Public involvement in setting a national research agenda

<p>(A) Graphical map of the BLAST results showing nucleotide identity between <i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i> mitogenome and 15 related species listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0136297#pone.0136297.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>, as generated by the CGView comparison tool (CCT). CCT arranges BLAST result in an order where sequence that is most similar to the reference (<i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i>) is placed closer to the outer edge of the map. The rings labelled 1 to17 indicate BLAST results of <i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i> mitogenome against <i>A</i>. <i>chrysaetos</i>, <i>N</i>. <i>nipalensis</i>, <i>N</i>. <i>alboniger</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>cheela</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>monachus</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>lagopus</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>buteo</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>buteo burmanicus</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>soloensis</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>virgatus</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>gentilis</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>nisus</i>, <i>P</i>. <i>haliaetus</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>serpentarius</i>, <i>C</i>. <i>aura</i>, <i>P</i>. <i>badius</i>, and <i>S</i>. <i>leptogrammica</i>, respectively. (B) Nucleotide-based phylogenetic tree of 16 Accipitriformes species, with two Strigiformes birds as outgroups. This analysis is based on 13PCGs. Both ML and Bayesian analyses produced identical tree topologies. The ML bootstrap and Bayesian posterior probability values for each node are indicated.</p

A time series of urban extent in China using DSMP/OLS nighttime light data

<div><p>Urban extent data play an important role in urban management and urban studies, such as monitoring the process of urbanization and changes in the spatial configuration of urban areas. Traditional methods of extracting urban-extent information are primarily based on manual investigations and classifications using remote sensing images, and these methods have such problems as large costs in labor and time and low precision. This study proposes an improved, simplified and flexible method for extracting urban extents over multiple scales and the construction of spatiotemporal models using DMSP/OLS nighttime light (NTL) for practical situations. This method eliminates the regional temporal and spatial inconsistency of thresholding NTL in large-scale and multi-temporal scenes. Using this method, we have extracted the urban extents and calculated the corresponding areas on the county, municipal and provincial scales in China from 2000 to 2012. In addition, validation with the data of reference data shows that the overall accuracy (OA), Kappa and F1 Scores were 0.996, 0.793, and 0.782, respectively. We increased the spatial resolution of the urban extent to 500 m (approximately four times finer than the results of previous studies). Based on the urban extent dataset proposed above, we analyzed changes in urban extents over time and observed that urban sprawl has grown in all of the counties of China. We also identified three patterns of urban sprawl: Early Urban Growth, Constant Urban Growth and Recent Urban Growth. In addition, these trends of urban sprawl are consistent with the western, eastern and central cities of China, respectively, in terms of their spatial distribution, socioeconomic characteristics and historical background. Additionally, the urban extents display the spatial configurations of urban areas intuitively. The proposed urban extent dataset is available for download and can provide reference data and support for future studies of urbanization and urban planning.</p></div

Urban extents of cities in China extracted in this study.

<p>(a) the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan district, (b) the Pearl River Delta, (c) the Yangtze River Delta, (d) Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, (e) Zhengzhou in Henan Province.</p

Analysis of urban sprawl in Guangzhou.

<p>(a) The urban extents in Guangzhou; (b) Curves displaying the area and ratio of urban sprawl in Guangzhou, (c) Curves displaying the rate and acceleration of urban sprawl in Guangzhou.</p

Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extents at the county, municipal, and provincial scales in 2000.

<p>Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extents at the county, municipal, and provincial scales in 2000.</p

Accuracy assessment of urban extents in 2000 extracted at county scale.

Accuracy assessment of urban extents in 2000 extracted at county scale.</p

Spatial distribution of analysis on the urban sprawl pattern in China.

<p>Spatial distribution of analysis on the urban sprawl pattern in China.</p

Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extents using different P values in 2000.

Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extents using different P values in 2000.</p

Trend of the urban area series in China.

<p><b>(</b>A) The urban area using the raw NTL dataset and the proposed temporal and spatial normalization; (B) The urban area using the intercalibrated NTL dataset and the proposed temporal and spatial normalization.</p

Flowchart of the proposed urban extents extraction model.

<p>Flowchart of the proposed urban extents extraction model.</p