Technical Competition Research Articles

Modular gas-cooled reactor core optimal design and additive manufacturing performance based on SiC matrix dispersed with TRi-structural ISOtropic fuel

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors present significant technical competitiveness in various fields, such as low-carbon electricity, thermal energy, and hydrogen supply. Silicon Carbide (SiC) matrix dispersed with TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle fuel is characterized by high-temperature tolerance, radiation resistance, and good neutron economy, which has emerged as a pivotal technological pathway for reactor core design. With the rapid advancement of SiC Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, there is a substantial increase in core design flexibility, and an innovative gas-cooled reactor design was proposed by Monte Carlo (MC) method in this paper. The Non-uniform Rational B-spline (NURBS), Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS), second-order polynomial response surface, as well as Genetic Algorithm (GA) were coupled to realize the optimization design for the coolant channel. Besides, a modular fuel design was proposed, and the AM SiC shell was fabricated using Binder Jetting (BJ) technology. Furthermore, the densification of the AM SiC shell and the matrix with SiC powder and SiC microspheres (TRISO simulator) was investigated by Chemical Vapor Infiltration (CVI). Finally, the microscopic morphology analysis and thermal-mechanical performance characterization of the samples were conducted, which demonstrated the technical feasibility and advanced capabilities of the SiC matrix dispersed with TRISO fuel based on AM technology.

Application of artificial intelligence in technology management: status quo, challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT Technology management (TM) aims to enhance technical competitiveness, providing organizations with a market advantage. The increasing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) within TM has sparked debate: supporters praise AI's decision-making capabilities, while critics stress the importance of human expertise. This study advocates for integrating AI into TM as a supportive tool for human decision-making rather than replacing domain experts. To achieve this, a comprehensive literature review examines the integration of AI in TM, exploring potential benefits and challenges. The research analyzes text mining works, existing data, and the suitability of AI models for various TM tasks. Additionally, it reviews AI applications in TM, identifying opportunities and challenges.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Combining Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Children’s Pharmaceutical Packaging Designs

Abstract The rapid development of virtual reality and augmented reality technology has brought significant changes to many industries in modern society. In the field of product packaging design, the use of virtual reality and augmented reality technology in product packaging design is becoming more common in the field. Researchers are exploring the use of VR and AR technology in children’s drug packaging, employing augmented reality research that leverages natural features and artificial recognition to construct a model of children’s drug packaging that incorporates VR and AR technology. We analyze the impact of VR+AR on children’s drug packaging. Consumers’ main requirements for children’s drug packaging are bright, strong, practical, fun, novelty, and ease of understanding. The paper’s model, sample Z, ranks 5th in market competitiveness and 1st in technical competitiveness, outperforming competitors A, B, C, and D. This suggests that VR+AR children’s drug packaging still needs improvement in market competitiveness despite its high technical content. In descending order, the design evaluation dimensions score the VR+AR children’s drug packaging as follows: vivid picture (3.193)> texture (3.154) > easy to hold (3.142) > Moderate capacity (3.129) > simple and generous (3.105) > conform to the production process (3.047) > harmonious color (3.044) > convenient for transportation (3.028) > low production cost (3.012). The average score for each dimension of the VR+AR children’s drug packaging experience is approximately 4.46 points.

Multiplicative design and technological solutions in development and industrial application of pulse-cyclic electrochemical method

The article presents multiplicative design and technological directions in the development and application of the pulse-cyclic method of volumetric shaping. Previously published scientific and technical publications dealt with the consideration of technological and metal-physical aspects of pulse-cyclic shaping. At the same time, the achieved indicators of these parameters are largely determined by the implemented design and technological solutions of the equipment used. The applied modular principle of construction of metalworking equipment. Allows for the construction of multiplicative design and technological solutions in the development of equipment for the industrial application of the electrochemical pulse-cyclic method. On the basis of the proposed approach, electrochemical copy-piercing machines of the EHP-1 model were created and introduced into industrial production. The presented multiplicative solutions in this article show how it is possible to create high-tech domestic machine-tool equipment. Ensuring the scientific and technical competitiveness of the developed pulse-cyclic electrochemical processing allows solving complex industrial problems to provide electrochemical equipment with the required level of accuracy and performance.

Survey of transient performance control

Control systems have played a key role in the advancement of technologies in almost every field. The technical competition in the fourth industrial revolution has now focused on high performance area. Transient performance control is the ultimate high-performance control and can serve applications such as flexible manufacturing, robots, UAVs, defense industry and medical systems. Rich modern control theories had been developed over the last few decades, and the majority of them are on stability related issues instead of performance. Actual applications lag the theories, causing so-called theory–practice gap. One key factor of the gap is scarcity of control design methods for transient performance. Transient performance control is to guarantee the transient performance specifications such as rise-time, overshoot and settling-time, which are truly demanded in practice. To promote transient performance control, this article reviews the control designs for transient performance, including finite-time stability and control, adaptive and prescribed performance control, and funnel control. The challenges and future research directions are addressed. The new solutions should be tested on typical industrial systems in benchmark against the existing control methods to show performance insurance and improvement of the former over the latter.

