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Urban green space (UGS), as public services facilities that provide lots of outdoor space for people’s activities and exercise, has a significant impact on urban residents' social, psychological, and physical benefits. The reasonable distribution of the urban green space is of great significance for enhancing the overall well-being of urban dwellers. In this study, we selected Wuhan City center as a research area, extracted the spatial distribution information of urban green space, roads networks from high-resolution remote sensing images in 2019. The urban green space service situation in different travel modes, travel times, and parks types are subsequently calculated with a network analysis model in GIS. The results showed that the services area of urban green space in the city center of Wuhan was within a driving distance of 30 min, accounting for 70.38% of the total study area, and the use of high-resolution remote images spatial data can measure equity on a more precise scale.

Changing land-use patterns in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) due to natural factors and human interference have led to higher ecological vulnerability and even more underlying issues related to time and space in this alpine area. Ecological vulnerability assessment provides not only a solution to surface-feature-related problems but also insight into sustainable eco-environmental planning and resource management as a response to potential climate changes if driving factors are known. In this study, the ecological vulnerability index (EVI) of Shannan City in the core area of the QTP was assessed using a selected set of ecological, social, and economic indicators and spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) to calculate their weights. The data included Landsat images and socio-economic data from 1990 to 2015, at five-year intervals. The results showed that the total EVI remains at a medium vulnerability level, with minor fluctuations over 25 years (peaks in 2000, when there was a sudden increase in slight vulnerability, which switched to extreme vulnerability), and gradually increases from east to west. In addition, spatial analysis showed a distinct positive correlation between the EVI and land-use degree, livestock husbandry output, desertification area, and grassland area. The artificial afforestation program (AAP) has a positive effect by preventing the environment from becoming more vulnerable. The results provide practical information and suggestions for planners to take measures to improve the land-use degree in urban and pastoral areas in the QTP based on spatial-temporal heterogeneity patterns of the EVI of Shannan City.

The Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is a typical Tibetan plateau area, and its ecological environment is very fragile. It is necessary to explore the terrain and cultural factors for the protection of the local ecological environment. We mainly investigated and quantified the effect of terrain factors and two typical plateau cultural landscapes (temples and villages) on the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of four types of forest landscape in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture from 1990 to 2015 using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technology. The results showed that, under the influence of terrain factors, forest landscapes were only distributed in places with an altitude of 5055 meters above sea level (masl) to 6300 masl, with a slope of 0–27°, and the largest distribution area was shrubbery. The area of the forest decreased with the increase in altitude, and it first rose and then decreased with the increase in slope. Regression analysis results showed that the influence of altitude on closed forest land and open forest land followed a polynomial function, while that on shrubbery followed a logarithmic function, and the impact of slope on the three forest landscapes followed the amplitude version of a Gaussian peak function. Considering cultural factors, temples and villages did not determine the forest distribution in the same way as natural factors do, but they motivated the amount of forest over spatiotemporal scales. Temples had a greater influence on forest protection than villages, and this positive impact was stronger within 6 km. The area of forest distributed around the temple accounts for more than 45.67% of the total forest area, and this area has not changed significantly in 25 years. In summary, altitude and slope affect the natural distribution of the forest, and temples affect the scale of forest distribution. These results reveal the impact of terrain factors and cultural landscapes on forest distribution and could motivate an even more effective management for sustainable forest development.

Rapid urbanization has caused a reduction in green lands, negatively affecting the functions of ecosystem services (ESs). The 11th goal and other goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have highlighted the importance of the balanced development of cities and the environment. ESs are essential for human well-being, so their application in sustainable development study is indispensable. The ecological security pattern (ESP) provides an integrated strategy for maintaining a balance between a sustainable supply of ESs and urbanization. However, establishing an ESP with the goal of satisfying human requirements for ESs in a rapidly urbanizing area has not been well studied. Thus, it is necessary to build an ESP based on ecosystem service value (ESV) reconstruction to manage urban ecosystems sustainably. Based on land use data and field data, this study approached the research gap by related analyses. The first analysis involved dynamic reconstruction of ESVs using the static ESV and importance indices of ESs from 1999&ndash, 2013. The second analysis involved using hot spot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi * statistics) to distinguish heterogeneous units of the dynamic ESV to identify ecological sources. The third analysis involved establishing the ESP in Zhuhai city, using the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model. The results indicated that the ESV of Zhuhai city displayed an upward trend. The functions of water conservation and waste treatment contributed most to the total ESV, while grain production and raw material contributed least in the study area. In the restructuring of ESVs in 2005, 2009, and 2013, the per unit area of the ESV decreased slightly. The areas with high ESVs continued to shrink, while the areas with low ESVs gradually expanded. The ESP of Zhuhai city exhibits great connectivity and strong plasticity, which specifically provides a reliable and visual way to build sustainable cities from a quantitative perspective, generally consistent with the urban ecological planning of Zhuhai city. This study provides an important reference for the application of ESs to achieve SDGs in coastal, rapidly urbanizing regions.

