Can whole steps of grain production be outsourced? Empirical analysis based on the three provinces of Jiangsu,Jilin,and Sichuan in China

Certain outsourcing services for agricultural management in China,such as pest control in grain production,have experienced prolonged sluggishness,contrasting with the relatively high level of outsourcing services observed in harvesting,land preparation,and sowing.This study examines the feasibility of implementing whole-step outsourcing in grain production by conducting a case study of rice and maize production in Jiangsu,Jilin,and Sichuan provinces in China.The provision of outsourcing services hinges on two essential conditions:technological advancements fostering specialized production and economies of scale,coupled with a market size sufficient to realize the aforementioned potential economies of scale.The results showed that outsourcing pest control or harvesting services had varying economies of scale.The outsourcing services in pest control were less common than in harvesting services,and their marginal growth space of the economies of scale with technological change was also smaller.Determined by the operational characteristics of pest control itself,the market scale of its professional services is small.Therefore,achieving the whole-step outsourcing of grain production necessitates not only technological innovation but also effective policy interventions to overcome the constraints of market scale.Such interventions include(1)optimizing crop layouts between planning regions and reducing land fragmentation and(2)supplying timely and effective inter-regional agricultural information for service providers aided by information technology.

Strategic Contracting for Software Upgrade Outsourcing in Industry 4.0

The advent of Industry 4.0 has compelled businesses to adopt digital approaches that combine software toenhance production efficiency. In this rapidly evolving market, software development is an ongoing process thatmust be tailored to meet the dynamic needs of enterprises. However, internal research and development can beprohibitively expensive, driving many enterprises to outsource software development and upgrades to externalservice providers. This paper presents a software upgrade outsourcing model for enterprises and service providersthat accounts for the impact of market fluctuations on software adaptability. To mitigate the risk of adverseselection due to asymmetric information about the service provider’s cost and asymmetric information aboutthe enterprise’s revenues, we propose pay-per-time and revenue-sharing contracts in two distinct informationasymmetry scenarios. These two contracts specify the time and transfer payments for software upgrades. Througha comparative analysis of the optimal solutions under the two contracts and centralized decision-making withfull-information, we examine the characteristics of the solutions under two information asymmetry scenarios andanalyze the incentive effects of the two contracts on the various stakeholders. Overall, our study offers valuableinsights for firms seeking to optimize their outsourcing strategies and maximize their returns on investment insoftware upgrades.

Trusted Certified Auditor Using Cryptography for Secure Data Outsourcing and Privacy Preservation in Fog-Enabled VANETs

With the recent technological developments,massive vehicular ad hoc networks(VANETs)have been established,enabling numerous vehicles and their respective Road Side Unit(RSU)components to communicate with oneanother.The best way to enhance traffic flow for vehicles and traffic management departments is to share thedata they receive.There needs to be more protection for the VANET systems.An effective and safe methodof outsourcing is suggested,which reduces computation costs by achieving data security using a homomorphicmapping based on the conjugate operation of matrices.This research proposes a VANET-based data outsourcingsystem to fix the issues.To keep data outsourcing secure,the suggested model takes cryptography models intoaccount.Fog will keep the generated keys for the purpose of vehicle authentication.For controlling and overseeingthe outsourced data while preserving privacy,the suggested approach considers the Trusted Certified Auditor(TCA).Using the secret key,TCA can identify the genuine identity of VANETs when harmful messages aredetected.The proposed model develops a TCA-based unique static vehicle labeling system using cryptography(TCA-USVLC)for secure data outsourcing and privacy preservation in VANETs.The proposed model calculatesthe trust of vehicles in 16 ms for an average of 180 vehicles and achieves 98.6%accuracy for data encryption toprovide security.The proposedmodel achieved 98.5%accuracy in data outsourcing and 98.6%accuracy in privacypreservation in fog-enabled VANETs.Elliptical curve cryptography models can be applied in the future for betterencryption and decryption rates with lightweight cryptography operations.

