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Forest insurance is a popular way to reduce the loss of forest disasters, so it is necessary to actively involve stakeholders. In the multi-agent simulation model, the government, insurance companies and forest farmers participate as three main stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to mainly simulate the behavior of forest farmers under different environmental variables in order to find the important factors affecting the coverage of forest insurance, so as to improve the ability of forest farmers to resist risks in the face of disasters.

In the simulation process, the decision-making rule of a forest farmer’s purchasing behavior is a binary selection chain, which is created at random. Forest farmer agents who adapt to the environment will remain; on the contrary, those will be eliminated. The eliminated agents will renew their behavior selection chains through learning others’ successful behavior based on genetic algorithm. The multi-agent mode is set up on the Eclipse platform by using Java language.

The adjustment simulation experiments of insurance premium, insurance subsidy and forest area were carried out. According to the result, conclusions and suggestions are as follows: at present, government subsidies are necessary for the implementation of forest insurance; in the future, with the expansion of the insured forest area and the upgrading and large-scale operation of forest farms, forest farmers will be more willing to join forest insurance program, and, then, the implementation of forest insurance no longer requires government subsidies for forest insurance premiums.

This paper explores the impact of three important factors on the implementation of forest insurance.

Internet‐based robotic systems have received much attention in recent years. A number of design issues are essential for designing this new type of robotic systems. This paper addresses the Internet time delay, the user interface design and concurrent user access for an Internet‐enabled arm robot. The implementation and application of the Internet‐enabled arm robot in an open control laboratory has been illustrated as a case study.

Past studies on housework and marital studies seldom considered the possible endogeneity between these two factors. This chapter analyses data of the Women’s Status Survey 2010 to investigate the association between satisfaction with family status and housework participation in dual-earner married couples in China. The authors examine the association by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models and structural equation models (SEM), taking into account of time constraints, economic resources and other demographic characteristics. Results suggest that both men and women are less satisfied with their family status if they share more housework than their partners, after controlling for household income, relative economic contribution, educational qualifications and other factors. Moreover, relative housework contribution is associated more consistently and significantly with satisfaction with family status than absolute housework time. In SEM, the authors include a correlated error term between housework time and satisfaction in the models to take endogeneity between these factors into account. For both urban men and women, relative contribution of housework, but not absolute time of housework, is still negatively associated with family status satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to study the tribological effect of zinc borate ultrafine powder (ZBUP) oil additive on the running-in quality.

The running-in quality was assessed by friction coefficient and surface topography. Fractal parameters including fractal dimension, the width of multifractal, the multifractal difference, multifractal parameters, phase trajectory and correlation dimension were used to extract the nonlinear characteristics of surface topography and friction coefficient.

When the ZBUP additive was added, the convergence degree of the phase trajectory and the stability of the running in were higher than that of base oil. It indicates that the ZBUP additive can improve the running-in quality of sliding bearing. Besides, the ZBUP additive can shorten the running-in time. A boundary protective film, which has good friction-reducing and anti-wear effects, was generated on the surface when the ZBUP additive was added.

The results have a great significance to improve the running-in quality and prolong the service life of the sliding bearing.

Accurate and timely cost prediction is critical to the success of construction projects which is still facing challenges especially at the early stage. In the context of rapid development of machine learning technology and the massive cost data from historical projects, this paper aims to propose a novel cost prediction model based on historical data with improved performance when only limited information about the new project is available.

The proposed approach combines regression analysis (RA) and artificial neural network (ANN) to build a novel hybrid cost prediction model with the former as front-end prediction and the latter as back-end correction. Firstly, the main factors influencing the cost of building projects are identified through literature research and subsequently screened by principal component analysis (PCA). Secondly the optimal RA model is determined through multi-model comparison and used for front-end prediction. Finally, ANN is applied to construct the error correction model. The hybrid RA-ANN model was trained and tested with cost data from 128 completed construction projects in China.

The results show that the hybrid cost prediction model has the advantages of both RA and ANN whose prediction accuracy is higher than that of RA and ANN only with the information such as total floor area, height and number of floors.

(1) The most critical influencing factors of the buildings’ cost are found out by means of PCA on the historical data. (2) A novel hybrid RA-ANN model is proposed which proved to have the advantages of both RA and ANN with higher accuracy. (3) The comparison among different models has been carried out which is helpful to future model selection.

