Effects of Malnutrition on Economic Productivity in China As Estimated by PROFILES

Objective To calculate the effects of malnutrition on economic productivity in China. Methods PROFILES was used to quantify the function consequences of malnutrition in term of protein energy malnutrition, iron deficiency and iodine deficiency. Results Productivity gained due to improved iodine nutrition. The reduction in the TGR in 1992 to 2001 increased the net present value of further economic productivity by $142 billion. Reduction of the TGR rate to 5% over next 10 years would result in future productivity gains with value of $40 billion. Productivity gain due to reductions in child stunting would result in future economic productivity gains with the value of $101 billion. Reducing stunting further over the next 10 years would gain $20 billion. Productivity gain due to reduction of iron deficiency anemia reduced by 30% over the next 10 years would gain worth $107 billion and if childhood anemia reduced by 30% over next 10 years would gain $348 billion. Conclusion These interventions have huge economic payoff. That is likely to exceed their costs many times over.

Toward Sustainable,Economic,and Tailored Production of Cellulose Nanomaterials

This paper introduces a concentrated di-carboxylic acid(DCA) hydrolysis process for the integrated production of thermally stable and carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals(CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils(CNFs). The DCA hydrolysis process addressed several issues associated with mineral acid hydrolysis for CNC production, such as cellulose loss and acid recovery. The surface and morphological properties of the cellulose nanomaterials resulting from the DCA hydrolysis process can be tailored simply by controlling the severity of DCA hydrolysis. To further reduce cost, a lowtemperature(≤80℃) hydrotropic chemical process using p-toluenesulfonic acid(p-Ts OH) was also introduced to rapidly fractionate raw lignocelluloses for the production of lignin containing cellulose nanofibrils(LCNFs) and lignin nanoparticles(LNPs). The LCNF surface hydrophobicity and morphology can be tailored by controlling the fractionation severity, i.e., the extent of delignification. The lignin also improved the thermal stability of LCNFs. LNPs can be easily separated by diluting the spent acid liquor to below the p-Ts OH minimal hydrotropic concentration of approximately 10%. p-Ts OH can also be easily recovered by re-concentrating the diluted spent liquor after lignin precipitation. We believe that these two novel processes presented here have the potential to achieve true sustainable, economic, and tailored production of cellulose nanomaterials, suitable for a variety of applications.

Industrial Green Spatial Pattern Evolution of Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

We use the directional slacks-based measure of efficiency and inverse distance weighting method to analyze the spatial pattern evolution of the industrial green total factor productivity of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in 2003–2013.Results show that both the subprime mortgage crisis and ‘the new normal' had significant negative effects on productivity growth,leading to the different spatial patterns between 2003–2008 and 2009–2013.Before 2008,green poles had gathered around some capital cities and formed a tripartite pattern,which was a typical core-periphery pattern.Due to a combination of the polarization and the diffusion effects,capital cities became the growth poles and ‘core' regions,while surrounding areas became the ‘periphery'.This was mainly caused by the innate advantage of capital cities and ‘the rise of central China' strategy.After 2008,the tripartite pattern changed to a multi-poles pattern where green poles continuously and densely spread in the midstream and downstream areas.This is due to the regional difference in the leading effect of green poles.The leading effect of green poles in midstream and downstream areas has changed from polarization to diffusion,while the polarization effect still leads in the upstream area.

Socio economic impact of vegetable production in Senegal:a case study of Niayes area

Vegetable production plays a very important role not only as a source of foreign exchange for Senegal and an appreciation of the dietary needs of populations,but also in the context of the policy of diversification.Thus the aim of this analysis is to measure the important economic impact and vegetable industrial actors,find the limited factors of the horticulture development and the perspectives for improving the vegetable production in the area.Our results show that the National production of fruits and vegetables is estimated approximately at 370,000 tons and the Niayes zone constitutes 80%of the domestic production.Horticulture is a sector which creates employments in that area with important incomes earned by both producers and the various intermediaries(commercial process) .The volume of exports has reached 14,321.588 tons in(2002-2003) against 11,125.132 tons in(2001-2002) witnessing than an increase of 28.7%,but the one of imports is very important and represents an outflow of foreign currency estimated at about 3 billion per year.

