In the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States,forests include extensive portions of standing dead trees.These regions showcase an intriguing phenomenon where the combined biomass of standing...In the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States,forests include extensive portions of standing dead trees.These regions showcase an intriguing phenomenon where the combined biomass of standing dead trees surpasses that of fallen and decomposing woody debris.This stems from a suite of factors including pest disturbances,management decisions,and a changing climate.With increasingly dry and hot conditions,dead timber on a landscape increases the probability that a fire will occur.Identifying and characterizing the presence of standing dead trees on a landscape helps with forest management efforts including reductions in the wildfire hazard presented by the trees,and vulnerability of nearby park assets should the trees burn.Using forest-based classification,exploratory data analysis,and cluster vulnerability analysis,this study characterized the occurrence and implications of standing dead trees within Yellowstone National Park.The findings show standing dead trees across the entire study area with varying densities.These clusters were cross-referenced with vulnerability parameters of distance to roads,distance to trails,distance to water,distance to buildings,and slope.These parameters inform fire ignition,propagation,and impact.The weighted sum of these parameters was used to determine the vulnerability incurred on the park assets by the clusters and showed the highest values nearest to park entrances and points of interest.High vulnerability clusters warrant priority management to reduce wildfire impact.The framework of this study can be applied to other sites and incorporate additional vulnerability variables to assess forest fuel and impact.This can provide a reference for management to prioritize areas for resource conservation and improve fire prevention and suppression efficiency.展开更多
Fuzzy association rules (FARs) can be powerful in assessing regional soil quality, a critical step prior to land planning and utilization; however, traditional FARs mined from soil quality database, ignoring the impor...Fuzzy association rules (FARs) can be powerful in assessing regional soil quality, a critical step prior to land planning and utilization; however, traditional FARs mined from soil quality database, ignoring the importance variability of the rules, can be redundant and far from optimal. In this study, we developed a method applying different weights to traditional FARs to improve accuracy of soil quality assessment. After the FARs for soil quality assessment were mined, redundant rules were eliminated according to whether the rules were significant or not in reducing the complexity of the soil quality assessment models and in improving the comprehensibility of FARs. The global weights, each representing the importance of a FAR in soil quality assessment, were then introduced and refined using a gradient descent optimization method. This method was applied to the assessment of soil resources conditions in Guangdong Province, China. The new approach had an accuracy of 87%, when 15 rules were mined, as compared with 76% from the traditional approach. The accuracy increased to 96% when 32 rules were mined, in contrast to 88% from the traditional approach. These results demonstrated an improved comprehensibility of FARs and a high accuracy of the proposed method.展开更多
This study aims at assessing the relative impacts of four major components of the tropical Pacific Ocean observing system on assimilation of temperature and salinity fields. Observations were collected over a period b...This study aims at assessing the relative impacts of four major components of the tropical Pacific Ocean observing system on assimilation of temperature and salinity fields. Observations were collected over a period between January 2001 through June 2003 including temperature data from the expendable bathythermographs （XBT）, thermistor data from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean （TOGA-TAO） mooring array, sea level anomalies from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimetry （T/P-J）, and temperature and salinity profiles from the Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography （ARGO） floats. An efficient three-dimensional variational analysis-based method was introduced to assimilate the above data into the tropical-Pacific circulation model. To evaluate the impact of the individual component of the observing system, four observation system experiments were carried out. The experiment that assimilated all four components of the observing system was taken as the reference. The other three experiments were implemented by withholding one of the four components. Results show that the spatial distribution of the data influences its relative contribution. XBT observations produce the most distinguished effects on temperature analyses in the off-equatorial region due to the large amount of measurements and high quality. Similarly, the impact of TAO is dominant in the equatorial region due to the focus of the spatial distribution. The Topex/Poseidon-Jason-1 can be highly complementary where the XBT and TAO observations are sparse. The contribution of XBT or TAO on the assimilated salinity is made by the model dynamics because no salinity observations from them are assimilated. Therefore, T/P-J, as a main source for providing salinity data, has been shown to have greater impacts than either XBT or TAO on the salinity analysis. Although ARGO includes the subsurface observations, the relatively smaller number of observation makes it have the smallest contribution to the assimilation system.展开更多
A research method was presented for spatially quantifying and allocating the potential activity of a fine particle matter emission （ PM2.5 ）, which originated from residential wood burning （RWB） in this study. Dem...A research method was presented for spatially quantifying and allocating the potential activity of a fine particle matter emission （ PM2.5 ）, which originated from residential wood burning （RWB） in this study. Demographic, hypsographic, climatic and topographic data were compiled and processed within a geographic information system（GIS）, and as independent variables put into a linear regression model for describing spatial distribution of the potential activity of residential wood burning as primary heating source. In order to improve the estimation, the classifications of urban, suburban and rural were redefined to meet the specifications of this application. Also, several definitions of forest accessibility were tested for estimation. The results suggested that the potential activity of RWB was mostly determined by elevation of a location, forest accessibility, urban/non-urban position, climatic conditions and several demographic variables. The linear regression model could explain approximately 86% of the variation of surveyed potential activity of RWB. The analysis results were validated by employing survey data collected mainly from a WebGIS based phone interview over the study area in central California. Based on lots free public GIS data, the model provided an easy and ideal tool for geographic researchers, environmental planners and administrators to understand where and how much PM2.5 emission from RWB was contributed to air quality. With this knowledge they could identify regions of concern, and better plan mitigation strategies to improve air quality. Furthermore, it allows for future adjustment on some parameters as the spatial analysis method is implemented in the different regions or various eco-social models.展开更多
