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A large amount of transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) bedforms exist in the Zhurong rover landing region. The acquisition of high‐resolution data from the orbiter and the rover from Tianwen‐1 mission provides an excellent opportunity to study the geological characteristics of TARs. The length, width, and density of a total of 8,274 TAR samples at the landing site were analyzed. The orientation of TARs at the landing region is dominated in the E‐W direction. Analysis of Mars Climate Station (MCS) data on the Zhurong rover shows that the present‐day wind direction is inconsistent with the wind forces that promoted the formation of TARs, suggesting that the formation of TARs is dependent on the ancient wind direction. With the help of the Zhurong MarSCoDe shortwave infrared (SWIR) spectrometer data, we investigate the composition of materials including TARs, soil, and rocks, and the results show that their spectra display similar distinct absorptions consistent with the presence of hydrated minerals such as hydrated sulfates. The cemented and dusty crust covering the TARs indicates that the TARs have not migrated for a period of time in the landing site area. Some of the TARs have been eroded into small sand ridges or ripples due to the change in the prevailing wind directions, which may indicate the climate change on Mars. Plain Language Summary: Using the high‐resolution remote sensing images from the orbiter and Zhurong rover of Tianwen‐1 mission, we identified a total of 8,274 aeolian bedforms at the landing site of the rover on the Utopia Planitia. These aeolian bedforms can be classified as transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) according to their morphology, size and other observational features. The detailed geometry such as the length, the width, the density, and orientation of these TARs were characterized and compared with Martian TARs measured in the previous studies. The TARs in the study area were found to have formed in an ancient wind regime. The TARs are covered with bright dust and their surfaces have been cemented. This suggests that these TARs have not moved for a long time. Some of the TARs have been eroded into small sand ripples. The cause of this may be related to the change in the direction of the ancient wind because the current wind direction derived from the Mars Climate Station (MCS) data on the Zhurong rover is found to be different from the ancient wind direction. Key Points: The geomorphology of transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) at Zhurong landing area are mapped and analyzed and the results show that they formed at an ancient wind regimeThe cemented and dusty crust covering the TARs indicate that the TARs have not migrated for a period of timeSome of the TARs have been eroded due to the change of the prevailing wind directions which may indicate the climate change on Mars [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While quantum computing provides an exponential advantage in solving the system of linear equations, there is little work to solve the system of nonlinear equations with quantum computing. We propose quantum Newton's method (QNM) for solving N -dimensional system of nonlinear equations based on Newton's method. In QNM, we solve the system of linear equations in each iteration of Newton's method with quantum linear system solver. We use a specific quantum data structure and l ∞ tomography with sample error ϵ s to implement the classical-quantum data conversion process between the two iterations of QNM, thereby constructing the whole process of QNM. The complexity of QNM in each iteration is O (log 4 N ∕ ϵ s 2). Through numerical simulation, we find that when ϵ s ≫ 1 ∕ N , QNM is still effective, so the complexity of QNM is sublinear with N , which provides quantum advantage compared with the optimal classical algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Infectious diseases threaten the health and survival of wildlife populations. Consequently, relationships between host diversity, host abundance, and parasite infection are important aspects of disease ecology and conservation research. Here, we report on the prevalence patterns of avian Plasmodium and Haemoproteus infections and host relative abundance influence based on sampling 728 wild-caught birds representing 124 species at seven geographically widespread sites in southern China. The overall prevalence of two haemoprotozoan parasites, Plasmodium and Haemoproteus, was 29.5%, with 22.0% attributable to Haemoproteus and 7.8% to Plasmodium. Haemoproteus prevalence differed significantly among different avian host families, with the highest prevalence in Nectariniidae, Pycnonotidae and Muscicapidae, whereas Plasmodium prevalence varied significantly among host species. Seventy-nine mitochondrial lineages including 25 from Plasmodium and 54 from Haemoproteus were identified, 80% of which were described here for the first time. The phylogenetic relationships among these parasites indicated stronger host-species specificity for Haemoproteus than Plasmodium. Well-supported host-family (Timaliidae) specific clades were found in both Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. The Haemoproteus tree shows regional subclades, whereas the Plasmodium clades are “scattered” among different geographical regions. Interestingly, there were statistically significant variations in the prevalence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus among the geographical regions. Furthermore, the prevalence of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus were not significantly correlated with host relative abundance. Further efforts will focus on exploring the relationships between parasite prevalence and sex, age, and immune defense of the host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enormous mountainous forests in Sino- Himalayans and Siberia harbor important avian biodiversity in the Northern Hemisphere. Numerous studies in last two decades have been contributed to systematics and taxonomy of passerines birds in these regions and have revealed various and complex phylogeographic patterns. A passerine species Red-flanked Bluetail Tarsiger cyanurus provided a good system to manifest such evolutionary complexity. The subspecies T. c. cyanurus and T. c. rufilatus (or/and T. c. pallidior), divergent in morphology, acoustics, and migratory strategies are allopatric in Siberia and Sino- Himalayan forests, respectively. The two taxa most likely deserve full species status but rigorous genetic analysis is missing. In this study, multilocus phylogeography based on mitochondrial DNA and Z-linked DNA reveals that T. c. cyanurus and T. c. rufilatus are reciprocally monophyletic with significant statistical support and differ with a large number of diagnostic nucleotide sites resulting substantial genetic divergence. Our finding supports the proposed split of Tarsiger cyanurus s.l. that T. cyanurus and T. rufilatus should be treated as two full species. Whether ' pallidior' is a subspecies or geographical form of T. rufilatus is still uncertain. Additionally, these two forest passerine species may have diverged 1.88 (3.25-1.30) Mya, which might be shaped by geographical vicariance due to grassland and desert steppe on the central Loess Plateau during the Pliocene. Taken together, this study and further suggests another independent example of North Palearctic-Sino-Himalayan phylogeographic pattern in Palearctic birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of discovering species is a fundamental responsibility