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This study examines a controversial issue (biotechnology) and how news disputes about misinformation related to the issue impacts individuals' attitudes toward a biotechnology company and their trust in the media source.

This study conducts a 2 (risk: low vs. high) x 2 (pre-existing attitude: anti gene-editing technology vs. pro gene-editing technology) x 2 (dispute message: absent vs. present) x 2 (media source: Buzzfeed vs NYT) factorial online experiment using a Qualtrics panel (N = 1,080) to examine the impact on individuals' attitudes toward a biotechnology company and trust in the media source.

Results indicate that dispute messages enhance attitudes toward the company but decrease trust in media sources. Interaction effects between pre-existing attitude and the dispute message, along with perceived risk and the dispute message, illustrate stark differences in how individuals with favorable vs. unfavorable pre-existing attitudes assessed the company after viewing the dispute message.

This study applies arguments from extant literature about prebunking and debunking misinformation. Specifically, this study investigates how dispute messages, a form of debunking through source derogation, actually impact individuals' perceptions of media credibility and/or their attitudes about the content they are reading. The study findings also reveal new insights regarding the interaction between pre-existing attitudes and perceived risk, as well as how dispute messages interact with each of the aforementioned factors.

Because of the shortage of energy, the development of green and reliable energy is particularly important. As a green and clean energy, wind power is widely used. As the core component of wind power generation, it is particularly important to choose generators with high reliability. Switched reluctance machine is widely used as generators because of its strong fault tolerance and high reliability. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a power converter and its control strategy to improve the efficiency of switched reluctance generators.

In this paper, a full-bridge power converter (FBPC) instead of the asymmetric half-bridge power converter (AHBPC) is adopted to drive the switched reluctance generator (SRG) system. Compare the FBPC with the AHBPC, the FBPC has several advantages including low cost and modularization, and operation process of SRG winding current direction is variable.

The results show that the SRG system can keep smooth operation by the FBPC with relatively high efficiency.

The FBPC is suitable to drive the SRG system. Meanwhile, this paper introduces two excitation modes of the FBPC as three-phase three-beat mode and six-phase six-beat mode. When the six-phase six-beat control strategy is adopted, the dead band time of the converter can be avoided. At the same time, the SRG has higher efficiency.

Quantitative reliability analysis can effectively identify the time the driving system needs to be maintained. Then, the potential safety problems can be found, and some catastrophic failures can be effectively prevented. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the reliability of the switched reluctance generator (SRG) driving system.

In this paper, a method considering different thermal stresses and fault tolerance capacity is proposed to analyze the reliability of an SRG. A full-bridge power converter (FBPC) instead of the asymmetric half-bridge power converter (AHBPC) is adopted to drive the SRG system. First, the primary fault modes of the SRG system are introduced, and a fault criterion is proposed to determine whether the system fails. Second, the thermal circuit model of the converter is established to quickly and accurately obtain the junction temperature of the devices. At last, the Markov models of different levels are established to evaluate the reliability of the system.

The results show that the two-level Markov model is the most suitable when compared to the static model and the one-level Markov model.

The driving system of SRG will be more reliable after the reliability of the system is evaluated by the Markov model. At the same time, an FBPC is adopted to drive the SRG. The FBPCs have the advantages of fewer switching devices, higher integration and lower cost. The proposed driving strategy of the FBPC avoids the current reversal and the generation of dead zone time, which has the advantage of reliable operation. In addition, a precise thermal circuit model of the FBPC is proposed, and the junction temperature of each device can be obtained, respectively.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of the factors influencing the effect of magnetic levitation, including the impedance angle of the levitated coil, number of turns, material parameter, frequency of excitation and geometric parameters. The final purpose is to provide approaches to increasing the levitation effect.

Some design principles and strategies for levitation systems are suggested, such as selecting the number of turns of the levitated coil, choosing the frequency of excitation considering the saturation phenomenon of levitation force against frequency and deciding the section area of the excitation coil and its ratio of height and thickness.

The magnetic force is not always repulsive in a cycle. Therefore, the key approach to increasing the levitation is to increase the period when the force is repulsive and decrease the time when attractive. The impedance angle of the equivalent circuit of the levitated coil determines the ratio of the two periods, and the larger the angle, the longer the repulsion period. A valuable finding is that a saturation situation exists between the levitation force and frequency; that is, when the frequency increases to a certain value, the increasing degree of force tends to decrease as the frequency increases.

Some influential characteristics were found in some factors against the effect of the levitation system, which is beneficial for improving the efficiency of systems. For example, owing to the saturation phenomenon of the frequency, it is useless to continue increasing the frequency and the copper-levitated coil does not bring much greater force effectiveness than the aluminum coil.

This paper aims to present an empirical study on the multidimensional relationships between sustainable supplier management (SSM) practices and buyer–supplier performance from the buying firms’ perspective. Specifically, the authors focus on four SSM practices, namely, sustainable supplier selection, sustainable supplier monitoring, sustainable supplier development and sustainable supplier collaboration, and test their effects on three buyer–supplier performance measures, namely, supplier performance, buyer–supplier relationship and buyer competitive advantage.

Based on data collected from 256 manufacturers across different geographical areas and industrial branches in Greater China. A conceptual model was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling technique with the help of SmartPLS 3.0.

