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The purpose of this paper is to present an accurate and efficient element for analysis of spherical shell structures.

A scaled boundary finite element method is proposed, which offers more advantages than the finite element method and boundary element method. Only the boundary of the computational domain needs to be discretized, but no fundamental solution is required.

The method applies to thin as well as thick spherical shells, irrespective of the shell geometry, boundary conditions and applied loading. The numerical solution converges to highly accurate result with raising the order of high-order elements.

The modeling strictly follows three-dimensional theory of elasticity. Formulation of the surface finite elements using three translational degree of freedoms per node is required, which results in considerably simplifying the computation. In the thickness directions, it is solved analytically, no problem of high aspect ratio arises and transverse shear locking can be successfully avoided.

The kindergarten curriculum in mainland China has evolved through four periods and the current reform began in the end of 1980s. The reform aimed to transform kindergarten practice by shaping ideologies including respect for individual child, active learning, and play-based integrated curriculum. This review of research literatures shows that compared with the practice before the reform, many kindergarten teachers organize classrooms in learning centers, provide more play materials, pay time, and freedom for free play, and pay more attention to individuals. But indoor space organized in rice-seedling-bed model, teacher-led group instruction and teacher-controlled interactions are still often observed after three decades of reform efforts; there still exist great variations among kindergartens of different sponsoring bodies and in different regions. The problems resulted from the innate deficiencies of the top-down and value-priority reform, the conflicts between the advocated value and the traditional Chinese culture with emphasis on Ming-Fen, testing, and the value of children for the whole family and nation, and the unequal distribution of public resources decided by the educational institutions. Therefore, the curriculum reform is not a separate endeavor from other social changes, but a comprehensive and systematic change. To guarantee the success of the curriculum reform, the Chinese society needs cultural transformation and institutional reconstruction.

Agency problems are more severe for multinational corporations (MNCs) and multinational enterprises compared to their domestic counterparts. As companies develop diversified operations, their managers face more challenges. An incentive compensation structure has been designed to align the benefits of managers with those of shareholders. Additionally, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly crucial for companies. MNCs must gain the trust of more investors to improve their corporate reputation and financial performance. CSR enables MNCs with a high sense of social responsibility to expand their investor base, reduce perceived risks, and decrease information asymmetry. Our empirical findings reveal that Taiwanese MNCs can enhance their performance by implementing cash-based compensation and pursuing CSR activities.

Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) coupled with support-vector machine (SVM) was carried out to identify and discriminate between the fluorescence spectroscopies of coconut water brands.

PARAFAC was applied to reduce three-dimensional data of excitation emission matrix (EEM) to two-dimensional data. SVM was applied to discriminate between six commercial coconut water brands in this study. The three largest variation data from fluorescence spectroscopy were extracted using the PARAFAC method as the input data of SVM classifiers.

The discrimination results of the six commercial coconut water brands were achieved by three SVM methods (Ga-SVM, PSO-SVM and Grid-SVM). The best classification accuracies were 100.00%, 96.43% and 94.64% for the training set, test set and CV accuracy.

The above results indicate that fluorescence spectroscopy combined with PARAFAC and SVM methods proved to be a simple and rapid detection method for coconut water and perhaps other beverages.

China has recently introduced a new audit law that aims to increase the scope of audit supervision and raise the standards for preventing risks in auditing national public projects. This paper presents a systematic research study on the causes of audit risks in national public projects and discusses the process by which these causes contribute to the emergence of such risks. Furthermore, the paper investigates the core risk sources in various types of national construction project audit. This paper aims to provide theoretical support for auditors of national construction projects in risk avoidance when conducting audits.

In this study, the authors carefully selected five national public audit projects from China and performed a comprehensive analysis of 85 relevant audit documentation. The textual analysis was conducted using Nvivo12 software, and the grounded theory approach was adopted for generalization purposes.

