The Preliminary Design and Implement of Plant Digital Information Retrieval System

[Objective] The aim was to set up a plant digital information retrieval system.[Method] Plant digital information retrieval system was designed by combining with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition database management system and Structure Query Language.[Result] The system realized electronic management and retrieval of local plant information.The key words of retrieval included family,genus,formal name,Chinese name,Latin,morphological characteristics,habitat,collection people,collection places,and protect class and so on.[Conclusion] It provided reference for these problems of species identification and digital management of herbarium.

An Application of a Multi-Tier Data Warehouse in Oil and Gas Drilling Information Management

Expenditure on wells constitute a significant part of the operational costs for a petroleum enterprise, where most of the cost results from drilling. This has prompted drilling departments to continuously look for ways to reduce their drilling costs and be as efficient as possible. A system called the Drilling Comprehensive Information Management and Application System (DCIMAS) is developed and presented here, with an aim at collecting, storing and making full use of the valuable well data and information relating to all drilling activities and operations. The DCIMAS comprises three main parts, including a data collection and transmission system, a data warehouse (DW) management system, and an integrated platform of core applications. With the support of the application platform, the DW management system is introduced, whereby the operation data are captured at well sites and transmitted electronically to a data warehouse via transmission equipment and ETL (extract, transformation and load) tools. With the high quality of the data guaranteed, our central task is to make the best use of the operation data and information for drilling analysis and to provide further information to guide later production stages. Applications have been developed and integrated on a uniform platform to interface directly with different layers of the multi-tier DW. Now, engineers in every department spend less time on data handling and more time on applying technology in their real work with the system.

DCAD:a Dual Clustering Algorithm for Distributed Spatial Databases

Spatial objects have two types of attributes： geometrical attributes and non-geometrical attributes, which belong to two different attribute domains （geometrical and non-geometrical domains）. Although geometrically scattered in a geometrical domain, spatial objects may be similar to each other in a non-geometrical domain. Most existing clustering algorithms group spatial datasets into different compact regions in a geometrical domain without considering the aspect of a non-geometrical domain. However, many application scenarios require clustering results in which a cluster has not only high proximity in a geometrical domain, but also high similarity in a non-geometrical domain. This means constraints are imposed on the clustering goal from both geometrical and non-geometrical domains simultaneously. Such a clustering problem is called dual clustering. As distributed clustering applications become more and more popular, it is necessary to tackle the dual clustering problem in distributed databases. The DCAD algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. DCAD consists of two levels of clustering： local clustering and global clustering. First, clustering is conducted at each local site with a local clustering algorithm, and the features of local clusters are extracted clustering is obtained based on those features fective and efficient. Second, local features from each site are sent to a central site where global Experiments on both artificial and real spatial datasets show that DCAD is effective and efficient.

SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC GENERALIZATION OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS

With the construction of spatial data infi＇astructure, automated topographic map generalization becomes an indispensable component in the community of cartography and geographic information science. This paper describes a topographic map generalization system recently developed by the authors. The system has the following characteristics： 1） taking advantage of three levels of automation, i.e. fully automated generalization, batch generalization, and interactive generalization, to undertake two types of processes, i.e. intelligent inference process and repetitive operation process in generalization; 2） making use of two kinds of sources for generalizing rule library, i.e. written specifications and cartographers＇ experiences, to define a six-element structure to describe the rules; 3） employing a hierarchical structure for map databases, logically and physically; 4） employing a grid indexing technique and undo/redo operation to improve database retrieval and object generalization efficiency. Two examples of topographic map generalization are given to demonstrate the system. It reveals that the system works well. In fact, this system has been used for a number of projects and it has been found that a great improvement in efficiency compared with traditional map general- ization process can be achieved.

