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This paper aims to understand the trade transportation situation between China and Koreas, and to explore the possibility of establishing the surface transportation corridor between China and Koreas in the future. Moreover, the paper also intends to find out the mode choice behaviors of shippers, which can be used to analyze the substitute effects of the surface modes on the water one.

The paper first analyzes the Sino-Korean bilateral trade and the corresponding trade transportation between China and Koreas. Secondly, it presents the surface transportation network between China and Koreas, and analyzes the warming relations between the North and South. Finally, the modal split of trade transportation between China and Koreas is estimated by establishing a mode choice model based on a questionnaire survey.

With the increasingly stable political environment and the physical highway and railway connections, the surface transportation network would become possible. Moreover, the shippers need the multimodal transportation system between China and Koreas, and many shippers would select road or rail mode if a suitable road or rail network were available. Especially, between China and South Korea, the road, rail and water mode may be used evenly, while the road mode may play a more important role between China and North Korea. The surface modes would have a huge substitute effect on the water mode.

The existing literature conducted research mainly from the perspective of economy and geopolitics, while the topics of transportation between China and Koreas are rarely concerned. This paper intends to throw some light on the situation of the trade transportation between China and Koreas, consider the potential of relation improvement on the Korean Peninsula proactively and study the surface transportation issues between China and Koreas.

With continuous concerning on the toxic of element Pb, Pb-free solder was gradually used to replace traditional Sn-Pb solder. However, during the transition period from Sn-Pb to Pb-free solder, mixing of Sn-Pb and Pb-free is inevitable occurred in certain products, and in China where Sn-Pb solder was still used extensively in certain areas especially. Correspondingly, understanding reliability of Sn-Pb solder joints was very important, and further studies were needed.

Thermal shock test between −55°C and 125 °C was conducted on Sn-37Pb solder bumps in the BGA package to investigate the microstructure evolution and the growth mechanism of interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC) layer. The effects of thermal shock on the mechanical property and fracture behavior of Sn-37Pb solder bumps were discussed.

Pb-rich phase was coarsened and voids were increased at first; Pb-rich phase was refined and voids were decreased secondly with the increase of thermal shock cycles; the shear strength of solder bumps was slightly decreased after thermal shock, but was back up to 73.67MPa at 2,000 cycles; interfacial IMCs of solder bumps was from typical scallop-type into smooth, the composition of IMCs was from Cu₆Sn₅ into Cu₆Sn₅ and Cu₃S_n after thermal shock with 1,500 and 2,000 cycles; 20.0 per cent of solder bumps at 1,500 cycles and 9.5 per cent of solder bumps at 2,000 cycles were failure respectively.

Compared with the board level test method, the impact shear test for the single solder bump is more convenient and economical and is actively pursued by the industries. The shear strength of solder bumps was slightly decreased after thermal shock, but was back up to 73.67 MPa at 2,000 cycles; 20.0 per cent of solder bumps at 1,500 cycles and 9.5 per cent of solder bumps at 2,000 cycles were failure.

With the rapid development of technology, 360° panorama on mobile as a very convenient way to present virtual reality has brought a new shopping experience to consumers. Usually, consumers get product information through virtual annotations in 360° panorama and then make a series of shopping behaviors. The visual design of virtual annotation significantly influences users' online visual search for product information. This study aims to investigate the influence of the visual design of virtual annotation on consumers' shopping experience in the online shopping interface of 360° panorama.

A 2 × 3 between-subject design was planned to help explore whether different display model of annotation (i.e. negative polarity and positive polarity) and different background transparency of annotation (i.e. 0% transparency, 25% transparency and 50% transparency) may affect users' task performance and their subjective evaluations.

(1) Virtual annotations with different background transparency affect user performance, and transparency has better visual search performance. (2) Virtual annotation background display mode may affect the user operation performance; the positive polarity of the virtual annotation is more convenient for the users' visual searching for product information. (3) When the annotation background transparency is opaque or semi-transparent, the negative polarity display is more favorable to the users' visual search. However, this situation is reversed when the annotation background transparency is 25%. (4) Participants preferred the presentation of positive polarity virtual annotations. (5) Regarding the degree of willingness to use and ease of understanding, participants preferred the negative polarity display for 0% background transparency or 50% background transparency. However, the opposite result was obtained for 25% background transparency.

The findings generated from the research can be a good reference for the development of virtual annotation visual design for mobile shopping applications.

1. Virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode are two essential attributes of 360° panoramas.

2. This study examined how virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode influence user performance and experience.

3. It is recommended to use a translucent or opaque annotation background with a negative polarity display.

4. Virtual annotation presentation with 25% background transparency facilitates consumer searching and comparison of product information.

5. Users prefer a positive polarity annotation display.

Virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode are two essential attributes of 360° panoramas.

This study examined how virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode influence user performance and experience.

It is recommended to use a translucent or opaque annotation background with a negative polarity display.

Virtual annotation presentation with 25% background transparency facilitates consumer searching and comparison of product information.

Users prefer a positive polarity annotation display.

The present paper seeks to report the effect of duration of rubbing on friction coefficient for different polymer and composite materials. Variations of friction coefficient and wear rate with the normal load are also investigated experimentally when stainless steel (SS 304) pin slides on different types of materials such as cloth‐reinforced ebonite (commercially known as gear fiber), glass fiber‐reinforced plastic (glass fiber), nylon and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

A pin on disc apparatus is designed and fabricated. During experiment, the rpm of test samples was kept constant and relative humidity was 70 percent.

Studies have shown that the values of friction coefficient depend on applied load and duration of rubbing. It is observed that the values of friction coefficient decrease with the increase of normal load for glass fiber, nylon and PTFE. Different trend is observed for gear fiber, i.e. coefficient of friction increases with the increase of normal load. It is also found that wear rate increases with the increase of normal load for all the materials. The magnitudes of friction coefficient and wear rate are different for different materials.

It is expected that the applications of these results will contribute to the design of different mechanical components of these materials.

Within the observed range of applied normal load, the relative friction coefficient and wear rate of gear fiber, glass fiber, nylon and PTFE are experimentally investigated.

In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of applicants seeking placements in undergraduate architecture programs. It is important during the selection phase of admission at universities to identify new intakes who possess the capability to succeed. Admission variable (i.e. prior academic achievement) is one of the most important criteria considered during the selection process. This paper aims to investigates the efficacy of using data mining techniques to predict the academic performance of architecture students based on information contained in prior academic achievement.

The input variables, i.e. prior academic achievement, were extracted from students’ academic records. Logistic regression and support vector machine (SVM) are the data mining techniques adopted in this study. The collected data were divided into two parts. The first part was used for training the model, while the other part was used to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the developed models.

The results revealed that SVM model outperformed the logistic regression model in terms of accuracy. Taken together, it is evident that prior academic achievement is a good predictor of academic performance of architecture students.

Although the factors affecting academic performance of students are numerous, the present study focuses on the effect of prior academic achievement on academic performance of architecture students.

The developed SVM model can be used as a decision-making tool for selecting new intakes into the architecture program at Nigerian universities.