Resource use efficiency, ecological intensification and sustainability of intercropping systems

The rapidly growing demand for food, feed and fuel requires further improvements of land and water management, crop productivity and resource-use efficiencies.Combined field experimentation and crop growth modelling during the past five decades made a great leap forward in the understanding of factors that determine actual and potential yields of monocrops.The research field of production ecology developed concepts to integrate biological and biophysical processes with the aim to explore crop growth potential in contrasting environments.To understand the potential of more complex systems（multi-cropping and intercropping） we need an agro-ecosystem approach that integrates knowledge derived from various disciplines： agronomy, crop physiology, crop ecology, and environmental sciences（soil, water and climate）.Adaptation of cropping systems to climate change and a better tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses by genetic improvement and by managing diverse cropping systems in a sustainable way will be of key importance in food security.To accelerate sustainable intensification of agricultural production, it is required to develop intercropping systems that are highly productive and stable under conditions with abiotic constraints（water, nutrients and weather）.Strategies to achieve sustainable intensification include developing tools to evaluate crop growth potential under more extreme climatic conditions and introducing new crops and cropping systems that are more productive and robust under conditions with abiotic stress.This paper presents some examples of sustainable intensification management of intercropping systems that proved to be tolerant to extreme climate conditions.

Estimating regional coal resource efficiency in China using three-stage DEA and bootstrap DEA models

Based on three-stage data envelopment analysis(DEA) model estimates of resource utilization efficiency of coal,we selected 29 provinces from China's 2012 input-output data and used the bootstrap DEA model to correct the bias.The results show that the mean overall technical efficiency,pure technical efficiency,and scale efficiency was 0.833,0.998,and 0.711 in 2012,respectively.Moreover,the comprehensive technical efficiency score indicates that the scale is invalid.Area utilization efficiencies for the eastern,central,and western regions were 0.917,0.731,and 0.629,respectively.The results prove that there are significant differences in the distribution of coal resources utilization efficiency across regions.

Joint Optimization of Satisfaction Index and Spectrum Efficiency with Cache Restricted for Resource Allocation in Multi-Beam Satellite Systems

Dynamic resource allocation(DRA) is a key technology to improve system performances in GEO multi-beam satellite systems. And, since the cache resource on the satellite is very valuable and limited, DRA problem under restricted cache resources is also an important issue to be studied. This paper mainly investigates the DRA problem of carrier resources under certain cache constraints. What's more, with the aim to satisfy all users' traffic demands as more as possible, and to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth, we formulate a multi-objective optimization problem(MOP) where the satisfaction index and the spectrum efficiency are jointly optimized. A modified strategy SA-NSGAII which combines simulated annealing(SA) and non-dominated sorted genetic algorithm-II(NSGAII) is proposed to approximate the Pareto solution to this MOP problem. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in terms of satisfaction index, spectrum efficiency, occupied cache, and etc.

Effects of deep vertical rotary tillage on the grain yield and resource use efficiency of winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China

Tillage represents an important practice that is used to dynamically regulate soil properties,and affects the grain production process and resource use efficiency of crops.The objectives of this 3-year field study carried out in the Huang-Huai-Hai(HHH) Plain of China were to compare the effects of a new deep vertical rotary tillage (DVRT) with the conventional shallow rotary tillage (CT) on soil properties,winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield and water and nitrogen use efficiency at different productivity levels,and to identify a comprehensive management that optimizes both grain yield and resource use efficiency in the HHH Plain.A split-plot design was adopted in field experiments in the winter wheat growing seasons of 2016–2017 (S1),2017–2018 (S2) and 2018–2019 (S3),with DVRT (conducted once in June 2016) and CT performed in the main plots.Subplots were treated with one of four targeted productivity level treatments (SH,the super high productivity level;HH,the high productivity and high efficiency productivity level;FP,the farmer productivity level;ISP,the inherent soil productivity level).The results showed that the soil bulk density was reduced and the soil water content at the anthesis stage was increased in all three years,which were due to the significant effects of DVRT.Compared with CT,grain yields,partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFP_(N)),and water use efficiency (WUE) under DVRT were increased by 22.0,14.5 and 19.0%.Path analysis and direct correlation decomposition uncovered that grain yield variation of winter wheat was mostly contributed by the spike numbers per area under different tillage modes.General line model analysis revealed that tillage mode played a significant role on grain yield,PFP_(N) and WUE not only as a single factor,but also along with other factors(year and productivity level) in interaction manners.In addition,PFP_(N) and WUE were the highest in HH under DVRT in all three growth seasons.These results provided a theoretical basis and technical support for coordinating the high yield with high resource use efficiency of winter wheat in the resource-restricted region in the HHH Plain of China.

