Methodology development for land evaluation : models incorporating aggregated knowledge and fuzzy membership construction

A model is constructed which uses fuzzy membership functions to construct an "aggregated interaction matrix" in which the summation of variables are scaled according to to way rainfall and soil variables affect water availability to plants. The model is used to predict rangeland production and crop yieldsThesis (M.App. Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Environmental Science and Rangeland Management, 199

Opportunities and challenges relating to the export of fruit and vegetable products from Queensland to Asian Countries

Most fruits and vegetables produced in Queensland supply the domestic market. The export volume is less than 4%. Asia is our major export destination and is potentially the key demand region for Queensland fruit and vegetable products. To increase export to Asia, a sound export strategy needs to be developed based on the strengths and weaknesses in the production chain in Queensland and opportunities and threats in the marketplace in Asia. This report examines the potential to increase exports of Queensland mangoes, fresh cut vegetables, frozen vegetables, and value added products to Asian countries. It does this by analysing the challenges, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths facing each of the four product categories in regard to Asian markets. The report also examines the opportunities for using e-commerce to market these products. Many countries in Asia are importing Queensland mangoes but not all of them have the potential to increase import volume. Based on market analyses, the report concludes that China and Korea are the only two countries suitable for expansion. It is recommended that the Queensland mango industry should focus on these two markets. Furthermore, the Queensland government needs to encourage investment in postharvest-related infrastructure and R&D for mango quality improvement and, at the same time, encourage mango farmers to work together to produce consistent quality and extend the supply window. Fresh cut vegetables is a relatively new industry in Queensland. Unlike other vegetables which can be freighted by sea using comprehensive technologies in which Queensland lags behind its competitors, fresh cut vegetables has a very short shelf life and are required to be sent by air by all export countries. The same freight mode means that Queensland has an advantage over its competitors in Asia in supplying premium quality products. The Government needs to develop relevant polices to support firms already exporting to Asia. These polices should focus on helping firms develop economies of scale and consistent supply in terms of quality and quantity. Frozen vegetables are not generally the focus in Queensland even though Queensland is capable of broadacre vegetable production and has the potential to produce some selected vegetable crops at low cost. Queensland must develop the necessary economies of scale in production and processing plants must be highly automated to minimize labour costs so that Queensland can compete in Asian markets. Developing value-added products can overcome sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions imposed by many Asian countries on imports of fresh produce from Queensland. Queensland's food and agribusiness sectors are world-renowned for producing high-quality, safe, clean and green food at competitive prices. This report has found that Queensland can produce premium value-added products for top end markets in Asia. The keys to success are product differentiation and a reliable supply of premium quality goods. The prerequisites are detailed market research combined with new product development. Marketing and selling using E-commerce has potential in the Asia. suggests-commerce is more suitable for packaged products which require less restricted cold chain systems for maintaining quality. Queensland firms could use this online e-commerce technology to offer value-added products to Asian consumers who are looking for products that are unavailable in physical stores

Segmenting consumers to inform agrifood value chain development in Nepal

The Nepalese government is piloting agricultural projects that are described as taking a value chain approach to development. Although consumer value lies at the core of value chain man-agement principles, none of these projects adopts a consumer perspective. This is an example of a more widespread gap in both the literature and practice as to how consumer perspectives can be used in the development of agrifood value chains in developing countries. This paper addresses this gap by surveying consumers of tomatoes in Nepal, segmenting them using cluster analysis and demonstrating how consumer segmentation can provide strategic direction for value chain development. The research identifies four distinct segments of tomato consumers in Kathmandu. The high value consumer segment, which is also the largest segment, places most importance on credence-based attributes that cannot be ensured unless a whole-chain effort is employed, indi-cating that developing value chains would be necessary if this need is to be met, and that such effort would pay off. An analysis of existing supply chains shows discrepancies between con-sumer expectations and the delivery of value, suggesting improvement opportunities to develop these chains

Why China? Shanghai and food consumption trends

This report is part of a series on the export of Australian food to China. The purpose of this report is to provide background information on Chinese food consumption trends. Shanghai is used as a representative example. This report is supported by the others in the series. Considered together, these reports provide a picture of the supply chain from Australian farm gates to Chinese consumers. Developing a greater understanding in this area will enable new and expanding exporters to take the best possible advantage of the Asian food boom

