Upshot of Sprawl Incidence on Pattern of Land Use Changes and Building Physiognomies in Akure Region, Nigeria

This study investigates the upshot of sprawl incidence on pattern of land use changes and building physiognomies in Akure and its environs.Using social survey research method(SSRM)to investigate the upshot,data were gathered via structured questionnaires on selected households in the region,involving Akure municipal and eight contiguous communities.Basically,the survey method involves interview,personal observation and photo-snaps to elucidate existing situation in the region.Average households’population in Akure municipal was estimated at 95,232 while 14,794 was estimated in the selected eight contiguous communities.From this,a sample of 1%was systematically selected,which amounted to 1100 sampled households.Findings show regular massive inflow of people into the city due to unguided expansions that have serious sway on land use determinant in the city and its contiguous communities.It also has significant influence on variation in building arrangements and facility distribution across the region.To mitigate this,the study advocates proactive efforts of stakeholders in urban management to employing inventive measures over private and public lands in logical manners.It also suggests the espousal of regional development programs to checkmate the rate of peoples’incursion into Akure,being the state capital.Local government headquarters and other major towns in the region should be reinforced with functional basic facilities to curtail the excessive influx into the city.

Combined community ecology and floristics,a synthetic study on the upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forests in Yunnan,southwestern China

The upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan occurs mainly in the zone of persistent cloud and has a discontinuous,island-like,distribution.It is diverse,rich in endemic species,and likely to be sensitive to climate change.Six 1-ha sampling plots were established across the main distribution area of the upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan.All trees with d.b.h.>1 cm in each plot were identified.Patterns of seed plant distributions were quantified at the specific,generic and family levels.The forests are dominated by the families Fagaceae,Lauraceae,Theaceae and Magnoliaceae,but are very diverse with only a few species shared between sites.Floristic similarities at the family and generic level were high,but they were low at the specific level,with species complementarity between plots.Diversity varied greatly among sites,with greater species richness and more rare species in western Yunnan than central Yunnan.The flora is dominated by tropical biogeographical elements,mainly the pantropic and the tropical Asian distributions at the family and genus levels.In contrast,at the species level,the flora is dominated by the southwest or the southeast China distributions,including Yunnan endemics.This suggests that the flora of the upper montane forest in Yunnan could have a tropical floristic origin,and has adapted to cooler temperatures with the uplift of the Himalayas.Due to great sensitivity to climate,high endemism and species complementarity,as well as the discontinuous,island-like,distribution patterns of the upper montane forest in Yunnan,the regional conservation of the forest is especially needed.

Tropical deciduous forest in Yunnan,southwestern China:Implications for geological and climatic histories from a little-known forest formation

In the southern mountain ranges of Yunnan province,China,deep valleys of several large rivers create rain shadows with hot dry summers,and are locally designated tropical;towards the north,notably in the Lancang(Upper Mekong)valley,these regions may experience frost during winter.The woody forest canopy of these valleys is predominantly deciduous,with evergreen elements in the north,where the canopy is open and the forest savanna-like.However,we here present tall forest with a closed deciduous canopy and semi-evergreen subcanopy observed in hot dry valleys of these rivers and their tributaries in the tropical south.The structure and physiognomy of these forests resemble the tall(moist)deciduous forest formation widespread in South Asia and Indo-Burma.Furthermore,these forests are largely composed of tropical elements at both the generic(80%)and the species level(>70%),indicating that these forests are indeed tropical.We originally hypothesized that these isolated forests represent refugia of a pre-Holocene extension of tall(moist)deciduous forest formation of South Asia and Indo-Burma.The sample plot we established to test this hypothesis confirmed that these forests share the structure and physiognomy of the tall(moist)deciduous forest formation;however,the plots also showed that these forests lack the characteristic and dominant species of the formation's Indo-Burmese range.The tree flora,in particular,indicates that both deciduous and evergreen elements are instead mostly derived from the adjacent tropical semi-evergreen forests of tropical southern China;yet they also include an important endemic element,which implies that these forests have survived as refuges possibly since the Pliocene.The exceptional representation of evergreen elements in these forests indicates that they have rarely been subject to hot fires or domestic cattle browsing,adding to the unique nature of the forests and further justifying their strict conservation.

Understory flora and community physiognomy of planted forests in the degraded purple soil ecosystem, South China

The flora and community physiognomy of degraded plantation ecosystems onpurple soil were investigated in Ninghua County of Fujian Province, China to understand therelationship between plant diversity and ecosystem processes.. Four different restorationcommunities (labeled as ecological restoration treatment Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ and Ⅳ) were selected byspace-time replacement method according to the erosion intensity in degraded purple soil ecosystem.The results showed that there were totally 86 plant species belonging to 78 genera and 43 familiesin the degraded purple soil ecosystem. Of the 15 types of distribution area in spermatophyte genus,12 types were found in the purple soil ecosystem. Along restoration gradient from low to high, plantgrowth type and life form spectra became abundant more and more, and the spermatophyte genera foreach distribution area type and genera numbers for different foliage characters increased as well.It is concluded that the plant flora and physiognomy in ecological restoration process become morecomplex and diverse, indicating that the forest ecosystem on purple soil tends to be more stable.

Progress in application of MODIS for remote sensing in Polar Regions

The remote sensing technique is widely used in Polar Regions,and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiomete（MODIS） is one of the most important satellite sensors in the domain of remote sensing.In this article,MODIS sensor,including the information of its satellites,its system constitutes,its hardware characteristic,its large spectra and usual applications are briefly introduced first.Then,there is a particular introduction of MODIS＇s use in Polar Regions,which refers to the polar physiognomy,polar atmosphere and polar ocean,with citing many examples.At last,views about the development of MODIS and its series sensors in the future,including the improved applications in Polar Regions are given.