A hedonic linear regression model is constructed in this paper to estimate property value, In our model, the property value （sales price） is a function of several selected variables such as the property characterist...A hedonic linear regression model is constructed in this paper to estimate property value, In our model, the property value （sales price） is a function of several selected variables such as the property characteristics, social neighborhoods, level of neighborhood environmental contaminations, level of neighborhood crimes, and locational accessibility to jobs or services, Definitions and calculation of these variables are approached by using Geographic Information System tools, For improving estimation, gravity model is employed to measure both levels of neighborhood toxic sites and crimes; and a time-based method is used to measure the loeational accessibility rather than simple straight-line distance measurement. This study discovers that the relationship between house value and its nearby highway is nonlinear, The methodology could help policy makers assess the external effects of a property. Our model also could be used potentially to identify the current and historic trends of development caused by neighborhood or environments change in the study area.展开更多
The devastating effect of soil erosion is one of the major sources of land degradation that affects human lives in many ways which occur mainly due to deforestation, poor agricultural practices, overgrazing,wildfire a...The devastating effect of soil erosion is one of the major sources of land degradation that affects human lives in many ways which occur mainly due to deforestation, poor agricultural practices, overgrazing,wildfire and urbanization. Soil erosion often leads to soil truncation, loss of fertility, slope instability, etc.which causes irreversible effects on the poorly renewable soil resource. In view of this, a study was conducted in Kelantan River basin to predict soil loss as influenced by long-term land use/land-cover(LULC) changes in the area. The study was conducted with the aim of predicting and assessing soil erosion as it is influenced by long-term LULC changes. The 13,100 km^2 watershed was delineated into four sub-catchments Galas, Pergau, Lebir and Nenggiri for precise result estimation and ease of execution. GIS-based Universal Soil Loss Equation(USLE) model was used to predict soil loss in this study. The model inputs used for the temporal and spatial calculation of soil erosion include rainfall erosivity factor,topographic factor, land cover and management factor as well as erodibility factor. The results showed that 67.54% of soil loss is located under low erosion potential(reversible soil loss) or 0-1 t ha^(-1) yr^(-1) soil loss in Galas, 59.17% in Pergau, 53.32% in Lebir and 56.76% in Nenggiri all under the 2013 LULC condition.Results from the correlation of soil erosion rates with LULC changes indicated that cleared land in all the four catchments and under all LULC conditions(1984-2013) appears to be the dominant with the highest erosion losses. Similarly, grassland and forest were also observed to regulate erosion rates in the area. This is because the vegetation cover provided by these LULC types protects the soil from direct impact of rain drops which invariably reduce soil loss to the barest minimum. Overall, it was concluded that the results have shown the significance of LULC in the control of erosion. Maps generated from the study may be useful to planners and land use managers to take appropriate decisions for soil conservation.展开更多
We calculate the photodetachment cross sections of H- in a gradient electric field based on traditional quantum approach. The system provides a rare example that the formulas for the cross sections can be explicitly d...We calculate the photodetachment cross sections of H- in a gradient electric field based on traditional quantum approach. The system provides a rare example that the formulas for the cross sections can be explicitly derived by both the quantum approach and closed-orbit theory. The quantum results are compared with those of the closed-orbit theory. The correct phase values in the closed-orbit theory are essential and necessary to produce accurate cross sections. Our quantum results remove some previous ambiguities in assigning the phase values in the closed-orbit theory （G. C. Yang and M. L. Du 2007 Phys. Rev. A 75 029904E）.展开更多
Management practices are one of the most important factors affecting forest structure and function.Landowners in southern United States manage forests using appropriately sized areas,to meet management objectives that...Management practices are one of the most important factors affecting forest structure and function.Landowners in southern United States manage forests using appropriately sized areas,to meet management objectives that include economic return,sustainability,and esthetic enjoyment.Road networks spatially designate the socioenvironmental elements for the forests,which represented and aggregated as forest management units.Road networks are widely used for managing forests by setting logging roads and firebreaks.We propose that common types of forest management are practiced in road-delineated units that can be determined by remote sensing satellite imagery coupled with crowd-sourced road network datasets.Satellite sensors do not always capture roadcaused canopy openings,so it is difficult to delineate ecologically relevant units based only on satellite data.By integrating citizen-based road networks with the National Land Cover Database,we mapped road-delineated management units across the regional landscape and analyzed the size frequency distribution of management units.We found the road-delineated units smaller than 0.5 ha comprised 64%of the number of units,but only0.98%of the total forest area.We also applied a statistical similarity test(Warren's Index)to access the equivalency of road-delineated units with forest disturbances by simulating a serious of neutral landscapes.The outputs showed that the whole southeastern U.S.has the probability of road-delineated unit of 0.44 and production forests overlapped significantly with disturbance areas with an average probability of 0.50.展开更多
A cautious projection BFGS method is proposed for solving nonconvex unconstrained optimization problems.The global convergence of this method as well as a stronger general convergence result can be proven without a gr...A cautious projection BFGS method is proposed for solving nonconvex unconstrained optimization problems.The global convergence of this method as well as a stronger general convergence result can be proven without a gradient Lipschitz continuity assumption,which is more in line with the actual problems than the existing modified BFGS methods and the traditional BFGS method.Under some additional conditions,the method presented has a superlinear convergence rate,which can be regarded as an extension and supplement of BFGS-type methods with the projection technique.Finally,the effectiveness and application prospects of the proposed method are verified by numerical experiments.展开更多