The Green-for-Grain program (GGP) is the largest environmental restoration program in China. It is effective in controlling land desertification but at the same time is highly affected by regional differences. Ecosystem health, as an important indicator of ecosystem sustainability, can effectively assess the ecological impact of the GGP and provide a basis for follow-up actions. As a typical agro-pastoral ecotone along the Great Wall, the Xilin Gol League has seen increasing land-use intensity, thus, it is crucial to understand the ecological conditions of the region in order to deploy a policy of the GGP in accordance with local conditions. In this study, using remote sensing images and social statistics data from 1990–2015, land-use transformation and the turning point of vegetation coverage was determined. Based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) model, an ecological health evaluation system was constructed to quantify the temporal and spatial variation of ecosystem health. Then, the spatial correlation between the changes in forest and grass coverage, as well as the changes in the ecosystem health index (EHI), was evaluated using GeoDa software. The results showed that (1) grassland was the primary land-use/land-cover (LULC) in the Xilin Gol League. Since 2000, land-use transfer types changed significantly and grassland degradation weakened; landscape connectivity increased, and vegetation coverage increased. (2) Over the past 25 years, the ecosystem in the study area was at a subhealthy level and showed a trend toward a healthy level. (3) The spatial correlation between △Area% (change in forest and grass coverage) and △EHI (change in ecosystem health index) was positive between 2000 and 2015 and the correlation gradually increased, indicating that the GGP did enhance the health of the ecosystem of Xilin Gol. This study provided a specific reference for the evaluation of ecosystem health in the agro-pastoral ecotone of China and a theoretical basis for the implementation of sustainable management policies in the study area.

A total of 200 smoking-related laryngeal carcinoma patients with pathology confirmation from the Eye and ENT Hospital and 190 high-risk smokers were included in a survey. All of the participants had a smoking index greater than 400 (cigarettes/day*year.) We obtained data on clinical and baseline characteristics, and peripheral blood was obtained and subjected to DNA extraction to analyse the correlation between smoking and the occurrence of laryngeal carcinoma. We selected candidate genes and SNP fragments that were found to be closely associated with smoking-related tumours in preliminary studies. The selected candidate genes were XPG, CYP1A1, OGG1, ERCC5, ERCC1, MMP2, and MMP9. We then performed SNP sequencing using Sequenom SNP detection technology. Target genes and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) fragments were evaluated to analyse the correlation between genotype or allele and smoking-related laryngeal carcinoma and to identify susceptibility genes related to laryngeal carcinoma. The results included four main findings: (1) The smoking index differed significantly between laryngeal cancer patients and control subjects (P=0.0035). The risk of laryngeal cancer was increased among individuals with a smoking index greater than 600 cigarettes/day*year (P=0.03). (2) The smoking index was significantly correlated with the T, N and clinical stages (P

The unprecedented rate of urbanization in China since 1978 has profoundly impacted its landscape and threatened ecosystem sustainability. To devise effective sustainable development policy, it is imperative to quantify the relationships between urbanization and ecosystem services in a spatially explicit manner. For this purpose, ecosystem service value (ESV) is commonly adopted, especially, in evaluating the changes of ecosystem services in terms of physical supply capacities. Existing research efforts, however, rarely considered the scarcity caused by the supply-demand dynamics, which was incorporated into ESV, or succinctly, ecosystem service scarcity value (ESSV). In addition, they tended to focus on the local and regional levels, leaving unattended the national level analysis that carries important policy implications. This paper fills this gap by quantifying first the spatiotemporal patterns of ESSV and their changes at the province level for China, and second the spatial variations of the relationship between urbanization and ecosystem services employing geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results showed that the ESSV was highest in the southeast and lowest in the northwest in China and the total ESSV in all provinces trended upward from 1990 to 2015. The population growth, urban land expansion, and economic growth due to urbanization were clearly higher in the eastern coastal areas and the areas along the Yangtze River than in other regions. The ESSV and gross domestic product growth of developed regions both shared the same growth trend over time; in particular developed regions saw a sharper increase than less developed regions. This showed a positive correlation between the ESSV of a region and its economic situation. The changes of spatial impacts of urbanization on ESSV were mainly driven by regional development policy, which was confirmed by the results from GWR. Therefore, promoting a holistic view of land use functions with socioeconomic activities, such as maintaining a balanced urban development, implementing ecological compensation and strengthening regional cooperation across administrative boundaries, is encouraged to reconcile the conflict between urbanization and ecosystem management.

