ON THE GRAPHS OF PRODUCTS OF CONTINUOUS FUNCTIONS AND FRACTAL DIMENSIONS

In this paper,we consider the graph of the product of continuous functions in terms of Hausdorff and packing dimensions.More precisely,we show that,given a real number 1≤β≤2,any real-valued continuous function in C([0,1])can be decomposed into a product of two real-valued continuous functions,each having a graph of Hausdorff dimensionβ.In addition,a product decomposition result for the packing dimension is obtained.This work answers affirmatively two questions raised by Verma and Priyadarshi[14].

Technical efficiency of cocoa farms at varying elevation levels in Davao City, Philippines: implications to sustainable upland farming systems

Elevation is one of many components that influence agriculture, and this in turn affects the level of both inputs and outputs of farmers. This article focuses on the productivity and technical efficiency of 100 cocoa farms using cross-sectional data from areas ranging from 190 to 1021 m above sea level which were classified as low, medium, and high elevation in Davao City, considered as the chocolate capital of the Philippines. Using stochastic frontier analysis, the results showed that the cost of inputs per ha and the number of cocoa trees per ha significantly increase yield. Farms at high elevations were less technically efficient, as this entails lower temperatures and increased rainfall, and cocoa farming in those areas and conditions can be more challenging, especially with changes in farming practices, terrain, and distance to markets. Other significant variables were age of cocoa farms, married farmers, and age of the farmers. Older farms may be more developed, farmers who are married benefit from their spouses being able to readily contribute as farm labor, and lastly, older farmers' inefficiency may likely stem from nonadaptation of newer farming practices. With an average technical efficiency of 0.61, 0.63, and 0.26 in low, medium, and high elevation areas, respectively, farmers therefore have an incentive to improve farm practices and consider topographical variations found in high elevation areas. Recommendations for the improvement of technical efficiency of cocoa farms are better connectivity to markets, enhancing farm practices, and continuation and improvement of government programs on cocoa with an added emphasis on research. For farmers in high elevation areas, mitigating solutions such as sustainable agriculture practices and ecolabelling are key to improving efficiency and minimizing the potential negative impact on upland farming systems. Moreover, such adaptation measures may also contribute to sustainability of cocoa farming in high elevation areas.

On Enforcing Dyadic-type Homogeneous Binary Function Product Constraints in MatBase

Homogeneous binary function products are frequently encountered in the sub-universes modeled by databases,spanning from genealogical trees and sports to education and healthcare,etc.Their properties must be discovered and enforced by the software applications managing such data to guarantee plausibility.The(Elementary)Mathematical Data Model provides 17 types of dyadic-based homogeneous binary function product constraint categories.MatBase,an intelligent data and knowledge base management system prototype,allows database designers to simply declare them by only clicking corresponding checkboxes and automatically generates code for enforcing them.This paper describes the algorithms that MatBase uses for enforcing all 17 types of homogeneous binary function product constraint,which may also be employed by developers without access to MatBase.

Productive functional evolution of rural settlements:analysis of livelihood strategy and land use transition in eastern China

In China, rural settlements are usually multifunctional complex of natural societies and they also play important productive function. This study explored the spatiotemporal evolution of the productive function of three rural settlements, i.e.,Hetaoyuan, Dawengshan, and Gaoqiao, in the Yimeng Mountain in Shandong province of eastern China.Residents lived in this three types of rural settlements were all involved in agricultural production(i.e., grain threshing, drying and storage), which had remained dominant in Hetaoyuan. Dawengshan became an industrial-oriented settlement, while Gaoqiao became a commercial-oriented settlement. This evolution was reflected in the livelihood strategy changes of rural households and the transition of rural settlements changes. The choice of livelihood strategy was affected by the livelihood assets and policies, which resulted in the spatiotemporal evolution of the productive function of rural settlements. This study can provide references for the implementation and adjustment of rural residential land consolidation policies and the improvement of production and the quality of rural life in future.

THIRD-ORDER DIFFERENTIAL SUBORDINATION RESULTS FOR ANALYTIC FUNCTIONS INVOLVING THE GENERALIZED BESSEL FUNCTIONS

In the present paper, we derive some third-order differential subordination results for analytic functions in the open unit disk, using the operator Bcκf by means of normalized form of the generalized Bessel functions of the first kind, which is defined as z（Bκ＋1^c f（z））′= κBκ^c f（z）-（κ- 1）Bκ＋1^c f（z）,where b, c, p ∈ C and κ = p ＋（b ＋ 1）/2 ∈ C ／ Z0^-（Z0^-= {0,-1,-2, … }）. The results are obtained by considering suitable classes of admissible functions. Various known or new special cases of our main results are also pointed out.

