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The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of climate change on crop net revenue by region. Particularly, the authors focus on the impact differences between north and south regions.

The authors applied the Ricardian approach which assumes that each farmer wishes to maximize revenue subject to the exogenous conditions of their farm. The climate data are based on actual measurements in 753 national meteorological stations and the socio-economic data covers 8,405 farms across 28 provinces in China.

On average, the rise of annual temperature will hurt farms both in the north or south. The impacts of climate change on both precipitation and temperatures have different seasonal impacts on producers in the north and the south of China. As a consequence, the impact on net farm revenues varies with farms in the north and the south being adversely affected (to different degrees) by a rise in the temperature, but both benefiting from an anticipated increase in rainfall. The results also reveal that irrigation is one key adaption measure to dealing with climate change. Whether in the north or south of China, increasing temperature is beneficial to irrigated farms, while for rainfed farms, higher temperature will result in a reduction in net revenues. The results also reveal that farms in the north are more vulnerable to temperature and precipitation variation than that in the south. Irrigated farms in the south are more vulnerable to precipitation variation than that in the north; but rainfed farms in the north are more vulnerable to precipitation variation than that in the south.

Applying empirical analysis to identify the differences of climate change impacts between north and south regions will help policy makers to design reasonable adaptation policies for various regions.

Electric spring (ES) is a demand response method that can stabilize the voltage of critical loads and improve power quality, especially in a weak power grid with a high proportion of renewable energy sources. Most of existing ESs are implemented by voltage-source inverter (VSI), which has some shortcomings. For example, the DC-link capacitor limits the service life of ES, and the battery is costly and hard to recycle. Besides, conventional VSI cannot boost the voltage, which limits the application of ES in high-voltage occasions. This study aims to propose a novel scheme of ES to solve the above problems.

In this work, an ES topology based on current-source inverter (CSI) without a battery is presented, and a direct current control strategy is proposed. The operating principles, voltage regulation range and parameter design of the proposed ES are discussed in detail.

The proposed ES is applicable to various voltage levels, and the harmonics are effectively suppressed, which have been validated via the experimental results in both ideal and distorted grid conditions.

An ES topology based on battery-less CSI is proposed for the first time, which reduces the cost and prolongs the service time of ES. A novel control strategy is proposed to realize the functions of voltage regulation and harmonic suppression.

The large scale of construction projects and the coexistence of multiple logics in the construction field are sparking interest in applying an institutional perspective to investigate managerial issues in construction projects. However, only a few conceptual papers have been published thus far, and a literature review is needed to identify how that knowledge domain has developed. Based on the results of bibliometric analysis and content analysis, this study proposes potential future avenues for institutional theory in construction project management (ITCPM) studies.

This paper reports a bibliographic coupling analysis and a co-citation analysis conducted to identify existing research trajectories and determine the primary features of the current ITCPM literature. In addition, this paper employed a content analysis, identified the evolutionary stages of ITCPM knowledge over time and built a framework of existing research.

This paper first identified that the existing ITCPM studies evolve through three stages, and that the intellectual core of ITCPM studies can be categorized into five clusters. In addition, this paper proposes that future research can be extended from two existing streams: the institutional responses of project actors and the institutional outcomes of construction projects. This paper proposes several major questions that should be addressed by project management scholars working in both streams in order to develop an understanding of construction projects from an institutional perspective.

This is the first literature review of the existing body of knowledge based on a joining of institutional theory and construction project management literature. It uncovers knowledge gaps in contemporary research, notably a lack of broader consideration of how project actors respond to institutional environments and of the institutional outcomes of project management.

As we know, the quality of processes is technically depicted by variation, a product or process with the best quality must naturally require the variation as less as possible. The variation is usually reduced with many ways, say, by adjusting parameters settings under robust design with many turns expensive experiements. So ones are trying to reach the robusiness by detecting cheap and simple methods. In this paper, a both practical and simple technique for quality improvement, namely reducing the variation, by data classification is studied. First, all possible system factors are included, which may dominate the variation law. And then we make use of the past observations and their classification as well as boxplot charts to find out the internal rule between the variation and the system factor. Next, adjust the location of the system factor according to the rule so that the variation could, to some extent, be lessened. Finally, two typical quality improvement cases based on data classification are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic‐statistical design of EWMA charts with variable sampling intervals (VSIs) under non‐normality to reduce the process production cycle cost and improve the statistical performance of control charts. The objective is to minimize the cost function by adjusting the control chart parameters which suffice for the statistical restriction.

