The Case Study on Soil Fauna Diversity in Different Ecological System in Shilin NationalPark, Yunnan, China

Predhodno sta bili preučevani razporeditev in raznovrstnost talne favne v vrsti degradiranih ekosistemov v narodnem parku Shilin. Ti ekosistemi vključujejo pet tipov rastlinskega pokrova: 1. naravno grmišče, 2. umetno nasajen cipresov gozd, 3. naravni travnik, 4. drugotni travnik, 5. golo rdečo prst. Na vsakem izmed njih je bila talna favna nabrana s kvadrata velikosti 1 krat 1 m. Živali so bile nabrane ročno ali pa izločene s pomočjo segrevanja. V talni favni so prevladovale acarina, collembola, nematoda, coleoptera in opistopora. Toda razmeroma pogoste so bile tudi skupine enchytraeidae, araneida, lepidoptera in diptera. Indeks raznovrstnosti H je manjši od 1,5 in se močno znižuje vzporedno z degradacijo rastlinstva. V kraških prsteh so med najpogostejšimi parholaspidae. Biomasa trhypochthoniidae in ologamasidae je najbolj zgoščena v naravnem grmišču in kaže veliko občutljivost teh skupin na degradacijo rastlinstva. Razmerje biomase acarina v primerjavi s collembola je v razponu 0.7 do 1.5, kar je veliko odstopanje od podatkov za naravne prsti podobnih geografskih širin, znanih iz literature. Majhna biomasa talne favne in manjša raznovrstnost kažeta, da se habitati v preučevanih prsteh slabšajo in se torej slabša tudi zdravje celega ekosistema. Izsledki tudi kažejo na ranljivost talne favne v prsteh z vidika sonaravnega razvoja parka Shilin.A preliminary study of the distribution and diversity of soil fauna in a sequence of ecosystem degradation in the Shilin National Park, Yunnan, China has been made. The degraded ecologic system includes 5 types of vegetation cover: (1) natural bush; (2) human planted cypress forest; (3)natural grass; (4)secondary grass and (5) bared red earth. A quadrate of 1m×1m in each eco-tessera was sampled for soil fauna collection. The animals were obtained either by picking up or by heat-removing. The soil fauna were dominated by Acarina, Collembola, Nematode, Coleoptera,and Opistopora in these soils. However, Erchytraeidae, Araneida, Lepidoptera and Diptera were also common groups. The diversity index H turned to be less than 1.5, drastically decreasing with the vegetation degradation trend. In the karst soils, Parholaspidae was one of the most populous among the mites. The biomass of Trhypochthoniidae and Ologamasidae was very concentrated in the natural bush ecosystem, showing high sensitivity of mites to vegetation degradation. The biomass ratio of Acarina to Collembola in the studied soils ranged from 0.70 to 1.50, which was in great discrepancy to the results reported of the natural soils at similar latitude. The small soil fauna biomass and less diversity indicated that the studied soil was in a state of deterioration of soil fauna habitats and, in turn, the soil ecosystem health. The results also evidenced that the soil fauna in the karst soil was definitely vulnerable as regarded to the sustainable development of the Shilin Park

Extinction by plasmonic nanoparticles in dispersive and dissipative media

Extinction of small metallic spheres has been well understood through the classical Mie theory when the host medium is dispersive and transparent. However, the role of host dissipation on the particulate extinction remains a competition between the enhancing and reducing effects on the localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR). Here, using a generalized Mie theory, we elaborate on the specific influence mechanisms of host dissipation on the extinction efficiency factors of a plasmonic nanosphere. To this end, we isolate the dissipative effects by comparing the dispersive and dissipative host with its transparent counterpart. As a result, we identify the damping effects of host dissipation on the LSPR including the resonance widening and amplitude reducing. The resonance positions are shifted by host dissipation, which cannot be predicted by the classical Fr\"ohlich condition. Finally, we demonstrate that a wide-band extinction enhancement due to host dissipation can be realized away from the positions of LSPR.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Temporal correlation analysis between malaria and meteorological factors in Motuo County, Tibet