Production of Multi-Features Driven Nationwide Vegetation Physiognomic Map and Comparison to MODIS Land Cover Type Product

Irrespective of several attempts to land use/cover mapping at local, regional, or global scales, mapping of vegetation physiognomic types is limited and challenging. The main objective of the research is to produce an accurate nationwide vegetation physiognomic map by using automated machine learning approach with the support of reference data. A time-series of the multi-spectral and multi-indices data derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were exploited along with the land-surface slope data. Reliable reference data of the vegetation physiognomic types were prepared by refining the existing vegetation survey data available in the country. The Random Forests based mapping framework adopted in the research showed high performance (Overall accuracy = 0.82, Kappa coefficient = 0.79) using 148 optimum number of features out of 231 featured used. A nationwide vegetation physiognomic map of year 2013 was produced in the research. The resulted map was compared to the existing MODIS Land Cover Type (MCD12Q1) product of year 2013. A huge difference was found between two maps. Validation with the reference data showed that the MCD12Q1 product did not work satisfactorily in Japan. The outcome of the research highlights the possibility of improving the accuracy of the MCD12Q1 product with special focus on reference data.

Mughal Forts in Delta： An Essay on Fort Planning on the Rivers of Bengal

＂Huge intelligent structure＂ was built by the Mughal Heroes in this Subcontinent. It was the process to prevent and to secure a city as well as the territory from any kind of disruption and disintegration through the fortified walled profile. The strategies, approach, and positioning of those forts were governed by the contextual specification. All different forts of Mughals Empire had unusual notion of accomplishment. Fort architecture in the subcontinent was initially developed by the Mughals to protect the territory from the enemy. Later, those forts became huge and complex. The planning approach and the morphology of the fort architecture were justified according to the relative factor. The Mughal Fort is a Medieval-era building. The Mughal Fort improves the city＇s defensive strength and provides some culture at every turn, Building Walls is a prerequisite to settle the Mughal Fort. The Mughals were concern about environment. Mughals ruled most of the subcontinent until the mid-19th. During their rule they constructed elaborate forts across the countryside which served as administrative centers and living quarters for the occupiers. Bengal became a province of the Mughal Empire and was ruled from Delhi by the governors of Bengal （1576）.a Bengali river fort experienced lots of local and traditional influences only lbr being the river fort, stating from the component, elements of tbrts, and formal profile as well. Undoubtedly, Bengal conceived a different kind of river oriented fort, which has distinct characters. Even in the case of this fort formation, the Mughal had some strategic planning and morphology for spread city beyond the fort wall. The objective of the research is solely to identify distinguished characteristics and context specification and to analyze the morphology of the four-river fort architecture of East Bengal （Bangladesh）.

Whether Chinese physiognomy has scientific basis?

Physiognomy is a method of observing people.According to one's appearance,ancient Chinese Taoist priest can predict his personality,physical condition,life experience,and fate by physiognomy.Ancient Chinese physiognomy can be traced back to the 7th century BC.According to the historical records,a minister was able to judge prince's abilities and destinies by his facial features in the Spring and Autumn period.

Environmental Impact of Mining Exploitation: A Case Study of Some Mines of Barite in the Eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco

Extraction of mineral resources is the backbone of the national economy in many developed and developing countries of the world. However, the exploitation can have many negative impacts on the immediate environment of the exploitation sites. In this study performed on some mining areas of the Moroccan Anti-Atlas, four principal negative effects were detected: effect on the physiognomy, on safety, on health, and on recovery rate. The principal source of this situation is the exploitation of the ore deposits from top to bottom without using any geological preparation and the use of non-adapted exploitation technics. To minimize these impacts, we propose to establish a geological study and advanced mining exploration before starting exploitation, and follow an exploitation technic well adapted to the morphology of the ore deposit like cut-and-fill mining and sublevel stoping methods.

天涯海角追到底——用Digital Physiognomy画人像

随着网上视频聊天的流行．我自然是只去有摄像头的网吧聊天。最近我有一个小烦恼：上周末在网上神侃时认识了一位杭州MM，和我聊得很投缘，可后来怎么都找不到她了。我不甘遗憾，很想和她重新联系上。可怎样才能联系到她呢?我很不应该地想到了通缉罪犯所用的画像。对了，如果能把记忆中的MM画成一张像．请网友们帮忙寻找．那总比自己一个人大海捞针强吧?

Physiognomy： Personality Traits Prediction by Learning

Evaluating individuals＇ personality traits and intelligence from their faces plays a crucial role in interpersonal relationship and important social events such as elections and court sentences. To assess the possible correlations between personality traits （also measured intelligence） and face images, we first construct a dataset consisting of face photographs, personality measurements, and intelligence measurements. Then, we build an end-to-end convolutional neural network for prediction of personality traits and intelligence to investigate whether self-reported personality traits and intelligence can be predicted reliably from a face image. To our knowledge, it is the first work where deep learning is applied to this problem. Experimental results show the following three points： 1） ＂Rule-consciousness＂ and ＂Tension＂ can be reliably predicted from face images. 2） It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict intelligence from face images, a finding in accord with previous studies. 3） Convolutional neural network （CNN） features outperform traditional handcrafted features in predicting traits.

画出记忆中的面孔

我们在电视剧中经常看到警方在破案的时候，要凭借目击者的描述来绘制犯罪嫌疑人的头像。随着科技的发展，由人工绘制演变为了计算机模拟绘制。今天我们就来看一看Digital Physiognomy这款模拟画像的小工具。别看它不到1MB的身材，它不仅能快速绘制人像．还能像赵本山在表演《卖拐》小品那样。