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The evolution of forest landscape patterns can reveal the landscape stability of forest dynamics undergoing complex ecological processes. Analysis of forest landscape dynamics in regions under ecological restoration can evaluate the impact of large-scale afforestation on habitat quality and provide a scientific basis for achieving sustainable eco-environment development. In this study, a method for assessing forest landscape stability by characterizing changes in forest landscape patterns was proposed. Toeplitz inverse covariance-based clustering (TICC) was used to automatically identify landscape pattern evolution by investigating the synergistic changes of two landscape indices—forest cover area (CA) and patch density (PD)—and to extract the short-term processes—degradation, restoration, and stable—that took place between 1987 and 2021. Four long-term evolution modes, no change, increase, decrease, and wave, based on the temporal distribution of short-term change processes, were also defined to assess landscape stability. Our results showed that (i) the forest’s short-term change processes have various forms. The restoration subsequence was the largest and accounted for 46% of the total subsequence and existed in 75% of the landscape units. The time distribution of these three change processes showed that more landscape units have begun to transition into a stable state. (ii) The long-term change modes showed an aggregation distribution law and indicated that 57% of the landscape units were stable and 6.7% were unstable. Therefore, our study can provide a new perspective for the dynamic analysis of landscape patterns and offer insights for formulating better ecological restoration strategies.

Unravelling the evolution of landscape patterns is essential to understand regional socio-ecological processes and to solve conflicts between environment protection and human development. However, the role of landscape transition in regional landscape pattern evolution remains unclear. Taking 325 county-level areas in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYR) as an example, this study explored the spatiotemporal associations between landscape quantity and pattern from the 1970s to 2020. Employing the methods of landscape metrics and trend and correlation analysis, associations between landscape transition and landscape pattern were found. The main results were as follows: (1) From the 1970s to 2020, urban land nearly doubled from 0.93 to 1.89 million km 2 . Arable land and forest showed the largest quantity reductions of 0.88 million km 2 and 0.28 million km 2 , respectively. Other landscapes showed both decreasing and increasing trends with a spatial overlap among counties. (2) Transition in landscape quantity drives the change in landscape patches, thus affecting the landscape pattern in counties. The percentage of landscape area at the class level (CPLAND) showed relative changes in the quantities of landscape categories in each observation year, but their extreme outliers presented larger changes. (3) Diverse correlation coefficients in terms of magnitude and direction suggested that the transition from natural landscape to human-influenced landscape and the reverse processes occurred. Aggregation and diversity metrics showed spatial interaction with similar distances and the perimeter-area fractal dimension (PAFRAC) showed spatial autocorrelation at local scale. Optimal bandwidths among arable land, forest, and urban land (129.2 km) revealed direct spatial interactions and causal relationships, as did waters and unused land (66.7 km). The findings explained the evolution of landscape patterns and highlighted key areas where various landscape changes occurred, and can provide scientific support for policy-making in regional landscape transition governance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Polymeric droplets are widely employed in fields such as chemical, biomedical, and materials engineering. However, the study of polymeric droplet formation is still insufficient due to the complex elasticity. In this work, the effect of fluid elasticity on the flow patterns for polymeric droplet formation in cross-junction microchannels is investigated by means of finite-volume direct numerical simulations. The volume of fluid method with cell-based adaptive mesh refinement technique is used to capture the interface. Additionally, the rheological behavior of polymeric fluids is described using the exponential Phan-Thien–Tanner constitutive model. The simulated flow behaviors are highly consistent with the experimental observations. The results indicate that three typical flow patterns of dripping, jetting, and threading flows are obtained at different fluid elasticities (denoted by the Weissenberg number Wi) and viscosities (denoted by the Capillary number Ca). Meanwhile, the elastic effect is found to be greater in the dripping flow, significantly reducing the axial tensile stress. It is demonstrated that changes in the stretched state of polymer macromolecules with the same Wi at different Ca lead to variations in the strength of elastic action, which, in turn, affects the extension length and the pinch-off time of droplets. Finally, a relationship equation between the extension length and time of the polymer fluid is established. This present study aims to provide important insight into the preparation of polymeric droplets in microchannels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overseas military bases, a very important strategic fulcrum, are the forefront of a country's military operations and safeguarding national interests outside the country. In different periods, the contraction and expansion of overseas military bases can reflect the country's space strategy and growth laws. This paper analyzes the evolution of the space-time pattern of military bases outside the United States from the end of the 19th century to the present, summarizes the existing organizational models, and reveals the internal dynamics of the evolution of overseas bases. The study finds that the evolution of military bases outside the United States has gone through five major stages. The first stage is the slow westward extension of the Pacific Ocean, the second stage is to accelerate the eastward entry into the Atlantic Ocean, the third stage is the east-west expansion in both directions, the fourth stage is