Rural labor migration and farmers’arrangements of rice production systems in Central China:Insight from the intergenerational division of labor

Rice production is crucial for food security in China,and its relationship with rural labor migration has been studied extensively.Labor migration in rural China has taken new forms in recent years.There has been a discernible trend wherein adult children have started migrating to cities while their elderly parents return to villages to re-engage in on-farm work.The phenomenon has notably shaped the intergenerational division of labor(IDL)within households.However,it remains to be seen how farmers adjust their rice production systems in response to the IDL.The age of 60 years for employment injury insurance is the eligibility threshold for off-farm employment and is used to obtain a source of exogenous variation in the IDL.Based on a representative household survey of 1,752 rice farmers in the Hubei Province of Central China,our fuzzy regression discontinuity analysis reveals that farmers in IDL households are more likely to adopt ratoon rice(RR)than single cropping rice(SR)or double cropping rice(DR).The effect of the IDL varies under different levels of operational scales and specialized agricultural service availability.Further analysis suggests that farmers’arrangements are associated with two potential mechanisms of downward intergenerational transfer.Monetary transfer for urban housing purchases increases RR in IDL households,and time transfer for intergenerational childcare significantly promotes SR in IDL households.This study enhances the understanding of the relationship between rural labor migration and rice production in China,providing a reference for adjusting rice production systems to ensure food security.

How Could Agricultural Land Systems Contribute to Raise Food Production Under Global Change?

To feed the increasing world population, more food needs to be produced from agricultural land systems. Solutions to produce more food with fewer resources while minimizing adverse environmental and ecological consequences require sustainable agricultural land use practices as supplementary to advanced biotechnology and agronomy. This review paper, from a land system perspective, systematically proposed and analyzed three interactive strategies that could possibly raise future food production under global change. By reviewing the current literatures, we suggest that cropland expansion is less possible amid iferce land competition, and it is likely to do less in increasing food production. Moreover, properly allocating crops in space and time is a practical way to ensure food production. Climate change, dietary shifts, and other socio-economic drivers, which would shape the demand and supply side of food systems, should be taken into consideration during the decision-making on rational land management in respect of sustainable crop choice and allocation. And ifnally, crop-speciifc agricultural intensiifcation would play a bigger role in raising future food production either by increasing the yield per unit area of individual crops or by increasing the number of crops sown on a particular area of land. Yet, only when it is done sustainably is this a much more effective strategy to maximize food production by closing yield and harvest gaps.

Herbicide resistance: Development of wheat production systems and current status of resistant weeds in wheat cropping systems

Herbicide resistance in crops has extended the scope of herbicide applications to control weeds. The introduction of herbicide resistant crops resulted in a major shift in the way that herbicides are used in many crops, but not necessarily increased the prevalence of herbicide use, especially in wheat. Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops in the world and currently only two major herbicide-resistant wheat groups have been commercialized to manage weeds in a cost-effective manner. However, sustainable wheat production is threatened by the expanding occurrence of herbicide-resistant weed populations with limited efforts to discover new herbicide molecules. Selective control of certain problematic weeds in wheat was impossible until development and introduction of the technologies, Clearfield and Co AXium Production Systems. However, the current limitations of reliance on specific herbicides and evolution of resistant weeds mandate precautions and considerations when using these systems to prevent the loss of existing herbicide resources and continue sustainable wheat production. The focus of this review is to provide an overview of natural pre-existing herbicide resistance and development of herbicide-resistant technologies in wheat. The mechanisms of resistance to herbicides in wheat as well as the weed populations in wheat cropping systems, and implications for weed management are discussed.

Semiconductor,molecular and hybrid systems for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production

The paper shortly reviews the basic direct approaches applied in searching for viable solutions to solar fuel production. These are generally distinguished in molecular and semiconductor(non-molecular)systems, however, hybrid strategies, proposed recently, have also been included. The most promising efforts are considered, highlighting key aspects and emerging critical issues. Special attention is paid to aspects such as electrode architecture, device design, and main differences in the scientific vision and challenges to directly produce solar fuels. This overview could be useful to orientate the readers in the wide panorama of research activities concerning water splitting, natural and artificial photosynthesis, and solar fuel production through the identification of common aspects, specialties and potentialities of the many initiatives and approaches that are developing worldwide in this field with the final aim to meet world energy demand.

