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

Offset in the extracted urban extents of Beijing in 2008 and 2009.

<p>(a) The result for 2008 is superimposed on the result for 2009; (b) The result for 2009 is superimposed on the result for 2008.</p

Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extent at the county in 2000 using different datasets.

<p>Accuracy assessment of the extracted urban extent at the county in 2000 using different datasets.</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

Case study area: China’s administrative boundaries at different levels.

<p>Case study area: China’s administrative boundaries at different levels.</p

Trend of the urban area series in China.

<p>Trend of the urban area series in China.</p

Self-Powered Multifunctional Organic Hydrogel Based on Poly(acrylic acid‑<i>N</i>‑isopropylacrylamide) for Flexible Sensing Devices

Human–machine interactions, medical monitoring, and flexible robots stimulate interest in hydrogel sensing devices. However, developing hydrogel sensors with multifunctions such as good mechanics, electroconductivity, resistance to solvent volatility as well as freezing, self-adhesion, and independence on external power supply remains a challenge. In the work, a poly(acrylic acid-N-isopropylacrylamide) P(AA-NIPAm) organic hydrogel loading LiCl is prepared by ultraviolet cross-linking in ethylene glycol/H2O. The organic hydrogel exhibits favorable mechanical properties such as an elongation of break at 700% and a breaking strength of 20 KPa, can adhere to various substrates, and resists frost and solvent volatility. Especially, it possesses an excellent conductivity of 8.51 S/m. The organic hydrogel shows wide strain sensitivity based on resistance change, and the gauge factor reaches 5.84 in the range of 300–700%. It has short responsive and recuperative time and is still stable within 1000 rounds. Moreover, the organic hydrogel is also assembled into a self-powered device in which the open-circuit voltage is 0.74 V. The device can transform external stimuli such as stretching or compressing into the output current change, so it detects human motion effectively in real time. The work provides a perspective for electrical sensing engineering