Evaluation for Use Efficiency of Agricultural Resources in Grain Production:A Case Study of Changshu,Taihe and Ansai in China

This paper aims to establish an index system for evaluation of agricultural resources use efficiency(ARUE) in grain production and discuss the causes of low efficiency and high consumption of agricultural resources in Changshu of Jiangsu Province,Taihe of Jiangxi Province and Ansai of Shaanxi Province in China by analyzing the data about meteorology,soil,water consumption and grain production. Agro-ecological Zone(AEZ) method was adopted to calculate the potential productivity,and synthetically multivariate equation was used to evaluate the ARUE of study areas. This paper can be concluded as:1) the agricultural resources in grain production can be classified into five categories,i.e.,climatic resources,water resources,land resources,biological resources and assistant resources,and 15 indexes were selected to evaluate their use efficiency in grain production;2) the values of ARUE in grain production are 0.5868,0.6368 and 0.5390 respectively in Changshu,Taihe and Ansai;and 3) Changshu ranks the highest among the three study areas in terms of the use efficiency of climatic resources and biological resources(evaluation values are 0.0277 and 0.1530) ,but Taihe tops the three in terms of the use efficiency of water resources,land resources and assistant resources(evaluation values are 0.0502,0.2945 and 0.1379 respectively) . However,the ARUE remains always low in Ansai for all the resources. The inefficiencies are caused by poor grain revenue in Changshu,deficient agriculture investments in Taihe and unfavorable natural conditions in Ansai.

Do Higher Resource Capture Ability and Utilization Efficiency Facilitate the Successful Invasion of Exotic Plant? A Case Study of <i>Alternanthera philoxeroides</i>

We tested the hypothesis that introduced populations may have higher resource capture ability and utilization efficiency than native ones of invasive plants. We compared ecophysiological traits including maximum photosynthetic rate (Pmax), apparent quantum yield (Q), specific leaf area (SLA), photosynthetic energy use efficiency (PEUE), photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE), water use efficiency (WUE), mass-based and area-based leaf construction cost (CCmass and CCarea), and mass-based and area-based leaf nitrogen concentration (Nmass and Narea) between native (Argentina) and introduced (USA) populations of two varieties (North Apa and South Apo) of Alternanthera philoxeroides under common garden conditions in China. For Apo and Apa, Pmax, Q, Nmass and WUE were not significantly different between native and introduced populations;introduced populations had significantly lower SLA and lower CCmass but significantly higher Narea and CCarea than native ones. For Apa, the introduced populations showed significantly lower PEUE and lower PNUE while for Apo, PEUE and PNUE were not significantly different between native and introduced populations. The results indicated that introduced populations of A. philoxeroides do not show higher resource capture ability and resource utilization efficiency than their native ones in the common garden experiment, suggesting that these traits may not necessarily contribute to successful invasion of invasive plants.

Urban Water Resource Utilization Efficiency in China

The efficient use of water resources directly affects environmental, social, and economic development; therefore, it has a significant impact on urban populations. A slacks-based measure for data envelopment analysis （SBM-DEA） has been widely used in energy efficiency and environmental efficiency analyses in recent years. Based on this model, data from 316 cities were examined and a category method was employed involving three different sorting techniques to empirically evaluate the efficiency of urban water re- source utilization in China between 2000 and 2012. The overall efficiency （OE） of urban water resource utilization in China was initially low, but has improved over the past decade. The scale efficiency （SE） was higher than the pure technological efficiency （PTE）; PTE is a major determining factor of OE, and has had an increasingly significant effect. The efficiency of water resource utilization varied ac- cording to the region, urban scale, and economic function. The OE score for the eastern China was higher than for the rest of the region, and the OE score for the western China was higher than for the central China. The OE score for urban water resource utilization has improved with urban expansion, except in the case of small cities. The SE showed an inverted U-shaped＇ trend with increasing urban expansion. The OE of urban water utilization in comprehensive functional cities was greater than in economic specialization cities, and was greater in heavy industry specialization cities than in other specialization cities. This study contributes to the field of urban water resource management by examining variations in efficiency with urban ~ezle

Yield gap and resource utilization efficiency of three major food crops in the world——A review

