Associations of sense of coherence with psychological distress and quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease

AIM:To investigate the relationship between sense of coherence,psychological distress and health related quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).METHODS:This cross-sectional study enrolled a consecutive sample of 147 IBD(aged 45.1 ± 14.1 years; 57.1% female) patients recruited from a tertiary gastroenterology service.Sixty-four participants met diagnostic criteria for Crohn's disease,while eightythree patients had ulcerative colitis.Socio-demographic data(education,age,race,gender,gross monthly income and marital status),disease-related variables(illness activity,relapse rate in past 2 years,history of surgery and time since diagnosis),sense of coherence(Antonovsky's SOC scale),psychological distress symptoms(Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and health-related quality of life(HRQo L; WHOQOLBref) were assessed.Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to identify factors that are independently associated with psychological distress and HRQo L in patients with IBD and to provide indications for possible moderating or mediating effects.In addition,formal moderation and mediation analyses(Sobel tests) were performed to confirm potential moderators/mediators of the relationship between SOC,psychological distress symptoms and HRQoL.RESULTS:Lower SOC scores(std beta=-0.504; P < 0.001),female gender(std beta = 0.176; P = 0.021) and White race(std beta = 0.164; P = 0.033) were independently associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms,while lower levels of SOC(std beta =-0.438; P < 0.001) and higher relapse rate(std beta = 0.161; P = 0.033) were independently associated with more severe anxiety symptoms.A significant interaction between time since diagnosis and SOC was found with regard to the severity of depressive or anxiety symptoms,as the interaction term(time since diagnosis X SOC) had beta coefficients of-0.191(P = 0.009) and-0.172(P = 0.026),respectively.Lower levels of anxiety symptoms(std beta =-0.369; P < 0.001),higher levels of SOC(std beta = 0.231; P = 0.016) and non-White race(std beta =-0.229; P = 0.006),i.e.,mixed-race,which represented the reference category,were independently associated with higher levels of overall HRQoL.Anxiety symptoms were the most potent independent correlate of most aspects of HRQoL.In addition,anxiety mediated the association between SOC and satisfaction with health,as well as its relationship with physical,mental,and social relations HRQo L.Depressive symptoms also mediated the association between SOC and mental HRQoL.CONCLUSION:Our data indicated that SOC is an important construct,as it influences psychological distress and has significant albeit indirect effects on several HRQoL domains in IBD.

Remote sensing of quality traits in cereal and arable production systems:A review

Cereal is an essential source of calories and protein for the global population.Accurately predicting cereal quality before harvest is highly desirable in order to optimise management for farmers,grading harvest and categorised storage for enterprises,future trading prices,and policy planning.The use of remote sensing data with extensive spatial coverage demonstrates some potential in predicting crop quality traits.Many studies have also proposed models and methods for predicting such traits based on multiplatform remote sensing data.In this paper,the key quality traits that are of interest to producers and consumers are introduced.The literature related to grain quality prediction was analyzed in detail,and a review was conducted on remote sensing platforms,commonly used methods,potential gaps,and future trends in crop quality prediction.This review recommends new research directions that go beyond the traditional methods and discusses grain quality retrieval and the associated challenges from the perspective of remote sensing data.

Artificial senses for characterization of food quality

Food quality is of primary concern in the food industry and to the consumer. Systems that mimic human senses have been developed and applied to the characterization of food quality. The five primary senses are: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. In the characterization of food quality, people assess the samples sensorially and differentiate “good”from “bad”on a continuum. However, the human sensory system is subjective, with mental and physical inconsistencies, and needs time to work. Artificial senses such as machine vision, the electronic ear, electronic nose, electronic tongue, artificial mouth and even artificial the head have been developed that mimic the human senses. These artificial senses are coordinated individually or collectively by a pat- tern recognition technique, typically artificial neural networks, which have been developed based on studies of the mechanism of the human brain. Such a structure has been used to formulate methods for rapid characterization of food quality. This research presents and discusses individual artificial sensing systems. With the concept of multi-sensor data fusion these sensor systems can work collectively in some way. Two such fused systems, artificial mouth and artificial head, are described and discussed. It indicates that each of the individual systems has their own artificially sensing ability to differentiate food samples. It further indicates that with a more complete mimic of human intelligence the fused systems are more powerful than the individual sys- tems in differentiation of food samples.