A Basic Method of Constructing Production Functions

In this paper,a new basic method of constructing smooth production functions isgiven,and many ordinary production functions are drawn. It is obvious thatsome more production functions can be obtained from the method.

Simulating Transport Capacity, Delivery Speed, and Routing Efficiency to Predict Economic Growth

This study uses a simulation-based approach to investigate the impact of delivery delays due to constraints on transport capacity, transit speed, and routing efficiencies on an economy with various levels of interdependency among firms. The simulation uses object-oriented programming to create specialized production, consumption, and transportation classes. A set of objects from each class is distributed randomly on a 2D plane. A road network is then established between fixed objects using Prim’s MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) algorithm, followed by construction of an all-pair shortest path matrix using the Floyd Warshall algorithm. A genetic algorithm-based vehicle routing problem solver employs the all-pair shortest path matrix to best plan multiple pickup and delivery orders. Production units utilize economic order quantities (EOQ) and reorder points (ROP) to manage inventory levels. Hicksian and Marshallian demand functions are utilized by consumption units to maximize personal utility. The transport capacity, transit speed, routing efficiency, and level of interdependence serve as 4 factors in the simulation, each assigned 3 distinct levels. Federov’s exchange algorithm is used to generate an orthogonal array to reduce the number of combination replays from 34 to just 9. The simulation results of a 9-run orthogonal array on an economy with 6 mining facilities, 12 industries, 8 market centers, and 8 transport hubs show that the level of firm interdependence, followed by transit speed, has the most significant impact on economic productivity. The principal component analysis (PCA) indicates that interdependence and transit speed can explain 90.27% of the variance in the data. According to the findings of this research, a dependable and efficient regional transportation network among various types of industries is critical for regional economic development.

Application Effect of Functional Microbial Products in the Cultivation of Green Ecological Strawberry

In order to promote the transformation and high-quality development of strawberry industry and speed up the application of functional microbial products in strawberry,the application technology of functional microbial products in strawberry planting is studied and summarized.It mainly includes:the periods and methods of continuous cropping strawberry soil reduction and disinfection at high temperature,before and after strawberry planting,before plastic film mulching and whole process of plant spraying.Through multi-point test and demonstration,the purpose of advancing the season of strawberries,improving the quality,increasing production and increasing efficiency is achieved,and there is no risk of agricultural residue pollution,which meets the needs of people's consumption upgrading.Therefore,the application of functional microbial products in green ecological planting is very necessary,and it is worth further speeding up the demonstration and promotion.

Impact of ICTs on Core Competences of SMEs in Bukavu, DRC

Currently, it has been noticed a strong use of ICTs in several companies. The objective of this study was to analyze and measure the impact of the implementation of ICTs on the strategy and structure of management of core competence in SMEs in Bukavu, DRC. The scale used shows the good psychometric properties (χ2 = 75.045;P = 0.16;χ2/ddl = 1.471;CFI = 0.92;IFI = 0.92;RMSEA = 0.049;NFI = 0.79;GFI = 0.94;AGFI = 0.91. This study analyzed primary data collected from 195 SMEs in the city of Bukavu. Data processing was achieved using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and flat sorting. The results indicate that the use of ICTs by SME managers in the city of Bukavu has a positive impact on all dimensions of core competence selected in this study. They also reveal that the views of these leaders on the importance attached to the adoption of ICTs were divided and the level of ICT use was above average.

Agricultural Policy, Climate Factors and Grain Output: Evidence From Household Survey Data in Rural China

This paper estimates a stochastic frontier function using a panel data set that includes 4 961 farmer households for the period of 2005-2009 to decompose the growth of grain production and the total factor productivity （TFP） growth at the farmer level. The empirical results show that the major contributor to the grain output growth for farmers is input growth and that its average contribution accounts for 60.92% of farmer’s grain production growth in the period of 2006-2009, whereas the average contributions sourced from TFP growth and residuals are only 17.30 and 21.78%, respectively. The growth of intermediate inputs is a top contributor with an average contribution of 44.46%, followed by the planted area （18.16%）, investment in fixed assets （1.05%）, and labor input （-2.75%）, indicating that the contribution from the farmer’s input growth is mainly due to the growth of intermediate inputs and that the decline in labor inputs has become an obstacle for farmers in seeking grain output growth. Among the elements consisting of TFP growth, the contribution of technical progress is the largest （32.04%）, followed by grain subsidies （8.55%）, the average monthly temperature （4.26%）, the average monthly precipitation （-0.88%）, the adjusted scale effect （-5.66%）, and growth in technical efficiency （-21.01%）. In general, the contribution of climate factors and agricultural policy factor are positive and significant.

