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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.

This study aims to develop magnetic field-controlled friction braking technology, the preparation process of hard magnetic brake friction material was optimized and analyzed in this paper.

NdFeB, a rigid magnetic material, was selected as additive. Magnetic field orientation, a part of material preparation, was added to the preparation process. Experiments investigated the tribological properties of each brake lining sample. The preparation process of the hard magnetic friction material was optimized based on fuzzy theory by using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methods and SPSS software. The microscopic morphology and the distribution and content of elements of friction lining samples prepared with or without orientation excitation voltage were analyzed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.

The results showed that the tribological properties of brake lining samples could be improved by process optimization and the oriented excitation voltage can effectively improve the properties of the brake lining.

The magnetic field orientation was added into the traditional preparation process, and a set of process parameters with the best tribological properties were obtained through optimization. It is believed that this research will be of great theoretical and practical significance to develop both new brake materials and active control technology of the braking process in the future.

This paper aims to develop of magnetic field controlled friction braking technology, a novel brake friction material with magnetic was designed and prepared in this paper.

The permalloy, a soft magnetic material, was selected as an additive to design and prepare the magnetic brake material. The friction, wear performance and permeability of each brake pads were investigated by experiments. By choosing the performance of friction coefficient fluctuation, friction coefficient deviation and mean wear rate as optimization parameters, the formulation of the magnetic friction material was optimized based on Fuzzy theory by using analytic hierarchy process methods and SPSS software.

The results showed that the developed soft magnetic friction material has not only superior friction coefficient, permeability and inferior wear rate but also good physical and mechanical properties.

Permalloy powder was added to the formulation of friction material to achieve a new functional friction material with high magnetic permeability. It is believed that this research will be of great theoretical and practical significance to develop both new brake materials and active control technology of the braking process in the future.

The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the existing literature by examining the nexus and the connectedness between classes S&P Green Bond Index, S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index, S&P GSCI Gold, MSCI Emerging Markets Index, MSCI World Index and Bitcoin, during the pre-and post-Covid period beginning from August 2011 to July 2021 (10 years).

The study employs time-varying parameter vector autoregression and Quantile regression methods to understand the impact of events on traditional and upcoming asset classes. To further understand the connectedness of assets under consideration, the study used Geo-Political Risk Index (GPR) and Global Economic Policy and Uncertainty index (GPEU).

Findings show that these markets are strongly linked, which will only expand in the post-pandemic future. Before the pandemic, the MSCI World and Emerging Markets indices contributed the most shocks to the remaining market variables. Green bond index shows a greater correlation and shock transmission with gold. Bitcoin can no longer be used as a good hedging instrument, validating the fact that the 21st-century technology assets. The results further opine that under extreme economic consequences with high GPR and GPEU, even gold cannot be considered a safe investment asset.

Financial markets and the players who administer and communicate their investment logics are heavily reliant on conventional asset classes such as oil, gas, coal, nuclear and allied groupings, but these emerging asset classes are attempting to diversify.

With the rapid increase in the consumption of electrical and electronic innovations, responsible management and recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been a significant concern for the governments, stakeholders, researchers and industry practitioners around the world. Consumer awareness, disposal behaviour and perception are chief facets of designing sustainable management strategies. Although researchers have widely studied e-waste over many years, the research focusing on consumer awareness about e-waste recycling has gained momentum recently. This paper aims to systematise the existing literature and explore future research prospects on household e-waste sorting behaviour.

Web of science (WoS) core collection was searched using selected keywords to identify relevant articles published from 2001 to 2021. The search resulted in 1,156 research articles published from 2001 to 2021. After a detailed study, 85 articles were shortlisted for in-depth review. The review was conducted based on global trends, top journals, most prolific authors, most active e-waste research countries, and institutions centring on consumer participation in e-waste disposal and recycling behaviour. The present research has also identified around eleven factors that seem to have a bearing on consumer behaviour towards storage, disposal and recycling of e-waste.

E-waste research has gained increased attention in the last five years. The majority of the studies has focused on motivational factors and ignore the risks associated with handling e-waste. The present study reports the pertinent issue of lack of awareness among the masses about e-waste handling and disposal. Thus, bringing to the fore the lack of awareness programmes and initiatives. The analysis presents the gaps in the literature and future research agendas.

