Protecting Heritage Trees in Weifang City, Shandong Province, Northern China

Heritage trees are long-lived trees or notable trees with great historical significance, scientific value, or commemorative importance. Many heritage trees have been preserved in Weifang City, Shandong Province, Northern China. In this paper, the origin, species diversity, age structure, health, surrounding habitats, distribution, genera floristic composition, and challenges of protecting the heritage trees were investigated using literature analysis, field survey, and interview. There are 864 heritage trees in the city, composed of 49 species, 41 genera, and 25 families. The heritage trees are divided into three original types: religious trees, naturally dispersed and preserved wild trees, and trees with agricultural backgrounds or used as offerings. Particularly, Sophora japonica, Ziziphus jujube, Ginkgo biloba, Sabina chinensis, Platycladus orientalis, and Osmanthus fragrans are the six most common species. There are 208 individuals of 500 years or elder, 293 individuals of 300–499 years old, 359 individuals of 100–299 years old, and 4 individuals of notable trees. Most of them are distributed in low-urbanized areas of the 4 county-level cities and Linqu county, and few are distributed in high-urbanized areas of the 4 districts of Weifang City. There are 14, 12, and 6 genera belonging to the areal-types of Temperate, Cosmopolitan, and Tropic, respectively, similar to that of wild seed plants in Yishan Mountain. There are some challenges in protecting heritage trees, such as urbanization, habitat deterioration, natural disasters, anthropic activities, health decline, and inadequate management. Some protection measures that have been taken previously are summarized, and some measures that should be taken in the future are proposed

"Small Sacrifice for the Greater Good": Decoding Just Transition in a Chinese Peripheral Region

The notion of just transition is important and debated in discussions about climate change and low‐carbon shifts. This study aims to refocus on just transition from a spatial perspective. We investigate perceptions in Chun'an, Zhejiang, to redefine just transition beyond Western ideas. Our case offers one key yet under‐explored dimension in the interpretation of justice: spatial scale. First, the green transition of Chun'an can be regarded both as a sacrifice of economy from a local perspective (Chun'an county) and as a valuable social contribution from a broader regional perspective (Hangzhou city area). Second, the multi‐scalar interaction of the transition process shapes the perceptions of justice. It is represented by the growing local tensions between developmentalism and environmentalism. Such a process is aimed at generating a wider scale of well‐being, contributing to a process of/for justice. We argue just transition is about a spatially sensitive process towards (rather than of) justice. In China, realizing transition is the way towards justice, and justice itself is transition in the long run

Phylogenetic, Expression, and Bioinformatic Analysis of the ABC1

We studied 17 ABC1 genes in Populus trichocarpa, all of which contained an ABC1 domain consisting of about 120 amino acid residues. Most of the ABC1 gene products were located in the mitochondria or chloroplasts. All had a conserved VAVK-like motif and a DFG motif. Phylogenetic analysis grouped the genes into three subgroups. In addition, the chromosomal locations of the genes on the 19 Populus chromosomes were determined. Gene structure was studied through exon/intron organization and the MEME motif finder, while heatmap was used to study the expression diversity using EST libraries. According to the heatmap, PtrABC1P14 was highlighted because of the high expression in tension wood which related to secondary cell wall formation and cellulose synthesis, thus making a contribution to follow-up experiment in wood formation. Promoter cis-element analysis indicated that almost all of the ABC1 genes contained one or two cis-elements related to ABA signal transduction pathway and drought stress. Quantitative real-time PCR was carried out to evaluate the expression of all of the genes under abiotic stress conditions (ABA, CdCl2, high temperature, high salinity, and drought); the results showed that some of the genes were affected by these stresses and confirmed the results of promoter cis-element analysis

Development of a Computerized Adaptive Testing for Internet Addiction

Internet addiction disorder has become one of the most popular forms of addiction in psychological and behavioral areas, and measuring it is growing increasingly important in practice. This study aimed to develop a computerized adaptive testing to measure and assess internet addiction (CAT-IA) efficiently. Four standardized scales were used to build the original item bank. A total of 59 polytomously scored items were finally chosen after excluding 42 items for failing the psychometric evaluation. For the final 59-item bank of CAT-IA, two simulation studies were conducted to investigate the psychometric properties, efficiency, reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of CAT-IA under different stopping rules. The results showed that (1) the final 59 items met IRT assumptions, had high discrimination, showed good item-model fit, and were without DIF; and (2) the CAT-IA not only had high measurement accuracy in psychometric properties but also sufficient efficiency, reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity. The impact and limitations of CAT-IA were discussed, and several suggestions for future research were provided