Yield gap analysis could provide management suggestions to increase crop yields,while the understandings of resource utilization efficiency could help judge the rationality of the management.Based on more than 110 published papers and data from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO,www.fao.org/faostat) and the Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas (www.yieldgap.org),this study summarized the concept,quantitative method of yield gap,yield-limiting factors,and resource utilization efficiency of the three major food crops (wheat,maize and rice).Currently,global potential yields of wheat,maize and rice were 7.7,10.4 and 8.5 t ha^(–1),respectively.However,actual yields of wheat,maize and rice were just 4.1,5.5 and 4.0 t ha^(–1),respectively.Climate,nutrients,moisture,crop varieties,planting dates,and socioeconomic conditions are the most mentioned yield-limiting factors.In terms of resource utilization,nitrogen utilization,water utilization,and radiation utilization efficiencies are still not optimal,and this review has summarized the main improvement measures.The current research focuses on quantitative potential yield and yield gap,with a rough explanation of yield-limiting factors.Subsequent research should use remote sensing data to improve the accuracy of the regional scale and use machine learning to quantify the role of yield-limiting factors in yield gaps and the impact of change crop management on resource utilization efficiency,so as to propose reasonable and effective measures to close yield gaps.

An Empirical Study of the Allocation Efficiency of Rural Financial Resources in Hubei Province from the Perspective of Agricultural Loans

The incompatibility of China's economy and finance has to some extent inhibited the development of rural economy. Taking Hubei Province for example,we measure the allocation efficiency of rural financial resources from the perspective of agricultural input and output,and use the modern rural financial development theory to set forth some policy recommendations on how to build a new rural financial resource allocation system. Studies have shown that the allocation efficiency of rural financial resources is low in China,and improving the allocation efficiency of rural financial resources is the key to perfecting rural financial environment while increasing financial support for agriculture.

Cultivar selection can increase yield potential and resource use efficiency of spring maize to adapt to climate change in Northeast China

Northeast China (NEC) is one of the major maize production areas in China.Agro-climatic resources have obviously changed,which will seriously affect crop growth and development in this region.It is important to investigate the contribution of climate change adaptation measures to the yield and resource use efficiency to improve our understanding of how we can effectively ensure high yield and high efficiency in the future.In this study,we divided the study area into five accumulated temperature zones (ATZs) based on growing degree days (GDD).Based on the meteorological data,maize data (from agrometeorological stations) and the validated APSIM-Maize Model,we first investigated the spatial distributions and temporal trends of maize potential yield of actual planted cultivars,and revealed the radiation use efficiency (RUE) and heat resource use efficiency (HUE) from 1981 to 2017.Then according to the potential growing seasons and actual growing seasons,we identified the utilization percentages of radiation (P_R) resource and heat resource (P_H) for each ATZ under potential production from 1981 to 2017.Finally,we quantified the contributions of cultivar changings to yield,P_R and P_H of maize.The results showed that during the past 37 years,the estimated mean potential yield of actual planted cultivars was 13 649 kg ha^(–1),ranged from 11 205 to 15 257 kg ha^(–1),and increased by 140 kg ha^(–1) per decade.For potential production,the mean values of RUE and HUE for the actual planted maize cultivars were 1.22 g MJ^(–1) and 8.58 kg (℃ d)^(–1) ha^(–1).RUE showed an increasing tendency,while HUE showed a decreasing tendency.The lengths of the potential growing season and actual growing season were 158 and 123 d,and increased by 2 and 1 d per decade.P_R and P_H under potential production were 82 and 86%,respectively and showed a decreasing tendency during the past 37 years.This indicates that actual planted cultivars failed to make full use of climate resources.However,results from the adaptation assessments indicate that,adoption of cultivars with growing season increased by 2–11 d among ATZs caused increase in yield,P_R and P_H of 0.6–1.7%,1.1–7.6% and 1.5–8.9%,respectively.Therefore,introduction of cultivars with longer growing season can effectively increase the radiation and heat utilization percentages and potential yield.

Spatial Disparity and Efficiency of Science and Technology Resources in China

In the knowledge economy era,science and technology(S&T) resources are getting more and more important in shaping regional competiveness and building regional innovation capacity.As such,the spatial distribution of S&T resources is a key to understanding regional development and disparities.By designing an input-output indicator system,this paper develops an evaluation model to examine the spatial distribution of S&T resources in China and assess their spatial efficiency.Moreover,the paper tries to explain spatial differences in the efficiency of S&T resources in China.Major findings are:1) the input and output of S&T resources in China shows a clear T-shaped spatial structure,i.e.,concentrated mainly in the coastal region and along the Changjiang(Yangtze) River;2) the efficiency of S&T resources in China displays strong spatial disparities,with the level of efficiency descending from the east to the west while high efficiency appearing in only several clusters;3) the utilization rates of S&T resources in most provinces are quite low,resulting in low efficiency of S&T resources allocation.The paper suggests that the utilization rate of S&T resources should be raised and the commercialization of S&T outputs should be enhanced to improve the efficiency of S&T resources in China.

