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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of graphene, basalt flakes and their synergy on the corrosion resistance of zinc-rich coatings. As the important heavy-duty anticorrosion coatings, zinc-rich coatings provided cathodic protection for the substrate. However, to ensure cathodic protection, a large number of zinc powder made the penetration resistance known as the weakness of zinc-rich coatings. Therefore, graphene and basalt flakes were introduced into zinc-rich coatings to coordinate its cathodic protection and shielding performance.

Three kinds of coatings were prepared; they were graphene modified zinc-rich coatings, basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings and graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings. The anticorrosion behavior of painted steel was studied by using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique in chloride solutions. The equivalent circuit methods were used for EIS analysis to obtain the electrode process structure of the coated steel system. Simultaneously, the corrosion resistance of the three coatings was evaluated by water resistance test, salt water resistance test and salt spray test.

The study found that the addition of a small amount of graphene and basalt flakes significantly improved the anticorrosion performance of coatings by enhancing their shielding ability against corrosive media and increasing the resistance of the electrochemical reaction. The modified coatings exhibited higher water resistance, salt water resistance and salt spray resistance. The graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings demonstrated the best anticorrosion effect. The presence of basalt scales and graphene oxide in the coatings significantly reduced the water content and slowed down the water penetration rate in the coatings, thus prolonging the coating life and improving anticorrosion effects. The modification of zinc-rich coatings with graphene and basalt flakes improved the utilization rate of zinc powder and the shielding property of coatings against corrosive media, thus strengthening the protective effect on steel structures and prolonging the service life of anticorrosion coatings.

The significance of developing graphene-basalt flakes modified zinc-rich coatings lies in their potential to offer superior performance in corrosive environments, leading to prolonged service life of metallic structures, reduced maintenance costs and a safer working environment. Furthermore, such coatings can be used in various industrial applications, including bridges, pipelines and offshore structures, among others.

This paper aims to analyse the characteristics of Chinese multinational corporations in other emerging economies using evidence from Latin America (LA) vis-à-vis the features found in previous studies of Chinese companies operating in developed countries.

It does this by studying the fit of theoretical frameworks recently developed for Chinese firms, the support from the government and the strength of their capabilities in relation to those of local competitors. The analysis is based on case studies with data collected from a theoretical sample of Chinese companies operating in LA.

The results show that these companies seem to be following a pattern similar to that described by Mathews’s (2006) Linkage–Leverage–Learning, that the support from the government does not seem to play an important role in their internationalisation process, that they appear to have developed a set of capabilities strong enough to compete in the host market (in particular how to combine their strengths with those of local partners) and that they are engaged in a positive cycle of development that helps them to overcome some of the challenges and barriers of operating in Latin American emerging markets by complementing/leveraging their strengths with those of local firms.

The findings indicate that Chinese companies are following patterns in their internationalisation to Latin American emerging markets that seems to be a combination of conventional theories (including previous studies on emerging markets-based firms) with idiosyncratic elements.

The paper analyses social and environmental engagement, stakeholders’ relations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies/options along with their underlying mechanisms of firms operating in China.

It does this through the analysis of a unique case study using data collected from internal members and external stakeholders of the company framed within stakeholder theory.

Within the Aguinis and Glavas (2012) framework, the results show that the company’s resources and values can act as a mediator, their high visibility and scale can act as a moderator, and their self-regulation can act as a predictor in weak institutional contexts. Also, the findings show that employees’ perceptions of visionary leadership can act as a mediator, and that the alignment in the vision/values/beliefs of the chief executive officer with those of the shareholders can act as moderators.

The paper intends to contribute to the literature on CSR in China by analysing a specific type of investor, the socially responsible investor, neglected in the CSR literature, and by studying multilevel (individual/organisational/institutional) social and environmental engagement, stakeholders’ relations and CSR strategies/options in an evolving institutional environment.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence rules of geometric parameters on deformation of valve slices.

Based on the theory of flexural deformation of elastic thin slice, differential functions of deformation for both single and multi-slices are given and derived in detail. Furthermore, the effects of geometric dimensions on deformation are analyzed particularly by using Matlab/simulink.

The results indicated that the deformation decreases with the increment of fixed ring radius r_a, slice thickness h, and its number n. Meanwhile, the deformation increases with a rise of slice radius r_b, throttle position r_k, the radius ratio λ₁ and thickness ratio λ₂ of slices.

This research can provide some theoretical supports for the parametric and optimal design of adjustable damping shock absorber.

