Western Canadian dairy farmers' perspectives on the provision of outdoor access for dairy cows and on the perceptions of other stakeholders

The provision of pasture and outdoor access for dairy cattle differs around the globe. For example, in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, dairy farms are largely pasture based, whereas dairy farms in the United States and Canada are largely confinement based. There is a high level of public support for pasture and outdoor access for dairy cows, and the available evidence shows that dairy cattle are highly motivated to access pasture, especially at night. The decision as to whether to provide outdoor access is typically made by farmers, but little is known about dairy farmers' perspectives on this topic. We investigated perspectives of Western Canadian dairy farmers on outdoor access, as well as how they believe different stakeholders (i.e., the dairy industry, the dairy cows, and the general public) regard outdoor access for dairy cows. Data were collected via (1) 11 focus group discussions with a total of 50 Western Canadian dairy farmers, and (2) semi-structured individual interviews with an additional 6 dairy farmers of Hutterite colonies. Data were analyzed using template analysis. Although most participants in this study did not provide outdoor access on their farms, or only provided outdoor access to certain cow groups, participants generally mentioned that they enjoyed seeing cows on pasture or outdoors. However, participants shared that the Canadian supply management system (including processors) required a consistent flow of production, which was thought to be easier and more economically realized with indoor housing of lactating cows. Participants believed that pasture or outdoor access for dairy cows was desired by the public. Some participants believed that dairy cows prefer to spend time outside under favorable weather conditions, but others felt that cows preferred to stay indoors in modern, ventilated freestall barns. The results of this study describe the perspectives of dairy farmers regarding the views of dairy industry stakeholders as they relate to outdoor access, helping to inform conversations around the provision of outdoor access for dairy cattle.     

How does a bank's involvement interplay with a firm's capacity investment? An analysis and comparison of different consortium structures

As nonrecourse project finance (rather than financing on a sovereign basis) is becoming more prevalent worldwide, financing institutions have to collaborate more closely with firms to optimize capacity‐investment and financing decisions. Under this background, this paper presents a stylized Stackelberg games model, taking into account the firm's capacity investment as well as the bank's interest rate and funding ratio decisions. Consortium structures between bank and firm are formalized into five modes based on industry practice, namely, the integrated consortium, pure shareholder funding, bank as leader, full coordination, and bank as follower. The optimality and equilibrium of each of the five modes are analytically derived, and their existence and uniqueness are demonstrated. Valuable economic insights are obtained through both modeling analysis and numerical experiments, with the main findings including the following: (i) a lack of bank financing leads to insufficient capacity investment and poor consortium performance; (ii) interest rate and funding ratio play important but different roles in the bank's risk management; (iii) the bank's proactivity in leading and coordinating the consortium is critical for the two parties’ overall performance; and (iv) if the bank is the follower, the firm's capacity decision is irrelevant to the bank's loan contract, and the consortium cannot be coordinated to the first‐best level of performance.     

基于区域优化的等厚对接焊缝图像二值化方法

坡口镜面反射、多层多道焊坡口形貌复杂和飞溅等现象，使图像存在灰度级多、灰度分布不均和随机噪声等问题，为此提出了一种基于区域优化的等厚对接焊缝图像二值化方法。提出自适应定义ROI算法以缩减图像；基于邻域灰度极差值的分布，将ROI图像分为平缓和剧烈两区域；进一步以高质量二值化图像为目标，建立了区域判定优化模型，由最优结果确定焊缝光带区域，将该区域灰度均值作为阈值，完成二值化处理。实验结果的主观和客观评价较优，满足多层多道焊和多厚度规格钢板的实时性焊接要求。     

