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The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between stock market liquidity and firm dividend policy within a market implementing the tax imputation system. The main aim is to understand how the tax imputation system influences the relationship between firm dividend policy and stock market liquidity within a cross-sectional framework.

This paper investigates the relationship between stock market liquidity and the dividend payout policy under the full tax imputation system in the Australian market. This study uses the Generalized Least Squares regressions with firm- and year-fixed effects.

In contrast to the negative relationship between the liquidity of common shares and the firms' dividends documented in countries with the double tax system, the study reveals that in Australia, the dividend payout ratios are positively associated with liquidity after controlling for various explanatory variables with both the contemporaneous and lagged time periods. Such a finding is robust to the use of alternative liquidity proxies and to the sub-period tests and remains during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

The insights derived from this study have significant implications for various stakeholders within the economy. The findings provide regulators with valuable insights to conduct a more holistic assessment of how the tax system impacts the economy, especially concerning the dividend choices of firms. Within the context of a full tax imputation system, investors can make investment decisions without factoring in the taxation impact. Simultaneously, firms can be relieved of concerns about losing investors who prioritize liquidity, particularly when a high dividend payout might not align optimally with their financial strategy.

This study contributes to the literature by extending the literature on the tax clientele effects on dividend policy, providing evidence that the tax imputation system can moderate the impact of liquidity on dividend policy. This study examines the impact of the dividend tax imputation system on the substitution effect between dividends and liquidity.

Excessive borrowing significantly contributes to pushing businesses towards default and their transition into zombie enterprises. Despite government efforts to implement deleveraging policies and guide bank credit flows, it’s essential to delve into the internal dynamics that steer the borrowing behavior of these zombie enterprises at a micro level. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the issue, this study focuses on examining the incentives that drive corporate executives of zombie enterprises to consistently engage in large-scale borrowing from banks.

In this study, panel data analysis is utilized, incorporating firm-, industry- and year-fixed effects. Drawing from data pertaining to listed companies in China spanning from 2007 to 2020, we employ a one-by-one identification method to pinpoint zombie enterprises. Ultimately, a total of 2,533 samples of zombie enterprises were obtained.

The results indicate that as bank loans to zombie enterprises increase, executive monetary compensation decreases, while on-the-job consumption by executives increases, and they are less likely to be forced into rotation. Mechanism testing reveals that corporate performance partially mediates the relationship between bank loans and executive monetary compensation, but this mediation is ineffective for on-the-job consumption and job rotation. Further investigation suggests that the property rights nature of central enterprises and modified audit opinions can exacerbate the adverse impact of bank loans on the monetary compensation of zombie corporate executives, without significantly affecting on-the-job consumption or job rotation. Conversely, executive power does not enhance the positive effects of bank loans on monetary compensation or on-the-job consumption, but it diminishes the negative impact of bank loans on the forced rotation of zombie executives.

These results indicate that while bank loans may have a negative impact on corporate value, they function as safeguards for the positions and interests of executives. As a result, bank loans serve as incentives for executives of zombie enterprises.

This study holds theoretical significance as it explores the motivations behind non-performing loans in high-borrowing enterprises, sheds light on corporate governance challenges encountered by zombie enterprises and provides policy insights aimed at addressing the underlying causes of persistent non-performing loans in high-borrowing enterprises, including zombie enterprises.

With rapid urbanization, cities are facing various ecological and environmental problems. Living in harmony with nature is more important than ever. This paper aims to evaluate the ecosystem and ecological features of Azheke village, a key component of the Hani Rice Terraces World Cultural Heritage in China. The focus is on exploring effective ways to improve the relationship between humans and the natural environment through urban design in order to create a livable and sustainable city that can promote the development of sustainable smart urban ecology design.

This study conducted a systematic literature review to answer the following research questions: (1) How does Azheke design achieve harmony between humans and nature? (2) What are the effective approaches to improve the relationship between humans and nature within urban ecosystems? (3) How can urban design learn and integrate from Azheke’s ecological features to improve the relationship between humans and nature?

Azheke sustains long-term human-nature harmony through traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and efficient natural resource use. By incorporating biophilic design and nature-based solutions from Azheke, along with biodiversity-friendly urban planning, we can boost urban ecosystem health and create unique Azheke-inspired urban designs.

This research primarily focuses on the human-nature relationship, exploring design strategies based on biodiversity without delving into the interactions between other components of urban ecosystems, such as social-cultural and economic components.

