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Remote sensing mapping is an important research direction in the development of geographic surveying and mapping. In order to successfully implement the project of Mapping Western China (MWC), a technical mapping system has been established. In this project, many problems have been solved through technological innovation, such as block adjustment with scarce control points, large-scale aerial/satellite image mapping, and intelligent interpretation of multi-source images. Several softwares were developed, e.g. PixelGrid for aerial/satellite image mapping in a large area, FeatureStation for the integration of multi-source data in the complex terrain areas, and an airborne multi-band and multi-polarization interferometric data acquisition system for SAR mapping. For the first time, full coverage of 1: 50,000 topographic data of China's land territory has been produced, which means the geospatial framework of digital China is basically completed. With the implementation of other key national plans and projects (i.e. national geographic conditions monitoring and national remote sensing mapping), the focus has changed from MWC to national dynamic mapping. Accordingly, a dynamic mapping system is established. The data acquisition capability has developed from a single source to multiple sources and multiple modalities. The mapping capability has developed into dynamic mapping, and the capability for database update shows the characteristics of collaboration. The national geographic condition monitoring creates a multi-scale index system for statistical analysis for various needs. A multi-level and multi-dimensional technical system for statistical computing and decision-making service is developed for the transformation from dynamic monitoring to information service. In this paper, we give a brief introduction about the recent development of remote sensing mapping in China with respect to data acquisition, map production, and information service. The purpose of this paper is to motivate the establishment of theory and method for remote sensing mapping, technical and equipment in the smart mapping era, to improve the capability of perceiving, analyzing, mining, and applying geographic data, and to promote the intelligent development of geographic surveying and mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cordyceps militaris is a unique and precious medical fungus in Chinese Cordyceps, which has been widely used as the traditional medicines or as biocontrol agents against pests in China for centuries. Polysaccharides are one of bioactive constituents in Cordyceps militaris with a variety of biological activities, including immunomodulation, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-aging activities, among others. However, natural Cordyceps militaris are very rare and expensive, most of literatures indicated that the polysaccharides were mostly extracted from artificially cultivated fungal fruiting bodies (intracellular polysaccharides) or mycelia fermentation broths (extracellular polysaccharides). Moreover, separation and purification of polysaccharides was a very complicated and cumbersome process. Nevertheless, a large number of polysaccharides were purified and its characterization was elucidated by structure and biological activities. However, the relationship between structure and activity of polysaccharides has not been well established. Therefore, this review detailed the recent advance in several aspects (i.e., extraction, isolation, structure, and bioactivities) of the polysaccharides from fruiting body of Cordyceps militaris. This information could provide theoretical basis for the research on related polysaccharides, and also have important reference value in the field of functional foods and medicine in the future. • C. militaris is one of the best known traditional Chinese medicine and health foods. • Polysaccharide is one of the most important components in C. militaris. • C. militaris polysaccharides exhibited multiple structural features and various bioactivities. • This review focused on the isolation, structural features and bioactivities of C. militaris polysaccharides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geographical condition is a very important component of a country's national condition, and geographical conditions monitoring (GCM) has been of great concern to the Chinese government. GCM has a close relation with ‘Digital China’ and is a concrete embodiment of Digital China. This paper discusses the content and classification of GCM. In accordance with application areas, GCM can be divided into fundamental monitoring, thematic monitoring, and disaster monitoring. The application areas perspective includes the content of the three other perspectives, like the monitoring elements, the monitoring scope, and the monitoring cycle and fully reflects the essence of the GCM. Fundamental monitoring mainly focuses on monitoring all of the geographical elements, which provides a basis for follow-up thematic monitoring; thematic monitoring is a special type of designated subject monitoring that concerns the public or the government; disaster monitoring focuses on the dynamic monitoring of the pre-disaster and disaster periods for natural disasters. The monitoring results will provide timely information for governments so that they can meet management or decision-making requirements. A GCM case study in the area of the Qinghai — Tibet plateau was made, and some concrete conclusions were drawn. Finally, this paper presents some thoughts on conducting GCM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Ground subsidence, mainly caused by over exploitation of groundwater and other underground resources, such as oil, gas and coal, occurs in many cities in China. The annual direct loss associated with subsidence across the country is estimated to exceed 100 million US dollar. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) is a powerful tool to map ground deformation at an unprecedented level of spatial detail. It has been widely used to investigate the deformation resulting from earthquakes, volcanoes and subsidence. Repeat-pass InSAR, however, may fail due to impacts of spatial decorrelation, temporal decorrelation and heterogeneous refractivity of atmosphere. In urban areas, a large amount of natural stable radar reflectors exists, such as buildings and engineering structures, at which radar signals can remain coherent during a long time interval. Interferometric point target analysis (IPTA) technique, also known as persistent scatterers (PS) InSAR is based on these reflectors. It overcomes the shortfalls in conventional InSAR. This paper presents a procedure for urban subsidence monitoring with IPTA. Calculation of linear deformation rate and height residual, and the non-linear deformation estimate, respectively, are discussed in detail. Especially, the former is highlighted by a novel and easily implemented 2-dimensional spatial search algorithm. Practically useful solutions that can significantly improve the robustness of IPTA, are recommended. Finally, the proposed procedure is applied to mapping the ground subsidence in Suzhou city, Jiangsu province, China. Thirty-four ERS-1/2 SAR scenes are analyzed, and the deformation information over 38,881 point targets between 1992 and 2000 are generated. The IPTA-derived deformation estimates correspond well with leveling measurements, demonstrating the potential of the proposed