Variations of plant life form diversity along the Northeast China Transect and its direct gradient analysis

Plant life form diversity and its direct gradient analysis on a larger scale climate change gradient were tested, based on the data from Northeast China Transect platform. The results showed that the species numbers, life form richness and life form diversity were relative higher at the eastern forests and the ecotone between typical vegetation, while those on the meadow grasslands and typical steppes were lower. Although plant life forms can reflect the climate variations, life form diversity is not consistent with the major global gradient along the NECT.

A GRADIENT ANALYSIS & MODELING OF THE NECT FOR GLOBAL CHANGE STUDY

The North East China Transect (NECT) is an exemplary region of landmass running along the line of 43°30′ North Latitude and caught between 112° and 130°30′ East Longtitude, and is being sampled by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) for today’s study on global change. So far, it has already been listed in the first set of IGBP-sponsored transects, becoming a key theatre and "hot spot" for probing terrestrial ecosystems. In terms of biota, the nearly 1,600-kilometre-long tract is located in a mid-latitude zone, featuring a vegetational transition from a temperate timberland of evergreen coniferous forests and broadleaved deciduous forests to a mild-temperate steppe. According to the norms of biome types, it consists of three subzones: meadow steppe, typical steppe and desert steppe in a continuous east-to-west spatial sequence. There are four ecological stations supported by a great number of permanent samples, long-term plots and an enormous build-up of experimental data along

Baseline drift effect on the performance of neutron and γ ray discrimination using frequency gradient analysis

Frequency gradient analysis （FGA） effectively discriminates neutrons and γ rays by examining the frequency-domain features of the photomultiplier tube anode signal. This approach is insensitive to noise but is inevitably affected by the baseline drift similar to other pulse shape discrimination methods. The baseline drift effect is attributed to factors such as power line fluctuation, dark current, noise disturbances, hum, and pulse tail in front-end electronics. This effect needs to be elucidated and quantified before the baseline shift can be estimated and removed from the captured signal. Therefore, the effect of baseline shift on the discrimination performance of neutrons and ~ rays with organic scintillation detectors using FGA is investigated in this paper. The relationship between the baseline shift and discrimination parameters of FGA is derived and verified by an experimental system consisting of an americium-beryllium source, a BC501A liquid scintillator detector, and a 5 GSample/s 8-bit oscilloscope. The theoretical and experimental results both show that the estimation of the baseline shift is necessary, and the removal of baseline drift from the pulse shapes can improve the discrimination performance of FGA.

An iterative Wiener filtering method based on the gravity gradient invariants

How to deal with colored noises of GOCE （Gravity field and steady - state Ocean Circulation Explorer） satellite has been the key to data processing. This paper focused on colored noises of GOCE gradient data and the frequency spectrum analysis. According to the analysis results, gravity field model of the optima] degrees 90-240 is given, which is recovered by COCE gradient data. This paper presents an iterative Wiener filtering method based on the gravity gradient invariants. By this method a degree-220 model was calculated from GOCE SGG （Satellite Gravity Gradient） data. The degrees above 90 of ITG2010 were taken as the prior gravity field model, replacing the low degree gravity field model calculated by GOCE orbit data. GOCE gradient colored noises was processed by Wiener filtering. Finally by Wiener filtering iterative calculation, the gravity field model was restored by space-wise harmonic analysis method. The results show that the model＇s accuracy matched well with the ESA＇s （European Space Agency） results by using the same data,

Anti-noise performance of the pulse coupled neural network applied in discrimination of neutron and gamma-ray

In this study,the anti-noise performance of a pulse-coupled neural network(PCNN)was investigated in the neutron and gamma-ray(n-γ)discrimination field.The experiments were conducted in two groups.In the first group,radiation pulse signals were pre-processed using a Fourier filter to reduce the original noise in the signals,whereas in the second group,the original noise was left untouched to simulate an extremely high-noise scenario.For each part,artificial Gaussian noise with different intensity levels was added to the signals prior to the discrimination process.In the aforementioned conditions,the performance of the PCNN was evaluated and compared with five other commonly used methods of n-γdiscrimination:(1)zero crossing,(2)charge comparison,(3)vector projection,(4)falling edge percentage slope,and(5)frequency gradient analysis.The experimental results showed that the PCNN method significantly outperforms other methods with outstanding FoM-value at all noise levels.Furthermore,the fluctuations in FoM-value of PCNN were significantly better than those obtained via other methods at most noise levels and only slightly worse than those obtained via the charge comparison and zerocrossing methods under extreme noise conditions.Additionally,the changing patterns and fluctuations of the FoMvalue were evaluated under different noise conditions.Hence,based on the results,the parameter selection strategy of the PCNN was presented.In conclusion,the PCNN method is suitable for use in high-noise application scenarios for n-γdiscrimination because of its stability and remarkable discrimination performance.It does not rely on strict parameter settings and can realize satisfactory performance over a wide parameter range.

