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Increased aboveground biomass is contingent on enhanced photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by the canopy (IPAR), improved radiation use efficiency (RUE), or both. We investigated whether and how optimized agronomic management practices promote IPAR and RUE. Four integrated agronomic management treatments, i.e., local traditional practice (LP), improved local traditional practice (ILP), high-yield agronomic management (HY), and improved high-yield agronomic management (IHY), were compared over two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) growing seasons. The average grain yield obtained with IHY was 96% relative to that of HY and was 7% and 23% higher than that with ILP and LP, respectively. Both HY and IHY consistently supported large values of the leaf area index and IPAR fraction, thereby increasing total IPAR. Treatment HY showed increased pre-anthesis RUE, manifested as a higher specific leaf nitrogen content and whole-plant N nutrition index at anthesis. The highest pre-anthesis aboveground biomass was obtained with HY due to the highest pre-anthesis IPAR and RUE. Along with a higher canopy apparent photosynthetic rate, IHY produced higher post-anthesis aboveground biomass due to its higher post-anthesis IPAR and RUE. Treatment IHY had a slightly lower total IPAR but a similar total RUE and harvest index, thus producing a slightly lower grain yield relative to HY. These results demonstrate that the optimized agronomic management practice used under IHY effectively enhances radiation capture and improves radiation utilization. Additionally, the net profit for IHY was higher than that for HY, ILP, and LP by 8%, 11%, and 88%, respectively. Considering the high grain yield, high RUE and high economic benefits, we recommend IHY as the agronomic management practice in the target region, although further study of improvements in pre-anthesis RUE is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil tillage and maize residues return are important practices for tackling and promoting soil quality and improving crop yield in the North China Plain (NCP), where winter wheat production is threatened by soil deterioration. Although maize residues incorporation with rotary tillage (RS) or deep plowing tillage (DS) is widespread in this region, only few studies have focused on rotation tillage. Four practices, namely RT (continuous rotary tillage without maize residues return), RS, DS, and RS/DS (rotary tillage every year and deep plowing interval of 2 years), were evaluated under field conditions lasting a period of 5 years. After a 5-year field experiment, the mean soil bulk density of the 0–30 cm soil layer decreased significantly with RS, DS, and RS/DS, i.e., by 4.19%, 6.33%, and 6.71% compared with RT, respectively. The treatments greatly improved the total soil porosity, soil aggregate size distribution, soil aggregate stability, and the root length density in the 0–30 cm soil layers. Residues return with DS and RS/DS treatments significantly increased the soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) storage in the 0–30 cm soil layer, mainly owed to the increases in the SOC and TN pool associated with the macro-aggregate. A positive trend in the grain yield was noted under both DS and RS/DS conditions, whereas a decreasing tendency was presented in continuous rotary treatments. In summary, RS/DS treatment significantly increased the amount of SOC and TN, improved the particle size distribution of soil aggregates, and thus improved the soil's physicochemical properties, which is beneficial for wheat to achieve high yields. Our results suggested that RS/DS was a highly efficient practice to improve soil quality and increase crop production in the NCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granule size distribution of wheat starch is an important characteristic that could affect the functionality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) products. Lodging is a major limiting factor for wheat production. Few studies have been conducted to clarify how lodging influences the granule size distribution and viscosity parameters of starch in wheat grains. Two growing seasons, two high-yield winter wheat cultivars, and five artificial lodging treatments were imposed. The results indicated that lodging significantly reduced the content of starch and increased that of protein. Additionally, lodging caused a marked drop in both starch and protein yields. The relative loss of grain yield, starch yield, harvest index, and protein yield all differed remarkably among lodging treatments with a ranking of L2 > L1 > L4 > L3. Lodging also led to a reduction in the proportion (both by volume and by surface area) of B-type granules and a corresponding increase in that of A-type granules, and the more serious the lodging degree, the greater effect on the changes in these proportions. The smaller starch granules predominated in number, even though their collective contribution to the overall volume is was relatively minor. Meanwhile, it was found that the peak viscosity, hold viscosity, final viscosity, breakdown viscosity, and rebound value of wheat starch were significantly decreased by lodging. Correlation analysis showed that the peak and final viscosities were negatively correlated with volume percentages of A-type starch granules, but were positively correlated with B-type granules. This indicates that B-type granules have higher peak and final viscosities compared with A-type granules in wheat kernels. Lodging can reduce the proportion of B-type starch granules, and thus reduce the peak and the final viscosity in wheat grain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China's toll highways are world-renowned, they suffer from indisputable operational inefficiencies. Operationally, China's toll highway sector is characterized by an administrative monopoly. In particular, governmental loan-repayment highways have such characteristics as franchising, monopoly, and “one highway by one company.” Hence, this study concentrates on the relationship between economic performance, administrative monopoly, and scale efficiency with respect to toll highways, and explores how the China-specific administrative monopoly affects the transformation of toll highways from scale to efficiency. Using the globally referenced data envelopment analysis- (DEA-) Malmquist Index, this study first measures the operational efficiency of China's toll highway sector from 2010 to 2017. Based on provincial panel data, this paper then discusses the relationship between toll highway scale and economic performance through system-generalized method of moments estimation and verifies the status quo of the transformation of toll highways from scale to efficiency. From the provincial and industrial perspectives, this study further verifies how an administrative monopoly restricts the transformation from scale to total factor productivity and scale efficiency through the unique operation pattern in the toll highway sector. Finally, this study conducts an extended analysis of the relationship between operational efficiency and debt in the toll highway sector. The administrative monopoly is found to increase the debt burden of the toll highway sector and to have a negative impact on the long-term sustainability of the sector., Author(s): Yan Xu (corresponding author) [1]; Jianqiang Fan [1]; Haicheng Xu [1] 1. Introduction According to the Outline for Building China's Strength in Transportation (dated September 2019), jointly released by [...]