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The purpose of this paper is to design the novel oil–air distributor (N-OAD). Its structure design, oil feeding reliability, service life and viscosity properties of air bubble (AB) oil were analyzed. Meanwhile, the formation mechanism of AB oil was established based on Kelvin–Helmholtz instability.

First, oil–air distributor (OAD) and N-OAD were randomly selected for testing when the air pressure was 0.25 MPa and oil feeding was 100 times per hour. Then, the bubbles were found in the lubricant during the experiment, and the void fraction and viscosity properties of AB oil were tested by image processing method and the MARS 40 rheometer, respectively.

N-OAD has longer service life and higher working reliability than OAD. The key factors of AB oil formation were air pressure and oil feeding. And the void fraction of AB oil has different results on the viscosity at high and low shear rates.

The outcome of this research paper gives an insight to improve the reliability of oil–air lubrication systems and the safety factor of machine tool spindle operation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify smaller wear particles and improve the calculation speed, identify more abrasive particles and promote industrial applications.

This paper studies a new intelligent recognition method for equipment wear debris based on the YOLO V5S model released in June 2020. Nearly 800 ferrography pictures, 23 types of wear debris, about 5,000 wear debris were used to train and test the model. The new lightweight approach of wear debris recognition can be implemented in rapidly and automatically and also provide for the recognition of wear debris in the field of online wear monitoring.

An intelligent recognition method of wear debris in ferrography image based on the YOLO V5S model was designed. After the training, the GIoU values of the model converged steadily at about 0.02. The overall precision rate and recall rate reached 0.4 and 0.5, respectively. The overall MAP value of each type of wear debris was 40.5, which was close to the official recognition level of YOLO V5S in the MS COCO competition. The practicality of the model was approved. The intelligent recognition method of wear debris based on the YOLO V5S model can effectively reduce the sensitivity of wear debris size. It also has a good recognition effect on wear debris in different sizes and different scales. Compared with YOLOV. YOLOV, Mask R-CNN and other algorithms%2C, the intelligent recognition method based on the YOLO V5S model, have shown their own advantages in terms of the recognition effect of wear debris%2C the operation speed and the size of weight files. It also provides a new function for implementing accurate recognition of wear debris images collected by online and independent ferrography analysis devices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the intelligent identification of wear debris based on the YOLO V5S network is proposed for the first time, and a large number of wear debris images are verified and applied.

The purpose of this paper is to present a clear path to securitize the longevity risk with two distinct swaps in order to inspire a new Chinese life market.

Studies on longevity risk securitization consist of three aspects, respectively, instrument design, pricing methodology and mortality projection. The swaps designed are referenced, respectively, to vanilla and complex survivor swaps (Dowd et al., 2006; Lin and Cox, 2005). Methods applied are RHH model and Gompertz law for mortality projection, as well as two-factor Wang transformation for pricing.

This paper figures out the market price of risk in Chinese annuity market, checks for the sensitivity of the price to parameters and tests the hedging effects by Monte Carlo simulation.

Based on the theoretical and numerical results, this paper suggests an effective way to possibly witness the birth of New Life Market in China.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between family-related factors and academic performance for Asian and Hispanic immigrant students.

The study used data drawn from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study. Data were collected from second-generation immigrant students in forms of surveys. A total of 10th to 12th grade Asian (n=3,022) and Hispanic immigrant students (n=1,664) reported their family income, father’s and mother’ education, parents’ education aspiration for them, their own education aspiration, English proficiency, family cohesion, and parent-child conflict. Their school performance indicated by grade point average demonstrated in school records was also collected. Data were analyzed with analysis of variance and regression techniques.

Family income and parent-child conflict were identified as predictors of immigrant students’ grade point average. When regression analyses were conducted separately for Asian and Hispanic students, different patterns emerged. Family income and parent-child conflict predicted Hispanic immigrant students’ academic performance whereas parent education aspiration and family income predicted Asian immigrant students’ academic performance.

The current study was among the first to examine how family emotional factors related to Asian and Hispanic immigrant students’ academic performance. The findings demonstrated some interesting patterns in terms of how different family-related factors contributed to the two immigrant student groups. It added to the existing literature about what distinguished Asian and Hispanic immigrant students’ academic achievement.

On the background of China’s turn to a market economy and a consumer-driven society, the purpose of this paper is to recount the fortunes of the age-old religion of the Naxi people and their farmer-priests, the dongba.