Analysis of the competitive situation among Chinese power battery enterprises based on T-M model

With the support of policies, the power battery industry has already been in the initial stage of high-quality development. However, it is difficult to effectively judge the development potential and competition situation of enterprises only through the overall installed capacity, while it is impossible to effectively use the “supporting the excellent and strong enterprises ” industrial policy and targeted industry funds. In this research, a power battery enterprise competitiveness evaluation model was constructed by considering two dimensions of technical competitiveness and market influence. Taking China’s mainstream power battery enterprises as the research object, the validity of the model was verified and the long-term competition of power battery enterprises was predicted by the bias value of lithium iron phosphate. The results show that: when the bias value of lithium iron phosphate is 0.3, A2 is the market chaser, A5 is the technology chaser, A3 performs well in both technology and market, but there is still a big gap by comparing with A1. When the bias value of lithium iron phosphate is 0.7, in terms of competition landscape, A3 and A5 become technical catchers, especially A3 with more obvious advantages, while A2 and A4 become market catchers, especially A2 with more obvious advantages; in terms of enterprises, the ranking of leading enterprises is almost unchanged, but there are major changes among those enterprises ranked in the middle and rear position. The research results can support the scientific use of industrial policies and industrial funds and promote the power battery industry to move into a high-quality development stage. In the next step, it is required to consider the huge impact of new system battery on the industrial structure and improve the robustness of the model.

Control Design for Transient Performance

CONTROL systems are everywhere - chemical plants, energy systems, manufacturing, homes and buildings, automobiles and trains, medical devices, cellular telephones and internet, aircraft and spacecraft. Recent developments in these fields bring up the systems with the unprecedented scope, scale and complexity such as cyber-physical and human systems, and the required control task becomes more challenging than ever [1], demanding high performance on the complex systems at low costs. Nowadays, the technical competition has focused on high performance area. High performance products sell in markets in place of low ones. High performance products rely on high performance control in the end.

NEW APPROACHES TO THE RESULTS ANALYSIS OF SEPARATE ATHLETICS MULTISPORT COMPETITIONS

The aim of the research is to study and analyze the dynamics of the results of individual athletic multisport competitions. The research was based on the study of the results of men's decathlon and women's heptathlon at the Olympic Games from 2000 to 2020. The initial data of this study were the existing results of elite and high-class athletes, taking into account some principles known and used in the literature. Athletic Multisport race is considered a complex technical competition, which combines different classical athletic competitions. The athlete is required to demonstrate strong willpower, to master the technique of certain types of competitions, to have a high level of motor abilities. In our opinion, the further improvement of sports results in multisport race among high-class athletes largely depends on the level of development of the speed-strength types of the competition program.

Integrating Africa by Competition and Market Policy

Africa has the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The agreement will lower tariffs and facilitate internal market trade on the continent, and policy makers hope that it will help lift 30 million people out of poverty. A competition protocol is now in the process of negotiation and proposals have been made ranging from a full, detailed, technical competition law as in the West to a scaffolding of regional cooperation. For the competition element of AfCFTA, this article makes a bold suggestion: Africa needs a basic but deep competition protocol, which concentrates on the priorities “at the top”: It needs to rid the continent of insidious trade-and-competition restraints at member state borders that prevent African integration, which requires a joinder of trade-and-competition violations. And it needs a voice at the top to take a stand for the continent: for example against the mega-mergers that hurt Africa. Only with these three elements—clear basic rules, trade/competition restraint prohibitions, and a voice at the top—can Africa hope to realize the promise of Africa.

Research on the Technology Development of Intelligent Connected Vehicles Based on the Background of Economic Globalization

In the context of economic globalization, this paper examines the technical competition situation in the field of intelligent networked vehicles (ICV) among global countries represented by the United States, the European Union, and Japan, with the goal of providing a reference for domestic ICV technology and industrial development. This paper provides opinions and suggestions on improving China's competitiveness in the global intelligent networked vehicle market based on systematically combing the concept, connotation, and industrial chain of ICV from the perspectives of technology R&D trend, competition area, subject, and market value.