an extensive global layout, and the fifth stage is a comprehensive reduction and layout adjustment. In the process, the spatial location of military bases outside the United States has formed three main types, including island type, continental coastal type and inland type. The overseas military bases of the United States have realized the coverage of key strategic channels in the world, and the military radiation to major countries and important sea areas through the coordination of base groups and the configuration of forces and arms. Finally, based on the military, political, and economic dimensions, this paper reveals the dynamic mechanism of the evolution of the military base structure outside the United States from the aspects of national homeland security, geostrategic evolution, diplomatic relations with major countries, and energy and transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation agriculture has become integral to global food production because it drastically improves productivity. In the past 20 years, driven by food demand and policy guidance, China has carried out large-scale cropland improvement projects on the land consolidation of dryland-to-paddy conversion (LC-DtPC). However, the unclear spatial pattern and the suitability of LC-DtPC have limited the adaptive management of LC-DtPC and the scientific protection and sustainable utilization of arable land. Therefore, this study used 30 m×30 m remote sensing data for five periods from 2000 to 2020 to reveal the spatial pattern of LC-DtPC of cropland in China and its conversion characteristics and then constructed a suitability evaluation system of LCDtPC by selecting 11 indexes from four dimensions, namely, topography, climate, soil, and tillage, to assess the spatial matching effect of LC-DtPC project implementation and explore adaptive management zoning and strategies. The results showed that the area of LC-DtPC in China from 2000 to 2020 amounted to 1 297.04×104 hm², accounting for 7.31% of the total cultivated land. The LC-DtPC was mainly concentrated in the Sanjiang Plain, Jianghan Plain, Central Henan Province, East of Sichuan Province, and Central Jiangsu Province. There was a large increase in the LC-DtPC area in 2005-2010 and 2015-2020. In general, the suitability of the implementation of LC-DtPC in the drylands of China was not favorable. Among them, 5.14%, 10.49%, 17.34%, 30.66%, and 36.37% of the national dryland area was suitable, more suitable, generally suitable, barely suitable, and unsuitable, respectively. In terms of spatial perspective, the suitability of LC-DtPC was better in Southeast China and Northeast China. Among them, terrain and irrigation water sources were the main influencing factors. Then, the raster superposition analysis was used to overlay the results of the LC-DtPC with the suitability evaluation to analyze the effect of spatial matching for the implementation of LC-DtPC. Through the spatial matching statistics, it found that the overall effect of LC-DtPC in China from 2000 to 2020 was unsatisfactory. The areas of LC-DtPC that were fully matched, more matched, generally matched, barely matched and unmatched were 88.13×104, 373.13×104, 456.43×104, 229.62×104 and 149.71×104 hm², respectively, and their percentages were 6.80%, 28.77%, 35.19%, 17.70% and 11.54%, respectively. Therefore, adaptive management of LC-DtPC was important. This study attempted to analyze the mechanism of adaptive management of LC-DtPC and proposed a hierarchical zoning management method for LC-DtPC to guide the implementation and management of LCDtPC. In the future, government departments can divide different adaptive management zones for LC-DtPC based on suitability priority levels, such as priority remediation zones, key adjustment zones, reserve restriction zones, and orderly withdrawal zones. At the same time, according to the regional characteristics, the government can formulate differentiated LC-DtPC management strategies from planning, implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. This study can provide a scientific basis for arable land protection, ecological protection, and restoration planning of national land space, and the delineation of the two zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial fire is the main cause of forest fires, and human intervention can reduce the occurrence of forest fires. Yunnan province is a province with a high incidence of forest fires. A large number of flammable shrubbery are distributed in many regions. The study on the time scale and space scale of shrubbery fires caused by human disturbance is conducive to the study on the evolution of the space-time pattern of shrubbery fires and the reduction of forest fires. Based on Yunnan province from 1990 to 2018 shrubbery fire data, combined with ArcGIS geographic information system, BP neural network analysis of the impact of human interference on Yunnan shrubbery fire and shrubbery fire time and space changes. The research results can provide some theoretical support for forest fire management departments.

We report on pulse profile decomposition analysis of bright transient X-ray pulsar 1A 0535+262 using broadband Insight-HXMT observations during a giant outburst of the source in 2020. We show that the observed pulse profile shape can be described in terms of a combination of two symmetric single-pole contributions for a wide range of energies and luminosities for a fixed geometry defining the basic geometry of the pulsar. This corresponds to a slightly distorted dipole magnetic field, i.e., one pole has to be offset by ∼12° from the antipodal position of the other pole. We reconstruct the intrinsic beam patterns of the pulsar assuming that the geometry is recovered from the decomposition analysis, and we find evidence for a transition between “pencil” and “fan” beams in energy ranges above the cyclotron line energy, which can be interpreted as a transition from sub- to supercritical accretion regimes associated with the onset of an accretion column. At lower energies, however, the beam pattern appears to be more complex and contains a substantial “fan” beam and an additional “pencil” beam component at all luminosities. The latter is not related to the accretion rate and is stronger in the fading phase of the outburst. We finally discuss the results in the context of other observational and theoretical findings earlier reported for the source in the literature.

