LATE MESOZOIC SUBDUCTION PROCESS BENEATH SOUTHEASTERN CHINA AS REVEALEDBY THE SPATIAL- TEMPORAL PATTERN OFMAGMATISM

Southeastern China covers an extensive area from the lowerreaches of the Yangtze Riverto the southeast coastof China mainland.One of its main geological features isthe extensiveJura- Cretaceous (Yanshanian) magmatism and related metallogenesis. Recently,some re-searchers advocate the mantle plume model as an explanation,but all of their evidences artoo ambiguous.Meanwhile,the seaward convex shape of the SE China coastline,which isdominantly composed of Jura- Cretaceous batholiths and volcanic strata,implies thatit was aconvergent margin between SE China continent and the palaeo- Pacific plate during the lateMesozoic era.Fora betterunderstanding on the relation among magmatism,tectonic regimeand dynamics,the spatial- temporal pattern of late Mesozoic (180 - 90 Ma) igneous rocks isconstructed by nearly2 0 0 isotope age valuesfrom literatures.Among these age values,mostwere obtained by Rb- Sr isochron method,and others from zircon U- Pb or40 Ar- 3

Elevational and temporal patterns of pollination success in distylous and homostylous buckwheats(Fagopyrum)in the Hengduan Mountains

Reproductive strategies of sexually dimorphic plants vary in response to the environment.Here,we ask whether the sexual systems of Fagopyrum species(i.e.,selfing homostylous and out-crossing distylous)represent distinct adaptive strategies to increase reproductive success in changing alpine environments.To answer this question,we determined how spatial and temporal factors(e.g.,elevation and peak flowering time)affect reproductive success(i.e.,stigmatic pollen load)in nine wild Fagopyrum species(seven distylous and two homostylous)among 28 populations along an elevation gradient of 1299-3315 m in the Hengduan Mountains,southwestern China.We also observed pollinators and conducted hundreds of hand pollinations to investigate inter/intra-morph compatibility,self-compatibility and pollen limitation in four Fagopyrum species(two distylous and two homostylous).We found that Fagopyrum species at higher elevation generally had bigger flowers and more stigmatic pollen loads;lateflowering individuals had smaller flowers and lower pollen deposition.Stigmatic pollen deposition was more variable in distylous species than in homostylous species.Although seed set was not pollenlimited in all species,we found that fruit set was much lower in distylous species,which rely on frequent pollinator visits,than in homostylous species capable of autonomous self-pollination.Our findings that pollination success increases at high elevations and decreases during the flowering season suggest that distylous and homostylous species have spatially and temporally distinct reproductive strategies related to environment-dependent pollinator activity.

Satellite Multi-Temporal Data and Cropping Pattern Approach for Green Gram Crop Management in the Lower Midland Zone IV and V in Kenya

Creation of a spectral signature reflectance data, which aids in the identification of the crops is important in determining size and location crop fields. Therefore, we developed a spectral signature reflectance for the vegetative stage of the green gram (Vigna. radiata L.) over 5 years (2020, 2018, 2017, 2015, and 2013) for agroecological zone IV and V in Kenya. The years chosen were those whose satellite resolution data was available for the vegetative stage of crop growth in the short rain season (October, November, December (OND)). We used Landsat 8 OLI satellite imagery in this study. Cropping pattern data for the study area were evaluated by calculating the Top of Atmosphere reflectance. Farms geo-referencing, along with field data collection, was undertaken to extract Top of Atmosphere reflectance for bands 2, 3, 4 and 7. We also carried a spectral similarity assessment on the various cropping patterns. The spectral reflectance ranged from 0.07696 - 0.09632, 0.07466 - 0.09467, 0.0704047 - 0.12188,0.19822 - 0.24387, 0.19269 - 0.26900, and 0.11354 - 0.20815 for bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 for green gram, respectively. The results showed a dissimilarity among the various cropping patterns. The lowest dissimilarity index was 0.027 for the maize (Zea mays L.) bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) versus the maize-pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) crop, while the highest dissimilarity index was 0.443 for the maize bean versus the maize bean and cowpea cropping patterns. High crop dissimilarities experienced across the cropping pattern through these spectral reflectance values confirm that the green gram was potentially identifiable. The results can be used in crop type identification in agroecological lower midland zone IV and V for mung bean management. This study therefore suggests that use of reflectance data in remote sensing of agricultural ecosystems would aid in planning, management, and crop allocation to different ecozones.

