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The purpose of this paper is to propose and optimize plastic optical fiber (POF) probe with macro-bending biconical tapered structure for the relative humidity (RH) sensing.

In this study, the principle is the evanescent wave power modulated by the ambient humidity. The probe is fabricated by using fused biconical taper and heat-setting method and then coated with a fluorescent moisture-sensitive film.

The probe’s sensing performance can be optimized by changing the probe’s curvature radius, biconical tapered transition length and taper waist diameter. The result shows that the sensitivity of the probe is up to 1.60 and 3.40 mV/ per cent, respectively, at low humidity (10-45 per cent) and high humidity (45-90 per cent). Also, this probe has good linearity, repeatability, photostability and long-term stability.

The proposed probe can improve the sensitivity and linearity of RH sensing without complex devices, which is necessary for mass production, remote measurement and convenient operation.

POF probe with macro-bending biconical tapered structure is investigated in this paper, which is proved to be effective in improving the sensitivity and linearity.

The purpose of this study is to construct a scale that is contextually suitable for measuring early childhood leadership in China.

Following a standard scale development procedure, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were addressed. Qualitative data was collected from 21 semistructured interviews with formal and informal teacher leaders in Xiamen City, China. Using survey data of 120 respondents and 305 respondents, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted twice to determine the underlying factorial structure of the scale. A further sample of 317 respondents were used to test the latent structure and validity of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis.

Based on the results from reliability and validity tests, this study indicates that the scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties. A three-factor model was determined, including staff management and development, peer learning and support and communication with parents.

The scale is the first of its kind for measuring early childhood leadership in China.

The purpose of this paper is to apply analysis of public discourses on Ze Xiao to explore and interpret the power relationships shaping inequality in admission to public junior high schools in urban China.

This study first introduces the rise of Ze Xiao as an educational phenomenon in China. It then elucidates power relationships in public school admission by analyzing continuities and changes in stakeholders’ interaction in public school admission. It concludes by discussing educational reform for equal public school admission in urban China. Data were collected from written and spoken texts about public school admission, including newspaper articles from the 1980s to the 2000s, policy documents and interviews with relevant stakeholders.

Findings demonstrate that multi-layered power relationships caused diverse inequalities in admission to public secondary education in urban China. These are represented by political and institutional privileges and an imbalance in education development during the social transition from a profit-driven approach in the 1990s to a balance-centered one after 2000. Arguably, there is a necessity to further promote a systematic reform to terminate the privileges and imbalance for an equal and balanced public secondary education in urban China post-2015.

This study attempts to make a contribution toward reconstructing the meaning of inequality in admission to public junior high schools in urban areas by revealing the power relationships among stakeholders constituted through their interactions in public education during the different stages of socio-economic development in urban China.

This article aims to develop a fast numerical method for solving the one-dimensional heat and mass transfer problem within a desiccant rotor.

The collocation method is used for discretizing the axial dimension and reducing the number of dependent variables. The resulting system of equation is then solved through backward differentiation formulas.

The numerical results obtained here focus on verifying the accuracy and the computation time of the proposed method with respect to the finite difference method. The proposed numerical solution method resulted faster than, and as much accurate as, the finite difference method, over a large range of operating conditions that are of interest in desiccant cooling applications.

For heat and mass transfer analysis, constant average transfer coefficients are used. The results are calculated for NTU between 2 and 15 and for Le number between 0.5 and 2.

The results can be used in designing desiccant heat exchangers and desiccant cooling systems including complex rotor arrangements.

Different from other simplified solution techniques, the proposed method relies on few parameters that retain physical meaning and applies also to complex rotor configurations.

This paper aims to research the effect of different concentrations for Nd(NO₃)₃ and Ce(NO₃)₃ on the microstructures and corrosion resistance of Ni-W-P composite coatings through electroless plating method.

Scanning electron microscope, attached energy dispersive spectroscopy system and X-ray diffraction were used in this work. Meanwhile, the immersion test and electrochemical tests were used to characterize the corrosion behavior of the coating.

The coatings prepared at 1.00 g·L⁻¹ Nd(NO₃)₃ exhibit a dense structure and high phosphorus content (12.38 wt.%). In addition, compared to the addition of Ce(NO₃)₃, when Nd(NO₃)₃ was introduced at a concentration of 1.00 g·L⁻¹, the minimum corrosion rate of the coating was 1.209 g·m⁻²·h⁻¹, with a noble E_corr (−0.29 V) and lower I_corr (8.29 × 10⁻⁴ A·cm⁻²).

The effects of rare earths on the deposition and corrosion resistance mechanisms of Ni-W-P composite coatings were explored, with the rare earth elements promoting the deposition of nickel and tungsten atoms. Simultaneously, the amorphization of the coating increases, which excellently enhances the corrosion resistance of the coating.

This study aims to extract knowledge of ancient Chinese scientific and technological documents bibliographic summaries (STDBS) and provide the knowledge graph (KG) comprehensively and systematically. By presenting the relationship among content, discipline, and author, this study focuses on providing services for knowledge discovery of ancient Chinese scientific and technological documents.

