scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Ecological Vulnerability Based on Vulnerability Scoring Diagram Model in Shennongjia, China

Author(s):  
Jia-shuo Cao ◽  
Yu-qi Yang ◽  
Zheng-yu Deng ◽  
Yuan-dong Hu

Abstract Background: Shennongjia is one of the most important ecological function areas and ecologically vulnerable zones in the world. With the rapid development of social economies, especially tourism, the ecological environment of Shennongjia has experienced profound changes. Results: (1) During the study period, the overall ecological vulnerability of Shennongjia is in a mild vulnerability level, exhibiting differentiation characteristics of high in the northeast and low in the southwest. High vulnerability zones are mainly distributed in the main towns and roads. (2) The risk of ecological vulnerability of the entire region presents the characteristics of continuous decline. (3) Land-use types, population density, and vegetation coverage are the main factors driving the evolution of ecological vulnerability. (4) A high level of coupling coordination exists between ecological vulnerability and landscape patterns.Conclusions: Analyses of the ecological vulnerability of Shennongjia shows that the entire region is in a mild vulnerability level. The extreme vulnerability risk of the ecological environment shows polarization. The evolution of ecological environment in Shennongjia is the result of the interaction between human activities and natural environment. This study offers an effective way to assess ecological vulnerability and provides some strategies and guidance for improving ecological security.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia-shuo Cao ◽  
Yu-qi Yang ◽  
Zheng-yu Deng ◽  
Yuan-dong Hu

Abstract Background Shennongjia is one of the most important ecological function areas and ecologically vulnerable zones in the world. With the rapid development of social economies, especially tourism, the ecological environment of Shennongjia has experienced profound changes. To describe an assessment method of ecological vulnerability, explain its application in Shennongjia, and propose optimization strategies to reduce the risk of ecosystem vulnerability and maintain regional ecological security and stability. Results (1) During the study period, the overall ecological vulnerability of Shennongjia is in a mild vulnerability level, exhibiting differentiation characteristics of high in the northeast and low in the southwest. High vulnerability zones are mainly distributed in the main towns and roads of Shennongjia. (2) The risk of ecological vulnerability of the entire region presents the characteristics of continuous decline. The ecological vulnerability composite index reaches the lowest value of 2.51 in 2018. (3) Land-use types, population density, and vegetation coverage are the main factors driving the evolution of ecological vulnerability. (4) A high level of coupling coordination exists between ecological vulnerability and landscape patterns, and the contribution of patch number and aggregation index to ecological vulnerability is substantial. Conclusions Analyses of the ecological vulnerability of Shennongjia shows that the entire region is in a mild vulnerability level. The extreme vulnerability risk of the northeast, south and southwest areas appears gradually, the vulnerability degree of the ecological environment shows polarization. The evolution of ecological environment in Shennongjia is the result of the interaction between human activities and natural environment. This study offers an effective way to assess ecological vulnerability and provides some strategies and guidance for improving ecological security.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3689
Author(s):  
Yang Yi ◽  
Mingchang Shi ◽  
Chunjiang Liu ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Hongzhang Kang ◽  
...  

Land use types have been strongly modified across mountainous areas. This has substantially altered the patterns and processes of ecosystems and the components of ecosystem services (ESs), and could in turn impact the sustainable development. In the mountainous Mentougou district of Beijing, we explored the changes in land use type (cropland, orchard, forested land, scrubland, grassland, bare land, water bodies, wasteland and built-up land), landscape patterns and ESs as well as their interactions during the past 30 years (1985–2014). The ESs included water yield (WY), carbon stocks (CS) and soil retention rate (SR). The results showed that 23.65% of the land use changed and the wasteland decreased by 80.87%. As for ESs, WY decreased by 47.32% since the year 2000, probably due to the increases in temperature and evapotranspiration. Although the decrease of forested land led to the decrease of CS, the increase of vegetation coverage improved SR. CS decreased by 0.99%from 1990 to 2014, and SR increased by 1.38% from 1985 to 2014. Landscape patterns became fragmented and dispersed, and MPS and CS, SHDI and SR were significantly negatively correlated. IJI and CS was positively correlated. This indicated that landscape patterns were highly correlated with ESs. In order to maintain the sustainable development of ESs, we should not only plan land use types, but also consider the rationality of landscape patterns.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6078
Author(s):  
Xiufen Li ◽  
Lining Song ◽  
Zunbo Xie ◽  
Tian Gao ◽  
Tingting Wang ◽  
...  

