Changes in Grassland Ecosystem Service Values in the Three-River Headwaters Region,China

[Method] This study aimed to assess the changes in grassland ecosystem Service values in the Three-River Headwaters Region of China, the source of the Yangtze, Yellow （Huang He） and Lantsang （Mekong） rivers. [Method] Biophysical values of four services were monetized within the region, including water regulation, air quality regulation, climate regulation and soil conservation. [Result] The total ESVs were 884.97×10^8 Yuan, 1 302.06×10^8 Yuan and 1 299.49×10^8 Yuan in 2000, 2005 and 2008, respectively. The amount of value per unit area experienced a steep increase from 2000 to 2005（18.10×10^4 Yuan/km2）, and then remained almost unchanged from 2005 to 2008 （-0.31×10^4 Yuan/km2）. The ESV tended to decline from the southeastern to the northwestern. ESV in the eastern and central part increased faster than that in the south-central and western part of the TRHR from 2000 to 2008. It could be seen that the ecosystem condition of grassland in the TRHR improved signifi- cantly over the study period of 2000-2008. [Conelusion] The results provided good information to assess the effectiveness of current ecological protection measures in the TRHR and support regional sustainable management policies.

Using a Spatial Convolution Method to Estimate Ecosystem Services Values at Regional Level: a Case Study in Northeast China

Since the introduction of the concept, studies on valuation of ecosystem services have been overwhelming, in cognizance of its great significance. In this article, the authors took Northeast China as the study area and applied the published coefficients for the world by Costanza to calculate the ecosystem services values through a spatial convolution method. The convolution analysis was done with a square processor with 5×5 neighborhood cells. The results showed that the ecosystem services value for the study area in the year 2003 was US$44 990 million which is US$89 million less than the value without operation, and the main contributions for that decrease were from water bodies, wetlands and estuaries. It is expected that this article can attract more interest to explore this field adopting geographic methods.

Forest Ecosystem Services and Their Values in Beijing

As the most important ecosystem in Beijing, the forest supports a lot of ecosystem services to local and around communities, which plays a key role in the maintenance of urban ecological security.However, the valuation on the forest ecosystem services based on regional scale could not provide precise and reasonable values for forestry sector management.In this study, we estimated the magnitudes and economic values of the forest ecosystem services in Beijing at sublot level.The economic value of forest ecosystem services in Beijing was estimated to be 19 339.71×10 6 yuan(RMB) in 2004.Among all the ecosystem services indicators we estimated in this study, only fruit, timber and part of the recreation(which only include the tourism income from the forest parks and scenic areas, but not include that from other forest types) were measured in the social economic system.As estimated in this study, more than 82.19% of the economic value of forest ecosystem services could not be measured in the socio-economic statistical system.The importance of forest ecosystem services in Beijing to human welfare was underestimated by the socio-economic system.Therefore, the policies about the eco-compensation of forest ecosystem services should be established to maintain the sustainable supply of the forest ecosystem services in Beijing.

Estimates of loss in ecosystem service values of Songnen plain from 1980 to 2000

Ecosystem services are premises for human beings to exist and develop in the world, and it is of importance to study effects of land use change on ecosystem functions. Songnen plain, located in Northeast China, is one of the national key bases for agricultural production. Because there were remarkable variations in land use in recent years, it can supply specific foundation for protection and restoration of regional eco-environment to explore changes in its values of ecosystem services. This study aims to qualify long-term changes in land use of Songnen plain from 1980 to 2000, and to explore the impact of land use change on ecosystem services. With 2-period land use data using RS and GIS, this paper analyzed changes in land use and in ecosystem service values using the ecosystem service value coefficients (VC) put forward by Costanza et al. Results showed that from 1980 to 2000, area of rangeland, water area and wetlands and area of cropland decreased, but urban area and unused land increased. Due to cropland's comparatively low VC and comparatively high VC of wetlands and water area, increment in cultivated land could not offset the total decrement in regional ecosystem service values because of the decrease in area of wetlands and water area. Meanwhile, city sprawl has also led to loss of ecological values. Total ecosystem service values of the study area reduced dramatically, from 34,926.10×106$ to 31,744.54×106$ in the period 1980-2000. This represents a 9.11% net decline in annual value of ecosystem services in the study area.