The obvious characteristics of urban thermal environment and heat island effect have brought a series of negative effects on urban ecosystem structure and residents' health. Scholars at home and abroad have conducted basic researches on urban thermal environment, but there is a lack of researches on areas with rapid urbanization and many interference factors. There are few researches on measures or suggestions to improve urban thermal environment and heat island effect from the perspective of ecological sustainable development. To this end, this paper conducts a study on thermal environment effect of landscape ecological pattern and dynamic analysis of pattern evolution. This paper, based on the radiative transfer equation method, carries out back calculation and back analysis on the parameters of urban surface temperature to obtain the dynamic characteristics of urban thermal ecological landscape pattern. By combining the obtained urban surface temperature with the landscape index, this paper analyzes the internal change of urban surface thermal ecological landscape pattern. Through the spatial characteristics of the barycenter of urban thermal environment effect, the expansion and development trend of urban thermal environment effect is revealed. Then based on Moran'sI coefficient, the whole spatial correlation of urban thermal environment effect and the degree of spatial aggregation in local areas are analyzed. Finally, the corresponding experimental results and analytical results are given in combination with the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite genital structures in insects being consistently important as systematic and taxonomy evidence, within assassin bugs (Heteroptera, Reduviidae) at least, the male and female genitalic structures of several subfamilies are poorly or totally unknown. The genital structure is mostly symmetric within Saicinae genera, but male genital asymmetry has been recorded in Gallobelgicus, Polytoxus, and recently Pseudosaica. The subfamily has been considered as closely related to Emesinae and Visayanocorinae but this hypothesis has never been tested using a comprehensive taxa sampling, being a constraint to test morphological traits changes or exploring characters' evolution hypotheses. Here, we compiled a morphological data set of 170 characters that includes external morphological characters and genitalia of both sexes of Saicinae which was analyzed cladistically including 55 terminals, comprising 16 genera (64% of the generic diversity), 43 species of Saicinae and 12 outgroups. Saicinae was recovered as polyphyletic, Saicireta correntina is recovered as sister-species of Empicoris armatus + Collartida (Emesinae), Oncerotrachelus, Carayonia (Visayanocorinae), and the Clade Saicinae sensu stricto. Carayonia orientalis is recovered as sister-species of Saicinae sensu stricto. Ancestral state reconstruction of symmetry of the male genitalia shows an ancestor with symmetric male genitalia, two independent emergences of asymmetrical male genitalia within Saicinae sensu stricto, and the asymmetrical endosomal sclerites appearing before the other asymmetric traits., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The question of how evolution builds complex behaviors has long fascinated biologists. To address this question from a genetic perspective, we capitalize on variation in innate burrowing behavior between two sister species of Peromyscus mice: P. maniculatus that construct short, simple burrows and P. polionotus that uniquely construct long, elaborate burrows. We identify three regions of the genome associated with differences in burrow length and then narrow in on one large-effect 12-Mb locus on chromosome 4. By introgressing the P. polionotus allele into a P. maniculatus background, we demonstrate this locus, on its own, increases burrow length by 20%. Next, by recording mice digging in a transparent tube, we find this locus has specific effects on burrowing behavior. This locus does not affect time spent digging or latency to dig, but rather affects usage of only two of the primary digging behaviors that differ between the focal species: forelimb digging, which loosens substrate, and hindlimb kicking, which powerfully ejects substrate. This locus has an especially large effect on hindkicking, explaining 56% and 22% of interspecific differences in latency and proportion of hindkicks, respectively. Together, these data provide genetic support for the hierarchical organization of complex behaviors, offering evolution the opportunity to tinker with specific behavioral components.

Ecosystem services value (ESV) has been one index of quantitative evaluation for the ecological livability of heavy industry cities in the new era, which is intimately relevant to patterns of spatio-temporal changes in land use. This study aims to reveal the response of ecosystem service value in heavy industrial cities to the spatial-temporal evolution structure of land use and to analyze the cold and hot spots and sensitivity. In this study, Taiyuan was taken as an example, and Landsat images were adopted as the basic data. This study used intensity analysis, revised ESV, fishing nets, sensitivity analysis, and the methods of hotspot analysis and spatial overlay. The results showed as follows, (1) The characteristics of land use structure evolution mainly focus on the increase of construction land in the early and the rapid development stage of heavy industry cities. All land use types were partly transferred to construction land, but farmland was the main source, with the largest change intensity in the rapid development stage in Taiyuan; (2) The low-value zones of ESV were mostly distributed in the main urban area for construction and farmland, while the high-value zones were primarily distributed in the forestland and grassland. They were distributed in the Fenhe River valley, western and northern mountainous and hilly areas of Taiyuan. The total ESV continued to decline from 2003 to 2018, with a loss amount of RMB 29 million; (3) The patches of land use change were more and more broken, and the spatial distribution of the cold and hot spots was more and more dispersed. The cold and hot spots of ESV were concentrated in the eastern main urban area and its surrounding areas and expanded to the north and south; (4) The forestland was the most sensitive land factor of ESV. The study provides a theoretical method for land use planning, environmental governance, and ecological restoration in heavy industry cities in the new era.