In this paper, three techniques, line run coding, quadtree DF (Depth-First) representation and H coding for compressing classified satellite cloud images with no distortion are presented. In these three codings, the f...In this paper, three techniques, line run coding, quadtree DF (Depth-First) representation and H coding for compressing classified satellite cloud images with no distortion are presented. In these three codings, the first two were invented by other persons and the third one, by ourselves. As a result, the comparison among their compression rates is. given at the end of this paper. Further application of these image compression technique to satellite data and other meteorological data looks promising.展开更多
Heat is the largest energy end-use in the world,accounting for about 50%of global final energy consumption.In 2019,the International Energy Agency pointed out that the development of renewable energy heating has becom...Heat is the largest energy end-use in the world,accounting for about 50%of global final energy consumption.In 2019,the International Energy Agency pointed out that the development of renewable energy heating has become a key way for the global response to climate change,environmental pollution control,energy transformation and sustainable development.Biomass energy as a priority for the development of renewable heat sources has been valued by countries around the world.Developed earlier in the EU countries,their biomass heating technology is more mature,and their policy system is more comprehensive.Accounting for 86%of the total renewable thermal energy consumption,biothermal energy in these countries has achieved significant effect and become an important driving force for the decarbonization of the heating industry.This practice has a very high demonstration effect globally.This paper constructs a comprehensive zoning theoretical framework of biomass energy heating and utilization in the EU countries.Based on the calculation of the supply and demand potential of biomass energy heating system,the FCM method is used to quantify the status of biomass resource utilization in 28 EU countries.The results show that there are significant differences in the utilization of biomass energy heating in the EU countries,which can be divided into five categories of comprehensive zones,which are the key development category(Finland,Sweden,Denmark,Estonia,Lithuania and Latvia),resource priority category(Austria,Croatia,Bulgaria,Romania,and Slovenia),policy-oriented category(Germany,Italy,Portugal,and Cyprus),good-potential category(Czech Republic,Hungary,Greece,Spain,Poland,France,and Slovakia)and under-developed category(UK,Netherlands,Belgium,Ireland,Luxembourg and Malta).At the same time,this paper discusses the characteristics and causes of biomass heating utilization of different types of EU countries,and summarizes the mature heating systems and rich experience in the EU countries with China’s current heating situation and its future challenges concerning renewable energy development.Finally,this study provides some implications for China’s clean heating development,energy efficient use,energy supply security and energy structure upgrade.展开更多
The photodetachment cross section of H- in a linear harmonic oscillator potential is investigated. This system pro- vides a rare example that can be studied analytically by both quantum and semiclassical methods with ...The photodetachment cross section of H- in a linear harmonic oscillator potential is investigated. This system pro- vides a rare example that can be studied analytically by both quantum and semiclassical methods with some approxi- mations. The formulas of the cross section for different laser polarization directions are explicitly derived by both the traditional quantum approach and closed-orbit theory. In the traditional quantum approach, we calculate the cross sections in coordinate representation and momentum representation, and get the same formulas. We compare the quantum formulas with closed-orbit theory formulas, and find that when the detachment electron energy is larger than hco, where co is the frequency of the oscillator potential, the quantum results are shown to be in good agreement with the semiclassical results.展开更多
In recent decades, human development pressures have results in conversions of vast tracts of Amazonian tropical rain forests to agriculture and other human land uses. In addition to the loss of large forest cover, rem...In recent decades, human development pressures have results in conversions of vast tracts of Amazonian tropical rain forests to agriculture and other human land uses. In addition to the loss of large forest cover, remaining forests are also fragmented into smaller habitats. Fragmented forests suffer several biological and ecological changes due to edge effects that can exacerbate regional forest degradation. The Brazilian Amazon has had greatly contrasting land cover dynamics in the past decade with the highest historical rates of deforestation (2001-2005) followed by the lowest rates of forest loss in decades, since 2006. Currently, the basin-wide status and implications of forest fragmentation on remnant forests is not well known. We performed a regional forest fragmentation analysis for seven states of the Brazilian Amazon between 2001 and 2010 using a recent deforestation data. During this period, the number of forest fragments (>2 ha) doubled, nearly 125,000 fragments were formed by human activities with more than 50% being smaller than 10 ha. Over the decade, forest edges increased by an average of 36,335 km/year. However, the rate was much greater from 2001-2005 (50,046 km/year) then 2006-2010 (25,365 km/year) when deforestation rates dropped drastically. In 2010, 55% of basin-wide forest edges were < 10 years old due to the creation of large number of small fragments where intensive biological and ecological degradation is ongoing. Over the past decade protected areas have been expanded dramatically over the Brazilian Amazon and, as of 2010, 51% of remaining forests across the basin are within protected areas and only 1.5% of protected areas has been deforested. Conversely, intensive forest cover conversion has been occurred in unprotected forests. While 17% of Amazonian forests are within 1 km of forest edges in 2010, the proportion increases to 34% in unprotected areas varying between 14% and 95% among the studied states. Our results indicate that the Brazilian Amazon now largely consists of two contrasting forest conditions: protected areas with vast undisturbed forests and unprotected forests that are highly fragmented and disturbed landscapes.展开更多
