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The purpose of this paper is to apply an analysis of complex networks to empirically research international agricultural commodity trade and countries’ trading relations. The structure of global agricultural commodity trade is quantitatively described and analysed.

Based on statistical physics and graph theory, the research paradigm of a complex network, which has sprung up in the last decade, provides us with new global perspective to discuss the topic of international trade, especially agricultural commodity trade. In this paper, the authors engage in the issue of countries’ positions in international agricultural commodity trade using the latest complex network theories. The authors at first time introduce the improved bootstrap percolation to simulate cascading influences following the breaking down of bilateral agricultural commodity trade relations.

On a mid-level structure, countries are classified into three communities that reflect the structure of the “core/periphery” using the weighted extremal optimisation algorithm and the coarse graining process. On a micro-level, countries’ rankings are provided with the aid of network’s node centralities, which presents world agricultural commodity trade as a closed, imbalanced, diversified and multi-polar development.

The authors at first time introduce the improved bootstrap percolation to simulate cascading influences following the breaking down of bilateral agricultural commodity trade relations.

This paper presents a robust numerical model for dealing with temporary instabilities which occur in the numerical analysis of steel structures under fire conditions. The model adopts the combined static-dynamic solution procedure to model ‘snap-through’ behaviour of industrial steel portal frame in fire. This new method allows solution procedure automatically switch between static and dynamic approaches, with the objective mainly for overcoming a transitory stage of instability in structural modelling. The current model is computationally very efficient compared to conducting full dynamic analysis of the structures for the whole duration of fire. The method could easily be applied for modelling composite and reinforced concrete buildings under fire conditions. The snap-through instability of the pitched portal frame has been modelled successfully by the new procedure. The method could provide a very useful modelling tool for the perform-based fire safety design of industrial buildings, as a much more realistic alternative to the highly simplified design methods which are currently in use.

Detection of hidden defects of aluminum alloy plate with damping coating is a challenging problem. At present, only a few non-destructive testing methods exist to address this engineering problem. Without the restriction of skin effect, remote field eddy current (RFEC) overcomes the interference caused by the damping coating. The RFEC, which has potential advantages for detecting the hidden defects of aluminum plate with damping coating, can penetrate the metal plate to detect buried depth defects. This study aims to test how thick the RFEC sensor can penetrate the metal plate to detect the buried defects.

The magnetic field distribution characteristics are analyzed, the magnetic field intensity distribution is calculated, and the structure and parameters of the coil, magnetic circuit and shielding damping are determined through the two- and three-dimensional finite element simulation methods. Optimal excitation frequency is obtained, and the distance between the excitation coil and detection coil is determined by analyzing the relationship between excitation frequency and remote field points.

Simulation and experimental results verify the feasibility of applying the RFEC detection technology in detecting the hidden defects of aluminum alloy plate with damping coating.

In this paper, the RFEC testing model of hidden defects in aluminum plate sample with damping coating is established by using the finite element method.

This paper aims to reveal the corrosion mechanism and corrosion development regulation of marine engineering structural steel in the marine environment and provide constructive suggestions for marine immersed tunnel engineering.

In this study, marine engineering structural steel’s behavior and corrosion prediction were carried out under the conditions of no cathodic protection and under-protection by artificially adding dissolved oxygen in a simulated seawater solution as a depolarizing agent.

Marine resources are rich in China. With the development of the economy and the improvement of engineering technology, marine engineering structural steel is used more and more widely. Engineering structural steel has a great risk of corrosion failure for long-term service in seawater, as seawater is a kind of corrosive medium containing various salts. At present, there are few projects and research studies available on the corrosion in the seawater environment of Q390C engineering structural steel, which is used in the Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link immersed tunnel steel shell at home and abroad. It cannot guide the corrosion of immersed tunnel steel shells in the ocean.

