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Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops. The purpose of this paper is to examine firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and political lobbying activities.

Using data from surveys of 160 managers in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in 2013-2014, this paper employed three probit models to examine the determinants of managers’ attitudes, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities.

The results show that most Chinese agribusiness managers are concerned about GM foods and oppose its adoption. Nevertheless, one-third of the firms invest in biotechnology R&D and less than 15 percent of managers lobbied the government to change biotechnology policies. The econometric estimation results suggest that profit change expectation is the main factor affecting managers’ attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment decisions, whereas lobbying activities are significantly influenced by their attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment. In addition, managers’ attitudes toward GM foods also significantly influence firms’ decisions to invest in biotechnology R&D.

This paper has improved on previous research in two ways. First, it analyses the determinants of agribusiness firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities. Second, the methodology involves an analysis of agribusiness firm survey data in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries, which is the first time to use such data to research on economic interest group in agricultural biotechnology field.

Surface roughness is an important evaluation index for industrial components, and it strongly depends on the processing parameters for selective laser molten Ti6Al4V parts. This paper aims to obtain an optimum selective laser melting (SLM) parameter set to improve the surface roughness of Ti6Al4V samples.

A response surface methodology (RSM)-based approach is proposed to improve the surface quality of selective laser molten Ti6Al4V parts and understand the relationship between the SLM process parameters and the surface roughness. The main SLM parameters (i.e. laser power, scan speed and hatch spacing) are optimized, and Ti6Al4V parts are manufactured by the SLM technology with no post processes.

Optimum process parameters were obtained using the RSM method to minimise the roughness of the top and vertical side surfaces. Obtained parameter sets were evaluated based on their productivity and surface quality performance. The validation tests have been performed, and the results verified the effectivity of the proposed technique. It was also shown that the top and vertical sides must be handled together to obtain better top surface quality.

The obtained optimum SLM parameter set can be used in the manufacturing of Ti6Al4V components with high surface roughness requirement.

RSM is used to analyse and determine the optimal combination of SLM parameters with the aim of improving the surface roughness quality of Ti6Al4V components, for the first time in the literature. Also, this is the first study which aims to simultaneously optimise the surface quality of top and vertical sides of titanium alloys.

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

Originating from a theoretical stance that situates knowledge organization in its social context, the study applies a multifaceted framework pertaining to five categories of textual data: the Seven Epitomes; biographical information about the classificationist Liu Xin; and the relevant intellectual, political, and technological history.

The study discovers seven principles contributing to the epistemic foundation of the catalogue's classification: the Han imperial library collection imposed as the literary warrant; government functions considered for structuring texts; classicist morality determining the main classificatory structure; knowledge perceived and organized as a unity; objects, rather than subjects, of concern affecting categories at the main class level; correlative thinking connecting all text categories to a supreme knowledge embodied by the Six Classics; and classicist moral values resulting in both vertical and horizontal hierarchies among categories as well as texts.

A major limitation of the study is its focus on the main classes, with limited attention to subclasses. Future research can extend the analysis to examine subclasses of the same scheme. Findings from these studies may lead to a comparison between the epistemic approach in the target classification and the analytic one common in today's bibliographic classification.

The study is the first to examine in depth the epistemic foundation of traditional Chinese bibliographic classification, anchoring the classification in its appropriate social and historical context.

This paper aims to focus on investigating the failure mode of fused deposition modeling (FDM) fabricated parts by using acoustic emission (AE) technique.

Considering the special prototyping way of FDM, the failure modes of FDM-fabricated parts were investigated experimentally. One test was carried out and the other two describe what has been observed on this basis. Acoustic emissions are obtained during the tensile process. AE features of peak frequency, energy and amplitude are extracted and preliminarily analyzed. Then, the unsupervised clustering method of k-means is applied to explore the relationship between the failure modes and the AE signals.

Failure modes of filament debonding and breakage can be successfully recognized by the pattern recognition technique of k-means.

The results obtained can help us understand the failure process of FDM printed parts. This will provide an available monitoring method in the application of FDM-fabricated parts.

This paper has investigated and characterized the failure modes of FDM fabricated parts for the first time.

As a crucial element of city planning, an adequately planned logistics center for agricultural products can improve the circulation efficiency of agricultural products, thereby contributing to a convenient lifestyle of urban residents. First, this study analyzed the functional zones of urban green logistics centers for agricultural products based on low-carbon idea. A method was also proposed to calculate the area of each functional zone. Moreover, this study proposed a layout planning innovation method of urban green logistics centers for agricultural products based on logistics motion line analysis and logistics intensity calculation. Lastly, this study analyzed the application processes of the layout planning methodology according to the topographical conditions of Huai’an logistics center project case in China. Results of the case study show that the construction innovation method proposed in this study is scientific, reasonable, and practical. The construction innovation method can be also used for the planning and designing of similar urban logistics centers.

