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Learning experiences can affect students' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. Applying the social cognitive career theory, this study tested and compared the effect size and effect mechanism of formal learning experiences (FLE) and informal learning experiences (ILE) on 1133 tenth-grade students' interest in STEM careers (ISC) through a paper questionnaire survey. The results of structural equation model analysis showed that: 1) The total effect of ILE on students' ISC is much greater than that of FLE; 2) ILE, STEM self-efficacy (SSE) and STEM careers perceptions (SCP) can directly affect students' ISC; FLE and ILE can also indirectly affect students' ISC through the mediating role of SSE and SCP. The analyses suggest that in order to improve students' ISC, STEM education (especially informal STEM education) should be strengthened, both formal and informal education should pay attention to the cultivation of students' SSE and SCP.

Global food security is being threatened by the reduction of high‐quality cropland, extreme weather events, and the uncertainty of food supply chains. The globalization of agricultural trade has elevated the diversification of non‐grain production (NGP) on cultivated land to a prominent strategy for poverty alleviation in numerous developing nations. Its rapid expansion has engendered a multitude of deleterious consequences on both food security and ecological stability. NGP in China is becoming very common in the process of rapid urbanization, threatening national food security. To better understand the causal mechanisms and enable governments to balance food security and rural development, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of NGP using remote sensing. Yet knowledge gaps remain concerning how to use remote sensing to track human‐dominated or ‐induced long‐term cultivated land changes. Our study proposed a method for detecting the spatiotemporal evolution of NGP based on Landsat time‐series data under the Google Earth Engine platform. This approach was proposed by (1) obtaining the union of cultivated lands from multiple landcover products to minimize the cultivated land omission, (2) constructing multi‐index dynamic trend rules for 3 representative types of NGP and obtaining results at the pixel level, while adopting the continuous change detection and classification algorithm to Landsat time series (1986–2022) to determine when the most recent change occurred, (3) minimizing the noise by object‐oriented land use–land cover classification and mode filter approaches, and (4) mapping the spatiotemporal distribution of NGP. The proposed methodology was tested in Jiashan, located in Zhejiang Province (eastern China), where NGP is widespread. We achieved a high overall accuracy of 95.67% for NGP type detection and an overall accuracy of 85.26% for change detection of time. The results indicated a continued increasing pattern of NGP in Jiashan from 1986 to 2022, with the cumulative percentage of NGP increasing from 0.02% to 20.69%. This study highlights the utilization of time‐series data to document essential NGP information for evaluating food security in China and the method is well‐suited for large‐scale mapping due to its automatic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent spontaneous combustion activities restrict ecological restoration of coal waste dumps after reclamation. Effective monitoring of vegetation restoration is important for ensuring land reclamation success and preserving the ecological environment in mining areas. Development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has enabled fine-scale vegetation monitoring. In this study, we focused on Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa), a representative herbaceous vegetation type, in a coal waste dump after reclamation in Shanxi province, China. The alfalfa aboveground biomass (AGB) was used as an indicator for assessing vegetation restoration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the capacity of UAV-based fusion of RGB, multispectral, and thermal infrared information for estimating alfalfa AGB using various regression models, including random forest regression (RFR), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector regression (SVR), and stacking models. The main results are as follows: (i) UAV multi-source data fusion improved alfalfa AGB estimation accuracy, although the enhancement diminished with the increasing number of sensor types. (ii) The stacking model consistently outperformed RFR, GBDT, KNN, and SVR regression models across all feature fusion combinations. It achieved high accuracy with R2 of 0.86–0.88, RMSE of 80.06–86.87 g/m2, and MAE of 60.24–62.69 g/m2. Notably, the stacking model based on only RGB imagery features mitigated the accuracy loss from limited types of features, potentially reducing equipment costs. This study demonstrated the potential of UAV in improving vegetation restoration management of coal waste dumps after reclamation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating three-dimensional (3D) spatial measurement into the urban expansion measurement system plays an important role in understanding the degree of urban expansion and regulating and governing it. This article proposes an urban concrete forest and constructs an Urban Volume Sprawl Index to quantitatively study the spatiotemporal characteristics of the three-dimensional expansion of Chinese prefecture-level cities. Furthermore, geographic detectors are used to study its influencing factors. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Between 1990 and 2018, the volume of Chinese cities has increased from 414.67 to 1,406.29 km3, with a growth rate of 239.13%. (2) The overall growth rate of urban volume shows a gradual slowing trend during the research period, from 55.99% to 40.83%. (3) Between 1990 and 2018, the Urban Volume Sprawl Index nationwide gradually slowed down (from 5.18% to 3.90%), with the largest rate reported in the western region (4.1%), the middle in the eastern region (3.46%), and the smallest in the central region (3.28%). (4) Government and economic factors have the greatest impact on the three-dimensional expansion of Chinese cities (over 69%), with social factors in the middle, and natural factors having the weakest explanatory power (less than 15%). (5) There are differences in the degree of urban expansion between two-dimensional and three-dimensional perspectives. A total of 38.1% of cities have a greater degree of urban expansion from a two-dimensional (2D) analysis perspective, which are mainly small cities located in the western and eastern regions. A total of 5.4% of cities (mainly located in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions) have a greater degree of urban expansion from a 3D perspective. The remaining cities (56.5%) go through the same level of urban expansion in both analysis dimensions. A 3D urban expansion analysis can better explain and reveal the actual production and living space provided by urban expansion than 2D analysis. It can provide temporal data for urban land efficiency evaluation, ghost city identification, etc., and it has good application and promotion prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many coal mining areas overlapped with agricultural land in the world. However, surface subsidence and waterlogging brought on by coal mining inexorably harm the agricultural land. Soil moisture can reflect the variation of mining impact significantly according to the geographic features of the high underground water table, which shows significant spatial gradient variation within the subsidence basin. Previous studies have used site survey and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which are not applicable to large‐scale assessments of the ecological impacts and defining the scale of impacts. Here, we used the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and an optical trapezoid model (OPTRAM) to estimate the soil moisture distribution around 50 mining subsidence waterbody samples in eastern China. Based on the spatial variation in soil moisture, the impact boundary of coal mining was determined using buffer analysis and trend fitting. The results showed that: (1) The OPTRAM can well reflect the soil moisture distribution which shows a good correlation between estimated and measured values, with R = 0.83 and RMSE = 0.054. (2) The spatial trend fitting of soil moisture is suitable for evaluating mining impact, and the impact distances are in the range of 96–762 m, 80% of which are located at 128–436 m. We also find that 28% of subsidence waterbody buffer basins were heavily influenced by human activities, and the coal mining impact boundaries cannot be effectively identified. The study provides a new idea to quantify the ecological and agricultural impact boundary of coal mining, which could be applied to other similar regions across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the spatial-temporal pattern of cropland abandonment is the premise for the management of abandoned croplands. Traditional mapping approaches of abandoned croplands usually utilize a multi-date classification-based land cover change trajectory. It requires quality training samples for land cover classification at each epoch, which is challenging in regions of smallholder agriculture in the absence of high-resolution imagery. Facing these challenges, a theoretical model is proposed to recognize abandoned croplands based on post-abandonment secondary succession. It applies the continuous change detection and classification (CCDC) temporal segmentation algorithm to Landsat time series (1986~2021) to obtain disjoint segments, representing croplands' status. The post-abandonment secondary succession showing a greening trend is recognized using NDVI-based harmonic analysis, so as to capture its preceding abandonment. This algorithm is applied to a mountainous area in southwest China, where cropland abandonments are widespread. Validation based on stratified random samples referenced by a vegetation index time series and satellite images shows that the detected abandoned croplands have user accuracy, producer accuracy and an F1 score ranging from 43% to 71%, with variation among abandonment year. The study area has a potential cropland extent of 22,294 km2, within which 9252 km2 of the cropland was abandoned. The three peak years of abandonment were 1994, 2000, and 2011. The algorithm is suitable to be applied to large-scale mapping due to its automatic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peri-menopausal syndrome (PMPS) has a high incidence rate and seriously affects the physical and mental health of women. Honghua Xiaoyao Pill (HHXYP) is a Chinese patent medicine, which has been reported to be used to treat PMPS. However, there is still a lack of randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HHXYP on life