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The purpose of this paper is to predict and control the composition during laser additive manufacturing, since composition control is important for parts manufactured by laser additive manufacturing. Aluminum and steel functionally graded material (FGM) were manufactured by laser metal deposition, and the composition was analyzed by means of spectral analysis simultaneously.

The laser metal deposition process was carried out on a 5 mm thick 316L plate. Spectral line intensity ratio and plasma temperature were chosen as two main spectroscopic diagnosis parameters to predict the compositional variation. Single-trace single-layer experiments and single-trace multi-layer experiments were done, respectively, to test the feasibility of the spectral diagnosis method.

Experiment results showed that with the composition of metal powder changing from steel to aluminum, the spectral intensity ratio of the characteristic spectral line is proportional to the elemental content in the plasma. When the composition of deposition layers changed, the characteristic spectrum line intensity ratio changed obviously. And the linear chemical composition analysis results confirmed the gradient composition variation of the additive manufacturing parts. The results verified the feasibility of composition analysis based on spectral information in the laser additive manufacturing process.

The composition content of aluminum and steel FGM was diagnosed by spectral information during laser metal deposition, and the relationship between spectral intensity and composition was established.

Ti-Al composite plates have been used in aerospace and other important fields for specific purposes in recent years. However, relatively few studies have concentrated on Ti-Al additive manufacturing because during additive manufacturing process the local fusion and mixing of Ti/Al are inevitable. These areas where Ti and Al are mixed locally, especially interface, could easily generate high residual stresses and cracks. This study aims to manufacture Ti-Al functionally graded material and investigate the interaction of interface.

In this study, Ti6Al4V/AlSi10Mg functionally graded materials were fabricated by laser based directed energy deposition (L-DED) and a strategy using V interlayer to relieve interfacial stress was investigated.

The area between the two materials was divided into transition zone (TZ) and remelting zone (RZ). The phase distribution, microstructure and micro-Vickers hardness of the TZ and RZ were investigated. Typical intermetallic compounds (IMCs) such as TiAl3, Ti3Al and Ti5Si3 were found in both composites. The addition of V interlayer promoted the homogenization of IMCs near interface and led to the formation of new phases like V5Si3 and Al3V.

The solidification process near the interface of Ti-Al functionally graded material and the possible generation of different phases were described. The result of this paper proved the feasibility of manufacturing Ti-Al functionally graded material by L-DED.

To build adaptive learning systems for a better learning experience, designers need to identify users’ behaviour patterns and provide adaptive learning materials accordingly. This study involved a quasi-experiment and also this paper aims to investigate the accuracy of eye-tracking technology in identifying visualisers and verbalisers and the contributing factors to diverse levels of accuracy, which lays the foundation for the establishment of adaptive learning systems.

The authors prepared eight documents with different image-text combinations with the intention of triggering participants’ natural reading habits. By analysing the eye-movement data, this author categorised the 22 participants as visualisers or verbalisers. The results were compared for accuracy measure with participants’ self-reports in response to the index of learning style questionnaire.

The results showed that visualisers and verbalisers presented significantly different eye-movement patterns, which was confirmed by the fixation data from the Tobii eye-tracker with the detection accuracy ranged from 38% to 77%. Various factors contributed to a range of levels of accuracy, including highlighted elements, learning context, complex background, low relevance of images and texts, learner differences, awareness of experimental settings, self-conception and prior knowledge.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper investigating the feasibility of eye-tracking technology to identify visualisers and verbalisers for the development of adaptive learning systems.

Based on government data from 1993 to 2008, this chapter aims to compute and analyze the trends of inequity in interprovincial and regional per-student spending in China's compulsory education, and to ascertain the potential impact of changes in education financing policies. Appropriate inequity measures (Gini and Theil index and Gini decomposition, among others) are employed to provide a systematic picture of the trends. Main findings include: (1) all inequity measures show large and overall increased disparities among provinces and among regions, between 1993 and 2008. (2) However, a slight drop of spending inequity is observed at the primary education level around 2002 and a larger reduction in 2005 and on. There are more turning points in the trend of lower-secondary per-student spending among provinces. These patterns are consistent across different inequity measures and spending indicators (per-student total spending, per-student recurrent spending, and per-student nonpersonnel spending). (3) The trend toward more balanced resource allocation around 2002 and 2005 could be the impact from the Reform of Tax and Administrative Charges and the New Mechanism for Financing Rural Compulsory Education. An increased share of budgetary expenditure in determining total spending suggests that equalizing financing policies have the potential to induce a significant reduction in spending inequity. These findings may help policy makers to better understand and alter the extent of spending inequity in compulsory education. This is an original empirical study that systematically derives the spending inequity trends over a long period in China's compulsory education.

This paper aims to consolidate prior research from policy and management domains to identify stages in China's technological learning within the imitation paradigm during 1949‐2001, focusing on changes in the government's strategic priorities and policies and the nature, mode and sources of technological learning, then to contrast the firm and institutional features that have emerged under the imitation paradigm with those defining the emerging creation paradigm. The analysis leads to clear implications for both policy and management for the Chinese firms to make this transition and compete in higher value‐added global industries.

An overview and conceptual paper based on observations and literature review.

This paper derives a parsimonious set of four dimensions to demarcate five stages in the evolution of China's technological learning: the government's strategic priority, nature of technology, the mode and the source of learning. It identifies six factors acting as significant impediments to Chinese firms' transition from imitation to creation.

In the first place, this paper provides managerial implications which are of great interest to Chinese practicing managers to manage their firms' transition from imitation to creation; second, the policy imperatives highlighted by this paper will help Chinese policymakers to design appropriate incentive mechanisms to enable Chinese firms to build up their competitiveness within the creation paradigm and thereby become global competitors. Meanwhile, this paper provides a systematic analysis on the evolution of China's technology development. This five stage‐based framework will help practicing managers in China understand whether, which and when Chinese firms can make the transition necessary to compete based on the creation of proprietary resources and capabilities.