Resource status and protection strategies of mangroves in China

Mangrove is a typical natural landscape with great ecological, social and economic functions and values, and should be highly valued and protected. However, in the past few decades, mangrove resources have suffered serious damage, and there are also many deficiencies in mangrove protection. Chinese mangroves, as an important part of the global mangroves, are of great research value. In the present study, the status and historical dynamic process of Chinese mangrove resources were investigated and discussed to illustrate the problems of resources from three aspects, including mangrove distribution, area and plant species. Based on field research, literature research and data analysis, it was revealed that Chinese mangroves are distributed in eight provinces and regions along the southeast coast with an area of 35,749.25 hm2, 38 species and 40 nature reserves. The protection situation and deficiencies were analyzed from the establishment and management of nature reserves. Based on the resource status and problems, reasonable strategies were proposed to protect and manage mangroves mainly from four aspects, including publicity and education, resources restoration and protection technology, legal system establishment, and comprehensive protection and management.

Effectively regulating foreign fishing to improve food security and fishery sustainability in Africa

Africa is the poorest continent with a burgeoning population and experiencing the most severe food insecurity and overfishing in the world. Searching for sustainable development pathways, we systematically analyzed a comprehensive dataset on fish consumption, international trade, production by local and foreign fleets, and fishery resource status available for the last 70 years. Our findings show that Africa relies on imports to supplement the lowest per capita fish consumption among continents while foreign fleets fish legally or illegally in African waters, annually landing approximately 3.3 million tonnes of fish (equivalent to 48% of the total marine catch reported by African countries) outside Africa in 2017. While restoring overfished stocks, Africa should urgently transform the regulation and use of foreign fishing to satisfy various demands for more fish for African people, better profits and social prospects for the fishery sector, and sustainable fish resources as required by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC INDICATORS OF RESOURCE-TYPE REGIONS BASED ON THE PANEL DATA MODEL

The article studies the influence of the resource status of regions on the formation of the country's budget based on the tools of the panel data model. The article reviews the Russian and foreign literature, systematizes methodological approaches to the concept of "resource-type region", and identifies the most significant factors that affect the socio-economic life of the regions where GRP was selected as a dependent variable. As a result of the work, it was shown how the characteristics of the regions change depending on their affiliation.

Architecture for Orchestrating Containers in Cloud Federations

Containerization technology helps achieving not only better portability and interoperability but also better performance and efficiency on various cloud computing arrangements. Such technology is expected to empower cloud federations by enhancing portability and scalability across the federation. In this paper, we propose an architecture by adding two subcomponents to the NIST reference architecture for identifying resources and managing container orchestration in cloud federation environments. The architecture adds two subcomponents to the NIST reference architecture. The proposed two new sub-components enable resource identification and container orchestration across cloud federation members. These names of the two subcomponents are the Resource Identifier and the Container Orchestrator, respectively. The Resource Identifier component identifies the appropriate federated member for allocating tasks based on previous experience and current status. The Container Orchestrator facilitates the management and orchestration of containers at the federation level. We also identified several techniques, which can be used for resource identification. Among those, linear regression technique is selected for resource provisioning and identification of federation members. Further, these techniques are also expected to learn from log files from previous executions and prioritize resources based on the current resource status and previous experience.

Optimal User Selection for High-Performance and Stabilized Energy-Efficient Federated Learning Platforms

Federated learning-enabled edge devices train global models by sharing them while avoiding local data sharing. In federated learning, the sharing of models through communication between several clients and central servers results in various problems such as a high latency and network congestion. Moreover, battery consumption problems caused by local training procedures may impact power-hungry clients. To tackle these issues, federated edge learning (FEEL) applies the network edge technologies of mobile edge computing. In this paper, we propose a novel control algorithm for high-performance and stabilized queue in FEEL system. We consider that the FEEL environment includes the clients transmit data to associated federated edges; these edges then locally update the global model, which is downloaded from the central server via a backhaul. Obtaining greater quantities of local data from the clients facilitates more accurate global model construction; however, this may be harmful in terms of queue stability in the edge, owing to substantial data arrivals from the clients. Therefore, the proposed algorithm varies the number of clients selected for transmission, with the aim of maximizing the time-averaged federated learning accuracy subject to queue stability. Based on this number of clients, the federated edge selects the clients to transmit on the basis of resource status.

A Case Study of Nematode Communities’ Dynamics along Successional Paths in the Reclaimed Landfill

We assessed the abundance and composition of nematode communities in soil under herbaceous vegetation in reclaimed landfill sites at different ages after closure (3, 10 and 14 years) compared to those in neighboring semi-natural grazed grasslands (reference sites). We further applied network analysis based on the co-occurrence patterns of nematodes. Nematode abundance decreased between 3 and10 years of regeneration, but significantly increased from 10 to 14 years of regeneration. The number and identity of genera were comparable along the succession; however, there were dissimilarities in community composition during early- and mid-succession. The diversity, community composition and abundance at the sites after 14 years of regeneration converged with those at the reference sites. Moreover, changes during succession were not accompanied by the maturation of the soil food web, as demonstrated by Enrichment and Channel indices. In all the networks, centrality and modularity metrics differed significantly from those for random networks, whereas cohesion metrics showed no difference. All the networks exhibited Small-worldness indices higher than one, demonstrating that the networks of the interactions among genera at all the sites shared features that matched both random and non-random networks. The succession trajectory in reclaimed landfills was represented by a sequence of changes that differed in relation to the variable under consideration; network parameters tended to converge with those of a relatively resistant reference community, while the Enrichment and Channel indices did not. Additionally, the succession trajectory was not linear or steady; only the Channel index and Worldness index showed linear responses to succession time. However, across all the successional stages, the resource status remained basal or degraded while the nematode communities had an enhanced ability to cope with sudden changes.

Gratitude Reduces Consumption of Depleting Resources

Sustaining finite public resources presents a dilemma between acting in self-interest for present benefit versus working toward long-term collective gain. Given gratitude’s links to prosociality and self-control, the present studies investigated whether gratitude would promote sustainable resource extraction under conditions of rapidly depleting resources. In Study 1 (N=155), participants were randomly assigned to experience an emotional state (gratitude or neutral) prior to playing a resource dilemma game where the common pool was manipulated to indicate either a sustained or depleting resource status. Neutral participants increased their point taking when the pool was depleting compared to when it was sustained, however this pattern was not observed for grateful participants. Study 2 (N=224) replicated these findings while also showing the effect of gratitude to be distinct from happiness. These findings show that gratitude, as opposed to a general positive emotional state, buffers against overtaking in resource dilemmas, and suggests that this emotion may be useful in promoting sustainable behavior.