Assessment on eco-environmental quality of the Yellow River Basin by considering desertification index

Desertification has had a significant impact on the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin(YRB)in China.However,previous studies on the evaluation of the ecological environment quality(EEQ)in the YRB have paid limited attention to the indicator of desertification.It is of great significance to incorporate the desertification index into the spatiotemporal assessment of the EEQ in the YRB in order to protect the ecological environment in the region.In this study,based on multi-source remote sensing data from 91 cities in the YRB,this article proposes a desertification remote sensing ecological index(DRSEI)model,which builds upon the traditional Remote Sensing Ecological Index(RSEI)model,to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the EEQ in the YRB from 2001 to 2021.Furthermore,using the geographic detector(GD),and geographically and temporally weighted regression(GTWR)model,the study assesses the impact of human and natural factors on the EEQ in the YRB.The research findings indicate that:(1)Compared to the traditional RSEI,the improved DRSEI shows a decreasing trend in the evaluation results of the EEQ.Among the 24 cities,the change in DRSEI exceeds 0.05 compared to RSEI,accounting for 26.37%of the YRB.The remaining 67 cities have changes within a range of less than 0.05,accounting for 73.63%of the YRB.(2)The results of the GD for individual and interactive effects reveal that rainfall and elevation have significant individual and interactive effects on the EEQ.Furthermore,after the interaction with natural factors,the explanatory power of human factors gradually increases over time.The spatial heterogeneity results of GTWR demonstrate that rainfall has a strong direct positive impact on the EEQ,accounting for 98.90%of the influence,while temperature exhibits a more pronounced direct inhibitory effect,accounting for 76.92%of the influence.Human activities have a strong negative impact on the EEQ and a weak positive impact.

Ecological environmental quality evaluation and driving factor analysis of the Lijiang River Basin,based on Google Earth Engine

For regional ecological management,it is important to evaluate the quality of ecosystems and analyze the underlying causes of ecological changes.Using the Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform,the remote sensing ecological index(RSEI)was calculated for the Lijiang River Basin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for 1991,2001,2011,and 2021.Spatial autocorrelation analysis was employed to investigate spatiotemporal variations in the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Furthermore,geographic detectors were used to quantitatively analyze influencing factors and their interaction effects on ecological environmental quality.The results verified that:1)From 1991 to 2021,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin demonstrated significant improvement.The area with good and excellent ecological environmental quality in proportion increased by 19.69%(3406.57 km^(2)),while the area with fair and poor ecological environmental quality in proportion decreased by 10.76%(1860.36 km^(2)).2)Spatially,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin exhibited a pattern of low quality in the central region and high quality in the periphery.Specifically,poor ecological environmental quality characterized the Guilin urban area,Pingle County,and Lingchuan County.3)From 1991 to 2021,a significant positive spatial correlation was observed in ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Areas with high-high agglomeration were predominantly forests and grasslands,indicating good ecological environmental quality,whereas areas with low-low agglomeration were dominated by cultivated land and construction land,indicating poor ecological environmental quality.4)Annual average precipitation and temperature exerted the most significant influence on the ecological environmental quality of the basin,and their interactions with other factors had the great influence.This study aimed to enhance understanding of the evolution of the ecological environment in the Lijiang River Basin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and provide scientific guidance for decision-making and management related to ecology in the region.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecological Quality in Alpine Freshwater Lake Nature Reserves in the Past 20 Years

The Caohai Nature Reserve is one of the three major plateau freshwater lakes in China.Since the 1950s,human activities such as land reclamation and population relocation have greatly damaged Caohai.A rapid evaluation of the spatiotemporal evolution trend of the ecological quality of the Caohai Nature Reserve is significant for the maintenance and construction of the ecosystem in this area.The research is based on the Google Earth Engine(GEE)remote sensing cloud computing platform.Landsat TM/OLI images from May to October in five time periods:2000-2002,2004-2006,2009-2011,2014-2016,and 2019-2021 were obtained to reconstruct the optimal cloud image set by averaging the images in each time period.By constructing four ecological indicators:Greenness(NDVI),Wetness(Wet),Hotness(LST),and Dryness(NDBSI),and using Principal Component Analysis(PCA)method to obtain the Remote Sensing Ecological Index(RSEI)for the corresponding years,the spatiotemporal variation of ecological quality in the Caohai Nature Reserve over 20 years was analyzed.The results indicate:①the mean value of RSEI increased from 0.460 in 2000-2002 to 0.772 in 2019-2021,a 67.83%increase,indicating a significant improvement in the ecological quality of the reserve over the 20 years;②from the perspective of functional zoning of the Caohai Nature Reserve,the ecological quality of the core area showed a degrading trend,while the ecological quality of the buffer zone and experimental zone significantly improved;③with the implementation of ecological restoration projects,the ecological quality of the reserve gradually recovered and improved from 2014 to 2021.The trend of RSEI value changes is well correlated with human interventions,indicating that the PCA-based RSEI model can be effectively used for ecological quality assessment in lake areas.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecological Quality in Typical Karst Ecologically Fragile Areas Based on Remote Sensing Ecological Indexes