The exploitation, utilization, and protection of land resources are some of the great social problems during the process of rapid urbanization in China. The status of land use directly affects ecosystem health (ESH). The evaluation of ESH and the spatial correlations between urbanization caused by human interference help us to analyze the influence of urbanization on ecosystems and also provide new insight into reasonable and scientific resource management. In this study, we evaluated the ESH of Gannan, in Jiangxi Province, China, based on ecosystem service values (ESV) and selected a series of indicators to detect the impact of urbanization on ecosystem health in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010. and 2015. Remote sensing (RS) and the Geographic Information System (GIS) were used as processing tools to calculate basic data and to map the results based on different terrain gradients. The results show that ecosystem health suffered a downward trend from 1990 to 2015. Especially, the area proportion at an unhealthy level and average health (ave-health) level increased prominently, and the area of a well state decreased. Further, the results indicate that urbanization had a negative impact on ESH. The degree of a negative correlation increases with the process of urban sprawl. In addition, we found that from 1990 to 2015, the area proportion of a degraded level and unhealthy level was the highest on the first terrain gradient, and as the terrain gradient increased, this area proportion also decreased. However, the high interference region occupies a higher proportion in the lower terrain gradient. Consequently, the results could reveal the impact of urbanization on ecosystem health and could provide an even more effective service for a sustainable development.

Goal 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has highlighted the importance of maintaining a sustainable relation between ecosystem services and human activities. Ecosystem services are heterogeneous across landscapes. However, how human activities, which cause disturbances to ecosystem services, relate to such heterogeneity has not been well studied and thus necessarily constraining our ability to manage ecosystems sustainably. Based on land use/land cover data, this study addressed the research gap by running two inter-related analyses on the datasets of the study area, i.e., Chuandong, China. The first analysis involves identifying distinctive heterogeneous units of ecosystem service values using Getis-Ord Gi⁎. The second analysis involves measuring the impacts of human disturbances on ecosystem service values and their variations over every five years between 1990 and 2015, using linear regression and spatial regression models. The result of the first analysis identified heterogeneous ecosystem service units of hot-spots, cold-spots, and random areas. The hot-spots mainly clustered in relative inaccessibility land at higher terrain gradients in the east of the study area. The cold-spots overlapped extensively with built-up areas and farmland at lower terrain gradients in the west of the study area. Random areas distributed mainly in the middle part of the study area. This heterogeneity also existed temporally. Ecosystem service values in the study area decreased from 1990 to 2000 but reversed the trend after 2000. The result of the second analysis revealed that the impacts of hot-spots, cold-spots, and random areas on the relationship between ecosystem service values and human disturbances vary. Specifically, there was a negatively linear relationship between ecosystem service values and the integrated indicator of human disturbances, which was the strongest in random areas, followed by cold-spots and hot-spots. In addition, spatial spillover effect is explicit in the relationship between ecosystem service values and three specific factors of human disturbances, i.e., terrain index, population, and gross domestic product. They varied significantly between units: the terrain index had a positive externality on ecosystem service values with cold-spots and random areas but negative externality with hot-spots; population imposed a more negative externality on ecosystem service values when in proximity to random areas than cold-spots and hot-spots; the externality between gross domestic product and ecosystem service values exhibited irregular inverse 'U' shape, which was below the 'X-axis' in cold-spots but throughout the 'X-axis' in hot-spots and random areas. The findings of this study have potential policy implications in improving ecosystem sustainability through harmonizing the environment and human activities.

Multiresolution segmentation (MRS) algorithm has been widely used to handle very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing images in the past decades. Unfortunately, segmentation quality is limited by the dependency of parameter selection on users’ experience and diverse images. Contrarily, the segmentation by weighted aggregation (SWA) can partly overcome the above limitations and produce an optimal segmentation for maximizing the homogeneity within segments and the heterogeneity across segments. However, SWA is solely tested and justified with digital photos in computer vision field instead of VHR images. This study aims at evaluating SWA performance on VHR imagery. First, multiscale spectral, shape, and texture features are defined to measure homogeneity of image objects for segmentation. Second, SWA is implemented to handle QuickBird, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and GF-1 VHR images and further compared with MRS in eCognition software to demonstrate the applicability of SWA to diverse images in building,...

