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Summary: The annual planting area of major inbred rice (Oryza sativa) cultivars reach more than half of the total annual planting area of inbred rice cultivars in China. However, how the major inbred rice cultivars changed during decades of genetic improvement and why they can be prevalently cultivated in China remains unclear.Here, we investigated the underlying genetic changes of major inbred cultivars and the contributions of landraces and introduced cultivars during the improvement by resequencing a collection of 439 rice accessions including major inbred cultivars, landraces, and introduced cultivars.The results showed that landraces were the main genetic contribution sources of major inbred Xian (Indica) cultivars, while introduced cultivars were that of major inbred Geng (Japonica) cultivars. Selection scans and haplotype frequency analysis shed light on the reflections of some well‐known genes in rice improvement, and breeders had different preferences for the Xian's and Geng's breeding. Six candidate regions associated with agronomic traits were identified by genome‐wide association mapping, five of which were under positive selection in rice improvement.Our study provides a comprehensive insight into the development of major inbred rice cultivars and lays the foundation for genomics‐based breeding in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes inscriptions cast on bronze mirrors of the Han dynasty (202 bce–220 ce) to trace how the material property of brightness became emphatically aestheticized through an expressive rhetoric of radiance and brilliance, illumination and reflection. It argues that specular brightness as a defining feature of Han mirrors was exploited by artisans to attract potential buyers. In contrast to erudite philosophers who exclusively used the logograph ming 明 to modify the literary mirror in classical texts, artisans promoted their products by featuring terms such as guang 光, zhao 昭, hui 輝, yao 耀, qing 清, and jiao 皎 in rhythmic proses of various lengths. Examining how artisans advertised their high-tin bronzes as embodiments of solar and lunar light, the study shows that specular brilliance was linked to a range of cosmetic, moral, and religious powers, from illuminating the individual and the physical world to revealing the invisible world, whether of human emotions or demons. The article further argues that the inscribed verses, while often formulaic and clichéd, were neither mere decorations nor generic blessings. In fact, they meaningfully structured and communicated a particular aesthetic appreciation shared by both Han artisans and users. This well-developed semantic fascination with specular brightness thus marks these metal discs as a distinctive genre of the decorative arts in early imperial China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loess from the northern piedmont of the Dabie Mountains is in a transition area between loess from the Chinese Loess Plateau, the Quaternary red soils of southern China and the Xiashu loess. Despite its significant location, the study has been inadequate. In this study, the Guangshan section in the northern piedmont of the Dabie Mountains was selected for investigation. Environmental magnetism, geochemistry, colour reflectance and optical diffuse reflection spectroscopy analyses were applied to detect the magnetic variations in the loess. The results showed that (1) the magnetic minerals consisted mainly of magnetite, maghemite, hematite and goethite, which are the same as those in the Quaternary loess from the Chinese Loess Plateau, the Xiashu loess and the Quaternary red soils of southern China. The average magnetic particles were in the pseudo-single domain, like those of the Chinese Loess Plateau loess. (2) Unit III of the Guangshan section (2.4–4 m), with high chemical index of alteration and low Ba-index, was demonstrated as the most strongly developed palaeosol in the whole section, in agreement with field observations (more Fe-Mn films and weakly vermiculated development). However, it exhibited minimal susceptibility values and the lowest concentration of fine ferrimagnetic minerals. Simultaneously, the unit had low hematite to goethite ratio (Hm/Gt), suggesting that the pedogenic environment was humid; and it also had high values of b * and Gt%, implying that there was more goethite. Therefore, we can conclude that excessive soil moisture and intensive pedogenesis dissolved the fine ferrimagnetic minerals originally produced by pedogenesis and transformed them into goethite. These results could help to trace the palaeoclimatic evolution of the study area and clarify the magnetic variations of loess in different climates throughout China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically reflects on some of the themes and assumptions at stake in the "transracialism" controversy, and connects them to important works in critical race theory: namely Rey Chow's notion of "coercive mimeticism" and Sara Ahmed's critique of white liberal multiculturalism. It argues that the analytic account of "race" that Tuvel draws