The spatial-temporal pattern and influencing factors of negative air ions in urban forests, Shanghai, China

Negative air ions are natural components of the air we breathe Forests are the main continuous natural source of negative air ions （NAI）. The spatio-temporal patterns of negative air ions were explored in Shanghai, based on monthly monitoring in 15 parks from March 2009 to February 2010. In each park, sampling sites were selected in forests and open spaces. The annual variation in negative air ion concentrations （NAIC） showed peak values from June to October and minimum values from December to January. NAIC were highest in summer and autumn, intermediate in spring, and lowest in winter. During spring and summer, NAIC in open spaces were significantly higher in rural areas than those in suburban areas. However, there were no significant differences in NAIC at forest sites among seasons. For open spaces, total suspended particles （TSP） were the dominant determining factor of NAIC in sum- mer, and air temperature and air humidity were the dominant determining factors of NAIC in spring, which were tightly correlated with Shanghai＇s ongoing urbanization and its impacts on the environment. R is suggested that urbanization could induce variation in NAIC along the urban-rural gradient, but that may not change the temporal variation pattern. Fur- thermore, the effects of urbanization on NAIC were limited in non-vegetated or less-vegetated sites, such as open spaces, but not in well-vegetated areas, such as urban forests. Therefore, we suggest that urban greening, especially urban forest, has significant resistance to theeffect of urbanization on NAIC.

Spatial-temporal analysis of wetland landscape pattern under the influence of artificial dykes in the Yellow River delta

The influence of anthropogenic activities,especially artificial dykes,on the coastal wetland landscape is now considered as a serious problem to the coastal ecosystem.It is important and necessary to analyze changes of coastal landscape pattern under the influence of artificial dykes for the protection and management of coastal wetland.Our study aimed to reveal the quantitative characteristics of the coastal wetland landscape and its spatial-temporal dynamics under the influence of artificial dykes in the Yellow River delta(YRD).It was analyzed by the methods of the statistical analysis of landscape structure,five selected landscape indices and the changes of spatial centroids of three typical wetland types,including reed marshes,tidal fiats and aquaculture-salt fields.The results showed that:(1)Reduction of wetland area,especially the degradation of natural wetlands,had been the principal problem since the dykes were constructed in the YRD.The dykes created conditions for the development of artificial wetlands.However,the new born artificial wetlands were still less than the vanished natural wetlands.(2)Compared with the open area,the building of artificial dykes significantly speeded up the changes of landscape patterns and the aggravation of the landscape fragmentation in the closed area.(3)The changes of area-weighted centroids of three typical wetland landscapes were greatly affected by dykes,and the movement of the centroid of the aquaculture-salt field was very sensitive to the dykes constructed in the corresponding period.

Geographical Patterns and Temporal Variations of Regional Dry and Wet Heatwave Events in China during 1960–2008

Daily maximum/minimum temperatures and relative humidity records from 510 stations in China for the period 1960–2008 were used to investigate geographical patterns and temporal variations of heatwave （HW） events. Dry and wet HW events were compared by different definitions. Regionally, both dry and wet HW events are commonly located in southeastern China in the monsoon area, with neither type occurring in the northeast part of Northeast China and Southwest China, while the north-northwest region of the country experiences dry HW events and a few wet HW events. In the southeast of the country, site dry HW events occurred from April to September and mostly in June, while site wet HW events occurred from April to October and mostly in September. In total, 163 regional wet HW events were identified. The ten longest regional wet HW events lasted for more than 20 days, while the mean duration for 163 events was about 11 days. For the top ten events, six occurred after the 1990s, compared with four before this time. Global surface warming was clear since 1979, but the frequency and severity of regional wet HW events were relatively low in the 1980s, increasing remarkably since the 1990s. Possible reasons for this might be the strong interdecadal and interannual variations in regional atmospheric circulations, as well as water transport related directly to temperature contrasts in different regions, rather than global-mean temperature changes.

