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Potential trace elements pollution in cities poses a threat to the environment and human health. Bio-availability affects toxicity levels of potential trace elementss on organisms. This study focused on exploring the relationship between soil, plant, and atmospheric dust pollution in Urumqi, a typical city in western China. It aims to help reduce pollution and protect residents' health. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) potential trace elementss like Cr, Pb, As, and Ni are more prevalent in atmospheric dust and soil than in plants. Chromium was in the first group, Cadmium and Mercury were in the second, and Plumb, Arsenic, and Nickel were in the third. Atmospheric dust and soil exhibit a significantly higher heavy metal content than plants. For example, The atmospheric dust summary Chromium content was up to 88 mg/kg. 2) Soil, atmospheric dust, and plants have the highest amount of residual form. Residual form had the highest percentage average of 53.3%, whereas Organic matter bound form had the lowest percentage of just 7.7%. The plants contained less residual heavy metal than the soil and atmospheric dust. 3) The correlation coefficient between the carbonated form content of Cd of soil and atmospheric dust is 0.95, which is closely related. Other potential trace elements show similar correlations in their bio-available contents in soil, plants, and atmospheric dust. This study suggests that in urban area, the focus should be on converting potential trace elements into residual form instead of increasing plants' absorption of potential trace elements. NOVELTY STATEMENT: The current research in China primarily examines heavy metal pollution in the atmosphere, soil, and plants individually. Although there is significant international research on heavy metal bio-availability in the environment, few studies have focused on the presence of heavy metals in soil, vegetation, and atmospheric dust. Therefore, this study focused on Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, a typical oasis city in the arid region. To understand the bio-availability and morphological characteristics of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Hg, Cr, As, Ni) in the soil-plant-atmosphere of its urban expressway. This study aims to establish a theoretical basis for understanding the pollution hazards caused by heavy metals in oasis cities. It will have practical significance in maintaining urban ecology, promoting sustainable development, and safeguarding citizens' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medium of instruction (MoI) is regulated in the bilingual education of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in two ways. One requires most school subjects to be taught through Mandarin, whereas the other demands that all subjects be delivered with Mandarin as the MoI. A field trip to the capital city, Urumqi, was conducted in 2017 to investigate the implementation of the MoI as stated in the policy. This paper first outlines the history of bilingual education in the region, with a focus on Chinese language education. It then investigates the change of MoI from the ethnic minority language to Mandarin Chinese. The two current modes of bilingual education in Xinjiang are also discussed in detail. The paper further examines the regulations on MoI through interviews with students and teachers from four Urumqi schools. Their understanding of the regulations on MoI usage demonstrates the difficulties of implementing such a policy, one initially proposed with good intentions. Through a thorough examination of official documents as well as interview data, this study shows the discrepancies between national and current regional policies, between planned aim and in-class practice, and between the transitional and balanced types of bilingual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 83 dust samples were collected from the streets of Urumqi city in NW China and analyzed for the concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn elements. The spatial distribution, contamination levels, main sources, and potential health risks of these trace elements were determined based on geostatistical analysis, geo-accumulation index, multivariate analysis, and the health risk assessment model introduced by the USEPA, respectively. The obtained results indicate that the average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn exceed the corresponding background values determined in Xinjiang soils by factors of 2.0, 1.35, 1.38, 8.24, 1.28, 2.09, and 3.26, respectively. The spatial distribution patterns of the nine trace elements in street dust were found to be substantially heterogeneous, and the contamination level decreased in the following order: Hg > Zn > Pb > Cd > Cr > Cu > As > Ni > Mn. Based on the identified concentrations, the collected dust samples were found to be moderately polluted by Hg, and not polluted by As, Cr, Cu, Mn, and Ni. The remaining elements, Cd, Pb, and Zn lie on the borderline between non-pollution and moderate pollution levels. Furthermore, it was shown that Mn and Zn in street dusts originate from both, natural and anthropogenic sources, while As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, and Pb are mainly produced by anthropogenic sources. Overall, the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks of the analyzed elements, instigated primarily by oral ingestion of street dusts, were found to be within the acceptable range for both, children and adults. As and Cr are the main non-carcinogenic elements, whereas Cr is the major carcinogenic element among the investigated dust-bound metals in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic vulnerability assessments play a significant role in comprehensive risk mitigation efforts and seismic emergency planning, especially for urban areas with a high population density and a complex construction environment. Traditional approaches such as in situ fieldwork are accurate for conducting seismic vulnerability assessments of buildings; however, they are too much time and cost-consuming, especially in moderate to low seismic hazard regions. To address this issue, an integrated approach for a macroseismic vulnerability assessment composed of data mining methods and GIScience technology was presented and applied to Urumqi, China. First, vulnerability proxies were established via in situ data of buildings in the Tianshan District with an EMS-98 vulnerability classification scheme and two data mining methods, namely, support vector machine and association rule learning methods. Then, vulnerability proxies were applied to the Urumqi database, and the accuracy was validated. Finally, seismic risk maps were constructed through data consisting of direct damage to buildings and human casualties. The results indicated that the two data mining methods could achieve desirable accuracies and stabilities when estimating the seismic vulnerability. The seismic risk of Urumqi was estimated as Slight with a predicted number of 61,380 homeless people for a seismic intensity scenario of VIII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicated that the population size would arrive at its upper limits under the intense water scarcity in Urumqi. However, these 'limits' have been repeatedly exceeded, and the population has grown from one million in the 1980s to four million in 2014. This phenomenon is viewed as a 'mystery of the population carrying capacity of water resources'. This paper investigates the mystery under an amplified framework of generalized water. The entropy of virtual water was 48.9, and 3.08 billion m3 of external virtual water flowed into Urumqi. External virtual water makes a main contribution to increase water supplies under acute water scarcity, and this contribution results from the characteristic of dissipative structure in an urban economy. It is proved that generalized water is one of the most essential answers to the mystery at least. Generalized water plays an important role and generalized water management is necessary in an urban economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hui, one of the 10 Muslim minority groups in China, have long been regarded as cultural and economic brokers owing to their commercial prowess and their participation in multiple cultural milieus. Such phenomenon can be typically elaborated through examining their privileged role as middleman in Yining, an ethnically diverse city on the northwest frontier of China in Xinjiang Province. Yining is characterized by a mix of groups and cultures: Muslim and non-Muslim, Chinese culture and Chinese Muslim culture, and ethnic minorities and Han—the largest ethnic group in China. The distinctive function of the Hui in transforming, communicating and coordinating in different areas and among different ethnic groups is deserving of discussion. The author suggests that although the importance of the mediating role played by the Hui in the economic sphere has been emphasized by some scholars, the Hui’s role as the cultural and political “middleman” in mediating relationships and eliminating conflict among hostile ethnic groups—is not sufficiently discussed in scholarship concerning China’s ethnic minorities in contemporary northwest frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]