Ecological vulnerability, as an important evaluation method reflecting regional ecological status and the degree of stability, is the key content in global change and sustainable development. Most studies mainly focus on changes of ecological vulnerability concerning the temporal trend, but rarely take arid and semi-arid areas into consideration to explore the spatial heterogeneity of the ecological vulnerability index (EVI) there. In this study, we selected the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on the Loess Plateau of China, a typical arid and semi-arid area, as a case to investigate the spatial heterogeneity of the EVI every five years, from 1990 to 2015. Based on remote sensing data, meteorological data, and economic statistical data, this study first evaluated the temporal‒spatial change of ecological vulnerability in the study area by Geo-information Tupu. Further, we explored the spatial heterogeneity of the ecological vulnerability using Getis-Ord Gi*. Results show that: (1) the regions with high ecological vulnerability are mainly concentrated in the north of the study area, which has high levels of economic growth, while the regions with low ecological vulnerability are mainly distributed in the relatively poor regions in the south of the study area. (2) From 1990 to 2015, ecological vulnerability showed an increasing trend in the study area. Additionally, there is significant transformation between different grades of the EVI, where the area of transformation between a slight vulnerability level and a light vulnerability level accounts for 41.56% of the transformation area. (3) Hot-spot areas of the EVI are mainly concentrated in the north of the study area, and cold-spot areas are mainly concentrated in the center and south of the study area. Spatial heterogeneity of ecological vulnerability is significant in the central and southern areas but insignificant in the north of the study area. (4) The grassland area is the main driving factor of the change in ecological vulnerability, which is also affected by both arid and semi-arid climates and ecological projects. This study can provide theoretical references for sustainable development to present feasible suggestions on protection measures and management modes in arid and semi-arid areas.

It is estimated that at least 50% of congenital or childhood hearing loss is attributable to genetic causes. In non-syndromic hearing loss, which accounts for 70% of genetic hearing loss, approximately 80% of cases are autosomal recessive, 15% autosomal dominant, and 1–2% mitochondrial or X-linked. In addition, 30% of genetic hearing loss is syndromic. The genetic causes of hearing loss are highly heterogeneous. So far, more than 140 deafness-related genes have been discovered. Studies on those genes tremendously increased our understanding of the inner ear functions at the molecular level. It also offers important information for the patients and allows personalized and accurate genetic counseling. In many cases, genetic diagnosis of hearing loss can help to avoid unnecessary and costly clinical testing, offer prognostic information, and guide future medical management. On the other hand, a variety of gene therapeutic approaches have been developed aiming to relieve or converse the hearing loss due to genetic causes. Prevention of genetic hearing loss is feasible through prepregnancy and prenatal genetic diagnosis and counseling.

Urban forests can provide the necessary ecosystem services for their residents and play an important part in improving the urban environment. Forest landscape connectivity is a vital indicator reflecting the quality of the ecological environment and ecological functions. Detecting changes in landscape connectivity is, therefore, an important step for providing sound scientific evidence for the better urban planning. Using remote sensing images of a study area in Zhuhai City in 1999, 2005, 2009 and 2013, the dynamic forest landscape connectivity of Zhuhai city can be evaluated based on a graph-theoretic approach. The aims of our study were to discover and interpret the effect of rapid urbanization on forest landscape connectivity. The construction of ecological corridors helps us specifically compare the landscape connectivity of three parts of urban forests. On the basis of functional landscape metrics, the correlation of these metrics and patch area was discussed in order to comprehensively identify the key patches. The analysis showed that the total areas of forestlands reduced from 1999 to 2009 and then increased from 2009 to 2013, and the same trend was found in overall forest landscape connectivity. To improve the overall landscape connectivity, construct urban ecological network and appropriately protect biodiversity in the future, the existing important patches with large areas or key positions should be well protected. This study revealed that urbanization reduced the area of key patches and consequently reduced the forest landscape connectivity, which increased while the patch areas increased due to the environmental protection policy. Functional connectivity indicators could provide more comprehensive information in the development of environmental protection strategies.