upon in her article—Sally Haslanger's—is politically problematic, both on its own terms and in light of broader reflections on racialized and gendered power relations. In particular, I critique Haslanger's assumption that all racial identities exist on the same conceptual plane: that a single variable definition of "race" can be applied to any particular racialized group—including white and nonwhite racial identities. This erases racialized power relations, especially where, in liberal "multicultural" nations, whiteness constitutes the implied standard against which an appearance of "racial difference" is conjured. Finally, I extend my argument to the issue of treating "race" and gender analogously. Rejecting this move, I propose an alternative way of conceptualizing these as analytically distinct, yet constitutively interdependent, phenomena. In order to situate the debate historically, I consider an example of "racial transgression" from twentieth‐century China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visiting a museum and seeing an original artwork can be a special experience. We use a survey and a set of hypothetical questions to explore how such experience would be affected by changes in how the artwork is seen. In a first study, participants imagined that they had traveled to see a painting that they particularly like. They discover that it is impossible to directly see the original painting. Three alternatives are offered: seeing an optical reflection (using a mirror), seeing a video screening (a closed-circuit camera), or seeing a reproduction. In all cases, it is made clear that the size, brightness, and resolution will match that of the original. In addition, these options could be within the same room as the original, in the room next door, or in a different building. Results show that physical distance did not affect significantly the responses. However, there was an overall preference for seeing a reproduction as opposed to an optical or digital image. Contrary to the idea that the original is always superior to a copy, many people felt that a direct view of a copy is a preferable experience than an indirect view. The second study was focused directly on the comparison between a mirror and a monitor. Here we highlighted the fact that for the mirror light coming from the mirror originated from the painting. Data were collected in Britain and in China. In both cases, there was a clear preference for the mirror over the monitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A shadowless lighting approach improves performance of solar optical reflection lighting system. • A fast and simple parameter design method is developed for shadowless lighting. • Effectiveness of shadowless lighting approach is verified by the application in real tunnel. A solar optical reflection (SOR) lighting system has been developed to illuminate the threshold zone of short freeway tunnel in the premise of zero energy consumption. To improve the limited illumination performance of SOR lighting system due to the obstruction of moving vehicles on reflected sunlight rays, this study develops a fast and simple parameter design method for shadowless lighting based on an array of multiple SOR lighting systems that makes reflected sunlight emit to the threshold zone from different angles. The effectiveness of shadowless lighting is verified by the application on a two-lane freeway of Shaanxi Province, China. Results show that the shadowless lighting can significantly improve the illuminance in threshold zone, and the improvement rate is higher for the area farther from the tunnel entrance inside the tunnel. In order to achieve shadowless lighting avoid both the vehicle and inter-system blocking on reflected sunlight, the systems should be installed roadside in a staggered array that: 1) their heights descend and lateral distances from the curb shrink in turn from near to far from the tunnel entrance, with as small vertical and horizontal deflection angles of the reflectors as possible, or 2) their heights remain identical with a reduction in the vertical deflection angles of the reflectors from near to far from the tunnel entrance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia Pacific (AP) region has experienced huge growth in the use and trade of LNG during the last decade, which is a reflection of the overall region’s policies towards low-carbon development. Japan, South Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan and India (JKCTI) are the top five importers and consumers of LNG in the world. A holistic network system stability indicator, considering various risk factors, has been constructed based on ecological network analysis (ENA) to assess the stability of LNG supplies in each of the JKCTI countries and in the overall AP region. The research revealed that the increase in the number of LNG suppliers and improvements (higher values) of the risk factors have enhanced the status of the stability of LNG supplies. A comparative ranking of the overall levels of natural gas supply security was estimated and found that Mainland China is the leader within the AP