Cyber-Physical Production Systems for Data-Driven,Decentralized,and Secure Manufacturing-A Perspective

With the concepts of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing gaining popularity,there is a growing notion that conventional manufacturing will witness a transition toward a new paradigm,targeting innovation,automation,better response to customer needs,and intelligent systems.Within this context,this review focuses on the concept of cyber–physical production system(CPPS)and presents a holistic perspective on the role of the CPPS in three key and essential drivers of this transformation:data-driven manufacturing,decentralized manufacturing,and integrated blockchains for data security.The paper aims to connect these three aspects of smart manufacturing and proposes that through the application of data-driven modeling,CPPS will aid in transforming manufacturing to become more intuitive and automated.In turn,automated manufacturing will pave the way for the decentralization of manufacturing.Layering blockchain technologies on top of CPPS will ensure the reliability and security of data sharing and integration across decentralized systems.Each of these claims is supported by relevant case studies recently published in the literature and from the industry;a brief on existing challenges and the way forward is also provided.

Hydrolysis hydrogen production mechanism of Mg10Ni10Ce alloy surface modified by SnO_(2) nanotubes in different aqueous systems

(Mg-10wt%Ni)-10wt%Ce(Mg10Ni10Ce)was ball-milled with SnO_(2)nanotubes and Mg10Ni10Ce-xSnO_(2)(x¼0,5,10 and 15 wt%)composites have been prepared.The phase compositions,microstructures,morphologies and hydrolysis H2 generation performance in different aqueous systems(distilled water,tap water and simulated seawater)have been investigated and the corresponding hydrolysis mechanism of Mg10Ni10Ce and Mg10Ni10CeeSnO_(2)has been proposed.Adding a small amount of SnO_(2)nanotubes can significantly enhance the hydrolysis reaction of Mg10Ni10Ce,especially the initial hydrolysis kinetics and the final H_(2) generation yield.Unfortunately,the Mg10Ni10Ce-xSnO_(2)hardly reacts with distilled water at room temperature.The hydrolysis reaction rate of Mg10Ni10Cee5SnO_(2)composite in tap water is still very slow with only 17.3%generation yield after 1 h at 303 K.Fortunately,in simulated seawater(3.5 wt%NaCl solution),the hydrolytic H2 generation behavior of the Mg10Ni10Cee5SnO_(2)composite has been greatly improved,which can release as high as 468.6 mL g^(-1 )H_(2) with about 60.9%generation yield within 30 s at 303 K.The Cl destroys the passivation layer on MgeNieCe alloy surface and the added SnO_(2)nanotubes accelerate the hydrolysis reaction rate and enhance the H2 generation yield.The Mg10Ni10Cee5SnO_(2)composite can rapidly generate a large amount of H2 in simulated seawater in a short time,which is expected to be applied on portable H2 generators in the future.

Characterization and Classification of Agricultural Production Systems in the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)

The low level of agricultural productivity within the production systems in the insular region of Galapagos is caused by the lack of sustainable technologies accordingly to the insular conservation regime. As a consequence, producers face low productivity and economic losses, which result in low levels of incomes and hasten the change from agricultural to tourist activities. With consequent abandonment of productive lands, the presence of invasive species and pathogens has become a growing threat to the biodiversity of the Galapagos National Park. For this reason, it is necessary to generate and disseminate technologies adapted to the prevalent production systems in the islands. Primary data were collected through face-to-face surveys in a sample of 208 producers from 4 islands during the period from July to November 2018. Multivariate analyses (principal components and cluster) were applied to characterize and classify typical agricultural production systems. The results show three types of systems, differentiated mainly by the technology used in the management of agricultural production, that influence the yields of crops and of animal products such as beef and milk, which cannot satisfy the demand for food on the islands, which has created the dependence on imports to cover the production gap. The definition of the types of agricultural production systems can help in identifying sustainable production alternatives that integrate local social and environmental needs. This is one of the very few technical descriptions of farms on the islands and should be used by policymakers to plan interventions.