Dynamic Change of Landscape Pattern at Jilin Province from 1980 to 2000

By using remote sensing images from three periods (1980, 1995, 2000) and with the support of GIS and RS, the spatial information of landscape elements of Jilin Province from 1980 to 2000 was interpreted and extracted. Using models of landscape indices such as diversity, fragmentation, and mean patch fractal dimension, dynamic spatio-temporal changes of landscape patterns of the province were analyzed. The results: ① cropland and forestland were the main landscape types, and forestland became a landscape matrix; ② in the study area, landscapes were distributed unevenly, and there was low heterogeneity, a simple ecosystem structure and a tendency of irrational landscape patterns. There were also simple spatial shapes of patches and strong self-similarities, and in terms of dynamic change analysis, patch shapes tended to be more simple; ③ from 1980 to 2000, holistic landscape fragmentation was low and changed slightly. As far as landscape elements were concerned, the fragmentation of grassland, water area, land for residential area and factory facilities was relatively low; land distribution for residential areas and factory facilities was dispersed; and cropland and forestland were most concentrated-an indication that the trend will continue. Comprehensive effects among human activity, local policy, regional climate and environmental change led to the results.

Fundamental Theories of Spatial Similarity Relations in Multi-scale Map Spaces

Similarity relation is one of the spatial relations in the community of geographic information science and cartography.It is widely used in the retrieval of spatial databases, the recognition of spatial objects from images, and the description of spatial features on maps.However, little achievements have been made for it by far.In this paper, spatial similarity relation was put forward with the introduction of automated map generalization in the construction of multi-scale map databases;then the definition of spatial similarity relations was presented based on set theory, the concept of spatial similarity degree was given, and the characteristics of spatial similarity were discussed in detail, in-cluding reflexivity, symmetry, non-transitivity, self-similarity in multi-scale spaces, and scale-dependence.Finally a classification system for spatial similarity relations in multi-scale map spaces was addressed.This research may be useful to automated map generalization, spatial similarity retrieval and spatial reasoning.

Research and Application of Information Technology in Mining Area Railway

This paper introduces the methods and technicalities of applicating information technology in a mining area railway transport system. The pattern Client /Server is adopted in this system. There are two types of clients, i.e. PC and terminal. This article focuses on the system demand analysis, the data flow, the system architecture and some technical details.

Extracting Acoustic Source Information of Shipping Noise for Dynamic Ambient Noise Modelling

Shipping traffic is one of the largest contributors to anthropogenic noise in the ocean. Noise generated by merchant ships elevates natural occurring ambient noise level by 20-30 dB in many areas of the world＇s ocean. In order to model the contributions of the noise generated by merchant ships to underwater ambient noise level correctly, a database that consists of the source levels as a function of frequency for different types of ships is essential. This paper describes the conceptual design, with an emphasis on the characteristics of shipping noise as sound sources, of a marine noise database. It was developed for providing necessary parameters for underwater ambient noise modelling. The parameters relevant to shipping noise modelling are organized in two catalogues： （l） source-receiver geometry related parameters, namely the coordinates of the ships at a given time period, as well as the sizes/types of the ships from which the noise source depths may be derived, and （2） acoustically relevant parameters, i.e., the acoustic SLs （source levels） at given frequencies. An example is presented here to demonstrate the efficacy of this database. The study area is a 117 × 55 km2 region off the coast of La Spezia, Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea.

Event-based incremental updating of spatio-temporal database

Based on the relationship among the geographic events, spatial changes and the database operations, a new automatic (semi-automatic) incremental updating approach of spatio-temporal database (STDB) named as (event-based) incremental updating (E-BIU) is proposed in this paper. At first, the relationship among the events, spatial changes and the database operations is analyzed, then a total architecture of E-BIU implementation is designed, which includes an event queue, three managers and two sets of rules, each component is presented in detail. The process of the E-BIU of master STDB is described successively. An example of building’s incremental updating is given to illustrate this approach at the end. The result shows that E-BIU is an efficient automatic updating approach for master STDB.