Responses of Spatial-temporal Variation of Karst Ecosystem Service Values to Landscape Pattern in Northwest of Guangxi,China

The responses of spatiotemporal variation of ecosystem service values (ESVs) to landscape pattern from 1985 to 2005 in a typical Karst area of the northwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,China,were examined us-ing remote sensing and geographic information system techniques in this paper.The total ecosystem service values de-clined significantly from 1985 to 1990,and then increased slowly from 1990 to 2005,almost equaled to the 1985 level.The ecosystem service values tended to decline from the west to the east and from mountainous regions to peak-cluster depression areas in 1985,1990,2000 and 2005 respectively.During the period from 1985 to 2005,the ecosystem ser-vice values have increased in the middle and eastern parts of the study area.Landscape pattern indices,such as total area,largest patch index,contagion,aggregative index,effective mesh and proportion of like adjacencies,are significantly correlated with ecosystem service values.This suggests that ecosystem service values tend to increase with the growth of patch area and patch connectivity.However,there are negative correlations between ecosystem service values and landscape pattern indices,such as division index and patch richness.It indicates that ecosystem service values decrease with patch fragmentation and patch size shrinkage.The ecosystem conditions in the typical Karst area have been improved because of the control measures of rocky desertification.It is important to protect key landscape types,such as woodland,shrub and grassland,and to increase patch size and connectivity to avoid further fragmentation.Furthermore,it is necessary to reduce disturbances to ensure the growth of ecosystem service values and to facilitate the sustainable development in this region.

Driving Force and Ecosystem Service Values Estimation in the Extreme Arid Region from 1975 to 2015:A Case Study of Alxa League,China

The research on ecosystem service values(ESVs)estimation in arid region is weak.We took the Alxa League of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,an extreme arid region,as an example and constructed an equivalent coefficient method to assess its ESVs from 1975 to 2015,by determining the standard unit of ESVs and the basic equivalent of the value of different ecosystem services per unit area based on the regional characteristics,literature research,expert knowledge and land use data.The results show that the ESVs first decreased from 83170.4 million yuan(RMB)in 1975 to 82337.8 million yuan(RMB)in 2000 and then increased to84033.6 million yuan(RMB)in 2015,and the ESV of sparse grassland and desert account for about 33%and 29%of the total ESVs,respectively.Among the four service types,the regulating services,support services,supply services and cultural services account for66.5%,22.8%,6.0%and 4.7%,respectively.The changes of ESVs in Alxa League are determined by the socio-economic development and ecological changes.This study provides a new method to estimate the ESVs in arid region by integrating existing methods and regional characteristics,such as the cost of water for arid ecosystems.

Changes in Ecosystem Service Values on the Loess Plateau in Northern Shaanxi Province,China

The Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province of China covers Yulin, Yan＇an, and Tongchuan cities mainly. The kind of physiognomy is complicated and various, including the transitional region of the sand and wind, the hilly-gully fragile region, the pimple mound region from North to South. Large-scale land reclamation projects that are severely affecting these ecosystems have been implemented. In this paper, we reported an investigation to the changes in land use and ecosystem services on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province from 1978 to 2000. We used three LANDSAT TM and/or ETM data sets to estimate the changes in the size of five land-cover/land-use categories, and we also used previously published value coefficients to estimate the changes in the value of ecosystem services delivered by each land category. Finally, we ranked the contribution of various ecosystem functions to the overall value of the ecosystem services, we have estimated that the annual value of the ecosystem services is 56.95 billon RMB yuan in the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province in 2000. In the region, from 1978 to 2000, the economic value of the fixing carbon was higher, the economic value of water conservation was the lowest, but the economic value of the NPP, fixing carbon, and supplying oxygen accounted for above ninety percent of the total value, obviously the vegetation created the biggest ecosystem service value. We can conclude that future land-use policy formulation should give precedence to the conservation of these ecosystems over uncontrolled reclamation, and that further land reclamation should be based on rigorous environmental impact analyses.

Sensitivity of intrinsic mode functions of Lorenz system to initial values based on EMD method

Extreme sensitivity to initial values is an intrinsic character of chaotic systems. The evolution of a chaotic system has a spatiotemporal structure containing quasi-periodic changes of different spatiotemporal scales. This paper uses an empirical mode decomposition （EMD） method to decompose and compare the evolution of the time-dependent evolutions of the x-component of the Lorenz system. The results indicate that the sensitivity of intrinsic mode function （IMF） component is dependent on initial values, which provides some scientific evidence for the possibility of long-range climatic prediction.