Based on the research results, the findings suggest that there are five key causes contributing to the audit risk of national construction projects: professional competence, risk awareness, management capacity, level of attention and deliberate fraud. The most critical factor identified is management capability, with 59.93% of the data supporting this view. This conclusion was based on an analysis of state-owned enterprises, administrative organs and public institutions. Building upon this, a framework titled “the mechanism of audit risk factors with management capability as the core” was constructed.

This paper employs qualitative analysis methods to examine national construction projects in China, contributing new literature to the theoretical study of audit risk management. The article also provides practical recommendations for auditors on how to mitigate audit risks and improve the quality of audit services in national project governance.

The purpose of this study is to create a mathematical model, a numerical algorithm and a computer program for studying the vibration of composite pipelines based on the theory of beams used in the oil and gas industry, agriculture and water management, housing and communal services and other areas.

A mathematical model of vibration of a viscoelastic pipeline based on the theory of beams with a pulsating fluid flowing through it was developed. Using the Bubnov-Galerkin method, based on the polynomial approximation of deflections, the problem is reduced to the study of systems of ordinary integro-differential equations, the solution of which is found by a numerical method. A computational algorithm was developed for solving problems of vibrations of composite pipelines conveying pulsating liquid.

The stability and amplitude-time characteristics of vibration of composite pipelines with a pulsating fluid flowing in it are studied for wide range of changes in the parameters of deformable systems and fluid flow. The critical velocities of fluid flow at which the viscoelastic pipe loses its rectilinear equilibrium shape are found. The effect of singularity in the kernels of heredity on the vibrations of structures with viscoelastic properties was numerically studied. It is shown that with an increase in the viscosity parameter of the pipeline material, the critical flow velocity decreases. It was determined that an increase in the value of the fluid pulsation frequency and the excitation coefficient leads to a decrease in the critical velocity of the fluid flow. It was established that an increase in the parameters of the Winkler foundation and the rigidity parameter of the continuous layer leads to an increase in the critical flow velocity.

The study of the vibration of pipelines made of composite materials is of great theoretical and applied interest. The solution to this problem is an effective application of the theory of viscoelasticity to real processes. Therefore, the methods and problems of pipeline vibrations attract much attention from researchers. This study is devoted to solving the above problems and therefore its subject is relevant. The paper considers the results of numerical simulation of the processes of vibration of a composite pipeline based on the theory of shells during the flow of a pulsating liquid through it. A mathematical model of vibration of a composite pipeline was developed. A computational algorithm was developed for solving problems of vibrations of composite pipelines conveying pulsating liquid.

This paper aims to examine and validate the effect of knowledge management systems (KMS) on innovation.

Survey data from 392 employees working in private and public organizations in the state of Kuwait were collected and used to test the proposed research model and hypotheses through structural equation modeling.

This study finds that system quality, information quality and service quality of KMS have a positive effect on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the system, and in turn, they have a positive effect on actual use of KMS which leads to net benefit represented in an increased innovation for employees who use the KMS. Employees (users of the system) indicated that the use of the system helped them to improve their work, come up with new ways to conduct work, discover new solutions to solve problems, accomplish more complex tasks in less time and communicate in a better way with other employees.

The findings of this study analyzed the elements of KMS that influence innovation in public and private organizations at the individual level. This should be helpful for the designers of KMS to focus on those success factor elements when building KMS, which should make it easy for individuals to acquire knowledge, use it, share it and thus become more innovative and successful in the work they do and the decisions they make. The study also shows a positive relationship between usefulness, ease of use and attitude toward using KMS. Developers of KMS should also take these guidelines in consideration when designing a responsive KMS.

Both knowledge and innovation are considered as crucial sources for sustaining the competitive advantage for organizations. However, despite this, knowledge management (KM) and innovation have established themselves as separate fields and distinct areas of research. However, although KM has a strong relationship with innovation, it is unclear if the research literature in these two fields converge. There is a lack of research studies that deal with interrelation of KM and innovation in organizations. This study is among the first to attempt to fill this gap by empirically investigating the effect of KMS on innovation in both private and public organizations in the state of Kuwait.