Research on the Status Quo and Countermeasures of Human Resource Management Outsourcing in China’s Pharmaceutical Enterprises

Objective To explore the current situation of human resource management outsourcing in China’s pharmaceutical enterprises,and to put forward some suggestions for enterprises and the government.Methods The current situation of human resource management outsourcing in China’s pharmaceutical enterprises was analyzed through the method of literature research.Results and Conclusion At present,the status of human resource management outsourcing in China’s pharmaceutical companies is that the level of human resource outsourcing companies is not high,and there are no relevant industry norms and laws.The information asymmetry between pharmaceutical enterprises and outsourcing companies results in adverse selection and moral hazard.Besides,the different culture of pharmaceutical enterprises and outsourcing companies leads to inefficient communication between enterprises and employee.To solve these problems,the government should promote and improve industry norms and laws to regulate the market.In addition,enterprises should clarify the motivation for outsourcing and make good decision on the outsourcing content.Meanwhile,enterprises should strengthen communication with employees to eliminate employees’concerns.

Breeding against mycorrhizal symbiosis:Modern cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties perform more poorly than older varieties except at very high phosphorus supply levels

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an importantfiber cash crop,but its root traits related to phosphorus (P) acquisition,including mycorrhizal root traits,are poorly understood.Eight cotton varieties bred in northwestern China that were released between 1950 and 2013 were grown in pots with or without one arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) species(Funneliformis mosseae) at three P supply levels (0,50 and 300 mg P as KH_(2)PO_(4)kg^(-1)).Eleven root traits were measured and calculated after 7 wk of growth.The more recent accessions had smaller root diameters,acquired less P and produced less biomass,indicating an (inadvertent) varietal selection for thinner roots that provided less cortical space for AMF,which then increased the need for a high P fertilizer level.At the two lower P levels,the mycorrhizal plants acquired more P and produced more biomass than non-mycorrhizal plants (3.2 vs.0.9 mg P per plant;1.8 vs.0.9 g biomass per plant at P_(0);14.5 vs.1.7 mg P per plant;and 4.7 vs.1.6 g biomass per plant at P_(50)).At the highest P level,the mycorrhizal plants acquired more P than non-mycorrhizal plants (18.8 vs.13.4 mg per P plant),but there was no difference in biomass (6.2 vs.6.3 g per plant).At the intermediate P level,root diameter was significantly positively correlated with shoot biomass,P concentration and the P content of mycorrhizal plants.The results of our study support the importance of the outsourcing model of P acquisition in the root economics space framework.Inadvertent varietal selection in the last decades,resulting in thinner roots and a lower benefit from AMF,has led to a lower productivity of cotton varieties at moderate P supply (i.e.,when mycorrhizal,the average biomass of older varieties 5.0 g per plant vs.biomass of newer varieties 4.4 g per plant),indicating the need to rethink cotton breeding efforts in order to achieve high yields without very high P input.One feasible way to solve the problem of inadvertent varietal selection for cotton is to be aware of the trade-offs between the root do-it-yourself strategy and the outsourcing towards AMF strategy,and to consider both morphological and mycorrhizal root traits when breeding cotton varieties.

Offshore Software Maintenance Outsourcing Process Model Validation:A Case Study Approach

The successful execution and management of Offshore Software Maintenance Outsourcing(OSMO)can be very beneficial for OSMO vendors and the OSMO client.Although a lot of research on software outsourcing is going on,most of the existing literature on offshore outsourcing deals with the outsourcing of software development only.Several frameworks have been developed focusing on guiding software systemmanagers concerning offshore software outsourcing.However,none of these studies delivered comprehensive guidelines for managing the whole process of OSMO.There is a considerable lack of research working on managing OSMO from a vendor’s perspective.Therefore,to find the best practices for managing an OSMO process,it is necessary to further investigate such complex and multifaceted phenomena from the vendor’s perspective.This study validated the preliminary OSMO process model via a case study research approach.The results showed that the OSMO process model is applicable in an industrial setting with few changes.The industrial data collected during the case study enabled this paper to extend the preliminary OSMO process model.The refined version of the OSMO processmodel has four major phases including(i)Project Assessment,(ii)SLA(iii)Execution,and(iv)Risk.

