Agricultural information dissemination using ICTs: a review and analysis of information dissemination models in China

Open Access funded by China Agricultural UniversityOver the last three decades, China’s agriculture sector has been transformed from the traditional to modern practice through the effective deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Information processing and dissemination have played a critical role in this transformation process. Many studies in relation to agriculture information services have been conducted in China, but few of them have attempted to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of different information dissemination models and their applications. This paper aims to review and identify the ICT based information dissemination models in China and to share the knowledge and experience in applying emerging ICTs in disseminating agriculture information to farmers and farm communities to improve productivity and economic, social and environmental sustainability. The paper reviews and analyzes the development stages of China’s agricultural information dissemination systems and different mechanisms for agricultural information service development and operations. Seven ICT-based information dissemination models are identified and discussed. Success cases are presented. The findings provide a useful direction for researchers and practitioners in developing future ICT based information dissemination systems. It is hoped that this paper will also help other developing countries to learn from China’s experience and best practice in their endeavor of applying emerging ICTs in agriculture information dissemination and knowledge transfer

Strategic management of intellectual capital of the enterprise in the framework of informatization of the economy

In the course of the research, one has determined the scientific and theoretical approaches, related to the identification of the directions and tools needed to improve strategic management; one also provided the main directions of the intellectual capital formation and development within the enterprise, which include the state of the capital at the present stage and the requirements to it from the future knowledge economy: the introduction of human capital into the assets of the enterprise, the promotion of the creative activity of the employees of the enterprise by using factors of human and social capital activation, as well as the establishment of an accounting system and evaluation of intangible assets. We have highlighted a range of specific principles of the intellectual capital management at the enterprise: the establishment of a partnership between all participants of the production process within the enterprise, namely, its owners, managers, and employees; the determination of criteria for assessing the contribution of every employee into the final result of the enterprise activity; the arrangement of an integrated network of the workers’ mass participation to identify the potential reserves, improve the production efficiency, and the product quality; the development of measures upon the principles’ implementation; and the primary task orientation of management on the future competition. One formulated the scientific and methodological foundations regarding the development of measures, aimed to improve the management of the intellectual capital of an enterprise, which include a sequence, the procedure of determination, the justification, the evaluation of the appropriateness of particular measures, the involvement of a wide range of workers in their development via the methods of interrogation and questionin

Research on the Development Dilemma and Countermeasures of Rural Digital Economy under the Background of Rural Revitalization

As a new economic form following agricultural economy and industrial economy, digital economy is the key to realizing lane changing and overtaking in China’s economy, and has attracted the attention of all sectors of society. The integration of digital economy and rural industry is in line with the rural revitalization strategy, and has created a large number of new models and new sources of income for rural areas in recent years. Compared with the more mature rural digital economy exploration abroad, China's rural digital economy is slightly immature. Focusing on the powerful driving force of digital economy, this paper expounds the development opportunities of digital economy in rural agriculture, explores the main innovation models of rural digital economy in China, and analyzes the problems encountered in practice and countermeasures

A Preliminary Study of the Aggregation of Micro-Course Learning Resources for Senior Citizens in Grassroots Communities: From the Perspective of Learning Sciences

In order to effectively cope with the national strategy of population ageing, the relevant plans of the State Council in the 14th Five-Year Plan require the innovative development of education for the elderly, the integration of learning resources, and the narrowing of the “digital divide” between urban and rural areas. The capacity of grass-roots community resource construction is insufficient. Therefore, we should consider how to achieve high-quality convergence of learning resources for the elderly, so as to effectively revitalize the application ecology of learning resources in grass-roots communities, from the perspective of maximizing utilization, avoiding duplicate construction, and integrating optimization and intensive cost. This paper will analyze the current state of micro-course learning materials for the elderly in grassroots communities, as well as the issues that they face. Based on learning scientific theories, this paper believes that the aggregation of micro-course learning resources for the elderly in grassroots communities should be scientifically and effectively realized. Furthermore, when gathering, we should focus on the elderly in the community and accurately locate their characteristics; propose simplified practical standards for high-quality micro-courses to serve as a guide for the gathering of micro-courses in grass-roots communities; use introduction, transformation, self-build and exchange methods to achieve multi-source aggregation of micro-courses for the elderly. Moreover, we should investigate the practical path of the entire process of aggregation and implementation of micro-course resources for the elderly in grass-roots communities, systematize the management of micro-course resources, build a multi-dimensional resource service system, and form a digital learning community for the elderly from the standpoint of learning scientific theory. Empirical procedures that are repeatable and scalable