Hearing loss (HL) is one of the most common human defects which affects millions of people globally. The identification of deafness-related genes or loci may facilitate basic and clinical translational research on this disorder. Here, we investigated a Chinese family with autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing impairment. Using targeted massively parallel sequencing, we identified a novel homozygous mutation, c.3525_3526insA and p.Q1175fsX1188 (NM_016239), in exon 2 of MYO15A. Sanger sequencing confirmed that affected siblings were homozygous for the mutation, whereas both normal hearing parents were heterozygous. The mutation was absent in 96 healthy controls and public databases. The insertion leads to a frameshift and a truncated form of the protein, resulting in the pathogenic effect of hearing loss for the patients. Mutations in exon 2 of MYO15A may cause a less severe phenotype, facilitating the rapid identification of mutations in exon 2 among the 66 exons when linkage of less severe hearing loss to Deafness, Autosomal Recessive 3 (DFNB3) is detected. Our data provide additional molecular information for establishing a better genotype-phenotype understanding of DFNB3.

Objective Autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss (DFNB) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. So far, 55 pathogenic genes have been identified. In this study, we aim to characterize the clinical feature and the genetic cause of a Chinese DFNB family. Methods Whole exome sequencing was performed on the proband. Co-segregation between the hearing loss phenotype and the potential causative mutations was verified in all family members by Sanger sequencing. Results Audiologic profiles of the affected family members revealed a moderate hearing loss mainly affecting higher frequencies. Novel biallelic OTOGL mutations, c.6467C>A (p.Ser2156*) and c.6474dupA (p.Ser2159Metfs*2), were identified in this family segregating with the childhood onset DFNB. Both mutations were predicted to cause either nonsense mediated mRNA decay or premature terminations of protein synthesis. Conclusions We identified novel biallelic OTOGL mutations in a Chinese DFNB family. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of OTOGL mutations causing hearing loss in the East Asian population. Our finding enriched the mutation spectrum of OTOGL associated hearing loss.

Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is located in the three-river source region (the TRSR) in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China, which is characterized with ecological sensitivity and vulnerability. In the paper, we integrated remote sensing images, field investigation and social-economic data , and with the help of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and comprehensive index methods, a sensitivity assessment system was built to calculate ecological sensitivity scores and assign levels for the study area. Results show that: areas which are moderately or even highly ecologically sensitive account for 54.02%, distributed in south, north and northeast of study area and those that have most apparent ecological sensitivity are mainly located in Zeekog, northwest of Huangnan while other counties enjoy relatively lower sensitivity. The results will facilitate future region management and planning for decision-makers.

Urban scenes refer to those spatial units that consist of diverse geographic objects but have special patterns, and thus can be abstracted as one scene category higher than object classes, such as residential areas, commercial areas, and industrial areas. Therefore, scene analysis consists of two steps: scene segmentation and scene classification. Since existing object- and pixel-based image analysis methods cannot work well for scene analysis, this paper aims at resolving the two issues. For scene segmentation, a multilevel aggregation mechanism is presented; while for scene classification, both the intra-scene feature similarity and inter-scene semantic dependency are considered. VHR images are used to test the presented methods and satisfactory results with large accuracies are obtained.

The past decades have witnessed rapid urbanization around the world. This is particularly evident in Zhuhai City, given its status as one of the earliest special economic zones in China. After experiencing rapid urbanization for decades, the level of ecosystem health (ESH) in Zhuhai City has become a focus of attention. Assessments of urban ESH and spatial correlations between urbanization and ESH not only reveal the states of urban ecosystems and the extent to which urbanization affected these ecosystems, but also provide new insights into sustainable eco-environmental planning and resource management. In this study, we assessed the ESH of Zhuhai City using a selected set of natural, social and economic indicators. The data used include Landsat Thematic Mapper images and socio-economic data of 1999, 2005, 2009 and 2013. The results showed that the overall ESH value and ecosystem service function have been on the decline while Zhuhai City has continued to become more urbanized. The total ESH health level trended downward and the area ratio of weak and relatively weak health level increased significantly, while the areas of well and relatively well healthy state decreased since 1999. The spatial correlation analysis shows a distinct negative correlation between urbanization and ESH. The degree of negative correlation shows an upward trend with the processes of urban sprawl. The analysis results reveal the impact of urbanization on urban ESH and provide useful information for planners and environment managers to take measures to improve the health conditions of urban ecosystems.

The purpose of this study was to explore in Internet industry whether a company’s R&D choice is affected by other companies’ choices and point out the scope it matters, futher, determine the best R&D strategy on different occasions. The paper established a rectified Cournot model. Based on the traditional model, the paper added two parameters: knowledge spillover effect and knowledge absorptive capacity. The paper argues that the externality of R&D doesn’t exist when the above parameters changes within a certain range. Thus, the paper put forward that the government should strengthen patent protection and supply financial support to encourage R&D. This study innovatively applied rectified Cournot model, and discussed R&D from the microscopic perspective.