of systematics. Recently, there has been a growing interest in coalescent-based methods of species delimitation aimed at objectively identifying species early in the divergence process. However, few empirical studies have compared these new methods with character-based approaches for discovering species. In this study, we applied both a character-based and a coalescent-based approaches to delimit species in a closely related avian complex, the light-vented/Taiwan bulbul ( Pycnonotus sinensis/ Pycnonotus taivanus). Population aggregation analyses of plumage, mitochondrial and 13 nuclear intron character data sets produced conflicting species hypotheses with plumage data suggesting three species, mitochondrial data suggesting two species, and nuclear intron data suggesting one species. Such conflict is expected among recently diverged species, and by integrating all sources of data, we delimited three species verified with independently congruent character evidence as well as a more weakly supported fourth species identified by a single character. Attempts to validate species hypothesis using Bayesian Phylogenetics and Phylogeography ( BPP), a coalescent-based method of species delimitation, revealed several issues that can seemingly affect statistical support for species recognition. We found that θ priors had a dramatic impact on speciation probabilities, with lower values consistently favouring splitting and higher values consistently favouring lumping. More resolved guide trees also resulted in overall higher speciation probabilities. Finally, we found suggestive evidence that BPP is sensitive to the divergent effects of nonrandom mating caused by intraspecific processes such as isolation-with-distance, and therefore, BPP may not be a conservative method for delimiting independently evolving population lineages. Based on these concerns, we questioned the reliability of BPP results and based our conclusions about species limits exclusively on character data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The light-vented bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis is a small resident passerine that is found widely in central and south China, North Vietnam, and some East Asian islands, including Hainan, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands. Its subspecies status has been under considerable debate. A total of 10 subspecies have been proposed, but only 4 are widely recognized, including 1 continental taxon, P. s. sinensis, and 3 insular subspecies: P. s. hainanus, P. s. formosae and P. s. orii. Two mitochondrial DNA genes and 9 microsatellite loci were used to investigate the genetic divergence of this species, to identify the evolutionary status of 2 insular subspecies ( P. s. hainanus and P. s. formosae) and to uncover probable historical causes that shaped them. The results reveal that P. s. formosae has diverged significantly from the other 2 subspecies because of a substantial time of isolation for populations on Taiwan Island. There was no significant genetic differentiation between P. s. sinensis and P. s. hainanus. The notable morphological difference in P. s. hainanus might be attributed to a rapid, recent adaptation to the tropical environment of Hainan Island. The low genetic divergence between P. s. sinensis and P. s. hainanus might result from a recent divergence or gene flow between them. Two insular subspecies of light-vented bulbul populations might have diverged recently from their continental relatives through a complex evolution history owing to island isolation, ecological isolation, and possibly even hybridization. Both P. s. hainanus and P. s. formosae should be considered important conservation units because of their morphological and genetic distinctiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional mechanical properties prediction models are mostly based on experience and mechanism, which neglect the linear and nonlinear relationships between process parameters. Aiming at the high-dimensional data collected in the complex industrial process of steel production, a new prediction model is proposed. The multidimensional support vector regression (MSVR)-based model is combined with the feature selection method, which involves maximum information coefficient (MIC) correlation characterization and complex network clustering. Firstly, MIC is used to measure the correlation between process parameters and mechanical properties, based on which a complex network is constructed and hierarchical clustering is performed. Secondly, we evaluate all parameters and select a representative one for each partition as the input of the subsequent model based on the centrality and influence indicators. Finally, an actual steel production case is used to train the MSVR prediction model. The prediction results show that our proposed framework can capture effective features from the full parameters in terms of higher prediction accuracy and is less time-consuming compared with the Pearson-based subset, full-parameter subset, and empirical subset input. The feature selection method based on MIC can dig out some nonlinear relationships which cannot be found by Pearson coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

set of primers to amplify 16 microsatellite DNA loci was developed for the Chestnut Bulbul Hemixos castanonotus and the cross-amplification of these loci was tested in a closely related species, the ashy bulbul Hemixos flavala. A total of 30 Chestnut Bulbul individuals were genotyped. An average of 6.5 alleles per locus (2-12 alleles) was detected. The expected heterozygosity values ranged from 0.218 to 0.888. Four loci significantly deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction. No significant linkage disequilibrium was detected. Fifteen of 16 loci were successfully amplified in the ashy bulbul, with rich polymorphism in 15 individuals tested. These markers will be useful in population genetics, conservation and phylogenies of the chestnut bulbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we review the relationship between Bell inequality and its associated polytopes and introduce a method to extend Bell inequalities to more parties. According to this method, the Bell inequality in n parties can be extended to n + 1 parties. Such generalization is nontrivial in that there is stronger violation for new inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The location and grade setting of a timber logistics center is an important link in the optimization of the timber logistics system, the rationality of which can effectively improve the efficiency of the timber logistics supply chain. There is a long distance between the main forested areas in China, and more than 55% of the timber demand depends on imports. Research and practice of systematically planning timber logistics centers in the whole country have not been well carried out, which reduces the efficiency of timber logistics. In this paper, 47 timber trading markets with a certain scale in China are selected as the basis for logistics center selection. Based on their transportation network relationship and the number of enterprises in the market, combined with the complex network theory and data analysis method, the network characteristics of three different transportation networks are measured. After determining the transportation capacity indicator, the logistics capacity coefficient is measured based on the freight volume of each node. Then, the important nodes are identified, and each node is graded to systematically set up the timber logistics center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]