Design and Applications of Land Resources and Ecological Environment Information System: A Case Study of Zigui County in the Three Gorges Area of China

The design and applications of a land information system built upon ARC/INFO and ArcView are presented. The proposed system not only maintains all the advantages of the more conventional implementations but also enhances them in the following ways: 1) the application program interfaces (API) are used to transmit data and messages among different parts of the system; 2) the integrated system can support studies on land evaluations and ecological analyses by efficient management of attribute and spatial data and 3) correspondingly, spatial records and attributive records are linked by the same identifiers (ID). A case study application in Zigui County of the Three Gorges Area in China demonstrates that the system could employ land-use maps and land property data to predicate and analyze the land utilization changes in the past, present and future. The ecological environment analysis can be carried out with the data of land, economics and terrain map used, showing that the system can be widely applied, especially to survey land and environment resources in the countryside area.

Landslide Susceptibility Assessment of the Youfang Catchment using Logistic Regression

A detailed landslide susceptibility map was produced in the Youfang catchment using logistic regression method with datasets developed for a geographic information system(GIS).Known as one of the most landslide-prone areas in China, the Youfang catchment of Longnan mountain region,which lies in the transitional area among QinghaiTibet Plateau, loess Plateau and Sichuan Basin, was selected as a representative case to evaluate the frequency and distribution of landslides.Statistical relationships for landslide susceptibility assessment were developed using landslide and landslide causative factor databases.Logistic regression(LR)was used to create the landslide susceptibility maps based on a series of available data sources: landslide inventory; distance to drainage systems, faults and roads; slope angle and aspect; topographic elevation and topographical wetness index, and land use.The quality of the landslide susceptibility map produced in this paper was validated and the result can be used fordesigning protective and mitigation measures against landslide hazards.The landslide susceptibility map is expected to provide a fundamental tool for landslide hazards assessment and risk management in the Youfang catchment.

Land Degradation Due to Salinization in Arid and Semi-arid Regions with the Aid of Geo-information Techniques

This study applied a computerized parametric methodology to monitor, map, and quantify land degradation by salinization risk detection techniques at a 1：250 000 mapping scale using geo-information technology. The northern part of the Shaanxi province in China was taken as a case. Multi-temporal remotely sensed materials of both Landsat TM and thematic maps （ETM＋） were used as the bases to provide comprehensive views of surface conditions such as vegetation cover and salinization detection. With ERDAS ver. 9.1 software, the Normalized Differential Salinity Index （NDSl） and Salinity Index （S.I.） were computed and then evaluated for land degradation by salinization. Arc/Info ver. 9.2 software was used along with field observation data （GPS） for analysis. Using spatial analysis methods, results showed that 19 973.1 km^2 （72%） of land had no risk of land degradation by salinization, 3 684.7 km^2 （13%） had slight land degradation by salinization risk, 2 797.9 km^2 （10%） had moderate land degradation by salinization risk, and 1 218.9 km^2 （4%） of the total land area was at a high risk of land degradation by salinization. The study area, in general, is exposed to a high risk of soil salinization.

Incorporating Fuzzy Inference in Active Database Rules

Active databases react to stimulation, or event from inside or outside the system without user or application interference through Events Conditions Actions(ECA) rules (triggers). ECA rule is defined as: ON event IF condition THEN action, which means when an event happens, if the condition is satisfied then the corresponding action is executed. The nature of ECA rule makes it an appropriate means to model dynamic character of systems, as gained much studies during recent years. Traditional ECA rule is crisp, which means their events, condition (s) and action(s) are accurate. As indicate that ECA rules can only represent precise knowledge. But knowledge is usually fuzzy in engineering. A concept of fuzzy ECA rules characterized with fuzzy event, fuzzy condition and fuzzy action is proposed in this article.The realization avenues of fuzzy triggers are discussed. The work we have done blazes a way in representing approximate syntax in active database application systems. At last a case of 'overheating alarm' is given to illustrate the approach.