This study compiles ancient Chinese STDBS and designs a knowledge mining and graph visualization framework. The authors define the summaries' entities, attributes, and relationships for knowledge representation, use deep learning techniques such as BERT-BiLSTM-CRF models and rules for knowledge extraction, unify the representation of entities for knowledge fusion, and use Neo4j and other visualization techniques for KG construction and application. This study presents the generation, distribution, and evolution of ancient Chinese agricultural scientific and technological knowledge in visualization graphs.

The knowledge mining and graph visualization framework is feasible and effective. The BERT-BiLSTM-CRF model has domain adaptability and accuracy. The knowledge generation of ancient Chinese agricultural scientific and technological documents has distinctive time features. The knowledge distribution is uneven and concentrated, mainly concentrated on C1-Planting and cultivation, C2-Silkworm, and C3-Mulberry and water conservancy. The knowledge evolution is apparent, and differentiation and integration coexist.

This study is the first to visually present the knowledge connotation and association of ancient Chinese STDBS. It solves the problems of the lack of in-depth knowledge mining and connotation visualization of ancient Chinese STDBS.

This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers 71 empirical articles published between January 1995 and September 2017. The studies are reviewed within an empirical research framework that separates the reasons for shareholder activism and SOP voting dissent as input factor on the one hand and the consequences of shareholder pressure as output factor on the other. This procedure identifies the five most important groups of factors in the literature: the level and structure of executive compensation, firm characteristics, corporate governance mechanisms, shareholder structure and stakeholders. Of these, executive compensation and firm characteristics are the most frequently examined. Further examination reveals that the key assumptions of neoclassical principal agent theory for both managers and shareholders are not always consistent with recent empirical evidence. First, behavioral aspects (such as the perception of fairness) influence compensation activism and SOP votes. Second, non-financial interests significantly moderate shareholder activism. Insofar, we recommend integrating behavioral and non-financial aspects into the existing research. The implications are analyzed, and new directions for further research are discussed by proposing 19 different research questions.

This paper provides a quantitative review of the literature on the repercussions of idiosyncratic information on firms’ cost of equity (CoE) capital. In total, I review the results of 113 unique studies examining the CoE effects of information Quantity, Precision and Asymmetry. My results suggest that the association between firm-specific information and CoE is subject to moderate effects. First, the link between Quantity and CoE is moderated by disclosure types and country-level factors in that firms in comparatively weakly regulated countries tend to enjoy up to four times greater CoE benefits from more expansive disclosure—depending on the type of disclosure—than firms in strongly regulated markets. Second, a negative relationship between Precision and CoE is only significant in studies using non-accrual quality proxies for Precision and risk factor-based (RFB)/valuation model-based (VMB) proxies for CoE. Third, almost all VMB studies confirm the positive association between Asymmetry and CoE, but there is notable variation in the conclusions reached when ex post CoE measurers are used.

This study aims to obtained the failure probability distributions of subsystems for industrial robot and filtrate its fault data considering the complicated influencing factors of failure rate for industrial robot and numerous epistemic uncertainties.

A fault data screening method and failure rate prediction framework are proposed to investigate industrial robot. First, the failure rate model of the industrial robot with different subsystems is established and then the surrogate model is used to fit bathtub curve of the original industrial robot to obtain the early fault time point. Furthermore, the distribution parameters of the original industrial robot are solved by maximum-likelihood function. Second, the influencing factors of the new industrial robot are quantified, and the epistemic uncertainties are refined using interval analytic hierarchy process method to obtain the correction coefficient of the failure rate.

The failure rate and mean time between failure (MTBF) of predicted new industrial robot are obtained, and the MTBF of predicted new industrial robot is improved compared with that of the original industrial robot.

Failure data of industrial robots is the basis of this prediction method, but it cannot be used for new or similar products, which is the limitation of this method. At the same time, based on the series characteristics of the industrial robot, it is not suitable for parallel or series-parallel systems.

This investigation has important guiding significance to maintenance strategy and spare parts quantity of industrial robot. In addition, this study is of great help to engineers and of great significance to increase the service life and reliability of industrial robots.

This investigation can improve MTBF and extend the service life of industrial robots; furthermore, this method can be applied to predict other mechanical products.

This method can complete the process of fitting, screening and refitting the fault data of the industrial robot, which provides a theoretic basis for reliability growth of the predicted new industrial robot. This investigation has significance to maintenance strategy and spare parts quantity of the industrial robot. Moreover, this method can also be applied to the prediction of other mechanical products.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamic characteristics and seismic performance of the composite open-web grid floor structure.

Studied by using mode-superposition response spectrum method and time history analysis method.

The results show that the vertical mode-superposition response spectrum method is close to the time history analysis method. The floor has strong seismic performance, and the deflection and internal force are not large under vertical seism. The vertical seismic action suggested that 10% of the representative value of gravity load should be used to ensure the safety of the structure.

In the design, the mid-span section should be properly strengthened or the variable section design should be adopted.