quality, mood and vasomotor symptoms for PMPS women. This study aims to investigate whether HHXYP is effective and safe in treating PMPS and the possible mechanism. Methods: A multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial will be conducted in China to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HHXYP. Sixty women with perimenopausal syndrome will be recruited at three centers and randomly in a 1: 1 ratio to a treatment group using HHXYP (HHXYP group) and a control group using oryzanol (OC group). Participants will be treated with HHXYP or oryzanol for 12 weeks and followed up for 4 weeks. The primary outcome is the modified Kupperman Index (KI), which will be measured at baseline and 4, 8, 12, 16 weeks after randomization. The secondary outcomes include Hot flash scale (HFs), Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Scale (MENQOL) and Hamilton Depression/ Anxiety Scale (HAMD/HAMA). The HFs are measured at the same point as the KI, other secondary outcomes are measured at baseline and 12, 16 weeks after randomization. The other outcomes are the levels of serum sex hormone, monoamine neurotransmitter, vascular vasomotor factor and the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-active enzyme (PI3K)/protein activator enzyme B (Akt), which will be measured at baseline and 12 weeks after randomization. Adverse events will also be reported. Discussion: HHXYP is a potential alternative Chinese patent medicine for PMPS. This trial will provide evidence for HHXYP on improving the quality of life, mood and vasomotor symptoms, and sex hormone levels of PMPS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection and malignancy has attracted increased attention in recent years, but little is known of T. gondii infection among women diagnosed with a gynecological tumor (GT) in China. We conducted a case-control study involving 460 women diagnosed with a GT and 460 agematched healthy controls (HCs) to estimate the infection process of T. gondii and understand the risk factors of T. gondii infection in patients with a GT. Levels of anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM were measured by enzyme-linked immunoassays every 12 months. After a median follow-up time of 4.3 years (range 4 to 5 years), 55/460 (11.96%) patients with a GT and 15/460 (3.26%) HCs were seroprevalence for T. gondii antibodies, respectively (P = 0.001). IgG antibodies against T. gondii were found in 54 GT patients (11.74%) and 15 HCs (3.26%), respectively (P = 0.001). The seroprevalence of T. gondii IgM antibodies was similar in patients with a GT and with HCs (2.83% vs 1.3%, P = 0.105). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed contact with cats (OR, 6.67; 95% CI [2.89-10.75]; P = 0.001), exposure to soil (OR, 2.16; 95% CI [1.14-4.10]; P = 0.019), being a farm-worker (OR, 4.17; 95% CI [1.20-11.49]; P = 0.006) and history of chemotherapy (OR, 3.16; 95% CI [1.56-6.45]; P = 0.001) to be independent risk factors for T. gondii infection. Women with an ovarian cancer or endometrial cancer had higher T. gondii seroprevalence than that of HCs. Moreover, T. gondii infection in patients with a GT mostly acquired within two years of diagnosis, but the infection in healthy controls had no obvious time characteristics. Here, we demonstrated that T. gondii infection is significantly higher in patients with a GT (especially in women with an ovarian tumor) compared to HCs. Thus, infection with this parasite should be avoided in patients with a GT, and the causal relationship between T. gondii and GTs should be studied in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, it is a great challenge for remote sensing technology to accurately map mangrove forests owing to periodic inundation. A submerged mangrove recognition index (SMRI) using two high- and low-tide images was recently proposed to remove the influence of tides and identify mangrove forests. However, when the tidal height of the selected low-tide image is not at the lowest tidal level, the corresponding SMRI does not function well, which results in mangrove forests below the low tidal height being undetected. Furthermore, Spartina alterniflora Loisel (S. alterniflora) was introduced to China in 1979 and rapidly spread to become the most serious invasive plant along the Chinese coastline. The current SMRI has failed to distinguish S. alterniflora from submerged mangrove forests because of their similar spectral signatures. In this study, an SMRI-based mangrove forest mapping method was developed using the time series of Sentinel-2 images to mitigate the two aforementioned issues. In the proposed method, quantile synthesis was applied to the time series of Sentinel-2 images to generate a lowest-tide synthetic image for creating SMRI to identify submerged mangrove forests. Unsubmerged mangrove forests were classified using a support vector machine, and a preliminary mangrove forest map was created by merging them. In addition, S. alterniflora was distinguished from the mangrove forests by analyzing their phenological differences. Finally, mangrove forest mapping was performed by masking S. alterniflora. The proposed method was applied to the entire coastline of the Guangxi Province, China. The results showed that it can reliably and accurately identify submerged mangrove forests derived from SMRI by synthesizing low- and high-tide images using quantile synthesis, and the differentiation of S. alterniflora using phenological differences results in more accurate mangrove mapping. This work helps to improve the accuracy of mangrove forest mapping using SMRI and its feasibility for coastal wetland monitoring. It also provides data for sustainable management, ecological protection, and restoration of vegetation in coastal zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We simulate future urban 3D expansion in China from 2010 to 2100. • Our projections encompass 5 Shared Socio-economic Pathways. • Future changes include both horizontal expansion and building height information. • China's building volume is projected to increase to 4500–6500 km3 by 2050. • Building volume demand in 2100 will decline to 60% of the demand in 2050. The 21st century is marked by urbanization, with global focus on horizontal city expansion. Yet, vertical growth lacks research due to data scarcity. This study investigates the fusion of urban building height predictions with conventional sprawl projections to offer a holistic 3D urban expansion foresight. We constructed a model for projecting urban building volume using socio-economic factors includes GDP, population, and urbanization indicators, enabling the anticipation of China's 2010–2100 building volume demand across five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Furthermore, deep learning-based neural networks were harnessed for estimating land conversion probabilities and building heights. By aggregating the projected demand, we estimated spatial expansion and building heights for each scenario at ten-year intervals from 2010 to 2100. Compared to other products, our proposed method excels in spatial granularity and temporal continuity, which includes height properties in the 3D structure. According to the projections of this study, considering various SSPs, China's building volume is expected to reach approximately 4500 km3 to 6500 km3 by 2050, representing 1.3–1.9 times increase compared to 2010. Furthermore, forecasts for 2050–2100 anticipate a notable decline to 60 % of the 2050 demand. At a more local level, potential spatial imbalances may arise, as the projections indicate significant urban expansion in the eastern areas and a heightened density of urban land within existing city clusters. This approach surpasses the constraints of 2D analysis, pioneering the prediction of fine-resolution, long-term spatiotemporal urban expansion in China (2010–2100), contributing a model and data support for future sustainable urban development pursuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background To investigate the prevalence of small ruptured saccular intracranial aneurysms (sIA) in a Chinese cohort and to identify factors associated with rupture status of sIAs. Methods Consecutive patients with confirmed sIAs by DSA from January 2015 to July 2019 were included. Demographic and aneurysmal features, including maximal diameter, location, irregularity (lobulated or with blebs), and aspect ratio (AR, defined as height divided by neck width) were recorded and analyzed. Mixed effect logistic regression was used in multivariate analysis. Results We analyzed 1514 sIAs in a Chinese cohort of 1216 patients, including 651 ruptured and 863 unruptured sIAs. Median aneurysm size was 5.7 mm for ruptured aneurysms, with 66.1% <7 mm in maximal diameter, and 40.2% measuring <5 mm. The median PHASES score of ruptured sIAs was 5. In multivariate analysis, male sex, hypertension, locations other than the internal carotid artery, irregularity (lobulated or with blebs), and higher AR were independently associated with rupture status (OR for irregularity, 2.88, 95% CI 2.20 to 3.77, p<0.001; OR for AR, 1.12, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.24, p=0.036). However, maximal diameter was not significantly associated with rupture status (p=0.72). Conclusions In this cohort, ruptured sIAs were frequently smaller than 7 mm. Shape related features, such as irregularity and higher AR, were associated with the ruptured status of sIAs, irrespective of diameter. PHASES seems to be inadequate in sIA risk stratification. Shape related parameters may be further investigated in prospective studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aortic stiffness and coronary heart disease (CHD) share a similar spectrum of risk factors; previous studies have identified the association between aortic stiffness and CHD. Recent studies have demonstrated estimated pulse wave velocity (ePWV) as a simple and easy-acquired indicator of aortic stiffness. Our work aims to evaluate the association between ePWV and the prevalence of CHD and assess the value of ePWV for the identification of prevalent CHD.Methods: The current cross-sectional work included 7012 subjects from rural areas of southeastern China between September 2020 and February 2021. ePWV was calculated from age and mean blood pressure by specific algorithm.Results: The prevalence of CHD in our population was 3.58% (251 patients among 7012 subjects). After adjusting for age, sex, education, income and exercise level, current smoking and drinking status, body mass index, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, estimated glomerular filtration rate and cerebrovascular diseases, each standard deviation increment of ePWV would produce an additional 37.8% risk of prevalent CHD. Moreover, after dividing ePWV into quartiles, the 4th quartile of ePWV showed a significant risk of prevalent CHD (OR (95% CI): 3.567 (1.963-6.479)) when compared with the 1st quartile. Additionally, the