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This paper aims to design a walking-clamp mechanism for the inspection robot of transmission line. The focus for this design is on climbing ability and obstacle-crossing ability with a goal to create a novel walking-clamp mechanism that can clamp not only the line but also the obstacle.

A novel clamping jaw used in the walking-clamp mechanism is proposed. The clamping wheel is mounted on the lower end of clamping jaw to reduce the friction between the clamping jaw and the line, and the top end of clamping jaw is designed as a hook structure to clamp the obstacle. The working principle and force states of the walking-clamp mechanism clamping the line and obstacle are analyzed, and the simulation and prototype experiments are carried out.

The experimental results show that this mechanism can clamp the obstacle steadily, and the clamping forces of the front and back pairs of clamping jaws are almost equal during robot walking along the catenary-shaped line. It is in agreement with the theoretical analysis, and it demonstrates that this mechanism can meet the working requirements of inspection robot.

This novel mechanism can be used for inspection robot of transmission line, and it is beneficial for robot to complete long-distance inspection works.

It stands to reduce costs related to inspection and improve the inspection efficiency.

Innovative features include its structure, working principle and force states.

Natural disasters profoundly influence agricultural trade sustainability. This study investigates the effects of natural disasters on agricultural production imports in China within 2002 and 2018. This exploration estimates the mediating role of transportation infrastructure and agriculture value-added and the moderating role of government effectiveness and diplomatic relations.

This investigation uses Probit, Logit, Cloglog and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models.

The results confirm the mediating role of transportation infrastructure and agriculture value-added and the moderating role of government effectiveness and diplomatic relations in China. According to the findings, natural disasters in trading partners heighten the risk to the agricultural imports. This risk raises, if disasters damage overall agricultural yield or transportation infrastructure. Moreover, governments’ effective response or diplomatic ties with China mitigate the risk. Finally, the effect of disasters varies by the developmental status of the country involved, with events in developed nations posing a greater risk to China’s imports than those in developing nations.

China should devise an early warning system to protect its agricultural imports by using advanced technologies such as data analytics, remote sensing and artificial intelligence. In addition, it can leverage this system by improving its collaboration with trading partners, involvement in international forums and agreement for mutual support in crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical background of genealogical records and analyze the value of Chinese genealogical research through the study of names and genealogical resources.

The paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records, with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names used by the people living in Guilin. The highlight of this paper includes the analysis and evolution of the Islamic Chinese names commonly adopted by the local people in Guilin. It concludes with the recommendations on emphasizing and making the best use of genealogical records to enhance the research value of Chinese overseas studies.

The paper covers the history of Islam and describes how the religion was introduced into China, as well as Muslims' ethnicity and identity. It also places focus on the importance of building a research collection in Asian history and Chinese genealogy.

This research study has a strong subject focus on Chinese genealogy, Asian history, and Islamic Chinese surnames. It is a narrow field that few researchers have delved into.

The results of this study will assist students, researchers, and the general public in tracing the origin of their surnames and developing their interest in the social and historical value of Chinese local history and genealogies.

The study of Chinese surnames is, by itself, a particular field for researching the social and political implications of contemporary Chinese society during the time the family members lived.

Very little research has been done in the area of Chinese local history and genealogy. The paper would be of value to researchers such as historians, sociologists, ethnologists and archaeologists, as well as students and anyone interested in researching a surname origin, its history and evolution.

China is among one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The massive land mass of China also means that the Chinese people are subject to weather extremes as well as topographical variety in a country which cuts across alpine heights, treacherous deserts, lush valleys, dusty plains and lengthy rivers. With these weather extremes as the backdrop, it is crucial for the Chinese people to develop appropriate environmental control techniques for their dwellings as well as to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. This paper discusses the protection, heating, anti‐seismic and dampness techniques developed and implemented in ancient China. It also documents the measures taken by the ancient Chinese to ensure the structural integrity of their buildings. The examples highlighted in this paper suggest that the building science principles adopted in ancient China remain relevant in the construction industry today.

This paper aims to investigate whether family CEOs benefit investment efficiency under uncertainty with Chinese family firms and to test the moderating effect of ownership structure, including family ownership, the separation of family control from family ownership and the multiple large shareholder structure.

Fixed-effects models are designed for a sample of 5,734 firm-year observations for Chinese family firms from 2009 to 2014.

The results show that investment efficiency is low under uncertainty, and having family CEOs can reduce this negative relationship. Further analysis reveals that for firms with family CEOs, the negative effect of uncertainty on investment efficiency is weaker when the family has higher ownership, when family control is less separated from family ownership, or when family firms have multiple large shareholder structures.

The authors do not distinguish founder-CEOs and descendant-CEOs. Most of Chinese family firms are still managed by founders, so the authors cannot explore the generation effect although different generations manage firms differently. Because family succession is becoming a more and more important problem in China, further research may be able to explore the generation effect.

This paper suggests that in emerging economies with weak investor protection, outside minority shareholders can avoid expropriation from family owners by investing in firms with large family ownership, little separation of family control from ownership or multiple large shareholder structure. In addition, policymakers can encourage institutional investors to participate in family business to improve corporate governance.

Drawing on both Type I and Type II agency theory perspectives, the authors argue that although family CEOs can generally benefit firms’ investment efficiency, the benefits vary with firms’ ownership structure. In other words, family CEOs are not absolute agents or stewards but some extent of combination of both.

This study aims to present a more accurate lifetime prediction model considering solder chemical composition.

Thermal cycling and standard creep tests as well as finite element simulation were used.

The study found lower error in the solder joint lifetime evaluation. The higher the Ag content is, the higher the lifetime is achieved.

It is confirmed.

Building on social media and destination brand-related literature, this study aims to explore World Heritage Sites’ (WHSs) brand diffusion and formation process from long-term and short-term perspectives, which includes brand diffusion, user-generated content (UGC), opinion leaders and brand events’ impact.

This study uses a mixed-method including text mining, keyword analysis and social network analysis to explore the brand formation process of four popular WHSs in Beijing, namely, the Palace Museum, Great Wall, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven and more than 10,000,000 users’ data on Sina Weibo has been implemented to uncover the underlying social media branding mechanism.

The results show that the number of postings keeps in a stable range in most months, but, in general, there are no common rules for changing trends among the four WHSs; long-term high-frequency keywords related to history and culture account for a higher percentage; different kinds of accounts have varying impacts on information diffusion, in which media accounts lead to a bigger influence. However, more followers do not necessarily mean more interactions and most of the interaction ratio is much lower than 0.01000; brand events facilitate brand dissemination and have an impact on the creation of UGC.

This study is valuable for destination marketers to deeper understand brand diffusion and formation and provides valuable insights for developing effective destination marketing strategies.

Unlike previous studies that only concern a few parts of destination brand formation via social media (e.g. brand diffusion, brand events or opinion leaders’ impact), this study takes a more comprehensive perspective by systematically analyzing the brand formation process of WHSs on social media. By considering both long-term diffusion and short-term representative events, this study provides a more holistic understanding of the branding mechanism.