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The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the effects of different dimensions of social capital on the well-being of farmers in China’s undeveloped poverty-stricken areas, and study the equivalent multiple of social capital and income compensation.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using the open-ended approach of grounded theory, including 1,176 interviews with rural households in poverty-stricken areas in China. The data were complemented by documentary analysis. Then an econometric model of social capital and farmers’ well-being was applied to the data.

The results show that the number frequently visiting relatives, reciprocity, participation and trust level are significantly positively related to the well-being of the farmers, and the level of participation in social capital requires the most income compensation, while the level of trust comes second.

This paper can serve as a template for developing a useful tool that can be fitted to national or regional data for studying the effects of social capital on the well-being of farmers in poor areas or countries and for calculating the concrete equivalent multiple of social capital and income compensation.

This paper aims to present a novel transfer alignment method based on combined double-time observations with velocity and attitude for ships’ poor maneuverability to address the system errors introduced by flexural deformation and installing which are difficult to calibrate.

Based on velocity and attitude matching, redesigning and deducing Kalman filter model by combining double-time observation. By introducing the sampling of the previous update cycle of the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), current observation subtracts previous observation are used as measurements for transfer alignment filter, system error in measurement introduced by deformation and installing can be effectively removed.

The results of simulations and turntable tests show that when there is a system error, the proposed method can improve alignment accuracy, shorten the alignment process and not require any active maneuvers or additional sensor equipment.

Calibrating those deformations and installing errors during transfer alignment need special maneuvers along different axes, which is difficult to fulfill for ships’ poor maneuverability. Without additional sensor equipment and active maneuvers, the system errors in attitude measurement can be eliminated by the proposed algorithms, meanwhile improving the accuracy of the shipboard SINS transfer alignment.

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over convergence, and construction of an independent broadband cable network. Looks in depth at China’s problems and the different problems for its citizens with regard to poverty levels and access to the Web.

The gait planning and control of quadruped crawling robot affect the stability of the robot walking on a slope. The control includes the position control in the swing phase, the force control in the support phase and the switching control in the force/position switching. To improve the passing ability of quadruped crawling robot on a slope, this paper aims to propose a soft control strategy.

The strategy adopts the statically stable crawling gait as the main gait. As the robot moves forward, the position/force section switching control is adopted. When the foot does not touch the ground, the joint position control based on the variable speed PID is performed. When the foot touches the ground, the position-based impedance control is performed, and a fuzzy multi-model switching control based on friction compensation is proposed to achieve smooth switching of force and position.

The proposed method offers a solution for stable passage in slope environment. The quadruped crawling robot can realize smooth switching of force/position, precise positioning in the swing process and soft control of force in the supporting phase. This fact is verified by simulation and test.

The method presented in this paper takes advantage of minimal tracking errors and minimal jitters. Simulations and tests were performed to evaluate the performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study the high temperature oxidation behavior of Ti and C-added FeCoCrNiMn high entropy alloys (HEAs).

Cyclic oxidation method was used to obtain the oxidation kinetic profile and oxidation rate. The microstructures of the surface and cross section of the samples after oxidation were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM).

The results show that the microstructure of the alloy mainly consisted of FCC (Face-centered Cubic Structure) main phase and carbides (M₇C₃, M₂₃C₆ and TiC). With the increase of Ti and C content, the microhardness, strength and oxidation resistance of the alloy were effectively improved. After oxidation at a constant temperature of 800 °C for 100 h, the preferential oxidation of chromium in the chromium carbide determined the early formation of dense chromium oxide layers compared to the HEAs substrate, resulting in the optimal oxidation resistance of the TC30 alloy.

More precipitated CrC can preferentially oxidize and rapidly form a dense Cr₂O₃ layer early in the oxidation, which will slow down the further oxidation of the alloy.

This study is a reference for manufacturers who are promoting their product-service system (PSS) development. Currently, improvements in both digital customization and sustainability for various smart PSS categories have been considered rarely. This paper addresses this research gap by developing relevant models.

The development trends of customization-oriented PSS are described in a literature review. An in-depth multiple-case study methodology is adopted, and seven manufacturing companies are sampled. The goal is to identify digital customization measures that can be employed on representative smart PSS models and to explore how these models can create sustainable value.

