Power, supply chain integration and quality performance of agricultural products: evidence from contract farming in China

Improving the quality of agricultural products is crucial for facilitating sustainable agricultural development. One widely embraced approach is contract farming, which generates guarantees—necessary for sustaining the continuous operations of vulnerable farmers—while enabling manufacturers to manage the aggregate supply chain risks and prices. Although management researchers have investigated power and quality performance issues between organisations, few have examined their impact on contract farming. This paper extends the literature by examining the relationships between power, supply chain integration and the quality performance of agricultural products, from the perspectives of farm households and agribusiness companies in contract farming. This study proposes and empirically examines a model, applying survey data from 78 agricultural companies and 321 peasant householders in China. The results show that different types of power have different effects on contract farming. In particular, non-economic power significantly and positively affects supply chain integration. Its impact on process coordination is greater than its impact on information sharing. The effect of economic power on supply chain integration is different from the binary perspective. These findings have positive theoretical and practical significance for agribusiness and will help farmers to improve the quality of primary agricultural products and achieve sustainable agricultural development

Improving Efficiency and Accuracy in English Translation Learning: Investigating a Semantic Analysis Correction Algorithm

Translation serves as a vital link in connecting individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, assuming greater significance in the context of globalization. With the continued growth of international communication, the importance of effective translation in fostering mutual understanding, exploring new horizons, and building relationships cannot be overstated. However, the persistent language barrier necessitates improvements in translation accuracy and efficiency. In recent years, information technology has facilitated the development of innovative algorithms for English translation. This study aims to investigate correction algorithms for English translation learning, proposing a method that encompasses semantic word similarity calculations, a log-linear model construction, and the selection of appropriate translations using a dependency tree-to-string approach. Our research examines the performance of this system through comprehensive testing, showcasing noteworthy enhancements in the efficacy and precision of the translations in English. By addressing the users’ needs for English translation correction, this work contributes to bridging language gaps and fostering effective cross-cultural communication

A Routing Algorithms for Resource Constrained Wireless Self-organized Networks

To explore the algorithms for wireless self-organized networks, through the NS-2 network simulation platform, the simulation analysis is made on the performances of multi hop data transmission  of the existing four typical Ad hoc network routing protocols. And the energy saving strategy of Ad hoc network routing protocol SFR (Selection Forwarding Routing) based on network average node connection degree is discussed and analyzed, which is suitable for intensive Ad hoc network. The simulation data showed that, SFR protocol can, under the premise of ensuring the network coverage rate the same as that of flooding  algorithm, reduce more than 56.1% redundant information in the network, and reduce the energy consumption of network by more than 30.2%. Finally, it is concluded that the selection forwarding routing has quite good performance

Evaluating the Efficiency of Municipal Solid Waste Management in China

Poor public health is always associated with the mismanagement of municipal solid waste (MSW). Many cities are besieged by MSW in the world. It is essential to do a good job in MSW management (MSWM). In order to improve the efficiency of MSWM, the Chinese government has intensively implemented relevant policies. There are still few studies on MSWM efficiency in China. The research aims to comprehensively analyze MSWM efficiency, find high-efficiency MSWM policy implementation routes and the breakthrough on improving MSWM efficiency. To measure Chinese MSWM efficiency accurately, this paper introduced the three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model into the research. According to the results of DEA, Fuzzy c-Means algorithm was used to the cluster analysis of 33 typical cities. After eliminating the interference of the external environment and random disturbance, the mean value of MSWM efficiency declined from 0.575 to 0.544. The mean of pure technical efficiency (PTE) was declined from 0.966 to 0.611, while the mean of scale efficiency (SE) increased from 0.600 to 0.907. The PTE of central and northeastern cities was relatively low. The SE of western cities was comparatively high and the efficiency distribution of the eastern region was relatively scattered. In general, MSWM efficiency is low and expected to be improved. Regional differences in MSWM efficiency have been shown. The management effectiveness of eight pilot cities (MSW classification) is affirmative but not that significant. To improve MSWM efficiency, differential management for four types of cities should be carried out

Free fatty acids esterification for biodiesel production using self-synthesized macroporous cation exchange resin as solid acid catalyst

Using high free fatty acids (FFAs) contents oil as the raw material for biodiesel production can reduce the production cost and make fully use of the bio-oil resources. Macroporous cation exchange resins contain numerous acid sites to catalyze heterogeneous esterification reactions to reduce the FFAs contents and prevent the saponification reaction. This study focuses on the synthesis and performance tests of the macroporous resin catalysts and its water deactivation mechanism. Self-synthesized macroporous cation exchange resins have a surface area of 185 m(2) g(-1) with an average pore diameter of 9.7 nm and the ion exchange capacity is 3.37 +/- 0.11 mmol g(-1). Owing to their pore structure, macroporous resin performs better than gel-type resin in low methanol concentration or high FFAs contents, but they show physical instability in reusability tests. The FFAs conversion reaches 97.8% (substrate oil with acid value of 64.9 mg KOH/g) under 100 degrees C and a methanol/FFAs molar ratio of 15:1 with 10 wt% catalyst loading. Water that originally exists in oil or that is produced in the reaction deactivates differently on the activity of the resin, but this deactivation can be decreased by increasing the reaction temperature. In this study, a linear relationship between original water content and esterified FFAs was identified and differences in deactivation models were investigated. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Bayesian-Based NIMBY Crisis Transformation Path Discovery for Municipal Solid Waste Incineration in China