region, followed by India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Furthermore, the reliability of the LNG suppliers in terms of sharing their maximum LNG supplying capacity in each of the JKCTI countries and AP region was also estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To compare the refractive and visual outcomes between 2 ablation centration points, 80% and 100% from the pupil center toward the coaxially sighted corneal light reflex. Setting Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Hong Kong, China. Design Retrospective comparative study. Methods All eyes had myopic laser in situ keratomileusis with the ablation 80% or 100% from the pupil center toward the coaxially sighted corneal light reflex. Three months postoperatively, the refractive and visual outcomes were compared between groups. Subgroup analysis was also performed for the large-angle κ and small-angle κ groups. Results There were no differences in the preoperative variables between groups. Three months postoperatively, the sphere was significantly more hyperopic in the 80% group than in the 100% group (0.19 diopter [D] versus 0.09 D) ( P = .009) and the cylinder was significantly lower in the 80% group (0.25 D versus 0.33 D) ( P = .011). More eyes achieved zero astigmatism in the 80% group than in the 100% group (43.9% versus 34.2%), and fewer eyes had astigmatism greater than 0.75 D in the 80% group (0.9% versus 6.1%) ( P = .039). The error from the target refraction indicated that the 80% group tended to have significantly less undercorrection ( P = .045). There were no significant differences in the other outcomes. Subgroup analysis did not show significant findings for the large-angle κ. Conclusions Both 80% centration and 100% centration were safe and effective. Compared with the 100% group, the 80% group had less astigmatism and less undercorrection. Financial Disclosure None of the authors has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early contributions of ancient China to optics predate those of Euclid, but are little known in the west. During the Warring States period, 2400 years ago in China, Mo Zi, a philosopher, thinker and scientist, stated explicitly the concepts of linear optics: the straight line propagation of light, reflection of light by planar, concave and convex mirrors, and the pinhole camera. Refraction of light was also discovered then, and the refractive index of water was measured to be 1.25, which is very close to the modern value of 1.33. These are recorded in the Book of Mo Zi. In the early Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, King of Huai-Nan, also compiled several works, where novel optical devices are mentioned, such as burning glasses made of ice, and the world's first surveillance periscope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remote sensing approach is proposed in this paper for monitoring instantaneous underwater light climate in Dahuchi Lake, China. Water constituents that are optically significant to the lake water can be retrieved through this method based on an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm with a satisfactory accuracy. In this study, the ANN was trained by spectral simulations which were generated by a water colour simulation model (WASI). An underwater light attenuation model has been built by fitting the field measurements and applied to calculate photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) at the bottom of the lake from the inputs of hyperspectral reflectance above the water surface and the water depth. Results show that this method can predict the concentration of suspended particle matter (SPM) with a high accuracy and explain more than half of the underwater PAR variation with a standard deviation of 94.8 μmol s-1 m-2. In order to test the portability of the algorithm, it has also been extended to three bands of Landsat TM image. Compared with hyperspectral inputs, ANN with broadband inputs has lower but still acceptable accuracy on SPM retrieval. The advantage of this method lies in its time-efficient and cost-efficient monitoring of underwater light climate, i.e. the simulations generated by a semi-physical model can be used for ANN training, instead of using a large number of field measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional measurements of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) are expensive, especially for large river systems. This study aims to examine the potential of estimating SSC of large rivers using high temporal resolution Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. In contrast to a small number of the samples used by previous studies on remote sensing of SSC, a large number of samples (n = 153) obtained on 63 dates at five sites across the entire Middle and Lower Yangtze River were employed to investigate the relationship between SSC and the water reflectance of MODIS images. The water reflectance difference between Bands 2 and 5 provided a relatively accurate SSC estimate after atmospheric correction, with 25% mean absolute relative error and 29.7% relative root mean square error. The errors were lower