The temporal and spatial patterns and potential evaluation of China＇s energy resources development

The issue of China＇s energy supply security is not only the key problem which af- fects China＇s rapid and sustainable development in the 21st century, but also the one which international attention focuses on. Based on the notable characteristic of spatial imbalance between energy production and consumption in China, this paper takes the evolution of China＇s primary energy resources development（excluding hydropower） from 1949 to 2007 as the study object, with the aim to sum up the evolutive characteristics and laws of China＇s energy resources development in the past nearly 60 years. Then, based on comprehensive considerations of coal＇s, oil＇s and natural gas＇s basic reserves, qualities, geological conditions production status, and ecological service function of every province, this paper adopts development potential index （DP）to evaluate the development potential of every province＇s en- ergy resources, and divide them into different ranks. Conclusions are drawn as follows： （1） Generally speaking, China＇s gross energy production was increasing in waves from 1949 to 2007. From the viewpoint of spatial patterns, China＇s energy resources development has shown a characteristic of ＂concentrating to the north and central areas, and evolving from linear-shaped to ＂T-shaped＂ pattern gradually since 1949. （2） The structure evolution of China＇s energy resources development in general has shown a trend of ＂coal proportion is dominant but decreasing, while oil and gas proportions are increasing＂ since 1949. （3） At the provincial scale, China＇s energy resources development potential could be divided into large, sub-large, general and small ranks, four in all. In the future, the spatial pattern of China＇s energy production will evolve from ＂T-shaped＂ to ＂R-shaped pattern＂. These conclusions will help to clarify the temporal and spatial characteristics and laws of China＇s energy resources development, and will be beneficial for China to design scientific and rational energy development strategies and plans, coordinate spatial imbalance of energy production and consumption, ensure national energy supply, avoid energy resources waste and disorderly development, and promote regional sustainable development under the globalization back-ground with changeful international energy market.

Single-trial EEG-based emotion recognition using temporally regularized common spatial pattern

This study addresses the problem of classifying emotional words based on recorded electroencephalogram （EEG） signals by the single-trial EEG classification technique. Emotional two-character Chinese words are used as experimental materials. Positive words versus neutral words and negative words versus neutral words are classified, respectively, using the induced EEG signals. The method of temporally regularized common spatial patterns （TRCSP） is chosen to extract features from the EEG trials, and then single-trial EEG classification is achieved by linear discriminant analysis. Classification accuracies are between 55% and 65%. The statistical significance of the classification accuracies is confirmed by permutation tests, which shows the successful identification of emotional words and neutral ones, and also the ability to identify emotional words. In addition, 10 out of 15 subjects obtain significant classification accuracy for negative words versus neutral words while only 4 are significant for positive words versus neutral words, which demonstrate that negative emotions are more easily identified.

Geostatistical Analysis on the Temporal Patterns of the Yellow Rice Borer, Tryporyza incertulas

In order to comprehend temporal pattern of the larvae population of the yellow rice borer, Tryporyza incertulas, and provide valuable information for its forecast model, the data series of the population for each generation and the over-wintered larvae from 1960 to 1990 in Dingcheng District, Changde City, Hunan Province, were analyzed with geostatistics. The data series of total number, the 1st generation, the 3rd generation and the over-wintered larvae year to year displayed rather better autocorrelation and prediction. The data series of generation to generation, the 2nd generation and the 4th generation year to year, however, demonstrated poor autocorrelation, especially for the 4th generation, whose autocorrelation degree was zero. The population dynamics of the yellow rice borer was obviously intermittent. A remarkable cycle of four generations, one year, was observed in the population of generation to generation. Omitting the certain generation or interposing the over-wintered larvae only resulted in a less or slight change of autocorrelation of the whole data series generation to generation. Crop system, food, climate and natural enemies, therefore, played more important roles in regulating the population dynamics than base number of the larvae. The basic techniques of geostatistics applied in analyzing temporal population dynamics were outlined.

Spatial and Temporal Pattern of Urban Smart Development in China and Its Driving Mechanism

Smart urban development is an inevitable choice, and is essential to overall strength improvement. It is important to explore an urban smart development path which unites smart growth with driving shrinkage perfectly in forming scientific and sustainable development concept and responding to new normal strategic opportunities. Based on statistic data of 294 prefecture-level cities and above in China from 2000 to 2015, we analyzed spatial and temporal evolution of urban smart development in China by constructing a dynamic fitting model of urban land expansion, population growth, and economic development as well as the coefficient of variation of urban smart development(CVSD). Further efforts were then made to consider differential distribution regularity of urban smart development so as to understand the driving mechanisms of heterogeneous classification of urban smart development in China from different scales and scale variation. Our results indicate that: 1) the disordered growth tendency of urban cities in China is overall well controlled in the middle, and late research and it mainly presented a doublet coexistence of shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities. It is particularly obvious that Northeast China and East China have regarded shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities as main development tendency separately. 2) Areas with basic stability and relative variation were relatively dispersed across the time period, but the proportion was far beyond areas with significant variation. It demonstrates a relative equilibrium spatial and temporal differential evolution pattern of prefecture-level cities and above in China, except for Tongling, Lanzhou and Chaoyang. 3) prefecture-level cities and above in China are mostly characterized by shrinkage disordered and smart development classification under the background of different scale and scale variation from 2000–2015; however, the spatial resonance relation is not obvious. 4) There are many interaction factors forming an important driving mechanism in developing the spatial and temporal pattern of urban smart development in China, including natural geographical factors, industrial structure adjustment, human capital radiation, regional traffic accessibility, and government decision-making intervention.