Purpose: Traditional medicines have unique breathing methods and they are widely believed that they are good for health promotion and good for relax. However, there is little evidence. The purpose of this study is to ...Purpose: Traditional medicines have unique breathing methods and they are widely believed that they are good for health promotion and good for relax. However, there is little evidence. The purpose of this study is to discuss if such specific breathings could effectively reduce stress and be able to help to reach a relaxed state in the body as well as in the mind. To objectively understand the state of stress/relax, we assessed the condition of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as well as heart rate (HR) and body temperature (BT), which instantly reflect ANS. Methods: Fourteen healthy male volunteers participated in this study and we investigated four kinds of breathing with them: Natural breathing (Control), Abdominal Pressure breathing (Pressure), Abdominal breathing (Abdominal) and Reverse Abdominal breathing (Reverse). Results: Only Control group showed increase of HF/decrease of HR, showing increase parasympathetic nervous system, which indicates the condition of relax. On the hand, all experimental groups of unique breathings showed increase of sympathetic nervous system, meaning stress. Discussion: Our hypothesis was that traditional breathing methods would decrease stress, however, our results were the total opposite to it. This reason might be found: 1) our subjects might be too young and naive, 2) they did not have enough training or experience, and 3) enough and appropriate duration of breathings was needed. Therefore, we consider that appropriate program and enough training time to use to specific breathing are needed to obtain the effects of traditional breathing.展开更多
Background and Objective: Anma is a traditional Japanese bodywork therapy that has not been widely known and used in the West. There have been only a few Anma studies published in English journals. To study the effect...Background and Objective: Anma is a traditional Japanese bodywork therapy that has not been widely known and used in the West. There have been only a few Anma studies published in English journals. To study the effect of Anma (traditional Japanese massage) among participants who have neck and shoulder stiffness symptoms (so-called Katakori, in Japanese). Methods: The study participants consisted of seventy-seven (Study 1), thirteen (Study 2), and twenty (Study 3) adults with “Katakori” symptoms. The research design is as follows: (Study1) Randomized, Parallel-Group, Controlled Trial. (Study 2) Crossover Clinical Trial. (Study 3) Randomized, Parallel-Group, Controlled Trial. And we conducted Anma treatment for 45 minutes (Treatment) or rest in lying position for 45 minutes (Control). Results: In study 1, the symptom of “Katakori” was relieved after Anma treatment in Anma group (p d: 2.2). There was a significant interaction between the Anma group and the control group (p < 0.001). In study 2, MBV significantly increased following Anma treatment. There was a significant interaction between the Anma group and the control group (p = 0.022). In study 3, the symptom of “Katakori” was relieved after Anma treatment in the treatment group. There were no significant interactions between the groups in VAS and MBV values. Discussion and Conclusions: The study demonstrated that Anma therapy decreases “Katakori” symptoms while increasing MBV in the shoulder region.展开更多
For research assessment and for science communities,performance evaluation and resource allocation based on the evaluation are always common and heated concerns.Although the controversy of how peer review and metrics ...For research assessment and for science communities,performance evaluation and resource allocation based on the evaluation are always common and heated concerns.Although the controversy of how peer review and metrics working together has been long-standing,it is also widely recognized that metrics are展开更多
Quality of Maternal, Neonatal and Child (MNCH) care is an important aspect in ensuring healthy outcomes and survival of mothers and children. To maintain quality in health services provided, organizations and other st...Quality of Maternal, Neonatal and Child (MNCH) care is an important aspect in ensuring healthy outcomes and survival of mothers and children. To maintain quality in health services provided, organizations and other stakeholders in maternal and child health recommend regular quality measurement. Quality indicators are the key components in the quality measurement process. However, the literature shows neither an indicator selection process nor a set of quality indicators for quality measurement that is universally accepted. The lack of a universally accepted quality indicator selection process and set of quality indicators results in the establishment of a variety of quality indicator selection processes and several sets of quality indicators whenever the need for quality measurement arises. This adds extra processes that render quality measurement process. This study, therefore, aims to establish a set of quality indicators from a broad set of quality indicators recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study deployed a machine learning technique, specifically a random forest classifier to select important indicators for quality measurement. Twenty-nine indicators were identified as important features and among those, eight indicators namely maternal mortality ratio, still-birth rate, delivery at a health facility, deliveries assisted by skilled attendants, proportional breach delivery, normal delivery rate, born before arrival rate and antenatal care visit coverage were identified to be the most important indicators for quality measurement.展开更多
An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular deriva...An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients. The new edge-detection algorithm is ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-detection) method and it is found to be an excel lent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This char acteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images. A sorting technique for separating clouds or land well from ocean at both day and night is described in order to obtain high quality mesoscale features on the IR image This procedure is evaluated on an AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) image with Kuroshio. Results and analyses show that the mesoscale features can be well identified by using ICSED algorithm.展开更多
High maternal and child deaths in developing countries are frequently linked to poor health services provided to pregnant women and children. To improve the quality of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) servic...High maternal and child deaths in developing countries are frequently linked to poor health services provided to pregnant women and children. To improve the quality of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) services, the government and other stakeholders in MNCH emphasize the importance of quality assessment. However, effective quality assessment approaches are mostly lacking in most developing countries, particularly in Tanzania. This study, therefore, aimed at developing a quality assessment approach that can effectively assess and report on the quality of MNCH services. Due to the need for a good quality assessment approach that suits a resource-constrained environment, machine learning-based approach was proposed and developed. K-means algorithm was used to develop a clustering model that groups MNCH data and performs cluster summarization to discover the knowledge portrayed in each group on the quality of MNCH services. Results confirmed the clustering model’s ability to assign the data points into appropriate clusters;cluster analysis with the collaboration of MNCH experts successfully discovered insights on the quality of services portrayed by each group.展开更多
基金Wyoming NASA EPSCoR Faculty Research Grant(Grant#80NSSC19M0061)Yellowstone National Park Services for their generous support and funding that made this research possible.