subsidence monitoring procedure based on IPTA technique. Two shortcomings of the IPTA-based procedure, e.g., the requirement of large number of SAR images and assumed linear plus non-linear deformation model, are discussed as the topics of further research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China will, as a component of 'Digital Earth,' establish a Geomatics Informatization Technology System (GITS) which is characterized by real-time acquisition, automatic processing, networking service, and socialized application with fundamental geographical information. The basic composition of GITS is proposed. GITS covers four layers and six platforms. The four layers are data acquisition, processing, management, and application and services. The six platforms are informatic geodetic datum, high-precision geo-spatial data acquisition, automatic geo-spatial data processing, grid-based geo-spatial information management, comprehensive geo-spatial information sharing and service, and geo-spatial information integration and application. The informatic geodetic datum platform provides a carrier for all the four layers and a base for the other five platforms. The high-precision geo-spatial data acquisition platform belongs to the acquisition layer. The automatic geo-spatial data processing platform belongs to the processing layer. The grid-based geo-spatial information management platform belongs to the management layer and is a bridge connecting geo-spatial data acquisition and spatial information sharing service and integrated applications. The comprehensive geo-spatial information sharing and service platform belongs to the application and service layer. Finally, this paper presents thoughts for constructing GITS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The eco-environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) in China has received much attention due to the construction of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. Land use/land cover changes (LUCC) are a major cause of ecological environmental changes. In this paper, the spatial landscape dynamics from 1978 to 2005 in this area are monitored and recent changes are analyzed, using the Landsat TM (MSS) images of 1978, 1988, 1995, 2000 and 2005. Vegetation cover fractions for a vegetation cover analysis are retrieved from MODIS/Terra imagery from 2000 to 2006, being the period before and after the rising water level of the reservoir. Several analytical indices have been used to analyze spatial and temporal changes. Results indicate that cropland, woodland, and grassland areas reduced continuously over the past 30 years, while river and built-up area increased by 2.79% and 4.45% from 2000 to 2005, respectively. The built-up area increased at the cost of decreased cropland, woodland and grassland. The vegetation cover fraction increased slightly. We conclude that significant changes in land use/land cover have occurred in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. The main cause is a continuous economic and urban/rural development, followed by environmental management policies after construction of the Three Gorges Dam. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Propose a method to evaluate aesthetic appearance of waste incineration plants. • 177 cases from traditional style to post-modernist in China were evaluated. • Aesthetic appearance is weakly correlated with environmental performance. • Most cases lack aesthetic appearance even in the more developed provinces. • Good aesthetic appearance and social sustainability reduce NIMBY syndrome. The Not-In-My-BackYard (NIMBY) claims caused by the rapid expansion of waste incineration in China make stakeholders pay more attention to the environmental and social impact. Nowadays, the environmental impact is under control of the whole society while the social sustainability is often neglected. As the social sustainability is vital to the public acceptance and conducive to convert NIMBY claims to Beauty-In-My-BackYard (BIMBY) synergy, all stakeholders desire to know the gap but lack evaluation method. This paper proposes a quantitative evaluation system for the aesthetic appearance of MSW incineration plants for the first time. It uses aesthetic appearance to measure the social sustainability of MSW incineration plants. Real-world photos of 177 incineration plants in China were collected to support the evaluation using weighted sum method. The weights of factors contributing to the aesthetic appearance were obtained by AHP. The process of pairwise comparison in AHP was conducted by an online questionnaire survey involving more than 100 interviewees in various professions. It is evaluated that the aesthetic appearance is not correlated with the pollution control ability. The spatial distribution of different levels of aesthetic appearance shows that eastern provinces should pay more attention to the improvement of old incineration plants. As case studies, the designs of four typical plants are analyzed. The analysis results reveal the gap between NIMBY plants and BIBMY plants. More importantly, they can contribute to push forward the improvements of aesthetic appearance, social sustainability, and public acceptance for MSW incineration plants in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chrysotile had been used in asbestos textile workshops in Southeast China but a clear relation to mesothelioma is lacking., Methods: All patients diagnosed with mesothelioma from 2003 to 2010 at Yuyao People's Hospital were re-evaluated by multiple expert pathologists with immunohistochemistry and asbestos exposure data were collected., Results: Of 43 patients with a mesothelioma diagnosis, 19 peritoneal and nine pleural cases were finally diagnosed as mesothelioma. All were females, and the mean age of the patients with peritoneal or pleural mesothelioma was 52.4 and 58.2 years, respectively. All these cases had a history of domestic or occupational exposure to chrysotile. Two-thirds of the patients were from two adjoining towns with multiple small asbestos textile workshops. Contamination of tremolite was estimated to be less than 0.3%., Conclusions: This is a report of mesothelioma in women exposed to chrysotile asbestos at home and at work, with an over-representation of peritoneal mesothelioma., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

With Hengshan County of Shanxi Province in the North Loess Plateau as an example, and by using ETM + and remote sensing data and RUSLE module, this paper quantitatively derived the soil and water loss in loess hilly region based on "3S" technology, and assessed the derivation results under the support of artificial neural network. The results showed that the annual average erosion modulus of Hengshan County was 103.23 t x hm(-2), and the gross erosion loss per year was 4. 38 x 10(7) t. The erosion was increased from northwest to southeast, and varied significantly with topographic position. A slight erosion or no erosion happened in walled basin, flat-headed mountain ridges and sandy area, which always suffered from dropping erosion, while strip erosion often happened on the upslope of mountain ridge and mountaintop flat. Moderate rill erosion always occurred on the middle and down slope of mountain ridge and mountaintop flat, and weighty rushing erosion occurred on the steep ravine and brink. The RUSLE model and artificial neural network technique were feasible and could be propagandized for drainage areas control and preserved practice.