To satisfy the increasing demand of wireless sensor network (WSN) distribution in the different monitoring area and enlarge the coverage of the WSNs in various scenes of application, in this paper, we constructed a new type of mobile wireless data sinking platform for collecting the data of WSN based on the technology of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). First, the authors studied a wireless environmental monitoring system containing the UAV platform and WSN is constructed and both test on wireless communication capacity and data collecting are carried out. The communication capacity test show that when the RF modules are operated with transmission power greater than 1 dBm and communication distance less than 100 m, the UAV wireless sink node can maintain a high quality communication data link which has a lower PLR (less than the 5 %) and better signal level (RSSI greater than −90 dBm) with transmission data rate of 250 kbps, using this RF transceiver a simple communication & data collection protocol between UAV and ground WSN sink node was proposed. The whole work of this paper should provide some experience for building a UAV cooperative WSN system in the future.

In this perspective study, the authors introduce the background, goals, and roadmap of Translational Medicine, address the differences between oriental and western medicines, as well as their development tendency, and then discuss the developments in and prospects for the System Medicine. The advantages of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) lie in its guidelines based on the holism and systems theory; its methodology based on the theory as “the harmony between humans and nature” to regulate the body's balance; and its personalized treatment with TCM formulas. However, modernization of TCM still faces some challenges: how to translate the self-explanatory closed system into an receptively open system; how to achieve the combination, integration, and convergence of TCM with other modern sciences and technologies (such as systems biology); how to implement the modern scientific mode, methodologies, and achievements in the study of TCM, and interpret it with data instead words. Although there is a large difference between the oriental and western medicine systems, the trend of complementary development and integration of both is irresistible. We should try to push the progress in the combination, integration, and convergence of oriental and western medicines to welcome the emergence of System Medicines in the 21st century. The development of System Medicine may have following requirements and characteristics: first, the integrated research on medicine and pharmacy requires the “system–system” interaction character between the drug system and biological system; second, the clinical diagnosis system by the combination of disease and syndrome requires an integrative expression, including some quantitative indexes of syndromes in TCM, some pathological and biochemical indexes as well as imaging diagnostic markers in western medicine, and some biomarkers, such as genes, proteins, and metabolites discovered by systems biology studies; third, a clinical-treatment mode based on the correspondence of formula, disease and syndrome requires that the pattern of compound drugs be widely used for the human system by the combination of disease and syndrome, in order to achieve goals known as “correspondence of formula, disease and syndrome, comprehensive management and systematic condition” fourth, the research and development (R&D) mode of new drugs require “participation of physicians and combination of medicine and pharmacy”, which is a route known as “Beside-Bench-Beside” fifth, the representation of compound drugs and human system requires the combination of macroscopic characterization and microcosmic feature, also the combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses.

This work deals with the variation of urinary metabolite of patients suffering from premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and the function of Jingqianping granules (JG) in intervening liver-Qi invasion by metabonomic. The metabonomic characteristics and the micromolecular marking compound, which are closely related to the pathogenesis of PMS liver-Qi invasion cases, are also investigated. PMS liver-Qi invasion cases are calibrated according to the diagnostic criteria, including criteria, and excluding criteria. The urine samples from PMS liver-Qi invasion patients are analyzed at different times using UPLC-Q-TOF in combination with PCA pattern analysis, followed by discrimination of the metabolic outline and searching for the possible biological tags and metabolic pathways. The metabolic outline of premenstrual urine samples has significant difference among the control group, the PMS liver-Qi invasion group, and the PMS liver-Qi invasion treatment group. The metabolic outline of premenstrual urine sample of the PMS liver-Qi invasion group diverges from the premenstrual and postmenstrual urine samples of the control group and the postmenstrual urine sample of the PMS liver-Qi invasion group. Compared with the control group, N-acetyl-2-glutamate-5-semialdehyde has decreased greatly in the N-acetyl-2-glutamate-5-semialdehyde liver-Qi invasion group, and histidine and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelaldehyde have increased significantly. This research, for the first time, deals with the metabolic pattern differences between the control group and the administration group. It shows that JG may repair metabolic disturbance of endogenous micromolecules in PMS liver-Qi invasion cases in terms of metabonomics. It also demonstrates that symptoms present before menstruation in PMS patients and the characteristic of PMS is that the symptoms appear before menstruation and disappear after it among PMS liver-Qi invasion cases.

