Adoption Of Control Technologies Research Articles

How Does the Certification Policy of Agricultural Products Affect the Adoption of Green Production Technologies by Farmers?—An Integrated Study

This paper studied the influence of agricultural product certification policy on the adoption of green prevention and control technology by farmers. Firstly, we used SPSS24.0 software to analyze the influence mechanism between farmers’ behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, safety responsibility awareness and farmers’ green prevention and control technology adoption. Then, hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses proposed in the study, and the effects of farmers’ behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and policy incentives and constraints related to agricultural product certification on the behavioral intention and behavior of adopting green prevention and control technology were studied. The results showed that the behavioral attitude, adoption intention and policy incentives contained in the agricultural product certification policy had significant effects on the adoption opinions and adoption behaviors of farmers’ green prevention and control technology, but the effect of policy constraints on the adoption behaviors was not obvious. Finally, according to the research conclusions, we put forward policy suggestions from three aspects: publicity, guidance and research and development.

English

Widespread aflatoxin contamination of maize is a public health hazard in Sub-Saharan Africa and its management requires strategies which are implemented both at pre- and post-harvest stages of cereal production. This study aimed at assessing knowledge and practices for aflatoxin contamination of maize and factors associated with adoption of artisanal aflatoxin control technologies. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 315 household heads that were practicing subsistence maize farming in Kitui, Kenya. Data were analyzed to determine farm level factors which were associated with aflatoxin contamination. Farmers in uplands areas had partial knowledge on occurrence of aflatoxin at pre-harvest stages of maize growth and effects of aflatoxins on animal health and productivity. Adoption of aflatoxin control technologies was higher in farms located in lowland areas as compared to uplands. There was evidence of association between adoption of control technologies and farm level factors including farmer’s knowledge on aflatoxin contamination, farmer’s level of education and location of farm. The results demonstrate a knowledge gap on aflatoxin contamination and farm level barriers for adoption of aflatoxin control technologies. The findings call for enhanced capacity building activities through extension to influence change on farming practices for farms with high risk of aflatoxin contamination. Key words: Pre-harvest and post-harvest aflatoxin control methods, barriers for adoption, knowledge, effects of aflatoxins.

Research on the Impacts of Information Capacity on Farmers’ Green Prevention and Control Technology Adoption

Abstract This study was carried out to reveal the key factors affecting farmers’ green prevention and control technology adoption and to deeply analyse the influence of different generations of farmers’ information capacity on green prevention and control technology adoption. Based on the survey data of 509 farmers in Liaoning Province and the probit model and logit model, this paper conducted an empirical analysis of the farmers’ green prevention and control technology adoption, and analysed the differences in farmers’ adoption of green prevention and control technology from the perspective of intergenerational difference. The research results show as follows: First, information capacity has a significant positive impact on farmers’ green prevention and control technology adoption; Second, the influence of information capacity on the green prevention and control technology adoption of different generations of farmers is different. Information consciousness has more significant influences on farmers in the new and middle-generations; information needs have more significant influences on farmers in the new and old generations; information use only has significant influences on farmers in the middle-generation. Therefore, in order to increase the probability of farmers’ green prevention and control technology adoption, it is necessary to not only pay attention to the influence of farmers’ information capacity, but also fully consider the different stages of the life cycle of different generations of farmers and their own endowment differences.

Minimizing energy consumption for artificial lighting in a typical classroom of a Hellenic public school aiming for near Zero Energy Building using LED DC luminaires and daylight harvesting systems

The energy consumption for the artificial lighting in school buildings is one of the main consumers of electricity. In Greece, there is a large number of school buildings with quite old lighting systems using luminaires with T8 and sometimes T12 fluorescent lamps and degradated translucent diffusers. Due to the economic crisis, the public sector failed to invest in LEDs and although daylight is adequate during the year, the adoption of control technology is rather slow. The paper, using a typical classroom of a Greek public school, examines a number of lighting technologies (with AC and DC supply) together with two daylight harvesting systems. The first one uses one stand-alone photosensor per luminaire while the second one sensor per control zone, in an effort to calculate energy savings and light adequacy. The dimming curves of the DC LEDs were measured along with the installed power of the photosensors. The results show that the existing 90.5 kWhp/m2 of annual lighting primary energy consumption can be reduced to 0.55 kWhp/m2. The maximum annual reduction of CO2 emissions was 32.44 kgr/m2 for classroom areas, which is translated to 201929 tn for the whole country. It is evident that the path to Zero Energy School Buildings goes through the mandatory use of daylight controls.

Technology adoption under time-differentiated market-based instruments for pollution control

Peak concentrations of ground-level ozone pose health risks to millions of U.S. citizens across the U.S. In order to reduce peak ozone concentrations, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the power sector, among others, have been regulated with technology-based standards or, more commonly in recent years, market-based instruments such as cap-and-trade programs. However, the lack of temporal flexibility in current designs of these market-based instruments limits their cost-effectiveness on days forecasted to have the highest levels of pollution, including ozone precursors such as NOx, and as further emission reductions are sought, the marginal cost of these approaches increases dramatically. In this paper, we compare three regulatory schemes for reducing NOx emissions on high-ozone days: time-differentiated pricing, which prices NOx emissions only on days with high-ozone concentrations; undifferentiated pricing, which represents current NOx emission regulations; and technology-based standards. We develop a novel model that captures for the first time both the short- and long-term response of generators, through redispatching and control technology adoption, to a dynamic pricing scheme such as time-differentiated pricing. Unlike prior studies on time-differentiated pricing, the heart of our model, a unit commitment model, accounts for inter-temporal constraints on power generation that may be crucial to accurately capturing the response of generators to a transient price signal. We apply this model to the Texas power system and find that while control technology adoption (specifically selective catalytic reduction) does occur at very high time-differentiated prices, time-differentiated pricing mainly affects emissions and costs through redispatching of gas- for coal-fired generation. Furthermore, we show that time-differentiated pricing, due to its targeted pricing mechanism, provides a more cost-effective approach than undifferentiated pricing or technology-based standards for reducing NOx emissions on high-ozone days, but is not cost-effective at reducing summer-wide NOx emissions. Our results illustrate the trade-offs between these regulatory approaches and suggest that states should consider dynamic pricing schemes such as time-differentiated pricing for achieving further reductions in peak ozone concentrations.

The role of control technologies in preventing occupational disease.

There has been little past emphasis on determining the impact of control technologies on health. Compliance with legally mandated standards has received the greatest emphasis, certainly since passage of the OSHA of 1970. Risk assessment focuses on needed data to estimate risk and can be used for estimates of workplace impacts before and after adoption of control technologies. Two possible approaches to workplace improvements are suggested for estimating impacts on worker health. Persons removed from risk can be used where workers' exposures to hazardous agents are reduced from above to below a TLV. Second, for carcinogens the percent reduction in exposure can be used as a surrogate for reduction in future cancer incidence. Both measures suffer from a host of assumptions required by the user. There may be better measures for estimating today the reductions in chronic disease which control technologies will bring about. These measures are desperately needed to establish priorities and to guide installation of control technologies. Finally, research in control technologies is needed to improve effectiveness and to lower costs. However, it is widely accepted by engineers in this field that while improved methods are always welcome, current available technologies are under-utilized in practice.