Re-delineating mountainous areas with three topographic parameters in Mainland Southeast Asia using ASTER global digital elevation model data

Tropical mountainous areas not only provide substantial carbon storage and play an important role in global biological diversity, but also provide basic livelihood for a large number of poor ethnic minorities. However, there is no unified and explicit definition for mountainous areas. The local elevation range(LER) is a crucial structural parameter for delineating mountainous areas. However, current LER products are limited by the subjective selection of an optimum statistical window or coarser spatial resolution of topographical data. In this study, we presented an approach using thresholds for three topographic parameters, elevation, slope, and LER, derived from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model(ASTER GDEM) to redelineate the vast mountainous areas of mainland Southeast Asia(MSEA). The mean change-point analysis method was applied to determine the optimum statistical window of the 1 arc second(approximately 30 m)-resolution GDEM LER. The results showed that: First, the optimum statistical window is 38 × 38 cell units(width × height) in a rectangular neighborhood, or an area of about 1.30 km^2 for calculating GDEM LER in MSEA. Second, the LER of more than 80% of the area ranges from 30 m to 499 m in MSEA. The LERs in the northern and northwestern MSEA are greater than their counterparts in the south and east. Third, the area of the re-delineated mountainous areas was 83.52 × 10~4 km^2, about 38.71% of the total area. Spatially, the mountainous areas are mainly distributed in the north and northeast of MSEA. The re-delineated 30-m resolution map of the mountainous areas will serve as a topographical dataset for monitoring mountainrelated land surface changes in MSEA. The parameter-modified mountain extraction procedure can be expanded to delineate global mountainous areas.

Distribution Pattern of Vascular Plant Species of Mountains in Nepal and their Fate Against Global Warming

This study aims to find the altitudinal distribution pattern of vascular plant species reported from high mountain of Nepal(Manang) along the whole Himalayan elevation gradient, and evaluate their fate against climate change. Data was gathered from multiple sources, field investigations, literatures, and herbarium specimens. Altogether, 303 vascular plant species were reported from Manang. We used a published data to calculate distribution range of each species by interpolating between its upper and lower elevation limits. The relationship between elevation and species richness is elucidated by generalized linear model. The consequence of global warming upon Manang's vascular plant species was estimated based on projected temperature change for next century and adiabatic lapse rate along the elevation gradient of the Himalayas. The vascular plant species richness has a unimodel relationship with elevation along the whole elevation gradient of Nepal as well as in three biogeographical regions of Nepal. Vascular plants of Manang are found distributed from low land Terai to high alpine regions of Nepal and their elevation distribution range varies from 200 to 4700 m. Out of 303 vascular plants of Manang, only seven species might be affected if temperature increase by 1.5°C, whereas at least 70 species will be affected with 5°C temperature increased. However, the majority of species(233 species) have wider distribution range(> 1000 m) and more than 5°C temperature tolerance range, thus they are likely to be less affected from global warming by the end of 21 st century.

In vitro Biological Evaluation of Graphene on Neuronal Cells

We prepared graphene（GE） with a mean size of 3087 nm.The transition of graphene oxide（GO） to GE was confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR） and X-ray diffraction（XRD）.The experimental results of optical microscopic observation indicated that the GE ranged from 5 to 20 μg/mL did not affect the cell morphologies of the PC12 cells.The results of cell viability and membrane integrity assay supported that of optical microscopic observation and demonstrated that the GE ranged from 5 to 20 μg/mL presented no obvious cytotoxicity.However,reactive oxygen species（ROS） assay suggested that an elevation of ROS level could be detected when the GE ranged from 20 to 100 μg/mL.These results showed that the GE ranged from 5 to 10 μg/mL presented an excellent in vitro biocompatibility and was one kind of potential biomaterials for neural tissue engineering.

Synthetic aperture radar tomography sampling criteria and three-dimensional range migration algorithm with elevation digital spotlighting

Based on the general geometric model of multi-baseline Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography （TomoSAR）, the three-dimensional （3-D） sampling criteria, the analytic expression of the 3-D Point Spread Function （PSF） and the 3-D resolution are derived in the 3-D wavenumber domain in this paper. Considering the relationship between the observation geometry and the size of illuminated scenario, a 3-D Range Migration Algorithm with Elevation Digital Spotlighting （RMA-EDS） is proposed. With this algorithm 3-D images of the area of interest can be directly and accurately reconstructed in the 3-D space avoiding the complex operations of 3-D geometric correction. Finally, theoretical analyses and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the shift-varying property of the 3-D PSF and the spatialvarying property of the 3-D resolution and to demonstrate the validity of the 3-D RMA-EDS.