LAND RIGHTS, FARMER INVESTMENTS INCENTIVES, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN CHINA

The overall goal of our paper is to estimate the impact of China's land rights on farm investment incentives and agricultural production. To meet the goal, the paper pursues three specific objectives. First, the paper briefly reviews the various linkages between land rights and investment incentives. Next, we demonstrate how land use behavior differs according to the tenure regime and land rights. Third, by using our field survey data, this paper identifies the links between specific land rights, instead of just the land tenure type, and investment incentives. The paper also measures the size of efficiency loss from the current land rights arrangements.Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Non-bisphosphonate inhibitors of isoprenoid biosynthesis identified via computer-aided drug design.

The relaxed complex scheme, a virtual-screening methodology that accounts for protein receptor flexibility, was used to identify a low-micromolar, non-bisphosphonate inhibitor of farnesyl diphosphate synthase. Serendipitously, we also found that several predicted farnesyl diphosphate synthase inhibitors were low-micromolar inhibitors of undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase. These results are of interest because farnesyl diphosphate synthase inhibitors are being pursued as both anti-infective and anticancer agents, and undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase inhibitors are antibacterial drug leads

Bandwidth Tunable Optical Filter Based on the Quad-Mode Resonator

An innovative bandwidth tunable optical filter with controllable bandwidth, center frequency, and transmission zero is proposed in this paper. The proposed filter utilizes a quad-mode resonator to achieve a wideband filter centered at 2.42 GHz. By incorporating varactor diodes into the open branches of the resonator, the proposed filter's center frequency and bandwidth can be dynamically adjusted via the voltage applied to the diodes. This tunable filter exhibits low insertion loss of less than 2 dB, return loss exceeding 10 dB, and a relative bandwidth of up to 40%

Hidden in the landscape. Salsogolf Club Resort design

LAUREA MAGISTRALELa tesi è un progetto architettonico basato su un sito rurale, con l'architettura del paesaggio naturale come concetto e l'architettura ricoperta di terra come forma. Nel processo di progettazione è stata utilizzata una ricerca tipologica ed è stato elaborato un requisito funzionale specifico per il sito di questo progetto, attraverso il riferimento, l'analisi e il confronto di casi correlati in Italia e all'estero. Il sito si trova ai margini del Salso Golf Club, a circa cinque chilometri a sud-ovest di Salsomaggiore Terme, Parma. Questa zona è un terreno collinare, circondato da montagne, vicino a un piccolo lago, e le condizioni ambientali naturali sono eccellenti. In base alla comoda posizione e ad altri casi di mazze da golf, la nuova funzione dell'edificio è determinata come resort, compresa l'area dell'hotel e l'area della villa. Inoltre, abbiamo deciso di mantenere la vecchia fattoria esistente sul sito e trasformarla in una parte del nuovo hotel. Per quanto riguarda la forma architettonica, negli ultimi anni, gli edifici protetti da terra sono stati sempre più utilizzati nella progettazione architettonica per la loro notevole resistenza ecologica, a risparmio energetico e sismica. In termini di effetti artistici, questo tipo di forma architettonica strettamente integrata con il suolo spesso forma un'architettura paesaggistica unica adattata all'ambiente. Considerando il bellissimo ambiente del sito e il terreno ondulato, abbiamo appreso i metodi di progettazione degli edifici protetti dalla terra e i concetti di progettazione dell'arte del paesaggio. Abbiamo nascosto l'edificio sotto il terreno e abbiamo utilizzato il suo tetto rialzato per guidare il flusso delle persone per creare un effetto visivo più trasparente, che termina con la bellissima scena del lago e del campo da golf.The thesis is an architectural design based on a real site, with natural landscape architecture as the concept, and earth-covered architecture as the architectural form. In the design process, typological research was used, and a specific functional requirement suitable for the site of this design was worked out, through reference, analysis, and comparison of related cases in Italy and abroad. The site is located on the edge of Salso Golf Club, about five kilometers southwest of Salsomaggiore Terme, Parma. This area is a mountainous and hilly terrain, surrounded by mountains, close to a small lake, and the natural environmental conditions are excellent. According to the convenient location and other golf club cases, the new building function is determined to be a resort, including a hotel and villa area. In addition, we decided to keep an old farm on the site and transform it into a part of the new hotel. In recent years, earth-sheltered buildings have been increasingly used in architectural design due to their remarkable ecological, energy-saving, and earthquake resistance. In terms of artistic effects, this kind of architectural form closely integrated with the soil often forms a unique landscape architecture adapted to the environment. Considering the beautiful site environment and the undulating terrain, we learned the design methods of earth-sheltered buildings and the design concepts of landscape buildings, buried the building under the soil, and used its rising roof to guide the flow of people to create a more transparent viewing effect

