Triple bottom-line consideration of sustainable plant disease management:From economic,sociological and ecological perspectives

Plant disease management plays an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals of the United Nations(UN)such as food security,human health,socio-economic improvement,resource conservation and ecological resilience.However,technologies available are often limited due to different interests between producers and society and lacks of proper understanding of economic thresholds and the complex interactions among ecology,productivity and profitability.A comprehensive synergy and conflict evaluation of economic,sociological and ecological effects with technologies,productions and evolutionary principles as main components should be used to guide sustainable disease management that aims to mitigate crop and economic losses in the short term while maintaining functional farm ecosystem in the long term.Consequently,there should be an increased emphasis on technology development,public education and information exchange among governments,researchers,producers and consumers to broaden the options for disease management in the future.

Influence of Internet Finance on the Financing of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in China

Small and medium-sized enterprises greatly promote the economic progress and growth of national tax revenue as well as realize the escalation of career opportunities.However,as these enterprises are relatively small scale and have low capacity to face and resist risks in addition to China's flawed financial credit system,there are many difficulties faced by these enterprises in terms of financing to achieve their own development and progress.Recently,owing to the progress of internet information,especially the expansion of its application in the financial field,it has opened up a way for handling the financing difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises.According to the specific financing situation of small and mediumsized enterprises in China,this study analyzes the impact of internet finance on the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises in China and formulates strategies to effectively deal with the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises in China,thus promoting the sustainable progress of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Transfer of Rural Surplus Labor and Vocational Education

The paper introduces about the rural surplus labor transfer.According to the paper,the transfer of rural surplus labor in China presents such fundamental characteristics as randomness and non-thoroughness,scope and field constraint,and hysteretic nature of employment and industrial structure conversion.Besides,the causes of the difficulties in the transfer of rural surplus labor lie in the barriers from the system and policy,structural imbalance of industry and low quality of rural labor.The paper studies the correlation between the quality and the transfer of rural surplus labor FORCE in a systematical way from three aspects,which are the correlations between rural labor quality and the transfer difficulty & speed,the transfer scope & field and the employment stability & income after transfer respectively.Moreover,the paper carries out analysis of the special effects of vocational education on the transfer of rural surplus labor in China,which shows that vocational education is a help in the improvement of cultural qualities,labor skills and physical & mental health of rural labor.

A Study on Improving the Financing Environment of Small and Micro Enterprises-Based on Taizhou Model

China’s small and micro enterprises have always had the typical characteristics of“five,six,seven,eight,nine,”which are important supports to expand employment and improve people’s livelihood.However,the current proportion of these enterprises in obtaining bank loans does not commensurate with the proportion of small,medium,and micro enterprises in the total economic aggregate.The financing dilemma of small and micro enterprises still exists.In consideration of the financing status of small and micro enterprises,this study analyzes the constraints of small and micro enterprises in financing,such as the difficulty in mortgage,difficulty in obtaining loans,and difficulty in guaranteeing.This study sorts out Taizhou’s practical experience and links its operation mechanism of“two platforms,one fund,and one index.”Finally,by learning from its successful experience,how to utilize the environment and the trend of big data will be further discussed,so as to form a scalable and sustainable financing method and path.This will provide a reference for improving the financing environment of small and micro enterprises.

Protection of Innovative Achievements,Spatial Spillover,and Internal Structural Upgrading of the Productive Service Industry-Empirical Evidence from 28 Provinces in China

This study measured the level of innovation achievement protection and the degree of internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in 28 provinces of China from 2000 to 2022.Exploratory spatial analysis methods were used to test the spatial correlation between the two variables,and the spatial impact of innovation achievement protection on the optimization of the internal structure of the productive service industry was examined at the national and sectoral levels.The results showed three main aspects of this system.(1)The agglomeration level of innovation achievement protection and internal structure optimization of the productive service industry between regions in China continued to increase during the sample period,and there was a clear similarity and synchronicity in the spatial evolution of the two variables.(2)The overall improvement in the protection level of innovative achievements is conducive to promoting the internal structural upgrading of China’s productive service industry.However,there are significant differences in the degree to which the protection of innovative achievements affects the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in the four major regions of the East,Central,Northeast,and West.The protection of innovative achievements in the East and Central regions significantly promotes the internal structural optimization of the productive service industry,while this effect is not significant in the western and northeastern regions.(3)The results of the robustness test indicate that the impact of internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in the previous year on the level of innovation achievement protection is not significant.The interference from abnormal values of the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in various regions and the influence of municipalities directly under the central government on the regression results are not significant.After replacing the main variable,the coefficient of the innovation achievement protection level remained significantly positive.The conclusions of this study supplement and improve the theory of innovation achievement protection and industrial transformation and upgrading,providing decision-making support for improving the level of innovation achievement protection and promoting the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industries in China.