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria has been endemic in Linzhi Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) over the past 20 years, especially in Motou County with a highest incidence in the country in recent years. Meteorological factors, such as rainfall, temperature and relative humidity in Motou County were unique compared to other areas in Tibet as well as other parts of China, thus the objective of this work was to analyse the temporal correlation between malaria incidence and meteorological factors in Motou County, in order to seek the particular interventions for malaria control.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The meteorological and malaria data during 1986-2009 in Motuo County were studied to analyse the statistical relationship between meteorological data time series and malaria incidence data series. Temporal correlation between malaria incidence and meteorological factors were analyzed using several statistical methods. Spearman correlation analysis was conducted to examine the association between monthly malaria incidence and meteorological variables. Cross-correlation analysis of monthly malaria incidence series and monthly meteorological data time series revealed the time lag(s) of meteorological factors preceding malaria at which the series showed strongest correlation. Multiplicative seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models were used in the cross-correlation analysis with pre-whitening which remove seasonality and auto-correlation of meteorological data series. Differenced data analysis which called inter-annual analysis was carried out to find underlying relationship between malaria data series and meteorological data series.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It has been revealed that meteorological variables, such as temperature, relative humidity and rainfall were the important environmental factors in the transmission of malaria. Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated relative humidity was greatest relative to malaria incidence and the correlation coefficient was 0.543(<it>P </it>< 0.01). Strong positive correlations were found for malaria incidence time series lagging one to three months behind rainfall (<it>r </it>> 0.4) and lagging zero to two months behind temperature and relative humidity (<it>r </it>> 0.5) by the cross-correlation. Correlations were weaker with pre-whitening than without. The cross-correlograms between malaria incidence and various meteorological variables were entirely different. It was fluctuated randomly for temperature but with trend for the other two factors, which showed positive correlated to malaria when lag was from 0 to 5 months and negative from 6 to 12 months. Besides, the inter-annual analysis showed strong correlation between differenced annual malaria incidence and differenced meteorological variables (annual average maximum temperature, annual average relative humidity and annual average rainfall). The correlations coefficients were -0.668 (<it>P </it>< 0.01), 0.451(<it>P </it>< 0.05) and 0.432(<it>P </it>< 0.05), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Meteorological variables play important environmental roles in malaria transmission in Motou County. Relative humidity was the greatest influence factors, which affected the mosquito survival directly. The relationship between malaria incidence and rainfall was complex and it was not directly and linearly. The lags of temperature and relative humidity were similar and smaller than that of rainfall. Since the lags of meteorological variables affecting malaria transmission were short, it was difficult to do accurate long-term malaria incidence prediction using meteorological variables.</p

Energy-balanced multi-hop-aware cooperative geographic routing for wireless ad hoc networks

Since the cooperative communication can reduce the transmitted power and extend the transmission coverage, minimum energy routing protocols are considered to reduce the total energy consumption in a multi-hop wireless Ad Hoc network. In this paper, an Energy-balanced Multi-hop-aware Cooperative Geographic Routing (EMCGR) algorithm is proposed. We firstly formulate the outage probability and construct the minimum power route in Multi-hop-aware Cooperative Transmission (MCT) mode. The MCT mode can fully exploit the merit of the relay broadcasting characteristics to achieve the aim of saving the total transmitted power. Then an improved Energy-Balanced Geographic Routing (EBGR) algorithm is designed. The EBGR algorithm selects the next hop forwarding node by combining the geographic position information and energy information. The goal of this strategy is to balance the energy consumption among nodes so that the lifetime of the whole network can be prolonged. The route of the proposed EMCGR algorithm is based on EBGR algorithm. Simulation results show that in the same computer simulation scene, the power saving of the EMCGR algorithm with respect to the MPCR algorithm and EBGR algorithm can achieve 15.2% and 67.1%, respectively. Besides, the EMCGR algorithm does well in balancing the energy consumption among nodes in the wireless Ad Hoc network

Research on Uplift Bearing Performance of Assembled Steel Pipe Pile used in Transmission Lines in Mountainous Terrain

Assembled steel pipe pile, which is a novel pile foundation, is developed in the paper. The ultimate uplift bearing capacity of the pile is proposed, and simulation by Plaxis3D and the corresponding experiment are performed to verify the theory. In the simulation, ultimate uplift bearing capacity of the assembled steel pipe pile and ultimate lateral frictional resistance of the interface of pile-soil increases with the increasing of the strength and stiffness of the interface of pile-soil, and with the increasing of length-diameter ratio, ultimate uplift bearing capacity of the assembled steel pipe pile increases while the ultimate lateral frictional resistance decreases gradually. The ultimate lateral friction is influenced by both of the strength of the soil around the pile and the interface of pile-soil, and the ultimate uplift bearing capacity obtained by simulation and theoretical calculation are close. Long-gauge FBG sensors are used in the experiment for measuring the longitudinal strain of the pile, and the error of ultimate uplift bearing capacity between the results of experiment and theory is less than 10%

An injectable scaffold based on crosslinked hyaluronic acid gel for tissue regeneration

An injectable scaffold of crosslinked hyaluronic acid gel for tissue regeneration.</p