This paper provides a new perspective and strategies for developing sustainable and smart urban ecology design. These findings can provide theoretical references for urban planners, designers and decision-makers.

The assembly simulation in tolerance analysis is one of the most important steps for the tolerance design of mechanical products. However, most assembly simulation methods are based on the rigid body assumption, and those assembly simulation methods considering deformation have a poor efficiency. This paper aims to propose a novel efficient and precise tolerance analysis method based on stable contact to improve the efficiency and reliability of assembly deformation simulation.

The proposed method comprehensively considers the initial rigid assembly state, the assembly deformation and the stability examination of assembly simulation to improve the reliability of tolerance analysis results. The assembly deformation of mating surfaces was first calculated based on the boundary element method with optimal initial assembly state, then the stability of assembly simulation results was assessed by the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise algorithm to improve the reliability of tolerance analysis. Finally, combining the small displacement torsor theory, the tolerance scheme was statistically analyzed based on sufficient samples.

A case study of a guide rail model demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The present study only considered the form error when generating the skin model shape, and the waviness and the roughness of the matching surface were not considered.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the proposed method is original in the assembly simulation considering stable contact, which can effectively ensure the reliability of the assembly simulation while taking into account the computational efficiency.

Preparing CrAlN coatings on the surface of silicon nitride bearings can improve their service life in oil-free lubrication. This paper aims to match the optimal process parameters for preparing CrAlN coatings on silicon nitride surfaces, and reveal the microscopic mechanism of process parameter influence on coating wear resistance.

This study used molecular dynamics to analyze how process parameters affected the nucleation density, micromorphology, densification and internal stress of CrAlN coatings. An orthogonal test method was used to examine how deposition time, substrate temperature, nitrogen-argon flow rate and sputtering power impacted the wear resistance of CrAlN coatings under dry friction conditions.

Nucleation density, micromorphology, densification and internal stress have a significant influence on the surface morphology and wear resistance of CrAlN coatings. The process parameters for better wear resistance of the CrAlN coatings were at a deposition time of 120 min, a substrate temperature of 573 K, a nitrogen-argon flow rate of 1:1 and a sputtering power of 160 W.

Simulation analysis and experimental results of this paper can provide data to assist in setting process parameters for applying CrAlN coatings to silicon nitride bearings.

This empirical study aims to examine luxury fashion retailers' localised multiple channel distribution strategies in China.

Through case studies of 15 participating retailers, qualitative data were collected from 33 semi-structured interviews.

Strong impacts of internationalisation strategies, distribution strategies and channel length towards multiple channel retailing are revealed. Multi-channel retailing is widely employed by firms who have entered China and further developed their businesses through local partnerships and adopted a selective distribution strategy via relatively longer channels. Omni-channel retailing is only suitable for the few retailers using an exclusive distribution strategy through direct marketing and wholly owned customer relationship management. As a dynamic transformation from multi- to omni-channel retailing, cross-channel retailing is adopted by those who are withdrawing from local partnerships and shifting to wholly owned expansions and operations in host markets.

The results are potentially challenged by relatively small sample size.

Practitioners are suggested to adapt multiple channel retailing to their international expansion strategies, distribution strategies and channel length in the host markets.

This paper contributes to the literature in both multiple channel retailing and international retailing by offering insights into the motives, development patterns and suitability of multiple channel retailing in the international retail marketing context.

The electromechanical planetary transmission system has the advantages of high transmission power and fast running speed, which is one of the important development directions in the future. However, during the operation of the electromechanical planetary transmission system, friction and other factors will lead to an increase in gear temperature and thermal deformation, which will affect the transmission performance of the system, and it is of great significance to study the influence of the temperature effect on the nonlinear dynamics of the electromechanical planetary system.

The effects of temperature change, motor speed, time-varying meshing stiffness, meshing damping ratio and error amplitude on the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of electromechanical planetary systems are studied by using bifurcation diagrams, time-domain diagrams, phase diagrams, Poincaré cross-sectional diagrams, spectra, etc.

The results show that when the temperature rise is less than 70 °C, the system will exhibit chaotic motion. When the motor speed is greater than 900r/min, the system enters a chaotic state. The changes in time-varying meshing stiffness, meshing damping ratio, and error amplitude will also make the system exhibit abundant bifurcation characteristics.