Project Assessment in Offshore Software Maintenance Outsourcing Using Deep Extreme Learning Machines

Software maintenance is the process of fixing,modifying,and improving software deliverables after they are delivered to the client.Clients can benefit from offshore software maintenance outsourcing(OSMO)in different ways,including time savings,cost savings,and improving the software quality and value.One of the hardest challenges for the OSMO vendor is to choose a suitable project among several clients’projects.The goal of the current study is to recommend a machine learning-based decision support system that OSMO vendors can utilize to forecast or assess the project of OSMO clients.The projects belong to OSMO vendors,having offices in developing countries while providing services to developed countries.In the current study,Extreme Learning Machine’s(ELM’s)variant called Deep Extreme Learning Machines(DELMs)is used.A novel dataset consisting of 195 projects data is proposed to train the model and to evaluate the overall efficiency of the proposed model.The proposed DELM’s based model evaluations achieved 90.017%training accuracy having a value with 1.412×10^(-3) Root Mean Square Error(RMSE)and 85.772%testing accuracy with 1.569×10^(-3) RMSE with five DELMs hidden layers.The results express that the suggested model has gained a notable recognition rate in comparison to any previous studies.The current study also concludes DELMs as the most applicable and useful technique for OSMO client’s project assessment.

Outsourced Privacy-Preserving kNN Classifier Model Based on Multi-Key Homomorphic Encryption

Outsourcing the k-Nearest Neighbor(kNN)classifier to the cloud is useful,yet it will lead to serious privacy leakage due to sensitive outsourced data and models.In this paper,we design,implement and evaluate a new system employing an outsourced privacy-preserving kNN Classifier Model based on Multi-Key Homomorphic Encryption(kNNCM-MKHE).We firstly propose a security protocol based on Multi-key Brakerski-Gentry-Vaikuntanathan(BGV)for collaborative evaluation of the kNN classifier provided by multiple model owners.Analyze the operations of kNN and extract basic operations,such as addition,multiplication,and comparison.It supports the computation of encrypted data with different public keys.At the same time,we further design a new scheme that outsources evaluation works to a third-party evaluator who should not have access to the models and data.In the evaluation process,each model owner encrypts the model and uploads the encrypted models to the evaluator.After receiving encrypted the kNN classifier and the user’s inputs,the evaluator calculated the aggregated results.The evaluator will perform a secure computing protocol to aggregate the number of each class label.Then,it sends the class labels with their associated counts to the user.Each model owner and user encrypt the result together.No information will be disclosed to the evaluator.The experimental results show that our new system can securely allow multiple model owners to delegate the evaluation of kNN classifier.

On Incentive and Coordination Mechanism of Service Outsourcing Based on Principal-Agent Theory and Blockchain Technology

To address the issue of information asymmetry between the two parties and moral hazard among service providers in the process of service outsourcing,this paper builds the Stackelberg game model based on the principal-agent framework,examines the dynamic game situation before the contract being signed,and develops four information models.The analysis reveals a Pareto improvement in the game’s Nash equilibrium when comparing the four models from the standpoint of the supply chain.In the complete information scenario,the service level of the service provider,the customer company’s incentive effectiveness,and the supply chain system’s ultimate profit are all maximized.Furthermore,a coordinating mechanism for disposable profit is built in this study.The paper then suggests a blockchain-based architecture for the service outsourcing process supervision and a distributed incentive mechanism under the coordination mechanism in response to the inadequacy of the principal-agent theory to address the information asymmetry problem and the moral hazard problem.The experiment’s end findings demonstrate that both parties can benefit from the coordination mechanism,and the application of blockchain technology can resolve these issues and effectively encourage service providers.

