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The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty on firms' labor investment decision, which includes labor investment level and efficiency, especially human capital allocation.

This paper uses Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for China and Chinese A-share listed firms in the period 2002–2016 to constructs a sample of 20,779 firm-year observations and applies the methods of pooled OLS regressions to do an empirical study.

This paper finds that firms' labor investment is negatively correlated with economic policy uncertainty. And firms' labor investment efficiency (and overinvestment in labor) is positively (negatively) correlated with economic policy uncertainty, which is more significant for non-SOEs and firms with less government intervention. Further, the positive relation between economic policy uncertainty and labor investment efficiency is more significant for labor-intensive firms, firms in competitive industry, firms in developed labor market and firms under strong labor law protection. In addition, economic policy uncertainty induces firms to make adjustment on human capital structure and allocate more employees with high human capital, which eventually helps firms achieve higher total factor productivity.

The study of this paper indicates that the government needs to consider economic policies' impact on firms when introducing and changing policies and guide firms to improve human capital allocation under different internal and external conditions to finally realize the optimal allocation of social resources.

This paper studies the influence of external economic policy environment on firms' labor investment decision, which lacks adequate attention in the literature and indicates that under economic policy uncertainty, firms actively decrease labor demand and increase labor investment efficiency by optimizing human capital allocation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a condition‐based replacement and spare provisioning policy for deteriorating systems with a number of identical units.

The deterioration of units is modeled based on discrete‐time Markov chains, which can be classified into one of a finite number of states. Then, a condition‐based replacement and spare provisioning policy is proposed for deteriorating systems with a number of identical units. This policy combines the condition‐based replacement policy and the (S, s) type inventory policy, where S is the maximum stock level and s is the reorder level. The Monte Carlo approach is utilized for evaluating the average cost rate of the system under the proposed policy. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the performance of the proposed policy, as well as the sensitivity analysis of cost parameters.

The negative influences of increasing the lead time can be reduced by optimizing the decisions of condition‐based replacement and spare order based on the proposed policy.

This policy would be applicable for jointly optimizing the spare provisioning decisions and the condition‐based maintenance of the units in deteriorating systems (e.g. a group of identical motors included in a fleet of vehicles).

The paper considers simultaneously two aspects that influence condition‐based maintenance decisions: the availability of spares and the deterioration state of units.

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

Originating from a theoretical stance that situates knowledge organization in its social context, the study applies a multifaceted framework pertaining to five categories of textual data: the Seven Epitomes; biographical information about the classificationist Liu Xin; and the relevant intellectual, political, and technological history.

The study discovers seven principles contributing to the epistemic foundation of the catalogue's classification: the Han imperial library collection imposed as the literary warrant; government functions considered for structuring texts; classicist morality determining the main classificatory structure; knowledge perceived and organized as a unity; objects, rather than subjects, of concern affecting categories at the main class level; correlative thinking connecting all text categories to a supreme knowledge embodied by the Six Classics; and classicist moral values resulting in both vertical and horizontal hierarchies among categories as well as texts.

A major limitation of the study is its focus on the main classes, with limited attention to subclasses. Future research can extend the analysis to examine subclasses of the same scheme. Findings from these studies may lead to a comparison between the epistemic approach in the target classification and the analytic one common in today's bibliographic classification.

The study is the first to examine in depth the epistemic foundation of traditional Chinese bibliographic classification, anchoring the classification in its appropriate social and historical context.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) of People’s Republic of China, the highest organ of state power, is popularly seen as a rubber-stamp entity. However, it has been substantially evolving its roles to accommodate the governance discourses within China’s political system over the decades. This study aims to explore the changes of governance discourse of the NPC within China’s political system through which to offer a thorough understanding of the NPC’s evolving substantial role in current China.

This study deploys a historical approach to explore the changes of governance discourse of the NPC that has seen a growing importance in China’s political agenda, as argued by this study.

The authors find that the NPC has been substantially evolving its role within China’s political system in which the Chinese Communist Party has created different governance discourses. Besides, the NPC and its Standing Committee have asserted its authority as a substantial actor within China’s political system. The NPC is no longer functioned as a rubber-stamp institution, though it is still popularized as a rubber stamp by many scholars.

This study is a historical elaboration on the development of NPC under three governance discourses. It might be, to some extent, relatively descriptive in nature.

This study, therefore, sheds some light on a revisit on the governance discourses in current China.

China's rise as a major player in world affairs has contributed significantly to the global interest in the study of Chinese language, society, and culture. Its emerging importance has also increased the need for China‐related library materials and information provision to China scholars and the general public in recent years. This paper seeks to trace the historical transformation and renewed interest in China studies and the growing demand placed on Asian or East Asian libraries that support China studies in the USA.

The paper is a general review of the issues and challenges facing libraries in the West, which serve Chinese scholars, with the increasing demand for China‐related library materials and information resources, as well as for delivery of such information resources.

The paper identifies the issues and challenges facing libraries in the West that serve China scholars. The importance of collection building in China studies, the role of Chinese studies librarians, professional support for East Asian studies librarians in North America, and the changing outlook of academic libraries is highlighted.