(1) Background: The rational allocation of limited medical resources is the premise of safeguarding the public health. Especially since the outbreak of COVID-19, the evolution dynamics and spatial mismatch of medical resources have been a focal and frontier issue in academic discussions. (2) Methods: Based on the competitive state model and spatial mismatch index, this paper uses GIS and Geodetector spatial analysis methods and three typical indicators of hospitals, doctors, and beds to conduct an empirical study on the evolutionary characteristics and degree of mismatch in the geographic pattern of health resources in China from 2010 to 2020 (the data are from official publications issued by the National Bureau of statistics in China), in two dimensions of resource supply (economic carrying capacity) and demand (potential demand or need of residents). (3) Results: The spatial pattern of health resources at the provincial level in China has been firmly established for a long time, and the children and elderly population, health care government investment, and service industry added value are the key factors influencing the geographical distribution of health resources. The interaction between the different influence factors is dominated by bifactor enhancement, and about 30–40% of the factor pairs are in a nonlinear enhancement relationship. Hospital, doctor, and bed evolution trends and the magnitude and speed of their changes vary widely in spatial differentiation, but all are characterized by a high level of geographic agglomeration, heterogeneity, and gradient. Dynamic matching is the mainstream of development, while the geographical distribution of negative and positive mismatch shows strong spatial agglomeration and weak spatial autocorrelation. The cold and hot spots with evolution trend and space mismatch are highly clustered, shaping a center-periphery or gradient-varying spatial structure. (4) Conclusions: Despite the variability in the results of the analyses by different dimensions and indicators, the mismatch of health resources in China should not be ignored. According to the mismatch types and change trend, and following the geographic differentiation and spatial agglomeration patterns, this paper constructs a policy design framework of “regionalized governance-classified management”, in line with the concept of spatial adaptation and spatial justice, in order to provide a decision making basis for the government to optimize the allocation of health resources and carry out health spatial planning.

In order to explore the landscape pattern evolution and driving forces of the Yilong Lake watershed, the combined method of supervised classification with manual visual interpretation based on the landsat5TM/8OLI remote sensing image data sources was used to establish a high-precision spatial distribution information database of the Yilong Lake watershed. Landscape index was used to analyze the distribution and spatial pattern change characteristics of various land-use types. Based on correlation and principal component analysis, we discuss the relationship between the change characteristics of land-use type, distribution and spatial pattern, and the interference of local socio-economic development and natural factors. The results show that: (1) In the past 30 years, the land-use types of the Yilong Lake watershed are mainly forest, garden plot and cultivated land. The forest area decreased significantly by 30.45 km2, of which the fastest reduction stage was from 2000 to 2005, with a total reduction of 20.56 km2. The garden plot conversion is relatively large, with a total of 181.69 km2 transferred out, of which 28.84 km2 has become unused land, respectively. (2) In the past 30 years, the maximum patch index decreased by 9.94% and the patch density index increased by 14.25%, indicating that the landscape fragmentation in the whole basin increased. The Shannon diversity index showed an increasing process; the aggregation index showed a decreasing process. (3) The change in landscape pattern in the watershedwas closely related to economic growth, population growth, social affluence and agricultural development. Natural factors, social factors and economic indicators are significantly positively correlated with patch density, edge density, landscape shape index and Shannon diversity index, and significantly negatively correlated with the largest patch index and the contagion index. On the whole, the wetlands in the basin are shrinking and the landscape diversity is changing. Reducing the excessive impact of human activities on the watershed ecosystem is a key factor for the local protection of wetland resources and the maintenance of wetland ecological functions.