subgroup analysis showed the association between ePWV and prevalent CHD was robust to several common risk factors of CHD, including age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes and reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate. Finally, the area under curve (AUC) displayed an improvement when adding ePWV into common CHD risk factors (0.705 vs. 0.718. P = 0.044). Consistently, net reclassification index (0.436, 95% CI: 0.301-0.571, P < 0.001) and integrated discrimination index (0.004, 95% CI: 0.001-0.006, P = 0.002) demonstrated the value of ePWV to optimize the identification of prevalent CHD in the general population.Conclusion: The present analysis implicates the robust association between ePWV, a simple, rapid, and practical marker of aortic stiffness, and prevalent CHD in the general Chinese population. More importantly, the results suggest the value of ePWV as a potential marker to improve the identification of prevalent CHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation management usually carried out for a period of time to maintain the vegetation restoration of coal waste dumps after reclamation. However, the natural restoration of vegetation is faced with great challenges in semi-arid mining areas without management, due to the fragile ecological environment. Therefore, it is necessary to determine a reasonable management plan so that vegetation restoration can reach a stable state although the abandonment of the management. The objective was to explore the difference of vegetation restoration under different management modes in a typical semi-arid mining area. Two reclaimed coal waste dumps under different management measures, the north waste dump (ND) and the south waste dump (SD), were examined in the ShengLi coalfield in Inner Mongolia, China. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset based on Landsat series imagery was obtained using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and the landscape metrics were also calculated based on different vegetation coverage. The results proved that 3 years of management was not enough to stabilize vegetation restoration. A serious vegetation degradation occurred at the ND after the management stopped, with 40.1% of the pixels recorded a significant decrease (ρ = 0.05). The vegetation coverage became fragmented, and there was a tendency of succession to lower coverage. On the contrary, the vegetation restoration of SD was better under continuous management, and no significant degradation trend was observed. Furthermore, the results indicated that rainfall is the main influencing factor on vegetation restoration in semi-arid mining areas. The coal waste dump was more susceptible to weather change in natural restoration. By contrast, continuous management measures will resist such climate disturbances, even in dry years. This research will provide support for the formulation of the reclamation management plan of coal waste dumps in semi-arid mining areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal mining leads to land subsidence, and the situation is particularly serious in the Coal-Grain Complex in eastern China, causing the crop production to be reduced or to be taken out. Backfilling with Yellow River sediment is one of the effective methods to solve the land subsidence in this area, but a key issue is how to select the optimal soil reconstruction profile so that the crop yield after backfilling and reclamation is unaffected. The main purpose of this study is to verify the feasibility of selecting the optimal soil reconstruction profile by rapid monitoring of crop growth and judging soil quality with the aid of unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAVs). A control treatment and 13 experimental treatments were established for the study area. The control treatment consisted of using 30 cm topsoil and 90 cm subsoil and the topsoil is a proxy for native (undisturbed) soil from the study sites. All other treatments consisted of using varying combinations of subsoil and sediment overlain by 30 cm of topsoil. The vegetation indices from the UAV multispectral images, and the plant height and vegetation coverage from the UAV RGB images were used for estimation of the winter wheat biomass in a random forest regression. The results showed that the random forest regression model yielded accurate estimation of the aboveground biomass. Furthermore, knowledge of plant height and vegetation coverage improved the accuracy of prediction such that crop growth was well characterized. The optimal soil profile consisted of 0.3 m topsoil + 0.2 m subsoil + 0.2 m sediment + 0.2 m subsoil + 0.3 m sediment. A fast and effective airborne monitoring method for soil quality was established, thus providing greatly improved monitoring efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between board diversity measured as relation-oriented, task-oriented and board overall diversity and firm's investment efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: This study estimates four dimensions of board diversity, including age, gender, tenure and education. The four dimensions are further categorized in relation-oriented diversity (i.e. age and gender), task-oriented diversity (i.e. tenure and education) and overall board diversity (relation and task oriented). Panel data analysis is used to examine the board diversity–investment efficiency relationship in Chinese listed firms during the years 2003–2018. The findings of the study are robust to a battery of econometric techniques. Findings: This study finds relation-oriented, task-oriented and overall diversity of a board curb investment inefficiency by discouraging sub-optimal investment (over- or under-investment). In other words, board diversity improves firms' investment efficiency. Practical implications: The results suggest that board diversity plays a significant role in corporate decisions. The findings illustrate that board diversity disciplines the management, reduces agency conflicts and thereby improves corporate governance, resulting in higher investment efficiency. Originality/value: This study has two important contributions. First, this study extends the prior literature of investment efficiency by considering socio-psychological dimension of the board diversity by constructing relation- and task-oriented diversity. Second, contrary to earlier studies on board diversity, this study takes four facets of board diversity, i.e. age, gender, education and tenure that improve corporate governance mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In eastern China, coal mining has damaged a large amount of farmland, posing a great threat to food security. Backfilling with coal waste, fly ash, and sediments from rivers is an effective method to restore farmland. This study was conducted at the reclaimed area (RA) and the undisturbed area (UA) in Shandong Province, China. Soil and plant analyzer development (SPAD) of corn was selected as an indicator of crop growth. Multi-spectral data was obtained by the unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a camera. By analyzing the correlation between SPAD and spectral bands, the common vegetation index is improved. Different regression methods were used to construct the SPAD inversion model. The distribution of corn SPAD was monitored to objectively evaluate reclamation technology. The results are as follows: (1) the vegetation index improved using the red-edge band has a higher correlation with SPAD, and the largest coefficient of determination (R2) value is 0.779; (2) the optimum inversion model for both jointing stage (R2 = 0.676) and milky stage (R2 = 0.661) is the linear regression model; the optimum model for both tasseling stage (R2 = 0.809) and filling stage (R2 = 0.830) is the partial least squares regression model; (3) the SPAD inversion map of RA and UA obtained by the optimum model shows that the corn grown in RA is slightly better than in UA. This study realized the rapid and efficient monitoring of the reclamation effects based on multi-spectral imagery and verified the feasibility of backfilling reclamation with Yellow River sediment in coal mining subsidence areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal mining inevitably causes land subsidence, while negatively impacting land and ecological environments. This is particularly severe in coal-grain overlap areas (CGOA) in eastern China, which have high groundwater levels. Mining subsidence has substantially altered the original topography, and raised the groundwater level, which threatens grain security in the region. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the damaged farmland area in the CGOA. The traditional method to define the range of coal mining disturbance is usually based on surface subsidence. However, this fails to consider the multidimensional impacts of coal mining on the ecology, which is considered unreasonable. Therefore, this paper introduces a low-cost, fast, and non-destructive method for land damage assessment in a typical CGOA in eastern China, using maize aboveground biomass (AGB) as estimated from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). There were three key results from the survey. (1) underground coal mining caused significant ecological problems in the study area, including subsidence (approximately 6 m) and the degradation of vegetation (maize AGB in a range of 192.73–1338.06 g/m2). In addition, the degradation of maize was affected by subsidence (0.61** Pearson coefficient found between the AGB and surface elevation). (2) An UAV combined with multispectral and digital cameras, allowed precise estimation of the AGB and the red-edge chlorophyII index (CIrededge) combined with the elevation factor had the best explanatory power using the random forest (RF) method (R2 = 0.96, RMSE = 65.03 g/cm2). (3) The maize AGB could be used to assess land damage affected by underground coal mining, which accounted for 82.12% of the study area. The results of the study could provide a reference for land damage assessments in the CGOA, while also providing a guide for land reclamation and agricultural management decisions in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-strength mining of super-large coalfaces in the Shendong coalfield causes significant damage to the ground surface. To study the key parameters of undermined coalfaces that affect ground damage, 25 numerical simulation models were designed using an orthogonal experimental method based on the geological and mining conditions of the Bulianta Mine. In the orthogonal design, four factors (the lengths in both the dip and strike directions, the thickness and the mining speed of the coalface) were considered, with five levels designed for each factor. The subsidence displacements and deformations caused by the excavation were then simulated and verified using field surveying data. A damage extent index (DEI) was introduced and used to assess