Characteristics of Spatial Structural Patterns and Temporal Variability of Annual Precipitation in Ningxia

[Objective] The aim was to study the characteristics of the spatial structural patterns and temporal variability of annual precipitation in Ningxia.[Method] Using rotated empirical orthogonal function,the precipitation concentration index,wavelet analysis and Mann-Kendall rank statistic method,the characteristics of precipitation on the spatial-temporal variability and trend were analyzed by the monthly precipitation series in Ningxia during 1951-2008.[Result] In Ningxia,the spatial structural patterns of annual precipitation appeared 'North-south type' and 'North-center-south type'.It increased from north to south,the changes of interannual precipitation decreased from north to south.Precipitation changed significantly in month and distributed differently in the Yellow River irrigation area.But it was conversely steady in central arid zone and mountainous area of southern Ningxia.The probability of single abundant precipitation year was higher than single short precipitation year and the continuous short precipitation year was higher than continuous abundant precipitation year.The main cycles were 3a,6a and 10a approximately.In the mid arid zone and the mountainous area of southern Ningxia,the probability of precipitation reduction was about 75% and the Yellow river irrigation area,71.4%,respectively.The reduction in the entire area was about 73.3%.The annual precipitation in the middle arid area and irrigation area was increasing.The variability would change slowly for the intra-annual distribution of precipitation.Especially,the reduction tendency rate in the middle arid area reached 100.0%.[Conclusion] The study provided references for the effective utilization of the local precipitation,and the coordinated development of the regional social economy and ecological environment.

Temporal patterns of dengue epidemics:The case of recent outbreaks in Kaohsiung

Objective:To investigate whether major dengue outbreaks in the last two decades in Kaohsiung follow a precise temporal pattern.Methods:Government daily lab-confirmed dengue case data from three major dengue outbreaks occurring during the last two decades in Kaohsiung in2002,2014 and 2015,is utilized to compute the corresponding weekly cumulative percentage of total case numbers.We divide each of the three time series data into two periods to examine the corresponding weekly cumulative percentages of case numbers for each period.Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to compare quantitatively the similarity between the temporal patterns of these three years.Results:Three cutoff points produce the most interesting comparisons and the most different outcomes.Pearson’s correlation coefficient indicates quantitative discrepancies in the similarity between temporal patterns of the three years when using different cutoff points.Conclusions:Temporal patterns in 2002 and 2014 are comparatively more similar in early stage.The 2015 outbreak started late in the year,but ended more like the outbreak in 2014,both with record-breaking number of cases.The retrospective analysis shows that the temporal dynamics of dengue outbreaks in Kaohsiung can strongly vary from one year to another,making it difficult to identify any common predictor.

Spatio-temporal Pattern Characteristics of Relationship Between Urbanization and Economic Development at County Level in China

The relationship between China’s urbanization and economic development(RCUED) is an important concern nationwide. As important actors in regional strategy and policy, county-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China’s social economy. However, the existing research on the RCUED lacks the fine depiction of the county-level administrative units.Using 2000 and 2010 census data and the statistical analysis method, we uncovered the evolution characteristics of China’s urbanization and economic development and conducted a quantitative identification for the RCUED with improved methods using the quadrant map approach. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation effect of the RCUED using the spatial autocorrelation analysis method. The results were as follows: 1) In general, a high degree of matching exists between China’s urbanization and economic development at the county level at the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between China’s urbanization and economic development in2000 and 2010 were 0.608 and 0.603, respectively. 2) A significant regional difference exists in the RCUED at the county level. Based on a comparative analysis of 2276 county units in China in the two years, we found that county units can be categorized as under-urbanized, basic coordination and over-urbanized in various areas. No situation was observed where urbanization seriously lagged behind the economic development level, so the levels of urbanization and economic development appear to be basically coordinated,and the coordination state may be gradually optimized over time. 3) Over time, the spatial dependency of the RCUED has weakened and the spatial heterogeneity has increased. Northeast China has always been an area characterized by over-urbanization. The number of county units classified as under-urbanized has begun to decline in eastern coastal urban agglomeration areas, while counties rich in resources have transformed from having point-shaped over-urbanization to plane-shaped under-urbanization along the northern border,and the number of over-urbanized county units has increased in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. 4)’Lag-lag’ type and ’advance-advance’ type accounted for 68% of all counties in China, and these counties were shown to have obvious spatial differentiation characteristics.

