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Reinforcement particle size is very important for the performance of metal ceramic composites. This work studied the influence of B4C particle size on the mechanical properties of Al matrix layered composites. These composites were fabricated using a simplified semicontinuous casting and hot-rolling process. To obtain an optimized filling structure of particles, Horsfield filling principle was applied to determine the size and mass fraction of B4C particles. Four sizes of B4C particles were used with various combinations. The results showed that with the increase of the B4C particle size and fine B4C mass fraction, the hardness of the composites decreases whereas the impact strength and ultimate tensile strength increase. The residual stress at interface should be responsible for the variation in properties. Besides, the interparticle distance also contributes to the change in impact strength and ultimate tensile strength.

This paper connects food waste with food delivery service and aims to explore the impacts of the anti-food waste regulation on food waste generation and the selection of promotion strategy in an Online-to-Offline (O2O) supply chain. Using a game-theoretical approach, we focus on three prominent promotion strategies—a no-promotion strategy (N strategy), a price discount strategy (D strategy), or a volume-based price discount strategy (S strategy). Our research results indicate that the restaurant's choice of promotion strategy is almost independent of the intensity of anti-food waste penalties. However, the optimal strategy of the platform and the amount of waste are influenced by it. Under certain conditions, restaurants and platforms were able to achieve a win-win situation through promotion strategies. In the case of the relaxation of anti-food waste regulations, both restaurants and platforms tend to adopt the D strategy. In contrast, when penalties are stronger, platforms may be forced to accept D or S strategy because of the proactive behaviors of restaurants, even if they would prefer not to adopt promotion strategies. Overall, the government should consider bringing restaurants under regulation to protect platform revenue and effectively reduce food waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using CiteSpace software and various statistical methods, this study analyzed 1000 pieces of literature from the Web of Science database spanning from 2012 to 2022. Through a visual econometric analysis of the existing research results, this study aimed to discern the research hotspots and development trends related to food banks. A visual map was constructed to highlight aspects, such as geographical distribution, author distribution, research fields, emerging words, and keyword clustering. The findings indicate that "food bank" is a burgeoning research direction within the realm of food loss and waste. Since 2012, there has been a consistent annual increase in the research output. Notably, there exists a collaborative dynamic among the authors, leading to the formation of a distinct core group. However, these collaborations tend to be localized, resulting in an overall low degree of cooperation. The prevailing research trends in this domain revolve around the challenges and synergies between food scarcity and food safety in food banks, strategies to ensure sustainable development of food banks, and methodologies to effectively evaluate their operational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the solid-liquid chemical reaction, the mass transfer near the solid-liquid interface is often the rate determining step, such as in an electroplating process and in a high temperature process. To enhance the chemical reaction, traditional methods reduce the concentration boundary layer thickness formed near the solid-liquid interface by exciting a macro-scale flow in the bulk region. However, traditional methods have limitation in reducing the concentration boundary layer, because the concentration boundary layer exists in the velocity boundary layer. This means that the excitation of flow in the concentration boundary layer is important. Based on this concept, direct imposition of a force near the solid-liquid interface by superimposing the magnetic field and current has been proposed. By this means, the flow can be directly excited in the concentration boundary layer. In the past research, a Cu anodic electrode was dissolved in a Cu2+ aqueous solution, and the increase of the Cu2+ concentration decreased under the imposition of a time-varying force compared to that without the time-varying force imposition just above the centre of the anode. In this experiment, the uniformity of the solute concentration distribution under the time-varying force imposition with a different anode to cathode surface area ratio was investigated. As a result, the uniformity of the Cu2+ concentration distribution increased, and the average Cu2+ concentration in the vicinity of the anode surface decreased by increasing the anode to cathode surface area ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement particle size is very important for the performance of metal ceramic composites. This work studied the influence of B4C particle size on the mechanical properties of Al matrix layered composites. These composites were fabricated using a simplified semicontinuous casting and hot-rolling process. To obtain an optimized filling structure of particles, Horsfield filling principle was applied to determine the size and mass fraction of B4C particles. Four sizes of B4C particles were used with various combinations. The results showed that with the increase of the B4C particle size and fine B4C mass fraction, the hardness of the composites decreases whereas the impact strength and ultimate tensile strength increase. The residual stress at interface should be responsible for the variation in properties. Besides, the interparticle distance also contributes to the change in impact strength and ultimate tensile strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many companies make some stakeholders pleased but others cannot. To help understand why, it is very important to study the coexistence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). This paper considers a manufacturer with irresponsibility risk in a centralized and decentralized socially responsible supply chain, and uses a Stackelberg game to investigate the optimal policies on price and CSR investment level. This paper also examines the influence of consumer responsibility awareness and CSR investment efficiency on the decision behaviors of the manufacturer and retailer. Moreover, we developed a new mechanism to coordinate the decentralized supply chain system, which consists of the retailer participating in CSR and revenue sharing. Our results indicate that the manufacturer's and retailer's optimal decisions may not be significantly influenced by consumer responsibility awareness, but the effect of CSR investment efficiency is significant. Our results also show that if the degree of retailer participation and the proportion of revenue sharing are of moderate size, then not only can the contract mechanism coordinate the decentralized socially responsible supply chain, but it can ensure that a win–win situation can be achieved by the supply chain members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]