the extent of global ground damage caused by each simulative excavation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was then employed to determine the key parameters of the coalface that significantly influence the ground damage. It was found that the coalface dip length and thickness and the coalface thickness can be regarded as the key parameters for ground objects of building and timberland, respectively. This research provides theoretical and technical support for the coordinated exploitation of resources and environments in Shendong and other similar, ecologically fragile coalfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the important selection attributes of instant noodles that significantly affect consumer satisfaction in Korea and China. Several factors such as taste, price, quality, design, and brand were tested, and the relationships between satisfaction and repurchase intention were analyzed. Based on previous studies, it was found that the importance of selection attributes for instant noodle is taste, price, quality, design, and brand. Using structural equation modeling, 1,027 questionnaires were surveyed for a statistical method of examining the proposed hypotheses in China and Korea. Results of the study reveal that the importance of selection attributes affected satisfaction significantly. Furthermore, the path coefficient of satisfaction that leads to repurchase was found to be significant. However, consumers' perceived importance of selection attributes of instant noodles varied according to the countries. The path coefficients from taste to satisfaction were more significant for Korean consumers (β = 0.542) than for Chinese consumers (β = 0.359). Meanwhile, the path coefficient from corporate brand to satisfaction was more significant for Chinese consumers (β = 0. 305) than Korean consumers (β = 0.218). This study analyzes the significant selection attributes of instant noodles, the results provide meaningful implications for instant noodle companies in each country regarding the specific attributes they need to prioritize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is a major coal producing country, and also one of the countries which has the most serious coal mine accidents around the world. As a result of geological conditions, underground mining is the main way that coal is exploited in China; serious underground disasters and the corresponding fatality rate are much higher than is the case for surface mining. Although safer modern underground mining methods have been introduced across China, accidents still lead to fatalities and the loss of revenue in some mines. It is important to establish a georeferenced coal mine disasters (CMD) database to aid researchers and decision makers in better understanding the spatio-temporal distribution of such accidents across in China. This study has proposed a method to develop a georeferenced spatio-temporal CMD database via a geographic information system (GIS) platform based on statistical data released by the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety (SACMS) for the period between 2000 and 2015. The different levels and spatio-temporal characteristics of coal mining accidents were analyzed, and the space-time scan statistic permutation (STSSP) model was carried out to detect the CMD clusters; and finally, a spatio-temporal cluster analysis of Chinese coal mining accidents in 2000 and 2015 was conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multi-source data are integrated to effectively construct RSEI in successive years. • The characteristics of ecological quality variation have been revealed. • The weak positive trend delayed by mining has been proved. • The extent and area of the better or worse trend have been identified. Coal-based industries are critical to the contemporary world's growth, while the environmental degradation associated with the industry is also increasing. In this study, we develop the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) and map its distribution from 2000 to 2020 using the Muli coalfield near Qinghai Lake as the research object. This index is obtained by fitting four components that are critically related to the quality of the ecological environment, including greenness, humidity, heat and dryness, to finally obtain a desirable evaluation. The results illustrate that: (1) The RSEI displayed an overall increasing trend on the time scale, but it also went through three lengthier phases of trend changes. In space view, the RSEI of the unaltered areas has greatly improved, while the damaged areas are clearly concentrated in the study area's northwestern region, where mining is common. (2) In the trend test, the overall variation of RSEI was found to be around 3%. RSEI significantly increased in 69.57% of the study region, whereas RSEI decreased dramatically in 30.43% of the study area. (3) In opencast mining disturbed areas and undisturbed areas, a different quality structure can be discovered, with Moderate and Good levels predominating in disturbed areas and Good and Excellent levels predominating in undisturbed areas. The ecological decline in damaged areas significantly hampered the overall upward trend of RSEI. (4) The Globalmoran's I value was 0.558, 0.546, 0.409, 0.574, and 0.680 in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, respectively, showing a positive association between regional distribution of ecological environment quality and that opencast mining does really degrade that quality. It has been demonstrated that our evaluation accurately classify the local environment as affected by opencast mining, making it crucial for studying the relationship between coal mining and ecological quality. This index can also be utilized in the future when conducting surveys of other regions of intense human disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have largely promoted the transformation of urban and rural space. In recent years, rural residential land expansion (RRLE) has also become a significant problem for the progress of China's rapid urbanization. The phenomenon of RRLE and its impact on cultivated land needs to be taken seriously. From a process perspective, this study aimed to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of RRLE under conditions of rapid urbanization and reveal its impacts on cultivated land. We analyzed the spatial pattern of cultivated land occupied by rural residential land and discuss the distribution characteristics under different factors. Our results show that: (1) the changing trend in RRLE between 1990 and 2020 ran counter to that of rural population. The problem of "decreasing population vs. increasing rural residential land" in rural China is significant. The spatial distribution of RRLE was dense in the east of the country and sparse in the west. Landscape metrics indicated that rural settlements still show irregular development; (2) the impacts of RRLE on the cultivated land system were significant. In general, these impacts were greater than those of urban expansion, and showed significant regional differences; (3) the cultivated land occupied by rural residential land was distributed mainly in city suburbs and areas of low elevation and slope, and were closely related to the direction of traffic flow. Based on these findings, some suggestions for optimizing the interrelations between population and rural residential land are proposed. • Identify the spatial and temporal patterns of rural residential land expansion in China. • Rural residential land expansion has caused massive loss of rich cultivated land. • Spatial inequalities in rural residential land expansion and its impacts on cultivated land is significant. • Propose regulation suggestions of different geographical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal resources play a strategic role in long-term development in China. However, underground mining activities in high groundwater table areas result in dramatic land use transition, putting both the ecosystem and the environment under great pressure. This paper examines the dynamic patterns of land use in high groundwater coal basins (HGCBs) using high-resolution Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) data from 1985, 1995, 2005, 2010, and 2015, and socio-economic data from research institutes and government departments, and assesses the changes of ecosystem service value (ESV) by drawing a connection between the observed land use dynamics and the evaluation of ESV, based on the latest research of Xie et al. (2015) and some revisions adapted to the situation in the mining areas. The outcomes indicated that from 1985 to 2005, the ESV of the study area had a sustained growth, from 308.66 million RMB¥ in 1985–481.50 million RMB¥ in 2005. However, this growth has since stopped and turned into a decrease, with ESV dropping to 334.27 million RMB¥ in 2015. The reasons for the changes in ESV were analyzed: the large transition of construction land and farmland to waterbody caused by mining subsidence and restoration activities play a positive role, while the urbanization process in mining areas leading to the expansion of cities, and drought for the past 5 years leading to the shrinkage of waterbody, bring negative efforts to ESV. Based on the analysis above, some of the major implications were discussed. It is argued that the mining-induced land use transition will continue in the near future in HGCBs. Therefore, in order to fully consider the future landscape and thus optimize land use and extend urban development space it is necessary: to make pre-subsidence plans to maximize the farmland and ensure food security; to restore the secondary waterbody; to protect regional ecosystem service function and maintain its stability; and to make urban planning on the basis of subsidence prediction at every stage. Only in this way can HGCBs realize the sustainable use of ecological resources, as well as the integration of economic, social and ecologic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Perimenopausal insomnia is one of the core symptoms of the menopausal transition. Acupuncture is considered to exert a positive effect on restoring the normal sleep-wake cycle. However, there is little intuitive evidence besides evaluation using clinical effectiveness scales. We therefore designed this study, aiming to use more intuitive and reliable detection techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after applying acupuncture to provide neuroimaging evidence, as well as to verify the effectiveness with other curative effect indicators.Methods/design: This study is a randomized, assessor-statistician-blinded, positive medicine controlled trial involving 40 participants. A total of 40 eligible patients with perimenopausal insomnia will be randomly assigned to two groups in a 1:1 ratio as an intervention group using acupuncture and a control group taking estazolam. Participants in the intervention group will receive six acupuncture treatment sessions per week for 4 consecutive weeks, for a total of 24 sessions during the study. Meanwhile, the medicine control group will be prescribed estazolam 1-2 mg/day to be taken 30 minutes before sleep for 4 weeks. The primary outcome is the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Secondary outcomes are the micro-movement sensitive mattress-type sleep monitoring system, the Hamilton Depression Scale, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale. All outcomes will be evaluated before and after treatment. The safety of interventions will be assessed at every visit.Discussion: The results of this trial, which will be available in 2018, will investigate the impact of acupuncture treating perimenopausal insomnia from assessment of the sleep architecture, hormone level, and emotional-circuit neurological function, and will uncover the effective mechanism of acupuncture regulating the emotional center integrated effect.Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trials Register, ChCTR-IPC-16007832 . Registered on 26 January 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of coal resources is necessary, but it has a huge negative impact on land, ecology, and the environment. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the requirements of related regulations, the design and practice of reclamation projects run through the mining life cycle and continue for a long time after the coal production. High-precision monitoring of mining disturbance and reclamation, quantifying the degree and time of vegetation disturbance and restoration, is of great significance to minimize the environmental effect of mining. Remote sensing, widely used as efficient monitoring tool, but there is not enough research on disturbance and reclamation monitoring taking into account large-scale areas and high temporal and spatial accuracy. Especially when mining sites remain unknown, how to distinguish the disturbance of coal mining and other human activities affecting the surface land cover has become a challenge. Therefore, this paper proposed a method to reconstruct the time series of mining disturbance and reclamation in a large area by using the POI (point of interest) and Landsat time series images using multiple buffer analysis methods. The process includes: (1) Retrieval of POI in the study area based on the public mining list using Python crawler, and buffering 100 km for preliminary extraction of potential mining areas; (2) Using spectral index mask and random forest algorithm to accurately extract the exposed coal on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform; (3) Buffering 10 km to identify the occurrence of disturbance and reclamation, using pixel-based temporal trajectory identification of LandTrendr algorithm under GEE. The method successful detect the change points of surface coal mining disturbance and reclamation in eastern Inner Mongolia of China. The results show that: (1) The method can effectively identify the extent of surface coal mining disturbance and reclamation, and the overall extraction accuracy is 81%. (2) Surface coal mining disturbance in eastern Inner Mongolia was concentrated in 2006–2011. By 2020, the total disturbed area is 627.8 km2, with an average annual disturbance of 18.5 km2, and the annual maximum disturbance to the ground reached 64.6 km2 in 2008. With the total reclaimed area being 236.3 km2, the reclamation rate is about 37.6%. This study provides a systematic solution and process for monitoring the disturbance and reclamation of surface coal mining in a large range with little known about the mines' location. It can effectively identify the mining disturbance and reclamation process which can also be extended to other areas, providing a quantitative assessment of mining disturbance and reclamation, which can support further ecological restoration decision-making. [Display omitted] • A remote sensing procedure of surface coal mine classification, disturbance and reclamation monitoring is developed. • Landsat, random forest, web scraping, and Google Earth Engine has been used to detect 73 surface coal mining sites. • 0.94% of the total study area has been disturbed by surface mining. • The developed procedure is able to reveal the surface coal mine reclamation pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To provide a comprehensive overview of temporal trends in cancer incidence during 1973-2010 in urban Shanghai.Methods: The estimated annual percent changes (EAPCs) for the whole period and for the time segments in age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) were evaluated with Joinpoint analysis. Age-period-cohort (APC) models were modeled to examine the effects of age, period and birth cohort on cancer incidence.Results: The overall ASR decreased slightly and significantly in males (EAPC of -0.41) but increased significantly in females (EAPC of 0.57) during 1973-2010 in urban Shanghai. The incidence trend was not linear and varied by time segments. During the most recent 10 years (2001-2010), the ASR in males decreased by 1.65% per year and stabilized in females. Incidence rates continued to decline during 1973-2010 for esophagus, stomach, and liver cancer in both sexes, as well as male lung cancer and cervix cancer. It should be noted that it was the first time to document a significant decline in lung cancer incidence among males during 1973-2010 with EAPC of -0.58%, and a notable upward for cervix cancer since 1996 with EAPC of 8.94%. Unfavorable trends in incidence were observed for the most common cancer sites in the 38 years period: colorectum, gallbladder & biliary tract, pancreas, kidney, bladder, brain & central nervous system (CNS), thyroid, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), prostate, female breast, corpus uteri, and ovary. APC analysis showed age, period and birth cohort yielded different effects by cancer sites.Conclusions: The observed trends primarily reflect dramatic changes in socioeconomic development and lifestyles in urban Shanghai over the past four decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eastern China has a long history of coal mining and a large number of coal mine sites have been abandoned in this region leaving a legacy of mining-related land subsidence, coal waste piles and brownfield sites. Furthermore, as a result of the historical planning approach in the region, many cities were built around coal mines. Therefore, the ecological restoration of abandoned mine land has become vital to the sustainable development in these cities. This paper uses the Datong coal mine site in Huainan as a case study to develop a detailed ecological restoration plan and functional division for an abandoned underground coal mine land by considering the local conditions and mining history, site assessment and integrated monitoring tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traditional Uighur medicine shares an origin with Greco-Arab medicine. It describes the health of a human body as the dynamic homeostasis of four normal Hilits (humours), known as Kan, Phlegm, Safra, and Savda. An abnormal change in one Hilit may cause imbalance among the Hilits, leading to the development of a syndrome. Abnormal Savda is a major syndrome of complex diseases that are associated with common biological changes during disease development. Here, we studied the protein expression profile common to tumour patients with Abnormal Savda to elucidate the biological basis of this syndrome and identify potential biomarkers associated with Abnormal Savda. Methods: Patients with malignant tumours were classified by the diagnosis of Uighur medicine into two groups: Abnormal Savda type tumour (ASt) and non-Abnormal Savda type tumour (nASt), which includes other syndromes. The profile of proteins that were differentially expressed in ASt compared with nASt and normal controls (NC) was analysed by iTRAQ proteomics and evaluated by bioinformatics using MetaCore™ software and an online database. The expression of candidate proteins was verified in all plasma samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: We identified 31 plasma proteins that were differentially expressed in ASt compared with nASt, of which only 10 showed quantitatively different expression between ASt and NC. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that most of these proteins are known biomarkers for neoplasms of the stomach, breast, and lung. ELISA detection showed significant upregulation of plasma SAA1 and SPP24 and downregulation of PIGR and FASN in ASt compared with nASt and NC (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Abnormal Savda may be causally associated with changes in the whole regulation network of protein expression during carcinogenesis. The expression of potential biomarkers might be used to distinguish Abnormal Savda from other syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Overlapped characteristics were conducted by using GIS spatial overlay analysis technology. [•] Area of subsidence and occupied cropland were calculated by using estimation models. [•] Effects of farmland damage were systematically analyzed and evaluated. [•] We hope government to enact countermeasures for the coordinative production of coal and grain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction of underground ore body inevitably causes a large amount of land subsidence. Current reclamation technologies in China mainly focus on stable subsided land, which means most of the affected lands are submerged into water because of the high groundwater table in some areas, leading to the loss of soils and inefficient reclamation. Therefore, a new technology for reclaiming unstable subsiding land is being studied for restoring farmland as much as possible, based on a case study in northern Anhui, China. In consideration of the mining plan, subsidence processes in various stages were analyzed and some related factors such as vertical subsidence, post-mining slope, water area, and land use condition were also simulated. Due to mining activities, useful farmland has gradually decreased to merely 14.4 % of the pre-mining area. In this study, the following stages were modeled from pre-mining to post-mining: (1) percentage of farmland was 100 % in stage (a) (pre-mining), (2) 72.5 % in stage (b), (3) 67.3 % in stage (c), and (4) 14.4 % in stage (d) (post-mining). The results show that 86.6 % of cultivated land was submerged into water and lost its capacity for cultivation after coal mining. Reclamation plans for stages (b), (c), and (d) were made by a traditional reclamation method called 'Digging Deep to Fill Shallow'. Based on scenario simulation of reclamation, the farmland reclamation percentages were improved to 78.3, 73.3, and 40.70 %, respectively. Taking the percentage of reclaimed farmland as the preferred standard, concurrent mining and reclamation for stage (b) and (c) could increase farmland reclamation percentages to 37.6 and 32.6 %, respectively, compared with the farmland reclamation percentage of post-mining [reclaiming the land in stage (d)]. The results reveal that optimum reclamation time should be at stage (b). Therefore, under current technical conditions, concurrent mining and reclamation could enhance the quantity of cultivated land and provide better land protection and food security in the mined areas with high groundwater table. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P) is one of the most common congenital malformations and a susceptibility locus on chromosome 8q24 has been replicated as a genetic risk factor for NSCL/P in patients of European and Asian descent. However, given considerable variations in allele frequencies across geographical regions studied, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of rs987525 located at 8q24 with NSCL/P only among the southern Han Chinese population from Guangdong province. We recruited 216 NSCL/P cases, their parents, and 200 controls to conduct case-control analysis and family-based association studies. Genotyping of rs987525 was carried out by the matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry method. Case-control analysis showed allele and genotype distributions for rs987525 were not significantly associated with the risk of NSCL/P in our study population. Similar results were found when all cases were stratified into cleft lip only and cleft lip with cleft palate. A transmission disequilibrium test showed no statistically significant transmission of A nor C alleles and family-based association test (FBAT) analysis provided no evidence of NSCL/P risk with single markers. These results do not provide evidence for an association between rs987525 at 8q24 and the risk of NSCL/P in the southern Han Chinese population from Guangdong province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the Internet's political consequences in China, current scholarship focuses predominantly on some individuals' ready contention against state apparatuses and unjustifiably ignores how Internet use may bring about cultural changes with political implications among a larger population. This study examines the emerging Chinese online debate culture from early 2006 to mid-2011. Taking the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse, it is based on online ethnography and discourse analysis. It presents a trajectory of the "independent thinking"-centered normative discourses on debate in Chinese cyberspace and how varied social actors interacted with these discourses. The findings suggest that the indigenous public debate culture that has arisen from Internet communication in China entailed certain behavioral and attitudinal changes supportive of democratic governing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-city construction is a powerful method which can advance a city from traditional industrial civilisation to ecological civilisation. The city of Huaibei, with 50 years of coal mining history, has been listed as a national resource-exhausted city. The city's sustainable development and ecological restoration work face severe challenges. This study presents a time-space evolution analysis of mining subsidence to show the evolution and the distribution of the subsidence area in Huaibei. Intensive use was made of land evaluation to formulate land use measures. According to this analysis, and based on the popular eco-reconstruction movement, suggestions for land reclamation and eco-reconstruction are proposed for the city of Huaibei. The paper aims to make strategic recommendations to help Huaibei city transform from a resource-exhausted city to an eco-city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the distribution pattern of the strabismus surgery undertaken at an eye centre in Beijing, China. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted including the data of all strabismus surgeries performed in Beijing Tongren hospital for the 4 year period from 2003 to 2006. The proportions of different surgery types and their association with patients’ age and gender were analyzed. Result: During the study period, 8997 strabismus surgeries were performed. The number of the surgeries increased progressively each year from 1507 in 2003 to 2769 in 2006 ( p < 0.05). Intermittent exotropia was the most common of all strabismus surgeries (27.9%). Superior oblique palsy was the most common type among the paralytic strabismus surgeries. The proportions of different types of strabismus showed no significant change between successive years. Among the patients, the number of surgeries performed in the population aged 0–12 years was significantly higher than other age groups and increased from 35.37% in 2003 to 42.80% in 2006 ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: There has been a continuous increase in the number of strabismus operations in our eye centre in Beijing, and this pattern is especially obvious in children. The distribution of surgery type remained relatively constant each year. Surgery for intermittent exotropia is the most common type of procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The framework coupling mining intensity and socioecological resilience was constructed. • The resilience and mining intensity were analyzed for 547 counties in China. • 12 socioecological indicators were used to evaluate resilience in spatial scale. • The zoning results enhanced our understanding of sustainable development in mining areas. Coal is an important global energy resource. However, the negative impacts of mining are important factors restricting the sustainable development of mining areas. Under the superimposed influences of different mining intensities, different natural ground conditions, and social-economic development, there are large differences in the restoration characteristics and response strategies for mining. To guide the development and utilization of coal resources and ecological restoration, the spatial distribution should be appropriately analyzed at the macroscale. Based on the web-crawler technology and multi-source remote sensing data, this paper attempted to estimate the mining intensity and the social-ecological resilience respectively at the county level, to divide the mining areas into nine regions in China. Based on the zoning results, differentiated strategies were proposed for ecological restoration and resource development and utilization in the various coal mining regions. The valuation results suggested that coal mines are widely distributed and abundant in China, mainly concentrated in the central, southwest and northwest regions. However, nearly half of the coal mining regions are with low resilience. Especially, high mining intensity-low resilience areas are concentrated in north China which account for 10.83%. These areas should receive special attention to prevent possible ecological risks and minimize economic effects. Social-ecological resilience measures system adaptation to coal mining disturbances, which can be regarded as the standard of mining intensity adjustment. In the future, local governments can try to combine ecological restoration and resource development strategies to provide support for the sustainable development of coal mining areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic development is often dependent on the production of mining resources, but both opencast and underground mining harm vegetation and the eco-environment. Under the requirements of the construction for ecological civilization in China, more attention has been paid to the reclamation of mines and mining management. Thus, it is the basement of formulating policies related to mining management and implementing reclamation that detection of mining disturbance rapidly and accurately. This research carries on an empirical study in the Dexing copper mine, Jiangxi, China, aiming at exploring the process of distance and reclamation. Based on the dense time-series stack derived from the Landsat archive on Google Earth Engine (GEE), the disturbance of surface mining in the 1986–2020 period has been detected using the continuous change detection and classification (CCDC) algorithm. The results are that: (1) the overall accuracy of damage and recovery is 92% and 88%, respectively, and the Kappa coefficient is 85% and 84% respectively. This means that we obtained an ideal detection effect; (2) the surface-mining area was increasing from 1986–2020 in the Dexing copper mine, and the accumulation of mining damage is approximately 2865.96 ha with an annual area of 81.88 ha. We also found that the area was fluctuating with the increase. The detected natural restoration was appraised at a total of 544.95 ha in the 1988–2020 period with an average restoration of 16.03 ha. This means that it just restores less in general; (3) it has always been the case that the Dexing mine is damaged by mining and reclamation in the whole year (it is most frequently damaged month is July). All imageries in the mine are detected by the CCDC algorithm, and they are classified as four types by disturbing number in pixel scale (i.e., 0, 1, 2, more than 2 times). Based on that, we found that the only once disturbed pixels account for 64.75% of the whole disturbed pixels, which is the majority in the four classes; (4) this method provides an innovative perspective for obtaining the mining disturbed dynamic information timely and accurately and ensures that the time and number of surface mining disturbed areas are identified accurately. This method is also valuable in other applications including the detection of other similar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese cabbage ( Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) is one of the most important vegetables in China. Genetic dissection of leaf mineral accumulation and tolerance to Zn stress is important for the improvement of the nutritional quality of Chinese cabbage by breeding. A mapping population with 183 doubled haploid (DH) lines was used to study the genetics of mineral accumulation and the growth response to Zn. The genetic map was constructed based on 203 AFLPs, 58 SSRs, 22 SRAPs and four ESTPs. The concentration of 11 minerals was determined in leaves for 142 DH lines grown in an open field. In addition shoot dry biomass (SDB) under normal, deficient and excessive Zn nutritional conditions were investigated in hydroponics experiments. Ten QTLs, each explaining 11.1–17.1% of the Na, Mg, P, Al, Fe, Mn, Zn and Sr concentration variance, were identified by multiple-QTL model (MQM) mapping. One common QTL was found affecting SDB under normal, deficient and excessive Zn nutritional conditions. An additional QTL was detected for SDB under Zn excess stress only. These results offer insights into the genetic basis of leaf mineral accumulation and plant growth under Zn stress conditions in Chinese cabbage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper