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The purpose of this paper is to identify the impacts of financing constraints on the quality upgrading of China's agri-food sector.

Our empirical study is performed using the “distance to the frontier” framework. We employ a merged sample of Chinese agri-food trading firms based on Chinese firm-level data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China and Chinese customs data. To verify robustness, we test whether the results hold when using different definitions of quality upgrading and alternative proxy variables for product quality and financing constraints. To examine the heterogeneous effects, we generate subsamples by firm location, export destination and the product sophistication of exports.

The results suggest that financing constraints have a significant negative impact on the product quality upgrading of Chinese agri-food export firms. In addition, the negative impacts of financing constraints are more severe for firms close to the quality frontier than for those far from the frontier. These results are robust to various checks. Moreover, the heterogeneous effects of financing constraints on quality upgrading are identified when the sample is split according to firm location, export destination and the sophistication of export products.

This paper reviews and applies some recent studies in the literature to investigate the relationship between financing constraints and the product quality upgrading of agri-food export firms in China. Overall, the results of this paper could be considered of importance for promoting the quality upgrading of export products in the China's agri-food sector.

This paper aims to determine whether domestic cotton support permitted by the current or potential World Trade Organization (WTO) rules would be sufficient to compensate the cost to China's cotton farmers if the sliding scale duty (SSD) on cotton imports is removed.

The simulation was conducted using a static spatial equilibrium model (SEM) of the world cotton market. First, a base model was specified to provide a good representation of the world cotton market's conditions. Second, simulations were conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing the SSD and subsidizing cotton producers pursuant to the current or potential WTO rules on domestic cotton support.

The results of the simulations suggest that China's cotton farmers are bound to incur losses. In either case, cotton subsidies permitted by the current or potential WTO rules are not sufficient to compensate for the cost to China's cotton producers if the SSD is eliminated.

It should be pointed out that these findings could suffer from a bias, primarily because the authors assumed that the WTO's blue box subsidies have no incentives for farmers to produce, and no substitution between cotton and alternative products. Thus, additional work is needed to reflect a more realistic situation in future studies.

The simulation estimation contributes to a better understanding of the issue of whether China should replace the current SSD with cotton subsidies to protect cotton producers.

Safety cognitive ability is a key factor influencing unsafe behavior. However, the existing achievements have not yet involved the division of the hierarchical relationship of factors influencing safety cognition and lack a quantitative evaluation system of safety cognitive ability. The purpose of this paper is to find out the deficiencies in the safety cognition of workers in high-risk construction positions and to provide practical suggestions for improving their safety cognitive ability and reducing unsafe behavior.

Based on the iceberg model, the factors influencing the safety cognitive ability of workers in high-risk construction positions and their hierarchical relationship were determined, and an evaluation index system consisting of four primary indicators and 20 secondary indicators was constructed. The game theory algorithm was used to optimize the subjective and objective weights of the indicators calculated by the sequential analysis method (G1) and the entropy weighting method (EWM) to obtain the optimal combination weight value. The Matlab software was used for cloud mapping and similarity calculation to determine the safety cognitive ability level of the object to be evaluated.

The research results indicate that the comprehensive level of safety cognitive ability of scaffolders in this construction project is at “Level III”, the fundamental factors and compliance factors are at “Level IV”, the auxiliary factors and driving factors are at “Level III”. This conclusion aligns with the situation learned from the previous field investigation, which validates the feasibility and scientificity of the proposed evaluation method.

Considering that the safety cognitive ability of construction workers is constantly changing, this study has not yet delved into the specific impacts of various influencing factors on the level of safety cognitive ability. Future research can utilize simulation software, such as MATLAB and Vensim, to construct dynamic simulation models that accurately simulate the changing rules of construction workers’ safety cognitive ability under the influence of different factors.

This research broadens the application scope of the iceberg model, enriches the analysis model of the factors influencing the safety cognitive ability of workers in high-risk construction positions and provides a novel perspective for similar research. The safety cognitive ability evaluation method proposed in this paper can not only accurately evaluate the safety cognitive ability level of workers in high-risk positions such as scaffolders but also provide practical suggestions for improving the safety cognitive ability of workers, which is of great significance to improve the safety management level and reduce unsafe behavior in the construction field.

This research fills the research gap of workers in high-risk construction positions and the quantification of safety cognitive ability. The iceberg model is used to realize the hierarchical division of the factors influencing safety cognitive ability. Additionally, an evaluation method for the safety cognitive ability of workers in high-risk construction positions based on the game theory combination weighting method and cloud model is proposed, which realizes the quantitative evaluation of safety cognitive ability.

Crack and stress distribution on dies are key issues for the pressure-assisted sintering bonding of power modules. The purpose of this research is to build a relationship among stress distributions, sintering sequences and sintering pressures during the sintering processes.

Three sintering sequences, S(a), S(b) and S(c), have been designed for the double-side assembly of power module in this paper. Experiments and finite element method (FEM) analysis are conducted to investigate the crack and stress distribution.

The sintering sequence had significant effects on the crack generation in the chips during the sintering process under 30-MPa pressure. The simulation results revealed that the module sintered by S(a) showed lower chip stress than those by the other two sintering sequences under 30 MPa. In contrast, the chip stress is the highest when the sintering sequence follows S(b). The simulation results explained the crack generation and prolongation in the experiments. S(a) was recommended as the best sintering sequence because of the lowest chip stress and highest yield rate.

This study investigated the stress distributions of the double-side sintered power modules under different sintering pressures. Based on the results of experiments and FEM analysis, the best sintering sequence design is provided under various sintering pressures.

The hollow copper wires of the generator are seriously corroded in cooling water. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of copper corrosion by thermodynamic calculation and kinetic experiments and to find out the precise pH range for preventing corrosion of copper in stator internal water and dual internal water cooled generators.