文摘In the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States,forests include extensive portions of standing dead trees.These regions showcase an intriguing phenomenon where the combined biomass of standing dead trees surpasses that of fallen and decomposing woody debris.This stems from a suite of factors including pest disturbances,management decisions,and a changing climate.With increasingly dry and hot conditions,dead timber on a landscape increases the probability that a fire will occur.Identifying and characterizing the presence of standing dead trees on a landscape helps with forest management efforts including reductions in the wildfire hazard presented by the trees,and vulnerability of nearby park assets should the trees burn.Using forest-based classification,exploratory data analysis,and cluster vulnerability analysis,this study characterized the occurrence and implications of standing dead trees within Yellowstone National Park.The findings show standing dead trees across the entire study area with varying densities.These clusters were cross-referenced with vulnerability parameters of distance to roads,distance to trails,distance to water,distance to buildings,and slope.These parameters inform fire ignition,propagation,and impact.The weighted sum of these parameters was used to determine the vulnerability incurred on the park assets by the clusters and showed the highest values nearest to park entrances and points of interest.High vulnerability clusters warrant priority management to reduce wildfire impact.The framework of this study can be applied to other sites and incorporate additional vulnerability variables to assess forest fuel and impact.This can provide a reference for management to prioritize areas for resource conservation and improve fire prevention and suppression efficiency.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.40671145 and 60573115)the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong,China (Nos.04300504 and 05006623)
文摘Fuzzy association rules (FARs) can be powerful in assessing regional soil quality, a critical step prior to land planning and utilization; however, traditional FARs mined from soil quality database, ignoring the importance variability of the rules, can be redundant and far from optimal. In this study, we developed a method applying different weights to traditional FARs to improve accuracy of soil quality assessment. After the FARs for soil quality assessment were mined, redundant rules were eliminated according to whether the rules were significant or not in reducing the complexity of the soil quality assessment models and in improving the comprehensibility of FARs. The global weights, each representing the importance of a FAR in soil quality assessment, were then introduced and refined using a gradient descent optimization method. This method was applied to the assessment of soil resources conditions in Guangdong Province, China. The new approach had an accuracy of 87%, when 15 rules were mined, as compared with 76% from the traditional approach. The accuracy increased to 96% when 32 rules were mined, in contrast to 88% from the traditional approach. These results demonstrated an improved comprehensibility of FARs and a high accuracy of the proposed method.
基金supported by the 973 Program(Grant No.2006CB403606)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40606008).
文摘This study aims at assessing the relative impacts of four major components of the tropical Pacific Ocean observing system on assimilation of temperature and salinity fields. Observations were collected over a period between January 2001 through June 2003 including temperature data from the expendable bathythermographs （XBT）, thermistor data from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean （TOGA-TAO） mooring array, sea level anomalies from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimetry （T/P-J）, and temperature and salinity profiles from the Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography （ARGO） floats. An efficient three-dimensional variational analysis-based method was introduced to assimilate the above data into the tropical-Pacific circulation model. To evaluate the impact of the individual component of the observing system, four observation system experiments were carried out. The experiment that assimilated all four components of the observing system was taken as the reference. The other three experiments were implemented by withholding one of the four components. Results show that the spatial distribution of the data influences its relative contribution. XBT observations produce the most distinguished effects on temperature analyses in the off-equatorial region due to the large amount of measurements and high quality. Similarly, the impact of TAO is dominant in the equatorial region due to the focus of the spatial distribution. The Topex/Poseidon-Jason-1 can be highly complementary where the XBT and TAO observations are sparse. The contribution of XBT or TAO on the assimilated salinity is made by the model dynamics because no salinity observations from them are assimilated. Therefore, T/P-J, as a main source for providing salinity data, has been shown to have greater impacts than either XBT or TAO on the salinity analysis. Although ARGO includes the subsurface observations, the relatively smaller number of observation makes it have the smallest contribution to the assimilation system.
