Genetic Structure of Mongolian Wheatgrass (\u3cem\u3eAgroypron Mongolicum\u3c/em\u3e Keng) In Inner Mongolia of China

Mongolia wheatgrass (Agroypron mongolicum) is a cross-pollinated, long-lived, cool-season and drought-resistant perennial bunchgrass, which plays an important role in arid and semi-arid grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Collections of A. mongolicum from different areas of Inner Mongolia are valuable sources of useful genes for its breeding. The genetic diversity of 8 accessions of A. mongolicum were examined in this study. A dendrogram was constructed to obtain information on the relationship between cultivated and wild A. mongolicum genotypes, which is basic information to explore the possibility of its use in intra- and inter-specific breeding programs

Demonstration Farms to Improve Grassland and Household Incomes in Western China

Western China is the less developed area of China, of which about 3.31×109 ha is grassland. The livelihoods 40 million people, the majority ethnic minorities, are supported by this grassland. To achieve balanced growth while reducing economic disparities is one of the major challenges that China faces to maintain both its current GDP growth rate and social stability. The development of demonstration farms is an efficient way to alleviate or ideally to solve this challenge. Recent studies conducted on the desert steppe in Inner Mongolia have shown, that under current conditions, stocking rates can be reduced to get both healthier grasslands and economic profits. Promotion of demonstration farms to herders is a problem, and work needs to be conducted to make them more accepted and popular in the future

From Copy to Practice: Follower’s Learning Behavior in Forex Social Trading

Forex social trading platforms endows novice investors with opportunities to trade on foreign exchange markets by mimicking the investment strategies of sophisticated traders. But concurrently, the copy-trading mechanism underlying these platforms foster a conducive learning environment whereby inexperience followers could evolve into independent traders by observing and learning from the trading behaviors of prominent traders. Drawing on observational learning theory, we advance learning efficiency and effectiveness as focal yardsticks to encapsulate followers’ learning performance and explore their effects on the profitability of followers’ first independent trades. Preliminary analysis conducted on a leading forex social trading platform reveals that traders’ trading consistency amplifies followers’ learning efficiency whereas traders’ profitability bolsters followers’ learning effectiveness. Furthermore, while our empirical findings attest to the criticality of learning effectiveness on followers’ ability to profit from their initial independent trades, speeding up the learning process may not guarantee better performance

Strategies on Poisonous Plants Problem in China

Poisonous plants are widely distributed on large areas of native grasslands of China, causing livestock poisoning and grassland degradation, which severely impacts the development of animal husbandry. Of the almost 300 poisonous species that are responsible for livestock losses in China, locoweed, drunken horse grass and Langdu cause the greatest impact. Many strategies have been developed to minimise the impact of poisonous plants including the treatment of livestock that have been poisoned, controlling poisonous plants and managing livestock grazing. Both physical and chemical traditional methods are still used to eliminate poisonous plants while biological control using specific insects may eventually be used to control certain species. According to a grassland law, grazing systems (rotational, rest and forbidden grazing) may be applied on dense stands of poisonous plants