On Incentive and Coordination Mechanism of Service Outsourcing Based on Principal-Agent Theory and Blockchain Technology

To address the issue of information asymmetry between the two parties and moral hazard among service providers in the process of service outsourcing,this paper builds the Stackelberg game model based on the principal-agent framework,examines the dynamic game situation before the contract being signed,and develops four information models.The analysis reveals a Pareto improvement in the game’s Nash equilibrium when comparing the four models from the standpoint of the supply chain.In the complete information scenario,the service level of the service provider,the customer company’s incentive effectiveness,and the supply chain system’s ultimate profit are all maximized.Furthermore,a coordinating mechanism for disposable profit is built in this study.The paper then suggests a blockchain-based architecture for the service outsourcing process supervision and a distributed incentive mechanism under the coordination mechanism in response to the inadequacy of the principal-agent theory to address the information asymmetry problem and the moral hazard problem.The experiment’s end findings demonstrate that both parties can benefit from the coordination mechanism,and the application of blockchain technology can resolve these issues and effectively encourage service providers.

Coordination mechanism of developing unification of urban agglomeration: A case study of south Sichuan urban agglomerations

With the expansion of the urbanization, the urban agglomeration is forming in the region and showing a unification trend. The development of urban agglomeration and its unification depends on the coordination of the division of labor. It is significant to the further development of urban agglomeration that the coordination mechanism was constructed. Taking the south Sichuan urban agglomerations(SSUA) as an example, the research analyzes the current situation and problems of cities' unification, studies the industrial distribution layout and designs the framework of the regionally coordinated development. Then the author constructs the coordination mechanism of urban agglomeration development and presents strategies for the coordinated development of urban agglomeration and its unification.

Effect of fluoride ions on coordination structure of titanium in molten NaCl–KCl

The effects of fluoride ions(F^(-)) on the electrochemical behavior and coordination properties of titanium ions(Ti^(n+)) were studied in this work,by combining electrochemical and mathematical analysis as well as spectral techniques.The α was taken as a factor to indicate the molar concentration ratio of F^(-) and Ti^(n+).Cyclic voltammetry(CV),square wave voltammetry(SWV),and open circuit potential method(OCP)were used to study the electrochemical behavior of titanium ions under conditions of various α,and in-situ sampler was used to prepare molten salt samples when α equal to 0.0,1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0,5.0,6.0,and 8.0.And then,samples were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and Raman spectroscopy.The results showed that F^(-) in molten salt can reduce the reduction steps of titanium ions and greatly affects the proportion of valence titanium ions which making the high-valence titanium content increased and more stable.Ti^(2+) cannot be detected in the molten salt when α is higher than 3.0 and finally transferred to titanium ions with higher valence state.Investigation revealed that the mechanism behind those phenomenon is the coordination compounds(TiCl_(j) F_(i)^(m-)) forming.

A metal-free coordination–insertion ring-opening polymerization of tetrahydrofuran by the central metalloid bis(pentafluorophenyl)(phenoxy)borane

A new strategy for the metal-free coordination–insertion ring-opening polymerization of tetrahydrofuran by the central metalloid Boron has been first identified.Bis(pentafluorophenyl)(phenoxy)borane was used as a catalyst for the polymerization reaction system.And polytetrahydrofuran with high molecular weight and narrow molecular weight distribution could be obtained.The proposed mechanism was studied by MALDI-TOF,ESI-MS and O-18 isotope labeling analyses as a metal-free coordination insertion mechanism.

Objective System and Coordination Mechanism Design for “Multi-Planning System Integration”

One of the hot issues to realize the multi-planning system integration is to explore the inter-planning coordination mechanism breaking current technical and system restrictions. The essence of planning disintegration is the disconnection of their objective system, indicator system, and spatial coordinate system. Few studies have been conducted on this issue. This paper analyzes the manifestations and causes of the "three-system dissociation," and proposes to establish a new objective system. In addition, it proposes to strengthen the connection design, aiming to explore effective ways to realize inter-planning connection and coordination.

