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This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of library services according to user experiences (UXs). The study discusses underlying internal problems existing in libraries that affect user satisfaction. Furthermore, it seeks to identify ways to improve the UX.

The methodology comprised a questionnaire administered at Nanjing University Library, China. The survey examined users’ satisfaction with the online public access catalogue, locating books on the shelves, and users’ participation in the organization of library resources. This study used the annual reading quantity of users system, a new system of measurement that distinguishes between informal and avid library users.

The data analysis indicated poor user satisfaction. The problems were mainly associated with the libraries’ resource organization, such as descriptive cataloguing, subject headings and classification, which is controlled by library administration. Moreover, users’ feedback is not integrated within the library system. Because of the process-oriented architecture of the current integrated library system, librarians and users do not communicate effectively. These barriers between users and the library staff members are difficult to overcome.

The study describes that the results relate to user satisfaction with searching and locating books based on the patron’s reading level. Differences were observed between light and avid readers in terms of satisfaction with the ease of searching and finding books. This demonstrates the internal connections of these results with library procedures. Furthermore, this study identifies improvement measures to resolve these problems.

The authors explicitly evaluate the dynamic impact of five most concerned supply chain disruption scenarios, including: (1) a short-term shortage and price jump of corn supply in hog farms; (2) a shortage of market hogs to packing facilities; (3) disruption in breeding stock adjustments; (4) disruption in pork import; and (5) a combination of scenario (1)–(4).

The agricultural supply chain experienced tremendous disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate the impact of disruptions, the authors employ a system dynamics model of hog market to simulate and project the impact of COVID-19 on China hog production and pork consumption. In the model the authors explicitly characterize the cyclical pattern of hog market. The hog cycle model is calibrated using market data from 2018–2019 to represent the market situation during an ongoing African swine fever.

The authors find that the impacts of supply chain disruption are generally short-lived. Market hog transportation disruption has immediate impact on price and consumption. But the impact is smoothed out in six months. Delay in import shipment temporarily reduces consumption and raises hog price. A temporary increase of corn price or delay in breeding stock acquisition does not produce significant impact on national hog market as a whole, despite mass media coverage on certain severely affected regions.

This is the first evaluation of short-term supply chain disruption on China hog market from COVID-19. The authors employ a system dynamics model of hog markets with an international trade component. The model allows for monthly time step analysis and projection of the COVID-19 impact over a five-year period. The results and discussion have far-reaching implications for agricultural markets around the world.

This article examines the impact of different policy instruments on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure. The results shed light on the optimal policy combination.

A game theoretical framework is constructed to illustrate farmers' optimal strategies under different policies. Theoretical results are empirically tested by survey data from beef cattle farmers in Central China.

Empirical results show that penalties work better than subsidies if each type of policy is implemented separately. The authors also find a positive interaction between subsidy and penalty policies, suggesting that a combination of subsidy and penalty policies produces the best outcome in incentivizing livestock farmers to recycle manure. Furthermore, planting and breeding simultaneously have the strongest effect on increasing livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure, suggesting that the combination of planting and breeding can be an optimal strategy for manure management.

This study is based on firsthand survey data and provides new evidence on the effectiveness of alternative environmental policies on manure recycling.

In as much as it is contested, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also unexplored, underdiscussed, and, as a result, misunderstood. Frequently viewed through the lens of international relations and global economy, the diverse dimensions of collaboration, including business and research-industry clusters, that BRI enhances, tend to be excluded from the analysis. In a similar manner, the role of the Arab Peninsula in the grand strategy underpinning BRI and its implementation is rarely discussed. BRI is a forward-oriented initiative, an attempt to reap benefits of developments and circumstances that are only nascent. This bears two potent implications. First, as China attempts to influence the context in which it operates, it is subject to change itself; the Chinese business sector evolution attests to that. Second, some of China’s not so obvious partners of today, including those in the Arab Peninsula, are about to turn into key interlocutors of tomorrow. BRI taps into opportunities thus created. This chapter elaborates on these issues and, against this backdrop, outlines how the remaining chapters included in this volume add to this discussion.

Customer referral programs (CRPs) are popular; however, they often generate low referral rates. The authors propose that certain CRP referral tasks may hinder consumers’ referral likelihood. This study aims to explore the effects of referral tasks (communication content and approach) on customers’ referral likelihood on social platforms and the role of self-construal.

This study establishes a theoretical model based on online social platforms and conducts three scenario-based experiments. The authors obtain data from consumers on Sojump platform and test the hypotheses using analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis and mediation analysis in SPSS. The valid sample sizes for these three experiments are 288, 203 and 214, respectively.

Three experimental studies indicate that communication content and approach have a significant effect on referral likelihood. Furthermore, the effect of communication content on referral likelihood depends on the communication approach. Self-construal plays a moderating role in the effect of communication content and approach on perceived social costs.

