Climate Variability Rather Than Livestock Grazing Dominates Changes in Alpine Grassland Productivity Across Tibet

Alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, being vulnerable to environmental and anthropogenic changes, have experienced dramatic climate change and intensive livestock grazing during the last half-century. Climate change, coupled with grazing activities, has profoundly altered alpine grassland function and structure and resulted in vast grassland degradation. To restore degraded grasslands, the Central Government of China has implemented the Ecological Security Barrier Protection and Construction Project since 2008 across the Tibetan Autonomous Region. However, the relative effect of climate change and grazing activities on the variation in alpine grassland productivity is still under debate. In this study, we quantified how aboveground net primary production (ANPP) varied before (2000-2008) and after (2009-2017) starting the project across different alpine grasslands and how much variance in ANPP could be attributed to climate change and grazing disturbance, in terms of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and grazing intensity. Our results revealed that Tibet's climate got warmer and wetter, and grazing intensity decreased after starting the project. Mean ANPP increased at approximately 81% of the sites, on average from 27.0 g C m(-2) during 2000-2008 to 28.4 g C m(-2) during 2009-2017. The ANPP positively correlated with annual temperature and precipitation, but negatively with grazing intensity for both periods. Random forest modeling indicated that grazing intensity (14.5%) had a much lower influence in controlling the dynamics of grassland ANPP than precipitation (29.0%), suggesting that precipitation variability was the key factor for alpine grassland ANPP increase across Tibet

Common pitfalls and recommendations for using machine learning to detect and prognosticate for COVID-19 using chest radiographs and CT scans

Abstract: Machine learning methods offer great promise for fast and accurate detection and prognostication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from standard-of-care chest radiographs (CXR) and chest computed tomography (CT) images. Many articles have been published in 2020 describing new machine learning-based models for both of these tasks, but it is unclear which are of potential clinical utility. In this systematic review, we consider all published papers and preprints, for the period from 1 January 2020 to 3 October 2020, which describe new machine learning models for the diagnosis or prognosis of COVID-19 from CXR or CT images. All manuscripts uploaded to bioRxiv, medRxiv and arXiv along with all entries in EMBASE and MEDLINE in this timeframe are considered. Our search identified 2,212 studies, of which 415 were included after initial screening and, after quality screening, 62 studies were included in this systematic review. Our review finds that none of the models identified are of potential clinical use due to methodological flaws and/or underlying biases. This is a major weakness, given the urgency with which validated COVID-19 models are needed. To address this, we give many recommendations which, if followed, will solve these issues and lead to higher-quality model development and well-documented manuscripts

Integrated physical education and medicine in general physical education at universities in the age of educational technologies

Abstract Background The integration of training sessions into modern education is of vital importance for such disciplines as Physical Education and First Aid for the non-core specialities. This research explored the opportunities to introduce a pilot programme for Sports Medicine based on the First Aid and Fitness Tests applications to develop critical thinking skills in students using an indirect learning method. Methods This research used the Fitness Tests application developed by the ConnectedPE software company. The software contains more than 30 fitness tests and indicates the goal, equipment, procedure and standards so that students can easily and accurately complete all tasks and improve their fitness. The experimental group involved 60 first-year students (25 females and 35 males). The average age is 18.2 years. The control group involved 28 males and 32 females with an average age of 18.3 years. Students were assigned randomly to groups to ensure the experiment’s validity. Results The analysis of the pre-test and post-test of Critical Thinking Skills Success showed significant improvements in critical thinking skills (Z = -6.755 at p = 0.00) based on the integrated sports medicine programme. A negative correlation was observed between the post-test scores of Critical Thinking Skills Success and the Integrated Sports Medicine Test (r = -0.280, p < 0.05). Conclusions This article fills a gap in research on the possibility of integrating physical education and medicine into one ICT-based university course that would optimise study hours and develop critical thinking. The research’s scientific value is to promote the discussion about the absence of a unified standard for the basic sports training of young individuals on a global scale. The practical significance lies in the enhanced development of critical thinking skills among students through integrated sports training sessions, as opposed to the conventional lecture format. The other important finding is the fact that the use of mobile applications and the development of a general programme in sports medicine have no positive impact or correlation with the academic outputs of students in these two disciplines. The research results can help educators to update curricula on physical education and extracurricular pre-medical training at universities. The perspective of this research is to integrate physical education with other academic disciplines, such as biology, mathematics, physics, and others, to determine the feasibility of this integration and investigate its effect on critical thinking

