Multi-Ethnic Residential Segregation in Urumqi, China, 1982-2010

The ethnic landscape of Urumqi has undergone significant changes since the 1980s, which has fostered greater ethnic diversity. However, little is known about the changing patterns of spatial segregation among ethnic groups. By using the Urumqi census data from 1982 to 2010, this study examines the level of residential segregation of Uighur from Hart and the level of residential segregation of Kazak, Hui, Mongolia and other ethnic minority groups from the majority Han and Uygur population by the indices of dissimilarity and exposure. Then it assesses a regression between residential segregation and the percentage of the ethnic groups. Finally, it finds out whether there exists a regression between residential segregation and the percentage of the ethnic groups. The result reveals that Kazak population is the most segregated group from Han and Uygur, although the level of segregation has declined from 1982 to 2010. Uighur people experienced lower level of segregation from Han between 1982 and 2000, but has gradually increased, particularly from 2000 to 2010; this unexpected change of the segregation for Uighur group might be associated with 7.5 Events. The findings of the study show that the growth of the Han population is negatively associated with segregation of the ethnic groups in a district, and that the association between the percentage of population and segregation was uniform for Uighur, Hui and Kazak： the higher percentage of an ethnic group in a district, the lower level of segregation.

A Way to Decrease the Negative Impact of Aquaculture on other Marine Inhabitants

Spat collectors deployed at sea, in addition to the target species, attract also many larvae of accompanying species, which die after transplanting the cultivated one into cages. However, these juveniles often have a higher value than the cultivated species, and their mortality is caused by smaller sizes. These are： red king crab, Japanese sea cucumber, sea urchins, Japanese cucumaria and several species of ascidians and sponges. However, the use of a realized niche, rather than a fundamental one, in selecting the area and depth to install collectors, and also improvement of their design, make it possible to cultivate a target species without reseeding to other constructions. This not only facilitates the cultivation process, but also increases the survival rate of the cultivated and accompanying species, since at the bottom, they reach either marketable or viable size in comfortable conditions.

Agroforestry, Rural Populations, Poplar Plantations and Marketing

One of the objectives of the 1257/99 EU regulation was that rural populations should be able to gain an extra income. This regulation may not be any longer in force, but soon a new one will replace it. The plantations that are created by Greek farmers more specifically the plantations of poplar trees-have a ten-year rotation at least. This means that the time between the establishment of the plantation and the harvest is high. As a consequence, during this time, the market environment （e.g. prices） may face substantial changes. Frequently, these changes are so immense that producers are driven in economic distress. This situation is also linked to the domestic timber supply and imports, and as a result to the product prices. Concerning the market prices of poplar trees, one additional factor that has probably deteriorated the situation is the E.U. expansion. This paper examines a case study in North Greece. Vital conclusions are made which may be useful for the Greek and E.U. decision makers regarding the process of dealing with current issues such as the 1257/99 regulation replacement （1698/2005）.

北京故宫文物霉菌调查研究

本文主要对故宫博物院自然环境库房内空气以及已经生长霉斑的馆藏文物进行采样、分离、培养鉴定,从中了解故宫文物库房的空气以及文物霉菌的种属。从菌落个数、在空气中的含量以及菌种出现次数等不同角度探讨故宫文物霉菌。这是长霉文物处理时不可缺少的第一步基础工作。

Cultivable Microfungal Communities Inhabiting Biological Soil Crusts in the Tengger Desert, China

Biological soil crusts are essential components of arid ecosystems. We examined the variations in microfungal communities inhabiting different biological crust types in the vicinity of the Shapotou Research Station in the Tengger Desert, China. A total of 134 species from 66 genera were isolated using the soil dilution plate method. The mycobiota of the crusts from the Tengger Desert, similar to that of the Negev Desert in Israel, was dominated by melanin-containing species with large multicellular spores. Abundance of these xeric species increased spatially with increasing xeric conditions from moss-dominated to cyanobacterial crusts. Density of microfungal isolates displayed the opposite trend and was positively correlated with chlorophyll content, indicating the possible significant influence of organic matter content and wetness duration on fungal biomass. Within a chronosequence of the localities of different periods after sand stabilization with revegetation, little variations were revealed in species composition and isolate density of the crust microfungal communities, while a tendency towards a decrease in the community diversity level with the crust age was noted Microfungal communities from stabilized localities differed from those of the natural localities in abundance of the dominant and some frequent species, and in the fluctuations of diversity characteristics between the cyanobacterial and moss-dominated crusts. The variations in mycobiotie parameters in the soil crusts of the Tengger Desert were apparently associated with the topographically induced variations in abiotic conditions, while the differences in microfungal community of soil crusts between the Tengger and Negev deserts, such as the significantly higher abundance of thermotolerant species in the crusts of the Tengger Deserts, were caused by the principal differences in their precipitation regimes, associated with different rainy seasons, winter and summer in the Negev and Tengger deserts, respectively.

Consensus of Flocks under M-Nearest-Neighbor Rules

This paper investigates a class of flocks with an M-nearest-neighbor rule,where each agent's neighbors are determined according to M nearest agents with M being a given integer,rather than all the agents within a fixed metric distance as in the well-known Vicsek's model.Such a neighbor rule has been validated by biologists through experiments and the authors will prove that,similar to the Vicsek's model,such a new neighbor rule can also achieve consensus under some conditions imposed only on the system's speed and the number M,n,without resorting to any priori connectivity assumptions on the trajectory of the system.In particular,the authors will prove that if the number M is proportional to the population size n,then for any speed v,the system will achieve consensus with large probability if the population size is large enough.

Annoying neighbors： Multi-scale distribution determinants of two sympatric sibling species of birds

We tested the role of interspecific competition in driving species distribution at multiple spatial scales using two sibl- ing species of Galerida larks （G cristata and G. theklae） in Morocco （sympatry）, Balearic islands （G theklae only） and Israel （G cristata only）. We first investigated regional-scale determinants by contrasting allopatric versus sympatric patterns in five distinct habitat types. We next focused on a single habitat used by both species, the coastal sand dunes. Dune quadrats were established along the Moroccan coast and completed by a quadrat in the nearest distinct landscape habitat. Poisson regressions were used to model Galerida counts together with ecological predictors as concerns the climate, topography, vegetation structure and soil gra- nulometry. At the local scale, both species preferred grey dunes over white sand dunes, and both were negatively affected by the abundance of the congeneric species in the dune. However, we found that G theklae tended to replace G. cristata in more arid sand dunes, even if the transition was not strictly clinal. Instead, the transition occurred when the surrounding landscape changed from coastal wetlands to bathas （grasslands with shrubs）, highlighting the importance of habitat composition at the landscape scale. The fact that G cristata used bathas in allopatry, but not in sympatry, suggested that the competitive environment contri- buted to determine sand dune occupancy. We suggest that landscape-level effects may be pivotal in explaining species distribu- tion not only at the local scale, by affecting the pool of potential immigrants, but also at the regional scale, by contributing to species＇ range limit [Current Zoology 61 （1）： 10-22, 2015].