Impact of BRICS Trade Facilitation on China's Exports Using Cross-Border E-Commerce

With the rapid growth of the global digital economy, cross-border e-commerce, as an emerging form of trade, has gradually become a powerful engine to promote the development of global trade. BRICS is an important force in the global economy, and the progress of the BRICS countries' trade facilitation level has an important impact on the global trade environment. This paper conducts an in-depth study of the dynamic changes in BRICS trade facilitation from 2013 to 2022, and uses an extended gravity model to analyze the specific impact of this change on China's exports using cross-border e-commerce. The results show that although the BRICS countries have made some progress in trade facilitation, the overall level still needs to be improved, and there are obvious differences among member countries. However, the improvement of trade facilitation among BRICS countries has undoubtedly brought significant positive effects to China's exports using cross-border e-commerce.

Structural Characteristics and Evolution of a Weighted Sino-US Container Shipping Network

This study selected the Sino-US route data from the top 30 global container liner companies between December 1,2019,and December 29,2019,as the data source utilizing the complex network research methodology.It constructs a Sino-US container shipping network through voyage weighting and analyzes the essential structural characteristics to explore the network’s complex structural fea-tures.The network’s evolution is examined from three perspectives,namely,time,space,and event influence,aiming to comprehens-ively explore the network’s evolution mechanism.The results revealed that:1)the weighted Sino-US container shipping network exhib-its small-world and scale-free properties.Key hub ports in the United States include NEW YORK NY,SAVANNAH GA,LOS ANGELES CA,and OAKLAND CA,whereas SHANGHAI serving as the hub port in China.The geographical distribution of these hub ports is uneven.2)Concerning the evolution of the weighted Sino-US container shipping network,from a temporal perspective,the evolution of the regional structure of the entire Sino-US region and the Inland United States is in a stage of radiative expansion and de-velopment,with a need for further enhancement in competitiveness and development speed.The evolution of the regional structure of southern China and Europe is transitioning from the stage of radiative expansion and development to an advanced equilibrium stage.The shipping development in Northern China,the Western and Eastern United States,and Asia is undergoing significant changes but faces challenges of fierce competition and imbalances.From a spatial perspective,the rationality and effectiveness of the improved weighted Barrat-Barthelemy-Vespignani(BBV)model are confirmed through theoretical derivation.The applicability of the improved evolution model is verified by simulating the evolution of the weighted Sino-US container shipping network.From an event impact per-spective,the Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic has not fundamentally affected the spatial pattern of the weighted Sino-US container shipping network but has significantly impacted the network’s connectivity.The network lacks sufficient resilience and stability in emergency situations.3)Based on the analysis of the structural characteristics and evolution of the weighted Sino-US con-tainer shipping network,recommendations for network development are proposed from three aspects:emphasizing the development of hub ports,focusing on the balanced development of the network,and optimizing the layout of Chinese ports.

Micro,Small,and Medium Enterprises’Cross-Border Business Strategies

This paper explores the operational strategies of cross-border micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Against the backdrop of globalization and digitalization, cross-border trade has become one of the important pathways for many MSMEs to achieve growth and competitive advantage. Firstly, the paper outlines the concept and characteristics of cross-border MSMEs, as well as the analysis of their operational environment in the context of globalization, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. Secondly, the paper proposes operational strategies for cross-border MSMEs, including international market selection and positioning, cross-border marketing strategies, supply chain management, cross-border financial management, and cross-border risk management. Finally, the paper summarizes the importance of effectively implementing these strategies for cross-border MSMEs to seize international market opportunities, reduce operational risks, and enhance competitiveness and profitability.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Shipping Supply Chain Risks

This study aims to investigate whether Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)activities reduce supply chain disruptions by examining the impact of the Suez Canal obstruction on the Ever Given container ship in March 2021.This study conclude that the more responsible companies have higher returns and are less affected by this event than the less responsible companies;the less responsible companies have lower returns.The companies with better CSR have a lower impact on their supply chains when faced with disruptions in the supply chain.