In this paper, the corrosion mechanism and corrosion development regulation of marine engineering structural steel in the marine environment are studied by accelerated corrosion test in the laboratory, which is of great significance to ensure the long-life durability of the immersed tunnel in marine engineering.

Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives efficiently. Based on goal-setting theory, the current research examines the relationship between incentives with goals of varying difficulty and professional health knowledge sharing (PHKS) in online health knowledge-sharing platforms (OHKSPs).

Four field experiments with different monetary incentives were conducted by one of China’s largest OHKSPs, with whom the researchers cooperated in data collection. Monthly panel data on 10,584 physicians were collected from September 2018 to December 2019. There were 9,376 physicians in the treatment group and 1,208 in the control group. The authors used a difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the research question based on the same control group and the Chow test with seemingly unrelated estimation (sureg) to compare regression coefficients between four groups. Several robustness checks were performed to validate the main results, including a relative time model, multiple falsification tests and a DID estimation using the propensity score matching method.

The results show that the monetary incentive significantly positively affected the volume of physicians’ PHKS directly with negative spillover to the duration of physicians’ PHKS. Moreover, the positive effect of incentives with higher difficulty on the volume of physicians’ PHKS was significantly smaller than that of incentives with low difficulty. Finally, professional title had a positive moderating effect on the volume of goal difficulty setting and did not significantly moderate the effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS.

Some limitations of this study are: firstly, because the field experiments were enterprise benefit oriented, the treatment and control groups were not balanced. Secondly, the experiments for different incentive measures were relatively similar, making it challenging to validate a causal effect. Finally, more consideration should be given to the strategy for setting hierarchical incentives in future research.

The research indicates that monetary incentives have a bilateral effect on PHKS, i.e. a positive direct effect on the volume of physicians’ contributions and a negative spillover effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS. The professional titles of physicians also moderate such bilateral switches of PHKS. Furthermore, when a physician’s energy is limited, the goal difficulty setting of the incentive mechanism tends to be low. The more difficult the incentives are, the more inefficient the effects on physicians’ PHKS will be.

The extensive distribution of fake news on the internet (FNI) has significantly affected many lives. Although numerous studies have recently been conducted on this topic, few have helped us to systematically understand the antecedents and consequences of FNI. This study contributes to the understanding of FNI and guides future research.

Drawing on the input–process–output framework, this study reviews 202 relevant articles to examine the extent to which the antecedents and consequences of FNI have been investigated. It proposes a conceptual framework and poses future research questions.

First, it examines the “what”, “why”, “who”, “when”, “where” and “how” of creating FNI. Second, it analyses the spread features of FNI and the factors that affect the spread of FNI. Third, it investigates the consequences of FNI in the political, social, scientific, health, business, media and journalism fields.

The extant reviews on FNI mainly focus on the interventions or detection of FNI, and a few analyse the antecedents and consequences of FNI in specific fields. This study helps readers to synthetically understand the antecedents and consequences of FNI in all fields. This study is among the first to summarise the conceptual framework for FNI research, including the basic relevant theoretical foundations, research methodologies and public datasets.

School consolidation reforms are underway in regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The purpose of this paper is to establish an evidence base of research literature on school consolidation in regional, rural and remote locations.

A scoping study of empirical literature on school consolidation, with a particular focus on regional, rural and remote education, since the year 2000 was undertaken. A corpus of 35 papers were identified and subjected to analysis based on: year of publication, country of origin, unit of analysis, data sources, timeframe and theoretical model.

There remains a limited evidence base for the success of school consolidation reforms for turning around student outcomes. In addition, a number of social implications are experienced by communities losing their local school. These issues are amplified in regional, rural and remote locations.

School consolidation reforms are used by governments/systems wanting to reduce costs and address issues of student disengagement and under-achievement. Despite a lengthy history internationally, there is at best mixed evidence regarding these reforms. With a consider disparity gap between urban and regional, rural and remote school outcomes, robust evidence on the success of reforms has major policy implications for government, systems, educators and communities.

