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45 steel is a common material for the manufacture of various components such as shafts or gears. However, its poor surface properties often limit its applications. The purpose of this paper is to find a way to enhance the surface performance of 45 steel, which is expected to improve the wear resistance of 45 steel.

Double glow plasma surface metallurgy technique was used to prepare hafnium carbide (HfC) coatings on the surface of the 45 steel with two preparation process; one is to diffuse two elements together, while the other is to diffuse step by step. The scanning electronic microscopy and the X-ray diffraction were used to analyze the morphology and phase of the HfC coatings. And then the wear tests were carried out for this coating.

Coating diffused step by step shows better performance; it has a 15-µm alloyed layer which is uniform and dense and its hardness can reach up to 1326.5 Vickers-hardness (HV). While the coating fabricated by diffusing elements together owns a 10-µm alloyed layer and its hardness is 1204.1 HV. According to the wear test results, both coatings have a protective effect on the substrate and the coating prepared by step-by-step diffusion process has less wear volume, indicating that it possesses better friction reduction.

A new method which diffuses elements together was successfully used to prepare compound HfC coating, which can reduce the cost of coating preparation and improve the efficiency of coating preparation.

This paper aims to investigate reconfigurable technology using robotic technology for folding carton in confectionery industry.

Based on the analysis of common motion and manipulation, modules such as robotic fingers and robotic folders are explored and designed. A robotic system is then constructed by arranging those modules for diverse cartons.

A prototyped test rig shows the adaptability of the robotic system. The reconfigurability of the robotic system is realized and verified by experiments and an industrial demonstrator.

This research leads to the development of a demonstrator, manufactured and controlled by industries, to further commercial exploitation of this robotic system. It has been applied in a strict industry environment for a chocolate manufacturer.

This robotic system applied successfully the theory of reconfigurability by using modularity in packaging systems into confectionery industry.

The objective of this chapter is to provide a first assessment on the evolution of spatial distribution of foreign firms in China.

We examine the overall changes in the location of foreign firms in China over the period 1999–2009. Then, we distinguish two time periods, 1998–2001 and 2002–2009 so as to analyze whether foreign firms’ agglomeration across regions has changed significantly after the China’s entry into the WTO (2001) and the first launch of the Chinese government policies to develop western internal areas.

Our analysis suggests that foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) with higher foreign capital shares are more geographically clustered in coastal regions than other enterprises with lower foreign capital shares. This group with the highest intensity of foreign involvement in firm capital also experienced the most relevant changes over the decade of our analysis becoming more localized between the core-periphery divide (coastal provinces and the rest of mainland China).

The main limitation refers to poor data availability, data matching problems, and measurement errors in the database used, as highlighted by Nie, Jiang, and Yang (2012).

A general analysis of location patterns and the role of public policies may inform foreign companies in their entry strategy in the Chinese market.

Very few studies have explored location patterns with detailed geographical data and, at the same time, with data disaggregated by foreign ownership shares.

Defects in concrete surfaces are inevitably recurring during construction, which needs to be checked and accepted during construction and completion. Traditional manual inspection of surface defects requires inspectors to judge, evaluate and make decisions, which requires sufficient experience and is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the expertise cannot be effectively preserved and transferred. In addition, the evaluation standards of different inspectors are not identical, which may lead to cause discrepancies in inspection results. Although computer vision can achieve defect recognition, there is a gap between the low-level semantics acquired by computer vision and the high-level semantics that humans understand from images. Therefore, computer vision and ontology are combined to achieve intelligent evaluation and decision-making and to bridge the above gap.

Combining ontology and computer vision, this paper establishes an evaluation and decision-making framework for concrete surface quality. By establishing concrete surface quality ontology model and defect identification quantification model, ontology reasoning technology is used to realize concrete surface quality evaluation and decision-making.

Computer vision can identify and quantify defects, obtain low-level image semantics, and ontology can structurally express expert knowledge in the field of defects. This proposed framework can automatically identify and quantify defects, and infer the causes, responsibility, severity and repair methods of defects. Through case analysis of various scenarios, the proposed evaluation and decision-making framework is feasible.

This paper establishes an evaluation and decision-making framework for concrete surface quality, so as to improve the standardization and intelligence of surface defect inspection and potentially provide reusable knowledge for inspecting concrete surface quality. The research results in this paper can be used to detect the concrete surface quality, reduce the subjectivity of evaluation and improve the inspection efficiency. In addition, the proposed framework enriches the application scenarios of ontology and computer vision, and to a certain extent bridges the gap between the image features extracted by computer vision and the information that people obtain from images.

The present study aims to examine the households’ attitudes and intentions to adopt an indoor air purifier against the smog crisis in India by using a comprehensive theoretical framework based on the combination of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 also emphasized ensuring a healthy and safe life, especially by achieving SDG-3, SDG-11 and SDG-13.

Using purposive sampling, the data were collected through a survey questionnaire distributed to 382 households, and study hypotheses were assessed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling employing SmartPLS.