The review article will help in providing an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour towards storage, disposal and recycling of e-waste and delineates the future direction of research that may be undertaken in this field of study.

To meet the high stiffness requirement of bearings used in high-precision spindles, this paper aims to propose a novel kind of bearing composited by hydrostatic cavities and tilting pads with preload.

Cavities are cut on the oil seal surface of a hybrid bearing, in which the tilting pads are set up. The load of the bearing is carried by the hydrostatic cavities and tilting pads. The structural features of this compound bearing and the controlling variables of the main stiffness coefficient are presented. Two basic design principles are proposed on the basis of equal machining clearance (EMC) and equal installation clearance (EIC).

The theoretical analysis indicates that the stiffness of compound bearings under the EMC condition increases to infinity monotonously when the preload coefficient of the tilting pad tends to 1, while the stiffness under the EIC condition has a peak value. Therefore, a synthetic design principle is proposed by synthetically using the above-mentioned two principles. The applicable range of the three principles is discussed through an example.

The study about technological combination of hydrostatic cavity and tilting pad in this paper can provide suggestions for the design of a high-stiffness bearing in a precision spindle.

The purpose of this paper is to study starvation in grease-lubricated finite line contacts and to understand film-forming mechanisms of grease-lubricated finite line contacts.

A multiple-contact optical elastohydrodynamic (EHL) test rig is constructed to investigate the influences of lubricant properties on film thickness and lubrication conditions at different working conditions. The film thickness is calculated according to the relative light intensity principle. The degree of starvation is evaluated by the air–oil meniscus distance and the corresponding film thickness.

The experimental results show that for greases with high-viscosity base oil, the high-frequency fluctuation of film thickness is observed in low-speed operating conditions. Reducing the viscosity of the base oil and improving running speed can weaken the fluctuation of film thickness. The degree of starvation increases with increasing base oil viscosity, rolling speed and the crown drop. In addition, reducing the replenishment time by reducing the gap between the rollers also can increase the degree of starvation.

Starvation is often to occur in finite line contacts, such as roller bearings and gears; there are still limited finite line contact EHL test rigs, much less multiple-contact optical test rigs. Therefore, the present work is undertaken to construct the multiple-contact test rig and to evaluate the mechanism of starvation in finite line contacts.

The dissemination of misleading and false information through media can jeopardize a company’s reputation, thus posing a threat to its stock and performance. Institutional investors are known to influence capital markets. Therefore, this paper investigates whether institutional investors engage in shaping the media sentiment stock nexus, stabilize company stocks and enhance performance.

We first investigate the effect of media sentiment on market reactions by using panel regression models. To examine the role of institutional investors, we design a quasi-experiment by exploiting the Financial Crisis of 2008 and go further by examining the heterogeneity across levels of institutional ownership. Due to risk-averse, investors may respond asymmetrically to pessimistic and positive sentiment. Accordingly, we split the sample into two sub-types, good news and bad news, based on keywords representing positive or negative content.

We find supportive evidence that institutional investors have impacts on how the markets react to media news, and the impacts are heterogeneous in the face of bad and good news. We conjecture that institutional investors act as a stabilizer of stock prices through media sentiment management.

This paper confirms the distinctive effects of institutional investors on capital markets, and uncovers the behind-the-scenes intervention and possible causal link running from institutional investors to media sentiment management. It contributes to the broad field of institutional investors' behavior, media news involvement in capital markets and market efficiency.

This study aims to evaluate the protection performance of zinc as sacrificial anode for ABS A steel in the presence of H₂S under different temperatures, pH and salinities.

In this paper, weight loss measurements and electrochemical measurements are used to evaluate the corrosion degree of zinc and ABS A steel.

Under the conditions involved in this work, it is shown that zinc is a nice sacrificial anode with the reason of its stable potential and excellent anode current efficiency according to the relevant standard. And it is also found that the hydrogen evolution does not occur on ABS A steel specimens. The potential difference between cathode and anode is suitable; thus, it can be concluded that each steel is well protected.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has analyzed the protection mechanism and effect of zinc as sacrificial anode in H₂S-containing environments under high temperature at present.