Fast and effective remote sensing monitoring is an important means for analyzing the spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality in fragile karst regions.This study focuses on Guanling Autonomous County,a national-level demonstration county for comprehensive desertification control.Based on Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing image data from 2005,2010,2015,and 2020,remote sensing ecological indices were used to analyze the spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality in Guanling Autonomous County from 2005 to 2020.The results show that:①the variance contribution rates of the first principal component for the four periods were 66.31%,71.59%,63.18%,and 75.24%,indicating that PC1 integrated most of the characteristics of the four indices,making the RSEI suitable for evaluating ecological quality in karst mountain areas;②the remote sensing ecological index grades have been increasing year by year,with an overall trend of improving ecological quality.The area of higher-grade ecological quality has increased spatially,while fragmented patches have gradually decreased,becoming more concentrated in the low-altitude areas in the northwest and east,and there is a trend of expansion towards higher-altitude areas;③the ecological environment quality in most areas has improved,with the improvement in RSEI spatio-temporal variation becoming more noticeable with increasing slope.Areas of higher-grade quality appeared in 2010,and the range of higher-grade quality expanded with increasing slope.

Construction of the Sense of Belonging of Place Spirit in the Renovation of Historical Blocks: A Case Study of Ancient Town Street of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Hekou, Qianshan

The renovation of historical blocks often stays at the material level of buildings, ignoring the deeper spiritual level, which can not arouse people’s sense of belonging to the city memory. Based on the protection of local Qianshan area culture, taking Hekou ancient town street of Ming and Qing Dynasty as an example, with the construction of place spirit and sense of belonging as the primary goal, and combining the history and culture of the city, the current situation of the streets and the characteristics of the buildings, this paper put forward the relevant renovation measures to provide a kind of thinking for the refined and rational renovation of the blocks in the future.

Spatial-temporal changes and driving factors of eco-environmental quality in the Three-North region of China

Eco-environmental quality is a measure of the suitability of the ecological environment for human survival and socioeconomic development.Understanding the spatial-temporal distribution and variation trend of eco-environmental quality is essential for environmental protection and ecological balance.The remote sensing ecological index(RSEI)can quickly and objectively quantify eco-environmental quality and has been extensively utilized in regional ecological environment assessment.In this paper,Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)images during the growing period(July-September)from 2000 to 2020 were obtained from the Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform to calculate the RSEI in the three northern regions of China(the Three-North region).The Theil-Sen median trend method combined with the Mann-Kendall test was used to analyze the spatial-temporal variation trend of eco-environmental quality,and the Hurst exponent and the Theil-Sen median trend were superimposed to predict the future evolution trend of eco-environmental quality.In addition,ten variables from two categories of natural and anthropogenic factors were analyzed to determine the drivers of the spatial differentiation of eco-environmental quality by the geographical detector.The results showed that from 2000 to 2020,the RSEI in the Three-North region exhibited obvious regional characteristics:the RSEI values in Northwest China were generally between 0.2 and 0.4;the RSEI values in North China gradually increased from north to south,ranging from 0.2 to 0.8;and the RSEI values in Northeast China were mostly above 0.6.The average RSEI value in the Three-North region increased at an average growth rate of 0.0016/a,showing the spatial distribution characteristics of overall improvement and local degradation in eco-environmental quality,of which the areas with improved,basically stable and degraded eco-environmental quality accounted for 65.39%,26.82%and 7.79%of the total study area,respectively.The Hurst exponent of the RSEI ranged from 0.20 to 0.76 and the future trend of eco-environmental quality was generally consistent with the trend over the past 21 years.However,the areas exhibiting an improvement trend in eco-environmental quality mainly had weak persistence,and there was a possibility of degradation in eco-environmental quality without strengthening ecological protection.Average relative humidity,accumulated precipitation and land use type were the dominant factors driving the spatial distribution of eco-environmental quality in the Three-North region,and two-factor interaction also had a greater influence on eco-environmental quality than single factors.The explanatory power of meteorological factors on the spatial distribution of eco-environmental quality was stronger than that of topographic factors.The effect of anthropogenic factors(such as population density and land use type)on eco-environmental quality gradually increased over time.This study can serve as a reference to protect the ecological environment in arid and semi-arid regions.