THE ORDERS OF THE REDUCTIONS OF A POINT IN THE MORDELL-WEIL GROUP OF AN ELLIPTIC CURVE

It is expected that the number of wireless devices will grow rapidly over the next few years due to the growing proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT). In order to improve the energy efficiency of information transfer between small devices, we review state-of-the-art research in simultaneous wireless energy and information transfer, especially for relay based IoT systems. In particular, we analyze simultaneous informationand-energy transfer from the source node, and the design of time-switching and power-splitting operation modes, as well as the associated optimization algorithms. We also investigate the potential of crowd energy harvesting from transmission nodes that belong to multiple radio networks. The combination of source and crowd energy harvesting can greatly reduce the use of battery power and increase the availability and reliability for relaying. We provide insight into the fundamental limits of crowd energy harvesting reliability based on a case study using real city data. Furthermore, we examine the optimization of transmissions in crowd harvesting, especially with the use of node collaboration while guaranteeing Quality-of-Service (QoS)

Model Of Difficulty Coal Seam Water Injection Based on Bayes Discriminant Analysis

Based on the basic idea of Bayes discriminant analysis method, the Bayes discriminant analysis model for the difficulty of coal seam water injection was established. This model selects seven indicators, namely burial depth, crack development degree, porosity, wetting edge angle, solidity coefficient, saturated water increment, and gas pressure, as discriminant factors. The difficulty of coal seam water injection is divided into three levels as three normal populations for Bayes discriminant analysis. Taking 23 groups of actual data of coal seam water injection project as training samples, Bayes discriminative model is established. Perform cross validation on 23 sets of measured data to obtain the accuracy of the model. Finally, Bayes discriminative model is applied to the actual coal seam water injection project. The research results show that the Bayes discriminant analysis model has a lower misjudgment rate and can be better applied in practical engineering

Political Connection and Environmental Protection Investment: A Study Based on Ownership Difference

Using data from listed firms in the pollution-intensive industries in China from 2009 to 2019 and taking into account ownership differences, our study examines the causal effect of political connections on environmental protection investment behavior. To deal with the potential endogeneity concern, we created a quasi-natural experiment based on an anti-corruption campaign in China that prohibited officials from holding business positions. Our results indicate that political connections increase environmental protection investment in state-owned firms, primarily when the politically connected director (is affiliated) participates in the firm’s daily operations. However, in non-state-owned firms, political connections hinder environmental protection investment, and, furthermore, investment decreases as the administration level of the politically connected directors increases. Additionally, we also found that local regulatory intensity strengthens the impact of political connections on environmental protection investment. While the study uses China’s firms as the sample, the findings may also apply to other emerging economies

The complete chloroplast genome of Justicia leptostachya (Acanthaceae)

Justicia leptostachya is an endemic species in China. The complete chloroplast genome sequence of J. leptostachya was generated by de novo assembly using whole genome next generation sequencing. The complete chloroplast genome was 150,898 bp in length, contained four parts: a large single copy (LSC) region of 82,585 bp, a small single copy (SSC) region of 17,477 bp and two inverted repeat (IRs) regions of 25,418 bp each. The genome annotation contained a total of 114 genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. The overall GC content was 38.5%. Phylogenetic analysis with the reported chloroplast genomes was also conducted

Факторний аналіз та оцінка підготовленості юних баскетболістів 13 років

The analysis general physical and tactical-technical preparation of young basketball-players of 13 age year of a comprehensive school, on the basis of which results was spent the factors analysis of the data. The researches of the factors influencing productivity and impellent abilities young basketball-players, were spent on the basis of the analysis covariation and correlation matrixes, and also on a method the main component with use of criterion Kaiser and Cattel. Are revealed the factors allowing to change the program of training of the teenagers.Проведен анализ общей физической и тактико-технической подготовленности юных баскетболистов 13-ти лет общеобразовательной школы, поданнымкоторого был сделан факторный анализ. Исследование факторов, влияющих на результативность и двигательные способности юных баскетболистов, были проведены на основе анализа ковариационной и корреляционной матриц, а также по методу главных компонент с использованием критерия Кайзера и Кэттеля. Выявлены факторы, позволяющие изменить программу тренировки подростков.Проведено аналіз загальної фізичної і тактико-технічної підготовленості юних баскетболістів 13 років загальноосвітньої школи, за даними якого було зроблено факторний аналіз. Дослідження факторів, що впливають на результативність та рухові якості юних баскетболістів, були проведені на основі аналізу коваріаційної та кореляційної матриці, а також за методом головних компонент з використанням критерію Кайзера і Кеттеля. Виявлені фактори, що дозволяють змінити програму тренувань підлітків