Quantitative assessment of ecological vulnerability is of great significance for ecological protection and restoration in ecologically vulnerable regions. Here, the ecological vulnerability of the northern sand prevention belt (NSPB) of China was assessed using an ecological pressure–sensibility–resilience model from 2000 to 2015. Results showed that the ecological vulnerability index (EVI) displayed low values in the eastern part and high values in the western part of the study region. The EVI ranged from 0.29 to 1.32 in 2000, with the mean value of 0.88, whereas it averaged 0.78 in 2015, ranging from 0.21 to 1.26. Decreasing EVI from 2000 to 2015 indicated that the ecological status has been improved. Moreover, the area proportion of moderately, heavily, and extremely ecological vulnerability levels occupied approximately 87% in both 2000 and 2015, indicating a high ecological vulnerability level. Furthermore, the change in area proportion of different ecological vulnerability levels were associated with the change in the spatial distribution of vegetation coverage, indicating that eco-environmental protection projects were indeed effective. These findings indicated that differential strategies in different restoration zones should be adopted, especially in the western parts of the study region, and eco-environmental protection projects should be reinforced to improve the ecological restoration.


Smart Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 894-918
Author(s):  
Luís Rosa ◽  
Fábio Silva ◽  
Cesar Analide

The evolution of Mobile Networks and Internet of Things (IoT) architectures allows one to rethink the way smart cities infrastructures are designed and managed, and solve a number of problems in terms of human mobility. The territories that adopt the sensoring era can take advantage of this disruptive technology to improve the quality of mobility of their citizens and the rationalization of their resources. However, with this rapid development of smart terminals and infrastructures, as well as the proliferation of diversified applications, even current networks may not be able to completely meet quickly rising human mobility demands. Thus, they are facing many challenges and to cope with these challenges, different standards and projects have been proposed so far. Accordingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been utilized as a new paradigm for the design and optimization of mobile networks with a high level of intelligence. The objective of this work is to identify and discuss the challenges of mobile networks, alongside IoT and AI, to characterize smart human mobility and to discuss some workable solutions to these challenges. Finally, based on this discussion, we propose paths for future smart human mobility researches.


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingyu Lim ◽  
Bart Kevelham ◽  
Niels Nijdam ◽  
Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Iovleva ◽  
Roberta T. Mettus ◽  
Christi L. McElheny ◽  
Marissa P. Griffith ◽  
Mustapha M. Mustapha ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT OXA-232 is an OXA-48-group class D β-lactamase that hydrolyzes expanded-spectrum cephalosporins and carbapenems at low levels. Clinical strains producing OXA-232 are sometimes susceptible to carbapenems, making it difficult to identify them in the clinical microbiology laboratory. We describe the development of carbapenem resistance in sequential clinical isolates of Raoultella ornithinolytica carrying blaOXA-232 in a hospitalized patient, where the ertapenem MIC increased from 0.5 μg/ml to 512 μg/ml and the meropenem MIC increased from 0.125 μg/ml to 32 μg/ml during the course of ertapenem therapy. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis identified loss-of-function mutations in ompC and ompF in carbapenem-resistant isolates that were not present in the initial carbapenem-susceptible isolate. Complementation of a carbapenem-resistant isolate with an intact ompF gene resulted in 16- to 32-fold reductions in carbapenem MICs, whereas complementation with intact ompC resulted in a 2-fold reduction in carbapenem MICs. Additionally, blaOXA-232 expression increased 2.9-fold in a carbapenem-resistant isolate. Rapid development of high-level carbapenem resistance in initially carbapenem-susceptible OXA-232-producing R. ornithinolytica under selective pressure from carbapenem therapy highlights the diagnostic challenges in detecting Enterobacteriaceae strains producing this inefficient carbapenemase.


Parasitology ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 86-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Bailey

1. Spores of Nosema apis nearly all germinate within 30 min. after entering the ventriculus of the honeybee.2. The cause of germination in vivo remains unknown, but is probably not a change of osmotic pressure or pH and is probably not due to anaerobic conditions or an enzyme. The agent causing germination is probably unstable and is destroyed when removed from the bee.3. The anterior end of the ventriculus receives an initial heavy infection and the circumstantial evidence which this provides supports the theory that a free living ‘planont’ stage does not exist but that the parasite is injected directly into the host cell from the spore via the hollow polar filament.4. The central region of the ventriculus which contains many granules of calcium phosphate receives the lowest initial infection. It is considered possible that the granules inhibit the initial rapid development of the parasite by maintaining an unfavourably high level of pH until they are eventually dissolved by the slowly developing organism.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243853
Author(s):  
Berline Fopa Fomeju ◽  
Dominique Brunel ◽  
Aurélie Bérard ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Rivoal ◽  
Philippe Gallois ◽  
...  