Urbanization and Quality of Urban Environment Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in East Delhi-India

An explosive increase of urban population, practically in all major cities and towns, has the consequent strain on the existing system manifested in an environmental chaos. The phenomena of accelerated urbanisation is the main culprit, wherein besides bringing higher standard of living, it has also brought problems, as growth of dense and unplanned residential areas, environmental pollution, non-availability of services and amenities, solid waste etc. Remote sensing satellite data is suitable for urban land use mapping to get detail and up- to-date information for environmental management. Where as GIS helps in developing database system for urban information, which supports decision making process. Development of digital database on all aspects of land use and urban planning is the next crucial task for the future in which remote sensing based informa-tion is going to play a major role. In Delhi, rise in population and growth in economic activity has led to en-vironmental degradation. With this view an attempt has been made to study the quality of urban environment in the East district of Delhi, which is experiencing very high urban growth with 98.75% urban population in 2001. For this study Landsat ASTER (MSS) data of year 2001 (15 m Ground resolution), Guide map of the year 1982 and demographic and environmental data has been used. Eight parameters were selected, which affect the urban environmental quality, namely built-up area, open spaces, household density, occupancy ra-tio, population density, accessibility to roads, noise and smell affected area. The study shows that the quality of environment has been degraded when we compare 1982 and 2003 data. Most of the East district was in a better state of environment in 1982, but in 2003 things have been changed and now 50% area is in very good, fair and desirable condition. The public participation and involvement should be encouraged planning and decisions making for the improvement in better urban environmental quality.

Evaluation of Ordinary Least Square(OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR) for Water Quality Monitoring:A Case Study for the Estimation of Salinity

Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper(TM) dataset have been used to estimate salinity in the coastal area of Hong Kong. Four adjacent Landsat TM images were used in this study, which was atmospherically corrected using the Second Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum(6S) radiative transfer code. The atmospherically corrected images were further used to develop models for salinity using Ordinary Least Square(OLS) regression and Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR) based on in situ data of October 2009. Results show that the coefficient of determination(R^2) of 0.42 between the OLS estimated and in situ measured salinity is much lower than that of the GWR model, which is two times higher(R^2 = 0.86). It indicates that the GWR model has more ability than the OLS regression model to predict salinity and show its spatial heterogeneity better. It was observed that the salinity was high in Deep Bay(north-western part of Hong Kong) which might be due to the industrial waste disposal, whereas the salinity was estimated to be constant(32 practical salinity units) towards the open sea.

ANALYSIS ON THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION VARIATION CHARACTERISTIC OF URBAN HEAT ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND ITS MECHANISM——A Case Study of Hangzhou City

Urban heat environmental quality (UHEQ) is affected by the interacting of weather condition and underlying surface framework of urban area. In the last two decades, many researchers from domestic and overseas have studied many problems at the aspect of urban heat environment such as urban heat islands, urban air temperature and their relation with urban land cover, city population, air pollution etc. In the recent years, Hangzhou, acting as a center city of Zhejiang Province in China, its urbanization quantum and quantity have both changed greatly, in particular, representing as business affairs building, resident real property and all kinds of specialty market having arisen in built-up zone. Based on Landsat TM images data in 1991 and 1999, urban underlying surface temperature value and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were calculated using image interpreting and supervised classification technique by remote sensing software ERDAS image 8.4. The relation model between urban underlying surface temperature (UUST) and urban air temperature was setup according to the certain correlation pattern. Reference to the relational standard of assessing human comfort and other meteorology data of Hangzhou City in summer, the spatial distribution characteristic and the spatial variation degree of human comfort of heat environmental quality are estimated and mapped on a middle scale, that is, in six districts of Hangzhou City . Then the paper reveals the main characteristic of spatial variation from 1991 to 1999. Lastly, the change mechanism is analyzed and discussed from the viewpoint of city planning, construction and environmental protection.