High-Quality Development Strategy for the Supply Chain of Critical Minerals and Its Material Industry in China

Critical minerals and materials are fundamental to national economy, national defense construction, and residents’ lives; therefore, it is of great significance to ensure the stability of their supply chain. This study associates mineral resources with thematerial industry and analyzes the strategic needs and development status of China’s key minerals and their raw material industries from the perspective of the entire industrial chain including resource exploration, mining, smelting, material processing, manufacturing, and product recycling. Moreover, problems are summarized including blocked industrial chain; insufficient supply of key minerals at the resource end; high energy consumption and excessive scale at the smelting end; insufficient support capacity, inadequate innovation ability, and weak industrial foundation at the material end; and lagging development at the recycling end. Focusing on exploration, mining, and basic raw material preparation, a three-step goal by 2035 is proposed, and technological development priorities are summarized from the aspects of mining, smelting, and basic raw materials. Furthermore, we propose suggestions for the high-quality development of China’s key minerals and material industry supply chain, including promoting the supply guarantee capacity of domestic mineral resources, improving the technical competitiveness of new materials, and unblocking the resource–smelting–material–recycling industrial chain.

Combined soft measurement on key indicator parameters of new competitive advantages for China's export

The estimation of the difference between the new competitive advantages of China's export and the world’s trading powers have been the key measurement problems in China-related studies. In this work, a comprehensive evaluation index system for new export competitive advantages is developed, a soft-sensing model for China’s new export competitive advantages based on the fuzzy entropy weight analytic hierarchy process is established, and the soft-sensing values of key indexes are derived. The obtained evaluation values of the main measurement index are used as the input variable of the fuzzy least squares support vector machine, and a soft-sensing model of the key index parameters of the new export competitive advantages of China based on the combined soft-sensing model of the fuzzy least squares support vector machine is established. The soft-sensing results of the new export competitive advantage index of China show that the soft measurement model developed herein is of high precision compared with other models, and the technical and brand competitiveness indicators of export products have more significant contributions to the new competitive advantages of China's export, while the service competitiveness indicator of export products has the least contribution to new competitive advantages of China's export.

Research on the core competitiveness of smart phone human-computer interaction

Identifying the core technique in the field of human-computer interaction is beneficial to improve international technical competitiveness of enterprise. By means of patent data of domestic and foreign smart phone, with the adoption of patent portfolio analysis model, it has exploration and research on the core competitiveness of human-computer interaction of smart phone from four aspects: enterprise, technology, inventor, and patent-market integration. The results show that human-computer interaction is the core field of smartphones; Although the overall technical level of Chinese enterprises in the field of human-computer interaction is lower than that of foreign enterprises, China has an advantage in the wireless communication network (H04W), which is the core and cutting-edge technology in the field of human-computer interaction; Enterprises in the world have similar proportions of high-level research and development talents, without absolute industry benchmark in which both technology and market dominate.

On influence of emissions trading on efficiency of the EU national steel sectors

Environmental policy in the European Union is a hot topic for both practitioners and researchers. Their interests are attracted mainly by the main tool of this policy—emissions trading within the EU ETS. In literature focusing on the impacts of the EU ETS, the EU is usually considered to be a compact unit and its structure is omitted there. In particular, the impacts on a single company (regardless its geographical location), on a sector of industry (regardless the member countries), or on some subset of the involved companies with respect to non-EU competitors are often explored. However, through the eyes of national governments, it is vital for the countries to keep their national industrial sectors competitive not only against companies from countries outside the EU but also from other EU countries. This paper focuses on the influence of the EU ETS on the national steel sectors in the EU and their competitiveness. The hybrid PROMETHEE-DEA approach is used to assess how the price of emission allowance and grandfathering within the EU ETS impact the technical efficiency and competitiveness of these national sectors. The results of this study show that the volatile allowance price influences the efficiency and grandfathering affects the competitiveness of the EU national steel sectors.

The role of technical efficiency, market competition and risk in the banking performance in G20 countries

PurposeRecently, the financial sector has faced significant challenges regarding the market competition, its technical efficiency and risk factors around the globe and gain recent researchers' intentions. Thus, the present study aims to examine the impact of technical efficiency, market competition and risk in banking performance in Group of Twenty (G20) countries.Design/methodology/approachData have been obtained from the World Development Indicator from 2008 to 2019. For analysis purpose, random effect model and generalized method of moments (GMMs) have been executed using Stata.FindingsThe results revealed that market competition and banks' capital efficiency have a positive impact on banking performance, while banks' lending efficiency and non-performing loans have a negative association with the banking sector performance of G20 countries. These outcomes provide the guidelines to the regulators that they should formulate the effective policies related to the lending practices and non-performing loans that could improve the banking sector performance worldwide.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has examined only three economic factors like the technical efficiency rate, market competition and risk element, and their influences on banking institutions' operational and economic performance. But the analysis has proved that except these factors, several factors affect banking institutions' operational and economic performance. Thus, future scholars recommend they analyze all the banking sector areas, pick more factors and enlighten their operational and economic performance influences. Moreover, the author of this article has chosen a particular source for collecting data to meet his study's objective. Only a single piece of software has been applied to analyze data; thus, the data collected for this paper may be incomplete, lack accuracy and reliability. Therefore, the future authors are recommended to use multiple sources to collect data and its analysis to ensure the comprehension, completeness and accuracy.Originality/valueLast but not least, this study with the evidences from the banking sector of G20 countries tries to show on the banking management how the risk element matters in the banking sector in an economy. It makes it clear in which areas the banking institutions may be exposed to the risks, and how much sever different kinds of risks may be. Thus, it motivates the management to set a body of persons within the organization to monitor the risks, to try to avoid them and to overcome the problems created by these risks events.