A New Economic Assessment Index for the Impact of Climate Change on Grain Yield

The impact of climate change on agriculture has received wide attention by the scientific community. This paper studies how to assess the grain yield impact of climate change, according to the climate change over a long time period in the future as predicted by a climate system model. The application of the concept of a traditional ＂yield impact of meteorological factor （YIMF）＂ or ＂yield impact of weather factor＂ to the grain yield assessment of a decadal or even a longer timescale would be suffocated at the outset because the YIMF is for studying the phenomenon on an interannual timescale, and it is difficult to distinguish between the trend caused by climate change and the one resulting from changes in non-climatic factors. Therefore, the concept of the yield impact of climatic change （YICC）, which is defined as the difference in the per unit area yields （PUAY） of a grain crop under a changing and an envisaged invariant climate conditions, is presented in this paper to assess the impact of global climate change on grain yields. The climatic factor has been introduced into the renowned economic Cobb-Douglas model, yielding a quantitative assessment method of YICC using real data. The method has been tested using the historical data of Northeast China, and the results show that it has an encouraging application outlook.

Application of an Economy-Climate Model to Assess the Impact of Climate Change

An interdisciplinary investigation was conducted to assess the impact of climate change on grain yields using an economy-climate model （C-D-C）. The model was formulated by incorporating climate factors into the classic Cobb-Douglas （C-D） economic production function model. The economic meanings of the model output elasticities are described and elucidated. The C-D-C model was applied to the assessment of the impact of climate change on grain yields in China during the past 20 years, from 1983 through 2002. In the study, the land of China was divided into eight regions, and both the C-D-C and C-D models were applied to each individual region. The results suggest that the C-D-C model is superior to the classic C-D model, indicating the importance of climate factors. Prospective applications of the C-D-C model are discussed.

Farm Production Growth in the Upper and Middle Parts of the Yellow River Basin,China,During 1980-1999

The impact of inputs on farm production growth was evaluated by analyzing the economic data of the upper and middle parts of the Yellow River basin, China for the period of 1980-1999. Descriptive statistics were employed to characterize the temporal trends and spatial patterns in farm production and five pertinent inputs of cultivated cropland, irrigation ratio, agricultural labor, machinery power and chemical fertilizer. Stochastic frontier production function was applied to quantify the dependence of the farm production on these inputs. The growth of farm production was decomposed to reflect the contributions by input growths and change in total factor productivity.. The change in total factor productivity was further decomposed into the changes in technology and in technical efficiency. The gross value of farm production in the region of study increased by 1.6 fold during 1980-1999. Among the five selected farm inputs, machinery power and chemical fertilizer increased by 1.8 and 2.8 fold, respectively. The increases in cultivated cropland, irrigated cropland, and agricultural labor were all less than 0.16 fold. The growth in the farm production was primarily contributed by the increase in the total factor productivity during 1980-1985, and by input growths after 1985. More than 80% of the contributions by input growths were attributed to the increased application of fertilizer and machinery. In the change of total factor productivity, the technology change dominated over the technical efficiency change in the study period except in the period of 1985-1990, implying that institution and investment played important roles in farm production growth. There was a decreasing trend in the technical efficiency in the region of study, indicating a potential to increase farm production by improving the technical efficiency in farm activities. Given the limited natural resources in the basin, the results of this study suggested that, for a sustainable growth of farm production in the area, efforts should be directed to technology progress and improvement in technical efficiency in the use of available resources.

Pathways for Expediting Joint Agricultural Development of China and BRI Countries

Based on the agricultural panel data of 107 countries from 1962 to 2016,this paper establishes a global agricultural spatial production model,and explores pathways for mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)countries in the agricultural sector.As shown in the empirical results,two-way spillover effects between China and BRI countries are all positive and significantly above world average of its kind,which builds the foundation of cooperation between both sides and reflects the BRI’s vision and foresight.In the context of the BRI,there are two pathways for expediting agricultural development in China and BRI countries:First,both sides may benefit from greater spillover effects from each other’s agricultural growth by promoting agricultural trade;second,China may gain from the overall spillover effects from agricultural development in BRI countries by promoting two-way trade,agri-technology aid and assistance in infrastructure projects for the common good of humanity.