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies, by reducing the cost and increasing the throughput of sequencing, have opened doors to generate genomic data in a range of previously poorly studied species. In this study, we propose a method for the rapid development of a large-scale molecular resources for orphan species. We studied as an example the true lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.), a perennial sub-shrub plant native from the Mediterranean region and whose essential oil have numerous applications in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and alternative medicines. The heterozygous clone “Maillette” was used as a reference for DNA and RNA sequencing. We first built a reference Unigene, compound of coding sequences, thanks to de novo RNA-seq assembly. Then, we reconstructed the complete genes sequences (with introns and exons) using an Unigene-guided DNA-seq assembly approach. This aimed to maximize the possibilities of finding polymorphism between genetically close individuals despite the lack of a reference genome. Finally, we used these resources for SNP mining within a collection of 16 commercial lavender clones and tested the SNP within the scope of a genetic distance analysis. We obtained a cleaned reference of 8, 030 functionally in silico annotated genes. We found 359K polymorphic sites and observed a high SNP frequency (mean of 1 SNP per 90 bp) and a high level of heterozygosity (more than 60% of heterozygous SNP per genotype). On overall, we found similar genetic distances between pairs of clones, which is probably related to the out-crossing nature of the species and the restricted area of cultivation. The proposed method is transferable to other orphan species, requires little bioinformatics resources and can be realized within a year. This is also the first reported large-scale SNP development on Lavandula angustifolia. All the genomics resources developed herein are publicly available and provide a rich pool of molecular resources to explore and exploit lavender genetic diversity in breeding programs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 01111
Author(s):  
Xiangxin Lu ◽  
Wenbing Tan ◽  
Beidou Xi ◽  
Xiuyun Zhao

Due to the rapid development of the modern chemical industry, a large amount of chlorophenol pollutants remain in the environment. It poses a serious threat to the ecological environment and human health. Advanced oxidation technologies (AOPs) have the characteristics of mild reaction conditions and strong oxidation capacity, and are currently recognized as safe and effective pollutant treatment technologies. In this study, natural lead-rich biochar materials were used to activate sodium persulfate to degrade 2,4-dichlorophenol, and natural lead-rich biochar modified TiO2 photocatalytically degraded 2,4-dichlorophenol. Then, using natural lead-rich metal biochar/TiO2 material, photocatalysis combined with active sodium persulfate to degrade 2,4-dichlorophenol. The experimental results show that the combination of photocatalysis and activated sodium persulfate reaction can completely degrade 100 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenol under UV light for 3 h, and the degradation efficiency is much higher than the sum of the two separate reactions. Quenching experiments show that SO4- • radicals play the most important role in the three free radicals (SO4- •, •OH and •O2- ) in the advanced oxidation combination system. Finally, the reaction mechanism of the two advanced oxidation combined systems are speculated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Ronal Watrianthos ◽  
Ibnu Rasyid Munthe ◽  
Rahma Muti’ah

Along with the rapid development of Social Networking Sites (SNS), social media, recently, has become a lifestyle for many people around the world, including in Indonesia. The data in January 2018 showed that in Indonesia out of 132.7 million internet users, almost all (131 million), or up 23% from the data in 2017, were Facebook users with the dominance of 18-24 years old, 35% of whom were the highest active users. The rapid growth of Facebook users annually in Indonesia, especially in the age of students and college students, encourages researchers to conduct many empirical studies of Facebook use among students. There is a tendency for using Facebook continuously to create FAD effects (Facebook Addiction Disorder) among students and can affect the spirit of learning. This study also discusses what is the motivation for using Facebook and seeing the potential for FAD to occur. In this study, an online survey over 375 respondents from several students in Labuhanbatu District was conducted. To explore respondents' motives in using Facebook, respondents were given questions that were divided into the following five motives: social interaction, leisure time, entertainment, friends, and communication. While to look for potential addiction, respondents were given questions using the Bergen Facebook Addiction (BFAD) scale. In getting a connection between the motives for using Facebook and Facebook Addiction, the data was tested by analysis of variants (ANOVA) and partial tests using SPSS software. The results obtained were 65.8% of participants were at a moderate level, while 20.3% were at a low level, and only 13.9% of participants were at a high level. While the most significant motive affecting respondents in using Facebook is the motive to fill the time and motives for communicating.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document