Small populations are at risk of extinction from deterministic and stochastic factors. Less than 250 Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) remain in China, and are distributed in a few isolated areas; yet, population viability analyses of this endangered population have not been conducted. Here, the current genetic status of the Pu'Er‐Mengyang Asian elephant populations in China was analyzed, and the risk of extinction was predicted over the next 500 years. Factors affecting the viability of this population were determined through simulations. The genetic diversity of the population was very low (mean allele number: 3.1; expected heterozygosity: 0.463), even though a recent population bottleneck was not detected. The effective population size was approximately 24.1 adult elephants. Enough adult breeding individuals exist to maintain population viability. VORTEX simulation model showed that this population would not go extinct in the next 500 years. However, illegal poaching and harvesting could negatively affect population size. A sensitivity analysis showed that the mean stochastic growth rate of the study population is sensitive to sex ratio, number of breeding females, mortality of females of different age classes, carrying capacity, and lethal equivalents. Based on our results, we suggest that action should be taken to alleviate inbreeding and any further loss of genetic diversity, by connecting fragmented elephant habitat or by translocating individual elephants. In addition, human–elephant conflict should be mitigated using various modern approaches, including crop guarding techniques, and by encouraging farmers to switch to crops and income sources not vulnerable to elephant raids.

Human disturbance has become a widespread threat to wildlife viability. The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), an endangered and disturbance-prone species, is under severe threat from habitat loss and fragmentation, human–elephant conflict and poaching. Establishing connections between human disturbance, stress responses and reproduction is crucial for assessing the long-term survivability of a species and will provide critical information for conservation management. The current study investigated the effects of human disturbance on population-level stress responses and stress-related effects on reproductive potential of wild Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, China. We used a radioimmunoassay to measure the concentration of fecal cortisol and estradiol in 257 samples collected from five local populations at 15 sites over 4 years. Human disturbance in Xishuangbanna was quantified based on the Ecological-Niche Factor Analysis model. We found that fecal cortisol concentrations were strongly positively correlated with the degree of human disturbance and increased markedly with the expansion of tea plantations. Percentage of non-stressed individuals in a population was higher depending on the extend of undisturbed area in their home ranges. Fecal estradiol concentrations decreased significantly with increasing stress levels. Our results suggest that human disturbance poses environmental challenges to wild Asian elephant populations, and chronic exposure to human disturbance could lead to population decline. The study demonstrates the efficacy of non-invasive endocrine monitoring for further informing management decisions and developing conservation strategies.

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User experience (UX) has drawn the attention of the banking industry in the past few decades. Although banking systems have a complete service process to ensure financial safety for customers, the mobile banking UX has much potential to be improved. Most research in this field of study relies on existing criteria to describe a user’s experience. However, these criteria are focused more on usability measurement, which neglects to identify the requirements of end-users. Users are asked to give feedback on the provided application, limiting the scope of the user study. Therefore, this study uses mixed methods research and in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect end-user UX requirements to build a UX measurement framework of five main services transfers, including financial management, loans, account openings, and credit cards. This study uses an online survey to validate and revise the framework by applying analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis to quantify criteria. We interviewed 17 customers and collected 857 online validation surveys, and 400 customers attended the AHP analysis. As a result, this study proposes a three-level measurement framework for mobile banking applications in a Chinese context. The first-level criteria are scenario requirements (24.03%), data requirements (20.98%), and function requirements (54.99%). We hope that the framework will guide designers and researchers to design better user-friendly user interfaces and improve customer satisfaction rates in the future.