通过战略合作管理企业信息技术资源——企业信息系统外包及其ASP模式分析

本文在综述企业信息系统外包发展的基础上 ,初步探讨了企业如何建立和管理企业与“承包商”之间的战略联盟问题 ;最后论述了目前流行的电子商务环境下的外包形式—应用服务提供商ASP的相关问题及其在中国的应用实践。

高校档案数字化外包的安全风险研究

外包（outsourcing）,最早源于工业企业的一种新的经营管理理念、方法。它是企业将本应由企业人员负责的业务包转给专业服务提供商,借助外部专业资源实现对相关业务的高效经营和管理。近年来,随着档案信息化建设的飞速发展,档案数字化技术短板日益显现,越来越多的机构将档案数字化业务外包给专业机构。

Incentive mechanism analysis of information security outsourcing based on principal-agent model

In order to solve principal-agent problems caused by interest inconformity and information asymmetry during information security outsourcing, it is necessary to design a reasonable incentive mechanism to promote client enterprises to complete outsourcing service actively. The incentive mechanism model of information security outsourcing is designed based on the principal-agent theory. Through analyzing the factors such as enterprise information assets value, invasion probability, information security environment, the agent cost coefficient and agency risk preference degree how to impact on the incentive mechanism, conclusions show that an enterprise information assets value and invasion probability have a positive influence on the fixed fee and the compensation coefficient; while information security environment, the agent cost coefficient and agency risk preference degree have a negative influence on the compensation coefficient. Therefore, the principal enterprises should reasonably design the fixed fee and the compensation coefficient to encourage information security outsourcing agency enterprises to the full extent.

Facilitating IT outsourcing through improving buyer-vendor interaction in outsourcing life cycle

For a clear understanding of how to foster necessary attributes of partnerships that promote a closer relationship for achieving outsourcing success,this paper tries to explore the role of interaction.Based on empirical data from a logistics and procurement flat system outsourcing case and earlier research,the industrial network approach and the international marketing and purchasing interaction model are used to analyze the nature of interaction in a three-phased outsourcing life cycle,particularly,characteristics and activities of the transition phase are identified.The findings reveal that developing a relationship between partners requires an industrial network perspective.Improving the key aspects of interaction,information and knowledge sharing,communication and collaborative participation,involved in the important events of three phases would contribute to enhance the relationships performance.The key aspects of interaction should take place among the network actors and not just between buyers and vendors.

新加坡警察培训课程的外包策略及其启示

＂外包＂（Outsourcing）这个词是上世纪伴随着企业管理制度的发展而产生的一个专门术语,具体指企业动态地配置自身和其他企业的功能和服务,并利用外部资源为自身的生产经营提供服务,以此实现资源的优化配置。新加坡政府十分重视＂外包＂这种管理服务策略,该策略在多个领域得到了推行,其中就包括警察培训。

对银行服务外包业务的几点思考

银行服务外包BPO(Business Process Outsourcing),是指商业银行将原本应由其自身负责处理的某些事务或者某些业务活动,委托给本机构以外的第三方进行处理的经营方式。

Can harvest outsourcing services reduce field harvest losses of rice in China?

The purpose of this study is to quantify the rice harvest losses in China and to evaluate the impacts of machinery and harvest outsourcing services on these losses,given the background of high-speed mechanization and outsourcing services.Data were collected from a national survey conducted in 2016 by the research team in conjunction with the Research Center for the Rural Economy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China.A non-parametric method was used to test whether combine harvesting and outsourcing services could significantly reduce harvest losses.Next,quantile regression was used to estimate the real effects of machinery and outsourcing services on harvest losses.The analysis yielded four main study outcomes.First,the harvest loss rate of rice in China was 3.65%.Second,mechanical reaping and winnowing caused greater losses than manual methods,while the opposite was true of field transportation.Third,combine harvesting increased the losses.Fourth,the effects of an outsourcing service on losses differed among the different harvesting methods.Outsourcing services increased losses in segmented harvesting but they reduced losses in combine harvesting.