Based on the principle of thermal deformation, taking into account the temperature effect and nonlinear parameters, including time-varying meshing stiffness and tooth side clearance as well as comprehensive errors, a dynamic model of the electromechanical planetary gear system was established.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the efficiency of styrene-acrylate (SA) emulsions for polymer cement waterproof coatings with improved bacteria resistance and mechanical properties.

For effective bacteria resistance and excellent mechanical properties, various concentrations of methacryloxyethylhexadecyl dimethylammonium bromide (MHDB) were synthesised and incorporated into SA emulsions. The properties of SA emulsions modified with MHDB were characterised and compared with those of unmodified ones according to the formulations of polymer cement waterproof coatings.

The SA emulsions modified with MHDB exhibited significant enhancement of bacteria resistance and mechanical properties over the unmodified ones. The positive quaternary nitrogen and long-chain alkyl groups of MHDB in SA emulsions could attract phospholipid head groups of bacterial and insert them into the cell wall, which results in biomass leak and bactericidal effect. Moreover, MHDB as a softened monomer was beneficial to the synthesis of SA copolymer with low glass-transition temperature (T_g), then the copolymer and cement would form a more compact film which was the main reason for the enhancement of mechanical properties.

The modifier MHDB was synthesised from diethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DEAM) and 1-bromohexadecane. Besides, the congeners of MHDB could be synthesised from DEAM and 1-bromododecane, 1-tetradecyl dromide, 1-octadecyl bromide, etc. In addition, the efficiency of other modifications into SA emulsions for antibacterial polymer cement waterproof coatings could be studied as well.

The method provided a practical solution for the improvement of water-based antibacterial acrylate polymer cement waterproof coatings.

The method for enhancing bacteria resistance and mechanical properties of the waterproof coating was novel and valuable.

This paper aims to determine the optimum parametric settings for yielding superior mechanical properties, namely, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and percentage elongation (EL) of AZ91D/AgNPs/TiO₂ hybrid composite fabricated by friction stir processing.

An empirical model has been developed to govern crucial influencing parameters, namely, rotation speed (RS), tool transverse speed (TS), number of passes (NPS) and reinforcement fraction (RF) or weight percentage. Box Behnken design (BBD) with four input parameters and three levels of each parameter was used to design the experimental work, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to check the acceptability of the developed model. Desirability function analysis (DFA) for a multiresponse optimization approach is integrated with response surface methodology (RSM). The individual desirability index (IDI) was calculated for each response, and a composite desirability index (CDI) was obtained. The optimal parametric settings were determined based on maximum CDI values. A confirmation test is also performed to compare the actual and predicted values of responses.

The relationship between input parameters and output responses (UTS, YS, and EL) was investigated using the Box-Behnken design (BBD). Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and nano-sized titanium dioxide (TiO₂) enhanced the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength. It was observed that the inclusion of AgNPs led to an increase in ductility, while the increase in the weight fraction of TiO₂ resulted in a decrease in ductility.

AZ91D/AgNPs/TiO₂ hybrid composite finds enormous applications in biomedical implants, aerospace, sports and aerospace industries, especially where lightweight materials with high strength are critical.

In terms of optimum value through desirability, the experimental trials yield the following results: maximum value of UTS (318.369 MPa), maximum value of YS (200.120 MPa) and EL (7.610) at 1,021 rpm of RS, 70 mm/min of TS, 4 NPS and level 3 of RF.

Selecting and scheduling optimal project portfolio simultaneously is a complex decision-making problem faced by organizations to realize the strategy. However, dynamic synergy relationships among projects complicate this problem. This study aims at constructing a project portfolio selection and scheduling (PPSS) model while quantifying the dynamic synergetic effects to provide decision support for managing PPSS problems.

This study develops a mathematical model for PPSS with the objective of maximal project portfolio benefits (PPBs). To make the results align with the strategy, comprehensive PPBs are divided into financial and non-financial aspects based on the balanced scorecard. Then, synergy benefits evolve dynamically in the time horizon, and system dynamics is employed to quantify them. Lastly, a case example is conducted to verify the applicability of the proposed model.

The proposed model is an applicable model for PPSS while incorporating dynamic synergy. It can help project managers obtain the results that which project should be selected and when it should start while achieving optimal PPBs.

This study complements prior PPSS research in two aspects. First, financial and non-financial PPBs are designed as new criteria for PPSS, making the results follow the strategy. Second, this study illuminates the dynamic characteristic of synergy and quantifies the synergetic effect. The proposed model provides insights into managing a PPSS effectively.