With the analysis of opportunities and challenges for the drug innovation, this research proposed a definition of the composite drug, which means a compatible combination of multiple compounds or multi-group compounds developed under the guidance of multiple therapeutic principles and mechanisms in order to achieve an optimal holistic efficacy. Composite drugs may consist of composite Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and composite synthetic drugs or the combination of the both. The characteristics of composite drug innovation system are the followings: first, its target is the patient, not just a particular disease. Second, it requires the collaboration from physicians and the combination of iatrology and pharmacology. Third, it requires an R&D procedure of clinical experience to animal experiment to clinical trial. Fourth, it requires the development of a comprehensive assessment system for the clinical efficacy. Fifth, it requires developing an integrative system for screening of composite drugs. Sixth, it requires a development of an integrative system with both holistic characterization and specific characterization of the pharmaceutical components group. The current key issues for the innovation of composite TCM drugs are to develop a comprehensive assessment system for the clinical efficacy of TCM, to develop an integrative system for screening of composite drugs according to the characteristics of TCM and to standardize the approaches for the integrative characterizing of composite drugs. As in some demonstrative studies, this research has developed a new approach, Chemomics-integrated Global System Biology based on which a few composite drugs have been developed: one for treatment of ischemic apoplexy using TCM Qingkailing, and another one for treatment of ischemic cardiopathy using TCM Shuanglongfang. The current key issues for the innovation of composite synthetic drugs should focus on how to innovate the notions in order to establish an acknowledged model for the innovation of composite synthetic drugs, to attract physicians to participate in the composite drug innovation in order to establish an R&D procedure of clinical experience to animal experiment to clinical trial, and to strengthen the research of the composite drugs combining TCM and synthetic drugs.

The extended 9-intersection matrix is used to formalize topological relations between uncertain regions while it is designed to satisfy the requirements at a concept level, and to deal with the complex regions with broad boundaries (CBBRs) as a whole without considering their hierarchical structures. In contrast to simple regions with broad boundaries, CBBRs have complex hierarchical structures. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the complex hierarchical structure and to represent the topological relations between all regions in CBBRs as a relation matrix, rather than using the extended 9-intersection matrix to determine topological relations. In this study, a tree model is first used to represent the intrinsic configuration of CBBRs hierarchically. Then, the reasoning tables are presented for deriving topological relations between child, parent and sibling regions from the relations between two given regions in CBBRs. Finally, based on the reasoning, efficient methods are proposed to compute and derive the topological relation matrix. The proposed methods can be incorporated into spatial databases to facilitate geometric-oriented applications.

The authors of this paper discussed different thoughts and methods of system biology and its applications in TCM formula study. The research and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula has attracted increasing attention in the TCM industry for many years. But the basis and mechanism of TCM has not been explained clearly yet, due to its multicomponent and multitarget nature. System biology could provide novel insights into the TCM research. Therefore, some difficulties in TCM formula study including physical basis of TCM therapeutic effects, rules of compatibility, pharmacology, and action mechanism will be well illustrated in an effective manner. The problem of "black box" in TCM study will be fully understood with the help of system biology.

Based on the 2013 remote sensing data, DEM and field survey, we researched the characteristics of spatial distribution of 66 monasteries in Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture which is located in three rivers headwater region of Qinghai province in China. By use of GIS we analyzed the differences of land use types and landscape patterns between the monasteries and the settlements with in 4 km of area. The result indicated that the monasteries in Guoluo are mainly distributed in the elevation of 4000–4500 m, and most of them stand on a slope or a gentleslope. Compared with the land use type of the settlements, the monasteries showed a more stable land use pattern.

The main purpose of this research is to Qinghai Province as the research object. We use GIS to analyze distribution of natural disasters, such as hail, snow disaster, from 1950 to 2013. Then, obtained the temporal and spatial distribution and law of natural disasters. Results show that: (1) Qinghai occurred 15 times drought which reached 31.5 %, between 1960 to 2010. (2) The high incidence areas of drought are Xining City and Haidong area, and sub high incidence areas are southwest Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures and west Haixi Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures, and the relatively low frequency of disasters in other areas. (3) From the spatial distribution, the most areas of snow disaster concentrated in the six counties of Yushu Prefectures and Guoluo Prefectures. (4) From the time distribution, the most serious areas of snow disaster are Yushu and Guoluo Prefectures.

