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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of farmland renting-in on planted grain acreage.

A survey data of five counties were analyzed with the two-stage ordinary least squares model.

Households renting-in land trended to plant more maize, and the more land was rented by a household the more maize was planted, while wheat acreage showed non-response to farmland renting-in.

Overall, the analysis suggests that policy makers should be prepared for different changing trends of grain crop acreage across the nation as farmland transfer continues. Future research should pay attention to the effect of farmland transfer on agricultural productivity and rural household income growth.

As the Chinese Government is promoting larger-scale and more mechanized farms as a way of protecting grain security, it is important to understand whether farmland renting-in will reduce planted grain acreage. This study provides empirical evidence showing the answer to that question may differ across different regions and depend on the particular grain crop in question.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem which imposes a significant financial burden not only on patients but also on the healthcare systems, especially under the pressure of the rapid growth of the elderly population in China. The purpose of this paper is to examine the hospitalization costs of patients with CKD between two urban health insurance schemes and investigate the factors that were associated with their inpatient costs in Guangzhou, China.

This was a prevalence-based, observational study using data derived from two insurance claims databases during the period from January 2010 to December 2012 in the largest city, Guangzhou in Southern China. The authors identified 5,803 hospitalizations under two urban health insurance schemes. An extension of generalized linear model – the extended estimating equations approach – was performed to identify the main drivers of total inpatient costs.

Among 5,803 inpatients with CKD, the mean age was 60.6. The average length of stay (LOS) was 14.4 days. The average hospitalization costs per inpatient were CNY15,517.7. The mean inpatient costs for patients with Urban Employee-based Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) scheme (CNY15,582.0) were higher than those under Urban Resident-based Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) scheme (CNY14,917.0). However, the percentage of out-of-pocket expenses for the UEBMI patients (19.8 percent) was only half of that for the URBMI patients (44.5 percent). Insurance type, age, comorbidities, dialysis therapies, severity of disease, LOS and hospital levels were significantly associated with hospitalization costs.

The costs of hospitalization for CKD were high and differed by types of insurance schemes. This was the first study to compare the differences in hospitalization costs of patients with CKD under two different urban insurance schemes in China. The findings of this study could provide economic evidence for understanding the burden of CKD and evaluating different treatment of CKD (dialysis therapy) in China. Such useful information could also be used by policy makers in health insurance program evaluation and health resources allocation.

The Chinese market represents an increasingly popular destination for wine firms and recent opportunities derive from the growth of e-commerce. The aim of this paper is to understand the impact of digital platforms on wine firms' internationalisation in China by adopting the service ecosystems approach.

The authors carried out a case study of Italian premium wine firms from the Valpolicella area by collecting 27 semi-structured interviews with key informants that operate at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of the internationalisation ecosystem. Italian wine firms were selected as the focus of the analysis, given the recent sales growth of their products in the Chinese market.

Results show that digital platforms hold a key role in the wine firms' internationalisation in China, intervening with resource integration mechanisms, alignment to the cultural context and mediating firms' digital presence in the market. The platformisation dynamics also reveal the existence of enablers and constraints in the firm internationalisation through digital platforms.

The authors aim to contribute to the marketing literature by analysing how digital platforms influence the wine firms' internationalisation in China through an original perspective, i.e. the service ecosystems lens.

The study adopts the service ecosystems approach to understand the internationalisation of wine firms in the Chinese market through digital platforms.

The purpose of this review is to comprehensively consider the material properties and processing of additive titanium alloy and provide a new perspective for the robotic grinding and polishing of additive titanium alloy blades to ensure the surface integrity and machining accuracy of the blades.

At present, robot grinding and polishing are mainstream processing methods in blade automatic processing. This review systematically summarizes the processing characteristics and processing methods of additive manufacturing (AM) titanium alloy blades. On the one hand, the unique manufacturing process and thermal effect of AM have created the unique processing characteristics of additive titanium alloy blades. On the other hand, the robot grinding and polishing process needs to incorporate the material removal model into the traditional processing flow according to the processing characteristics of the additive titanium alloy.

Robot belt grinding can solve the processing problem of additive titanium alloy blades. The complex surface of the blade generates a robot grinding trajectory through trajectory planning. The trajectory planning of the robot profoundly affects the machining accuracy and surface quality of the blade. Subsequent research is needed to solve the problems of high machining accuracy of blade profiles, complex surface material removal models and uneven distribution of blade machining allowance. In the process parameters of the robot, the grinding parameters, trajectory planning and error compensation affect the surface quality of the blade through the material removal method, grinding force and grinding temperature. The machining accuracy of the blade surface is affected by robot vibration and stiffness.

This review systematically summarizes the processing characteristics and processing methods of aviation titanium alloy blades manufactured by AM. Combined with the material properties of additive titanium alloy, it provides a new idea for robot grinding and polishing of aviation titanium alloy blades manufactured by AM.

An empirical study investigated the antecedents to perceived usefulness (PU) and its consequences in the context of smoking cessation online health communities (OHCs).

To validate a research model for perceived informational support, perceived emotional support and perceived esteem support, the authors conducted a partial-least-squares analysis of empirical data from an online survey (N = 173) of users of two smoking cessation OHCs. The proposed model articulates these as antecedents to PU from a social support perspective, and knowledge sharing and continuance intention are expressed as consequences of PU.

The empirical study identified that the PU of smoking cessation OHCs is influenced by perceived emotional support and perceived esteem support, and perceived informational support indirectly affects PU via these factors. In turn, PU exerts a positive influence on both knowledge sharing and continuance intention. Also, knowledge sharing positively affects continuance intention.

The study contributes to scholarship on users' postadoption behavior in the context of smoking cessation OHCs by disentangling the antecedents to PU from a social support perspective and pinpointing some important consequences of PU. The research also has practical implications for managing smoking cessation OHCs.

Unconventional machining processes, particularly ultrasonic vibration cutting (UVC), can overcome such technical bottlenecks. However, the precise mechanism through which UVC affects the in-service functional performance of advanced aerospace materials remains obscure. This limits their industrial application and requires a deeper understanding.

The surface integrity and in-service functional performance of advanced aerospace materials are important guarantees for safety and stability in the aerospace industry. For advanced aerospace materials, which are difficult-to-machine, conventional machining processes cannot meet the requirements of high in-service functional performance owing to rapid tool wear, low processing efficiency and high cutting forces and temperatures in the cutting area during machining.

To address this literature gap, this study is focused on the quantitative evaluation of the in-service functional performance (fatigue performance, wear resistance and corrosion resistance) of advanced aerospace materials. First, the characteristics and usage background of advanced aerospace materials are elaborated in detail. Second, the improved effect of UVC on in-service functional performance is summarized. We have also explored the unique advantages of UVC during the processing of advanced aerospace materials. Finally, in response to some of the limitations of UVC, future development directions are proposed, including improvements in ultrasound systems, upgrades in ultrasound processing objects and theoretical breakthroughs in in-service functional performance.

This study provides insights into the optimization of machining processes to improve the in-service functional performance of advanced aviation materials, particularly the use of UVC and its unique process advantages.