This study aims to examine the problems encountered during the establishment of the Central Police Academy (CPA) under the Nationalist regime from 1936 to 1949. While the authoritarian party-state unified the police academies by forceful means, this catalyzed the cleavage between the schools of police studies and resulted in power struggles over police education, intellectual thought, collectivity and even the national reform of police administration. More than narrating the progress of power consolidation, this study attempts to identify the problems underlying the factional strife and to reveal the interwoven pattern of these power struggles, exploring the confusion regarding what the police is, a question that troubled Chinese policemen from the mainland to Taiwan.

This paper explains the emergence of the factional strife from the beginning of the preliminary growth of the Police Academies in Nanking and Chekiang. It widely makes use of the official archives from Japan Center for Asian Historical Records and Historica Academia to show the dynamic situation in police education and administration. Rather, the official publications of the Police Academies and their affiliated associations reveal the hidden political agenda behind a unified framework as the party-state claimed. Moreover, official gazettes, memorials and newspapers are also used to strengthen the core argument of this study.

This paper examines the impact of the factional strife between the police leaders Dai Li and Li Shizhen on the CPA from 1936 to 1949. It illustrates that the establishment of the CPA ostensibly unified the nationwide police force but triggered power struggles over the control of the police administration. More importantly, it also shows how the factions strove for larger shares of power under the supreme doctrines that Chiang Kai-shek and the party-state imposed.

The failure of police education to become powerful was a special case among other more typical institutions. The governors coercively merged the police academies and created robust conditions for growth under the shelter of state authority. The police force did not follow the same path of national monopoly as what recent studies found but drifted apart with its vested interests and incompatible beliefs. Hence, the greater the demand for centralized control by the state, the greater the tension of the factional strife.

Explains why, following China‘s implementation of a market economy, public accounting firms were required to affiliate (hook‐up) with existing government or educational institutions until 1993 when partnerships and limited liability firms were also allowed. Describes the rules relating to independent accounting firms and changes which should foster their development but reports that, in fact, most firms are still affiliated. Discusses the reasons for this and the resulting problems, e.g. lack of competition and independence, low quality of service and increases in fraud, misrepresentation and under‐disclosure. Reveals that despite the 1995 exposure draft on eliminating the hooking‐up structure few de‐affiliations have taken place and identifies four problems which need solving if full de‐affiliation is to be achieved.

Aiming to find out how to incorporate green building into the architectural curriculum, this study aims to explore the psychological path for cultivating architectural students’ awareness and motivation to learn the green design concepts and related technologies.

Based on a global review of relevant architectural courses in universities, a set of green building learning behaviors was proposed and a survey was conducted in architectural schools in South China to verify the “value-belief-norm” theory through the lens of green building learning behaviors. The psychological path that affects students’ green building learning behaviors was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results showed that biospheric and altruistic values could directly affect students’ motivation to learn green building, while personal norms served as the mediating condition for personal values and beliefs, and ultimately improved motivation.

The study suggests that the cultivation of environmental awareness and a sense of the ecological crisis should be developed through foundation courses, by establishing an ecological architecture curriculum, to more effectively guide students to learn and practice green building.

This study, for the first time, applied the “value-belief-norm” theory, which was developed to explain the psychological path for pro-environmental behaviors, to green building learning behaviors of architectural students.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling and to study its potential effects on rural development.

Using household survey data collected from five provinces of China in 2010, this paper assesses farmer’s attitudes toward land titling and examines the potential effects of land titling on rural land transferring and labor migration.

Rural residential land titling has significant effects on farmers’ attitudes toward land transferring and their migration intention. Farmers who have more non-agricultural development opportunities are more likely to welcome land titling. The titling of rural residential land could provide secure property rights for farmers, and thus stimulate them to trade, mortgage their rural residential property, and migrate to urban areas.

Land titling in rural China will probably affect rural land transferring and encourage rural labor migrate to urban, and thus promote rural development.

This paper investigates farmers’ attitudes and behavior toward land titling, and examines its potential effects on rural land transferring and labor migration, based on national survey data. This paper sheds new lights on farmers’ demand for types of land tenure reforms and how these reforms would affect the perceived opportunities available for farmers.

Many electricity projects in Asian emerging economies involve private finance using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) yet problems remain in terms of project initiation, commercial structuring, and financial arrangements. The motivation to pursue previous PPP power projects has been unduly influenced by the ability to attract finance rather than an independent assessment of value for money (VfM) of the project. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of VfM framework for improving investment sustainability of PPP power projects in Asian emerging economies.

The drivers for achieving VfM in projects involving both public and private participants have been determined by a critical review of international practices and the development of sustainable energy systems using grounded theory. These drivers have been used to cross-analyse six Asian PPP power projects.

The evaluation of the case study projects identifies the key determining linkages between the project structure, financial and commercial arrangements, and technical solutions with the ultimate project outcomes. It has been established that project outcomes can be improved through the inclusion of VfM considerations, energy security, and environmental sustainability. On the basis of this investigation, a conceptual governmental decision framework for future investment in PPP power projects is proposed.

Advocating a VfM framework for assessment of PPP power project proposals in Asian emerging economies is a new approach and offers enhanced benefits both to the public and private sector.