With reforms already underway in NSW (and elsewhere), the need for a rigorous and robust evidence base, such as this scoping study, is timely and significant.

The intelligent Central Traffic Control (CTC) system plays a vital role in establishing an intelligent high-speed railway (HSR) system. As the core of HSR transportation command, the intelligent CTC system is a new HSR dispatching command system that integrates the widely used CTC in China with the practical service requirements of intelligent dispatching. This paper aims to propose key technologies and applications for intelligent dispatching command in HSR in China.

This paper first briefly introduces the functions and configuration of the intelligent CTC system. Some new servers, terminals and interfaces are introduced, which are plan adjustment server/terminal, interface for automatic train operation (ATO), interface for Dynamic Monitoring System of Train Control Equipment (DMS), interface for Power Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (PSCADA), interface for Disaster Monitoring, etc.

The key technologies applied in the intelligent CTC system include automatic adjustment of train operation plans, safety control of train routes and commands, traffic information data platform, integrated simulation of traffic dispatching and ATO function. These technologies have been applied in the Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR, which commenced operations at the end of 2019. Implementing these key intelligent functions has improved the train dispatching command capacity, ensured the safe operation of intelligent HSR, reduced the labor intensity of dispatching operators and enhanced the intelligence level of China's dispatching system.

This paper provides further challenges and research directions for the intelligent dispatching command of HSR. To achieve the objectives, new measures need to be conducted, including the development of advanced technologies for intelligent dispatching command, coping with new requirements with the development of China's railway signaling system, the integration of traffic dispatching and train control and the application of AI and data-driven modeling and methods.

This paper aims to examine how consumers make choices when they are faced with a fixed set of available options, consisting of both preferred and less-preferred choices, in the domain of food consumption. Specifically, the paper offers a novel perspective to predict repeated choice decisions in food consumption, which is termed as “pattern-seeking” – a consumption choice pattern that involves a coherent repetitive sequence of sub-groupings or coherently concentrated sub-groupings of options.

Eight experimental studies that contrast the existing theoretical predictions regarding repeated choices (e.g. primacy effect, recency effect, variety vs consistency) against pattern-seeking were conducted using hypothetical and actual food choices.

The results of experimental studies show that an explicit decision pattern (i.e. pattern-seeking) emerges as the most significant predictor of repeated choice in the food consumption domain.

This study offers a novel perspective on how consumers make repeated choices in the domain of food consumption.

The results show that consumers prefer food consumption with a pattern (vs non-pattern). Thus, it would be better to generate marketing activities that allow customers to satisfy their pattern-seeking more easily.

This study advances the literature on repeated food choices by demonstrating that people possess an inherent preference for patterns in food consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of value co-creation in platform ecological circle for cold chain logistics enterprises to guide the transformation and development of cold chain logistics industry.

This paper establishes a conceptual framework for the research on the platform ecological circle in cold chain logistics, utilizes a structural equation model to investigate the influencing factors of the value co-creation of the platform ecological circle in the cold chain logistics enterprises and elaborates the internal relations between different influencing factors regarding the value co-creation and enterprises’ performance.

Results show that resource sharing in logistics platform ecological circle can stimulate the interaction among enterprises and this produces a positive influence on their dynamic capabilities, which, in turn, affects the they to work together to plan, implement and solve problems, so as to achieve the goal of improving enterprise performance.

The shared resources and value co-creation activities in the platform ecological circle are very important for the transformation and development of cold chain logistics enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should promote value co-creation through realizing resource sharing and creating a win-win cooperation mechanism.

This paper targets at incorporating the resource sharing in platform ecological circle for cold chain logistics enterprises, explores from an empirical perspective the role of the resource sharing in cold chain logistics enterprises in enhancing the dynamic capabilities of enterprises, thereby encouraging the value co-creation behavior, and ultimately boosts enterprise performance and stimulates business development.