Informacijski servisni sustav za poljoprivredni IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) was faced with some difficulties which contained mass data management, various standards of object identification, data fusion of multiple sources, business data management and information service providing. In China, some safety monitoring systems of agricultural product always adopt centralized system architecture in which the data is stored concentratively. These systems could not be connected with or accessed by each other. This paper proposed an information system of agriculture Internet of Things based on distributed architecture. A distributed information service system based on IoT-Information Service, Object Naming Service, Discovery Service is designed to provide public information service including of capturing, standardizing, managing and querying of massive business data of agriculture production. A coding scheme for agricultural product, business location and logistic unit is provided for data identification. A business event model of agriculture IoT is presented for business data management. The whole system realizes the tracking and tracing of agricultural products, and quality monitoring of agriculture production. The implementation of this information service system is introduced.Internet stvari suočen je s poteškoćama poput upravljanja s velikom količinom podataka, različitim standardnima identifikacije objekata, fuzije podataka iz više izvora, upravljanja poslovnim podatcima i pružanje informacijskih usluga. Sigurnosno nadgledanje poljoprivrednih proizvoda u Kini uvijek podliježe centraliziranoj arhitekturi gdje su podatci koncentrirani na jednom mjestu. Takvi sustavi ne mogu biti povezani jedni s drugim te jedan drugome ne mogu pristupati. U ovome radu predložen je informacijski sustav za poljoprivredni internet stvari temeljen na distribuiranoj arhitekturi. Distribuirani informacijski servisni sustav baziran na IoT (Internet stvari), sustav za imenovanje objekata i sustav za otkrivanje omogućuju javni informacijski servis uključujući prikupljanje, standardizaciju, upravljanje i ispitivanje velikih količina podataka o poljoprivrednim proizvodima. Prikazana je shema kodiranja za poljopoprivredne proizvode, poslovne lokacije i logističke jedinice za identifikaciju podataka. Poslovni model doga.aja za poljoprivredni IoT je prezentiran za upravljanje poslovnim podatcima. Cjelokupni sustav omogućuje praćenje poljoprivrednih proizvoda te nadgledanje njihove kvalitete. Rad tako.er daje uvid u implementaciju informacijskog servisnog sustava

Information technology issues in China

In this chapter, we provide important information technology (IT) issues in China, such as organizational IT issues, technology issues, and individual issues. In the World IT Project survey, we recruited 310 IT workers in China. Most of the respondents were in their early career and worked full time in China's IT organizations. The findings show that the most important IT-related organizational issues are: IT reliability and efficiency, security and privacy, and IT strategic planning. Among technology issues, IT professionals identified the following issues as the top concerns: networks/telecommunications, big data systems, data mining, software as a service, and business intelligence/analytics. Most IT employees seem to be satisfied with their current jobs and felt a sense of accomplishment at work. Results further show that more than half of the IT workers would not change their jobs in the short term and felt secure in their current jobs. In addition, there were no significant work-life conflicts among the surveyed IT employees. © 2020 The Author(s)

Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare: A Systematic Review

Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today. Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain, and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint. Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of \emph{animal welfare} in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated in their environment. Also the notion of \emph{smart computing and sensing} is used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication management as well as policy for animal welfare

Development and Usability Evaluation of a Nursing Graduate Information Management System (GSMIS) Based on User Experience