Isolation and Identification of Cellulose- decomposing Bacteria from Deep-litter Systems

In this study, 43 cellulose-decomposing strains were isolated from deep-litter systems. After preliminary screening with Congo red identification medium and filter paper strip medium, five strains with large transparent circles that disintegrated filter paper strips were obtained. After further liquid fermentation, CMC activity, FPA activity and natural eellulase activity of these five strains were determined, and two cellulose-decomposing strains with higher enzyme activity were screened, which were named F7 and F21. Based on molecular biological identification and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, these two cellulose- decomposing strains were identified as Bacillus subtilis and Streptomyces sp. , respectively.

Economic Potential of Compost Amendment as an Alternative to Irrigation in Maine Potato Production Systems

Potato productivity in the northeastern US has been relatively constant for over 50 years, raising questions about what factors are limiting productivity. Research was initiated in 2004 to identify key constraints to potato productivity by evaluating Status Quo (SQ), Soil Conserving (SC), and Soil Improving (SI) cropping systems under both rainfed and irrigated management, and it was found that addition of compost or irrigation substantially increased yield. In this study, we employed partial budgeting to determine cost differences and their impact on net revenue for these cropping systems. Differences in systems were primarily associated with rotation length, tillage operations, compost and application expenses, and water management practices. When compost (as composted dairy manure) was annually applied at 19 Mg haf-1 and evaluated over the entire 3-year crop rotation cycle, the compost-amended rainfed SI system was more expensive to maintain than the irrigated SC system if compost cost exceeded $3.63 Mg-1. Average marketable yields were used to calculate gross and net revenue for each system. Because average potato yield for the irrigated SQ system (28.4 Mg·ha-1) equaled that in the rainfed SI system (28.3 Mg·ha-1), we were able to compare cost of irrigation versus compost for achieving comparable yield. The compost-amended SI system under rainfed management generated more net revenue from the potato crop than the irrigated SQ system when compost costs were less than $7.42 Mg-1. When compared to the commonly used rainfed SQ system, rainfed SI achieved higher net revenue as long as compost cost was less than $22.95 Mg-1. The rainfed SI system achieved higher net revenue than the irrigated SC system when compost cost was $9.43 Mg-1or less, but generated greater net revenue than the rainfed SC system regardless of compost costs, due to substantially higher yields associated with compost amendment. This investigation demonstrates that compost is a potentially viable substitute to irrigation for potato in the northeastern US;however, such potential is highly dependent on suitable compost sources and application costs.

Characterization Production Systems and Productivity Indices of Local Pigs of East Timor

The objective of this study was to evaluate the production system and productivity indices of local swine raised in subsistence production system in East Timor.About 1,096 respondents were interviewed in fitting villages in eight municipalities.In each village,10%of breeders were interviewed as respondents,using simple random method and the interviews based on established questionnaires.It was observed that about 80%-90%of total respondents still used subsistence production system.The result of descriptive statistical analysis showed that the average of piglets per litter was 4-6 and weight of piglets at birth was 0.97±0.22 kg.The age of weaning of piglets and the weaning weight was 3.94±0.72 months and 5.56±0.88 kg,respectively.The age of the first breeding gilts was 8-10 months;calving interval was 6-12 months.Productive period of females was 3-12 years,and the number of mortality rate of piglets was 0.17%to 1%per production period.Thus it was concluded that the subsistence production system could affect the productivity level of local pigs.

Why Linear Thermodynamics Does Describe Change of Entropy Production in Living Systems?

We propose a hypothesis according to which there is a hierarchy of included steady states in living systems. Each steady state is not stable and exists only in a certain frame of time, named characteristic time. Evolution of system to any steady state leads to a change of boundary conditions for all steady states having lesser characteristic time. It should not be very rapid. In the opposite case, the level of entropy production could change so much that the system achieves a critical unstable point of any included steady state. Passing through the critical point leads to reorganization of the entire hierarchy of the steady states or to the complete collapse of the system as a dissipative structure. Also one should take into account that living systems are the result of long-term biological evolution. The species that are able to maintain their integrity for the longest time interval have evolutionary advantage. Therefore, it is quite likely that difference between current value of the entropy production and value of the entropy production in nearest steady state is small enough to satisfy the laws of linear thermodynamics. Experimental data confirm the hypothesis. Limits of applicability of linear thermodynamics to biological systems are discussed.