【Objective】 Study on rice production pattern evolution characteristics and the influence mechanisms in Jiangsu Province. 【Methods】 Based on the panel data of rice production in different City areas in Jiangsu Province from 2005 to2020, using hot and cold spots, multiple regression, and mediating effect analysis methods, the rice production pattern evolution characteristics and the influence mechanisms in Jiangsu Province were analyzed. 【Results】The rice production pattern in Jiangsu Province had obvious characteristics of “northward shift” and agglomeration.The rice sown area in the central region of Jiangsu slightly decreased, while the rice sown area in the northern region of Jiangsu had increasing trend.The impact coefficient of urbanization on rice sown area was-0.384. The improvement of urbanization level caused the decrease in rice planting area. Rice resource endowment, industrial upgrading, cultivated land resources, and rural agricultural labor force had impact coefficients of 0.051, 1.755, 0.884, and 0.749 respectively on rice sown area, and had positive promoting effects on rice sown area. Cultivated land resources had mediating effect on rice sown area, that is, in the process of urbanization, cultivated land resources determine the scale of rice sown area. 【Conclusion】The rice production pattern in Jiangsu Province had obvious characteristics of “northward shift”. Urbanization had negative effects on the rice sown area, while rice resource endowment, industrial upgrading, cultivated land resources, and rural agricultural labor force had positive effects on rice sown area. Cultivated land resources had mediating effect on rice sown area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the LISA time path and convergence test, this paper investigates the spatial distribution characteristics, pattern evolution and convergence of the global religious diversity after World War II. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) Religious diversity showed a fast and then slow upward trend after World War II, with an increase of 81. 07%. At the religious level, the main manifestations are the continued decline of Christianity and the steady rise of Islam. (2) The LISA time path indicates a strong spatial lock-in effect of global religious diversity after World War II and a strong spatial integration of its spatial evolution. (3) There is significant σ-convergence and absolute β -convergence in global religious diversity levels after World War II, i. e., the internal differences in religious diversity levels at both global and continental levels are gradually closing, and there are spillover effects from regions with higher levels of religious diversity to those with lower levels in the periphery. (4) The existence of conditional β-convergence in both global and continental units indicate that the post-WWII global religious diversity evolution converges to different steady-state levels due to the combination of land cover type, composite indicator of national capability, number of ethnic groups, GDP per capita, and population size. At the continental level, the convergence of each continental unit is sensitive to different influencing factors, reflecting the significant geographical heterogeneity in the evolution of global religious diversity after WWII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic field induced instability patterns have been observed in an undercooled immiscible Co–Cu alloy by an in situ magnetization measurement of the supercooled alloy melt. With the increase in magnetic field intensity and gradient, the undercooled immiscible melt experienced a transition from a core-shell structure to a layered structure at a lower field intensity and then a typical normal field instability pattern with the applied higher magnetic field gradient. Due to the different magnetic response ability of the separated phases in the presence of a magnetic field gradient, the transition of the morphology was complex, and its detailed investigations can provide important insight for better understanding of the ferrofluid and the creation of functional material. Furthermore, under an appropriate field gradient condition, it can achieve the subtle transitions between the diverse morphologies in an immiscible alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective/Meaning]Understanding the regional differentiation of rural revitalization and development is the inherent requirement of scientific implementation of the “rural revitalization” strategy. [Methods/Procedures]Taking 75 counties (cities and districts) in Fujian from 2015 to 2020 as the research unit, an evaluation index system of rural revitalization was constructed from five dimensions, and entropy weight method and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) were used to study the spatial pattern characteristics, inherent laws and dynamic evolution of rural revitalization development in Fujian. [Results/Conclusions]The results show that: (1) Since the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the development level of county-level rural revitalization in Fujian has achieved great growth, while the level of inter-regional rural revitalization has gradually shrunk and the level of equilibrium has been enhanced. (2) From the perspective of spatial correlation pattern, the high-high area and low-low area are spatially clustered obviously, the high-high significant area is mainly distributed in southern Fujian and the neighboring counties of Minjiang Estuary in Fuzhou, and the low-low significant area is mainly distributed in Ningde area in northeast Fujian. (3) From the perspective of time evolution, rural revitalization and development in Fujian initially formed a “center-edge” spatial structure model with the core of “southern Fujian Golden Triangle” and “Minjiang Estuary” radiating gradiently to the edge. However, rural development at county level in Fujian was mainly covered by sub-cold spots, and the level of rural revitalization and development was still at a low level. Finally, the policy suggestions to promote the revitalization of rural areas in Fujian to achieve high quality and balanced development were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of land use, urbanization rate and green cover in Chengdu from 2005 to 2020, landscape pattern index and regression analysis were used to explore the evolution of landscape pattern and its influencing factors in Chengdu in the past 15 years. The results showed that arable land, forest and artificial construction land were the main landscape types, and the area of the three landscape types changed significantly. Arable land landscape was the most dominant landscape, but its area decreased and the degree of fragmentation increased. The area of forest landscape increased year by year, and the degree of fragmentation decreased. The area of artificial construction land increased significantly, the degree of fragmentation increased, and the landscape dominance gradually increased. The overall trend of urban landscape fragmentation was that the connection degree of dominant landscape types gradually decreased, the degree of agglomeration decreased and the complexity increased, and the proportion of each type of landscape tended to be balanced. Urbanization rate was significantly correlated with landscape spread and diversity index. With the increase of urbanization level, the agglomeration degree of various landscapes in Chengdu decreased. Policy factors played an important role in the evolution of landscape patterns. Influenced by the “Park City” policy, the green coverage rate and the area of forest, shrub and grassland increased significantly in 2018. Land use policy was the main factor affecting the change of artificial construction and cultivated land area. The future land use planning should pay attention to the protection of cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration as an example, the evaluation index system of tourism ecological security is established based on DPSIR model. Moreover, the temporal and spatial variation rules and influencing factors of tourism ecological security of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration from 2006 to 2019 are analyzed by comprehensively using entropy weight TOPSIS, standard deviation ellipse and geographic detector. The results show that: (1) In the scale of time, the tourism ecological security coefficient of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration changed between 0. 