The brain activation pattern of the medial temporal lobe during chewing gum: a functional MRI study

The human brain is known to be influenced by environmental stimuli（Feeney et al.,1982;Kaplan,1988）.Therefore,research on the brain activation pattern by external stimuli has been an important topic in neuroscience（Kaplan,1988）.Chewing gum has been known to have a positive effect on cognition,including alertness,attention,cognitive processing speed,

Spatio-temporal patterns of drought in North Xinjiang, China, 1961–2012 based on meteorological drought index

Drought, which is one of the most frequently occurring severe hazards with long time scales and cov- ering wide geographical areas, is a natural phenomenon resulting in significant economic losses in agriculture and industry. Drought is caused by an imbalance between the inputs of and the demand for water which is insufficient to meet the demands of human activities and the eco-environment. As a major arid and semi-arid area and an important agricultural region in Northwest China, North Xinjiang （NX） shows great vulnerability to drought. In this paper, the characteristics of inter-annual and seasonal drought were analyzed in terms of drought occurrence and drought coverage, by using the composite index of meteorological drought and the data of daily precipitation, air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sunshine duration from 38 meteorological stations during the period 1961-2012. Trend analysis, wavelet analysis and empirical orthogonal function were also applied to investigate change trend, period and regional characteristics, respectively. In NX, annual and seasonal drought occurrence and drought coverage all showed a decreasing trend that was most significant in winter （with rates of-0.26 month/10a and -15.46%, respectively）, and drought occurrence in spring and summer were more frequent than that in autumn and winter. Spatially, drought was severe in eastern regions but mild in western regions of NX. Annual and seasonal drought occurrence at 38 meteorological stations displayed decreasing trends and were most significant in ＂Shi- hezi-Urumqi-Changji＂, which can help to alleviate severe drought hazards for local agricultural production and improve human livelihood. NX can be approximately classified into three sub-regions （severe drought region, moder- ate drought region and mild drought region）, which were calculated from annual drought frequencies. The cross wavelet transform suggested that SOl （Southern Oscillation Index）, AOI （Arctic Oscillation Index）, AAOI （Antarctic Oscillation Index）, PAOI （Pacific/North American Oscillation Index） and NAOI （North Atlantic Oscillation Index） have significant correlation with the variation of drought occurrence in NX. To prevent and mitigate the occurrence of drought disasters in NX, agricultural and government managers should pay more attention to those drought events that occur in spring and summer.

Temporal pattern mining from user-generated content

Faster internet, IoT, and social media have reformed the conventional web into a collaborative web resulting in enormous user-generated content. Several studies are focused on such content;however, they mainly focus on textual data, thus undermining the importance of metadata. Considering this gap, we provide a temporal pattern mining framework to model and utilize user-generated content's metadata. First, we scrap 2.1 million tweets from Twitter between Nov-2020 to Sep-2021 about 100 hashtag keywords and present these tweets into 100 User-Tweet-Hashtag (UTH) dynamic graphs. Second, we extract and identify four time-series in three timespans (Day, Hour, and Minute) from UTH dynamic graphs. Lastly, we model these four time-series with three machine learning algorithms to mine temporal patterns with the accuracy of 95.89%, 93.17%, 90.97%, and 93.73%, respectively. We demonstrate that user-generated content's metadata contains valuable information, which helps to understand the users' collective behavior and can be beneficial for business and research. Dataset and codes are publicly available;the link is given in the dataset section.