Analysis of cancer incidence and mortality in 2010 to the residents of Hai’an county, Jiangsu Province, China

Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the incidence, mortality and their impact factors and changing trends of malignant tumors in 2010 in the residents of Hai’an county, Jiangsu Province, China. Methods: Using the information of incidence, death registration information database and population data of malignant tumors in 2010 in the residents of Hai’an county, the incidence, mortality, accumulation incidence rates, and truncated incidence rate of malignant tumors were statistically analyzed. Results: The crude incidence, China standardized and world standardized incidence rates of malignant tumors in 2010 in Hai’an county were 281.53 per 100000 persons, 174.96 per 100 000 persons, and 175.14 per 100000 persons, respectively. The cumulative incidence rate from aged 0 to 64 years, the cumulative incidence rate from aged 0 to 74 years and the truncated incidence rate from aged 35 to 64 years were 6.85%, 15.39%, and 193.26 per 100000 persons, respectively. The rough mortality rate, China standardized and world standardized incidence rates were 234.11 per 100000 persons, 145.30 per 100000 persons, and 144.77 per 100000 persons, respectively. The top five cancers in the spectrum of cancer incidence were respectively esophageal cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer. The top four cancers in the spectrum of cancer death were consistent with the spectrum of cancer incidence. The 5th cancer in the spectrum of cancer death was pancreatic cancer. The incidence and mortality of various age groups were at a low level before 35-year-old age group. The incidence of female was slightly higher than that of male. But the incidence and mortality from the age group of 50 showed "suddenly" upward trend with age. The incidence and mortality of male were significantly higher than those of female. The ratios of male to female of incidence and mortality were 1.52:1 and 1.67:1, respectively. Conclusion: Residents over the age of 50, especially males, are high-risk groups who are exposed to certain risk factors. They should be the key objects of prevention and treatment of malignant tumors.

Ethnobotany, Pharmacology and Chemistry of Medicinal Orchids from Veracruz

Orchidaceae is a large family of 1,260 species in Mexico, of which 433 grow in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Although economically important in horticulture because of the beauty of their flowers, researches have done little work regarding their medicinal properties. This paper aimed to present the results of ethnobotanical, pharmacological and active compounds research on Veracruz medicinal orchids. The ethnobotanical information was obtained by consulting the Atlas of the Mexican Traditional Medicine Plants, Veracruz Medicinal Flora Database （CITRO-UV project） and through field work in the Nahuatl community of Cuautlajapa, Veracruz. To obtain pharmacological and active compounds information of registered species, a search was carded out through MEDLINE （USA National Library of Medicine Journal Citation database）. Twelve medicinal orchids were recorded for Veracruz, i.e., Epidendrum chlorocorymbos Schltr., Habenaria floribunda Lindl., Isochillus latibracteatus A. Rich. ＆ Galeotti, lsochillus major Schltdl. ＆ Cham., Mormodes maculata var. unicolor （Hook.） L. O. Williams, Oestlundia luteorosea （A. Rich. ＆ Galeotti） W. E. Higgins, Oncidium ascendens Lindl., Scaphyglottis fasciculata Hook., Sobralia macrantha Lindl., Spiranthes eriophora （Rob. ＆ Greenm.）, Stanhopea oculata （G. Lodd.） Lindl. and Vanilla planifolia Andrews. Only two species have been investigated in terms of their pharmacology and active compounds. Also, information for another five species closely related to already identified ones was obtained. Given the relative poverty of current information on the topic, this paper demonstrates the need to further study the ethnobotanical, pharmacological and chemical aspects of the region＇s medicinal orchids.

Explorations of Public Participation Approach to the Framing of Resilient Urbanism

Under the framework of developing resilient and livable cities, this study was aimed at engaging local communities to achieve the goal of public participation. Given the prevalence of smart mobile devices, an interactive app called ＂Citizen Probe＂ was designed to guide users to participate in building resilient and livable urban spaces by enabling users to report the condition of their living environment. The app collects feedback from users regarding the perceived condition of the urban environment, and this information is used to further develop an open online index system. The index system serves as a guide for the public to actively transform their city into a resilient and livable urban environment. The app was designed for the reporting of flood incidents with the objective of resilient disaster prevention, which can be achieved by enabling users to identify disaster conditions in order to develop a database for basic disaster information. The database can be used in the prevention and mitigation of disasters and to provide a foundation for developing indices for assessing the resilience and livability of urban areas. Three communities in Taichung, Taiwan, participated in the study. Residents of these communities were requested to use the app and identify local environmental conditions to obtain spatial data according to four stages in disaster response： assessment, readiness, response, and recovery. A volunteered geographic information database was developed to display maps for providing users with current reports ofpredisaster risk assessment, disaster response capacity, real-time disaster conditions, and overall disaster recovery. In addition, the database can be used as a useful tool for researchers to conduct GIS analyses and initiate related discussions. The interactive appraises public awareness on disaster prevention and makes disaster prevention a daily norm. Further discussion between the public and experts will be initiated to assist in policy management pertaining to the ongoing development of cities in addition to improving disaster prevention and response measures.