First, using the Burr distribution to approximate various non‐normal distributions, the economic‐statistical model of the VSI EWMA charts under non‐normality can be developed. Further, the genetic algorithms will be used to search for the optimal values of parameters of the VSI EWMA charts under non‐normality. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of model parameters and statistical restriction on the solution of the economic‐statistical design.

The result of sensitivity analysis shows that a large lower bound of average time to signal when the process is in control increases the control limit coefficient, no model parameter significantly affects the short sampling intervals, and so on.

The economic‐statistical design method proposed in this paper can improve the statistical performance of economic design of control charts and the general idea can be applied to other VSI control charts.

Tingting Qi's chapter titled, “Moving toward Decentralization? Changing Education Governance in China After 1985,” provides the historical and policy context for the volume. This chapter integrates the post-1978 Chinese educational reforms into the socioeconomic context of China. The special contribution of this chapter is that it explores the complexity of educational decentralization in China through an in-depth analysis of changes in education finance, administration, and curriculum. Qi reviews prior studies, government documents, laws, and regulations related to Chinese education reform since 1978 within the context of education decentralization in China. Qi also demonstrates that China's educational policy reforms are moving China toward “centralized decentralization” because decentralization is driven by a common, centralized national goal of economic modernization. The chapter presents evidence that “centralized decentralization” is a strategic maneuver that maintains centralized control while providing the reform legitimacy of decentralization. By focusing on decentralization as the core of Chinese educational policy reforms, this chapter situates the following chapters within the social, cultural, and political context of post-1978 China.

The paper sets out to consider the impact of China's reform dynamics on its cooperative economy, examining developments both within the statist sector and beyond, in the variety of experimental quasi‐cooperative forms that have grown between plan and market.

The paper employs a field study approach, examining the roles of farmers' specialised cooperatives within the agro‐industrial chain with experiments in Shandong province.

The paper shows that reforms in the cooperative economy have been gradual, uneven and jerky, favouring the more entrepreneurial or better‐placed farmers to pursue new market opportunities. Creating a sustainable mechanism that would protect and even enhance the interests of the poorer farmers is proving to be far more difficult.

The field study of this paper covers just one region. A further investigation of the impact that the reform dynamics has on the cooperative economy is planned for the near future.

China's approach has favoured experimentation, encouraging initiatives from below and developing a more flexible relationship between government and farmers. This broad bottom‐up approach has allowed for a diversity of models adapted to local conditions, but has also led to uncertainties about the limits of local government influence and the extent of autonomy, with many cooperatives taking an investor‐oriented direction.

The paper adopts a broader social economy perspective that offers a fruitful way to evaluate developments and consider the future for China's cooperative economy.

This paper aims to inquire and argue for a renovated model of Confucian political leadership as a way of political governance rooted in a philosophy of humanity and its potential for development.

The paper is primarily critical and constructive through philosophical analysis and synthesis of ideas and insights into nature of man and political leadership in light of Confucian texts and practices.

Based on reflection and analysis, the classical model of political leadership is shown to consist of core values of virtues and visions in classical Confucianism. By conceptual reconstruction a new Confucian model is formulated in such a way in which ethics of utilities and ethics of justice and righteousness are incorporated. The author further shows how it can be realized in different functions of modernized political and economic leadership. The author finds that this move resulted in achieving an essential transformation toward a more realistic application and practice in a global world.

In so far as the new model deals with a process of normative harmonization in which it can be further enhanced by comprehensive considerations of intrinsic human values and future development of humanity as a whole, this model provides a practical method for meeting the urgent needs on different levels of leadership and management for creative and world‐oriented attitude‐building, policy‐making and strategic seminar‐course designing for graduate and executive training in contemporary business schools.

The author has innovatively constructed the new Confucian model and show how political leadership in this model has the capability and ability to persevere in seeking harmony and harmonization among traditions and nations in the global world. The author has also explained how and why morality when properly supported can be a global leading power for bringing harmony and harmonization to the world. The author has formed a new concept of political leadership force and named it the moral power in addition to but not separated in its persuasion from hard power, soft power and smart power of Joseph Nye. The author's formulation and argument for the new model with its moral power constitute a highly significant contribution to the understanding of Confucian political leadership in contemporary global contexts.

Chentong Chen is an undergraduate at Nanjing Normal University studying law and English. She has research interests in education policy, education assessment and evaluation, and child development. She is currently working on two research projects: policy issues related to the college entrance exam in China, and theories and practice of preschool assessment in the U.S.