Uncertainty of the Export VAT Rebate Policy:Measurement and Its Effects

Based on the export VAT rebate rate data from 2004 to 2015,this paper measures the uncertainty of Chinese export VAT rebate policy by using unexpected fluctuation of export VAT rebate rate,and finds that the index varies across products,years and industries.Then,the paper studies the influence of the uncertainty of export VAT rebate policy on China’s export growth from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.The research results show that this uncertainty reduces the expected profit of export enterprises and their optimal output,and significantly reduces the growth rate of the ordinary export that applies the export VAT rebate method,but it has no impact on the processing export.By decomposing total value of exports,it is found that the growth in the number of ordinary export relationship and average sales decrease with the increase of uncertainty,while the average price growth rate increases slightly,and these effects are only refl ected in the newly entered export relations.The findings suggest that when the uncertainty of export VAT rebate policy is high,enterprises are more cautious about entering the ordinary export market and more likely to adopt a lowquantity-high-price strategy.

Digital Trade Rules and the Position of Chinese Enterprises in the Global Value Chain

Digital trade rules and higher positions of enterprises in the global value chain(GVC)are both important topics in the context of high-quality economic development.This paper refers to the data of RTA digital trade rules concluded by China in the TAPED database in 2000-2014 and the matched data in the WIOD database,the China Customs Import and Export Database and the China Industrial Enterprise Database to investigate the effects of digital trade rules on Chinese enterprises as to their ascending GVC positions.It finds that signing the RTA digital trade rules can steadily and significantly promote the position ascendance;compared with the digitalization rules on trading objects,signing the digitalization rules on trade modes produces greater effects of driving up the positions,which are realized mainly via the three channels of advancing cross-border flow of R&D factors,promoting corporate digital transformation,and improving professional management.Digital trade rules that are horizontally broader and vertically deeper are in greater favor of Chinese enterprises for ascending in the global value chain,which is especially evident among those in digital industry and processing trade.During the negotiations of digital trade rules,it's imperative to pay close attention to the rules on e-commerce cooperation,awareness of e-commerce importance,intellectual property protection,attempts in big data-related trade in goods,and cross-border data flow,so as to secure the core interests of Chinese enterprises in gaining higher positions.This paper offers great policy implications as to how to sign digital trade rules by China in the future and how to select partners in greater support for Chinese enterprises to ascend to the middle and high end of the global value chain.

Industrial Green Spatial Pattern Evolution of Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

We use the directional slacks-based measure of efficiency and inverse distance weighting method to analyze the spatial pattern evolution of the industrial green total factor productivity of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in 2003–2013.Results show that both the subprime mortgage crisis and ‘the new normal' had significant negative effects on productivity growth,leading to the different spatial patterns between 2003–2008 and 2009–2013.Before 2008,green poles had gathered around some capital cities and formed a tripartite pattern,which was a typical core-periphery pattern.Due to a combination of the polarization and the diffusion effects,capital cities became the growth poles and ‘core' regions,while surrounding areas became the ‘periphery'.This was mainly caused by the innate advantage of capital cities and ‘the rise of central China' strategy.After 2008,the tripartite pattern changed to a multi-poles pattern where green poles continuously and densely spread in the midstream and downstream areas.This is due to the regional difference in the leading effect of green poles.The leading effect of green poles in midstream and downstream areas has changed from polarization to diffusion,while the polarization effect still leads in the upstream area.

Circular Economy in New Village Construction——A Case of Qinhuangdao City, China

On the strength of the theory of agricultural circular economy, the mutual relation between the development of agricultural circular economy and new village construction is analyzed. The results show that developing agricultural circular economy and constructing new village is the mutual promotion; realizing agricultural circular economy is the main target of new agricultural construction and developing agricultural circular economy is the way of realizing new village construction. The major problems in the development of agricultural circular economy in Qinhuangdao City are pointed out, covering weak ideological foundation of developing agricultural circular economy; inadequate directions from the government and insufficient technical and financial support. The countermeasures on developing agricultural circular economy in new village construction are put forward, including cultivating people's awareness on circular economy; establishing the law and regulation system of agricultural circular economy; intensifying the technical and model innovation of agricultural circular economy and accelerating the maketization pace of agro-products.