基金The research contract fromCalifornia Air Resources Board (ARB) ,USAthe Talented FoundationfromNortheast Institute of Geography and AgriculturalEcology,Chinese Academy of Sciences ,China(No.C08Y17)
文摘A research method was presented for spatially quantifying and allocating the potential activity of a fine particle matter emission （ PM2.5 ）, which originated from residential wood burning （RWB） in this study. Demographic, hypsographic, climatic and topographic data were compiled and processed within a geographic information system（GIS）, and as independent variables put into a linear regression model for describing spatial distribution of the potential activity of residential wood burning as primary heating source. In order to improve the estimation, the classifications of urban, suburban and rural were redefined to meet the specifications of this application. Also, several definitions of forest accessibility were tested for estimation. The results suggested that the potential activity of RWB was mostly determined by elevation of a location, forest accessibility, urban/non-urban position, climatic conditions and several demographic variables. The linear regression model could explain approximately 86% of the variation of surveyed potential activity of RWB. The analysis results were validated by employing survey data collected mainly from a WebGIS based phone interview over the study area in central California. Based on lots free public GIS data, the model provided an easy and ideal tool for geographic researchers, environmental planners and administrators to understand where and how much PM2.5 emission from RWB was contributed to air quality. With this knowledge they could identify regions of concern, and better plan mitigation strategies to improve air quality. Furthermore, it allows for future adjustment on some parameters as the spatial analysis method is implemented in the different regions or various eco-social models.
基金Under the auspices of the Research Client West Oakland Environmental Indicators Taskforce, Talented Foundationof Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. C08Y17)
文摘A hedonic linear regression model is constructed in this paper to estimate property value, In our model, the property value （sales price） is a function of several selected variables such as the property characteristics, social neighborhoods, level of neighborhood environmental contaminations, level of neighborhood crimes, and locational accessibility to jobs or services, Definitions and calculation of these variables are approached by using Geographic Information System tools, For improving estimation, gravity model is employed to measure both levels of neighborhood toxic sites and crimes; and a time-based method is used to measure the loeational accessibility rather than simple straight-line distance measurement. This study discovers that the relationship between house value and its nearby highway is nonlinear, The methodology could help policy makers assess the external effects of a property. Our model also could be used potentially to identify the current and historic trends of development caused by neighborhood or environments change in the study area.
基金funded by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) 2015-1 from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia
文摘The devastating effect of soil erosion is one of the major sources of land degradation that affects human lives in many ways which occur mainly due to deforestation, poor agricultural practices, overgrazing,wildfire and urbanization. Soil erosion often leads to soil truncation, loss of fertility, slope instability, etc.which causes irreversible effects on the poorly renewable soil resource. In view of this, a study was conducted in Kelantan River basin to predict soil loss as influenced by long-term land use/land-cover(LULC) changes in the area. The study was conducted with the aim of predicting and assessing soil erosion as it is influenced by long-term LULC changes. The 13,100 km^2 watershed was delineated into four sub-catchments Galas, Pergau, Lebir and Nenggiri for precise result estimation and ease of execution. GIS-based Universal Soil Loss Equation(USLE) model was used to predict soil loss in this study. The model inputs used for the temporal and spatial calculation of soil erosion include rainfall erosivity factor,topographic factor, land cover and management factor as well as erodibility factor. The results showed that 67.54% of soil loss is located under low erosion potential(reversible soil loss) or 0-1 t ha^(-1) yr^(-1) soil loss in Galas, 59.17% in Pergau, 53.32% in Lebir and 56.76% in Nenggiri all under the 2013 LULC condition.Results from the correlation of soil erosion rates with LULC changes indicated that cleared land in all the four catchments and under all LULC conditions(1984-2013) appears to be the dominant with the highest erosion losses. Similarly, grassland and forest were also observed to regulate erosion rates in the area. This is because the vegetation cover provided by these LULC types protects the soil from direct impact of rain drops which invariably reduce soil loss to the barest minimum. Overall, it was concluded that the results have shown the significance of LULC in the control of erosion. Maps generated from the study may be useful to planners and land use managers to take appropriate decisions for soil conservation.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10804066 and 11074260)the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province of China (Grant No. 2009011004)
文摘We calculate the photodetachment cross sections of H- in a gradient electric field based on traditional quantum approach. The system provides a rare example that the formulas for the cross sections can be explicitly derived by both the quantum approach and closed-orbit theory. The quantum results are compared with those of the closed-orbit theory. The correct phase values in the closed-orbit theory are essential and necessary to produce accurate cross sections. Our quantum results remove some previous ambiguities in assigning the phase values in the closed-orbit theory （G. C. Yang and M. L. Du 2007 Phys. Rev. A 75 029904E）.
基金funding from the Macrosystems Biology Program Grant EF#1241860 from United States National Science Foundation(NSF)。
文摘Management practices are one of the most important factors affecting forest structure and function.Landowners in southern United States manage forests using appropriately sized areas,to meet management objectives that include economic return,sustainability,and esthetic enjoyment.Road networks spatially designate the socioenvironmental elements for the forests,which represented and aggregated as forest management units.Road networks are widely used for managing forests by setting logging roads and firebreaks.We propose that common types of forest management are practiced in road-delineated units that can be determined by remote sensing satellite imagery coupled with crowd-sourced road network datasets.Satellite sensors do not always capture roadcaused canopy openings,so it is difficult to delineate ecologically relevant units based only on satellite data.By integrating citizen-based road networks with the National Land Cover Database,we mapped road-delineated management units across the regional landscape and analyzed the size frequency distribution of management units.We found the road-delineated units smaller than 0.5 ha comprised 64%of the number of units,but only0.98%of the total forest area.We also applied a statistical similarity test(Warren's Index)to access the equivalency of road-delineated units with forest disturbances by simulating a serious of neutral landscapes.The outputs showed that the whole southeastern U.S.has the probability of road-delineated unit of 0.44 and production forests overlapped significantly with disturbance areas with an average probability of 0.50.