Bis(2-bromo­acetato-κ2 O,O′)(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)copper(II)

The two halves of the title compound, [Cu(C2H2BrO2)2(C12H8N2)], are related by twofold symmetry along the b axis through the central CuII ion. The CuII ion is coordinated by two symmetry-related N atoms from the 1,10-phenanthroline ligand and four O atoms from two 2-bromo­acetate ligands, showing a distorted octahedral geometry. Weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions link neighbouring mol­ecules

Mitigating System Bias in Resource Constrained Asynchronous Federated Learning Systems

Federated learning (FL) systems face performance challenges in dealing with heterogeneous devices and non-identically distributed data across clients. We propose a dynamic global model aggregation method within Asynchronous Federated Learning (AFL) deployments to address these issues. Our aggregation method scores and adjusts the weighting of client model updates based on their upload frequency to accommodate differences in device capabilities. Additionally, we also immediately provide an updated global model to clients after they upload their local models to reduce idle time and improve training efficiency. We evaluate our approach within an AFL deployment consisting of 10 simulated clients with heterogeneous compute constraints and non-IID data. The simulation results, using the FashionMNIST dataset, demonstrate over 10% and 19% improvement in global model accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods PAPAYA and FedAsync, respectively. Our dynamic aggregation method allows reliable global model training despite limiting client resources and statistical data heterogeneity. This improves robustness and scalability for real-world FL deployments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. This work has been accepted by PerCom PerconAI workshop 202

[2,6-Dioxo-1,2,3,6-tetra­hydro­pyrim­idine-4-carboxyl­ato(2−)]bis(pyrazino[2,3-f][1,10]phenanthroline)cobalt(II) dihydrate

The title complex, [Co(C5H2N2O4)(C14H8N4)2]·2H2O, features a slightly distorted octa­hedral geometry for Co due to the sterical requirements of the orotic acid and pyrazino[2,3-f][1,10]phenanthroline ligands. Inter­molecular hydrogen bonding between the uncoordinated water mol­ecules and the ligand stablizes the structure of the complex

Aqua­bis(2-iodo­acetato-κO)(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)copper(II)

In the title compound, [Cu(C2H2IO2)2(C12H8N2)(H2O)], the CuII ion is coordinated by two N atoms [Cu—N = 2.013 (4) and 2.024 (4) Å] from a 1,10-phenanthroline ligand and three O atoms [Cu—O = 1.940 (4)–2.261 (4) Å] from two carboxyl ligands and a water mol­ecule in a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. One iodo­acetate O atom [Cu—O = 2.775 (4) Å] completes the coordination to form a distorted octa­hedron. Inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into centrosymmetric dimers, which are further packed by π–π inter­actions between the 1,10-phenanthroline ligands into layers parallel to the ab plane. The crystal packing also exhibits short inter­molecular I⋯I contacts of 3.6772 (9) Å and weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Aqua­bis(2-chloro­acetato-κO)(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)copper(II)

In the title complex, [Cu(C2H2ClO2)2(C12H8N2)(H2O)], the CuII ion is five-coordinated by two N atoms [Cu—N = 2.005 (2) and 2.029 (2) Å] from the 1,10-phenanthroline ligand, two O atoms [Cu—O = 1.943 (2)–1.966 (2) Å] from two 2-chloro­acetate ligands and one water mol­ecule [Cu—O = 2.253 (2) Å] in a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. The crystal structure exhibits inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, short Cl⋯Cl contacts [3.334 (1) Å] and π–π inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance 3.621 (11) Å]