Comparative Analysis of the Utilization Efficiency of Major Agricultural Resources in Hebei Province

The utilization efficiency of resources is one of the important factors affecting the development of modern agriculture. Using production function method and ratio analysis method,we carry out the horizontal comparison of the utilization efficiency of major agricultural resources such as arable land,agricultural machinery power and chemical fertilizer in Hebei Province and the national level,and the vertical comparison of the utilization efficiency of major agricultural resources between the prefecture-level cities in the province. The results show that the utilization efficiency of agricultural resources in Hebei Province is below the national average,and there are significant differences in the utilization efficiency of agricultural resources between the prefecture-level cities in the province.

Panel Data Based Dynamic Evaluation of Agricultural Resource Utilization Efficiency: A Case Study of Hebei Province

Resource utilization efficiency is one of important factors influencing modern agricultural development. This paper evaluates agricultural resource utilization efficiency of Hebei Province in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period by dynamic comprehensive evaluation method. Evaluation results indicate that regional disparity in agricultural resource utilization efficiency is significant, and the disparity is increasing year by year.

Incorporating Exercise Efficiency to Evaluate the Accessibility and Capacity of Medical Resources in Tibet, China

Accessibility and capacity of medical resources are key for the health care and emergency response, while the efficiency of the medical resources is very much limited by hypoxia in Tibet, China.Through introducing exercise efficiency, this study explores the accessibility of township residence to county-ship medical resources in Tibet using weighted mean travel time(WMT), and evaluates the medical capacity accordingly.The results show that: 1) the average travel time of township residence to county-level hospital is around2 h by motor vehicle in Tibet.More than half of the population can not reach the county-ship hospital within 1 h, 33.24% of the population can not reach within 2 h, and 3.75% of the population can not reach within 6 h.2) When considering the catchment of the medical resources and the population size, the WMT of the county-ship medical resources ranges from 0.25 h to 10.92 h.3) After adjusted by travel time and exercise efficiency, the county-ship medical capacity became more unequal, with 38 out of 74 counties could not meet the national guideline of 1.8 medical beds per 1000.4) In total, there are 17 counties with good WMT and sufficient medical resources,while 13 counties having very high WMT and low capacity of medical resources in Tibet.In the end, suggestions on medical resources relocation and to improve the capacity are provided.This study provides a method to incorporate exercise efficiency to access the accessibility and evaluate medical capacity that can be applied in high altitude ranges.

Optimal Energy Efficiency Resource Allocation Strategy for Cognitive Clustering Network under PUEA Attack

5G has pushed the use of radio spectrum to a new level,and cognitive clustering network can effectively improve the utilization of radio spectrum,which is a feasible way to solve the growing demand for wireless communications.However,cognitive clustering network is vulnerable to PUEA attack,which will lead to the degradation of system detection performance,thereby reducing the energy efficiency.Aiming at these problems,this paper investigates the optimal energy efficiency resource allocation scheme for cognitive clustering network under PUEA attack.A cooperative user selection algorithm based on selection factor is proposed to effectively resist PUEA user attack and improve detection performance.We construct the energy efficiency optimization problem under multi-constraint conditions and transform the nonlinear programming problem into parametric programming problem,which is solved by Lagrangian function and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition.Then the sub-gradient iterative algorithm based on optimal energy efficiency under PUEA attack is proposed and its complexity is analyzed.Simulation results indicate that proposed method is effective when subjected to PUEA attacks,and the impact of different parameters on energy efficiency is analyzed.

