Study Competition Channel Structure Based on the Differences of Cost and Products

The purpose of this paper is to expand Trivedi’s study on the influence of channel structure ,which based on product difference, to cost difference; and analyze the evolution course of channel structure under different conditions. We find that like product difference, cost difference have important influence on the choice of channel structure. This paper has improved the present result and provided proof for the choice of channel structure under different environments.

Effects of different processing methods on the quality of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua

Background:In this study,we explored the effects of different processing methods on the quality of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua(PC),and the role of Huangjiu in the processing procedure.Methods:The sensory characteristics of the crude product,steamed product,and wine-processed product of PC were described.The colorimeter was used to analyze the chromatic values of three different processed products on PC.At the same time,the contents of the water extract and alcohol extract were measured separately.The content of three different processing Polygonatum Polysaccharide(PCP)was determined using 0.2%anthrone-sulfuric acid.The correlation difference between the chromatic values and chemical composition of different PC products was analyzed using various analytical methods.Results:The surface colors gradually deepened,the sweetness increased,the viscosity strengthened,and the tongue-numbing sensation disappeared after PC processing.The contents of extract and L^(*) gradually decreased from the crude to the steamed to the wine-processed product,consistent with the pattern of surface color alteration.While,E^(*)ab gradually increased.The content of PCP was crude product>wine-processed product>steamed product.The results of multivariate statistical analysis showed that the samples processed for crude,steamed,and wine-processed product were clustered into three classes.The correlation analysis showed that L^(*)and E^(*)ab were highly significant positively correlated with the content of PCP,and a*was significantly negatively correlated with the content of PCP.Conclusion:The results showed that the wine-processed product had the best quality.The internal quality of the PC was correlated with its characteristics and chromatic value.In this study,we investigated the internal and external quality of three different products of PC in order to provide a reference for further research on the impact of different processing methods on PC quality,the standardization of PC processing,and the role of Huangjiu in the processing of PC.

Soil Quality Assessment of Acid Sulfate Paddy Soils with Different Productivities in Guangdong Province,China

Land conversion is considered an effective measure to ensure national food security in China, but little information is available on the quality of low productivity soils, in particular those in acid sulfate soil regions. In our study, acid sulfate paddy soils were divided into soils with high, medium and low levels based on local rice productivity, and 60 soil samples were collected for analysis. Twenty soil variables including physical, chemical and biochemical properties were determined. Those variables that were significantly different between the high, medium and low productivity soils were selected for principal component analysis, and microbial biomass carbon （MBC）, total nitrogen （TN）, available silicon （ASi）, pH and available zinc （AZn） were retained in the minimum data set （MDS）. After scoring the MDS variables, they were integrated to calculate a soil quality index （SQI）, and the high, medium and low productivity paddy soils received mean SQI scores of 0.95, 0.83 and 0.60, respectively. Low productivity paddy soils showed worse soil quality, and a large discrepancy was observed between the low and high productivity paddy soils. Lower MBC, TN, ASi, pH and available K （AK） were considered as the primary limiting factors. Additionally, all the soil samples collected were rich in available P and AZn, but deficient in AK and ASi. The results suggest that soil AK and ASi deficiencies were the main limiting factors for all the studied acid sulfate paddy soil regions. The application of K and Si on a national basis and other sustainable management approaches are suggested to improve rice productivity, especially for low productivity paddy soils. Our results indicated that there is a large potential for increasing productivity and producing more cereals in acid sulfate paddy soil regions.

Simulation of Potential Productivity of Early Season Rice Varieties in Different Reqions of South China

Rice is a staple food crop in China.Since the 1950’s,many new varieties havebeen used and resulted in great increase ofyield.However there were still some barriersin the nationwide extension of new varietiesdue to the insufficient information about thecharacteristics of varieties.So,it is impor-tant to find ways of determining the potential

Seed and Wasp Production in the Mutualism of Figs and Fig Wasps

Figs (Moracea: Ficus) and fig wasps (Hymenoptera: Chlocloids: Agaonideae) depend on each other to complete their reproduction. Monoecious fig species and their pollinating wasps are in conflict over the use of fig ovaries which can either produce one seed or one wasp. From observation on Ficus virens Ait., we showed that female flowers with outer layer of ovaries (near to the wall of syconium) had no significant difference from that with inner and interval layer of ovaries (near to the syconium cavity), in which most seeds and wasps were produced. This meant that fig tree provided the same potential resource for seed and wasps production. Observation indicated that there was usually only one foundress in syconium at female flower phase and no com- petition pollinators. Measurement of the style length of female flowers and the ovipositor of pollinators indicated that most ovaries could be reached by pollinator’s ovipositor. However, at the male flower phase, production of seeds was significantly more than that of wasps including non-pollinating wasps but there was no significant difference between seed and pollinating wasp production when without non-pollinating wasps produced. This result indicated that non-pollinating wasps competed ovaries not with seeds but with pollinating wasps for ovipositing. Bagged experiment showed that the sampling fig species was not self-sterile which was important for figs and wasps to survive bad season. Seed production in self-pollinated figs was not significantly different from total wasps in- cluding non-pollinating ones. This might be related with the weaker competition among wasps since bagged figs were not easy to reach by wasps from outside.

Direction-of-arrival estimation of quasi-stationary signals using two-level Khatri-Rao subspace and four-level nested array

The Khatri-Rao(KR) subspace method is a high resolution method for direction-of-arrival(DOA) estimation.Combined with 2q level nested array,the KR subspace method can detect O(N2q) sources with N sensors.However,the method cannot be applicable to Gaussian sources when q is equal to or greater than 2 since it needs to use 2q-th order cumulants.In this work,a novel approach is presented to conduct DOA estimation by constructing a fourth order difference co-array.Unlike the existing DOA estimation method based on the KR product and 2q level nested array,the proposed method only uses second order statistics,so it can be employed to Gaussian sources as well as non-Gaussian sources.By exploiting a four-level nested array with N elements,our method can also identify O(N4) sources.In order to estimate the wideband signals,the proposed method is extended to the wideband scenarios.Simulation results demonstrate that,compared to the state of the art KR subspace based methods,the new method achieves higher resolution.