Assessment of ecological quality in Northwest China(2000-2020)using the Google Earth Engine platform:Climate factors and land use/land cover contribute to ecological quality

The ecological quality of inland areas is an important aspect of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(UN SDGs).The ecological environment of Northwest China is vulnerable to changes in climate and land use/land cover,and the changes in ecological quality in this arid region over the last two decades are not well understood.This makes it more difficult to advance the UN SDGs and develop appropriate measures at the regional level.In this study,we used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)products to generate remote sensing ecological index(RSEI)on the Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform to examine the relationship between ecological quality and environment in Xinjiang during the last two decades(from 2000 to 2020).We analyzed a 21-year time series of the trends and spatial characteristics of ecological quality.We further assessed the importance of different environmental factors affecting ecological quality through the random forest algorithm using data from statistical yearbooks and land use products.Our results show that the RSEI constructed using the GEE platform can accurately reflect the ecological quality information in Xinjiang because the contribution of the first principal component was higher than 90.00%.The ecological quality in Xinjiang has increased significantly over the last two decades,with the northern part of this region having a better ecological quality than the southern part.The areas with slightly improved ecological quality accounted for 31.26%of the total land area of Xinjiang,whereas only 3.55%of the land area was classified as having a slightly worsen(3.16%)or worsen(0.39%)ecological quality.The vast majority of the deterioration in ecological quality mainly occurred in the barren areas Temperature,precipitation,closed shrublands,grasslands and savannas were the top five environmental factors affecting the changes in RSEI.Environmental factors were allocated different weights for different RSEI categories.In general,the recovery of ecological quality in Xinjiang has been controlled by climate and land use/land cover during the last two decades and policy-driven ecological restoration is therefore crucial.Rapid monitoring of inland ecological quality using the GEE platform is projected to aid in the advancement of the comprehensive assessment of the UN SDGs.

Application of Multivariate Model Based on Three Simulated Sensors for Water Quality Variables Estimation in Shitoukoumen Reservoir,Jilin Province,China

This study applied a multivariate model based on three simulated sensors to estimating water quality variables in Shitoukoumen Reservoir,Changchun City,Jilin Province,China,including concentration of total suspended matter,concentration of chlorophyll-a and non-pigment matter absorption.Two field campaigns for spectra measurements with a total of 40 samples were carried out on June 13 and September 23,2008.The in-situ spectra were recalculated to the spectral bands and sensitivities of the instruments applied in this paper,i.e.Landsat TM,Alos and P6,by using the average method.And the recalculated spectra were used for estimating water quality variables by the single model and multivariate model.The results show that the multivariate model is superior to the single model as the multivariate model takes the combined effects of water components into consideration and can estimate water quality variables simultaneously.According to R2 and RMSE,Alos is superior to other sensors for water quality variables estimation although the precision of non-pigment matter absorption inversion performed the second.

Intellectual Property Protection and High-quality Development of Cotton Industry in Xinjiang

This paper firstly introduces the general situation of cotton planting areas in China and cotton industry in Xinjiang,and the current situation of intellectual property protection of Xinjiang's cotton industry.Then,it analyzes the main problems in its intellectual property protection and high-quality development.On this basis,it comes up with the recommendations for high-quality development of cotton industry in Xinjiang under the strategy of strengthening the country with intellectual property.The recommendations include improving the level of creation of creative intellectual property rights,building an intellectual property rule system in the entire cotton industry chain in Xinjiang,building protected zones for production of major high quality agricultural product cotton,establishing a demonstration zone to undertake the transfer of the domestic cotton textile and garment industry,undertaking education on the sense of community for the Chinese nation in response to the Xinjiang cotton incident,and developing the"Belt and Road"blue market for Xinjiang cotton and its products.

Quality evaluation of synthetic quorum sensing peptides used in R&D

Peptides are becoming an important class of molecules in the pharmaceutical field. Closely related peptide-impurities in peptides are inherent to the synthesis approach and have demonstrated to potentially mask biomedical experimental results. Quorum sensing peptides are attracting high interest in R＆D and therefore a representative set of quorum sensing peptides, with a requested purity of at least 95.0%, was evaluated for their purity and nature of related impurities. In-house quality control （QC） revealed a large discrepancy between the purity levels as stated on the supplier＇s certificate of analysis and our QC results. By using our QC analysis flowchart, we demonstrated that only 44.0% of the peptides met the required purity. The main compound of one sample was even found to have a different structure compared to the desired peptide. We also found that the majority of the related impurities were lacking amino acid（s） in the desired peptide sequence. Relying on the certificates of analysis as provided by the supplier might have serious consequences for peptide research, and peptide-researchers should implement and maintain a thorough in-house QC.