This study provides valuable insights by uncovering a synthesis framework for achieving customization of the product/use/result-oriented smart PSSs, and the relevant representative smart functions are summarized. This identifies how digital customization capabilities can improve sustainability, including direct economic value for customers as well as additional social benefits and environmental improvements during customization.

Currently, the influence of digitalization on customized offerings and the relevant impact on sustainability development have not been fully addressed to date. This study provides comprehensive information with a reference value for digital customization transformation among the three main types of smart PSS.

This paper seeks to fill the literature gap that lacks of exploring negotiation strategy with competing partners under asymmetric production-cost information. The purpose of this paper is to examine firms’ optimal contract negotiation strategies in buyer–supplier–supplier triads where there are concurrent negotiations between the retailer and two competing manufacturers.

The authors consider a two-echelon supply chain, in which the retailer has the option of segmented or unified negotiation policy, whereas the two competing manufacturers can withhold or share production cost information in the negotiation. Based on game theory, the authors derive the manufacturers’ optimal wholesale prices and the retailer’s optimal retail prices with eight possible scenarios. Optimal strategic choices and operational decisions are then explored through the comparative analysis of equilibriums of eight possible scenarios.

The authors find that the retailer will adopt different negotiation strategies depending on manufacturers’ decisions on sharing or withholding their production-cost information. When both manufacturers share their production-cost information, the retailer will adopt a unified negotiation policy. The high-efficiency manufacturer should adopt the same information-sharing strategy as the low-efficiency manufacturer in order to gain more profit.

The modelling helps to bring further clarity in supply chain contract negotiation by offering a conceptual framework to enhance our understanding of the effects of information-sharing strategy and negotiation policy in the negotiation process form the perspectives of all engaging parties. Managerial insights derived from the research will enable retailers and manufacturers to make informed and better strategic and operational decisions to improve market competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the most interesting research question of the past decade – What Lures the Bears? Leveraging the public sector management and international business strategy literature, the paper first presents an overview of the transformational dynamics of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in three major phases – institutionalization, privatization, and corporatization, and internationalization. Then, it analyzes geographic patterns and industry trends of the outward foreign direct investment (FDI) projects announced by SOEs over an eight-year period.

Grounded in the exploratory research such as inductive and deductive logic, the study proposes theoretical constructs, and discusses several findings based on the data accessed from highly cited archival sources, such as the UNCTAD FDI stat/WIRs, the World Development Indicators, Doing Business Report, Global Competitiveness Report, the Index of Economic Freedom, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the Fortune Global 500.

Based on an analysis of global market trends (a sample of over 20 countries and five industries), the study highlights that SOEs from Asia and Europe have been greatly expanded into developed markets, thus to secure natural resources, to acquire strategic assets like technology, and to leverage the developed financial markets and better investment environment. Therefore, SOEs’ outward FDI strategy and overseas performance was driven by institutional transitions, resource security, home market development and government legitimacy may contribute to the competitive advantage of their home country.

The study offers several implications for the policymakers of the governments in emerging economies and bureaucratic management of SOEs. It recommends that state ownership pattern and bureaucratic system of SOEs need to be reexamined, revised, and corporatized in the changing dynamics of the multinational business environment, thus to secure resources, acquire technological know-how, and compete in home and global markets.

As a response to academic calls on the globalization, performance and governance mechanisms of SOEs in and out of emerging economies, this paper draws a unique presentation of the transformational dynamics of SOEs – establishment to internationalization.

This paper aims to investigate an improved control method and digital signal processor-based (DSP-based) digital implementation of three-phase standalone inverter. The proposed method is performance developed of the proportional-resonant controller (PRC) with harmonic injection technique, aiming to improve load voltages quality under different loads, especially nonlinear loads. The advanced proposed multi-loop controller is consisted of current harmonic loops for suppressing odd harmonic, which are analyzed in discrete-time domain. Besides, the voltage loop is also used to compensate the output capacitor voltage.

The proposed method can effectively enlarge output voltage stability with low total harmonics distortion and improve the dynamic transient response. The other advantage of the proposed PRC is the injection of the selective harmonic without any additional calculation compensator.

The method is given the opportunity to be controlled exactly all harmful outputs with high-quality voltage referenced of the standalone inverter. The proposed method is implemented using a DSP processor (TMS320F28335) and is verified on the 10 kVA three-phase standalone inverter prototype.

The proposed method is performance developed of the PRC with harmonic injection technique, aiming to improve load voltages quality under different loads, especially nonlinear loads.