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Whether there exists an inverse relationship (IR) between farm size and its efficiency remains a hotly debated question among agricultural economists. In most studies to date, farm efficiency is measured by land productivity. Thus, the IR actually measures the relationship between farm size and land productivity. The purpose of this paper is to examine and understand the IR from a novel angle by using multiple definitions of farm efficiency indicators like labor productivity, profit ratio, total factor productivity (TFP) and technical efficiency (TE).

By using the farm-level panel data from Hubei province in China from 1999 to 2003, this paper employs the two-way fixed effect model of panel data and the stochastic frontier analysis of Battese and Coelli model to investigate the relationship between farm size and its production efficiency derived from the multiple definitions of production efficiency indicators including land productivity, labor productivity, profit ratio, TFP and TE.

The study confirmed the IR between land productivity and farm size, as in many formal studies. However, the relationship between farm size and other agricultural efficiency indicators may be positive, negative or uncorrelated at, depending on how the farm efficiency is defined. Therefore, the paper concluded that the relationship between farm size and its production efficiency is mixed. This paper provides economic explanations for the IR through the comprehensive study using the expansion of agricultural efficiency indicators.

Because different agricultural efficiency indicators have different policy implications for China's future agricultural and land policy, the findings have tremendous policy implications, particularly in terms of the current debate on large or small farm development strategy, the also so-called “go big or small” agricultural strategy. In this sense, the Chinese household responsibility system has played a critical role in its agriculture and will continue to play a critical role in terms of social security and social equality. Any reform to this system should proceed with caution.

While most existing studies only try to explain the IR from the perspective of land productivity, this paper attempts to propose a novel angle to examine the IR by using multiple definitions of agricultural efficiency and hopes to find some new conclusions.

This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to construct a conceptual model comprising transfer elements, paths and timing of succession in this process.

Driven by the cases of Haixin, Tianyijiao and Changhe Group, this paper applies research methods of copying and expanding analysis logic, progressive deduction, content analysis and comparative research based on the perspective of HeXie theory to explore the deep interrelation of transfer elements, paths and timing during family business succession.

The findings present that the content of intergenerational inheritance of a family firm is the inheritance of property rights and RCR. First, the inheritance of property rights is a static inheritance of time-point delivery, whereas the inheritance of RCR is a dynamic inheritance process for a period of time. Second, the inheritance of property rights and RCR are not independent; only a “HeXie” succession of both rights can realize a successful inheritance of family firms.

This paper constructs the paths and timing model of intergenerational inheritance of property rights and RCR in family firms. This paper integrates the current literature studies on the family inheritance of property rights and RCR and explains their internal mechanisms. This paper also provides a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for family business transitions in the business world.

The purpose of this paper is to predict hospital respiratory system infection rate by using the gray GM(1,1) model, and to provide theoretical basis for the prospective study on hospital respiratory system infection management.

The annual respiratory system infection rate of a comprehensive third-class hospital in Yan’an is collected from 2011 to 2017. The GM(1,1) model is used for prediction, and mean absolute percentage error is used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the model.

GM(1,1) statistical prediction model is established with good fitting degree and high reliability of extrapolation prediction.

The GM(1,1) model can well predict the respiratory system infection rate of the hospital.

This paper aims to synthesize a novel alkanolamine borate and explore the performance of as a copper wire drawing oil.

In this paper, a copper wire drawing oil (CU-KL) was formulated by using a novel alkanolamine borate, naphthenic base oil, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether and palm oil. The tribological performance of CU-KL and commercial copper wire drawing oils (CU-DRB and CU-8010) was investigated

Under applied loads of 5 N-15 N, the average friction coefficient of CU-KL was 29.4%, 5.4% and 25.3% lower than that of CU-DRB, respectively. At sliding speed of 1000–5000 rpm, the average friction coefficient of CU-KL was reduced by 14.3%, 6% and 10.3% compared with CU-DRB, respectively. Through scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometry, CU-KL can form B-containing compound at the contact interface, which could synergistically enhance the lubrication effect and improve the wear resistance.

The properties of CU-KL under different test condition were studied, and the findings are of great significance for the application of alkanolamine borate in copper wire drawing oil.

This paper aims to obtain rare earth magnesium alloy with good adhesion and corrosion resistance.

