The structure of cost and return for cobia cage culture in Taiwan was studied by considering two major factors, geographical location and production scale. Although the geographical location had little influence on the input intensities, the production scale would have a significant impact on the cost structure. However, the performances of profitability were significantly affected by not only the individual main effects but also their interaction. As a result, the studied effects on the cost and return were quantitatively estimated by a series of statistical models, in turn quantitatively measured by a set of indices. A short-term strategy of the management suggested that the best choice regarding profitability is to locate the farming system with a large-scale operation in the coastal waters of Pindong. Additionally, the profitability could be further increased by selecting better quality fingerlings and feeds based on a set of the computed indices. A long-term strategy of the management strongly recommends that to increase the system size in cobia production would be much more profitable due to the positive economies of scale. Finally, a future study shall be interested in whether current speed has a limiting effect on the profitability.
A series of experiments are conducted to examine the purification effect on degraded liquid crystal (LC) by soaking porous metal-organic frameworks in the LC material. The results indicate that the electric properties of the degraded LC are dramatically improved due to the adsorption and removal of moisture and impurity ions, most likely originating from the atmosphere. This investigation leads to the advancement in the feasible recycling of deteriorated LC materials, including LC leftovers from flat-panel production lines, with a simple and cost-effective treatment method.
Near‐eye light field displays based on integral imaging through a microlens array provide attractive features like ultra‐compact volume and freedom of the vergence‐accommodation conflict to head‐mounted displays with virtual or augmented reality functions. To enable optimal design and analysis of such systems, it is desirable to have a physical model that incorporates all factors that affect the image formation, including diffraction, aberration, defocusing, and pixel size. Therefore, in this study, using the fundamental Huygens‐Fresnel principle and the Arizona eye model with adjustable accommodation, we develop an image formation model that can numerically calculate the retinal light field image with near‐perfect accuracy, and experimentally verify it with a prototype system. Next, based on this model, the visual resolution is analyzed for different field of views (FOVs). As a result, a rapid resolution decay with respect to FOV caused by off‐axis aberration is demonstrated. Finally, resolution variations as a function of image depth are analyzed based on systems with different central depth planes. Significantly, the resolution decay is revealed to plateau when the image depth is large enough, which is different from real‐image type light field displays.
In recent years, cobia has become an emerging farmed species in Asia due to its quick growth and high economic value. This study collects biological and economic data affecting the economic performance of cobia farming in three countries, namely Taiwan, China, and Vietnam. The data are collected by questionnaire sampling and analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis in order to compare the key factors affecting the production and economy of cobia farming in these three countries. The results show that Taiwan, China, and Vietnam have significant differences in input intensities and profitability. China has the highest input intensity (3372.42 TWD/m 3 ), as its high stocking density increases feed input. Taiwan has the highest unit input cost (103.44 TWD/kg), as the high quality of the product increases the price of cobia in Taiwan, which offsets the high product costs. In terms of profitability, the benefit-cost ratio is over one in all three countries, indicating that the profitability of cobia farming is good in all three countries. Profitability analysis shows that fingerlings in China achieve 36.50, which is the highest among the three countries; whereas Taiwan has the highest feed profitability of 0.78, which reveals that the fingerlings produced in China are competitive in both price and quality, while Taiwan has the best feed management efficiency. The production costs and profitability of Vietnam fall between those of Taiwan and China. Feed cost is the main expenditure in cobia culture; thus, good feed management could effectively reduce production costs and increase business performance. The feed quality and input management model of Taiwan, in conjunction with the fingerling quality and stock model of China, could provide future reference for farming management in such areas as feed input and selection of fingerling.
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