Environmental conflicts have been a top global focus and issue for human’s sustainable development. China is confronted with a serious situation with a rigid demand of ecological governance, in which the “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) crisis outbreaks frequently. NIMBY has a great impact on government management and social stability. This study aims to analyze the NIMBY crisis transformation path for municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) in China. Considering environmental, social and economic influences, this study seeks to find methods of transforming dangers into opportunities. A conceptual framework for realizing the NIMBY crisis transformation in waste management decision-making was conducted with a hybrid approach. A fishbone diagram was applied to explain the key factors of NIMBY crisis transformation for MSWI. Integrating Bayesian network structure discovery and co-word analysis into a qualitative analysis, searched data and key factors from a literature search engine with specific themes were used for structure learning. The results showed that project location, benefit compensation, publicity and education, public decision, public participation, the rule of law and multiple governance have distinct influences on the NIMBY crisis transformation process in China. In summary, the conceptual framework describes the complex process of NIMBY crisis transformation and helps to deepen data mining for municipal solid waste management (MSWM)

Exploring Factors Influencing Scenarios Evolution of Waste NIMBY Crisis: Analysis of Typical Cases in China

As the impact factors of the waste Not-In-My-Back Yard (NIMBY) crisis are complex, and the scenario evolution path of it is diverse. Once the crisis is not handled properly, it will bring adverse effects on the construction of waste NIMBY facilities, economic development and social stability. Consequently, based on ground theory, this paper takes the waste NIMBY crisis in China from 2006 to 2019 as typical cases, through coding analysis, scenario evolution factors of waste NIMBY crisis are established. Furtherly, three key scenarios were obtained, namely, external situation (E), situation state (S), emergency management (M), what is more, scenario evolution law of waste NIMBY crisis is revealed. Then, the dynamic Bayesian network theory is used to construct the dynamic scenario evolution network of waste NIMBY crisis. Finally, based on the above models, Xiantao waste NIMBY crisis is taken as a case study, and the dynamic process of scenario evolution network is visually displayed by using Netica. The simulation results show that the scenario evolution network of Xiantao waste NIMBY crisis is basically consistent with the actual incident development process, which confirms the effectiveness and feasibility of the model

Digital Predistortion for Spectrum Compliance in the Internet of Things

Many different wireless personal communication technologies including Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, even LTE-M, can connect Internet of Things (IoT) products, such as personal electronics or industrial machine sensors. However, the nonlinearity and linear distortion produced by RF power amplifiers (PAs) will degrade the quality of transmitted signals. In this article, based on an inverse autoregressive moving-average (IM-ARMA) model, we applied a method of digital predistortion (DPD) to linearize the RF PAs for several typical protocols in the IoT

Catalytic Hydrotreatment of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters to Diesel-like Alkanes Over H beta Zeolite-supported Nickel Catalysts

A Ni/H beta zeolite catalyst was prepared for the selective transformation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) into diesel-like alkanes through hydrotreatment. Characterization of the physicochemical properties of a 10 wt% nickel-loaded, H beta zeolite support indicated that nickel(II) oxide aggregated into large particles approximately 23.9 nm in size, whereas nickel aggregated into particles 18.3 nm in size, significantly increasing the total acid sites of H beta zeolite after hydrogen reduction. The reaction scheme of the whole FAME transformation was investigated by using a batch reactor. It was found that FAMEs were first hydrogenated mainly to saturated fatty acids, followed by hydrodeoxygenation without carbon loss, the main route toward alkanes. The hydrotreatment of FAMEs by decarboxylation or decarbonylation was favored at high temperatures and low hydrogen pressures on H beta zeolite with higher nickel loadings. The metallic and acidic functionalities of nickel/H beta zeolite catalysts exhibited a synergistic effect in hydrodeoxygenation without carbon loss, achieving high FAME conversion and yields of liquid C-16 and C-18 alkanes. Optimal catalytic performances were obtained with 10 wt% nickel loading over Hb zeolite (Si/Al=25) at 270 degrees C with a pressure of 1.0 MPa H-2 over 8 h. A maximum alkane product yield of 93.2% was achieved for C-15-C-18 alkanes with complete FAME conversion. 80.3% FAME conversion could was achieved after eight reaction cycles by using the nickel/Hb zeolite catalyst with calcination after every use