399 and 0. 414, which was in a sensitive state for a long time; In terms of space, Chengdu and Chongqing were high value areas with "double core", showing a spatial difference of "high in core and the East and low above and be‐ low the core". (2) The spatial distribution pattern of tourism ecological security was northeast southwest, and the moving path was "Northwest → Southeast → northwest". (3) The key factors affecting tourism ecological security include total tourism income, tourism space index, population density, garden green space area, the number of travel agencies, the proportion of tertiary industry, the total amount of urban sewage discharge and so on. In additional, the tourism was determined by the the combined effects of driving force-pressure-state-influence-response system so as to promote the healthy development of tourism ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The aims of this study are to scientifically evaluate the quality of rural human settlements in Hunan Province, to explore its influencing factors, and then to provide a scientific basis for rural human settlements governance and construction. [Methods] The evaluation index system of rural human settlements quality consisting of three subsystems: production environment, living environment, and the ecological environment was constructed, and the TOPSIS model and spatial autocorrelation analysis were used to explore the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of rural human settlements in Hunan Province from 2013 to 2020, and a spatial regression model was constructed to reveal its influencing factors. [Results] During the study period, the overall quality of the rural human settlement environment and the quality of each subsystem in Hunan Province improved, and the spatial pattern showed a positive spatial correlation. The counties with ‘high-high’ correlation mainly distributed in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration area, while the counties with ‘low-low’ correlation were mostly located in the south and west of Hunan. This feature also applied to the spatial distribution of production environment quality and living environment quality in Hunan Province. The qualities of the rural human settlements were affected by a combination of factors such as the state of economic and social development, natural conditions, resource endowment, and infrastructure level. Among them, the economic and social development status had the greatest impact on rural human settlements, showing a significant positive promoting effect, while natural conditions exhibited a negative inhibiting effect. [Conclusion] Resources should be allocated according to local conditions in the construction of rural human settlements in Hunan Province, to coordinate the coordinated development of production, living, and ecological environment, to continuously reduce regional differences, and to promote the continuous improvement of the quality of rural human settlements around the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are growing concerns that some COVID-19 survivors may acquire fibrosis and other irreversible lung abnormalities. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the rate and predictors of complete resolution of COVID-19 pneumonia by pursuing a hypothetical relation between time and imaging pattern evolution using HRCT findings. A monocentric prospective cohort study with a consecutive-case enrolment design was implemented during a five-month period, having a total of 683 post-COVID patients eligible for inclusion and 635 evaluations with complete follow-up for chest HRCT. The target for post-COVID evaluations consisted of performing HRCT 90 days after a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The studied patients had an average age of 54 years, ranging between 18 and 85 years old, and an average duration from the first symptoms until HRCT was performed of 74 days. At the post-COVID follow-up, 25.8% had a complete imagistic remission. The most common appearance with HRCT was “ground glass” in 86.6% in patients with persistent COVID-19, followed by reticulations, present in 78.8%, and respectively pleural thickening in 41.2% of cases. The mean total HRCT scores were statistically significantly higher in patients older than 65 years (10.6 ± 6.0) compared to the 40–65 group (6.1 ± 6.1) and the 18–40 age group (2.7 ± 4.8) (p < 0.001). Chest HRCT is a “time window” in documenting temporal persistent radiologic features of lung injury 90 days after SARS-CoV-2 infection, determining the pathologic basis of so-called “long COVID”. The complete remission was associated with a significantly higher average follow-up period and a significantly lower average patient age. Persistent HRCT features of ground glass, reticulation, and pleural thickening are associated with a higher total CT score and older age.

Precipitation and landscape pattern are two main factors affecting runoff process of the watershed. Understanding their runoff effect is of great significance to water resources management and ecological construction of watershed. Based on the data of precipitation, runoff, and land use from 1958 to 2020, we analyzed the characteristics of precipitation, landscape pattern and runoff in Lianshui watershed in red soil hilly area of southern Jiangxi Pro-vince, established the relationship between precipitation, landscape pattern and annual runoff, flood runoff, low runoff, respectively. The results showed that the annual precipitation, runoff and annual maximum one-day runoff in the watershed showed a non-significant downward trend during the study period, while the annual minimum one-day runoff showed a non-significant upward trend but with the largest inter-annual variation range. Forested land was the landscape type with the highest proportion in watershed, and other woodland had the most dramatic variation. At the landscape level, Shannon diversity index, Shannon evenness index, patch density and landscape shape index increased from 1.125, 0.541, 0.667 and 16.925 in 1980 to 1.348, 0.614, 0.731 and 18.172 in 2020, respectively, while the landscape contagion index decreased from 68.237 in 1980 to 64.293 in 2020. The overall landscape diversity, fragmentation degree and shape complexity of the watershed increased, the spatial distribution tended to be uniform, and the connectivity decreased. The correlation coefficients between precipitation and annual runoff, flood runoff, low runoff were 0.907, 0.594 and 0.558, respectively. At the class level, the reduction of cultivated land had a greater impact on annual runoff, flood runoff, and low runoff, while the overall change at the landscape level promoted a decrease in annual runoff and flood runoff and an increase in low runoff. The contribution rate of precipitation variation and landscape pattern evolution to the change of annual runoff, flood runoff ,and low runoff were 17.8%, 82.2% and 1.5%, 98.5% and -8.8%, 108.8%, respectively. Our results could provide theoretical refe-rence for landscape pattern allocation and comprehensive management of soil and water loss.