The results revealed that mental health risk perception (MHRP) was the most influential determinant of households’ attitudes toward adopting air purifiers, followed by smog knowledge, physical health risk perception (PHRP), information seeking and product knowledge. Notably, results revealed that households’ attitude is a leading determinant of their adoption intention toward the air purifier compared to subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first to provide new insights into an individual’s protective behavior response toward ecological hazards by examining the households’ adoption intention toward the air purifier against the smog crisis using PADM and TPB model inclusively. In addition, the present study analyzes the impact of both PHRP and MHRP on individuals’ protective behavior separately. Also, this study provides theoretical contributions and important practical implications for the government, manufacturers and air purifier sellers.

In modern China, sports and nationalism always have close connection, and nationalism is the important reason for the promotion of Chinese sports. However, the relationship between Chinese sports and nationalism in globalised China could be much more examined by academics, as well as its influencing factors. This chapter selects the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the context and representative three Chinese sports heroes in the period of globalisation to study. The findings show that in some extent, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and three Chinese sports heroes represent the national image of China in the globalised world, also bearing the burden of washing away historical humiliation and pursuing national glory. Furthermore, it is manifested that China have a complex nationalism in the process of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. Under the influence of mass media, market economy and sports professionalisation, nationalism still exists in Chinese sports, but people gradually start to reflect on the ‘Juguo Tizhi’, the traditional Chinese sports system and the concept of ‘winning glory for the nation’. The relationship between Chinese nationalism and sports shows the important implications of rapid Chinese sports development.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of a novel series-parallel robot, which aims to climb on the transmission tower.

This study introduces a hybrid robot, which consists of adsorption and two 3-degree of freedom (DOF) translation parallel legs connected by a body linkage. The DOF of the legs ensures that the robot can move on the climbing plane, also contribute to a compact design of the robot. An electromagnet is used to adsorb onto the transmission tower, simplifying the overall structure. Based on the robot design, this paper further defines its climbing gait and adopt the 6th B-spline curves for climbing trajectory planning under different working environments.

The developed prototype that implements the design of the robot, which was used in simulation and experiments, showing that the robot is capable of climbing in the test environments with the planned climbing gait.

The hybrid robot is able to climb under varying degrees of inclinations and cross the obstacles, and the magnetic attraction can ensure stable climbing.

This paper aims to exploit shape-memory polymers as self-healable materials. The underlying mechanism involved the thermal transitions as well as the enrichment of the healing reagents and the closure of the crack surfaces due to shape recovery. The multi-stimuli-triggered shape memory composite was capable of self-healing under not only direct thermal but also electrical stimulations.

The shape memory epoxy polymer composites comprising the AgNWs and poly (ε-caprolactone) were fabricated by dry transfer process. The morphologies of the composites were investigated by the optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrical conduction and the Joule heating effect were measured. Furthermore, the healing efficiency under the different stimuli was calculated, whose dependence on the compositions was also discussed.

The AgNWs network maintained most of the pathways for the electrons transportation after the dry transfer process, leading to a superior conduction and flexibility. Consequently, the composites could trigger the healing within several minutes, as applied with relatively low voltages. It was found that the composites having more the AgNWs content had better electrically triggered performance, while 50 per cent poly (ε-caprolactone) content endowed the materials with max healing efficiency under thermal or electrical stimuli.

The findings may greatly benefit the application of the intelligent polymers in the fields of the multifunctional flexible electronics.

Most studies have by far emphasized on the direct thermal triggered cases. Herein, a novel, flexible and conductive shape memory-based composite, which was capable of self-healing under the thermal or electrical stimulations, has been proposed.

There are three pumping stations in the first stage of Eastern Route S-to-N Water Diversion Project in China, where the mixed-flow pumps with guide vanes are installed, consisting of Baoying, Hongze and the No. 2 Suining pumping stations. By using flow rate coefficient and head coefficient as expression, firstly the hydraulic performances of the hydro models used are analyzed. Secondly the structural features and system performances are compared. And finally the measurement results in site are comprehensively evaluated. The results show that the pump models both introduced abroad and developed at home and the pumping system types adopted in the three pumping stations have been confirmed satisfying the requirements of operational conditions and high efficiency, stable and safety operation in all working conditions can be ensured.

This study aims to propose a semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the high-speed railway (HSR) subgrade under cyclic load.

According to the basic framework of critical state soil mechanics and in view of the characteristics of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade to bear the train vibration load repeatedly for a long time, the hyperbolic empirical relationship between particle breakage and plastic work was derived. Considering the influence of cyclic vibration time and stress ratio, the particle breakage correction function of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was proposed. According to the classical theory of plastic mechanics, the shearing dilatation equation of the coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade considering particle breakage was modified and obtained. A semiempirical and semitheoretical cyclic compaction constitutive model of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under cyclic load was further established. The backward Euler method was used to discretize the constitutive equation, build a numerical algorithm of “elastic prediction and plastic modification” and make a secondary development of the program to solve the cyclic compaction model.

Through the comparison with the result of laboratory triaxial test under the cyclic loading of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade, the accuracy and applicability of the cyclic compaction model were verified. Results show that the model can accurately predict the cumulative deformation characteristics of coarse-grained soil filler for the HSR subgrade under the train vibration loading repeatedly for a long time. It considers the effects of particle breakage and stress ratio, which can be used to calculate and analyze the stress and deformation evolution law of the subgrade structure for HSR.

The research can provide a simple and practical method for calculating deformation of railway under cyclic loading.