Ship-YOLOv8:一种轻量级高分辨遥感图像船舶细粒度检测算法

针对高分辨率影像的船舶细粒度目标检测分类任务中类内差异大、类间相似性高、物体和场景的尺度变化范围大、特征提取困难、样本小等特点,提出了一种基于YOLOv8为基础的改进算法。首先,在骨干网络中引入SimAM注意力机制,使得模型在复杂背景中更加聚焦船舶对象;其次,在颈部引入SPD-Conv模块,改善复杂背景下船舶尺度变化大和小目标检测的问题;最后针对细粒度船舶目标检测的特点,替换Mish激活函数和Focal-Loss损失函数,加快模型收敛,提高模型精度。经对比实验可知,改进的算法在保证检测速度和模型参数量的同时,在FAIR1M_Ship数据集取得了94.49%的检测精度,与目前流行的目标检测算法相比,在检测精度上有一定的提升。

Cross-border Urban Networks Based on Manufacturing Global Value Chain:A Study of Listed Companies in Western China

Cross-border investment is essential for western China’s globalization.Global value chain(GVC)forms cross-border investment networks between industries in western China and overseas cities.Focusing on GVC,this study uses the social network analysis method,entropy method,multi-index comprehensive evaluation method,and quadratic assignment procedure analysis method to examine the characteristics and influencing factors of the urban networks of research and development(R&D),production,and sales formed as a result of the overseas investments of listed manufacturing companies in western China.Results showed that the three types of investment networks involved multiple industry types and multiple central cities with differentiated diversity and multicentrality.The R&D urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment and instruments,medicine and biological products,and metal and nonmetal industries.The destination cities were mostly those home to educational and scientific research centers.The production urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment,instrument,and food and beverage industries.The destination cities were mostly regional central cities in developing countries.The sales urban network’s leading sub-industries were the mechanical equipment and instrument,metal and nonmetal,and petrochemical and plastics industries.The destination cities were numerous and scattered.In addition,the R&D urban network easily formed specialized clusters,core nodes easily controlled the production urban network,and individual nodes did not easily control the sales urban network.Technological and economic system advantages greatly impacted the three network types.Considering the different influencing factors,this study suggests optimizing the institutional investment environment to narrow the institutional gap,adjusting and optimizing the investment layout to expand overseas markets,and increasing R&D funds to stimulate technological progress and overseas investments in western China.

Digital Development Rights in Developing Countries:Where the Governance Rules for Cross-Border Data Flows

The digital development rights in developing countries are based on establishing a new international economic order and ensuring equal participation in the digital globalization process to achieve people's well-rounded development in the digital society.The relationship between cross-border data flows and the realization of digital development rights in developing countries is quite complex.Currently,developing countries seek to safeguard their existing digital interests through unilateral regulation to protect data sovereignty and multilateral regulation for cross-border data cooperation.However,developing countries still have to face internal conflicts between national digital development rights and individual and corporate digital development rights during the process of realizing digital development rights.They also encounter external contradictions such as developed countries interfering with developing countries'data sovereignty,developed countries squeezing the policy space of developing countries through dominant rules,and developing countries having conflicts between domestic and international rules.This article argues that balancing openness and security on digital trade platforms is the optimal solution for developing countries to realize their digital development rights.The establishment of WTO digital trade rules should inherently reflect the fundamental demands of developing countries in cross-border data flows.At the same time,given China's dual role as a digital powerhouse and a developing country,it should actively promote the realization of digital development rights in developing countries.

Review and Analysis: Fate of Arsenic Applied to Canal Shipping Lane Vegetation and United States Military Base Grounds in the Panama Canal Zone

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1913 increased the availability of internationally traded goods and transformed ocean-shipping by shortening travel time between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The canal sparked the growth of port authorities and increased ship tonnage on both coasts of Panama. Since the construction of the Panama Canal, in the 1910s, pesticides, herbicides and chemicals, including arsenic, have been essential for controlling wetland vegetation, including hyacinth, which blocked rivers, lakes, and the canal as well as managing mosquitoes. Pesticides and chemicals flowed into Lake Gatun (reservoir) either attached to sediment or in solution during the monsoon season. Lake Gatun was the drinking water source for most of the people living in the Panama Canal Zone. The United States military base commanders had the ability to order and use cacodylic acid (arsenic based) from the Naval Depot Supply Federal and Stock Catalog and the later Federal Supply Catalog on the military base grounds in the Panama Canal Zone. Cacodylic acid was shipped to Panama Canal Zone ports, including Balboa and Cristobal, and distributed to the military bases by rail or truck. The objective of this study is to determine the fate of arsenic: 1) applied between 1914 and 1935 to Panama Canal shipping lane hyacinth and other wetland vegetation and 2) cacodylic acid (arsenic) sprayed from 1948 to 1999 on the US military base grounds in the Panama Canal Zone.