基金supported by the Guangxi Science and Technology base and Talent Project(AD22080047)the National Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province(2023GXNFSBA 026063)+1 种基金the Innovation Funds of Chinese University(2021BCF03001)the special foundation for Guangxi Ba Gui Scholars.
文摘A cautious projection BFGS method is proposed for solving nonconvex unconstrained optimization problems.The global convergence of this method as well as a stronger general convergence result can be proven without a gradient Lipschitz continuity assumption,which is more in line with the actual problems than the existing modified BFGS methods and the traditional BFGS method.Under some additional conditions,the method presented has a superlinear convergence rate,which can be regarded as an extension and supplement of BFGS-type methods with the projection technique.Finally,the effectiveness and application prospects of the proposed method are verified by numerical experiments.
文摘In this paper, three techniques, line run coding, quadtree DF (Depth-First) representation and H coding for compressing classified satellite cloud images with no distortion are presented. In these three codings, the first two were invented by other persons and the third one, by ourselves. As a result, the comparison among their compression rates is. given at the end of this paper. Further application of these image compression technique to satellite data and other meteorological data looks promising.
文摘Heat is the largest energy end-use in the world,accounting for about 50%of global final energy consumption.In 2019,the International Energy Agency pointed out that the development of renewable energy heating has become a key way for the global response to climate change,environmental pollution control,energy transformation and sustainable development.Biomass energy as a priority for the development of renewable heat sources has been valued by countries around the world.Developed earlier in the EU countries,their biomass heating technology is more mature,and their policy system is more comprehensive.Accounting for 86%of the total renewable thermal energy consumption,biothermal energy in these countries has achieved significant effect and become an important driving force for the decarbonization of the heating industry.This practice has a very high demonstration effect globally.This paper constructs a comprehensive zoning theoretical framework of biomass energy heating and utilization in the EU countries.Based on the calculation of the supply and demand potential of biomass energy heating system,the FCM method is used to quantify the status of biomass resource utilization in 28 EU countries.The results show that there are significant differences in the utilization of biomass energy heating in the EU countries,which can be divided into five categories of comprehensive zones,which are the key development category(Finland,Sweden,Denmark,Estonia,Lithuania and Latvia),resource priority category(Austria,Croatia,Bulgaria,Romania,and Slovenia),policy-oriented category(Germany,Italy,Portugal,and Cyprus),good-potential category(Czech Republic,Hungary,Greece,Spain,Poland,France,and Slovakia)and under-developed category(UK,Netherlands,Belgium,Ireland,Luxembourg and Malta).At the same time,this paper discusses the characteristics and causes of biomass heating utilization of different types of EU countries,and summarizes the mature heating systems and rich experience in the EU countries with China’s current heating situation and its future challenges concerning renewable energy development.Finally,this study provides some implications for China’s clean heating development,energy efficient use,energy supply security and energy structure upgrade.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11421063 and 11474079)the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province,China(Grant No.2009011004)the Program for the Top Young Academic Leaders of Higher Learning Institutions of Shanxi Province,China
文摘The photodetachment cross section of H- in a linear harmonic oscillator potential is investigated. This system pro- vides a rare example that can be studied analytically by both quantum and semiclassical methods with some approxi- mations. The formulas of the cross section for different laser polarization directions are explicitly derived by both the traditional quantum approach and closed-orbit theory. In the traditional quantum approach, we calculate the cross sections in coordinate representation and momentum representation, and get the same formulas. We compare the quantum formulas with closed-orbit theory formulas, and find that when the detachment electron energy is larger than hco, where co is the frequency of the oscillator potential, the quantum results are shown to be in good agreement with the semiclassical results.
文摘In recent decades, human development pressures have results in conversions of vast tracts of Amazonian tropical rain forests to agriculture and other human land uses. In addition to the loss of large forest cover, remaining forests are also fragmented into smaller habitats. Fragmented forests suffer several biological and ecological changes due to edge effects that can exacerbate regional forest degradation. The Brazilian Amazon has had greatly contrasting land cover dynamics in the past decade with the highest historical rates of deforestation (2001-2005) followed by the lowest rates of forest loss in decades, since 2006. Currently, the basin-wide status and implications of forest fragmentation on remnant forests is not well known. We performed a regional forest fragmentation analysis for seven states of the Brazilian Amazon between 2001 and 2010 using a recent deforestation data. During this period, the number of forest fragments (>2 ha) doubled, nearly 125,000 fragments were formed by human activities with more than 50% being smaller than 10 ha. Over the decade, forest edges increased by an average of 36,335 km/year. However, the rate was much greater from 2001-2005 (50,046 km/year) then 2006-2010 (25,365 km/year) when deforestation rates dropped drastically. In 2010, 55% of basin-wide forest edges were < 10 years old due to the creation of large number of small fragments where intensive biological and ecological degradation is ongoing. Over the past decade protected areas have been expanded dramatically over the Brazilian Amazon and, as of 2010, 51% of remaining forests across the basin are within protected areas and only 1.5% of protected areas has been deforested. Conversely, intensive forest cover conversion has been occurred in unprotected forests. While 17% of Amazonian forests are within 1 km of forest edges in 2010, the proportion increases to 34% in unprotected areas varying between 14% and 95% among the studied states. Our results indicate that the Brazilian Amazon now largely consists of two contrasting forest conditions: protected areas with vast undisturbed forests and unprotected forests that are highly fragmented and disturbed landscapes.