made a Global Scope Assessment on Chinese aluminum industry. The synthetic benefits of electrolyzed aluminum industry in China and in related countries were investigated. The results showed that the link-integrated production frame could contribute to improving the competitiveness of Chinese aluminum industry. It was also shown that the production using self-bake cell technology must be prohibited. In order to confirm a sustainable development of Chinese aluminum industry government should reform the present tax policy. The comparison of resources consumption and synthetic benefit between practical production situation and optimal development pattern of Chinese aluminum industry in 2005 was analyzed. It was shown that more synthetic benefit and less energy consumption and pollution emission could be realized in optimal one. Although domestic tax revenue would be reduced in the optimal pattern, the positive effect from energy saving and environment protection was more attractive. The developing strategy for Chinese electrolyzed aluminum industry was also discussed in this paper. Chinese government should vigorously compress the overheated investment in domestic electrolyzed aluminum industry. At the same time, China should take full advantage of the chance of global economy and the overseas resources to meet domestic demand on aluminum. China should also provide incentive policy to encourage the aluminum recovery industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Land use change has an important influence on the spatial and temporal distribution of PM2.5 concentration. Therefore, based on the particulate matter (PM2.5) data from remote sensing instruments and land use change data in long time series, the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic and SP-SDM are employed to analyze the spatial distribution pattern of PM2.5 and its response to land use change in China. It is found that the average PM2.5 increased from 25.49 μg/m3 to 31.23 μg/m3 during 2000-2016, showing an annual average growth rate of 0.97%. It is still greater than 35 μg/m3 in nearly half of all cities. The spatial distribution pattern of PM2.5 presents the characteristics of concentrated regional convergence. PM2.5 is positively correlated with urban land and farmland, negatively correlated with forest land, grassland, and unused land. Furthermore, the average PM2.5 concentrations show the highest values for urban land and decrease in the order of farmland > unused land > water body > forest > grassland. The impact of land use change on PM2.5 is a non-linear process, and there are obvious differences and spillover effects for different land types. Thus, reasonably controlling the scale of urban land and farmland, optimizing the spatial distribution pattern and development intensity, and expanding forest land and grassland are conducive to curbing PM2.5 pollution. The research conclusions provide a theoretical basis for the management of PM2.5 pollution from the perspective of optimizing land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tropical/subtropical monsoon regions, accurate rice mapping is hampered by the following factors: (1) The frequent occurrence of clouds in such areas during the rice-growing season interferes strongly with optical remote sensing observations; (2) The agro-landscape in such regions is fragmented and scattered. Rice maps produced using low spatial resolution data cannot well delineate the detailed distribution of rice, while pixel-based mapping using medium and high resolutions has significant salt-and-pepper noise. (3) The cropping system is complex, and rice has a rotation schedule with other crops. Therefore, the Phenology-, Object- and Double Source-based (PODS) paddy rice mapping algorithm is implemented, which consists of three steps: (1) object extraction from multi-temporal 10-m Sentinel-2 images where the extracted objects (fields) are the basic classification units; (2) specifying the phenological stage of transplanting from Savitzky–Golay filtered enhanced vegetation index (EVI) time series using the PhenoRice algorithm; and (3) the identification of rice objects based on flood signal detection from time-series microwave and optical signals of the Sentinel-1/2. This study evaluated the potential of the combined use of the Sentinel-1/2 mission on paddy rice mapping in monsoon regions with the Hangzhou-Jiaxin-Huzhou (HJH) plain in China as the case study. A cloud computing approach was used to process the available Sentinel-1/2 imagery from 2019 and MODIS images from 2018 to 2020 in the HJH plain on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. An accuracy assessment showed that the resultant object-based paddy rice map has a high accuracy with a producer (user) accuracy of 0.937 (0.926). The resultant 10-m paddy rice map is expected to provide unprecedented detail, spatial distribution, and landscape patterns for paddy rice fields in monsoon regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eastern plain of China is one of the most important grain production areas in China. Meanwhile, the plain is also an important coal production area with a large number of "coal-grain composite regions". Coal mining causes land subsidence and waterlogging, which destroys a significant amount of cultivated land. However, there is no dataset for the spatio-temporal distribution of subsidence water to assist related decision-making on a regional scale. Accurate monitoring of subsidence water is still a challenge, especially distinguishing among subsidence water, natural water and artificially excavated water by only using remote sensing data. Here, A new method to generate a dynamic map for the subsidence ponding year and the restoration year using the Google Earth Engine platform with 33-year-old Landsat imagery was created. The time segmentation method was used to first extract the change water pixels corresponding to subsidence water and artificially excavated water with similar trajectory features. Then, the morphological characteristics of the two types of change water at the beginning year of water accumulation are used to construct 13 landscape indexes. This approach utilizes the Random Forest algorithm to distinguish between subsidence water and artificially excavated water. The Huang-Huai-Hai plain area in eastern China was selected as the study area and extracted the subsidence water areas from 1986 to 2018. The identification accuracies for subsidence ponding year and restoration year are 88% and 85%. 79% of the subsidence water areas are located in cultivated land, which shows significant impacts to agricultural activities. The method proposed could be applied to other similar areas, the results could provide reference and data for decision-making and related land reclamation planning. • A novel methodology was developed for mapping mining subsidence water. • Map of the subsidence ponding year and restoration year. • Random forest algorithm can effectively extract the patch of subsidence water. • Contribute to monitor annual subsidence water at a regional scale. • This paper belongs to change detection using Landsat time series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is used to evaluate urban land use efficiency (ULUE). • The spatial and temporal characteristics of ULUE are analyzed. • Undesirable outputs cause a loss of ULUE. • The improvement potential of ULUE is revealed. • Targeted policy suggestions for ULUE improvement are further proposed. With economic growth facing increasing constraints of resource and environment, intensive land use becomes one of the effective ways to promote urban sustainable development. This paper aims to reveal the spatial and temporal differences in urban land use efficiency (ULUE) in provincial China, and examine the impact of undesirable output (e.g., industrial pollutant emissions) on ULUE using a one-stage stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Furthermore, we analyze the improvement potential of ULUE. Results show that 1) ULUE in China is relatively low, and it shows a trend of slow growth at an annual growth rate of 0.34 %. 2) Undesirable output causes a loss of ULUE. The loss ratio in the western region is the highest (9.61 %), followed by the central region (8.41 %) and the eastern region (3.93 %). Estimation results of the technical inefficiency function also show that pollution intensity has a negative effect on ULUE. 3) ULUE varies significantly across the country. The mean efficiency values in the eastern, central, and western regions are 0.733, 0.535, and 0.507, respectively. ULUE levels in different provinces present a greater gap when undesirable output is considered. 4) The improvement potential analysis indicates a mismatch between the ULUE and the improvement potential. Areas with low efficiency does not necessarily have relatively high improvement potential (e.g., Ningxia and Xinjiang), or areas with relatively high efficiency may also have high improvement potential (e.g., Fujian and Shandong). Based on the difference in ULUE level and its improvement potential, targeted policy suggestions for ULUE improvement are further proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal resources play an important role in socioeconomic development around the world. Yet the development driven by coal mining is accompanied by ecological damage, social instability, and economic vulnerability, which seriously hinder the sustainable development of coal mining cities. It is, thus, urgent to realize the sustainable development of coal mining cities, premised on comprehensive and scientific analysis of these cities' vulnerability characteristics. In this study, based on the analysis of the social-economic-natural compound ecosystem (SENCE), we constructed a vulnerability evaluation indicator system (28 indicators) for coal mining cities. Took cities producing more than ten million ton of coal in China in 2015 as examples, the weight of every indicator was obtained using entropy weight method. In addition, cities were ranked and classified based on vulnerability characteristics of three subsystems. The reasons for subsystem vulnerability in different regions were analyzed. The results showed that industrial smoke and dust emissions, elevation, proportion of the area containing coal are the main reason for natural vulnerability. Unemployment rate of urban employees, and mining workers as a proportion of the secondary industry workforce are the main cause to social vulnerability. Self-sufficiency rate of local finance, and value of secondary industries as a proportion of GDP are the main indicators leading to economic vulnerability. Our findings suggest that preventing soil erosion, accelerating the resolution of historical problems, promoting green mining, and encouraging renewable energy should be adopted to reduce natural vulnerability; resettling the unemployed and adjusting employment structure are effective in enhancing the sustainability of social subsystems; changing industrial structure, encouraging self-employment, as well as implementing scientific and technological innovation should be considered to realize economic sustainability. Image 1 • A vulnerability evaluation indicator system for coal mining cities was constructed based on SENCE. • The vulnerability score of each subsystem was obtained by Entropy weight method. • Reasons for vulnerability of each subsystem are analyzed to provide reference for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal mining with high groundwater levels causes many environmental problems, one of the main ones being subsidence waterlogging. After the subsidence waterlogging, the land faces many problems, such as insufficient land development and difficult and costly land restoration. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the spatial range and temporal trajectory pattern of surface subsidence in a timely manner. When information about underground mining is lacking, it is difficult by using remote sensing alone to identify and distinguish (i) natural water, (ii) engineering water, and (iii) subsidence waterlogging. In this study, we used the Google Earth Engine platform to develop a method to detect subsidence waterlogging area and the disturbance year. The method includes pixel-based trajectory extraction and object-based water type recognition. First, LandTrendr is used to extract the change water (engineering water and subsidence waterlogging) pixels and its disturbance year. Then, the morphological method to further eliminate engineering water patches, so as to extract subsidence waterlogging. We selected the Panxie mining area in Huainan, China as the study area. Using 33 years of Landsat time-series data to generate values of the annual water frequency index, maps of the year of water accumulation caused by underground coal mining and the year of restoration during 1989–2016 are drawn with accuracies of 86.5% and 80.7%, respectively. The results show that from 1989 to 2016, the accumulated area of subsidence waterlogging was 7715.25 ha, accounting for 14.5% of the total area of the study area, of which 75.8% occurred from 2008 to 2016. Furthermore, the accumulated area of restoration was 207.18 ha, which occurred after 2007 and accounts for 2.7% of the total area of subsidence waterlogging. Based on the analysis results of the changes of waterlogging types, the best time window for restoration of the waterlogging area is 3y after water accumulation. The main innovation of this paper is to make use of the temporal heterogeneity (Number of year in patches, Y_num) and morphological index (Landscape shape index in patches, LSI) of the change water to distinguish engineering water and subsidence waterlogging. • Map of subsidence waterlogging caused by mining coal using Landsat time-series. • The annual water frequency index is capable to capture the water variability. • A spatial-temporal algorithm identifies the timing of subsidence waterlogging • The algorithm identifies the timing of backfill after subsidence waterlogging. • The algorithm is applicable to other mining areas too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and utilization of mining resources are basic requirements for social and economic development. Both open-pit mining and underground mining have impacts on land, ecology, and the environment. Of these, open-pit mining is considered to have the greatest impact due to the drastic changes wrought on the original landform and the disturbance to vegetation. As awareness of environmental protection has grown, land reclamation has been included in the mining process. In this study, we used the Shengli Coalfield in the eastern steppe region of Inner Mongolia to demonstrate a mining and reclamation monitoring process. We combined the Google Earth Engine platform with time series Landsat images and the LandTrendr algorithm to identify and monitor mining disturbances to grassland and land reclamation in open-pit mining areas of the coalfield between 2003 and 2019. Pixel-based trajectories were used to reconstruct the temporal evolution of vegetation, and sequential Landsat archive data were used to achieve accurate measures of disturbances to vegetation. The results show that: (1) the proposed method can be used to determine the years in which vegetation disturbance and recovery occurred with accuracies of 86.53% and 78.57%, respectively; (2) mining in the Shengli mining area resulted in the conversion of 89.98 km2 of land from grassland, water, etc., to barren earth, and only 23.54 km2 was reclaimed, for a reclamation rate of 26.16%; and (3) the method proposed in this paper can achieve fast, efficient identification of surface mining land disturbances and reclamation, and has the potential to be applied to other similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In semi-arid climate regions of China, vegetation restoration on open pit mining lands is limited by soil moisture. However, multi-layered soil profiles can impede water infiltration into deeper underground, leaving more water stored in the root zone. Here, three types of soils with contrasting texture, sandy loam (SL), sand (S), and silt loam (SiL), were used to construct four multilayer profiles: SL-SiL, SL-S, SL-S-SiL, and SL-SiL-S. Silt loam was taken from the humus layer, which is more conducive to plant growth than other layers, and it was allocated to the first layer in the four profiles, while sand and silt loam underlay the silt loam layer. Column experiments and Hydrus-1D simulation of the vertical infiltration and drainage process were performed: (1) The simulated results showed that when the sand layer underlay the sandy loam layer (SL-SiL and SL-S-SiL), the sandy loam layer could hold more water than the silt loam layer underlaying the sandy loam layer (SL-SiL and SL-SiL-S). The water content of the sandy loam layer in SL-SiL (95 cm) and SL-S-SiL (95 cm) was 28.3% higher than SL-SiL (74 cm) and 10.5% higher than SL-SiL-S (86 cm). (2) Both the measured and simulated cumulative infiltration and wetting front penetration time were positively related to the thickness of the silt loam layer and negatively related to the thickness of the sand layer. (3) The simulated infiltration rate, accumulation infiltration, and wetting front of the first layer were unaffected by the texture of the underlying layer. According to multi-criteria decision analysis, SL-S-SiL had the best water holding capacity and was suggested for land reclamation in the open pit mine in our research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-intensity coal mining has resulted in numerous ecological and environmental problems, and seriously threatens ecological security in China. The identification and optimization of the ecological security pattern (ESP) can facilitate sustainable development while preserving the integrity and stability of ecosystems, which is important for improving ecological security in fragile ecosystems and areas of intensive coal mining. This paper presents an integrated framework for identifying, analyzing, and optimizing ESP in consideration of the core area extracted based on morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), ecosystem services importance, and ecological risk index. The innovative method combines the model of linking different ecological source grades to multi-process minimum cumulative resistance (multi-process MCRE model) and kernel density analysis and includes the following steps: (1) ecological patches are delimited by assessing ecosystem services importance based on the contributions of water resources supply, soil conservation, gas regulation, and habitat maintenance; (2) ecological sources are identified by considering landscape connectivity along with the number and area of important ecological patches; (3) ecological resistance coefficient is determined based on the ecological risk index, which is constructed by coupling the surface drought index, landscape ecological risk index, and mine disaster risk index; (4) ecological corridors are extracted using the multi-process MCRE model, which is based on minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) theory, and the ecological potentials of ecological sources; and (5) the ESP is optimized via kernel density analysis, and regulation zones are defined based on the optimized ESP. Results demonstrate that the optimized ESP in study area included 3326 km2 of ecological sources that primarily dominated by grassland, 58 ecological nodes, 827.92 km of group corridors and 308.21 km of landscape corridors; which distribution pattern was "three horizontal, two vertical, and two circles" to ensure continuity of ecological process within study area. The restrictive, protective and key development areas accounted for 17.36%, 59.81%, and 22.83%, respectively; and corresponding planning recommendations were raised. This study not only provides an effective framework to identify, construct, and optimize ESPs in ecologically fragile coal-mining areas, but also purposes the multi-process MCRE model and ecological sources quantification that suitable for global region to achieve the sustainability between resource exploitation, urban development, and ecological protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ecological resilience assessment model was built integrating Over-Underground features. • Entropy and linear weighting method are used to quantify ecological resilience in 10 m grid scale. • Influencing factors of each partition are analyzed to provide reference for decision-making. The exploitation of coal resources will bring about a series of environmental problems, which will not only affect the surface ecological environment of the region, seriously threatening underground resources, but will also affect the normal production and living activities of human beings. The impacted ecological system is combined by both overground and underground features. In this paper, Shendong coal field, one of the high-strength coal mining areas in western China is used as a research area. An O-U (Overground-Underground) analysis framework and model was established to quantitatively assess the degree of mining impact on the eco-system and its resilience. The entropy method is used to calculate the weight of each index, and the comprehensive value of each grid is calculated by the linear weighted method. The comprehensive value of each grid's indicators is divided into four ecological resilience (ER) partitions by natural breakpoint method. Finally, Pearson coefficients is used to analyze the main influencing factors of the four sub-areas, and reasonable suggestions are given. By zoning the ER of the study area, it can provide reference for the mining method selection and land reclamation measures, and also provide direction for the ecological environment management in other similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]