Spatio-temporal variation of ecosystem service values adjusted by vegetation cover:a case study of Wuyishan National Park Pilot,China

Ecosystem service values(ESV)are strongly influenced by the vegetation cover,which is heterogeneous across different vegetation types.We develop a dynamic evaluation model of ESV for Wuyishan National Park Pilot adjusted by the rate of inflation and the fractional vegetation cover,which is calculated by an enhanced vegetation index from 2000 to 2018.The spatio-temporal variation of vegetation was also examined.The results demonstrated that:(1)the unit area of ecosystem service values adjusted by vegetation cover(ESVVC)shows a gradient of forest>tea plantation>grassland>cropland,and the major ecosystem services provided by forests include soil formation and conservation,climate regulation,and biodiversity maintenance;(2)the ESV_(VC) increased to 2.1 billion yuan(The reference rate announced by the People’s Bank of China is the US dollar to 6.42 Yuan per dollar.)from 2000 to 2018.Higher and lower ESV_(VC) are predominant in the northwest and southeast region,respectively.In addition,changes of ecological protection structures and human disturbances negatively affected vegetation cover,leading to a decreased ESVVC from 2000 to 2005 in the Jiuqu Stream Ecological Protection Area and the Wuyishan National Scenic Spot.The implementation of ecological protection policies from 2010 to 2018 enhanced the ESV_(VC) in the study area;and,(3)the ESVVC is highest in the southeast and 25°–35°area with altitudes of 800–1000 m.Our model can provide timely and helpful information of changes in ESV for use in ecological corridor design and ecological security monitoring.

Carbon stock and sink economic values of forest ecosystem in the forest industry region of Heilongjiang Province, China

The values of forest carbon stock (CSV) and carbon sink (COV) are important topics in the global carbon cycle. We quantitatively analyzed the factors affecting changes in both for forest ecosystem in 2000−2015. With multiple linear stepwise regression analysis, we obtained the factors that had a significant impact on changes of CSV and COV, and then the impacts of these variables on CSV and COV were used for further quantitative analysis using the vector autoregressive model. Our results indicated that both stand age and afforestation area positively affect CSV and COV;however, the forest enterprise gross output value negatively affects CSV. Stand age has the largest long-term cumulative impact on CSV and COV, reaching 40.4% and 9.8%, respectively. The impact of enterprise gross output value and afforestation area on CSV and COV is the smallest, reaching 4.0% and 0.3%, respectively.

Global Solutions for a Strongly-coupled Parabolic System with Initial Boundary Values

In this paper, we consider a strongly-coupled parabolic system with initial boundary values. Under the appropriate conditions, using Gagliard-Nirenberg inequality, Poincare inequality, Gronwall inequality and imbedding theorem, we obtain the global existence of solutions.

Land Use Change and Its Impact on Values of Ecosystem Services in the West of Jilin Province

According to interpreting the LANDSAT TM/ETM images of 1986 and 2002, the spatial-temporal characteristics of land use changes were analyzed during 16 years base on GIS. In addition, the change of ecosystem services due to land use change was estimated by the method of vaulting global ecosystem services. The result shows that there were rapid increases in the area of cropland, saline-alkaline land, and dramatic decreases in grassland, water area and wetland between 1986 and 2002. The annual value of the ecosystem services was declined from 767.1 ×10s Yuan/a in 1986 to 624.1 × 10s Yuan/a in 2002, the estimated annual ecosystem service value declined by 18. 6 % （i. e. 1.6% per year） between 1986 and 2002. It indicates that there had been a sever harm to ecosystem functions and services, which results from the deterioration of ecological environment and the adjustment of land use that aim to currently economic benefit.

Ecosystem service values of gardens in the Yellow River Basin,China

Studies on the ecosystem service value(ESV)of gardens are critical for informing evidence-based land management practices based on an understanding of the local ecosystem.By analyzing equivalent value factors(EVFs),this paper evaluated the values of 11 ecosystem services of gardens in the Yellow River Basin of China in 2019.High-precision land use survey data were used to improve the accuracy of the land use classification,garden areas,and spatial distribution of the ESVs of gardens.The results showed that garden ecosystem generally had high ESVs,especially in terms of the ESV of food production,which is worthy of further research and application to the practice of land use planning and management.Specifically,the value of one standard EVF of ecosystem services in 2019 was 3587.04 CNY/(hm^(2)·a),and the ESV of food production of gardens was much higher than that of croplands.Garden ecosystem provided an ESV of 1348.66×10^(8)CNY/a in the Yellow River Basin.The areas with the most concentrated ESVs of gardens were located in four regions:downstream in the Shandong-Henan zone along the Yellow River,mid-stream in the Shanxi-Shaanxi zone along the Yellow River,the Weihe River Basin,and upstream in the Qinghai-Gansu-Ningxia-Inner Mongolia zone along the Yellow River.The spatial correlation of the ESVs in the basin was significant(global spatial autocorrelation index Moran's I=0.464),which implied that the characteristics of high ESVs adjacent to high ESVs and low ESVs adjacent to low ESVs are prominent.In the Yellow River Basin,the contribution of the ESVs of gardens to the local environment and economy varied across regions.We also put forward some suggestions for promoting the construction of ecological civilization in the Yellow River Basin.The findings of this study provide important contributions to the research of ecosystem service evaluation in the Yellow River Basin.