On the Economic Performance of Safety Food Production in China： Investigation and Analysis of the Yangtze River Delta

The production of safety food is an important foundation for establishing a Food Quality Safety Management System. The investigation focused on 11 kinds of safety food produced by 11 agricultural enterprises in Jiaxing, a part of the Yangtze River delta region in China. The economic performances of safety foods were also analyzed. The analysis showed that safety food production input was more than that of normal food and had different cost items compared to normal food. The rate of cost overflow was lower than the rate of comparative returns, resulting in the economic performance of safety food being higher than that of normal food. However, there were some problems, such as high quality without high prices. In the production of safety food, we will mainly pay attention to them.

Economic analysis in product design——A case study of a TCM dietary supplement

An approach for the economic analysis of chemical product design is proposed. It takes into account of customers' preference on product quality and economic considerations such as pricing, profit, market share, capital investment, and operating cost. The activities needed to support business decision making – identifying product quality, estimating product cost, calculating financial metrics, and performing make–buy analysis – are discussed.The design of a Ganoderma lucidum dietary supplement, a traditional Chinese medicinal(TCM) product, is used to illustrate all the activities in this approach.

Water and nutrient management effects on water use and yield of drip irrigated citrus in vertisol under a sub-humid region

Scarcity of water and nutrients in orchards are the major causes of low productivity and decline of citrus in tropics. With a hypothesis that the optimal amount of water and nutrients application through drip irrigation （DI） could save substantial irrigation and fertilizers comparative to that under traditional basin irrigation （BI） with band placement of fertilizer （BPF）, this study was conducted in citrus in vertisol of central India. Three DI regimes： I1, I2 and I3 scheduled at 50% class-A pan evaporation rate （Ep）, 75% Ep, and 100% Ep atong with three fertilizer doses： F1, F2 and F3 at 50% recommended dose of fertilizer （RDF, N：P2Os：K20=600 g：200 g：100 g）, 75% of RDF and 100% of RDF were applied to mandai＇in plants respectively. BI with band placement of fertilizer （BPF） at 100% RDF was taken for comparison. All the drip-fertigation treatments （except I1F1） produced higher plant growth and fruit yield, with better quality fruits compared with BI＋BPF. The highest fruit yield （16.39t ha^-1）, water use efficiency （3.9 kg m^-3） and fertilizer use efficiency （87.3 kg kg^-1） were observed in I2F2. The concentrations of N, K and Fe in leaves were significantly higher in I2F2 compared to other treatments. The leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance （G） and transpiration were the highest in I3F3. However, leaf water use efficiency （LWUE, photosynthesis/transpiration） was the highest in I2F2. The overall results of this study demonstrated that the application of optimum quantity of water and fertilizers （I2F2） through DI could be a productive and water efficient option in citrus production in vertisol.

Comparative Utilization of Different Fibre Feedstuffs by Weaning/Growing Pigs in the Tropics

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding different fibre feedstuffs on the performance, nutrient utilization and economics of production of weaning/growing pigs. Five fibre feedstuffs--palm kernel cake （PKC）, wheat offal （WO）, corn bran （CB）, rice bran （RB） and brewers＇ dried grain （BDG） were used at 25% in each of the five experimental diets that were formulated in this study. Twenty weaner pigs （12.75 ± 0.6 kg） were used for the growth study while 15 pigs （14.95 ± 0.57 kg） were used for the digestibility study. The design of the experiment was completely randomized. The results of the study showed that the performance of the experimental animals were significantly influenced （P 〈 0.05） by the dietary treatments. The apparent digestibility of the crude protein, crude fiber and ether extract showed significant differences （P 〈 0.05） while there was no significant difference （P 〉 0.05） in the apparent digestibility of their dry matter, ash and nitrogen free extract. The diet that contained WO had the best growth response and apparent nutrient digestibility. Results of economics of production also showed that diet with WO gave the best （P 〈 0.05） value in feed cost/＇kg gain and net profit/animal. It can be concluded from this study that although all the animals fed the different fibre feedstuffs performed satisfactorily on all the parameters monitored, but for optimum growth, apparent nutrients digestibility and economics of production. WO should be used as a fibre feedstuff in the diets of weaning/growing pigs in the tropics.