Ecologically-Based Production Systems： Production of Banana in the Atlantic Forest in the State of Rio Grande do Sul Brazil

This paper analyzes the performance and operation of ecologically-based production systems in the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil in an integrated approach to their multifunctional characteristics and rural development. Nowadays the Atlantic Forest is considered the most threatenet biome, because of exploitation of their biological resources and unsuitable agricultural purposes. Banana cultivation is one of biggest commercial productions in atlantic south portion of forest, showing two different cropping systems： one using conventional management tehniques and other antagonistic, ecological based. The ecological system is compatible with the conservation of sustainable use of forests. The article presents a comparative analysis-diagnosis of major production and cultivation systems of banana, using the production systems approach, with evaluation of economic and technical indicators. The database is composed by 17 interviews conducted under field conditions in 2007. As a result, the technical and economic functioning of ecological systems demonstrate achieve economic efficiency, in general, higher than conventional systems. Furthermore, some key characteristics of ecological based systems focus on food production and income generation for farmers without harming areas of the Atlantic Forest, being in equilibrium with tropical dynamic and being an important instrument for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and for local development.

Characterization of Farming Systems Using Land as a Driver of Production and Sustainability in the Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa

South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.

Design of Cellular Manufacturing Systems Considering Dynamic Production Planning and Worker Assignments

This article presents a comprehensive mathematical model for the design and analysis of Dynamic Cellular Manufacturing Systems （DCMS）. The proposed DCMS model considers several manufacturing attributes such as multi period production planning, dynamic system reconfiguration, duplicate machines, machine capacity, the available time for workers, worker assignments, and machine procurement. The objective is to minimize total costs; consisting of holding cost, outsourcing cost, inter-cell material handling cost, maintenance and overhead cost, machine relocation cost. While a study of published articles in the area of Cellular Manufacturing Systems （CMS） shows that workforce management issues have not sufficiently been addressed in the literature, the model presented also incorporates CMS workforce management issues such as salaries, hiring and firing costs of workers in addition to the manufacturing attributes. In-depth discussions on the results for two numerical examples are presented to illustrate applications of the proposed model. The model developed aims to raise the envelope by expanding and improving several CMS models previously presented in the literature.

Sequencing Mixed-model Production Systems by Modified Multi-objective Genetic Algorithms

As two independent problems,scheduling for parts fabrication line and sequencing for mixed-model assembly line have been addressed respectively by many researchers.However,these two problems should be considered simultaneously to improve the efficiency of the whole fabrication/assembly systems.By far,little research effort is devoted to sequencing problems for mixed-model fabrication/assembly systems.This paper is concerned about the sequencing problems in pull production systems which are composed of one mixed-model assembly line with limited intermediate buffers and two flexible parts fabrication flow lines with identical parallel machines and limited intermediate buffers.Two objectives are considered simultaneously：minimizing the total variation in parts consumption in the assembly line and minimizing the total makespan cost in the fabrication/assembly system.The integrated optimization framework,mathematical models and the method to construct the complete schedules for the fabrication lines according to the production sequences for the first stage in fabrication lines are presented.Since the above problems are non-deterministic polynomial-hard（NP-hard）,a modified multi-objective genetic algorithm is proposed for solving the models,in which a method to generate the production sequences for the fabrication lines from the production sequences for the assembly line and a method to generate the initial population are put forward,new selection,crossover and mutation operators are designed,and Pareto ranking method and sharing function method are employed to evaluate the individuals＇ fitness.The feasibility and efficiency of the multi-objective genetic algorithm is shown by computational comparison with a multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm.The sequencing problems for mixed-model production systems can be solved effectively by the proposed modified multi-objective genetic algorithm.