High-Speed Road Measurement Systems： Integration of Pavement and General Mapping Laser Technologies

Performing surveys on a single section of a road is quite different from that on a road network. In the first case, the need for performance characteristics of the pavement may be of service to rehabilitation. Surveying a road network, instead, aims to establish service levels, identify deficiencies and priorities and define budgets for maintenance. This challenge needs a methodological approach in order to widen the action plan and optimize the cost-benefit analysis of each asset through the use of preventive maintenance policies. High-speed monitoring systems on the market were specialized towards the necessity of measuring specific performance of the pavement or mapping land （data inventory）. The technological development of instrumentations such as inertial systems and synchronizers has enabled the integration of different devices and the achievement of the best correlation of data. This is the case of the LARAN （laser road analyzer）, whose helpfulness will be presented within a case study in which geometrical data and surface characteristic information-cracks, texture, profiles-were obtained through a unique survey. The cross-analysis resulted efficient for safety purposes and also for the identification of “black points” corresponding to boundary operative conditions of the road with respect to technical standards and recommendations.

Integration and Sharing of Geo-spatial Data Based on Data Engine

Through analyzing theprinciple of data sharing in the data-base system, this paper discusses theprinciple and method for integratingand sharing GIS data by data engine,introduces a way to achieve the highintegration and sharing of GIS data on the basis of VCT in VC++, and pro-vides the method for uniting VCT intoRDBMS in order to implement a spa-tial database with object-oriented datamodel.

A Parsing Graph-based Algorithm for Ontology Mapping

Ontology mapping is a critical problem for integrating the heterogeneous information sources. It can identify the elements corresponding to each other. At present, there are many ontology mapping algorithms, but most of them are based on database schema. After analyzing the similarity and difference of ontology and schema, we propose a parsing graph-based algorithm for ontology mapping. The ontology parsing graph （OP-graph） extends the general concept of graph, encodes logic relationship, and semantic information which the ontology contains into vertices and edges of the graph. Thus, the problem of ontology mapping is translated into a problem of finding the optimal match between the two OP-graphs. With the definition of a universal measure for comparing the entities of two ontoiogies, we calculate the whole similarity between the two OP-graphs iteratively, until the optimal match is found. The results of experiments show that our algorithm is promising.

The Development of a Geographic Information System(GIS) Database for Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve and Its Application

The objective of this paper is to develop a GIS(Geographic Information System) database for Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve(Jiuzhaigou,hereafter) in China and demonstrate its application as a research tool.A cost-effective procedure was developed to compile a variety of geographical and biological data of the study area in terms of popular GIS format such as shape files.These files were further calibrated and validated using field surveys data.The developed GIS database was used to quantify the distributions of the wildlife(amphibians,mammals,and birds) using the distances of the wildlife to the centerline of the bus-tour routes.The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to quantify the correlation in space between pairs of different wildlife using the number of habitats for given space contexts.An ArcObject-based macro was developed to perform the analysis.The results showed the majority of the habitats of wildlife are located in the proximity of the tour-bus routes with an average distance ranging from 564 to 894 m depending on types of wildlife.This indicates a possibility of the disturbance to the wildlife by human activities.The correlation coefficient of the wildlife ranged from 0.36 to 0.64 depending on pairs of wildlife,indicating some correlations in space.However,due to the limited sample size,the statistical significances need to be further investigated.This paper has successfully demonstrated the use of the GIS-based database as a research tool for environmental study.