Detailed ethnography, including participant observation, the collection of life histories and interviews.

The might of the tourist industry dominates the changes in the profession of the dongba priests, from a faith-based practice to a tourist-driven service; aided by a confluence of interests of relevant stakeholders: the Chinese state, the provincial governments, the Naxi elite. At the core is the transformation, in Chinese terms, from a superstitious religion to culture heritage.

Like all case studies and common to ethnographic-based research, the small scale of the research poses questions of generalizability.

Shedding light on a little known aspect of the world’s largest economy is of high relevance to business and management scholars.

The transformation of the dongba demonstrates how major societal changes that happen within a couple of decades affect a society and its economy and a central career track within it.

The case study testifies to the encounter of a major modern industry: tourism, with an archaic religion in a remote corner of China, and the transformation of the latter as result.

The purpose of this paper is to review systematically the research of grey relation analysis (GRA) models.

Three different approaches, the springboard to build a GRA model, the angle of view in modelling, and the dimension of objects, are analysed, respectively.

The GRA models developed from the models based on relation coefficients of each point in the sequences in early days to the generalized GRA models based on integral or overall perspective. It evolved from the GRA models which measure similarity based on nearness, into the models which consider similarity and nearness, respectively. The objects of the research advanced from the analysis of relationship among curves to that among curved surfaces, and further to the analysis of relationship in three‐dimensional space and even the relationship among super surfaces in n‐dimensional space.

The further research on GRA models is proposed. One is about the property of GRA model. An in‐depth knowledge about the properties of GRA model will help people to understand its function, applicable area and requirements for modelling. The other one is about the extension of research object system. The object to be analysed should be extended from the common sequence of real numbers to grey numbers, vectors, matrices, and even multi‐dimensional matrices, etc.

The aim of this article states that in each stage of the industrial revolution, only a few initiatives have been real game changers. In Industry 3.0, “Internet of Information” has transformed the business landscape via connectivity and communications. Enterprises could come together to spur innovation in a cooperative or competitive manner. In Industry 4.0, the “Internet of Value” has shown considerable benefits; and, blockchain technology is expected to touch all layers of a business ecosystem, and the construction industry is not an exception.

This study aims to answer the “How do enterprise blockchain solutions contribute to the vibrancy of the construction ecosystem from social, economic, and environmental aspects?” Following a comprehensive literature review, the Grey Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA-G) is employed in multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA). OPA-G can select functionally rich enterprise blockchain solutions that meet the needs of the future construction industry, while there is uncertainty in the input data.

The results from the case study show that organization under observation welcomes an enterprise blockchain solution that delivers services related to “renewable energy certificates” in the context of “smart cities and built environment”. Employing high-ranked blockchain solutions brings vibracy and sustainability to construction ecosystem in terms of “C₆. decentralized finance and investment,” “C₃. multi-party and cross-industry collaboration,” and “C₈. data-driven value creation”.

At the micro level, blockchain solutions automate processes, streamline operations, and build new capacities on a new business model. At the macro level, blockchain creates a vibrant ecosystem based on transparency, decentralization, consensus-based democracy, interoperability, etc. Indeed, the capability of blockchain solutions at an enterprise scale (enterprise blockchain solutions) can shape a new construction ecosystem. The practical implications of current research are preparing executives for a fundamentally different next normal in construction.

Unlike traditional industries, the e-cigarette is an epoch-making innovative product originating in China and occupying an absolute competitive advantage in the international market. The traditional A-U model describes the laws and characteristics of technological innovation in developed countries. In contrast, the inverse A-U model depicts the process of “secondary innovation” in late-developing countries through digestion and absorption. This paper aims to find out that if the e-cigarette, as a “first innovation” industry in a late-developing country, conform to the A-U model or conform to the “inverse A-U model”.

This paper takes the patent data of e-cigarettes from 2004 to 2021 as the research object, and uses Python’s Jieba segment words to divide product innovation and process innovation, and then uses statistical analysis methods to conduct empirical analyses on these data.

Thus, an improved A-U model suitable for the e-cigarette industry is proposed. In this model, product innovation in the e-cigarette industry appeared earlier than process innovation, but the synchronous development of product and process innovation is not lagging. The improved A-U model in the e-cigarette industry is not only different from the traditional A-U model but also does not conform to the inverse A-U model.

