A New Landscape Classification Approach for Quantifying Spatial Pattern of Bac Kan Province, Vietnam

Landscape theory and its application have played an important role in natural resources exploitation and environmental protection. Various classification approaches had been employed worldwide in landscape ecology studies. This paper had developed a new hierarchical landscape classification framework for quantifying spatial pattern of Bac Kan province. A landscape formation equation was applied with three natural factors (geology, topography, and soil) and cultural factor (land use). A multi-level segmentation technique with multiresolution segmentation algorithm was chosen to segment landscape units (patches) and to categorize landscape types at different levels. The results revealed that the landscape classification of Bac Kan province has 4 hierarchical levels. Level 4, which provided full details of spatial pattern based on geologic period, elevation, soil depth, and land use, had 315 landscape types. At this level, there are 8,427 landscape units mapped with a minimum and maximum areas of 0.02 km2 and 116.63 km2, respectively. A new Bac Kan landscape map at a scale of 1:100,000 along with 16 different attributes for each landscape unit was also produced. In conclusion, the framework of research methodology presented in this paper can be used as a guideline for landscape classification at provincial and national levels

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Ecological Suitability Evaluation for Conservation and Development in Bac Kan Province, Vietnam

Ecological suitability assessment is an effective approach to identify and locate the most suitable territories for future development in order to reduce the negative impacts of human activities on the ecosystem for ensuring sustainable development. The study aimed to propose a future direction for sustainable use of natural resources at the district level in Bac Kan province based on the ecological suitability evaluation approach and the trade-off technique. This study firstly applied the Delphi method to identify significant ecological resistance indicators for assessing ecological elements, importance, and resilience, which characterize the resistance of ecological structures, ecological functions, and ecological dynamics to construction and development, respectively. Then, an integrated ecological resistance model was applied to classify ecological suitability for construction and development. Moreover, spatial analysis and trade-off technique were applied to assign a development zone and propose future directions at provincial and district levels in Bac Kan province. The results revealed that the most dominant ecological suitability class for construction and development is the moderately suitable class, and it accounts for about 1948 km2 or 40.30% of the total area. In addition, five development zones were assigned at the provincial level, whereas three future directions for sustainable use of natural resources were proposed at the district level. In a nutshell, the research methodology framework in this study can be used as a guideline to land managers and planners for ecological suitability assessment in Vietnam