Toward the Energy Efficiency of Resource Allocation Algorithms for OFDMA Downlink MIMO Systems

The problem of the simultaneous multi-user resource allocation algorithm in orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA)based systems has recently attracted significant interest.However,most studies focus on maximizing the system throughput and spectral efficiency.As the green radio is essential in 5G and future networks,the energy efficiency becomes the major concern.In this paper,we develop four resource allocation schemes in the downlink OFDMA network and the main focus is on analyzing the energy efficiency of these schemes.Specifically,we employ the advanced multi-antenna technology in a multiple input-multiple output(MIMO)system.The first scheme is based on transmit spatial diversity(TSD),in which the vector channel with the highest gain between the base station(BTS)and specific antenna at the remote terminal(RT)is chosen for transmission.The second scheme further employs spatial multiplexing on the MIMO system to enhance the throughput.The space-division multiple-access(SDMA)scheme assigns single subcarrier simultaneously to RTs with pairwise“nearly orthogonal”spatial signatures.In the fourth scheme,we propose to design the transmit beamformers based on the zero-forcing(ZF)criterion such that the multi-user interference(MUI)is completely removed.We analyze the tradeoff between the throughput and power consumption and compare the performance of these schemes in terms of the energy efficiency.

Photosynthetic Carbon Gain, Allocation and Resources-Use Efficiency in Invasive Eupatorium Adenophorum and Its Native Congener E. Japonicum under Different Light and Nutrient Conditions

Invasion is often facilitated by high resources availabilities and suppressed under low resources habitats. However, a number of invasive plants can successfully establish and dominate in resource-poor and （or） the understory of closed forests, indicating the plant＇s performances are habitats-dependent and species-specific. It is therefore necessary to explore the ecophysiological characteristics associated invasiveness for one invasive species across multiple resources availabilities whilst taking the relatedness into these comparative studies. In this study, invasive Eupitorium adenophorum and its native congener E. japonicum grew under different resource gradients in terms of light levels and soil nitrogen additions to identify the functional significance morphological and physiological traits associated closely with invasion and to examine their comparative responses. Photosynthetic carbon gain, biomass allocation and resource-use efficiency are evaluated in this pot experiment. Across treatments, E. adenophorum exhibited consistently higher values for most of the morphological variables including plant stature, relative growth rate （RGR）, leaf root ratio （LRR）, leaf area ratio （LAR）, total leaf area, and lower root： shoot ratio （RSR）. Significantly higher Pmax corresponded with higher photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency （PNUE） and photosynthetic energy use efficiency （PEUE） especially in low light and （or） unfertile condition. Higher Gs and Pmax but lower photosynthetic water use efficiency （WUE） indicated the trade-off relationship between WUE and PNUE for E. adenophorum. Final biomasses were higher for E. adenophorum in nutrient and（or） light limited conditions, in which higher leaf construction cost（CC） compared with E. japonicum could be over-compensated by its significantly higher assimilation rates. The effects of light levels on these plant attributes were stronger than soil nutrient contents. The responses of these two congeneric species to light and nitrogen availabilities were similar, but the differences were magnified in resources limited conditions, indicating the better performancer at acquiring and at using limited resources of E. adenophorum over its co-occurring native flora. Our study presented the distinctive advantages of E. adenophorum in resources-poor environments, indicating conventional strategy of managing resources levels to control the invasion and expending of exotic species may not be as effective as expected.

Application of Blockchain Technology in Optimizing Resource Allocation Efficiency

Based on the existing literature,this paper analyzed and explored the factors that affect the efficiency of resource allocation,and evaluated the current situation of resource allocation in various fields.It is found that with the emergence of the new pattern of China’s economic development,the economic growth rate has slowed down,and the method of large-scale production driving economic growth is no longer applicable to the current economic situation.Nowadays,when structural transformation and upgrading have entered a new stage,to achieve the optimization of resource allocation efficiency,it is necessary to start from three aspects:improving information transparency,upgrading industrial structure,and planning government intervention.Through the adaptation analysis of blockchain technology and the existing problems in optimizing resource allocation efficiency,it explored the feasibility of blockchain technology to optimize resource allocation efficiency,and promote economical,efficient and high-quality development.

Literature Review on the Impact of Blockchain Technology on Resource Allocation Efficiency

With the rapid development of Internet technology,the importance of blockchain technology has become increasingly prominent.Faced with this situation,extensive research has been carried out at home and abroad.Through the analysis of relevant literature on blockchain in recent years,it is found that there are many research results of blockchain technology in medical care,finance,education,etc.,but its application in the field of resource allocation efficiency is rare.From the existing studies on the influencing factors of resource allocation efficiency in China,it is found that there are significant differences in resource allocation efficiency between China and some developed countries or between various provinces and cities of China.

Effective Resources, Sustained Efficiency and Scientific Forecast

Predicting future human resources scientifically by adopting the quantitative analysis method of combining the sustained efficiency with production quantity-unit load method and general tendency method,we can improve the precision of forecasting and provide the guiding principle for the plan of developing human resources.