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The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the nano tube fillers on the corrosion protection properties of the self-curing epoxy (SEP) coatings.

The self-curing epoxy (SEP) resin was synthesized via a reaction between diisopropoxy-bis ethylacetoacetato titanate and the epoxy resin. Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) was surface modified by grafting (3-glycidoxypropyl) trimethoxysilane to obtain modified HNTs (mHNTs). The HNTs and mHNTs are used as nano tube fillers for the SEP coating. The thermal stability of the coatings was assessed via thermo-gravimetric analysis. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was conducted to analyze the surfaces and cross sections of the coatings. The anticorrosive efficiencies of the coatings were investigated by electrochemical measurements and a neutral salt spray test.

The results demonstrated that the additions of HNTs and mHNTs have little effect on the thermal degradation temperature of the SEP coating. However, the addition of the nanotubes reduced the corrosion resistance of the SEP coating.

The SEP coating itself showed excellent corrosion resistance without any reinforcement particles and is hence promising for application in the heavy-duty anticorrosion field of heat exchangers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the variation law between the clay microstructure and macro external force by using soil scanning electron microscope (SEM) images.

First, SEM images of clay were pre-processed by MATLAB, and quantitative statistical parameters such as directional probability entropy, fractal dimension and shape factor are extracted. Second, the distribution force model was proposed, considering that the microscopic parameters of soil particles were independent of each other, and the distribution coefficient was determined according to the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Then, the fitted formula of quantitative statistical parameters based on the distribution force model was obtained by taking the macroscopic distribution force as independent variable and the microscopic parameters of soil particles as dependent variable. Finally, the correctness of corresponding fitting formula was verified.

The results showed that the change of external consolidation pressure has great influence on the directional probability entropy and fractal dimension, while the shape factor reflecting the regular degree of soil particle shape is less sensitive to the consolidation pressure. The fitting formula has high accuracy, and mostly the R value can reach more than 0.9. All the data have passed the test, which proves that the distribution force model proposed in this paper is rational.

The model can be used to connect the macroscopic stress of soil with the micro-structure deformation of soil particles through mathematical formula, which can provide reference for engineering practice.

Conflict is one of the important aspects of the expatriate-host country nationals (HCNs) dyad. The purpose of this study is to understand how the level of conflict between assigned expatriates and HCNs emerges and evolves during acculturation over time.

Building on expatriate literature, diversity literature, and acculturation literature, the authors adopted a longitudinal lens and developed a conceptual model to describe the dynamic process of conflict emergence and evolvement between assigned expatriates and HCNs.

This study offers a dynamic multi-stage conceptual model with the authors' novel propositions to explain how conflicts between assigned expatriates and HCNs emerge and evolve through the acculturation process.

This study provided a theoretical framework demonstrating when and how conflicts between HCNs and expatriates emerge and evolve during acculturation. In doing so, the authors integrate the conflict and diversity literature with the expatriate literature and offer a theoretical foundation to enrich the authors' understanding of the conflict between expatriates and HCNs.

Digital libraries and social media are two sources of online information with different characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to integrate self-efficacy into the analysis of the relationship between information sources and decision making, and to explore the effect of self-efficacy on decision making, as well as the interacting effect of self-efficacy and information sources on decision making.

Survey data were collected and the partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to verify the research model.

The effect of digital library usage for acquiring information on perceived decision quality (PDQ) is larger than that of social media usage for acquiring information on PDQ. Self-efficacy in acquiring information (SEAI) stands out as the key determinant for PDQ. The effect of social media usage for acquiring information on PDQ is positively moderated by SEAI.

Decision making is a fundamental activity for individuals, but human decision making is often subject to biases. The findings of this study provide useful insights into decision quality improvement, highlighting the importance of SEAI in the face of information overload.

This study integrates self-efficacy into the analysis of the relationship between information sources and decision making, presenting a new perspective for decision-making research and practice alike.

The function, utilization, and resource allocation of sport facilities in residential areas have attracted increasing attention in China along with the country's rapid economic development and the popularization of the health concept. To optimize the allocation of public sports resources and develop functions for sports facilities in China, this study analyzed existing policies concerning the planning and construction of sports facilities in residential areas and actual problems in the operation, management, and construction of sports facilities in the country. The analysis was conducted using document, investigation and expert consultation methods. Corresponding improvement measures were proposed by combining actual situations of urban sport participation of residents. Sports facilities in urban residential areas in China are facing various problems, such as inadequate quantity, uneven layout, poor management, and imperfect related laws and regulations as well as planning policies. Formulating sports facility planning policies and updating existing sports facilities are beneficial in relieving the sports facility shortage caused by the increased, diversified, and actual demands of residents. These measures could also guide the future construction of sports facilities in residential areas in high-density cities in China.