Analysis of the Development Environment and Trend of Cross-Border E-commerce in China

With the conclusion of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the increasingly complex market environment,China’s cross-border e-commerce has entered a new phase of development.The external landscape is evolving rapidly,and there is a gradual improvement in laws and regulations governing cross-border e-commerce,coupled with increased government support.Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market economy,overall development has been steadily improving.The Internet population is expanding,the online retail market is experiencing rapid growth,the consumption structure is undergoing transformation and upgrading,and the e-commerce market is demonstrating significant potential.The advancement of technologies such as big data,artificial intelligence,blockchain,and supply chain has provided more efficient operational support for the cross-border e-commerce industry.Against the backdrop of the emergence of new forms of cross-border e-commerce in China post-pandemic,this paper utilizes the PEST model to analyze the macro environment of cross-border e-commerce in China and project its future development trends.

Unmanned Ship Identification Based on Improved YOLOv8s Algorithm

Aiming at defects such as low contrast in infrared ship images,uneven distribution of ship size,and lack of texture details,which will lead to unmanned ship leakage misdetection and slow detection,this paper proposes an infrared ship detection model based on the improved YOLOv8 algorithm(R_YOLO).The algorithm incorporates the Efficient Multi-Scale Attention mechanism(EMA),the efficient Reparameterized Generalized-feature extraction module(CSPStage),the small target detection header,the Repulsion Loss function,and the context aggregation block(CABlock),which are designed to improve the model’s ability to detect targets at multiple scales and the speed of model inference.The algorithm is validated in detail on two vessel datasets.The comprehensive experimental results demonstrate that,in the infrared dataset,the YOLOv8s algorithm exhibits improvements in various performance metrics.Specifically,compared to the baseline algorithm,there is a 3.1%increase in mean average precision at a threshold of 0.5(mAP(0.5)),a 5.4%increase in recall rate,and a 2.2%increase in mAP(0.5:0.95).Simultaneously,while less than 5 times parameters,the mAP(0.5)and frames per second(FPS)exhibit an increase of 1.7%and more than 3 times,respectively,compared to the CAA_YOLO algorithm.Finally,the evaluation indexes on the visible light data set have shown an average improvement of 4.5%.

Dilemma and Solutions of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction of International Shipping

How to build an international maritime GHG(greenhouse gas)emission reduction cooperation mechanism is an important international issue at present.Firstly,we describe the current situation of maritime transport GHG emission reduction and analyze the problems that still exist in international maritime transport emission reduction from four aspects:political,economic,legal and technical.For example,geopolitical aggravation hinders the solution of the FOC(Flag of Convenience)issue;maritime emissions are not included in the carbon emission trading system;the synergy of maritime emission reduction principles under the IMO(International Maritime Organization)framework and the technical level of maritime emission reduction needs to be improved.The motivation and essence of the divergent international actions on maritime emission reduction are discussed.Finally,it is proposed to implement the“true linkage principle”to solve the problem of FOCs;to promote the development of regional carbon markets and link them to the international maritime carbon emission trading market economically;to implement the CBDR(the common but differentiated responsibilities)principle legally to promote the international emission reduction work in an orderly manner;and the technical innovation of ships and increase the technical support.

A Comprehensive Measurement Study Analyzing Cross-Border Logistics in Harbin New District

The business environment is an important index for measuring the international competitiveness of a country or region.Improving the business environment not only helps the logistics industry reduce costs and increase efficiency but also promotes the transformation and upgrading of the logistics sector.This paper focuses on the business environment of cross-border logistics enterprises in Harbin New District as the research object.It constructs the business environment index system of logistics enterprises in Harbin New District through empirical research using the subjective weighting method.The research data are then analyzed to identify the shortcomings in optimizing the business environment of cross-border logistics in Harbin New District.The paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions,aiming to provide a decision-making reference for promoting the high-quality development and all-round revitalization of Harbin New District.