Thermodynamic and kinetic studies were carried out for the purpose of preventing the corrosion of hollow conducting copper wires in the internal cooling water. Thermodynamic calculation results demonstrate hollow copper wires electrochemically corroded by oxygen rather than acids (H+) and find out a precise anti-corrosion pH range. Kinetic experiments research on the effect of the pH value and oxygen concentration on corrosion and protection methods of copper in desalted water.

Research results demonstrate that, in the internal cooling water, hollow copper wires are electrochemically corroded by oxygen, rather than acids (H+). The method of preventing copper from corrosion in the desalted water is to control the pH value of the stator cooling water and the dual water inner cooling water between 7.86-8.86 and 7.86-9.26, respectively.

The thermodynamic calculation and potentiometric-pH diagram are used to obtain the accurate pH range of the inner cooling water and inner cooling water in the inner cooling water system. The kinetic experiments provide data support for the effect of temperature, pH value and oxygen concentration.

This study aims to identify managerial competencies required for successful middle managers in China.

First a questionnaire survey was distributed among MBA and EMBA students at a major university in China, and then two case studies were conducted to collect more in‐depth data.

The findings of this study suggest that team building, communication, coordination, execution and continual learning are critical competencies for the success of middle managers in China. Implications for future research and practices are also discussed.

The literature review shows that although previous leadership competency studies are extensive, little research has been conducted to explore the competencies required for middle managers. This study would contribute to fill the gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling and to study its potential effects on rural development.

Using household survey data collected from five provinces of China in 2010, this paper assesses farmer’s attitudes toward land titling and examines the potential effects of land titling on rural land transferring and labor migration.

Rural residential land titling has significant effects on farmers’ attitudes toward land transferring and their migration intention. Farmers who have more non-agricultural development opportunities are more likely to welcome land titling. The titling of rural residential land could provide secure property rights for farmers, and thus stimulate them to trade, mortgage their rural residential property, and migrate to urban areas.

Land titling in rural China will probably affect rural land transferring and encourage rural labor migrate to urban, and thus promote rural development.

This paper investigates farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling, and examines its potential effects on rural land transferring and labor migration, based on national survey data. This paper sheds new lights on farmers’ demand for types of land tenure reforms and how these reforms would affect the perceived opportunities available for farmers.

Due to climate change and an increasing concentration of the world’s population in vulnerable areas, how to manage catastrophe risk efficiently and cover disaster losses fairly is still a universal dilemma.

This paper applies a law and economic approach.

China’s mechanism for managing catastrophic disaster risk is in many ways unique. It emphasizes government responsibilities and works well in many respects, especially in disaster emergency relief. Nonetheless, China’s mechanism which has the vestige of a centrally planned economy needs reform.

I propose a catastrophe insurance market-enhancing framework which marries the merits of both the market and government to manage catastrophe risks. There are three pillars of the framework: (i) sustaining a strong and capable government; (ii) government enhancement of the market, neither supplanting nor retarding it; (iii) legalizing the relationship between government and market to prevent government from undermining well-functioning market operations. A catastrophe insurance market-enhancing framework may provide insights for developing catastrophe insurance in China and other transitional nations.

First, this paper analyzes China’s mechanism for managing catastrophic disaster risks and China’s approach which emphasizes government responsibilities will shed light on solving how to manage catastrophe risk efficiently and cover disaster losses fairly. Second, this paper starts a broader discussion about government stimulation of developing catastrophe insurance and this framework can stimulate attention to solve the universal dilemma.

Fault diagnosis methods based on blind source separation (BSS) for rolling element bearings are necessary tools to prevent any unexpected accidents. In the field application, the actual signal acquisition is usually hindered by certain restrictions, such as the limited number of signal channels. The purpose of this study is to fulfill the weakness of the existed BSS method.

To deal with this problem, this paper proposes a blind source extraction (BSE) method for bearing fault diagnosis based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and temporal correlation. First, a single-channel undetermined BSS problem is transformed into a determined BSS problem using the EMD algorithm. Then, the desired fault signal is extracted from selected intrinsic mode functions with a multi-shift correlation method.

Experimental results prove the extracted fault signal can be easily identified through the envelope spectrum. The application of the proposed method is validated using simulated signals and rolling element bearing signals of the train axle.

This paper proposes an underdetermined BSE method based on the EMD and the temporal correlation method for rolling element bearings. A simulated signal and two bearing fault signal from the train rolling element bearings show that the proposed method can well extract the bearing fault signal. Note that the proposed method can extract the periodic fault signal for bearing fault diagnosis. Thus, it should be helpful in the diagnosis of other rotating machinery, such as gears or blades.

Drawing on recent literature and empirical data, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between perceived organizational support (POS), perceived overqualification (POQ) and turnover intentions (TI) in repatriates working in multinational corporations (MNCs).

Survey data were collected from 145 repatriates who had been contacted beforehand from MNCs in China. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression are used to examine the data.

It is shown that POQ and POS both affect repatriates TI, with POQ having the stronger effect, while POS plays a mediatory role between POQ and TI. Specifically, under the same POQ, repatriates TI will decrease as the POS increases.

The study design is cross-sectional and based on self-reporting, which makes causal explanations of the results difficult.

POQ and POS are both shown to influence TI, with POQ having the greater effect. This means managers can offset the effect of repatriates POQ on TI by providing better support and assistance, which can help MNCs reduce repatriates TI and retain employees.

This paper examines the antecedents of TI, and adds valuable new insights to the literature on repatriation through its research data, offering further evidence that managers in transnational corporations should pay more attention to organizational support policy on repatriates in order to reduce their turnover.