered cementitious composite (SFR-ECC) that overcomes the aforementioned problems and contributes toward enhanced fire safety of steel structures.

SFR-ECC has been developed as a durable alternative to conventional SFRM by adopting engineered cementitious composite (ECC) technology in the material design process. Various experimental studies have also been conducted to fully evaluate the performance of SFR-ECC.

It is found that SFR-ECC possesses much better durability performance under both static and high-rate loading compared to conventional SFRMs. With many unique properties, applications of SFR-ECC for pre-fabrication of passive fire protection are also found to be feasible.

This paper is a comprehensive introduction of the newly developed SFR-ECC. It summarizes the key properties of SFR-ECC and provides a useful guideline for further investigation and field application of SFR-ECC.

The combination of an Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) layer and steel plate to reinforce RC beams (ESRB) is a new strengthening method. The ESRB was proposed based on the steel plate at the bottom of RC beams, aiming to solve the problem of over-reinforced RC beams and improve the bearing capacity of RC beams without affecting their ductility.

In this paper, the finite element model of ESRB was established by ABAQUS. The results were compared with the experimental results of ESRB in previous studies and the reliability of the finite element model was verified. On this basis, parameters such as the width of the steel plate, thickness of the ECC layer, damage degree of the original beam and cross-sectional area of longitudinal tensile rebar were analyzed by the verified finite element model. Based on the load–deflection curve of ESRB, ESRB was discussed in terms of ultimate bearing capacity and ductility.

The results demonstrate that when the width of the steel plate increases, the ultimate load of ESRB increases to 133.22 kN by 11.58% as well as the ductility index increases to 2.39. With the increase of the damage degree of the original beam, the ultimate load of ESRB decreases by 23.7%–91.09 kN and the ductility index decreases to 1.90. With the enhancement of the cross-sectional area of longitudinal tensile rebar, the ultimate bearing capacity of ESRB increases to 126.75 kN by 6.2% and the ductility index elevates to 2.30. Finally, a calculation model for predicting the flexural capacity of ESRB is proposed. The calculated results of the model are in line with the experimental results.

Based on the comparative analysis of the test results and numerical simulation results of 11 test beams, this investigation verified the accuracy and reliability of the finite element simulation from the aspects of load–deflection curve, characteristic load and failure mode. Furthermore, based on load–deflection curve, the effects of steel plate width, ECC layer thickness, damage degree of the original beam and cross-sectional area of longitudinal tensile rebar on the ultimate bearing capacity and ductility of ESRB were discussed. Finally, a simplified method was put forward to further verify the effectiveness of ESRB through analytical calculation.