Estimation of Relative Ecological Value of Returning Farmland to Forest & Mountain Enclosure for Grazing Prohibition——A case study in Yongxing Township of Jingyuan County,Gansu Province

[Objective]Returning farmland to forest and mountain enclosure for grazing prohibition ecological effect and economy rationality were explored.[Methods]A case study of returning farmland to forest and barren hills grazing prohibition in Yongxing Township of Jingyuan County was used to discuss and estimate the relative ecological function and relative ecological value.[Results]1）The ecological value of the forest of returning farmland was far more than the sum of the ecological value of farm crops and the agricultural output,and also more than the national subsidy standard.So the state policy of returning farmland to forests is not only favorable to local eco-environment restoration,but also reasonable in economic development.2）The ecological value of mountain enclosure for grazing prohibition was less than the opportunity cost of prohibiting grazing,also less than the national subsidy standard.The sum of the relative ecological value of prohibiting grazing and the state subsidies was more than the opportunity cost of prohibiting grazing.However,the ecological value of new vegetation through returning farmland to forest project was greater than the China＇s average ecological value of grassland.[Conclusion]The relative ecological value can be used to solve the problems in the equivalent conversion among various ecological indexes and between ecological indexes and economic indexes.

Detecting visually salient scene areas and deriving their relative spatial relations from continuous street-view panoramas

A salient scene is an area within an image that contains visual elements that stand out from surrounding areas.They are important for distinguishing landmarks in first-person-view(FPV)applications and determining spatial relations in images.The relative spatial relation between salient scenes acts as a visual guide that is easily accepted and understood by users in FPV applications.However,current digitally navigable maps and location-based services fall short of providing information on visual spatial relations for users.This shortcoming has a critical influence on the popularity and innovation of FPV applications.This paper addresses the issue by proposing a method for detecting visually salient scene areas(SSAs)and deriving their relative spatial relationships from continuous panoramas.This method includes three critical steps.First,an SSA detection approach is introduced by fusing region-based saliency derived from super-pixel segmentation and the frequency-tuned saliency model.The method focuses on a segmented landmark area in a panorama.Secondly,a street-view-oriented SSA generation method is introduced by matching and merging the visual SSAs from continuous panoramas.Thirdly,a continuous geotagged panorama-based referencing approach is introduced to derive the relative spatial relationships of SSAs from continuous panoramas.This information includes the relative azimuth,elevation angle,and the relative distance.Experiment results show that the error for the SSA relative azimuth angle is approximately±6°(with an average error of 2.67°),and the SSA relative elevation angle is approximately±4°(with an average error of 1.32°)when using Baidu street-view panoramas.These results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.The method proposed in this study can facilitate the development of FPV applications such as augmented reality(AR)and pedestrian navigation using proper spatial relation.

Quality analysis of crustal tilt and strain observations in China's earthquakes in 2014

This work analyzes the quality of crustal tilt and strain observations during 2014, which were acquired from 269 sets of ground tiltmeters and 212 sets of strainmeters. In terms of data quality, the water tube tiltmeters presented the highest rate of excellent quality,approximately 91%, and the pendulum tiltmeters and ground strainmeters yielded rates of81% and 78%, respectively. This means that a total of 380 sets of instruments produced high-quality observational data suitable for scientific investigations and analyses.

A Relation Matrix Approach to Labelling Temporal Relations in Scheduling

In this paper,we present a relation matrix description of temporal relations.Based on this modela new algorithm for labelling temporal relations is proposed.Under certain conditions the algorithm iscompleted and has a polynomial complexity.In general cases it is still an efficient algorithm comparedto some known algorithms.

A prospective comparison cohort study between baseline serum uric acid level and coronary artery disease in first-degree relatives and non-first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetes males

Objective To investigate the relationship between baseline serum uric acid and the severity of coronary artery disease(CAD)in the first-degree relatives or nonfirst-degree relatives of men with type 2 diabetes.Methods Three hundred and eighty-one men with negative coronary angiography for the first time were divided into diabetes and non-diabetes groups and followed-up for