CRPs typically involve tasks and rewards; consumers are asked to complete a referral task and then receive a reward. Both tasks and rewards can affect an individual’s willingness to participate; however, existing studies on CRP focus primarily on the reward component. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically investigate the role of referral tasks (communication content and approach) in CRPs. The authors extend the related research by examining the impact of referral tasks on consumers’ willingness to recommend. In addition, this study introduces self-construal into CRPs research.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure of nonlinear dampers and the dynamic equations, and nonlinear realization principles and optimize the parameters of nonlinear dampers. Using the finite element method to analyze the seismic performance of the frame structure with shock absorber.

The nonlinear shock absorber was installed in a six-storey reinforced concrete frame structure to study its seismic performance. The main structure was designed according to the eight degree seismic fortification intensity, and the time history dynamic analysis was carried out by Abaqus finite element software. EL-Centro, Taft and Wenchuan seismic record were selected to analyze the seismic response of the structure under different magnitudes and different acceleration peaks.

Through the principle study and parameter analysis of the nonlinear shock absorber, combined with the finite element simulation results, the shock absorption performance and shock absorption effect of the nonlinear energy sink (NES) nonlinear shock absorber are given as follows: first, the damping of the NES shock absorber is satisfied, and the linear spring stiffness and nonlinear stiffness of the shock absorber are based on the relationship k1=kn×kl2, so that the spring design length is fixed, and the linear stiffness of the shock absorber can be obtained. The nonlinear shock absorber has the characteristics of high rigidity and frequency bandwidth, so that the frequency is infinitely close to the frequency of the main structure, and when the mass of the shock absorber satisfies between 0.056 and 1, a good shock absorption effect can be obtained, and the reinforced concrete with the shock absorber is obtained. The frame structure can effectively reduce the seismic response, increase the natural vibration period of the structure and reduce the damage loss of the structure. Second, the spacer and each additional shock absorber have a small difference in shock absorption effect. After the shock absorber parameters are accurately calculated, the number of installations does not affect the shock absorption effect of the structure. Therefore, the shock absorber is properly constructed and accurately calculated. Parameters can reduce costs.

New shock absorbers reduce earthquake-induced damage to buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of pork consumption in urban western China and the different consumption patterns across income strata with respect to income elasticity and price elasticity of demand.

The double-hurdle model is fit to the household data of Sichuan and Xinjiang provinces which is from the National Bureau of Statistics urban household surveys.

The paper finds that consumers’ purchasing decisions regarding pork are related to both non-economic and economic factors. The results also indicate large differences among the determinants for decision of how much pork to buy across the three income strata. Low-income households have higher income elasticity than middle-income and high-income households. High-income and middle-income households’ level of pork consumption is more sensitive to pork price. High-income households have greater cross-price elasticity.

In the previous studies, the non-economic determinants of pork consumption have not been addressed, and neither does the issue of difference pork purchasing behavior across income strata for urban households in western China. So this study uses the double-hurdle model to investigate the determinants of pork consumption in urban western China.

The new Silk Road provides cross-border-e-commerce firms with an opportunity to widen their markets. Under this circumstance, the preference recognition of countries and inventory allocation among overseas warehouses both become critical issues to solve. Three Chinese smartphone brands, including HTC, Huawei, and MI, are selected in this chapter for their relatively enormous sales. DHgate and AliExpress websites are chosen as platforms to analyze the sales for data availability. This chapter first depicts key features of the sales and then, based on which, divide countries into several groups according to their preference for phones by cluster analysis. Then, based on the results of cluster analysis, this chapter further models the inventory assignment among the seven major overseas warehouses that were built by AliExpress in 2015. The results show that the HTC seems to be pursuing the “high value with high price” strategy, while the other two companies seem to be pursuing a hybrid strategy of “low-price” strategy and “high value with low price” strategy. This chapter also provides an assignment pattern of inventory among the overseas warehouses based on the real data of sales and costs.

Recently, sharing economy is gradually accepted by people, and it has expanded from life to knowledge. It is important to encourage people to produce high quality content in knowledge sharing area, and knowledge payment is one of the most effective ways to achieve it. Therefore, the knowledge payment has been regarded as a huge business opportunity, and it is of great meaning to study the development trend and feasibility of knowledge payment. This chapter, through big data methods, analyzes the business model of Zhihu (a Chinese platform of knowledge sharing) after it introduced knowledge payment projects, such as Zhihu Live and Pay Consultation. According to data of Zhihu users’ Q&A, concerned fields and others, this chapter tries to outline its user profile to find out the target groups of different topics, the proper form of knowledge payment and the hot topics of Zhihu Live. Through the analysis of knowledge graph, this chapter finds that Zhihu Live is expected to be the mainstream knowledge payment form in the future, and the most potential topics are mainly focused on science, law, and business. Meanwhile, it establishes a pricing model for Zhihu Live, and provides suggestions for the development of knowledge payment.