Tri-Intersectional Model of Leadership by Values:A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Open Technology Assessment System

Purpose-Nowadays successful organizations need to be masters at leadership by values to play in a constantly changing and transforming environment.But how can leaders and organizations effectively convene strategic and culture development based on values?This paper presents the Tri-Intersectional Model of Leadership by Values(TMLV)in which leaders and organizations can integrate a sustainable strategy,as well as a culture and value-based management system that simultaneously leverages human,financial,and social resources.With its three essential axes of values(economic-pragmatic,emotional-development,and ethical-social)at their intersection points,it allows leaders to focus on the strategy linkages:innovation-intersection between the economic-pragmatic values axis and the emotional-development values axis-allows them to develop sustainable innovations;survival-intersection between the economic-pragmatic values axis and the ethical-social values axis-enhances their organization’s survival;finally,sensibility-intersection between the economic-pragmatic values axis and the ethical-social values axis-makes them more humane and more socially-responsible.The application of the TMLV,using the Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Open Technology Assessment System,can be a great inspiration for stimulating and working with values in organizations,as well as allowing leaders to develop a values-based,high-involvement,and performance-oriented culture.Methodology/Approach-This research considers empirical data analysis of the 37 case studies of the EU-InnovatE project(http//www.euinnovate.com)-a pioneering initiative to align innovation values to integrate the end user into the process of innovation and entrepreneurship related to a sustainable lifestyle and the green economy in Europe-using a fuzzy multiple-criteria decision making method and open technologies system,such as server-side PHP language,MariaDB Database,fork of MYSQL Database Management System,and JavaScript libraries to perform operation directly on the user’s browser.Findings-The application of the TMLV model,considering empirical analysis of the extracted values from the case studies,using the Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Open Technology Assessment System,can be a great inspiration for stimulating and working with values in João organizations,as well as allowing leaders to develop suitable strategies and interventions for shaping a sustainable high-performance culture.Research implications-This research can be a starting point for further research to assess the effectiveness of the leadership model based on a decision-making open technology system in any given organization,as well as to invite researchers who have positive passion about working with values to participate in the improvement of this tool.Originality/value-The Tri-Intersectional Model of Leadership by Values using the Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making Open Technology Assessment System is presented as an evolution in leadership models that may be used to fuel innovation,survival,and a sensibility strategic focus that is necessary to optimize human and organizational performance and deliver effective solutions to the massive array of human,financial,and social problems we face today.

Refining the Reference Values of Diers 4D Formetric System and Introducing a Qualitative Spine Profile Based on Percentile Ranking

Background: In order to detect possible abnormalities of the spine posture of an individual patient, it is mandatory to dispose of adequate reference values based on measurements in a normal, symptom-free population. The Diers formetric?system allows for non-invasive and accurate assessment of the vertebral column based on the registration of external aspect of the back surface using the Moiré principle. Objective: To create a qualitative spine profile based on the percentile ranking of measurements obtained by the Diers formetric system taking into account possible confounding factors. Materials and Methods: Statistical analysis of formetric recordings in 216 symptom-free volunteers. Results: Maximal kyphotic angle, maximal scoliotic angle, sagittal imbalance, flèche cervicale, and pelvic inclination are significantly influenced by gender and by body mass index (BMI). A synoptic chart was created presenting the percentile ranking taking into account gender and BMI. The percentile ranking was summarized in both a table with colour code and depicted in a histogram of the individual’s Qualitative Spine Profile (QSP). Clinical Significance: Percentile ranking and the Quantitative Spine Profile taking into account gender and BMI should permit a more precise and reliable assessment of possible posture deviations related to the patient’s complaints, and may assist the therapist in selecting the best mode of treatment.

