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Direct additive manufacturing of ceramics (DAMC) is a highly promising ceramics preparation technology because of its simple process and rapid response capability, but the cracking issue prevents its industrial application. The purpose of this paper is to propose aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅) with low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) to suppress cracks during the DAMC.

Al₂O₃/Al₂TiO₅ (A/AT) composite ceramic samples with different compositions were in-situ synthesized from Al₂O₃/TiO₂ (A/T) powder in a directed laser deposition (DLD) process. The relationship between the content of TiO₂ and cracking characteristics of fabricated sample was discussed. Phase composition, microstructure and properties of the fabricated samples were also investigated.

The results of this paper show that the doping of TiO₂ can obtain Al₂TiO₅ synthesized in situ by reaction with Al₂O₃ and effectively suppress cracks during DAMC. When the content of TiO₂ reaches 30 wt.per cent, cracks hardly occur even under conditions of slow deposition. Crack-free structures such as vane, cone and pyramid were successfully prepared, with a maximum cross-sectional dimension of 30 mm and maximum length of 150 mm. A continuous matrix phase formed of the low CTE of Al₂TiO₅ is the major cause of crack suppression. The dispersed distribution of a-Al₂O₃ columnar dendrites has the effect of increasing the strength of the matrix. Under current process conditions, the prepared sample with 10 wt.per cent TiO₂ has micro-hardness of 21.05 GPa and flexural strength of 170 MPa.

This paper provides a new method and inspiration for direct additive manufacturing of large-sized crack-free ceramics, which has the potential to promote practical application of the technology.

This paper intends to examine the change of R&D fiscal policies in China since 1978 and its impact on China's drive to become an innovation‐oriented country.

This paper adopts an archive approach and undertakes an overview of the policy changes and their implications.

It is found that policy changes have gradually made enterprises the focal point of the national innovation system and that correspondingly a new financial and fiscal mechanism has been created to create incentives for innovation in firms.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the changing financial and fiscal policies in support of technological innovation in China.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the general method for the solution of the Boolean function's primary function, and its application in encryption systems.

In the Boolean function theory, there is always a lack in the general method for the solution of primary function. This paper uses a very useful tool – e‐derivative, and by the help of this tool, obtains some very useful theorems.

The paper not only finds the method of solving the primary function of the Boolean function but also provides its application in encryption systems.

The Boolean function's primary function is also very useful in the detection of circuitry, not introduced in this paper.

This paper is very useful for information security.

The paper solves the initial‐value problem of the Boolean function's primary function, and constructs some Boolean functions with many cryptographical characters which are very useful in encryption systems.

This paper sets out to examine innovation and technology transfers in the Chinese agricultural sector, with a particular focus on the government‐sponsored Science and Technology Transformation Fund.

This paper uses a case study of the Science and Technology Transformation Fund to illustrate how innovation and technology transfers in the agricultural sector are facilitated.

The paper argues that technology transfers in agriculture play an essential role in increasing agricultural productivity as well as farmers' income, fostering agricultural re‐structuring, and speeding up the construction of comparatively well‐off villages. In view of difficulties in agricultural technology transfer in China, it is of great practical importance for the government, following the “Green box policy”, to put the issue on the top agenda and attract more capital from every walk of society to support the ongoing transformation.

The paper illustrates the approaches that the Chinese government has taken to accelerate the improvement of science and technology in agriculture, and outlines the mechanism of science and technology innovation and transformation in China.

Measuring service quality in online retail is critical. The purpose of this paper is to put in foreground key methodological issues of prevailing research related to scale development for the measurement of service quality in the context of online retail.

Content analysis of 30 research papers sourced from prestigious databases has been done to detect defects within research and sampling methods, survey administration, item generation and purification, dimensionality analysis, reliability and validity assessment. Also observations regarding dimensionality of online service quality constructs have been highlighted.

Study revealed deficiencies in sample size and composition, quantitative orientation in research methods, leniency in item generation/purification and negligent assessment of reliability and validity. It was found that e-service quality is multidimensional in nature and there is no consensus on number and nature of dimensions, although security/privacy, website design, reliability, responsiveness and information emerged as most cited dimensions. Electronic and traditional service quality dimensions displayed analogy in direct or adapted form.

This paper is first to highlight key methodological issues of prevailing research on e-service quality scale development in context of online retail. Implications for researchers and managers are summarized at the end of the study.

Drawing on conversation of resources theory, the present paper aimed to investigate the effect of strengths-based leadership on follower career satisfaction and the mediating role of follower strengths use as well as the moderating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship.

Research data were gathered at 3 time points with a sample of 210 participants working in various organizations in China. Structural equation model (SEM) was applied to examine the authors' hypotheses.