Because of short life cycle and fluctuating greatly in total sales volumes (TSV), it is difficult to accumulate enough sales data and mine an attribute set reflecting the common needs of all consumers for a kind of experiential product with short life cycle (EPSLC). Methods for predicting TSV of long-life-cycle products may not be suitable for EPSLC. Furthermore, point prediction cannot obtain satisfactory prediction results because information available before production is inadequate. Thus, this paper aims at proposing and verifying a novel interval prediction method (IPM).

Because interval prediction may satisfy requirements of preproduction investment decision-making, interval prediction was adopted, and then the prediction difficult was converted into a classification problem. The classification was designed by comparing similarities in attribute relationship patterns between a new EPSLC and existing product groups. The product introduction may be written or obtained before production and thus was designed as primary source information. IPM was verified by using data of crime movies released in China from 2013 to 2017.

The IPM is valid, which uses product introduction as input, classifies existing products into three groups with different TSV intervals, mines attribute relationship patterns using content and association analyses and compares similarities in attribute relationship patterns – to predict TSV interval of a new EPSLC before production.

Different from other studies, the IPM uses product introduction to mine attribute relationship patterns and compares similarities in attribute relationship patterns to predict the interval values. It has a strong applicability in data content and structure and may realize rolling prediction.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the failure reasons and failure mechanism of the commercially pure titanium air conditioning condenser.

In this paper, chemical analysis, metallographic observation, visual examination and scanning electron microscope examination, corrosion products analysis and working conditions analysis were adopted for determining the reasons for the failure of the condenser.

The results indicated that TA2 titanium pipe perforation failure is caused by the synergistic effect of crevice corrosion and deposit corrosion. The corrosion processes can be divided into three steps.

This research is an originality study on the failure case of a commercially pure titanium air conditioning condenser. This study makes up for the shortage of titanium alloy failure cases and also gives the result of the failure reason and failure mechanism for titanium, which has an engineering significance.

The 21st century has brought the business model earth-shaking changes, especially since the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic at the end of 2019. Now, the epidemic normalization is slowing down China's rapid development. However, technological development, like artificial intelligence (AI), is unstoppable and is transforming China's economic growth modes from factor-driven to innovation-driven systems. Therefore, it is necessary to study further the new changes in labor entrepreneurship and innovation business models and their mechanism of action on economic growth.

This work studies how innovative human capital (IHC) uses AI and other scientific and technological (S&T) innovation technologies to promote China's innovation-driven economic growth model transformation from the labor entrepreneurship and innovation perspective.

The research shows that the entrepreneurial innovation ability of IHC can increase marginal return and output multiplier effect. It changes the traditional business model and promotes China's economic growth and innovation development. At the same time, this work analyzes China's inter-provincial panel data through the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. It concludes that there is a nonlinear relationship between IHC and the output of innovative achievements. The main body presents three stages of nonlinear changes: first rising, then slightly declining, and rising so far.

The finding provides a direction for solving the problem of slow economic growth and accelerating the transformation of economic growth mode under epidemic normalization.

This research is motivated by the increasing need for international interactions during the gradual recovery of the tourism industry. By recognizing the paucity of research on cultural closeness and accommodation categories, this research aims to illuminate the influencing mechanisms of psychological closeness and travelers’ willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property while booking an accommodation.

The authors employ a mixed-methods approach, including an experiment and semistructured interviews.

Results show that hosts’ higher cultural identity congruence leads to travelers’ higher willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property. Psychological closeness mediates the positive effect of cultural identity congruence on travelers’ willingness to book. The authors further explore the moderating role of room types (entire room vs. private room) and find that the mediation effect is stronger for booking an entire room.

The current research underlines the importance of cultural identity congruence and accommodation type on travelers’ willingness to book an accommodation-sharing property and psychological closeness.

For privacy protection, federated learning based on data separation allows machine learning models to be trained on remote devices or in isolated data devices. However, due to the limited resources such as bandwidth and power of local devices, communication in federated learning can be much slower than in local computing. This study aims to improve communication efficiency by reducing the number of communication rounds and the size of information transmitted in each round.

This paper allows each user node to perform multiple local trainings, then upload the local model parameters to a central server. The central server updates the global model parameters by weighted averaging the parameter information. Based on this aggregation, user nodes first cluster the parameter information to be uploaded and then replace each value with the mean value of its cluster. Considering the asymmetry of the federated learning framework, adaptively select the optimal number of clusters required to compress the model information.

While maintaining the loss convergence rate similar to that of federated averaging, the test accuracy did not decrease significantly.

By compressing uplink traffic, the work can improve communication efficiency on dynamic networks with limited resources.