Qualitative knowledge representation of spatial locations and relations is popular in many text-based media, for example, postings on social networks, news reports, and encyclopedia, as representing qualitative spatial locations is indispensable to infer spatial knowledge from them. However, an integrative model capable of handling direction-based locations of various spatial objects is missing. This study presents an integrative representation and inference framework about direction-based qualitative locations for points, lines, and polygons. In the framework, direction partitions of different types of reference objects are first unified to create a partition consisting of cells, segments, and corners. They serve as a frame of reference to locate spatial objects (e.g., points, lines, and polygons). Qualitative relations are then defined to relate spatial objects to the elements in a cell partition, and to form the model of qualitative locations. Last, based on the integrative representation, location-based reasoning mechanism is presented to derive topological relations between objects from their locations, such as point–point, line–line, point–line, point–polygon, line–polygon, and polygon–polygon relations. The presented model can locate any type of spatial objects in a frame of reference composed of points, lines, and polygons, and derive topological relations between any pairs of objects from the locations in a unified method.

The market for Ti non-aerospace applications is attractive and promising in China because of recent rapid economic growth although Ti aerospace applications and production scale are not so big compared with west countries. Non-aerospace applications have shared Ti market above 80% in recent years. Applications of Ti materials in non-aerospace industry have won great many profits, i.e. more than ¥ 100 000 RMB of annual profits and great many of social benefits have been gained from using 1 t of Ti materials on average. All the investments for use of Ti materials will be returned quickly after 2 or 3 years. The paper mainly presents the past, recent and future applications of Ti materials in China. It has briefed the history and present situation for R&D of Ti. It focuses on society and economic benefits from Ti non-aerospace applications.

China is a major source of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions because it is the world's largest producer of rice grain, nearly all of which is grown in irrigated paddies. This study sought to reduce the uncertainty in estimates of CH4 emissions from rice cultivation in China by improving the quantification of the effects of management practices (intermittent drainage and fertilizer inputs) on emissions. These results were spatially extrapolated with digital maps of type of rice using new estimates of organic matter and fertilizer inputs, as well as estimates of soil drainage. The estimated total annual CH4 emissions from rice agriculture in China in 1990 were 9.9 ± 3.0 × 1012 g. If intermittent drainage practices were adopted on 33% of the poorly drained soils used for rice cultivation in southern China, the estimated emissions would be 8.9 ± 2.7 × 1012 g CH4 yr-1. Reducing projected organic matter inputs by 50% as a sensitivity analysis to reflect the trend for reduced use of organic fertilizer, resulted in emissions of 9.6 ± 2.9 × 1012 g CH4 yr-1, with 8.7 ± 6 × 1012 yr-1 emitted with 33% adoption of intermittent drainage on poorly drained paddies. Although intermittent drainage has been shown to reduce emissions by 50%, the area of rice that is relatively easy to drain and re-flood is not very large. The use of intermittent drainage with better drained paddies is limited because of problems with re-flooding and it is also limited with very poorly drained paddies that are difficult to drain. The 10% emission reduction predicted with 33% adoption of intermittent drainage practices, while not large, is conservative and may be possible to realize. These CH4 emissions results are relative estimates because the uncertainty remains large due to a lack of emissions measurements from paddies in more regions and a lack of detailed information about organic fertilizer application rates.

As traditional cultures around the world face the evermore prevalent threat of extinction, there has been a growing need to preserve these traditional cultures and traditional knowledge (TK). With the development of electronic information and communication technologies (ICTs) and a change in what the intellectual property (IP) system considers as prior art, information professionals can play an important role in the management and preservation of traditional knowledge by providing resources and expertise in the collection, organization, storage and retrieval of TK. Digital libraries containing TK provide one appropriate subject for such a study by offering insight into the potential role of ICTs in preserving and perpetuating TK. The success of TKDL in India should be an example of its benefits to developing countries like China. This paper introduces how the TKDL can be used as a new tool in the protection and management of the TK of China's ethnic groups.

We report on an efficient blue light generation in periodically poled LiTaO3 by the frequency tripling of a quasi-continuous 1342 nm Nd:YVO4 laser. The period of the sample was 14.778 µm. Blue light with an average power of 138 mW was generated from a 18 mm long crystal in a single-pass process under an average fundamental power of 713 mW. The internal conversion efficiency was 19.3%.

In this paper, the application of nonlinear feature extraction based on wavelet kernel KPCA for faults diagnosis is presented. Mexican hat wavelet kernel is intruded to enhance Kernel-PCA nonlinear mapping capability. The experimental data sets of rotor working under four conditions: normal, oil whirling, rub and unbalance are used to test the WKPCA method. The feature reduction results of WKPCA are compared with that of PCA method and KPCA method. The results indicate that WKPCA can classify the rotor fault type efficiently. The WKPCA is more suitable for nonlinear feature reduction in fault diagnosis area.