To accelerate the ecological civilization in the new era and coordinate the region’s ecological economic growth, land-use benefit pre-evaluations and coordination analyses must be carried out. These should be based on a land-use structure layout that is low-carbon oriented to ensure the land is utilized efficiently and sustainably. This paper studies Fujian Province, the national ecological civilization test area, and constructs a framework for land-use benefit evaluation and coupling coordination relationship analysis based on land-use structure from the low-carbon perspective. Based on land-use status data from 2000 to 2020, land-use simulation data under two development scenarios in 2030, and accounting for the different types of main functional areas, this paper establishes the land-use benefit evaluation model. The model uses aspects of carbon emission benefit, economic benefit, and ecological benefit to calculate the land-use benefit of counties (cities and districts) in Fujian Province from 2000 to 2030 by combining with the grey prediction model. The coupling coordination degree model is used to explore the coordination relationship between the above three types of benefits in different districts and counties in 2030 and to identify the main factors restricting the improvement of coupling coordination relationships in different regions in the future. The following results are found: (1) From the perspective of land-use efficiency, the coupling and coordination of land-use efficiency and benefits of counties (cities and districts) in Fujian Province continued to rise from 2000 to 2030 under the low-carbon development scenario, and the spatial agglomeration characteristics were obvious. By 2030, the coupling and coordination relationship of regional land-use efficiency was gradually optimized, and the development pattern with the Fuzhou metropolitan area and Xiamen-Zhangquan metropolitan area as the core was formed. (2) From the perspective of restrictive factors of land-use efficiency coupling coordination, the improvement of land-use efficiency coupling coordination relationship in each county (city and district) is affected by multiple factors. The influence degree is economic benefit > ecological benefit > carbon emissions. These results will help to promote the efficient and sustainable use of land resources and realize the comprehensive and coordinated development of a low-carbon economy and society.

Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems is critical for combating global climate change and achieving regional carbon neutrality, and LUCC is a vital factor influencing the carbon cycle process of terrestrial ecosystems and causing changes in carbon sources/sinks. This study analyzes the drivers of LUCC based on a review of the dynamics of LUCC in Changzhi from 2000 to 2020, analyzes the driving factors of LUCC using the Clue-S model and binary logistic regression analysis model, then simulates land-use patterns under different scenarios in 2030 by the CA-Markov model, and finally analyzes carbon stock changes and spatial distribution characteristics in different periods from the perspective of carbon source/sink interconversion with the help of InVEST model. The results show: (1) in the past two decades, more than 90% of the expansion of artificial surfaces in Changzhi comes from cultivated land. Ecological conservation policies are more decisive in influencing LUCC than natural, social, and transportation accessibility factors. (2) During the 20 years, the total carbon stock increased by 680,989.73 t, with the carbon emission control area accounting for 7.5%, mainly distributed near urban centers and coal mining areas. The carbon sink enhancement area accounts for 5.5% and is mainly concentrated near forest land and ecological and nature reserves. (3) The spatial location of cities influences the density of carbon stock in the adjacent range. Carbon stock density increases within the buffer zone with the distance from urban center, county center, expressways, national highway, settlements, rivers, provincial roads, reservoirs, railways, county highway, and village roads. The rate of carbon stock increase per 100 m is 0.12 t/ha, 0.25 t/ha, 0.17 t/ha, 0.36 t/ha, 0.71 t/ha, 0.33 t/ha, 0.38 t/ha, 0.57 t/ha, 0.23 t/ha, 0.46 t/ha, and 0.48 t/ha respectively. The higher the administrative center and road grades, the lower the carbon density will be instead. (4) In the 2030 CD scenario, compared with the ND scenario, the cultivated land and grassland are effectively protected and the cultivated land area is increased by 445.68 km2, while the expansion of artificial surface is suppressed and the area is reduced by 448.2 km2, which ultimately leads to a reduction in carbon loss of 392,011.85 t. Future ecological management should focus on protecting high-value carbon sink areas and carbon sink enhancement areas and the ecological management and restoration of low-value carbon sink areas and carbon emission control areas.