The results indicated that strengths-based leadership has a positive impact on follower career satisfaction and follower strengths use fully mediates the effect of strengths-based leadership on follower career satisfaction. More importantly, emotional exhaustion enhanced the direct relationship between strengths use and career satisfaction and the indirect association of strengths-based leadership with follower career satisfaction through follower strengths use.

The main limitation of the present paper was the single source of research data.

The present paper advances strengths-based leadership theory and research and provides a new insight into cultivating employee career satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the energy absorption characteristics of arch micro-strut (ARCH) lattice structure (different from traditional straight micro-strut lattice structure) under high-speed impact, and promote the development of special-shaped micro-strut lattice structure.

The study serves to study the anti-impact and energy absorption characteristics of ARCH lattice structure under different strain rates and different unit layers of lattice structure. In this paper, quasi-static compression and Hopkinson compression bar experiments are used for comparative analysis.

The results show that the ARCH lattice structure has obvious strain rate effect. When the strain rate is low, the number of layers of lattice structure has a great influence on the mechanical properties. With the increase of strain rate, the influence of the number of layers on the mechanical properties gradually weakens. So the ARCH lattice structure with fewer layers (less than five layers) should be selected as the impact energy absorbing materials at lower impact rate, while at higher impact rate, the number of layers can be selected according to the actual requirements of components or devices space size.

This study shows that Arch lattice structure has excellent energy absorption performance, and provides a theoretical reference for the application of ARCH lattice structure in energy-absorbing materials. ARCH lattice structure is expected to be applied to a variety of energy absorption and anti-impact components or devices, such as aircraft black box fall buffer components, impact resistant layer of bulletproof and landing buffer device.

The purpose of this research is to achieve a novel magnetic nutation drive for an industry robotic wrist reducer.

A novel magnetic nutation drive is proposed, and the structure and principle of the designed magnetic nutation drive are described in this study. Three-dimensional finite element analysis is used to compute the magnetic and torque of the magnetic nutation drive. Furthermore, a prototype of this novel magnetic nutation drive device is developed with 3D printing technology and tested to verify the feasibility of the proposed structure and principle.

The simulation and experimental results indicated that the proposed magnetic nutation drive device could meet the desired specifications, and that this novel magnetic nutation drive device successfully realized the non-contact transmission ratio of 105:1 required for a robotic wrist reducer.

This novel magnetic nutation drive is low-cost and easy to make and use, and which provides the non-contact transmission ratio of 105:1 required for a robotic wrist reducer.

For the first time, this research applies the permanent magnet drive technology to nutation drive and puts forward a new non-contact nutation drive mode. The novel drive mode can solve some problems of the traditional mechanical contact nutation drive, such as vibration, friction loss, mechanical fatigue and necessity of lubrication. The proposed non-contact nutation drive device can achieve a high reduction ratio with compact structure and can be suitable for industry application.

Determinative locating and riveting distortions are highly coupled at assembly locale. Recent methods only take every tested or assumed locating errors at the mating surface into the process planning for the assemblies in a simple form. However, the growth of part number makes it nearly infeasible to take every locating error at every mating surface into the dimensional precision calculation. This paper aims to provide a solid riveting process planning for the reduction of practical locating-related distortions.

Large-scale metrology firstly measures the determinative coordinates for the locating-deviated key points. Iterative finite element (FE) analyses then calculate the riveting-related key point distortions from every rivet upsetting directions (UDs) and assembly sequence. These key points on the actual assembly contour and relative FE nodes yield two virtual planes. Virtual plane manipulation adds the riveting distortions into the locating-deviated coordinates. Finally, optimal algorithm integrates the iterative FE analyses with virtual plane manipulation.

Case studies validate that the virtual plane manipulation coincides with the test well, and the proposed method has good compensation of practical locating distortion.

The optimized rivet UDs may be set in a chaotic distribution, which may complicate the abundant riveting operations and the assembly appearance. Therefore, the use of automatic riveting systems can overcome the operational complexity, and the industrial design of rivet UD distribution will improve the assembly appearance.

The optimized UDs and assembly sequence are for assembly workers or automatic riveting systems.

The proposed method is the first to reduce the determinative locating distortion by a novel and efficient solid riveting process planning in detail, and the solid riveting process designed is conservative and accurate for practice.

This paper aims to solve the facility location problem of mobility industry call centers comprehensively, considering both investment efficiency and long-term development efficiency.

In this paper, a two-phase decision-making approach within a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework has been proposed to help select optimal locations among various alternate locations. Both quantitative and qualitative information is collected and processed based on fuzzy set theory and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Then the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution method is incorporated in the framework to assess the overall feasibility of all alternates.

A real case of a mobility giant in China is applied to verify the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Sensitivity analysis also proves the robustness of the framework.

This two-phase MCDM framework allows the mobility industry call center location to be selected considering economic, human resource and sustainability elements comprehensively. The framework proposed in this paper might be applicable to other companies in the mobility industry when deciding optimal locations of call centers.