The impact of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in Sangzhi County,Hunan Province

In August 2011,the Sangzhi County government,Hunan Province,adopted a series of new health care policies as a national pilot of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme(referred to as 2011 NCMS).These policies were designed to further resolve illness-led poverty and the poor state of health care in the local area.The program had a positive impact and spread to other regions in Hunan Province.This paper will discuss the progress made as a result of the policies and several issues that challenge the scheme in practice.A total sample of 1212 individuals and 303 households were included in the analysis,and98 interviews were conducted with people related to the scheme.Our major findings indicate that the 201!NCMS has significantly reduced the out-of-pocket medical payment of rural residents,and also increased the township hospitals'patient flow.However,the medical scheme still faces many challenging issues during the implementation.With the increasing interest among the Chinese policy makers in strengthening and promoting the Sangzhi Model,the impacts of the scheme deserve greater attention in practice so as to further improve NCMS in rural China.

On the Expected Present Value of Total Dividends in a Risk Model with Potentially Delayed Claims

In this paper, we consider a risk model in which two types of individual claims, main claims and by-claims, are defined. Every by-claim is induced by the main claim randomly and may be delayed for one time period with a certain probability. The dividend policy that certain amount of dividends will be paid as long as the surplus is greater than a constant dividend barrier is also introduced into this delayed claims risk model. By means of the probability generating functions, formulae for the expected present value of total dividend payments prior to ruin are obtained for discrete-type individual claims. Explicit expressions for the corresponding results are derived for K n claim amount distributions. Numerical illustrations are also given.

The Fishery Industrial Structure in China Based on the Application of Shift-Share Analysis

Taking sixteen main fishery production regions as the study objects,this paper is to examine the fishery industrial structure and investigate the correlation between the economic growth of the fishery industry and the fishery industrial structure during the period 1997-2013 by the shift-share analysis. The study results show that( i) four types of regional industrial structure exist in the fishery industry in China;( ii)all the three sectors-fishing production,fish processing( manufacturing) and fish marketing( distribution),have emerged with large potential for promoting the national fishery industry growth,especially for the latter two;( iii) the factors of industry-mix and competitive position have significantly different impacts on the growth of fishery industry in different main fishery production regions. This study is one of the comprehensive studies on the status of regional fishery industrial structure,and the competitiveness of regional fishery industry in China.

Analysis on the Construction of Enterprise Practice Base for Vocational Education Teachers - Taking Industrial Park as an Example

Higher vocational education is the main place for cultivating high skilled talents.Only teachers with rich skills can cultivate excellent skilled talents.In order to promote the reform of vocational education,the focus should be on building a team of high-quality professional teachers.In the Opinions on Comprehensively Improving the Teaching Quality of Higher Vocational Education that was issued by the Ministry of Education,it has been proposed that professional teachers should be encouraged to practice in enterprises,accumulate practical work experience,and improve practical teaching ability.The purpose of the vocational education community is to establish an enterprise practice base to meet the needs of the modem industry as well as effectively cultivate technical and skilled talents in line with enterprises.The industrial park industry is used as an example in this article to explore the operation mode of enterprise practice base in adapting to the development of the modem industry as well as to better serve the development of vocational teachers and the improvement of studentsJ professional ability.

In put Trade Liberalizati on and the Export Durati on of Products:Evidence from China

This paper introduces a quasi-natural experimental framework into trade policy evaluation and reassesses China s trade liberalization through the survival of export products.We use propensity score matching and China s dual trade system to design a quasi-natural experiment based on Chinese industrial enterprises,customs import and export,and tariff data over the period of 2000-2006;we then use survival analysis to study the impacts of China s trade liberalization on the export duration of manufacturing firms9 products.We find that the substantial reduction in import tariffs after China s accession to the World Trade Organization enhances the export duration of firm products,indicating that trade liberalization ameliorates the survival of export products.The promotion effects of tariff reduction on export duration are obviously stronger for core products than for noncore products.

Collaborative Diffusion Model of Information and Behavior in Social Networks

Information diffusion may lead to behaviors related to information content.This paper considers the co-existence of information and behavior diffusion in social networks.The state of users is divided into six categories,and the rules and model of collaborative diffusion of information and behavior are established.The influence of different parameters and conditions on the proportions of behavior diffusion nodes and information diffusion ones is analyzed experimentally.The results show that the proportion of nodes taking action in uniform networks is higher than that in non-uniform networks.Although users are more likely to take actions related to information content after spreading or knowing information,the results show that it has little influence on the proportion of users taking action.The proportion is mainly affected by the probability that users who do not take action become ones who take.The greater the probability,the less the proportion of nodes who know information.In addition,compared with choosing the same node as the initial information and behavior diffusion node,choosing different nodes is more beneficial to the diffusion of behaviors related to information content.