Since China initiated its “go global” policy that promotes its overseas investment, China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) has increased almost twenty times during the last 10 years, reaching $55.9 billion in 2008. The issue of internationalization of Chinese OFDI has attracted increasing attention of researchers from a business perspective. This article systematically reviews the previous studies on overseas investments by Chinese MNEs and discusses the characteristics of Chinese internationalization behavior at both firm level and country level. The internationalization of Chinese companies cannot be understood as a simple game of “catch up” with established MNEs, and more firm‐level empirical studies should be carried out on how these characteristics influence firms’ strategic decisions.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is growing steadily and Chinese multinationals (MNCs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Thus, the number of papers focusing on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs has been increasing during the last years. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a review of the empirical papers dealing with Chinese MNCs published between 2002 and 2012 in high-impact international business and management journals.

This chapter reviews 43 empirical papers focusing on Chinese MNCs that were published in nine major scholarly journals between 2002 and 2012.

We report individual and institutional contributions, the theories and methods used, the research topics, and the main findings. We also discuss implications for future research.

Some previous literature reviews have dealt with research on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs. Nevertheless, none of the earlier reviews dealt specifically with empirical papers; neither did they provide an analysis of both individual and institutional contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to study the national and international expansion of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Anhui, China. The paper focuses on the interaction of SMEs with the Government, assessed through the development of specific industries as well as ownership and funding by the State, and the origins of the relative weakness of Chinese SMEs' competitive position.

Data were collected from 154 SMEs and analysed using multivariate regressions; the models used the firms' export intensity at the regional, national, and international level as dependent variables. In total seven models were run: the first analysing the industry where SMEs operate, the second and third studying state funding and ownership, and the last four analysing a set of barriers hindering firms' expansion as independent variables.

The results show that: SMEs operating in labour‐intensive industries have better access to international markets; ownership and/or funding by the state do not play an important role in regional, national and international expansion; and there are 11 barriers related to weak management skills and knowledge hindering the expansion of Anhui's SMEs. The findings are then analysed vis‐à‐vis recent works on Chinese firms and conclusions are drawn.

The paper contributes to the increasing body of literature on the expansion of Chinese SMEs by providing an empirical analysis in a region different from the increasingly studied coastal areas.

The purpose is using generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve the problem of sample augmentation in the case of imbalanced bearing fault data sets and improving residual network is used to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the bearing fault intelligent diagnosis model in the environment of high signal noise.

A bearing vibration data generation model based on conditional GAN (CGAN) framework is proposed. The method generates data based on the adversarial mechanism of GANs and uses a small number of real samples to generate data, thereby effectively expanding imbalanced data sets. Combined with the data augmentation method based on CGAN, a fault diagnosis model of rolling bearing under the condition of data imbalance based on CGAN and improved residual network with attention mechanism is proposed.

The method proposed in this paper is verified by the western reserve data set and the truck bearing test bench data set, proving that the CGAN-based data generation method can form a high-quality augmented data set, while the CGAN-based and improved residual with attention mechanism. The diagnostic model of the network has better diagnostic accuracy under low signal-to-noise ratio samples.

A bearing vibration data generation model based on CGAN framework is proposed. The method generates data based on the adversarial mechanism of GAN and uses a small number of real samples to generate data, thereby effectively expanding imbalanced data sets. Combined with the data augmentation method based on CGAN, a fault diagnosis model of rolling bearing under the condition of data imbalance based on CGAN and improved residual network with attention mechanism is proposed.

This paper aims to introduce a novel algorithm to solve initial/boundary value problems of high-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and high-order system of ordinary differential equations (SODEs).

The proposed method is based on Hermite polynomials and extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. The Hermite polynomials are chosen as basis function of hidden neurons. The approximate solution and its derivatives are expressed by utilizing Hermite network. The model function is designed to automatically meet the initial or boundary conditions. The network parameters are obtained by solving a system of linear equations using the ELM algorithm.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a variety of differential equations are selected and their numerical solutions are obtained by utilizing the Hermite extreme learning machine (H-ELM) algorithm. Experiments on the common and random data sets indicate that the H-ELM model achieves much higher accuracy, lower complexity but stronger generalization ability than existed methods. The proposed H-ELM algorithm could be a good tool to solve higher order linear ODEs and higher order linear SODEs.

The H-ELM algorithm is developed for solving higher order linear ODEs and higher order linear SODEs; this method has higher numerical accuracy and stronger superiority compared with other existing methods.

This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.