Evaluating the Relationship between National Park Management and Local Communities’ Perceptions Based on Survey, a Case of Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda

A sustainable management of national park requires collaboration between park staff, NGOs, local organizations and stakeholders, and government intervention. This collaboration promotes community-based welfare and inspires a sense of responsibility, thus promoting more benefits than conflicts. A survey administered to residents surrounding Nyungwe National Park was used to evaluate the relationship between Nyungwe National Park management and local communities. The residents acknowledged a positive attitude towards participating in conservation organizations where there was involvement, while a negative response revealed weak community mobilization. The community’s opinions about protection and tourism progression noted weak conflict resolution, but a positive attitude towards tourism activities in the area since they believed employment was likely as a result. In addition, the residents asked for support from government investments and stakeholders to develop the local private sector, and asked to be involved during the planning process. Approaches including the design of coordination mechanisms and integrated conservation and developments projects are suggested to promote a management structure leading to community involvement in conservation and tourism activities. This will increase visitor numbers and contribute to economic development not only in the region but also in the whole country. Empirical studies along with the factors shaping tourism and conservation activities should be considered as the basis for sustainable decision and policy making for sustainable management, and will contribute to government, stakeholders and park manager collaborations at Nyungwe national park.

The Shortest First Coordination Mechanism for a Scheduling Game with Parallel-Batching Machines

This paper deals with a scheduling problem with parallel-batching machines from a game theoretic perspective.There are m parallel-batching machines,each of which can handle up to b jobs simultaneously as a batch.The processing time of a batch is the time required for processing the longest job in the batch,and all the jobs in a batch start and complete at the same time.There are n jobs.Each job is owned by a rational and selfish agent.The agent of a job chooses a machine for processing its own job.The aim of each agent is to minimize the completion time of its job while the system tries tominimize the maximal completion time over all jobs,the makespan.We design a coordination mechanism for the scheduling game problem.We discuss the existence of Nash equilibria of the mechanism and showthat it has a price of anarchy 2.

Coordination of e-commerce supply chain when e-commerce platform providing sales service and extended warranty service

With the rapid development of cybereconomy and the enhancement of sales service,many e-commerce platforms provide extended warranty service to alleviate consumers from worries about product quality when consumers purchasing products online.This study examines the decisions and coordination of the e-commerce supply chain where the e-commerce platform dominates and provides sales service and extended warranty service.The findings show that the centralised decision-making model is an ideal model because of the low sales price,high service level and high extended warranty price.With the increase of the consumers’sensitivity coefficient to the extended warranty service price,sales price increases but extended warranty service price and service level decrease,the retailer’s profit and the platform’s profit decrease.The proposed contract of‘revenue sharing joint commission’can realise the coordination of ecommerce supply chain.

Multi-distortion suppression for neutron radiographic images based on generative adversarial network

Neutron radiography is a crucial nondestructive testing technology widely used in the aerospace,military,and nuclear industries.However,because of the physical limitations of neutron sources and collimators,the resulting neutron radiographic images inevitably exhibit multiple distortions,including noise,geometric unsharpness,and white spots.Furthermore,these distortions are particularly significant in compact neutron radiography systems with low neutron fluxes.Therefore,in this study,we devised a multi-distortion suppression network that employs a modified generative adversarial network to improve the quality of degraded neutron radiographic images.Real neutron radiographic image datasets with various types and levels of distortion were built for the first time as multi-distortion suppression datasets.Thereafter,the coordinate attention mechanism was incorporated into the backbone network to augment the capability of the proposed network to learn the abstract relationship between ideally clear and degraded images.Extensive experiments were performed;the results show that the proposed method can effectively suppress multiple distortions in real neutron radiographic images and achieve state-of-theart perceptual visual quality,thus demonstrating its application potential in neutron radiography.

Decision-making in blockchain-enabled supply chain: A systematic literature review

In the digital economy era,the blockchain-enabled supply chain(SC)has become a popular re-search topic.However,systematic research on the application of blockchain technology in SCs remains inadequate.Accordingly,this study aims to review the literature on the blockchain-en-abled SC from the following three perspectives:()application of blockchain traceability in SC management,(i)model of blockchain-enabled sC competition,and(ii)design of coordination mechanism in the blockchain-enabled sC.Several future research directions related to the blockchain-enabled SC are also presented.The findings provide academic and practical insights intotheblockchain-enabled SC.

