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Abstract: In "Literary Variation of Indian Buddhist Stories in Chinese (Zhiguai) Novels," Wei Guo discusses Buddhist Sutra scriptures which have been a reservoir of inspiration for Zhiguai novels since their first introduction in Chinese literature. Buddhist texts
were less relevant for the "documentary" tradition of Chinese literature owing to their rough structure, vague context, and lack of a sense of history and reality, since they were originally intended as texts of didacticism. Hence, in order to integrate these exotic literary materials
with local aesthetic concepts, Chinese writers explored creative adaptations including the addition of adding detail, linguistic embellishments, and the endowment of each story with specific narrative scenes in terms of character, place, and time. Guo argues that Indian Buddhist stories have
been remolded in Zhiguai novels and transformed from imaginary religious literature into figurative and documentary literature whereby the convergence of the source texts with the target texts shows the processes of formation of world literature(s). Keywords: Buddhist Sutra; Sinicization;
Zhiguai Novel; Mystery and Supernatural in Classical Chinese Literatur

Most arable land in rural areas of China is highly fragmented, and promoting large-scale operation by means of farmland transfer is of great significance to both increase farm income and improve the ecological stability of farmland. At present, crayfish are widely popular with the consumer market, and the rice–crayfish cultivation pattern has considerable industrial advantages for water-rich plain areas. However, farmers do not have a sufficient understanding of the new model, and its application is not common enough, failing to realize the advantages of the region's special industries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current situation of farmland transfer in rice–crayfish cultivating regions of Hunan and Hubei, China, and employ the logistic regression model to explore the impacts of operation scale and transfer experience on farmers' willingness toward farmland transfer-in, in order to promote the sustainable development of rice–crayfish cultivating. The results showed that: Firstly, both operation scale and transfer experience have a significant positive relevance with farmers' willingness toward farmland transfer-in. Secondly, there are obvious differences in the impact path among large-scale, medium-scale, and small-scale rice or rice–crayfish farmers. Thirdly, the transfer-out experience is inhibitory or not significantly associated with the willingness toward farmland transfer-in. Fourthly, the transfer experience intensifies the positive influence of the expansion of operation scale on the farmers' willingness toward farmland transfer-in. This study can provide some reference and basis for the local government to make differentiated measures according to the farmland transfer preferences of farmers with different scales and operation types, so as to promote farmers' willingness to operate at a large scale and realize the sustainable development of the regional rice–crayfish cultivating model.

In this study, we estimate the potential benefits of partial or full implementation of cross-border paperless measures with respect to reduction of time required to export and import, as well as an increase in exports. This is done by classifying the implementation of cross-border paperless trade measures into three stages, namely no implementation or planning stage, partial implementation, and full implementation. Results of the study should be of interest to policymakers in two ways. First, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for digitalizing trade procedures through the development of national and regional single windows. The work-from-home directive as part of the COVID-19 control measures means that some regulatory authorities in the ministries of trade, health or agriculture have to provide public services in different locations and may not be fully available to process paper documents submitted by traders. This has created risks of disrupting the supply chains in food and medical supplies. Such risks can be mitigated by the implementation of full-fledged NSW and subsequently ASW+6 to enable exporters or importers to submit all trade-related documents electronically only once for each occurrence of their exports or imports. Such documents are then processed electronically by the regulatory authorities either at the office or in the home. Second, results of the study should feed into the ongoing discussion on expanding the ASW in ASEAN. In November 2020, the ASEAN Secretariat published the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) and its implementation plan, which set out strategies and identified measures for recovery in line with sectoral and regional priorities (ASEC 2020). The ACRF trade facilitation measures include the harmonization of standards for essential goods and the expansion of ASW to ASEAN's key trading partners. This aims to reduce compliance costs and procedural obstacles for traders, which should improve the efficiency of their business operations and increase their ...

Meteorological disasters have become a global challenge due to the increased prevalence and severity, and China is among the most affected countries. In this paper, based on a randomized survey in China, the authors employed a structural equation model to study the influencing factors of public participation in meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation (MDPM). It is found that the behavior of the government has a significant positive influence, with an influencing coefficient of 0.494 on the public&rsquo ; s willingness to participate in MDPM. The degree of community involvement also has a significant positive influence on the public&rsquo ; s willingness, with an influencing coefficient of 0.636. The public&rsquo ; s attention to meteorological events and ability to participate have less impact on their participation in MDPM, with coefficients of 0.057 and 0.075, respectively. The information acquisition has a significant negative impact, with an influencing coefficient of &minus ; 0.084. There is a strong positive covariation between community participation and governmental behavior, with a covariance coefficient of 0.27, indicating that the two factors promote each other and together boost the public&rsquo ; s willingness to participate in MDPM.

This paper investigates the meteorological factors and human activities that influence PM2.5 pollution by employing the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to a chance constrained stochastic optimization problem. This approach has the two advantages of admitting random input and output, and allowing the evaluation unit to exceed the front edge under the given probability constraint. Furthermore, by utilizing the meteorological observation data incorporated with the economic and social data for Jiangsu Province, the chance constrained stochastic DEA model was solved to explore the relationship between the meteorological elements and human activities and PM2.5 pollution. The results are summarized by the following: (1) Among all five primary indexes, social progress, energy use and transportation are the most significant for PM2.5 pollution. (2) Among our selected 14 secondary indexes, coal consumption, population density and civil car ownership account for a major portion of PM2.5 pollution. (3) Human activities are the main factor producing PM2.5 pollution. While some meteorological elements generate PM2.5 pollution, some act as influencing factors on the migration of PM2.5 pollution. These findings can provide a reference for the government to formulate appropriate policies to reduce PM2.5 emissions and for the communities to develop effective strategies to eliminate PM2.5 pollution.

Big progress has been made in batteries based on an intercalation mechanism in the last 20 years, but limited capacity in batteries hinders their further increase in energy density. The demand for more energy intensity makes research communities turn to conversion-type batteries. Thermal batteries are a special kind of conversion-type battery, which are thermally activated primary batteries composed mainly of cathode, anode, separator (electrolyte), and heating mass. Such kinds of battery employ an internal pyrotechnic source to make the battery stack reach its operating temperature. Thermal batteries have a long history of research and usage in military fields because of their high specific capacity, high specific energy, high thermal stability, long shelf life, and fast activation. These experiences and knowledge are of vital importance for the development of conversion-type batteries. This review provides a comprehensive account of recent studies on cathode materials. The paper covers the preparation, characterization of various cathode materials, and the performance test of thermal batteries. These advances have significant implications for the development of high-performance, low-cost, and mass production conversion-type batteries in the near future.