238 research outputs found

    ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE FAIR ACT ON U.S. PEANUT PRODUCERS

    Get PDF
    This study analyzed the potential economic impacts of the FAIR Act under GATT and NAFTA on the U.S. peanut industry. Results indicate that the economic impacts of the new program combined with the trade agreements are profound on the peanut industry in both short and long terms. Changes of the peanut program could decrease peanut producers' farm income substantially, eliminate government financial costs related to excessive quotas, and transfer peanut growers' program benefits back to peanut consumers. Increasing imports of foreign peanuts due to free/reduced trade barrier agreements would transfer peanut producers' program benefits to domestic peanut importers and foreign exporters who sell peanuts to the U.S. Note: Tables 3 and 4 not included in machine readable file--contact authors for copies.economic impacts, FAIR Act, peanuts, quota, support price, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

    Study on the adaptability and optimization of boom replacement methods for suspension bridges

    Get PDF
    To ensure the safe operation of bridges, the study of methods and techniques for boom replacement has become a crucial aspect of the scientific maintenance of suspension bridges. This study focuses on analyzing the bridge responses and evaluating the applicability of three different boom replacement methods: single-point, three-point and five-point, using finite element calculations. A sea-crossing suspension bridge is taken as a case study to simulate the process of boom replacement using temporary booms. Consequently, the optimal replacement method for booms of varying lengths is determined. Meanwhile, this research proposes a quantitative basis for classifying boom lengths based on calculation data and analysis results to determine the suitable boom lengths for different replacement methods. Besides, a comparison of the relationship between the force transmission efficiency of temporary booms and boom length reveals that longer booms exhibit lower force transmission efficiency, with the efficiency decreasing at a faster rate as boom length increases. Overall, these findings provide a theoretical basis for the study of boom replacement in suspension bridges

    Expression of apolipoprotein M in human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues

    Get PDF
    The present study examined mRNA levels and protein mass of apolipoprotein M (apoM) in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and in the adjacent tissues. Plasma apoM levels in these HCC patients were also determined and compared to the normal subjects. The mean level of plasma apoM in the HCC patients was 0.61 +/- 0.30 OD mm(-2), which was significantly higher than that in the normal subjects 0.37 +/- 0.07 OD mm(-2) (P < 0.01). However, both apoM mRNA levels and apoM protein mass in the HCC tissues were significantly lower than in the adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). It is concluded that human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues had a reduced capacity to produce apoM than the adjacent non-tumor tissues. However, the plasma apoM levels were higher in the HCC patients than in normal subjects, which suggested that tissues adjacent to the tumors or extra-hepatic apoM production in the HCC patients may contribute to the higher plasma apoM levels in these patients. The clinical significance of apoM in relation to HCC still needs further investigation. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier GmbH

    Integrating environmental and satellite data to estimate county-level cotton yield in Xinjiang Province

    Get PDF
    Accurate and timely estimation of cotton yield over large areas is essential for precision agriculture, facilitating the operation of commodity markets and guiding agronomic management practices. Remote sensing (RS) and crop models are effective means to predict cotton yield in the field. The satellite vegetation indices (VIs) can describe crop yield variations over large areas but can’t take the exact environmental impact into consideration. Climate variables (CVs), the result of the influence of spatial heterogeneity in large regions, can provide environmental information for better estimation of cotton yield. In this study, the most important VIs and CVs for estimating county-level cotton yield across Xinjiang Province were screened out. We found that the VIs of canopy structure and chlorophyll contents, and the CVs of moisture, were the most significant factors for cotton growth. For yield estimation, we utilized four approaches: least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression (LASSO), support vector regression (SVR), random forest regression (RFR) and long short-term memory (LSTM). Due to its ability to capture temporal features over the long term, LSTM performed best, with an R2 of 0.76, root mean square error (RMSE) of 150 kg/ha and relative RMSE (rRMSE) of 8.67%; moreover, an additional 10% of the variance could be explained by adding CVs to the VIs. For the within-season yield estimation using LSTM, predictions made 2 months before harvest were the most accurate (R2 = 0.65, RMSE = 220 kg/ha, rRMSE = 15.97%). Our study demonstrated the feasibility of yield estimation and early prediction at the county level over large cotton cultivation areas by integrating satellite and environmental data

    Performance management algorithm of financial shared service center based on Internet of Things public cloud privacy protection

    Get PDF
    The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the use of various communication technologies to achieve the interconnection of everything in cyberspace, and to achieve smart home and intelligent transportation, thus generating unprecedented amounts of data. In the financial sharing center, all businesses can extract effective data from these massive databases for analysis, and use data analysis tools to collect business, financial, human, process, knowledge and social data. At present, various types of IT (Internet Technology) systems have been widely used in financial sharing centers. However, a large number of sensitive data have also been generated. In order to protect these sensitive data, there is a high requirement for the personal information of IT system operation and financial sharing center personnel. In order to protect user data privacy, the optimal and most effective use of IT systems is an important issue that must be considered in privacy management. At present, there are many algorithms to protect data and privacy, but the effect is not ideal. Considering the balance between privacy issues, this paper proposed a K-means clustering algorithm based on IoT public cloud privacy protection technology to analyze the performance management of financial sharing center. The research results showed that before the improvement, the average number of employees who were dissatisfied with the post training ability and information platform construction ability of the financial sharing center was 57.9 and 57.8% respectively, more than half of them. After the improvement of IoT based public cloud privacy protection, the average number of employees dissatisfied with the post training ability and information platform construction ability of the financial sharing center was 5 and 3.9%, far less than the data prior to the improvement. It showed that IoT public cloud privacy protection was conducive to the performance management of the financial sharing center, and the relationship between the two was positive

    Facile sand enhanced electro-flocculation for cost-efficient harvesting of Dunaliella salina

    Get PDF
    通讯作者地址: Jia, LSEnergy consumption and water resource in the cultivation and harvesting steps still need to be minimized for the popularization of the microalgae-based products. An efficient electro-flocculation method for harvesting Dunaliella Salina integrated with local sand has been successfully applied. Sand was effective for speeding up the processes of flocculation and sedimentation of algal flocs and the electrolytic hydroxides was essential to bridge the sand and small flocs into large dense flocs. The maximal recovery effective improved from 95.13% in 6 min to 98.09% in 4.5 min and the optimal electrical energy consumption decreased 51.03% compared to conventional electro-flocculation in a laboratory ambient condition. Furthermore, reusing the flocculated medium in cultivation of the D. Salina with nitrogen supplemented performed no worse than using fresh medium. This sand enhanced electro-flocculation (SEF) technology provides a great potential for saving time and energy associated with improving microalgae harvesting.Xiamen Southern Oceanographic Center of Fujian Province of China 14CZP046HJ20 talents introduction project of Shenzhen City Science and Technology R&D funds recruit research of China ZYD201111080010
    • …
    corecore