A secure outsourced Turing- equivalent computation scheme against semi-honest workers using fully homomorphic encryption

A scheme that can realize homomorphic Turing- equivalent privacy-preserving computations is proposed, where the encoding of the Turing machine is independent of its inputs and running time. Several extended private information retrieval protocols based on fully homomorphic encryption are designed, so that the reading and writing of the tape of the Turing machine, as well as the evaluation of the transition function of the Turing machine, can be performed by the permitted Boolean circuits of fully homomorphic encryption schemes. This scheme overwhelms the Turing-machine-to- circuit conversion approach, which also implements the Turing-equivalent computation. The encoding of a Turing- machine-to-circuit conversion approach is dependent on both the input data and the worst-case runtime. The proposed scheme efficiently provides the confidentiality of both program and data of the delegator in the delegator-worker model of outsourced computation against semi-honest workers.

TPTVer： A Trusted Third Party Based Trusted Verifier for Multi-Layered Outsourced Big Data System in Cloud Environment

Cloud computing is very useful for big data owner who doesn't want to manage IT infrastructure and big data technique details. However, it is hard for big data owner to trust multi-layer outsourced big data system in cloud environment and to verify which outsourced service leads to the problem. Similarly, the cloud service provider cannot simply trust the data computation applications. At last,the verification data itself may also leak the sensitive information from the cloud service provider and data owner. We propose a new three-level definition of the verification, threat model, corresponding trusted policies based on different roles for outsourced big data system in cloud. We also provide two policy enforcement methods for building trusted data computation environment by measuring both the Map Reduce application and its behaviors based on trusted computing and aspect-oriented programming. To prevent sensitive information leakage from verification process,we provide a privacy-preserved verification method. Finally, we implement the TPTVer, a Trusted third Party based Trusted Verifier as a proof of concept system. Our evaluation and analysis show that TPTVer can provide trusted verification for multi-layered outsourced big data system in the cloud with low overhead.

Substring-searchable attribute-based encryption and its application for IoT devices

With the development of big data and cloud computing technology,more and more users choose to store data on cloud servers,which brings much convenience to their management and use of data,and also the risk of data leakage.A common method to prevent data leakage is to encrypt the data before uploading it,but the traditional encryption method is often not conducive to data sharing and querying.In this paper,a new kind of Attribute-Based Encryption(ABE)scheme,which is called the Sub-String Searchable ABE(SSS-ABE)scheme,is proposed for the sharing and querying of the encrypted data.In the SSS-ABE scheme,the data owner encrypts the data under an access structure,and only the data user who satisfies the access structure can query and decrypt it.The data user can make a substring query on the whole ciphertext without setting keywords in advance.In addition,the outsourcing method is also introduced to reduce the local computation of the decryption process so that the outsourcing SSS-ABE scheme can be applied to IoT devices.

FACOR：Flexible Access Control with Outsourceable Revocation in Mobile Clouds

Access control is a key mechanism to secure outsourced data in mobile clouds. Some existing solutions are proposed to enforce flexible access control on outsourced data or reduce the computations performed by mobile devices. However, less attention has been paid to the efficiency of revocation when there are mobile devices needed to be revoked. In this paper, we put forward a new solution, referred to as flexible access control with outsourceable revocation(FACOR) for mobile clouds. The FACOR applies the attribute-based encryption to enable flexible access control on outsourced data, and allows mobile users to outsource the time-consuming encryption and decryption computations to proxies, with only requiring attributes authorization to be fully trusted. As an advantageous feature, FACOR provides an outsourceable revocation for mobile users to reduce the complicated attribute-based revocation operations. The security analysis shows that our FACOR scheme achieves data security against collusion attacks and unauthorized accesses from revoked users. Both theoretical and experimental results confirm that our proposed scheme greatly reliefs the mobile devices from heavy encryption and decryption computations, as well as the complicated revocation of access rights in mobile clouds.