МЕТОД ЭКСПЛУАТАЦИОННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ТРАНСПОРТНОЙ ЭНЕРГОЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬЮ АВТОМОБИЛЯ МАЛОЙ ГРУЗОПОДЪЕМНОСТИ

Considering the relevance of the scientific and technical problem of the light-duty vehicles’ energy efficiency operational control and transportation processes in a market economy, it is necessary to create methods for its solution at different stages of this cycle. The methods of the general use vehicles energy-resource efficiency theory are used to eliminate the paradoxical fragmentation of knowledge about the life cycle stages.Mathematical models of the transport energy efficiency indicators have been developed to meet the operational and technological challenges of the energy-saving reproduction of the road transport services at all stages of the light-duty vehicle life cycle.Based on the models developed, a method is proposed. This method will make it possible to choose a light-duty vehicle with the characteristics corresponding the development of the technical basis of the transport system according to the concept of operational and technological energy saving, and strategies to improve the technical and technological competitiveness of the future transport proposals.

A new elite? Higher education as seen through the lens of young people working in innovative technologies

This research explores the significance of higher education among 53 young people from Romania who received prizes in technical competitions, mainly for innovations in robotics and IT. Findings suggest they held strong views on higher education. For some, the conventional roles of university were still, pertinent. However, opting out university or dropping out as a choice were unanticipated findings. This research tentatively suggests that – at least in Romania – higher education in general and technical universities in particular, may fail some young people who are innovative and highly able. The paper communicates to the international literature on university dropout by signaling that the conventional view framed by a sense of failure or social disadvantage, may not always hold. It argues that the social inclusion focus of the ‘widening agenda' cannot entirely account for some recent transformations in young people’s sense of self and their personal notions of achievement.

Integrating Africa by Competition and Market Policy

Africa has the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The agreement will lower tariffs and facilitate internal market trade on the Continent, and policy makers hope that it will help lift 30 million people out of poverty. A competition protocol is now in the process of negotiation and proposals have been made ranging from a full, detailed, technical competition law as in the West to a scaffolding of regional cooperation. For the competition element of AfCFTA, this article makes a bold suggestion. Africa needs a basic but deep competition protocol, concentrating on the priorities “at the top.” It needs to rid the continent of insidious trade-and-competition restraints at member state borders that prevent African integration, requiring a joinder of trade-and-competition violations. And it needs a voice at the top to take a stand for the Continent, for example against the mega-mergers that hurt Africa. Only with these three elements –clear basic rules, trade/competition restraint prohibitions, and voice at the top, can Africa hope to realize the promise of Africa.

Research on Utilization of Ship Waste Heat

Since the oil crisis in 1973, world oil prices have continued to rise, and ship operating costs have risen year by year. In 2013, the ship energy efficiency design index formally took effect, setting a rigid indicator for ship CO2 emissions, bringing a new round of technical competition to ship construction, and the application of waste heat utilization technology has a significant effect on improving the efficiency of diesel engines.

Patent Analysis on the Trend of Ornamental Medicinal Plant Industry

Ornamental medicinal plant (OMP) is a type of emerging horticultural greening species with a bright prospect. In this paper, total 26 species of OMP were chosen as samples to analyze their situation of patent declaration and protection. In this way, a deep insight into OMP’s development trend can be brought forth. A set of statistical and bibliometric methods were used to analyze the technical competition situation of OMP from several aspects such as development trend, regional distribution, innovation subject, R&D hotspots etc. [Result]The results indicated that domestic OMP industry had a rapid development in the past decades. Eastern provinces, such as Anhui and Jiangsu, occupied a leading position. The enterprises were the main body of R&D, while the agricultural and forestry universities had individual advantages. The hotspot of patent protection focused on the horticultural technology. There were a large number of patent declarations on new varieties and specialized fertilizers as well. [Conclusion] Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 may play an important role in promoting the horticultural industry. By developing new varieties, strengthening industry-university-research cooperation and intellectual property, the OMP industry will get a rapid growth and become a new hot spot in the field of horticultural health in the near future.