In this study, the processes of wheat residue degradation in combination with various tillage treatments were explored to determine the ideal management prescription for maximizing canola crop production. A field experiment within a western Canadian context (near Saint-Front, Saskatchewan), consisting of a 2 × 3 factorial design, was conducted to determine the fate of crop residue under different harvest and treatment scenarios. ATR-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, FTIR spectromicroscopy, and synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence imaging (SR-XFI) were used to explore wheat residue degradation mechanisms. The results indicated maximum canola yields and residue degradation occurred in combination with a combine outfitted with an aftermarket chopper and post-harvest treatment by harrow. Crop residue degradation was attributed to cellulose/linen hydrolysis and supramolecular structure changes from high crystalline to amorphous cellulose. Multi-element loss usually accompanied crop residue degradation. An important aspect of this study is the adoption of field-scale analysis to accurately portray real-world sustainable management techniques within a western Canadian context. The findings provided an optimal combination of crop residue treatment and tillage treatment to increase canola production, which had the potential ability to be applied in other countries. It is also an initial attempt to develop a technical composite of FTIR spectromicroscopy and SR-XFI for examining the mechanism of residue decomposition.

Integrating informatization into the circulation industry has led to the concept of circulation-industry intelligence. By reducing transportation costs and increasing total factor productivity, the incomes of rural-area residents can be improved; a new pattern of regional economy can be established; urban, rural, social, and economic development can become more coordinated; and social sustainable development can be promoted. In this study, we used China’s provincial panel data corresponding to the 2007–2019 period to measure the intelligence index of the circulation industry in each region and determine the factors that affect the urban–rural income gap; thereafter, we conducted comparative analyses. Further, a fixed-effects model was established based on the theory of agglomeration and diffusion effects to analyze the relationship between these two variables. Our analysis identified innovation investment as a significant intermediary mechanism. The robustness of this finding was verified by substituting variables and controlling for endogeneity. Thus, the effect was shown to be regionally heterogeneous. This study innovatively integrated informatization into the circulation industry, and the results obtained provide a reference for formulating transportation infrastructure as well as informatization strategies for promoting urban–rural coordination and sustainable development globally.

In this study, a new concept concerning comprehensive characteristics of water resources utilization as an index for risk modeling within the water allocation management model is proposed to explore the tolerance of unbalanced allocation problem under water–energy nexus. The model is integrated with interval two-stage stochastic programming for reflecting system uncertainties. These uncertainties are associated with the industrial production feature and the decision-making process. With respect to water–energy nexus, energy proposed is mainly focused on the consumption intensity of water purification and transportation from different water sources. The developed model is applied for industrial water resources allocation management in Henan province, China. Multiple scenarios related to disparate energy consumption control and the comprehensive risk levels are simulated to obtain a reasonable trade-off among system profit, comprehensive risk, and energy consumption. The results indicated that the strict comprehensive risk management or energy consumption control measures could cause damage to system benefit owing to decreasing the flexibility of industrial water resources distributions, and the preliminary energy consumption or the comprehensive risk control would be beneficial to moderate the conflict between industrial sectors and water resources, and accelerate industrial structure transformation in the future.

Facing the high degree of uncertainty of the environment, we have evolved two kinds of decision-making styles: context-dependent and context-independent decision. However, the underlying neural basis of these two kinds of decision styles was mostly unknown. Here, the cognitive bias task was applied to split participants into the context-independent decision-maker and context-dependent decision-maker based on the cognitive bias task scores. Then, we used voxel-based morphometry to directly investigate its underlying differences in gray matter volume. We found that the gray matter volume of the prefrontal cortex and parietal regions, such as inferior parietal lobule, was larger in context-dependent decision-makers than that of the context-independent decision-maker.

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