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This article aims to explore how self‐efficacy is related to academic research activities and how intra‐culturally relevant factors may play a role in self‐efficacy in the context of higher education in Beijing. In particular, relationships of self‐efficacy for research with research productivity and idiocentrism‐allocentrism are to be examined.

A survey was administered to academics in ten randomly selected universities in Beijing and generated 296 valid questionnaires. Data were analysed using factor analysis and multiple regression.

Gender and discipline are identified as predictors of self‐efficacy. Specifically, female academics reported lower levels of self‐efficacy for research than males. Academics in the social sciences reported lower levels of self‐efficacy for research than those in the natural sciences. Moreover, relationships are also found between self‐efficacy for research and idiocentrism‐allocentrism.

The study makes an extensive investigation of self‐efficacy theory, originally developed in Western contexts, in an Eastern culture and provides evidence that intra‐cultural and demographic factors play substantial roles in research self‐efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect that a prospective pathway college affiliated to a large comprehensive university in Sydney may have on the university's reputation. In particular, the association of reputation with preference for a pathway college, brand awareness and the opinion of college brand are examined.

An online survey was conducted in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, and produced 501 questionnaires responses. A correlation study was used to analyse the relationship between variables of preference for college, perceived reputation, brand awareness and opinion of college brand.

The community reacted positively to a prospective college by agreeing that its merit is in providing a second chance for disadvantaged students and added to the diversity profile of the university. Reputation predicted brand awareness, preference for the college and the opinion of the college brand. Teaching quality of the college is found to be the most important factor to enhance the reputation of the university as well as brand.

The paper explores the difference and relationship between reputation and brand awareness in a higher education context and how this influenced students' decisions. This knowledge has useful implications for higher education management practice.

Near-net-shaped processes of jet engine blade have better performance in both reducing the material waste during production and improving work reliability in service, while the geometric features of blade, both sculptured surface and thin-walled shape, make the precise machining of blade challenging and difficult owing to its dynamics behaviors under complex clamping and machining loads. This paper aims to present a fundamental approach on modeling and performance analysis of the blade–fixture system.

A computerized framework on the complex blade–fixture dynamic behavior has been developed. Theoretical mechanic analysis on blade fixturing and machining is proposed with an especial emphasis on the boundary conditions of the blade–fixture system. Then the finite element analysis (FEA) method is used to simulate the variation trend of preloads, stiffness and blade distortion. The strong influence of parameters of workpiece–fixture configuration on blade distortion and machining error is investigated.

With a case of real jet engine blade machining, the experimental results and theoretical predictions suggest good agreement on their variation tendency. The loaded pressure of clamps has a critical influence on the total stiff performance of the blade–fixture system, and the profile error of the blade contributes much to the inconsistency in geometric dimension and surface integrity of blades’ machining. In the end, the results also validate the effectiveness of this methodology to predict and improve the performance of the blade–fixture configuration design.

The adaptive machining of near-net-shaped jet engine blade is a new high-performance manufacturing technology in aerospace production. This study provides a fundamental methodology for the performance analysis of blade-fixture system, to clear the variation law of blade distortion during preloading and machining, which will contribute to minimize the machining error and improve productivity.

Ethylene glycol (EG) solution is a common deicing fluid of the aircrafts. Roller compacted concrete (RCC) used in the runway and the parking apron will be subjected to freeze-thaw cycles in EG solution. The purpose of this study is to find whether RCC can be damaged by the action of freeze-thaw cycles or long-term immersion in EG solution.

Freeze-thaw cycles test and immersion test in EG solution by weight were used to accelerate the degradation of RCC. A compression test and a three-point bending test were carried out in the laboratory to evaluate mechanical properties of RCC. The changes of microstructure were monitored by using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis.

The results show that RCC specimens have little weight change in both freeze-thaw cycles test and immersion test. The dynamic modulus of elasticity, the compressive strength and the flexural strength of RCC with 250 freeze-thaw cycles in EG solution are decreased by 4.2, 15 and 39 per cent, respectively. The compressive strength is decreased by 35 per cent after 12 months of immersion in EG solution. Micro-cracks occur and increase with the increase in freeze-thaw cycles and immersion test.

The mass ratio of the elements in the crystal is very close to the proportion of elements in CaC₂O₄ (C:O:Ca = 1:1.26:1.6). More attention should be paid to using EG in practical engineering because both the freeze-thaw cycles and the complete immersion in EG solution damage the mechanical properties of RCC.

Due to existence of skin effect under rotational excitation, especially to high-frequency motors and power transformers run at the frequency of hundreds or even thousands of hertz, core losses will increase significantly, which may cause local overheating damage, and the efficiency and longevity will be decreased. The purpose of this paper is to accurately calculate the rotational anomalous loss in electrical steel sheets.

The influence of skin effect to rotational anomalous loss coefficient is described in detail. Based on the rotational core losses calculation approach, the transformed coefficient and parameters of rotational anomalous loss are determined in accordance with experimental data obtained by using 3D magnetic properties testing system. Then, a variable loss coefficient calculation model of rotational anomalous loss is built. Meanwhile, a separation of the total 2D elliptical rotation experimental core losses is worked out.