文摘Purpose: Traditional medicines have unique breathing methods and they are widely believed that they are good for health promotion and good for relax. However, there is little evidence. The purpose of this study is to discuss if such specific breathings could effectively reduce stress and be able to help to reach a relaxed state in the body as well as in the mind. To objectively understand the state of stress/relax, we assessed the condition of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as well as heart rate (HR) and body temperature (BT), which instantly reflect ANS. Methods: Fourteen healthy male volunteers participated in this study and we investigated four kinds of breathing with them: Natural breathing (Control), Abdominal Pressure breathing (Pressure), Abdominal breathing (Abdominal) and Reverse Abdominal breathing (Reverse). Results: Only Control group showed increase of HF/decrease of HR, showing increase parasympathetic nervous system, which indicates the condition of relax. On the hand, all experimental groups of unique breathings showed increase of sympathetic nervous system, meaning stress. Discussion: Our hypothesis was that traditional breathing methods would decrease stress, however, our results were the total opposite to it. This reason might be found: 1) our subjects might be too young and naive, 2) they did not have enough training or experience, and 3) enough and appropriate duration of breathings was needed. Therefore, we consider that appropriate program and enough training time to use to specific breathing are needed to obtain the effects of traditional breathing.
文摘Background and Objective: Anma is a traditional Japanese bodywork therapy that has not been widely known and used in the West. There have been only a few Anma studies published in English journals. To study the effect of Anma (traditional Japanese massage) among participants who have neck and shoulder stiffness symptoms (so-called Katakori, in Japanese). Methods: The study participants consisted of seventy-seven (Study 1), thirteen (Study 2), and twenty (Study 3) adults with “Katakori” symptoms. The research design is as follows: (Study1) Randomized, Parallel-Group, Controlled Trial. (Study 2) Crossover Clinical Trial. (Study 3) Randomized, Parallel-Group, Controlled Trial. And we conducted Anma treatment for 45 minutes (Treatment) or rest in lying position for 45 minutes (Control). Results: In study 1, the symptom of “Katakori” was relieved after Anma treatment in Anma group (p d: 2.2). There was a significant interaction between the Anma group and the control group (p < 0.001). In study 2, MBV significantly increased following Anma treatment. There was a significant interaction between the Anma group and the control group (p = 0.022). In study 3, the symptom of “Katakori” was relieved after Anma treatment in the treatment group. There were no significant interactions between the groups in VAS and MBV values. Discussion and Conclusions: The study demonstrated that Anma therapy decreases “Katakori” symptoms while increasing MBV in the shoulder region.
文摘For research assessment and for science communities,performance evaluation and resource allocation based on the evaluation are always common and heated concerns.Although the controversy of how peer review and metrics working together has been long-standing,it is also widely recognized that metrics are
文摘Quality of Maternal, Neonatal and Child (MNCH) care is an important aspect in ensuring healthy outcomes and survival of mothers and children. To maintain quality in health services provided, organizations and other stakeholders in maternal and child health recommend regular quality measurement. Quality indicators are the key components in the quality measurement process. However, the literature shows neither an indicator selection process nor a set of quality indicators for quality measurement that is universally accepted. The lack of a universally accepted quality indicator selection process and set of quality indicators results in the establishment of a variety of quality indicator selection processes and several sets of quality indicators whenever the need for quality measurement arises. This adds extra processes that render quality measurement process. This study, therefore, aims to establish a set of quality indicators from a broad set of quality indicators recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study deployed a machine learning technique, specifically a random forest classifier to select important indicators for quality measurement. Twenty-nine indicators were identified as important features and among those, eight indicators namely maternal mortality ratio, still-birth rate, delivery at a health facility, deliveries assisted by skilled attendants, proportional breach delivery, normal delivery rate, born before arrival rate and antenatal care visit coverage were identified to be the most important indicators for quality measurement.
文摘An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients. The new edge-detection algorithm is ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-detection) method and it is found to be an excel lent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This char acteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images. A sorting technique for separating clouds or land well from ocean at both day and night is described in order to obtain high quality mesoscale features on the IR image This procedure is evaluated on an AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) image with Kuroshio. Results and analyses show that the mesoscale features can be well identified by using ICSED algorithm.
文摘High maternal and child deaths in developing countries are frequently linked to poor health services provided to pregnant women and children. To improve the quality of maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) services, the government and other stakeholders in MNCH emphasize the importance of quality assessment. However, effective quality assessment approaches are mostly lacking in most developing countries, particularly in Tanzania. This study, therefore, aimed at developing a quality assessment approach that can effectively assess and report on the quality of MNCH services. Due to the need for a good quality assessment approach that suits a resource-constrained environment, machine learning-based approach was proposed and developed. K-means algorithm was used to develop a clustering model that groups MNCH data and performs cluster summarization to discover the knowledge portrayed in each group on the quality of MNCH services. Results confirmed the clustering model’s ability to assign the data points into appropriate clusters;cluster analysis with the collaboration of MNCH experts successfully discovered insights on the quality of services portrayed by each group.
