Causes of recurring drought patterns in Xinjiang, China

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, with its unique topography and geographical location receives very less precipitation in summer as compared with other parts of China. The region is a land locked where moisture is supplied only by westerly winds from Atlantic Ocean as the moisture coming from Indian Ocean is mostly blocked by the Himalayas Range and the Tibetan plateau. In such a scenario, Xinjiang faces severe drought conditions offering significant challenges to water management. In this paper, we analyzed the drought periods in Xinjiang and discussed the various factors that might have influenced precipitation over the past forty-four years. For this purpose, we defined three periods of consecutive four years for high and low precipitation intensities. The average observed precipitation was 1.05 mm/day and 0.7 mm/day in summer (June-July-August) for the Tianshan Mountain region and Junggar Basin of Xinjiang, respectively. The drought conditions indicated that high sea level pressure, wind divergence and low convection were the prominent features that caused the droughts, which often do not allow the condensation process to coagulate the tiny water droplets into relatively large raindrops reducing the amount of precipitation in the region. The period of 1983-1986 is the lowest precipitation interval indicating the severe drought in the western Xinjiang (i.e western Tianshan Mountain region), for which, less moisture availability, strong divergence and less convection could be the most influencing factors.

Automatic Quality Inspection of Bakery Products Based on Shape and Color Information

An automatic intelligent system for the colour and texture inspection of bakery products is proposed.In this system,advance classification technique featuring Support Vector Machine and biologically inspired HMAX based shape descriptor integrated with biologically plausible RGB Opponent-Colour-Channel Descriptor is used to classify bakery products to their respective classes based on the shape and based on their colour referring to different baking durations. The results of this paper are compared with other methods for the automatic bakery products inspection. It is discovered that biologically inspired computer vision models performs accurately and efficiently as compared to the computer vision models which are not biologically plausible,in the bakery products quality inspection. It is also discovered that the One Versus One SVM and Directed Acyclic Graph SVM acquired the maximum accurate classification rate. The proposed method acquired classification accuracy of 95% and 100% for the biscuit shape and biscuit colour recognition,respectively. The proposed method is also consistently stable and invariant. This shows that the biologically inspired computer vision models have the capability to replace existing inspection methods as more reliable and accurate alternative.

Range extension of four highland agamid lizards in Shimshal Pamir,Pakistan

As part of the Sino-Pak trans-boundary cooperation for conservation and sustainable development in Pamir border region, World Wild Fund （WWF）-Pakistan conducted a preliminary social, economic and ecological survey in the ShimshaI-Pamir Lakes area in July 2009. The purpose of the study was to explore potentials and opportunities for future collaborative conservation of some species, habitats and high altitude ecosystems in the border region between China and Pakistan. The two-week herpetological study in the Shimshal Pamir area of Khunjerab National Park （KNP） along Pakistan-China border was an integral part of the survey, conducted exclu- sively to document reptilian fauna with a special emphasis on investigating their occurrence, distribution and status in the study area. Field investigations were performed during daytime when it was hot enough and reptiles were active, basking or feeding. A total of 15 specimens belonging to four species of the Agamidae family were captured by striking stones and beating bushes with sticks. Collected specimens were preserved using 10% formalin solution, tagged with field information and stored in Zoological Survey Department, Karachi for future reference. Laboratory investigations were carried out for pholidosic counts and morphometric measurements. A detailed review of relevant literature, habitat characteristics and laboratory investigations revealed the occurrence of Laudakia himalayana, L. pakistanica, L. tuberculata and L. badakhshana at 4,082 m, 4,172 m, 4,005 m and 4,240 m asl, respectively, which are much higher altitudes as compared to the previously reported heights of 3,353 m, 3,200 m, 2,500 m and 2,400 m asl. The terrain offers a variety of ecological barriers, in the form of fast and freezing running waters and massive glaciers with peculiar harsh climatic conditions prevailing for nine months of the year, which restricts species migration and thus increases endemism. Although one of the four species recorded from the study area, i.e.L, pakistanica is endemic to Pakistan, L. tuberculata and L. badakhshana are new records from Shimshal, Pakistan, so a detailed investigation is suggested for further herpetological records from the study area.

Robinia pseudoacacia leaves improve soil physical and chemical properties

The role of the leaves of Robinia pseudoacacia L., which is widely distributed in the arid lands, on improving soil physical and chemical properties was analyzed at various incubation periods. The incubated soils added with 0, 25, 50 and 75 g Robinia pseudoacacia leaves were tested after consecutive incubation intervals of 6, 8 and 10 months and the different soil parameters were measured. The results showed the increases in organic matter (OM), extractable K, cation exchange capacity (CEC), aggregate stability and water holding capacity, but the decreases in pH value and bulk density after 6 months’ incubation. The gradual decrease in change rates of soil properties indicated less microbial population and organic residual mineralization under acidic conditions, which were resulted from fast decomposition of leaves after the first 6 months incubation. The increases in soil organic matter content, extractable K, CEC, aggregate stability and water holding capacity and the decreases in soil pH and bulk density provide favorable conditions for crop’s growth.

Status of Asiatic Wild Cat and its habitat in Xinjiang Tarim Basin, China

The Asiatic Wild CatFelis silvestris ornataisregarded as “Least concerned” (LC) first, as “Vulnerable” (VU) and following “Endangered” (EN) and then “Critically endangered” (CR) species as finally and originally concentrative distribute in Xinjiang Tarim Basin region in northwest China. This paper provides comprehensive information on bio-morphology, habitat selectivity, environmental condition, habit, preyfeed source and every item of composition, and relationship among Wild Cat and domestic cat at presence investigated in 2004-2006 and 2011- 2013 as especial study. The paper also illustrated some dynamical statistics of wild cat’ pelt collection by national trade from three prefectures in the last 40 years. Briefing the results of indication that large scale and continuous openup land for cotton in unplanned, exploit petroleum and natural gas, misapply water and destroy desert vegetation, poaching and killing prey objectives, etc., of them long-term effects on plants functional density and qualities of the cat surviving habitat and productivity, whereas pressures of increasing human population to fragile desert ecosystem showed efficiency and desirable effects of the cat surviving.