It is conducive to expanding and clarifying the theoretical contribution and applicable boundaries of the A-U model and has sparked thinking and exploration of the A-U model in e-cigarettes and emerging industries.

On this basis, suggestions on the development path and countermeasures of the e-cigarette industry are put forward.

Based on the e-cigarette industry, this paper takes patents as the research object and provides the method of dividing product innovation and process innovation, and proposes an A-U model suitable for the e-cigarette industry on this basis. By comparing the traditional A-U model with the inverse A-U model in latecomer countries, the background and causes of e-cigarette A-U model heterogeneity are analyzed from different stages and overall morphology. Based on this, the heterogeneity characteristics of e-cigarette innovation are summarized and sorted out.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a methodology to help evaluate, select, and monitor sustainable supply chain performance measurement that can be integrated into a performance management system (PMS).

Grey‐based neighborhood rough set theory is used to help arrive at a core set of important business and environmental performance measures for sustainable supply chains. The supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model is used to develop both business and environmental measures for supply chain sourcing.

A case illustration shows the applicability of the methodology. A sensitivity analysis shows that variations in outcome considerations may greatly influence the set of key performance measures for a sustainable supply chain PMS.

The methodology and presentation is conceptual, yet the tool can provide very useful interpretations for both researchers and practitioners.

The tool can be valuable for companies that are trying to identify key environmental and business performance measures for their supply chains. It helps save resources by not requiring the management of a burdensome and complex set of performance measures.

This is one of the few approaches that helps to clearly identify and narrow the set of performance measures for sustainable supply chains. It attempts to do so with minimal information loss. It is also the first time that grey techniques have been integrated with neighborhood rough set methodology.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how scholars may adopt a multi‐method – not just multidisciplinary – approach on research on conflict management. Taking the Diaoyu Islands as a case, the author draws on literature from management, political sciences, war, military studies, history, etymology and culture. In the process, the author deepens, enriches and expands the Thomas‐Kilman (T‐K) model for mapping out possible solutions in resolving conflicts: not just between people at workplaces but for between states as well. For instance, the author explains why the Diaoyu Islands conflict, if not amicably resolved may well lead to obliteration (integrated as part of the model) in resolving the conflict via a nuclear outbreak. Third World War may just be sparked off with Russia aligned with China against Japan and the USA.

Of all the issues in management, conflict management is the most culturally embedded. Through a multi‐method approach, the author illuminates the complexity of the Diaoyu Islands case. Literature from past empirical war studies are reviewed to suggest the geography of the islands (proximity, borderless, richness of resources) makes war highly probable. Past Chinese‐Japanese hatred (utilizing visual imagery), antagonism and guanxi are reviewed in exploring their impacts on outcomes (see model). Etymological research is attempted using English, Japanese and Chinese words, characters and pictograms that are related to concepts within the T‐K model. To better grasp how young Chinese feel towards the Diaoyu Islands and the Japanese, the author conducted some field research in Harbin, China. The continuing Chinese angst against Japanese is explained through war imagery: there remains in young Chinese an unquenchable thirst for exacting revenge on the Japanese. In a search to uncover ways of resolving the dispute, a further, extended study is undertaken on ancient Chinese pictograms: for example, whether a 5,000 years old Chinese concept of compromise zhe zhong (Graphic 1; oracular bones) or splitting into halves may be relevant. The role of time in conflict management is discussed in relation to the Diaoyu Islands.

By providing the WWII visual imagery as a backdrop to Chinese‐Japanese antagonism, the author explains to readers why the Diaoyu Islands is such a complex case to resolve. Also in his fieldwork, he highlights that the younger Chinese are as equally indignant about Japanese unethical grabbing, “thieving” behaviour. In their minds, such behaviour harks back to the blatant seizure of Manchuria and Japanese puppetry of Manchukuo. Through the Diaoyu Islands case, the T‐K model and theory of conflict management is broadened, enriched and enhanced. The paper illustrates how in conflicts that involve cultures are very different from the West, for instance very ancient civilizations like China and India, authors should take a multi‐method approach and explore the issues and search for solutions far more deeply.

Very few scholars seek to integrate the two streams of research in resolving conflict as illustrated through this paper: management and social sciences (e.g. political sciences, military and war studies). Conflict is about people and therefore integral use of multi‐methods needs to be used.