Efficient Ship:A Hybrid Deep Learning Framework for Ship Detection in the River

Optical image-based ship detection can ensure the safety of ships and promote the orderly management of ships in offshore waters.Current deep learning researches on optical image-based ship detection mainly focus on improving one-stage detectors for real-time ship detection but sacrifices the accuracy of detection.To solve this problem,we present a hybrid ship detection framework which is named EfficientShip in this paper.The core parts of the EfficientShip are DLA-backboned object location(DBOL)and CascadeRCNN-guided object classification(CROC).The DBOL is responsible for finding potential ship objects,and the CROC is used to categorize the potential ship objects.We also design a pixel-spatial-level data augmentation(PSDA)to reduce the risk of detection model overfitting.We compare the proposed EfficientShip with state-of-the-art(SOTA)literature on a ship detection dataset called Seaships.Experiments show our ship detection framework achieves a result of 99.63%(mAP)at 45 fps,which is much better than 8 SOTA approaches on detection accuracy and can also meet the requirements of real-time application scenarios.

Fine-Grained Ship Recognition Based on Visible and Near-Infrared Multimodal Remote Sensing Images: Dataset,Methodology and Evaluation

Fine-grained recognition of ships based on remote sensing images is crucial to safeguarding maritime rights and interests and maintaining national security.Currently,with the emergence of massive high-resolution multi-modality images,the use of multi-modality images for fine-grained recognition has become a promising technology.Fine-grained recognition of multi-modality images imposes higher requirements on the dataset samples.The key to the problem is how to extract and fuse the complementary features of multi-modality images to obtain more discriminative fusion features.The attention mechanism helps the model to pinpoint the key information in the image,resulting in a significant improvement in the model’s performance.In this paper,a dataset for fine-grained recognition of ships based on visible and near-infrared multi-modality remote sensing images has been proposed first,named Dataset for Multimodal Fine-grained Recognition of Ships(DMFGRS).It includes 1,635 pairs of visible and near-infrared remote sensing images divided into 20 categories,collated from digital orthophotos model provided by commercial remote sensing satellites.DMFGRS provides two types of annotation format files,as well as segmentation mask images corresponding to the ship targets.Then,a Multimodal Information Cross-Enhancement Network(MICE-Net)fusing features of visible and near-infrared remote sensing images,has been proposed.In the network,a dual-branch feature extraction and fusion module has been designed to obtain more expressive features.The Feature Cross Enhancement Module(FCEM)achieves the fusion enhancement of the two modal features by making the channel attention and spatial attention work cross-functionally on the feature map.A benchmark is established by evaluating state-of-the-art object recognition algorithms on DMFGRS.MICE-Net conducted experiments on DMFGRS,and the precision,recall,mAP0.5 and mAP0.5:0.95 reached 87%,77.1%,83.8%and 63.9%,respectively.Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed MICE-Net has more excellent performance on DMFGRS.Built on lightweight network YOLO,the model has excellent generalizability,and thus has good potential for application in real-life scenarios.

SAR-LtYOLOv8:A Lightweight YOLOv8 Model for Small Object Detection in SAR Ship Images

The high coverage and all-weather capabilities of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)image ship detection make it a widely accepted method for maritime ship positioning and identification.However,SAR ship detection faces challenges such as indistinct ship contours,low resolution,multi-scale features,noise,and complex background interference.This paper proposes a lightweight YOLOv8 model for small object detection in SAR ship images,incorporating key structures to enhance performance.The YOLOv8 backbone is replaced by the Slim Backbone(SB),and the Delete Medium-sized Detection Head(DMDH)structure is eliminated to concentrate on shallow features.Dynamically adjusting the convolution kernel weights of the Omni-Dimensional Dynamic Convolution(ODConv)module can result in a reduction in computation and enhanced accuracy.Adjusting the model’s receptive field is done by the Large Selective Kernel Network(LSKNet)module,which captures shallow features.Additionally,a Multi-scale Spatial-Channel Attention(MSCA)module addresses multi-scale ship feature differences,enhancing feature fusion and local region focus.Experimental results on the HRSID and SSDD datasets demonstrate the model’s effectiveness,with a 67.8%reduction in parameters,a 3.4%improvement in AP(average precision)@0.5,and a 5.4%improvement in AP@0.5:0.95 on the HRSID dataset,and a 0.5%improvement in AP@0.5 and 1.7%in AP@0.5:0.95 on the SSDD dataset,surpassing other state-of-the-art methods.