A Novel Highly Selective“Turn-On”Fluorescence Sensor for Silver Ions Based on Schiff Base

A novel optical chemical sensor L was designed and synthesized for the determination of silver ions.The sensor L was derived from 1-naphthaldehyde and 3,4,5-tris(hexadecyloxy)benzohydrazide.The sensor L shows high sensitivity and selectivity for Ag+detection in comparison to other metal cations(Mg^(2+),Ca^(2+),Al^(3+),Cr^(3+),Fe^(3+),Co^(2+),Ni^(2+),Cu^(2+),Zn^(2+),Cd^(2+),Hg^(2+),Pb^(2+))and has no significant response to other common metal cations.Upon addition of Ag+,the fluorescent emission of the sensor L was enhanced dramatically but other metal cations had no same response.The detection limit for Ag+was 1.2×10^(−7) mol/L.Therefore,the sensor L is useful for Ag+detection with some advantages including sensitivity,selectivity,simplicity and low-cost.

Quality control in food supply chain with dynamic quality characteristics

Food adulteration in recent years has attracted wide media and public attention.Preventing and controlling risk factors that harm the quality and safety of the food supply chain and reducing the probability of food safety incidents have become important concerns for all main participant groups in the food supply chain.In this study,we use a differential game model to examine the strategic quality control behaviour of participants in a food supply chain comprising two food raw material suppliers and one food manufacturer.We study two cases,one of the centralised system and one of the decentralised system,and fully characterise the equilibrium quality control decisions of all participants in both cases.The findings show that under the centralised setting,the quality control of the raw material suppliers and the manufacturer reaches the optimal level.More importantly,the system can reach coordination through participants sharing their quality cost.

Coordinated deformation control technologies for the high sidewall—bottom transfixion zone of large underground hydro-powerhouses

It is imperative to understand the spatial and temporal coordination deformation mechanism and develop targeted deformation control technologies for high sidewall—bottom transfixion(HSBT)zones to guarantee the stability of rock surrounding underground hydro-powerhouses under complex geological conditions.In this study,the spatial and temporal coordinated deformation control of HSBT zones was addressed from the aspects of the deformation mechanism,failure characteristics,and control requirements,and some coordinated deformation control technologies were proposed.On this basis,a case study was conducted on the deformation control of the HSBT zone of the underground powerhouse at the Wudongde hydropower station,China.The results showed that the relationship between excavation and support,and the mismatch of deformation and support of the surrounding rock mass in the HSBT zone of underground caverns with a large span and high in-situ stress can be appropriately handled.The solution requires proper excavation and construction procedures,fine blasting control,composite and timely support,and real-time monitoring and dynamic feedback.The technologies proposed in this study will ensure the safe,high-quality,and orderly construction of the Baihetan and Wudongde underground caverns,and can be applied to other similar projects.

DIFFICULTIES CONFRONTED BY ICSID TRIBUNALS IN DECIDING INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT CORRUPTION CASES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

The issue of corruption has attracted increasing attention in the study and practice of international investment law during recent years.After taking prudent consideration of the corruption defense invoked by the host states in some international investment arbitration cases involved with corruption,International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes(ICSID)tribunals accordingly determined the final awards.However,some parts of the arbitral jurisprudence aroused strong criticism,especially with regard to the ICSID tribunals’reasoning that arbitrators have no jurisdiction over corruption-tainted international investments.The ICSID tribunals are legitimately supposed to exercise their jurisdiction and are lawfully obliged to probe into the nature of corrupt activities.The tribunals are strongly expected to adopt a balanced approach in deciding the merits and fairly weighing the obligations,rights,and interests of both disputing parties.It is preferable to strengthen the collaborative interaction between ICSID proceedings and domestic anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms when it comes to combating corrupt international investment activities.Existing international treaties(or specific treaty provisions)on combating corruption in international business transactions and calling for international cooperation,alongside domestic anti-corruption enforcement legislation,have actually laid solid legal foundations for the establishment of such an anti-corruption coordinative mechanism between ICSID and domestic corruption regulatory authorities on the global level.