Production Performance of Root Systems of Four Forage Legume Species and Their Development Characteristics in Loess Plateau,China

Production performance of four forage legumes species of Medicago sativa,Onobrychis viciifolia,Lotus corniculatus and Galega officinalis were determined,including plant height,above-ground biomass per unit area,tillers per unit area,fertile tillers per unit area,shoot /leaf ratio and fresh /dry matter weight ratio,and the distribution characteristics of their root systems in 0- 100 cm soil layers with 10 cm interval were studied. Results showed that the average aboveground fresh biomass(4 a and 5 a) of four forage legumes species successively were L. corniculatus 】 M. sativa 】 O. viciifolia 】 G. officinalis. The average plant heights in two years successively were O. viciifolia 】 M. sativa 】 G. officinalis 】 L. corniculatus. Tillers per unit area of four forage legume species in two years successively were M. sativa 】 L. corniculatus 】 O. viciifolia 】 G. officinalis. Fertile tillers per unit area in two years were O. viciifolia 】 M. sativa 】 L. corniculatus 】 G. officinalis. Average shoot /leaf ratio in two years were G. officinalis 】 M. sativa 】 O. viciifolia 】 L. corniculatus. Average moisture contents of four forage legume species in two years successively were G. officinalis 】 L. corniculatus 】 M. sativa = O. viciifolia. The distribution characteristics of root systems of four forage legumes species in 0- 100 cm soil layers were as follows: the root weights of M. sativa in 0- 40 cm soil layers accounted for about 98. 3% of total root weight,that of O. viciifolia in 0- 30 cm soil layers was 85. 8%,that of L. corniculatus in 0- 10 cm soil layers was 80%,and that of G. officinalis in 0- 40 cm soil layers was 81. 4%. The results suggested that L. corniculatus was suited to plant in slighter degraded pasture to control water and soil erosion in early stage,G. officinalis with strong lateral roots was adapted to degraded grassland in the Loess Plateau where soil nutrient was poor,while O. viciifolia and M. sativa with potentially strong main root were fit for water and soil conservation in the losses plateau for long term.

Exploiting Virtual Elasticity of Production Systems for Respecting OTD-Part 1: Post-Optimality Conditions for Ergodic Order Arrivals in Fixed Capacity Regimes

Respecting the on-time-delivery (OTD) for manufacturing orders is mandatory. This depends, however, on the probability distribution of incoming order rate. The case of non-equal distribution, such as aggregated arrivals, may compromise the observance of on-time supplies for some orders. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the conditions of post-optimality for stochastic order rate governed production systems in order to observe OTD. Instead of a heuristic or a simulative exploration, a Cartesian-based approach is applied to developing the necessary and sufficient mathematical condition to solve the problem statement. The research result demonstrates that increasing speed of throughput reveals a latent capacity, which allows arrival orders above capacity limits to be backlog-buffered and rescheduled for OTD, exploiting the virtual manufacturing elasticity inherent to all production systems to increase OTD reliability of non JIT-based production systems.

Research efforts to improve performance of production systems

In order to solve the problem of low efficiency of production systems, a lot of work has been done. The research efforts to improve the performance of production systems are summed up here and future research directions are discussed at last.

A Study on the Commonly Adopted Energy Sources and Production Systems for Domestic Hot Water in the Calabria Region (Italy)

Worldwide,there are many options to ensure domestic hot water(DHW)provision in dwellings.This study aimed to depict the distribution of energy sources and DHW production systems in the Calabria region.The research was focused on understanding which variables,among contextual variables and building characteristics,may influence the adoption of a particular energy source or production system.Descriptive statistics and chi-square test of independence have been developed.Significant relationships were found between the climatic zone and the energy source used as well as between the climatic zone and the production system installed in both households with a separated and a combined DHW production system.Furthermore,the population of the municipality and the dwelling type resulted to be significant variables for the preference of an energy source or the diffusion of a combined production system.

Workshop on Simulation and Systems Analysis for Rice Production(SARP) held at CNRRI

SARP Workshop on risk analysis of agroecological zonation and optimization of crop rotation was held at CNRRI’s research center on 24—27 Oct, 1995. Experts from Philippines, India, China, and IRRI were present in the workshop. Participants exchanged the research results on the field of land use, soil erosion. optimization of rice—wheat, rice—peanut, rice—corn cropping system in the different environments, risk analysis of rice based cropping system, nitrogen balance in rice based cropping system with system approach, demonstrated models used in their studies, and discussed the ongoing cooperative research.