Material Flow Optimization for Make-to-Stock Production System

Under the condition of the market competition becom in g more and more drastic, the demands of market take on some new features such as individuation, diversification, small batch, unstableness and quick delivery et c. The Make-to-Stock mode is usually adopted by many enterprises to improve th e balance and stableness of production process. In such enterprises, order batch , production batch and sales batch are the important factors, which affect the s atisfaction of clients, efficiency and benefit of the enterprise. It takes purch ase, production and sales into account respectively when optimizing product batc h in traditional way. However, it ignored the influences of relations between ea ch links of whole system. It is assumed that the consumption and market demand a re continuous process whereas the factual demands are batched when economic batc h is determined. So there exist some deviations between the economic batch deter mined by traditional way and that by integral optimization. Through the integral analysis of Logistics in the production system, we know that from materials are purchased, then manufactured, finally sold, the material changed in appearance and value, it still exist in different links of production system. The amount of materials occupied varies just in different status, from stock status to produc tion status, then to waiting-be-sold status, there is not any substantial chan ge in quantity until they are sold. So we must comprehensively analyze the relat ions among each link based on integral production system, to optimize the materi al batch and cut short production cycle in order to optimize the whole system. In this paper, the production system is taken as a global entity, and in which m aterials variation law and their relations of each link are analyzed; To optimiz e the whole materials flow, a new model of multi-product systems’ economic orde r batch, economic production batch and optimal sale lot multi-product syste ms’ is developed which based on the limit of capitals and stock area.

Succession and Enhancement Mechanism of Ecosystem Productivity in the De-farming Area of the Ecotone Between Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in North China

The succession and enhancement mechanism of the ecosystem productivity with the characteristics ot de-tarmlng in me ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in North China was discussed in order to provide an ideaology or a technical basis for maintaining the impetus of ecological restoration and economic development in this region. A case study was applied in combination with the theoretical analysis. The results indicated that the biomass productivity of the de-farming subsystem decreased by 38.4-72.3% compared with that of farming subsystem in the ecosystem. The main function of de-farming subsystem was focused on ecological productivity, it caused the ideal beneficial recycling ‘defarming → planting grass → raising animals → earn money＇ difficult to be realized. With the differentiation of de-farming subsystem, the natural and social resources input to the farming subsystem were accumulated. This laid a basis for the new attributes of economic productivity to be upgraded. The case study indicated that the economic productivity of the ecosystem was increased by 8.85-13.35 times due to re-coupling between the de-farming subsystem and the farming subsystem as well as coupling between microhabitat differentiation and crop production in the subsystems, where the microhabitat differentiation could enrich water and fertilizer in the same field. It was concluded that the important mechanisms to enhance the system productivity in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry of North China included structure rebuilding and opening of the de-farming ecosystem and taking the advantage of complementary cooperative production among different regions under the market economy and rebuilding an open agro-pasture production structure,

Elasticity Ratio of Resource Consumption and the Resource Consumption

Today the resources are becoming scarcer, which should not be regarded as unexhausted any more. Correspondingly, the production would be constrained by the scarcity of resources clearly. Then the economic researchers would pay much more attention to reducing the consumption of natural resources in the future. Therefore this paper brings foreword the conception of elasticity ratio of resource consumption based on the concept of elasticity and analyzes the relationship between the parameters. For the certain relationships between the elasticity ratio of resource consumption and resource consumption, this paper will try to reveal, to keep economy growing while resource consumption reducing, what conditions should be met as to the relationships among resource productivity, its growth rate, energy saving efficiency, economic growth rate and elasticity ratio of resource consumption. This paper proves the relationship between the China＇s energy consumption and economy growth using statistic data from 1978 to 2003.

FUZZY EPQ INVENTORY MODELS WITH BACKORDER

This paper considers the economic production quantity （EPQ） problem with backorder in which the setup cost, the holding cost and the backorder cost are characterized as fuzzy variables, respectively. Following expected value criterion and chance constrained criterion, a fuzzy expected value model （EVM） and a chance constrained programming （CCP） model are constructed. Then fuzzy simulations are employed to estimate the expected value of fuzzy variable and c^-level minimal average cost. In order to solve the CCP model, a particle swarm optimization （PSO） algorithm based on the fuzzy simulation is designed. Finally, the effectiveness of PSO algorithm based on the fuzzy simulation is illustrated by a numerical example.