Chinese food distribution and retail outlets

This report is part of a series on the export of Australian food to China. The purpose of this report is to review the distribution supply chain system for the export of food to China. This report describes the product flow and stakeholders in the chain, characteristics of the chain, relationships between suppliers and customers, cold chain logistics systems, and risks associated with the supply chain. This report is supported by the others in the series. Considered together, these reports provide a picture of the supply chain from Australian farm gates to Chinese consumers. Developing a greater understanding in this area will enable new and expanding exporters to take the best possible advantage of the Asian food boom

Pursuing an evader through cooperative relaying in multi-agent surveillance networks

We provide a distributed control strategy for each mobile agent in a surveillance network in the plane to cooperatively pursue an evader. The pursuit task is relayed from one agent to another when the evader crosses the boundary of the Voronoi regions divided according to the agents’ positions. The dynamics of the resulted cooperative relay-pursuit network are described by a novel model of impulsive systems. As a result, to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop network system, the controllers’ gains are chosen effectively using the solution of an algebraic Riccati equation. The proof of the stability is based on the construction of a switched Lyapunov function. We also show that the proposed controller is able to deal with delays if some sufficient conditions in the form of a set of linear inequalities are satisfied. A numerical example is provided to validate the performance of the proposed controller

Exploring the Role of Social Media and Individual Behaviors in Flood Evacuation Processes: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Flood warnings from various information sources are important for individuals to make evacuation decisions during a flood event. In this study, we develop a general opinion dynamics model to simulate how individuals update their flood hazard awareness when exposed to multiple information sources, including global broadcast, social media, and observations of neighbors' actions. The opinion dynamics model is coupled with a traffic model to simulate the evacuation processes of a residential community with a given transportation network. Through various scenarios, we investigate how social media affect the opinion dynamics and evacuation processes. We find that stronger social media can make evacuation processes more sensitive to the change of global broadcast and neighbor observations, and thus, impose larger uncertainty on evacuation rates (i.e., a large range of evacuation rates corresponding to sources of information). For instance, evacuation rates are lower when social media become more influential and individuals have less trust in global broadcast. Stubborn individuals can significantly affect the opinion dynamics and reduce evacuation rates. In addition, evacuation rates respond to the percentage of stubborn agents in a nonlinear manner, i.e., above a threshold, the impact of stubborn agents will be intensified by stronger social media. These results highlight the role of social media in flood evacuation processes and the need to monitor social media so that misinformation can be corrected in a timely manner. The joint impacts of social media, quality of flood warnings, and transportation capacity on evacuation rates are also discussed.Additional support was provided by Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Committee (#ZDSY20150831141712549)

Value chain analysis of high value horticulture products and report documentation from Queensland Murray-Darling Basin

The goal of this project is to establish new, profitable and resilient irrigated horticulture value chains in the Queensland Murray Darling Basin (QMDB). The three export chains are: frozen sweet corn to Japan, fresh blueberries to the United Arab Emirates, and fresh leafy vegetables to Taiwan

Development and validation of A CT-based radiomics nomogram for prediction of synchronous distant metastasis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

BackgroundEarly identification of synchronous distant metastasis (SDM) in patients with clear cell Renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) can certify the reasonable diagnostic examinations.MethodsThis retrospective study recruited 463 ccRCC patients who were divided into two cohorts (training and internal validation) at a 7:3 ratio. Besides, 115 patients from other hospital were assigned external validation cohort. A radiomics signature was developed based on features by means of the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method. Demographics, laboratory variables and CT findings were combined to develop clinical factors model. Integrating radiomics signature and clinical factors model, a radiomics nomogram was developed.ResultsTen features were used to build radiomics signature, which yielded an area under the curve (AUC) 0.882 in the external validation cohort. By incorporating the clinical independent predictors, the clinical model was developed with AUC of 0.920 in the external validation cohort. Radiomics nomogram (external validation, 0.925) had better performance than clinical factors model or radiomics signature. Decision curve analysis demonstrated the superiority of the radiomics nomogram in terms of clinical usefulness.ConclusionsThe CT-based nomogram could help in predicting SDM status in patients with ccRCC, which might provide assistance for clinicians in making diagnostic examinations