Antioxidant Effect of Bovine Plasma Proteins Modified via Maillard Reaction on n3 Fortified Beef Patties

This work aimed to develop a healthier meat product, by improving nutritional properties related to lipid profile, using a Maillard reaction product (MRP) obtained from recycling blood from local slaughterhouses as antioxidant. Soybean oil was used as partial fat replacer and the lipid profile was modified as a decrease in the n6/n3 ratio (11.59 to 9.50), and atherogenic and trombogenic index (from 0.42 to 0.27 and 0.94 to 0.56 respectively) was observed. Beef patties were added with two MRP levels (1% w/w and 3% w/w). Patties with no antioxidants were used as control and patties containing 0.01% w/w of butylhydroxyanisole (BHA) were used as reference. Oxidative stability of refrigerated vacuum-packed patties was evaluated during 15 days of storage. Results showed 3% of MRP as the most appropriate concentration to prevent lipid oxidation with inhibition percentages of 75%, and 9 days as the limit time of chilled storage regarding consumers’ perceptions.

Empirical Analysis on Factors Restricting Low-carbon Agricultural Development in Hubei Province

From the perspective of input into agricultural production, the growth of agricultural production from 1982 to 2010 in Hubei Province was analyzed by using multiple regression method. The results show that the quantity of fertilizer and the total power of machinery used for farming have significantly contributed to agricultural growth in Hubei Province, but they are also main factors restricting low-carbon agricultural development in Hubei Province. Therefore, the key point to develop low-carbon agriculture in Hubei Province currently should be put on how to fertilize rationally, how to innovate the pattern of agricultural production, how to develop agricultural mechanization rationally and so on.

Measuring benefits of rural-to-urban water transfer:a case study from Puyang River basin,China

Agriculture-to-urban water transfer is currently an important measure to meet the increasing water demand resulting from rapid industrialization and urbanization in China.Measuring benefits of agriculture-to-urban water transfer is critical to assess water transfer proposals,and it can also provide reliable basis for redistributing the benefits of agriculture-to-urban water transfer.This paper has developed a comprehensive framework in which production function approach is applied to quantify the value of water use in agricultural and industrial sectors,and contingent valuation method is employed to investigate the value of water use in municipal consumption and ecological environment.A case study from Zhuji City in China verified the feasibility and validity of the method proposed in the paper.Results indicate that the agriculture-to-urban water transfer increases the water value created by improving allocation efficiency of water use in different sectors.The benefits of agriculture-to-urban water transfer mainly originate from the fact that the economic value in industrial water use is higher than in the other sectors’water use.Meanwhile,the urban residents have a stronger desire to improve the water eco-environment which leads to higher water value in urban area.

China＇s Agricultural Modernization and Economies of Scale： Barriers and Solutions

This paper identifies three stages in China's agricultural development with reference to macroeconomic development and international experience.While the first two stages focused on ensuring food security and raising farmer's income,the current stage must give priority to modernizing agricultural production.The lack of progress in this area is due to the following reasons:diminishing return to capital as a result of small and scattered farming operation which has compromised agricultural competitiveness;agriculture is overdependent on subsidy and protection under the conventional wisdom of the uniqueness of agriculture.This paper attempts to reveal the barriers to China s agricultural modernization and proposes recommendations on reforming the land and household registration systems to increase the economies of scale and productivity.

Research and Development of Skincare Products Based on the Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The application of traditional Chinese medicine in skincare formula development was expounded from the views of“symptom,theory,method,prescription,medicine and effect”.Traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions were improved according to the laws and regulations for China’s cosmetic industry and by the modern scientific and technological means,which had important guiding significance for the research and development of plant-based functional skincare products.The problems in concept claim and quality control standard,and the problems of market confusion,which were ascribed to the lack of basic research in the application of Chinese herbal cosmetics,were pointed out.The future development direction of plant-based functional cosmetics guided by TCM theory was prospected.

Optimal Production Functions and Their Homogeneity Superadditive，and Concavity

This paper, firstly, establishes the formula of production possibilities set by using axiomatic method, upon which some optimal production functions are based in different senses of optimization. Finally, this paper proves that the optimal production functions possess homogeneity,superadditive, and concavity.