The histopathological growth pattern (HGP) is a morphological reflection of interactions between cancer cells and the surrounding tissue, and has been identified with a remarkably predictive value in liver metastases. However, there is still a lack of studies on HGP of primary liver cancer even furtherly on HGP evolution. We employed VX2 tumor-bearing rabbits as the primary liver cancer model of which tumor size and distant metastasis were investigated. HGP assessment and computed tomography scanning was performed in four cohorts of different time points to map the HGP evolution. Additionally, Fibrin deposition and neovascularization were evaluated by Masson staining and immunohistochemical analysis of CD31, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1A) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Tumors displayed exponential growth in the VX2 liver cancer model, but these tumor-bearing animals did not show any visible metastasis until they reached a specific stage of development. Correspondingly, the components of HGPs changed along with the tumor growth. The proportion of desmoplastic HGP (dHGP) decreased initially and then grew, but in contrast, the level of replacement HGP (rHGP) rose from the 7th day, reached a peak at around the 21st day, and then appeared drop. Importantly, the collagen deposition and expression of HIF1A and VEGF correlated with dHGP, while CD31 did not. HGP evolution presents a two-way switch including dHGP to rHGP and rHGP to dHGP, in which the emergence of rHGP may be linked to metastases. HIF1A-VEGF partially participates in the HGP evolution and presumably plays a key role in the formation of dHGP., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Human activities, such as reservoir construction and riverbed sand extraction, significantly influence the hydrological and sedimentary dynamics of natural rivers, thereby directly or indirectly affecting river landscape pattern distribution. This study primarily focused on the lower Beijiang River (LBR) in China, an area characterized by intensive human activity. River landscape patterns were studied using historical topographical data and time-series Landsat remote sensing images. Natural and anthropogenic factors were considered to explore the driving forces behind the evolution of landscape patterns. The results indicated that the topography of the LBR underwent significant downcutting from 1998 to 2020. The average elevation of the study area decreased by 3.6 m, and the minimum thalweg elevation decreased by 6.7 m. Over the past 30 years, the local vegetation showed a relatively stable spatial distribution, whereas the area of sand remained relatively stable before 2012, followed by a sudden decline, and tended to stabilize in the last decade. The water area exhibited a gradually increasing trend. The transition maps indicated that the spatial changes in sand were the most significant, with only 39.6% of the sand remaining unchanged from 1998 to 2009 and 32.3% from 2009 to 2020. The corresponding landscape patterns showed that the fragmentation degree of sand increased, with the mean patch size decreasing by 69.2%. The aggregation of water intensified, as its aggregation index increased from 93.31% to 95.41%, while the aggregation of vegetation remained relatively minor, ranging from 89.52% to 90.12%. The annual average temperature, annual average maximum temperature, and annual rainfall days had the strongest correlations with the vegetation landscape pattern indices. Additionally, human activities may have been the primary driver of the landscape pattern evolution of water and sand. The findings of this study have positive implications for the maintenance of the diversity and stability of river ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In Scandia Cavi on Mars, barchans migrating over a field of transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) leave behind distinctive trails (“wakes”) comprising both TARs undergoing exhumation and coarse-grained ripples being shed from the barchans. With distance upwind from the barchans, the combined pattern of these bedforms coarsens and defect density decreases, thus appearing to mature with exposure time. We present results of morphological analyses of the wake bedform crestlines using HiRISE images, seeking to determine how the wake pattern reflects TAR growth and pattern development. TARs interact with each other, exhibiting defect repulsions and possible lobe extensions, indicating that these bedforms have migrated in the past, despite the lack of identifiable change in overlapping images spanning 9.5 years. Mapping one wake in detail, we found that the TAR pattern is not affected by superposing ripples. However, the ripples undergo many interactions, first with one another, and later (with distance upwind) with the underlying TARs. Near the dune, many ripples laterally link, growing in length, and they preferentially form along TAR crests, resulting in small bedform repulsions and longer superposing ripples. Most of these ripples will be consumed by the TARs, an as-yet unreported growth dynamic for TARs that is consistent with the work of others, who have found a continuum between TARs and the meter-scale ripples that form on dunes. Constructing a DTM, orthorectifying HiRISE images, and measuring dune migration rates places the timescale of ripple absorption by TARs in a wake at several thousand years, with the first ∼1,000 years dominated by lateral linking of ripples. Assuming that TAR growth is accomplished entirely through dune burial and subsequent ripple consumption, we estimate a lower limit age of the TARs, and by extension, the dune field, to be ∼270 kyr.

Big health industry is an industry that provides whole process and all factor products and services for human comprehensive physical and mental health. With the increasingly close relationship between health and environment, green products take into account the characteristics of environmental protection, resource intensification, safety, and health, so that the green product industry for the purpose of health and environmental protection has become an important branch of the big health industry. To give a clear portrayal of changes in the global green product trade system, this study derives relevant trade data from the World Bank and the UN Comtrade and by analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the global green product trade pattern from 2001 to 2018, and it explores the product structure and status changes of countries (regions) in the global trading system for green products. According to the research findings, the closely connected global trade network for green products continues to expand. This is a typical network comprising “smaller worlds”; the focus of green product exports has largely stayed unchanged, while imports are shifting from North America and East Asia towards North America, Europe, and the Middle East; the spatial structure of the network shows a transition away from the original transcontinental “dual arch” pattern with the United States at the core towards a “transcontinental + intracontinental” one characterized by the coexistence of “multiple arches” centering around Europe and Asia; the trade network adopts a “point-to-point” model, with no obvious interdependence and competition between countries (regions); furthermore, geographically proximate and culturally similar countries are prone to have closer trade ties. By clarifying the global trade network of green products industry under the background of big health industry, it will help to deepen the understanding of the relationship between participating countries, promote the long-term and stable development of national health industry trade, provide the public with more safe and harmless products, better meet the global public’s health needs, and effectively enhance the sustainability of public health.