Industrial Policy,Product Switching,and Export Performance

Industrial policy can promote economic growth and industrial upgrading by encouraging enterprises to adopt product switching.By utilizing comprehensive industrial policies and customs trade databases from 2000 to 2015,this paper found that firms with product ranges within policy-supported areas were more active in product switching.Among all the enterprises that adopted the product switching,those with nonmain products in policy-supported areas were more inclined to adjust their main product.They tended to transform nonmain product to main product as opposed to introducing new main product in order to effectively leverage their export experience and established technology.Whereas,for enterprises whose main product was within the policy-supported areas,their tendency to switch products significantly decreased.Mechanism analysis suggested that policy support,by alleviating industry distress and mitigating excessive market competition,encouraged firms to switch products to areas with policy backing.Moreover,we estimated trade performance after product switching from the perspective of product unit price and export product quality.We found that for firms whose main product was in policy-supported areas,such switching was more likely to result in“low price,high quality”exports,whereas for firms with nonmain products in supported areas,such switching was more likely to lead to“high price,low quality”exports,which indicates that firms switching to policy-supported areas need to continuously develop their core competencies and operate effectively to improve their production performance.

Multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm using Cauchy mutation and improved crowding distance

Purpose-Multi-objective is a complex problem that appears in real life while these objectives are conflicting.The swarm intelligence algorithm is often used to solve such multi-objective problems.Due to its strong search ability and convergence ability,particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed,and the multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to solve multi-objective optimization problems.However,the particles of particle swarm optimization algorithm are easy to fall into local optimization because of their fast convergence.Uneven distribution and poor diversity are the two key drawbacks of the Pareto front of multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm.Therefore,this paper aims to propose an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm using adaptive Cauchy mutation and improved crowding distance.Design/methodology/approach-In this paper,the proposed algorithm uses adaptive Cauchy mutation and improved crowding distance to perturb the particles in the population in a dynamic way in order to help the particles trapped in the local optimization jump out of it which improves the convergence performance consequently.Findings-In order to solve the problems of uneven distribution and poor diversity in the Pareto front of multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm,this paper uses adaptive Cauchy mutation and improved crowding distance to help the particles trapped in the local optimization jump out of the local optimization.Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has obvious advantages in convergence performance for nine benchmark functions compared with other multi-objective optimization algorithms.Originality/value-In order to help the particles trapped in the local optimization jump out of the local optimization which improves the convergence performance consequently,this paper proposes an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm using adaptive Cauchy mutation and improved crowding distance.

Dynamic Changes of China’s Functional Specialization in Export and International Comparison under Global Value Chains

The functional specialization in export of a country(and its sectors)in different activities,such as fabrication,R&D,management and marketing,is crucial to its governance and control on the value chains,which magnifies the shortage of the existing aggregate value added studies on our understanding of global value chains(GVCs).Considering production fragmentation at both the spatial and functional levels,this paper defines the modified functional specialization indicators at the national and sectoral levels from the forward linkage(rather than backward linkage).Based on the World Input-Output Database together with the newly compiled Labor Occupations Database,this paper re-estimates and analyzes the functional specialization and changes in China and major developed economies’exports.The results show that China’s export is mainly specialized in fabrication activity,which is among the world leading level,while it is weak in headquarter activities(especially R&D and management),which is almost locked at the lowest level in the world and could not pose an export threat to the developed economies.China’s manufacturing basically follows the functional development path of“relying on fabrication,entering market,targeting management and R&D”,featuring the coexistence of“strong”fabrication and“weak”management and R&D.The fabrication specialization of the typical processing sector“electronic and optical equipment”has reached the international leading level.The level of functional specialization of China’s service industry is generally lower than that of manufacturing and generally lags behind in the world,indicating that China still has a long way to go before becoming a major power of service in the world.Finally,this paper proposes policy implications and further researches that can be extended.

Does Anyone Benefit？ - A Quantitative Effect Analysis on US Punitive Tariffs on Chinese PV Imports from a Global Perspective

Financial support from National Science Foundation for Distinguished Youth （Grant No.70925006）, National Natural Sciences Fund Program （Grant No.71103059）, Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Program of the Ministry of Education （Grant No. 10YJC7902930）, is gratefully acknowledged. Authors highly appreciate the comments of anonymous reviewers and take sole responsibility for this paper.

FDI＇s Spillover Effects on China＇s Growth Quality

Using panel data of 29 regions in China from 1999 to 2007, this paper presents a systematic evaluation of how FDI＇s spillover effects impact the quality of China＇s indigenous econotnic growth, Research outcomes suggest that technology transfers and diffusion have a positive effect on indigenous growth quality. Spitlover effects （mainly competition effect） have primarily negatively affected indigenous growth quality. The effect on indigenous growth quality is positive only in sub-samples with high foreign capital concentration and ,,hen the spillover effect is similar to the technology transfer and diffusion effect brought about by localization. It is also found that technology gaps, foreign capital concentration and value added ratio gaps are important factors affecting the impact of technology transfer and diffusion on indigenous economic growth.