A Time-Domain Numerical Simulation for Free Motion Responses of Two Ships Advancing in Head Waves

The constant panel method within the framework of potential flow theory in the time domain is developed for solving the hydrodynamic interactions between two parallel ships with forward speed.When solving problems within a time domain framework,the free water surface needs to simultaneously satisfy both the kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions of the free water surface.This provides conditions for adding artificial damping layers.Using the Runge−Kutta method to solve equations related to time.An upwind differential scheme is used in the present method to deal with the convection terms on the free surface to prevent waves upstream.Through the comparison with the available experimental data and other numerical methods,the present method is proved to have good mesh convergence,and satisfactory results can be obtained.The constant panel method is applied to calculate the hydrodynamic interaction responses of two parallel ships advancing in head waves.Numerical simulations are conducted on the effects of forward speed,different longitudinal and lateral distances on the motion response of two modified Wigley ships in head waves.Then further investigations are conducted on the effects of different ship types on the motion response.

Digital Marketing and B2B Cross-Border E-Commerce: A Case Study of Alibaba International Station in China

The rapid development of the“Internet+”has ushered in a new era of global digital technology innovation.Concurrent with the deepening trends of economic globalization and integration,international trade is progressively undergoing extensive digitization,with cross-border e-commerce emerging as a significant manifestation of this transformation.Within this landscape,the cross-border e-commerce B2B platform is anticipated to become a pivotal driver for China’s cross-border trade growth,representing a strategic opportunity for trade transformation.This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the concepts,characteristics,and development status of cross-border e-commerce and B2B platforms,considering both global and Chinese perspectives.Focusing on a prominent case study,Alibaba International Station,a B2B cross-border e-commerce platform,the paper delves into its business model and core competencies,offering a thorough analysis of its role in the intricacies of international e-commerce and its contribution to the field.Drawing on insights gained,the paper concludes by presenting targeted recommendations from both the platform and government perspectives.These suggestions are informed by a nuanced understanding of the development opportunities and challenges facing China’s cross-border e-commerce B2B platforms.

Improved Scatter Search Algorithm for Multi-skilled Personnel Scheduling of Ship Block Painting

This paper focuses on the optimization method for multi-skilled painting personnel scheduling.The budget working time analysis is carried out considering the influence of operating area,difficulty of spraying area,multi-skilled workers,and worker’s efficiency,then a mathematical model is established to minimize the completion time. The constraints of task priority,paint preparation,pump management,and neighbor avoidance in the ship block painting production are considered. Based on this model,an improved scatter search(ISS)algorithm is designed,and the hybrid approximate dynamic programming(ADP)algorithm is used to improve search efficiency. In addition,the two solution combination methods of path-relinking and task sequence combination are used to enhance the search breadth and depth. The numerical experimental results show that ISS has a significant advantage in solving efficiency compared with the solver in small scale instances;Compared with the scatter search algorithm and genetic algorithm,ISS can stably improve the solution quality. Verified by the production example,ISS effectively shortens the total completion time of the production,which is suitable for scheduling problems in the actual painting production of the shipyard.

Time-Domain Higher-Order Boundary Element Method for Simulating High Forward-Speed Ship Motions in Waves

The hydrodynamic performance of a high forward-speed ship in obliquely propagating waves is numerically examined to assess both free motions and wave field in comparison with a low forward-speed ship.This numerical model is based on the time-domain potential flow theory and higher-order boundary element method,where an analytical expression is completely expanded to determine the base-unsteady coupling flow imposed on the moving condition of the ship.The ship in the numerical model may possess different advancing speeds,i.e.stationary,low speed,and high speed.The role of the water depth,wave height,wave period,and incident wave angle is analyzed by means of the accurate numerical model.It is found that the resonant motions of the high forward-speed ship are triggered by comparison with the stationary one.More specifically,a higher forward speed generates a V-shaped wave region with a larger elevation,which induces stronger resonant motions corresponding to larger wave periods.The shoaling effect is adverse to the motion of the low-speed ship,but is beneficial to the resonant motion of the high-speed ship.When waves obliquely propagate toward the ship,the V-shaped wave region would be broken due to the coupling effect between roll and pitch motions.It is also demonstrated that the maximum heave motion occurs in beam seas for stationary cases but occurs in head waves for high speeds.However,the variation of the pitch motion with period is hardly affected by wave incident angles.

Sending The King Ship, A Tradition Connecting Two Peoples

“The sky is dark,and it is about to rain,”goes a lyric from China’s coastal Minnan(southern Fujian)region.“The king ship is leaving the bay,papa is going out to sea,and mama is sending the ship off.May it bring us wealth,food,and the gods’protection.”The 600-year-old custom is called Ong Chun,Wangchuan,Wangkang,or“Sending the King Ship.”