A simple data assimilation method for improving the MODIS LAI time-series data products based on the object analysis and gradient inverse weighted filter

A simple data assimilation method for improving estimation of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer （MODIS） leaf area index （LAI） time-series data products based on the gradient inverse weighted filter and object analysis is proposed. The properties and quality control （QC） of MODIS LAI data products are introduced. Also, the gradient inverse weighted filter and object analysis are analyzed. An experiment based on the simple data assimilation method is performed using MODIS LAI data sets from 2000 to 2005 of Guizhou Province in China.

Single and double layer centrifugation improve the quality of cryopreserved bovine sperm from poor quality ejaculates

Background： Density gradient centrifugation was reported as a technique of semen preparation in assisted reproductive techniques in humans and animals. This technique was found to be efficient in improving semen quality after harmful techniques such as cryopreservation. Recently a modified technique, single layer centrifugation,was proposed as a technique providing a large amount of high quality spermatozoa, and this treatment was performed before conservation. Single layer centrifugation has been studied prevalently in stallions and in boars,but limited data were available for bulls. Occasionally bulls are known to experience a transient reduction in semen quality, thus techniques that allow improvement in semen quality could be applied in this context. The aim of this study was the evaluation of single layer and double layer centrifugation by the use of iodixanol, compared with conventional centrifugation and non-centrifuged semen, on the sperm characteristics during the cryopreservation process in bulls with normal and poor semen quality.Results： Single layer centrifugation and double layer centrifugation both significantly increased the percentage of normal spermatozoa and decreased the percentage of non-sperm cells in poor quality samples, while both were ineffective in those of normal quality. Sperm characteristics in poor quality samples increased after single layer centrifugation and double layer centrifugation, reaching values similar to those recorded in normal samples, and this trend is maintained after equilibration and after cryopreservation. On the other hand, SLC and DLC resulted in a consistent reduction in the spermatozoa recovered, and this resulted in a reduction of the absolute amount of spermatozoa cryopreserved in the normal samples, without a clear improvement in sperm characteristics in this type of sample.Conclusions： These data suggested that both SLC and DLC could be performed in practice, but their application should be limited to the cases in which the quality of the spermatozoa recovered is more important than the total amount of spermatozoa.

Exclusion effects on vegetation characteristics and their correlation to soil factors in the semi-arid rangeland of Mu Us Sandland,China

Exclusion has been applied as a main measure for re-vegetation all over the world.This paper,by comparing the results of year-round exclusion,seasonal exclusion,and non-exclusion,quantified the vegetation variations under three different exclusion measures and their correlation to soil factors.The analysis results for community species component and plant diversity using multi-response permutation procedures(MRPPs)showed that exclusion did change the species com ponent and increase plant diversity remarkably,while the period of exclusion had no significant influence on these two community features.The indicator species analysis and calculation of similarity indices indicated that community for year-round exclusion were becoming xerophytization and unpalatability,and showed highly spatial heterogeneity of plant species distribution,whereas community for seasonal exclusion was under stable non-equilibrium condition.Detrended correspondence analysis(DCA)and detrend canonical correspondence analysis(DCCA)results of relationship between plant species and soil variables demonstrated that soil moisture was a controlling factor for plant species component,microbiotic soil crust cover,soil organic matter,and soil bulk density had significant effects on soil moisture,among which microbiotic soil crust was a leading factor owing to its limitation to rainfall infiltration on the one hand,and its constraints to entrance of herbaceous seeds into soil or to germination of soil seeds on the other hand.As a result of long-term removal of animal grazing,crust kept intact in year-round exclusion community,which was a main reason of community xerophytization.It was also obvious from ordination results that some important environmental factors,such as tempo-spatial change of rainfall and corresponding tempo-spatial change of soil moisture,were neglected during direct gradient analysis.In addition,biodiversity was close related to soil nutrients as well as to soil moisture condition(soil water content and crust cover),and it had positive relation to available N,and negative relation to available P.Higher soil N had advantage to non-leguminous plants growth on nutrition-poor sand land definitely.The impact of P to community component was unclear and should be studied from plant physiology.Further researches on nonequilibrium theory in semi-arid rangeland will provide a sci-entific and flexible animal development paradigm for being implementing livestock fen-raising and grazing-forbidden policies in China.

Extractive desulfurization of model fuels with a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ionic liquid

A nitrogen-containing ionic liquid was synthesized using an aromatic nitrogen-containing heterocyclic and an amino acid,and applied to the extractive desulfurization process to remove benzothiophene,dibenzothiophene,and 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiphene from a model fuel oil.Chemical characterizations and simulation using Gaussian 09 software confirmed the rationality of an ionic liquid structure.Classification of non-covalent interactions between the ionic liquid and the three sulfur-containing contaminants was studied by reduced density gradient analysis.The viscosity of the ionic liquid was adjusted by addition of polyethylene glycol.Under extraction conditions of the volume of ionic liquid to oil as 1:1 and temperature as room temperature,the desulfurization selectivity of ionic liquid followed the order of 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiphene(15 min)<benzothiophene(15 min)≈dibenzothiophene(10 min).Addition of p-xylene and cyclohexene to the fuel oil had little effect.The extractant remained stable and effective after multiple regeneration cycles.