This paper aims to investigate the tribological properties of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composites modified by nano-serpentine and nano-lanthanum oxide in a seawater environment.

In this paper, seven PTFE composites were prepared by unified design method and vacuum thermoforming method, and their hardness, water absorption and tribological properties were measured under seawater environment. The modification effects and thermal stability of the materials were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. This paper analyzed the wear mechanism of PTFE composites by scanning electron microscopy and energy spectroscopy.

The results showed that the hardness of the PTFE composites were all improved, but the water absorption was increased with the increase of additives. The modification of nano-serpentine was successful and the thermal stability of PTFE composites was better. The lowest coefficient and minimum wear rate are 0.0267 and 8.67 × 10⁻⁵ · mm³ · (N · m)⁻¹ respectively, which is 34.9% and 76% less than the pure PTFE.

The analysis showed that the wear mechanism of PTFE composites was abrasive wear and a small amount of adhesive wear, and when the additive content was appropriate, it easily formed a transfer film on the surface mating parts.

This paper aims to explore how the establishment modes used by emerging economy multinational corporations (EE-MNCs) influence their subsequent experiences of liability of origin (LOO) in developed economies based on the causal-model theory of categorization.

Taking Chinese listed firms' direct investments in developed economies as the sample, this paper utilizes Heckman (1979)'s self-selection model to examine the effect of establishment modes. Besides, when checking the robustness, subsample analyses and 2SLS regressions are used to rule out the alternative explanation associated with LOO mitigation.

EE-MNCs that enter a developed economy by greenfield investment experience heightened LOO while entries using M&A are associated with the mitigated liability. When EEMNCs enter a more institutionally distant developed country, the establishment modes will be more determinant of their subsequent experiences of this liability. Moreover, the effect of establishment modes can recede when EE-MNCs have established their presence in a developed country for a longer time.

This paper utilizes the causal-model theory of categorization to articulate the underlying mechanisms through which the country-of-origin cue is weakened by the cue transmitted by M&A. It further considers the context-saliency of the cue of M&A and clarifies boundary conditions for the effectiveness of this establishment mode to mitigate LOO.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamic features of friction coefficient during running-in state based on recurrence analysis, so as to recognize the running-in state of crankshaft journal bearings.

The friction coefficient was measured in the friction experiments and the dynamic features are analyzed by recurrence plots (RPs), unthreshold recurrence plots (URPs) and recurrence quantification analysis.

During the running-in process, RPs have gone through disrupted patterns, drift patterns and homogeneous patterns successively. URP shows that the phase trajectory spirals in the disrupted pattern gradually converge in the drift pattern and remain stable in the homogeneous pattern. Three independent measures, recurrence rate, entropy and laminarity, are chosen to characterize friction coefficient from the perspective of point, diagonal line and vertical line structures of the RPs.

The results provide a feasible way to monitor the running-in process and recognize the running-in state.

The purpose of this paper is to study the correlational and effect relationship between Halal standards and the performance of Halal-certified Palestinian Food Companies.

Quantitative method was used, using a questionnaire survey of 40 Halal-certified Palestinian organizations out of a total of 47 certified organizations, the analysis was done using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the literature review was conducted using a well-known systematic literature review methodology.

Halal implementation and certification had a positive impact on performance (operational, financial and marketing). The depth/intensity of implementation fully mediates operational performance and partially mediates marketing and financial performance.

As the sample size is small, it is recommended to conduct the study using a larger sample size, once the number of Palestinian Halal-certified organizations increases. A longitudinal or panel study is recommended to capture data that are more accurate and avoid objectivity and bias issues using a cross-sectional research design method. Finally, the study recommends to conduct additional research in the field of Halal awareness for customers to gage their intention and welling to buy Halal products within the Middle East region.

The importance of this study exists in the lack of previous Halal-related studies in the Palestinian context and the previously described gap in the literature. Nevertheless, the quality management drivers and impact are limited in the Palestinian context compared with other contexts; the results of the previously published studies revealed mixed results such as the drivers of quality management are based on the type of business. Finally, this research gives small insights and directions toward conducting additional studies concerning customer awareness about Halal products.