Spatial-temporal evolution of vegetation evapotranspiration in Hebei Province,China

Evapotranspiration （ET） is the sum of soil or water body evaporation and plant transpiration from the earth surface and ocean to the atmosphere, and thus plays a significant role in regulating carbon and water resource cycles. The time-series data set from the remote sensing MOLDS product （MOD16） was used to study the spatial-temporal evolution of vegetation evapotranspiration in salinized areas during 2000-2014 by analyzing the variability, spatial patterns and Mann-Kendall （MK） nonparametric trends for the time series. The results indicate that inter-annual and intra-annual variations of ET across various vegetated areas show seasonal changes, with the abnormal months identified. The Cultivated land displays a greater degree of spatial heterogeneity and the spatial pattern of ET in the area covered by broadleaved deciduous forests corresponds to a higher ET rate and increased water consumption. Awidespread decline of ET is observed only in cultivated areas. However, agricultural cultivation doesn＇t worsen water shortage and soil salinization problems in the region, and water shortage problems are worsening for other vegetated areas. This research provides a basis of reference for the reasonable allocation of water resources and restructuring of vegetation patterns in salinized areas.

Effect of water level fluctuations on temporal-spatial patterns of foraging activities by the wintering Hooded Crane(Grus monacha)

Background:The Yangtze River floodplain provides important wintering habitats for Hooded Cranes(Grus monacha) in China.Fluctuations in the water level change foraging habitat and food availability,affecting their temporal-spatial patterns of foraging activities.It is of considerable importance to investigate the effect of these fluctuations on food availability for wintering Hooded Cranes and their foraging response to these changes.Understanding their behavior patterns is beneficial in protecting the wintering crane population and restoring their wintering habitats.Methods:A field survey of the winter behavior of cranes was carried out at Shengjin Lake from November in 2013 to April in 2014.Habitat variables,as well as the spatial distribution and behavior patterns of wintering cranes at their foraging sites during five stages of water level fluctuation were collected.Based on this data we analyzed the relationship of foraging behavior relative to water level fluctuations and habitat types.Results:The foraging habitats used by Hooded Cranes varied at the different water level stages.As the water level decreased,the use of meadows and mudflats increased.When the water dropped to its lowest level,the use by the Hooded Crane in the mudflats reached a peak.There were statistically significant differences in time budget in the three types of habitats over the five stages of the water level.In the mudflats,the foraging behavior and maintenance behavior varied significantly with the water level,while the alert behavior showed little variation.Analysis of a generalized linear model showed that the five water level stages and three habitat types had a significant effect on foraging behavior,while the combined effect of these two variables was significant on the foraging time budget and the length of foraging activity of the Hooded Crane.Conclusions:With the decrease in the water level,the use of mudflats by Hooded Cranes increased correspondingly.Food availability in different habitats was affected by changes in the water level.The Hooded Crane adjusted its foraging patterns and made full use of the three available types of habitat in order to acquire enough food in response to fluctuations in the water level.

Spatio-temporal point pattern analysis on Wenchuan strong earthquake

For exploring the aftershock occurrence process of the 2008 Wenchuan strong earthquake, the spatio-temporal point pattern analysis method is employed to study the sequences of aflershocks with magnitude M≥4.0, M≥4.5, and M≥5.0. It is found that these data exhibit the spatio-temporal clustering on a certain distance scale and on a certain time scale. In particular, the space-time interaction obviously strengthens when the distance is less than 60 km and the time is less than 260 h for the first two aftershock sequences; however, it becomes strong when the distance scale is less than 80 km and the time scale is less than 150 h for the last aftershock sequence. The completely spatial randomness analysis on the data regardless of time component shows that the spatial clustering of the aftershocks gradually strengthens on the condition that the distance is less than 60 km. The results are valuable for exploring the occurrence rules of the Wenchuan strong earthquake and for predicting the aftershocks.

Methods to evaluate the impacts of physio- geographical pattern on spatio-temporal disparity of regional development

With the rapid economic development during the last 30 years in China, more and more disparities have emerged among different regions. It has been one of the hot topics in the fields of physical geography and economic geography, and also has been the task for Chinese government to handle. Nevertheless, to quantitatively assess the impacts of physio-geographical patterns （PGP） on the regional development disparity has been ignored for a long time. In this paper, a quantitative method was adopted to assess the marginal effects of the PGP on spatio-temporal disparity using the partial determination coefficients. The paper described the construction of the evaluation model step by step following its key scientific thinking. Total GDP, per capita GDP, primary industrial output value and secondary industrial output value were employed in this study as the indicators to reflect the impacts of PGP on the regional development disparity. Based on the evaluation methods built by researchers, this study firstly analyzed the temporal impacts of the PGP on spatio-temporal disparity of the regional development in China during the past 50 years, and then explained the spatial differences at each development stage. The results show that the spatio-temporal disparity in China is highly related to the PGP, and that the marginal contribution rate could be employed as an effective way to quantitatively assess the impact of the PGP on spatio-temporal disparity of the regional development.