Kinematic inventory of rock glaciers in the Nyainqentanglha Range using the MT-InSAR method

Rock glaciers are typical periglacial landforms with tongue or lobate morphological shapes and characterized by the distinct front,lateral margins,and often by ridge-and-furrow surface topography textures as well as kinematic characteristics,widely distributed in alpine environments.Multitemporal Synthetic aperture radar interferometry(MT-InSAR),is a remote sensing technique with demonstrated effectiveness for detecting landform kinematics.However,its application to rock glaciers is challenged by temporal decorrelation and atmospheric phase noises due to complex topography and snow cover.We designed a quadtree segmentation and parallel computing-based MT-InSAR method to improve the quality and efficiency of deformation measurement of rock glaciers.We applied the method to a rock glacier inventory of the Nyainqentanglha Range,China,derived from high-resolution Gaofen-2 images,to quantify the activity rate of each rock glacier.Results showed that 32.1%(6,389)of the identified rock glaciers exhibited slope-parallel deformation rates exceeding 100 mm/y.The activities of the rock glaciers exhibited strong correlations with their distance to glaciers,precipitation,freeze-thaw magnitude,and permafrost occurrence probability.The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed segmentation-parallel MT-InSAR method for monitoring rock glacier deformation over a large region.

Responses of milk production of dairy cows to jugular infusions of a mixture of essential amino acids with or without exclusion leucine or arginine

The purpose of this study was to determine effects of jugular infusion of either balanced or imbalanced amino acid mixture on milk production and composition in dairy cows. Eight mid-lactation Holstein cows were randomly assigned to 5-d continuous jugular infusions of saline(CTL), essential amino acid(EAA) mixture prepared on the profile of casein(CSN, 160 g/d), EAA mixture excluding leucine(Leu)(-Leu, 163 g/d) or EAA mixture excluding arginine(Arg)(-Arg, 158 g/d) in a duplicated 4×4 Latin square design with 4 infusion periods separated by a 7-d interval period. The basal diet was formulated with corn grain, soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn silage, alfalfa hay and Chinese wildrye grass hay according to NRC(2001) and supplied 1.6 Mcal net energy for lactation(NEL) and 94.4 g metabolizable protein(MP) per kg dry matter(DM) to meet requirements for lactation. The results showed that the dry matter intake(DMI) and normal physiological status were not affected by amino acid mixture infusions.Compared with CTL treatment, the CSN treatment increased milk yield(14.9%, P < 0.001), milk lactose yield(14.5%, P = 0.001), milk fat yield(16.6%, P = 0.01), milk protein yield(18.2%, P < 0.001) and the contents of α_(S1)-casein(α_(S1)-CN,11,8%,P = 0,007),β-casein(β-CN,4.2%.P=0.035) and K-casein(κ-CN,8.5%, P = 0.003). However, the-Leu and-Arg treatments had lower milk yield(6.3%, P = 0.058 and 5.7%,P = 0.073, respectively), milk protein yield(8.8%, P = 0.010 and 8.2%, P = 0.011, respectively) and the contents of α_(S1)-CN(7.3%,P = 0.057 and 8.4%,P = 0.026, respectively),β-CN(4.2%,P = 0.033 and 3.8%,P = 0.048, respectively) and κ-CN(5.8%, P = 0.023 and 7.6%, P = 0.003, respectively) than those of the CSN treatment. Milk lactose yield(5.9%, P = 0.076) tended to decrease when Leu was removed from amino acid mixture infusate. In conclusion, the supply of casein profile can increase milk production in dairy cows, but a deficiency of Leu or Arg had negative effects on milk yield and milk protein yield.