In a world that is increasingly more global, Asian or East Asian libraries must gain better understanding if the issues and best practices to effectively provide information service through collaboration and resource sharing with partners in Asia to achieve true global collections.

The paper presents possible measures that can be undertaken to bridge the difference between the East and West. Specifically, the paper addresses concerns libraries outside China encounter and proposes suggestions regarding resource sharing, balancing a Chinese collection in a networked environment, financial challenges, continuing education, and bibliographic control.

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence young consumers' purchase intention towards dietary supplements (DS) in Malaysia.

The supplement industry in Malaysia has been growing rapidly recently due to a paradigm shift in healthcare management, from curative to prevention. Thus, it has sparked interest to conduct a study on the factors that influence young consumers' purchase intentions towards DS. With a response rate of 74.5%, a survey questionnaire was used to elicit data from 149 Gen-Y respondents who consume supplements on a regular basis.

The results revealed that the influencing factors towards purchase decisions among these Gen-Y respondents aged between 17 and 25 are based on product knowledge and product quality. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are outlined at the end of this paper.

This study offers empirical insights from the perspective of an emerging digital economy on the factors that influence young consumers' purchase intentions towards DS in Malaysia.

Through the tracer fiber method, we strive to more accurately obtain the hook degree, straightening degree, percentage and other characteristic indexes. In order to intuitively represent the hook state from sliver to yarn, and feed back production information in combination with quality test.

Taking the cotton fiber as an example, the hooked fibers were studied by using the tracer fiber method. Tracer fibers were made from cotton-type viscose fibers. Tracer fibers and combed cotton fibers were uniformly mixed for many times and used to produce the card sliver, semi-drawn sliver, drawn sliver, roving and yarn. With the help of ZF-20D ultraviolet analyzer, geometric parameters of hooked fibers were measured, and characterization indexes were calculated. And hook indexes and quality indexes were compared.

By redefining and reclassifying hooked fibers, the change of hooked fibers in the process was tracked and characterized carefully. Some hooks in card sliver are straightened but not eliminated, and will form longer zero-angled hooks in the subsequent process. The straightening degree and number of zero-angled hooks affect the evenness CV mainly.

The characterization of hooked fibers is important for reducing hooked fibers and spinning high quality yarns. There is no uniform standard for the characterization of hooked fibers at present. Most studies are about relationship between process and hook in carding and drawing. There is no research on hooked fibers in the whole spinning process. In the paper, hooked fibers were redefined and reclassified, the change of hooked fibers in the process was tracked and characterized carefully.

The modified Reynolds equation for non-Newtonian lubricant is derived using the viscous adsorption theory for thin-film elastohydrodynamic lubrication (TFEHL) of circular contacts. The proposed model can reasonably calculate the phenomenon in the thin-film lubrication (TFL) unexplained by the conventional EHL model. The differences between classical EHL and TFEHL with the non-Newtonian lubricants are discussed.

The power-law lubricating film between the elastic surfaces is modeled in the form of three layers: two adsorption layers on each surface and one middle layer. The modified Reynolds equation with power-law fluid is derived for TFEHL of circular contacts using the viscous adsorption theory. The finite difference method and the Gauss–Seidel iteration method are used to solve the modified Reynolds equation, elasticity deformation, lubricant rheology equations and load balance equations simultaneously.

The simulation results reveal that the present model can reasonably calculate the pressure distribution, the film thickness, the velocity distribution and the average viscosity in TFL with non-Newtonian lubricants. The thickness and viscosity of the adsorption layer and the flow index significantly influence the lubrication characteristics of the contact conjunction.

The present model can reasonably predict the average viscosity, the turning point and the derivation (log film thickness vs log speed) phenomena in the TFEHL under constant load conditions.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.

The objective of the study is to identify and analyse drivers of smart manufacturing using integrated grey-based approaches. The analysis facilitates industry practitioners in the identification of preference of drivers through which smart manufacturing can be implemented. These drivers are explored based on existing literature and expert opinion.

Modern manufacturing firms have been adopting smart manufacturing concepts to sustain in the global competitive landscape. Smart manufacturing incorporates integrated technologies with a flexible workforce to interlink the cyber and physical world. In order to facilitate the effective deployment of smart manufacturing, key drivers need to be analysed. This article presents a study in which 25 drivers of smart manufacturing and 8 criteria are analysed. Integrated grey Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (grey TOPSIS) is applied to rank the drivers. The derived ranking is validated using “Complex Proportional Assessment – Grey” (COPRAS-G) approach.

In total, 25 drivers with 8 criteria are being considered and an integrated grey TOPSIS approach is applied. The ranking order of drivers is obtained and further sensitivity analysis is also done.

In the present study, 25 drivers of smart manufacturing are analysed. In the future, additional drivers could be considered.

The study presented has been done with inputs from industry experts, and hence the inferences have practical relevance. Industry practitioners need to focus on these drivers in order to implement smart manufacturing in industry.

The analysis of drivers of smart manufacturing is the original contribution of the authors.