澜湄环境利益共同体模式的评价与选择研究

推进澜湄合作是构建周边命运共同体的具体实践，以“同饮一江水，命运紧相连”为主题的澜湄合作机制也为构建澜湄国家命运共同体提供了推进方向。环境问题是澜湄流域最为核心的问题之一，面向澜湄合作中的环境利益问题，文章结合共同体的理念，基于霍尔三维结构理论，总结出合作伙伴环境利益共同体模式、合作联盟环境利益共同体模式与一体化环境利益共同体模式的三种环境利益共同体模式，通过建立环境利益共同体模式的评价指标体系，利用网络层次分析法对澜湄环境利益共同体模式进行评价，选择适合澜沧江-湄公河的环境利益共同体模式。结果表明，在当前的澜湄现状下，以“澜湄六国通过开发流域资源发展本国经济而同时受到其他主体监督以保证不破坏澜沧江-湄公河的生态环境”为主要内容的合作联盟环境利益共同体模式更适合澜湄流域各国，这一模式可以有效解决流域各国经济与环境“两难重”的困境。     

多线激光V型焊缝图像特征提取与轨迹识别

为了减少焊缝识别中传感器安装位置带来的前置误差，提高识别精度，设计了一款多线激光传感器，对多线激光在V型焊缝上的图像进行处理得到焊缝轨迹。提出一种基于动态不规则感兴趣区域的图像分割方法，将多条激光分割后并行处理。单条激光线图像预处理后以像素行灰度值之和的极大值确定激光条纹所在行，对激光条纹分段拟合后求交点，得到坡口边缘与焊缝位置的特征点，并将焊缝位置特征点拟合得到焊缝轨迹。根据所提出的算法编写了焊缝轨迹识别程序，并进行实验，结果表明，所提出的算法识别焊缝走向误差在0.5°之内，符合焊缝跟踪的要求。     

Parallel spatial-temporal convolutional neural networks for anomaly detection and location in crowded scenes

Anomaly detection and location in crowded scenes have attracted a lot of attention in computer vision research community recently due to the increased applications of intelligent surveillance improve security in public. We propose a novel parallel spatial-temporal convolution neural networks model to detect and localize the abnormal behavior in video surveillance. Our approach contains two main steps. Firstly, considering the typical position of camera and the large number of background information, we introduce a novel spatial-temporal cuboid of interest detection method with varied-size cell structure and optical flow algorithm. Then, we use the parallel 3D convolution neural networks to describe the same behavior in different temporal-lengths. That step ensures that the most of behavior information in cuboids could be captured, also insures the reduction of information unrelated to the major behavior. The evaluation results on benchmark datasets show the superiority of our method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.     

Next POI Recommendation Based on Location Interest Mining with Recurrent Neural Networks

Journal of Computer Science and Technology - In mobile social networks, next point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is a very important function that can provide personalized location-based...     

不同利益因子对矿业秩序的影响

矿业开发中存在多种利益因子 ,不同利益因子对矿业秩序有着不同的影响 ,各种利益因子共同影响着矿业秩序。对不同利益因子应有足够的认识 ,并采取必要措施加以应对。     

能源经济发展中的利益分配问题探析——以陕北地区为例

自然资源开发中利益关系的调整是资源富集区所共同面临的问题。对于陕北这样一个能源富集区而言,合理的利益分配机制将对能源资源的开发、利用和保护产生重大的影响。对陕北能源经济发展中的利益分配问题进行深入分析,协调陕北地区能源资源开发中国家利益、地方利益与矿区群众利益的冲突,必须通过改革原有的开发管理体制,顺畅利益表达渠道,转变财税政策,建立补偿机制,只有这样才能有利于陕北地区能源经济的可持续发展。     

论中国矿业管理法的基本原则

维护财产权的《矿产资源法》很少有调整矿业生产的规范,矿业生产中诸多社会妨害的抑制和公共利益的保护则完全无法可依。以矿业管理的基本原则作为过渡,可规范、约束政府管制矿业生产,也为着手制订矿业法提供检验和导向。目的性原则和工具性原则分类更具有层次性和逻辑性。工具性原则是目的性原则的工具和途径,目的性原则是工具性原则的集中体现。工具性原则为:行政特许、保护环境、合理开发、健康安全优先。目的性原则为:公共利益、生态持续发展。