[Research Background] Recent years, the rapid development of information technology in colleges and universities and the continuous expansion of graduate students have not only increased the pressure of graduate student management in the School of Nursing of Fudan University, but also accelerated the pace of information technology construction in the college, and the School of Nursing urgently needs to use the existing good platform to realize the information technology of nursing graduate student management in combination with the actual situation of the college, so as to realize the communication between graduate student supervisors, graduate students and management, and also to build an objective and scientific clinical competence assessment system in line with It is also important to provide material for the construction of an objective and scientific clinical competence assessment and evaluation system that is in line with the postgraduate nursing education, which is important to achieve the cultivation goals and improve the quality of nursing graduate training. [Research Purpose] Based on the theory of user experience and the concept of "User-Centered Design", this project develops the information management system for graduate students in the School of Nursing by studying the actual needs of teachers and graduate students in the School of Nursing, which can be divided into the following contents: (1) Construction of the framework content of a Nursing GSMIS (2) Development and testing of a Nursing GSMIS (3) Usability evaluation of the a Nursing GSMIS [Research Methods] 1. Demand analysis of the Nursing GSMIS (1) Preliminary framework: Using target sampling method and maximum variation method, semi- structured interviews were conducted with both faculty and student users of the School of Nursing to build the preliminary framework of the system. (2) Final framework: Expert focus group interviews were used to revise and adjust the required content such as interface design, business functions and performance, and to determine the final framework of the system. 2. Development and testing of Nursing GSMIS The “Rapid Prototype Interaction” model was used to develop the system. After the prototype was developed, the Shanghai Institute of Comprehensive Application of Network Technology was contacted for professional system testing, and then the system was modified and adjusted until it met the research requirements. 3. Usability evaluation of Nursing GSMIS A mixed evaluation method of usability test, questionnaire and qualitative interview was used to conduct a more comprehensive and objective usability evaluation of the GSMIS successfully developed in the early stage. It was used to understand the users' feelings and experiences of the system, analyze the advantages and shortcomings of the system, and explore its actual usability.[Research Results] 1. Demand analysis of Nursing GSMIS (1) Preliminary framework of the system: The faculty and student users interviewed expressed that information management is an important step in the progress of the college and the nursing discipline, and expressed strong support and need for the construction of our information system. Based on the literature review and the needs of faculty and students, the framework was initially formulated as four modules: basic information of admission, cultivation process, research results, and clinical cases. (2)The final framework of Nursing GSMIS: It is built from modules and functions, performance, interface, text, color, etc.; Modules include: basic information module for admission, training process module, scientific research achievement module, clinical case library module, employment information module, graduation tracking module; functions include password setting and retrieval, user log-in, user management, data maintenance, custom query, audit and message notification; Performance can be summarized as follows: data structure is clear, complete, with real-time, expansion, operation and stability; Interface Design is friendly and beautiful, simple and easy to use; Layout should highlight the key points; text design is easy to recognize and read, color design reflects the connotation and characteristics of the college. The performance can be summarized as: clear data structure, complete, real-time, scalability, operability and stability; friendly and beautiful interface design, simple and easy to use, layout to highlight the key points; text design is easy to identify, easy to read, color design reflects the connotation and characteristics of the college. 2. Development and testing of Nursing GSMIS Based on the requirements, the engineers used the “Rapid Prototype Interaction Model” to develop the system. After the prototype was developed, the Shanghai Institute of Comprehensive Application of Network Technology was contacted for professional system testing, and then after many rounds of software discussions and corrections between the software engineers and researchers, the GSMIS finally had the registration and log-in page, the informed consent notification page, the information notification page and six main modules. 3. Usability evaluation of Nursing GSMIS (1) Usability Test: Based on the usability test theory, the target sampling method was used, and five graduate students users were selected to participate in the test is sufficient, and the results are as follows. 1) Quantitative results: The effectiveness was mostly at 100%, and the efficiency was 56.2min/s, 72.2min/s, 53min/s, 225.2min/s, 75.8min/s, 33min/s, and 5.5min/s; The overall score of the post-scene questionnaire (ASQ) was 1.24. The evaluation indexes all indicated that the users rated the system highly. 2) Qualitative results: The test subjects all easily completed and highly praised the system during the test, indicating that the operation was not difficult and satisfied the interaction needs of users. (2) SUS Questionnaire: A total of 40 users completed the SUS using the convenience sampling method and the maximum variance method, and the Mean±SD was 70.23±7.7. Among them, the mean score of the Usability sub-scale was 71.59±8.93 , and the mean score of the ease of Learning sub-scale was 64.77±7.53, with scores ranging from 60 to 70. (3) Qualitative interviews: Using target sampling method and maximum variation method, a total of 10 people were interviewed, including 5 students and 5 staff users, and the number of interviews was 3, with no repeated interviews or secondary interviews. The maximum interview time was 46 minutes, the minimum was 25 minutes, and the average was 35.5 minutes. The results can be summarized into three aspects: general evaluation, content and function evaluation, and shortcomings and improvement. This study combines qualitative and quantitative results, reflecting the good usability of the system, but there are also shortcomings and improvements. [Conclusion] This study used various research methods such as literature review, qualitative interview, and focus group interview to construct a system framework based on user experience, completed the development of the graduate student information management system in the School of Nursing, and used mixed methods such as out-of-sound thinking method, usability testing method, questionnaire survey method, and qualitative interview to evaluate the usability of the system, and the results showed that the system has high acceptance, ease of use, and usability