Negative effects of artiffcial nest boxes on birds:A review

Artificial nest boxes are placed to attract birds to nest and breed in a specific location,and they are widely used in avian ecology research and in the attraction of insectivorous birds.There is evidence that artificial nest boxes can adversely affect breeding fitness but no great focus has been placed on this issue by researchers.Therefore,we retrieved 321 research papers regarding artificial nest boxes published from 2003 to 2022 and used the'Biblioshiny'program to extract and integrate keywords;we then summarized the adverse effects of artificial nest boxes on avian breeding success.The studies highlighted many drawbacks and misuses in the designing and placement of nest boxes;furthermore,bird attraction was decreased by their inappropriate selection,thus reducing breeding success.Regarding nest box production,there were shortcomings in the construction material,color,smell,and structural design of the boxes used.Nest boxes were also placed at inappropriate densities,locations,orientations,heights,and managed incorrectly.Finally,we propose suggestions for more efficient and safer artificial nest boxes for future use in avian ecology research and bird conservation.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON ELASTIC－PLASTIC CONTROLLING DESIGN FOR BOX STEEL STRUCTURES

The principle of increasing structural loading abillity by the using of elastic-plastic con- trolling design, which can make steel reach a highcr yield slrength through controlling undue strains produced in loaded box steel structures and no damager to the static mechanical properties of the used materials, is dealt with under the guarantee of strength, rigidity, and stability. A new idea of elastic--plastic controlling design, which is mainly based on the elastic-plastic theory and experi- mental results and is different from the current design which is mainly based handbooks and design- er' s experience, is established. That is: the loading time and its effect on loaded structures are con- sidered, and the potential strength in used matcrials is fully utilized through the controlling of struc- tural strains in design. By the using of this design method, the weight and cost of box structures will be reduced in large amount.

Geometry and size optimization of stiffener layout for three-dimensional box structures with maximization of natural frequencies

Based on the growth mechanism of natural biological branching systems and inspiration from the morphology of plant root tips,a bionic design method called Improved Adaptive Growth Method(IAGM)has been proposed in the authors’previous research and successfully applied to the reinforcement optimization of three-dimensional box structures with respect to natural frequencies.However,as a kind of ground structure methods,the final layout patterns of stiffeners obtained by using the IAGM are highly subjected to their ground structures,which restricts the optimization effect and freedom to further improve the dynamic performance of structures.To solve this problem,a novel post-processing geometry and size optimization approach is proposed in this article.This method takes the former layout optimization result as start,and iteratively finds the optimal layout angles,locations,and lengths of stiffeners with a few design variables by optimizing the positions of some specific node lines called active node lines.At the same time,thick-nesses of stiffeners are also optimized to further improve natural frequencies of three-dimensional box structures.Using this method,stiffeners can be successfully separated from their ground structures and further effectively improve natural frequencies of three-dimensional box structures with less material consumption.Typical numerical examples are illustrated to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the suggested method.

Real-time grain breakage sensing for rice combine harvesters using machine vision technology

Breakage rate is one of the most important indicators to evaluate the harvesting performance of a combine harvester.It is affected by operating parameters of a combine such as feeding rate,the peripheral speed of the threshing cylinder and concave clearance,and shows complex non-linear law.Real-time acquisition of the breakage rate is an effective way to find the correlation of them.In addition,real-time monitoring of the breakage rate can help the driver optimize and adjust the operating parameters of a combine harvester to avoid the breakage rate exceeding the standard.In this study,a real-time monitoring method for the grain breakage rate of the rice combine harvester based on machine vision was proposed.The structure of the sampling device was designed to obtain rice kernel images of high quality in the harvesting process.According to the working characteristics of the combine,the illumination and installation of the light source were optimized,and the lateral lighting system was constructed.A two-step method of“color training-verification”was applied to identify the whole and broken kernels.In the first step,the local threshold algorithm was used to get the edge of kernel particles in a few training images with binary transformation,extract the color spectrum of each particle in color-space HSL and output the recognition model file.The second step was to verify the recognition accuracy and the breakage rate monitoring accuracy through grabbing and processing images in the laboratory.The experiments of about 2300 particles showed that the recognition accuracy of 96%was attained,and the monitoring values of breakage rate and the true artificial monitoring values had good trend consistency.The monitoring device of grain breakage rate based on machine vision can provide technical supports for the intellectualization of combine harvester.