The two methods are analysed and compared qualitatively. It should be noted that the novel calculation model can be more effectively presented anomalous loss features. Moreover, quantitative comparisons between 2D elliptical rotation and alternating core losses have achieved beneficial conclusions.

Transformed rotational anomalous loss coefficient and parameters of electrical steel sheets considering skin effect are determined. Based on that, a novel calculation model evaluating 2D elliptical rotation anomalous loss is presented and verified based on the experimental measurement and the separation of the total 2D elliptical rotation core losses. The 2D elliptical rotation core losses separation method and quantitative comparison with alternating excitation are helpful to engineering application.

Higher order statistics (HOS)-based blind source separation (BSS) technique has been applied to separate data to obtain a better performance than second order statistics-based method. The cost function constructed from the HOS-based separation criterion is a complicated nonlinear function that is difficult to optimize. The purpose of this paper is to effectively solve this nonlinear optimization problem to obtain an estimation of the source signals with a higher accuracy than classic BSS methods.

In this paper, a new technique based on HOS in kernel space is proposed. The proposed approach first maps the mixture data into a high-dimensional kernel space through a nonlinear mapping and then constructs a cost function based on a higher order separation criterion in the kernel space. The cost function is constructed by using the kernel function which is defined as inner products between the images of all pairs of data in the kernel space. The estimations of the source signals is obtained through the minimizing the cost function.

The results of a number of experiments on generic synthetic and real data show that HOS separation criterion in kernel space exhibits good performance for different kinds of distributions. The proposed method provided higher signal-to-interference ratio and less sensitive to the source distribution compared to FastICA and JADE algorithms.

The proposed method combines the advantage of kernel method and the HOS properties to achieve a better performance than using a single one. It does not require to compute the coordinates of the data in the kernel space explicitly, but computes the kernel function which is simple to optimize. The use of nonlinear function space allows the algorithm more accurate and more robust to different kinds of distributions.

To implement a risk-based regulatory approach, this paper aims to make an assessment on customers' money laundering risk and conducts some applications.

During the transition of a regulatory approach from “rule-based” to “risk-based”, this paper considers that the area of a customer, types of business and the industries to which the customer belongs are the main indicators to judge money laundering risk of a customer. Based on the statistical analysis of 221 typical money laundering cases, first-class index weights are given by using the entropy weight method and then by combining with the membership function, this paper determines a customer’s money laundering risk levels. On the basis of the entropy weight method, this paper uses the C5.0 algorithm to construct a decision tree model and then carries out application research on customer money laundering risk assessment to verify the effectiveness of the entropy weight method and the decision tree model.

This empirical research found the weights of three key money laundering indicators: customer areas, business types and corresponding industries.

Asserting that current money laundering risk assessments of customers are marginal at best, this paper contends from the perspective of practice, and applies the entropy weight method and the decision tree model for money laundering risk assessment of customers.

To prepare a new type of composite for selective laser sintering 3D printing, the surface of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles was modified by the coupling agent (3-methacryloxypropyl)-trimethoxy silane (KH570) before coated with thermoplastic epoxy resin (TER).

Laser diffraction confirmed that the size distribution of prepared powder materials in this study ranged between 20 to 80 µm. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the loading of organic matter was below 5 per cent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that the silane coupling agent molecule bound strongly with the alumina. X-ray diffraction confirmed the prepared powder materials to be α-alumina. Through the angle of repose (AOR) test, the AOR = 18.435º was obtained, suggesting the high flowability of prepared powder materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation demonstrated that the shape of the prepared powder materials was sphere-like grains.

Molding properties of prepared powder materials were studied on the basis of particle size distribution, particle size, sphericity, crystal structure and the reaction mode of the TER. This prepared powder materials can be well applied to the production of epoxy resin-coated Al₂O₃ composite parts with high precision and good mechanical performance.

This composite can be well applied to the production of epoxy resin-coated Al₂O₃ composite parts with high precision and good mechanical performance.

Academic contention occurs when research evidence is amenable to more than one interpretation. China has a long tradition of Shang Que (商榷), in which authors argue for their preferred interpretation. The modern form of this tradition is the Shang Que article, which often takes the form of research papers in Chinese-language journals and which tends to be question-oriented. Shang Que articles usually take the views of a particular author or article as the focus of independent and complete criticism by another, independent, academic. This paper explains the role of Shang Que articles in Chinese scholarship and their influence on international academia.

A bibliometric analysis was used to explore the characteristics and evolution of Chinese Shang Que articles using 30,577 articles published between 1979 and 2018. Microsoft Excel and Gephi were used for data analysis and visualization.

Findings suggest a decline in the number of Shang Que articles and an increase in the number of co-authors. Shang Que articles remained particularly prominent in Philosophy and Humanities and Social Sciences, where they focused on local issues such as classical Chinese, the Sinicization of Marxism and Chinese literature. This suggests that the number of Shang Que articles is related to the degree of internationalization of a research field.

Shang Que articles, which have been influenced by academic paradigms in English, are a fusion of China's Shang Que tradition and of the modern academic system. Through considering Shang Que articles, this paper explores the benefits of local academic traditions in non-English-speaking cultures.