In 353 K oil bath, cyclic voltammetry was used to study the electrochemical behavior of Pr(III), Mg(II) and Ni(II) in choline chloride-urea ionic liquid. The constant potential method was adopted for electrodeposition of Pr-Mg-Ni ternary alloy films. The content of Pr in the Pr-Mg-Ni alloy films changes with respect to the deposition potential, deposition time and concentration ratio of Pr³⁺:Mg²⁺:Ni²⁺. Response surface methodology was applied to optimize the conditions for obtaining high-quality deposition films.

The results showed that the reaction of Ni(II) to Ni is irreversible; this result can be verified by Tafel polarization curve and chronocoulometry curve. Its transfer coefficient on the platinum electrode of 0.32 and diffusion coefficient is 1.0510⁻⁶ cm².s⁻¹. Mg(II) and Pr(III) cannot solely be reduced to their elemental form, but they can be induced via codeposition by Ni(II). The result shows that under a voltage of −1.00 V, the alloy coating with even structure is obtained when the concentration ratio of Pr³⁺:Mg²⁺:Ni²⁺ is 1:1:1 and the deposition time is 20 min. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and other analyses revealed that the alloy coating is amorphous. Polarization curves of the cathode are tested, which manifest the lowest corrosion current density, stating which has good corrosion performance in alkaline solution and NaCl solution; this can be attributed to its dense film structure and good combination with the substrate.

It provides some technology for the production of corrosion-resistant materials.

In order to reduce logistics transportation costs and respond to low-carbon economy, the purpose of this paper is to study the more practical and common simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem, which considers the carbon tax policy. A low-carbon simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem model is constructed with the minimum total costs as the objective function.

This study develops a mathematical optimization model with the minimum total costs, including the carbon emissions costs as the objective function. An adaptive genetic hill-climbing algorithm is designed to solve the model.

First, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by numerical experiments. Second, the research results prove that carbon tax mechanism can effectively reduce carbon emissions within effective carbon tax interval. Finally, the research results also show that, under the carbon tax mechanism, the effect of vehicle speed on total costs will become more obvious with the increase of carbon tax.

This paper only considers the weight of the cargo, but it does not consider the volume of the cargo.

Few studies focus on environmental issues in the simultaneous pickup and delivery problem. Thus, this paper constructs a green path optimization model, combining the carbon tax mechanism for the problem. This paper further analyzes the impact of carbon tax value on total costs and carbon emission; at the same time, the effect of vehicle speed on total cost is also analyzed.

Effects of major factors, such as alloy composition, crystal structure and grain size, on mechanical properties of TiZr based alloys are investigated and summarized in this work. The microhardness of TC4 alloy obviously increases 15.3% and 17.6% after 30 wt.% and 47 wt.% Zr additions, respectively. Nanoindentation results show that the average nanoindentation hardness of α phase in annealed 30 Zr is approximately 18% higher than that of retained β phase. Tensile test results show that variation in strength of basketweave microstructural 30 Zr alloy with original β grain size from 100 to 203 μm is less than 2%.

Increasing public consciousness and demand for sustainable environment make selection of a safe location for effective disposal of healthcare waste (HCW) a challenging issue. This problem becomes more complicated due to involvement of multiple decision makers having varying knowledge and interest, conflicting quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria, and presence of several alternative locations.

To efficiently resolve the problem, the past researchers have already coupled different multi-criteria decision-making tools with uncertainty models and criteria weight measurement techniques, which are time-consuming and highly computationally complex. Based on involvement of a group of experts expressing their opinions with respect to relative importance of criteria and performance of alternative locations against each criterion, this paper proposes application of ordinal priority approach (OPA) integrated with grey numbers to solve an HCW disposal location selection problem.

The grey OPA can simultaneously estimate weights of the experts, criteria and locations relieving the decision makers from complicated computational steps. The potentiality of grey OPA in solving an HCW disposal location selection problem is demonstrated here using an illustrative example consisting of three experts, six criteria and four alternative locations.

The derived results show that it can be employed to deal with real-time HCW disposal location selection problems in uncertain environment providing acceptable and robust decisions. It relieves the experts from pair-wise comparisons of criteria, normalization of data, identification of ideal and anti-ideal solutions, aggregation of information and so on, while arriving at the most consistent decision with minimum computational effort.