Improving the nutritional values of yellow mealworm Tenebrio molitor(Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) larvae as an animal feed ingredient: a review

Yellow mealworm larvae(YML;Tenebrio molitor) are considered as a valuable insect species for animal feed due to their high nutritional values and ability to grow under different substrates and rearing conditions. Advances in the understanding of entomophagy and animal nutrition over the past decades have propelled research areas toward testing multiple aspects of YML to exploit them better as animal feed sources. This review aims to summarize various approaches that could be exploited to maximize the nutritional values of YML as an animal feed ingredient. In addition, YML has the potential to be used as an antimicrobial or bioactive agent to improve animal health and immune function in production animals. The dynamics of the nutritional profile of YML can be influenced by multiple factors and should be taken into account when attempting to optimize the nutrient contents of YML as an animal feed ingredient. Specifically, the use of novel land-based and aquatic feeding resources, probiotics, and the exploitation of larval gut microbiomes as novel strategies can assist to maximize the nutritional potential of YML. Selection of relevant feed supplies, optimization of ambient conditions, the introduction of novel genetic selection procedures, and implementation of effective post-harvest processing may be required in the future to commercialize mealworm production. Furthermore, the use of appropriate agricultural practices and technological improvements within the mealworm production sector should be aimed at achieving both economic and environmental sustainability. The issues highlighted in this review could pave the way for future approaches to improve the nutritional value of YML.

THE BACKGROUND VALUES OF RARE EARTH AND RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS IN WATER SYSTEM OF SOURCE AREA OF THE CHANG JIANG RIVER

Using neutron activation analysis method we determined contents of rare-earth and radioactive elements (La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Yb, Lu, Cs, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sr, Ba, U, Th) in source water system of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, which is mainly composed of the Tuotuo River, the Chumaer River, and the Buqu River. The contents of these elements in the unflltered water have a great variation and a close correlation with the water turbidity. The contents of these elements in filtered water only have a little variation and are lower than those in the unflltered water. The variations in contents of these elements in sediments are also very little. These elements in the unifiltered water are in geometric distribution, except Sc. Most of the elements in sediments are in arithmetic distribution, but Cs, Sb, Th, are in deviation distribution. The contents of most of these elements in the river source area correspond to the contents of fresh water of the earth. Most of these elements have a little variation in their

Key-Value Store Coupled with an Operating System for Storing Large-Scale Values

The key-value store can provide flexibility of data types because it does not need to specify the data types to be stored in advance and can store any types of data as the value of the key-value pair.Various types of studies have been conducted to improve the performance of the key-value store while maintaining its flexibility.However,the research efforts storing the large-scale values such as multimedia data files(e.g.,images or videos)in the key-value store were limited.In this study,we propose a new key-value store,WR-Store++aiming to store the large-scale values stably.Specifically,it provides a new design of separating data and index by working with the built-in data structure of the Windows operating system and the file system.The utilization of the built-in data structure of the Windows operating system achieves the efficiency of the key-value store and that of the file system extends the limited space of the storage significantly.We also present chunk-based memory management and parallel processing of WR-Store++to further improve its performance in the GET operation.Through the experiments,we show that WR-Store++can store at least 32.74 times larger datasets than the existing baseline key-value store,WR-Store,which has the limitation in storing large-scale data sets.Furthermore,in terms of processing efficiency,we show that WR-Store++outperforms not only WR-Store but also the other state-ofthe-art key-value stores,LevelDB,RocksDB,and BerkeleyDB,for individual key-value operations and mixed workloads.

Characterizing changes in ecosystem service values in China's eastern Loess Plateau

Human activities such as the implementation of ecological protection projects and expansion of construction land can cause complex land use changes that affect ecosystem service values （ESV）. In this study, we investigated changes in ESV in response to land use changes in Ningwu County, in eastern Loess Plateau of China. Our aim is to provide guidance for sustainable land use planning in this region. We used remote sensing to evaluate land use changes, and applied a fast, proxy-based method for evaluating ESVat three points in time： 1990, 2000, and 2010. More than 89% of the total ESV in Ningwu County was attributable to woodland and grassland. The ESV in western mountain areas show the greatest increase from 1990 to 2010, but ESV decreased the most in the low-elevation northeastern area of flat terrain These tradeoffs led to a slight net decrease （1.0%） in Ningwu County＇s total ESV. Although the decline in ESV was relatively low compared to the rate of economic growth, total ESV was much lower than global and national average levels at the end of the study period.

STRUCTURES OF VALUES FOR SET GAMES RESTRICTED BY PARTITION SYSTEM

A set game, in which the worth of a coalition is expressed by a set instead of a real number, is a new type of cooperative game. A F-restricted set game is a set game restricted by partition system. The main theorems show the structures of IM-value,OIM-value,SCM-value and ICM-value respectively,and the equivalency of IM value and the OIM-value for monotonic set games restricted by partition system as well.