The sustainable supplier development and sustainable supplier collaboration have positive relationships with supplier performance, while sustainable supplier selection, sustainable supplier monitoring and sustainable supplier collaboration have positive influence on buyer–supplier relationship and buyer competitive advantage. Furthermore, the relative importance and contributions of the individual measures was also identified.

This study simultaneously integrates the constructs of SSM practices and buyer–supplier performance. Moreover, it seeks to make a contribution to existing literature from a theoretical perspective by investigating the sub-dimensions of SSM practices and buyer–supplier performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a multitude of motivators that facilitate the implementation of green practices (GP) in the context of Chinese manufacturing industry. Also, this study aims to explore the influence of GP on the environmental performance, operational performance, and financial performance of manufacturing firms.

This paper developed a conceptual model to investigate the stakeholder drivers and commensurate performance outcomes of GP. Statistical analysis was based on the data collected from 124 manufacturing firms across the Greater China. Finally, the hypotheses were empirically tested by partial least squares approach.

Of the ten proposed hypotheses, seven are considered valid. The statistic results reveal that pressures originate from employees, senior managers, and customers exert significant positive influence on firm’s decision to adopt GP, while the drivers generated from government and competitors is non-significant. More specifically, this study indicates that environmental performance partially mediates the relationship between GP and operational/financial performance.

The originality of this research is that it proposes a novel conceptual model, ascertains the primary drivers in promoting GP in Chinese manufacturing industry. This research provides policy insights for professional organizations, regulators, and legislators to further promote GP.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the basic loading state in local loading forming process of large-sized complicated rib-web component, which is important for understanding process characteristic, controlling metal flow and designing preformed geometry of the local loading forming process. Moreover the analytical models for different loading states are established to quickly predict the metal flow.

Through analysis of geometric characteristic of large-sized complicated rib-web component and the deformation characteristic on planes of metal flow by local loading method, a representative cross-section is put forward and designed, which could reflect the local loading forming characteristics of large-sized complicated rib-web component. Finite element method (FEM) is used to analyze the stress and metal flow, and the analytical models of metal flow are established by using slab method (SM).

Three local loading states and one whole loading state are found in the local loading forming process of representative cross-section. Further, four loading states also exist in local loading forming process of large-sized complicated rib-web components. With the metal distribution in the process, some local loading states may turn into whole loading state. For the representative cross-section, the relative error of metal distribution between SM and FEM results is less than 15 per cent, and the relative error of metal in the rib cavity between SM and FEM results is less than 10 per cent.

Metal flow can be controlled by adjusting the loading states in the process. According to the metal flow laws in different loading states, a simple unequal-thickness billet can be designed to achieve initial metal distribution, and then, the secondary metal distribution can be achieved in the process.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how the meanings of the current national curriculum reform in China changed in its transmission from the outside authoritative mandate to the local school practice through a case study of a lesson study on a reform practice called the “thematic teaching” in the Chinese language course.

By a longitudinal study of the case for more than two months in a primary school in Beijing, China, the authors of this paper followed all the steps of the lesson study cycle conducted by all the Chinese language teachers in the school. Observations, interviews and document analysis were employed to capture the teachers’ thoughts, actions and especially group interactions in trying to understand and implement this new reform practice.

The study found that due to the marked differences between the professional reform discourse and the teachers’ native discourse, the meanings of the reform tended to look alien to school teachers. In order to make meanings out of the reform, the teachers in this lesson study resorted to their own native discourse to understand the reform. Such strategies as “de-contextualization” and “re-contextualization” were found in the teachers’ joint efforts to reconstruct and reenact the reform.

This research points to the importance of school teachers’ own belief system in teaching as revealed by their native discourse. Only by finding an adequate link between the outside reform discourse and the teachers’ native discourse, can the national curriculum reform truly take hold in the school.

Rapid development of China's rural industry since 1980s has a massive ripple effect on rural China. However, recent rural industrial development in China has received little scholarly attention. The study aims to investigate the development process and spatial differences of China's rural industry as well as its driving forces.

The study is based on the panel data constituting 30 provinces of China during 1984–2011. The factor analysis is used to identify the most significant factors affecting the growth of China's rural industry. The multiple regression analysis is applied to distinguish the driving forces affecting spatiotemporal variations in China's rural industry.

China's rural industry developed rapidly at an average rate of 26% per year during the period 1984–2011. The period 1990–2011 was characterized by remarkable increased spatial disparities in China's rural industrial development. Specifically, such development was markedly better in the east coast areas than in the inland areas in the west. Five driving forces of rural industrial development were recognized representing regional economic fundamentals of market, industry foundation, transportation, communication and degree of opening-up.

This paper explores the trajectory of the development of China's rural industry and the related regional economic factors. It suggests that the development of rural enterprises across the regions should be valued by Chinese government as a driving force for reducing regional disparities and future rural revitalization.

From January 2021, the potential flow of Chinese household non-mortgage loans, including business loans and short-term consumption loans to the residential real estate market, has attracted the attention of the regulatory authorities. This study aims to examine the effects of household non-mortgage loans on the Chinese residential real estate market.

Based on a monthly data set between July 2011 and December 2019, this study adopts a cointegration analysis.

This study finds that household non-mortgage loans do play a significant role in driving residential real estate prices in China.

While many studies have examined the Chinese real estate market and its linkage with the financial system and the economy, this study is the first of its kind in the academic literature that exclusively focusses on the role of non-mortgage loans in real estate prices, and makes an original contribution.