Relationship between sense of coherence and lifestyle in middle-aged workers in Japan

Metabolic syndrome has recently become a concern in Japan. It is commonly believed that lifestyle quality must be improved and main- tained for optimum health. A cross-sectional survey of middle-aged workers was performed to examine the relationship between a sense of coherence (SOC) and health status. The study further aimed to determine the quality of life necessary to maintain physical and psychologi- cal health. An anonymous online survey was conducted with a panel of respondents regis- tered with an Internet research service. The survey items addressed SOC and awareness of lifestyle habits, specifically lifestyle factors of self-rated health, level of satisfaction, and level of stress. Responses were obtained from 412 women and 206 men. The approximately equal high and low SOC results indicated that self- rated health and level of satisfaction were signi- ficantly higher in both sexes with a high SOC, and such participants also experienced signifi- cantly lower levels of daily stress. With regard to the association between lifestyle factors and health, women with a high SOC tended to have shorter commutes, and a higher percentage ate breakfast daily compared with women with a low SOC. Men with a high SOC worked significantly longer hours, and a higher percentage were ei- ther married or resided with family. No sex dif- ferences in SOC were observed for health be- havior in daily life, and 50% of both women and men reported positive health behavior. Health behavior differed, however, according to SOC and sex. These findings suggest that health pre- servation in daily life of middle-aged worker’s women is possible through sustaining and en- hancing

Remote Sensing Applied to the Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Variation of Water Quality in a Coastal Environment, Southeast Brazil

The monitoring of water quality in large coastal regions demands great analytical efforts through the collection of many samples, over long periods. Remote sensing is a reliable tool that can provide valuable information on the spatial and temporal variations of environmental parameters, particularly turbidity and chlorophyll a. The aim of the present research was to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of water quality from 2005 to 2017 along the north coast of S&#227;o Paulo and its responses to the implementation of industrial developments and to variations in rainfall. Fifty-two MODIS images were used, showing concentrations of chlorophyll a and turbidity, in the dry season and wet season, from 2005 to 2017. The results showed that dilution processes (due to rainfall) control chlorophyll a concentrations. However, a notable increase in concentrations could be identified after the installation of some of the developments in the region, particularly roads and ports. Turbidity was also shown to be affected by dilution processes, and during the wet season this parameter presented lower values. No effect in the results of turbidity could be identified from the installation of roads or ports, showing that vegetation cover exerts an important control on the erosional processes.

Application of oxygen-sensing technology to measure seed quality of Ginkgo biloba

Germination tests are currently the most widely used method to evaluate seed quality of Ginkgo biloba L., but they are time-consuming and labor intensive. Oxygen-sensing technology, based on the principle of fluorescence quenching to detect oxygen and assess seed quality was used to rapidly evaluate seed quality of two varieties (Shandong Tancheng 202 and Zhejiang Dafoshou) of G. biloba from five mother plants. Fifteen samples of three vigor levels were produced by accelerated aging treatments. This process was applied in duplicate. A portable oxygen-sensing detector was employed to measure oxygen content during seed germination in a closed system at 25 A degrees C each day until day 14. Four oxygen metabolism indices were calculated: oxygen consumption index, oxygen consumption rate, critical oxygen concentration, and theoretical germination time (T (GT)). Additionally, we tested laboratory germination and field emergence. The results of a one-way analysis of variance and correlation analysis showed that T (GT) was the candidate index to evaluate seed quality of G. biloba. Therefore, the T (GT) value was used to validate the reliability of oxygen-sensing evaluation for Zhejiang Dafoshou seeds kept under four storage conditions. The trend in the change in oxygen metabolism agreed completely agreement with that of seed germination under all storage conditions. The oxygen-sensing test reliably and rapidly assessed seed quality of G. biloba. The germination rate of Zhejiang Dafoshou was accurately predicted by T (GT).

Research of Mount Huangshan Historical Soundscape from Late Ming to Early Qing Dynasties

Soundscape is a word proposed by R.Murray Schafer.Based on his theory,the soundscape is not only a sound environment,but a thing as a significant,aesthetic and meaningful phenomenon.The appreciation of landscape beauty not only comes from the visual sense,but also comes from other senses,such as hearing,smell,touching and taste.Hence,the sounds and its related soundscape appreciation are considered as important aesthetic components in Chinese national parks.The historical sound was the sound which happen in the history of national parks and recorded in serial documents.The historical soundscape should not only be considered as soundmark which deserved to be conserved in national park because of its history values,but also should be recognized as its aesthetic and dynamic values in national park too.In fact,it is a common sense in Chinese landscape history that considering historical soundscape as an aesthetic component.