for larger SSC values. Thus, there is a potential that the Terra MODIS could be employed to estimate SSC frequently for large turbid river systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A previous study on PM2.5 carbonaceous aerosols measured with the thermal optical reflectance (TOR) method in fourteen Chinese cities is extended by subdividing total EC into char-EC and soot-EC. Average char-EC concentrations show great differences between the fourteen cities and between winter and summer periods, with concentrations of 8.67 and 2.41 μg m−3 in winter and summer, respectively. Meanwhile spatial and seasonal soot-EC variations are small, with average concentrations of 1.26 and 1.21 μg m−3 in winter and summer, respectively. Spatial and temporal distributions of char-EC, similar to EC, are mainly influenced by local fuel consumption, as well as the East Asian monsoon and some meteorological factors such as the mixing height and wet precipitation. The small spatial and seasonal variation of soot-EC is consistent with its regional-to-global dispersion, which may suggest that soot carbon is not local carbon, but regional carbon. Char-EC/soot-EC ratios show summer minimum and winter maximum in all cities, which is in good agreement with the difference in source contributions between the two periods. As OC/EC ratio is affected by the formation of the secondary organic aerosol (SOA), char-EC/soot-EC ratio is a more effective indicator for source identification of carbonaceous aerosol than previously used OC/EC ratio. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nowadays development of industry and traffic are the main contributor to city air pollution in the city of GuangZhou, China. Conventional methods for investigating atmosphere potentially harmful element pollution based on sampling and chemical analysis are time and labor consuming and relatively expensive. Reflectance spectroscopy within the visible-near-infrared region of vegetation in city has been widely used to predict atmosphere constituents due to its rapidity, convenience and accuracy. The objective of this study was to examine the possibility of using leaves reflectance spectra of vegetation as a rapid method to simultaneously assess pollutant (S, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, XCl, XF) in the atmosphere of the Guangzhou area. This article has studied the spectral features of polluted leaf surface of Ficus microcarpa in 1985 and 1998. According to the analysis, comprehensive assessment for the change of atmospheric condition and degrees of pollution were given. This conclusion was confirmed by the monitored data got from chemical analysis. Future study with real remote sensing data and field measurements were strongly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediments are disturbed by wind frequently, especially in the shallow lakes. The characteristics of resuspended sediment particles in Taihu Lake were studied under different wind velocities. It showed that sediment particles suspended obviously and particle number in overlying water increased directly under high wind-induced disturbance. Suspended solid (SS) concentration was less than 50 mg/l when the wind velocity was below 3.0 m/s, however, it increased to more than 300 mg/l when the wind velocity was 10.0 m/s. Two methods were used to measure the fractal characteristics of particles. One was light scattering and the other was image analysis. The three-dimensional fractal dimensions of suspended particles, measured by light scattering, were between 2.26 and 2.44; correspondingly, the two-dimensional fractal dimensions, calculated by image analysis, were between 1.44 and 1.77. Moreover, the three-dimensional fractal dimensions were directly proportional to two-dimensional fractal dimensions. The characteristic length of particles was calculated by image analysis. The minimum characteristic length was close to 8.5 μm when the wind velocity was 1.5 m/s at 50 cm beneath lake surface, while, the maximum characteristic length was approximate to 24 μm when the wind velocity was 10 m/s at the depth of 150 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Samples from Hong Kong, China, were analyzed for organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and total carbon (TC) by three thermal protocols (low-temperature IMPROVE and high-temperature STN and NIOSH) and two optical monitoring methods: reflectance and transmittance. Good agreement (±10%) for TC among the three protocols was observed for sample loadings of 1–55 μg m−3. The two protocols using a reflectance pyrolysis correction showed best agreement for EC, with <20% differences found for ∼80% of the samples. Hong Kong has a large diesel fleet, and for some heavily loaded samples the light transmittance was too low for quantitative detection, resulting in large uncertainties in the OC/EC split based on transmittance. Hong Kong experienced OC levels similar to those at US sites, but has much higher EC concentrations. OC/EC ratios range from 2 to 5 at two US sites and from 0.2 to 1.2 at three Hong Kong sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]