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The purpose of this paper is to study the friction and wear properties of CrNiMo steel pin against brass disk in different oxygen fractions. CrNiMo steel is currently widely used in industry and military fields for its excellent performance in some severe environments. The atmosphere and temperature are key factors affecting the wear behaviors of CrNiMo steel. The study aims to make better use of CrNiMo steel in different atmospheres.

Friction and wear experiments were conducted using a pin‐on‐disk tribometer equipped in an atmosphere controllable chamber. The chamber allows switch between vacuum and gas mixtures of N2 and O2. The oxygen content was managed by magnetic coupling flow meter. The sliding speed of 1, 2, 3, 4 m/s and the applied sliding contact load of 5, 6.5, 8, 9.5 N were used in friction test. In order to obtain information on the wear mechanisms, the worn surface of the pin was examined by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy.

A close dependence is clearly shown of the friction and wear on the content of oxygen gas in elevated temperature. Increasing the content of oxygen in the atmosphere under higher normal load condition is beneficial to friction reduction of the steel/brass pair. Different wear mechanisms were found with a transition from the adhesive wear in nitrogen, to a mixed adhesion and oxidation wear when increasing the content of the oxygen in the atmosphere.

This paper provides a reference for the similar steel used in severe environments.

This paper examines the comparative corporate performance of logistics companies in Korea, China and Japan. Based on the annual data from the listed companies, the growth rate of Chinese companies has surpassed that of Korean and Japanese companies and has labeled China as the fastest growing economy. How ever, labor efficiency of Chinese firms when calculated by total revenue per employee is the lowest of the three countries. In addition, the profitability of Chinese multimodal logistics companies and sea transport companies is also lower than that of Korea and Japan.

Using Data Envelop Analysis(DEA), the primary results regarding corporate efficiency among Korean, Chinese and Japanese logistic companies are as follows: In the multimodal industries, Japanese firms have revealed the highest level of efficiency, with Korean firms coming in second, and Chinese firms ranking third with distinctly inferior performance. This trend has also been examined in the maritime industries, in which the efficiency levels have been deteriorating continuously. However, in the air transportation industry Chinese companies revealed the highest level of efficiency, which resulted from the business characteristics of the government supported conglomerate companies.

Contractual services are characterized by features such as termination fees, long-term commitment, and complex terms. When customers find better deals from other providers, they may want to switch, but contractual obligations prevent them from doing so. Thus, this study aims to draw upon the stimulus-organism-response paradigm and theories of emotion regulation to examine how punitive switching costs (PSCs) can evoke negative emotions (NEs) from customers and, consequently, lead to negative behavioral responses in contractual service settings.

This study collected data from 395 customers of telecommunications companies, fitness centers, tutoring firms/centers, and house leasing companies in Taiwan. We tested the hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 3.0.

The results show that NEs partially mediate the relationship between PSC and customers’ switching intention and negative word-of-mouth. This study also finds alternative attractiveness (AA) and service recovery (SR) do not moderate the PSCs–NEs relationship, but AA does directly influence NEs.

First, this study contributes to the literature on switching costs by exploring how PSC exerts a detrimental impact on behavioral responses. Second, this study adds to the literature on service failures by identifying the mediating role of NEs in such a relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) of phytic acid on cupronickel B30 surface of anticorrosion and inhibiting mechanisms.

Electrochemical and photocurrent response methods were performed to determine the effect of phytic acid SAMs on cupronickel B30.

The results indicated that phytic acid was liable to interact with B30 as a result of formation of complexes on B30 surface for anti‐rust and anti‐corrosion. The SAMs changed the structure of the electrochemical double layer and made the value of double layer capacitance decrease significantly. The B30 electrode showed p‐type photoresponse, which came from Cu₂O layer on its surface. The photoresponse decreased greatly due to the SAMs of phytic acid as the corrosion resisting property was enhanced. This finding was in good agreement with the results obtained from EIS and polarization curves. Adsorption of phytic acid was found to follow the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the adsorption mechanism was typical of chemisorption.

The SAMs of phytic acid on cupronickel B30 was gained for the first time. The photo‐electrochemical method was an in situ method, which was effective for characterizing optical and electronic properties of passive films.

The transistor circuit based on Moore's Law is approaching the performance limit. The three-dimensional integrated circuit (3-D IC) is an important way to implement More than Moore. The main problems in the development of 3-D IC are Joule heating and stress. The stresses and strains generated in 3-D ICs will affect the performance of electronic products, leading to various reliability issues. The intermetallic compound (IMC) joint materials and structures are the main factors affecting 3-D IC stress. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the design of the 3-D IC.

To optimize the design of 3-D IC, the numerical model of 3-D IC was established. The Taguchi experiment was designed to simulate the influence of IMC joint material, solder joint array and package size on 3-D IC stress.

The simulation results show that the solder joint array and IMC joint materials have great influence on the equivalent stress. Compared with the original design, the von Mises stress of the optimal design was reduced by 69.96 per cent, the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) was increased by 10.46 dB and the fatigue life of the Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu solder joint was increased from 415 to 533 cycles, indicating that the reliability of the 3-D IC has been significantly improved.

It is necessary to study the material properties of the bonded structure since 3-D IC is a new packaging structure. Currently, there is no relevant research on the optimization design of solder joint array in 3-D IC. Therefore, the IMC joint material, the solder joint array, the chip thickness and the substrate thickness are selected as the control factors to analyze the influence of various factors on the 3-D IC stress and design. The orthogonal experiment is used to optimize the structure of the 3-D IC.

This study aims to investigate the effect of hotel servicescape on customer citizenship behaviors “CCBs” by addressing customer engagement as a mediator and gender as a moderator.

A total of 619 questionnaires were collected from hotel customers. Structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.

Customer engagement mediates the effects of physical and social servicescapes on CCBs of providing feedback to an organization, making recommendations and helping other customers. Moreover, the indirect effects of physical servicescape on the three types of CCBs through customer engagement are stronger for male than for female customers, whereas no significant gender difference is observed in those effects of social servicescape on these types of CCBs through customer engagement.

This study can help hotels promote the three types of CCBs and customer engagement by creating wonderful physical and social servicescape elements. The major limitation is that this study collected survey data outside the hotel environment.

This study enriches current knowledge on the servicescape-driven responses by exploring how hotel servicescape elements affect the three types of CCBs through customer engagement. Additionally, the different moderating roles of gender in the indirect influences of servicescape elements on these types of CCBs are presented.