Mitigation of Multiple Environmental Footprints for China’s Pig Production Using Different Land Use Strategies

Pig production contributes considerably to land use and greenhouse gas (GHG) and reactive nitrogen (Nr) emissions. Land use strategies were widely proposed, but the spillover effects on biological flow are rarely explored. Here, we simultaneously assessed the carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and cropland footprints of China's pig production at the provincial scale in 2017. The environmental impacts of land use strategies were further evaluated. Results show that one kg live-weight pig production generated an average of 1.9 kg CO2-equiv and 59 g Nr emissions, occupying 3.5 m2 cropland, with large regional variations. A large reduction in GHG (58-64%) and Nr (12-14%) losses and occupied cropland (10-11%) could be achieved simultaneously if combined strategies of intensive crop production, improved feed-protein utilization efficiency, and feeding co-products were implemented. However, adopting a single strategy may have environmental side-effects. Reallocating cropland that pigs used for feed to plant food alternatives would enhance human-edible energy (3-20 times) and protein delivery (1-5 times) and reduce C and N footprints, except for rice and vegetables. Reallocating cropland to beef and milk production would decrease energy and protein supply. Therefore, a proper combination of land use strategies is essential to alleviate land use changes and nutrient emissions without sacrificing food supply

第944回千葉医学会例会・第1外科教室談話会

(A) IL-10, (B) IL-6, (C) TGF-β, and (D) IgA secreted by spleen cells in the MLTC assay. The supernatant of MLTC was collected on day 3 and analyzed by ELISA. Student’s t-test was used to analyze the significance between groups. The experiments were replicated at least twice with similar results. (TIF 1023 kb

Progress on improving Agricultural Nitrogen use efficiency: UK-China viortual joint centers on Nitrogen Agronomy

Two virtual joint centers for nitrogen agronomy were established between the UK and China to facilitate collaborative research aimed at improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production systems and reducing losses of reactive N to the environment. Major focus areas were improving fertilizer NUE, use of livestock manures, soil health, and policy development and knowledge exchange. Improvements to fertilizer NUE included attention to application rate in the context of yield potential and economic considerations and the potential of improved practices including enhanced efficiency fertilizers, plastic film mulching and cropping design. Improved utilization of livestock manures requires knowledge of the available nutrient content, appropriate manure processing technologies and integrated nutrient management practices. Soil carbon, acidification and biodiversity were considered as important aspects of soil health. Both centers identified a range of potential actions that could be taken to improve N management, and the research conducted has highlighted the importance of developing a systemslevel approach to assessing improvement in the overall efficiency of N management and avoiding unintended secondary effects from individual interventions. Within this context, the management of fertilizer emissions and livestock manure at the farm and regional scales appear to be particularly important targets for mitigation

Geometric Positioning for Satellite Imagery without Ground Control Points by Exploiting Repeated Observation

With the development of space technology and the performance of remote sensors, high-resolution satellites are continuously launched by countries around the world. Due to high efficiency, large coverage and not being limited by the spatial regulation, satellite imagery becomes one of the important means to acquire geospatial information. This paper explores geometric processing using satellite imagery without ground control points (GCPs). The outcome of spatial triangulation is introduced for geo-positioning as repeated observation. Results from combining block adjustment with non-oriented new images indicate the feasibility of geometric positioning with the repeated observation. GCPs are a must when high accuracy is demanded in conventional block adjustment; the accuracy of direct georeferencing with repeated observation without GCPs is superior to conventional forward intersection and even approximate to conventional block adjustment with GCPs. The conclusion is drawn that taking the existing oriented imagery as repeated observation enhances the effective utilization of previous spatial triangulation achievement, which makes the breakthrough for repeated observation to improve accuracy by increasing the base-height ratio and redundant observation. Georeferencing tests using data from multiple sensors and platforms with the repeated observation will be carried out in the follow-up research

A Combined Physical and Mathematical Calibration Method for Low-Cost Cameras in the Air and Underwater Environment

Low-cost camera calibration is vital in air and underwater photogrammetric applications. However, various lens distortions and the underwater environment influence are difficult to be covered by a universal distortion compensation model, and the residual distortions may still remain after conventional calibration. In this paper, we propose a combined physical and mathematical camera calibration method for low-cost cameras, which can adapt to both in-air and underwater environments. The commonly used physical distortion models are integrated to describe the image distortions. The combination is a high-order polynomial, which can be considered as basis functions to successively approximate the image deformation from the point of view of mathematical approximation. The calibration process is repeated until certain criteria are met and the distortions are reduced to a minimum. At the end, several sets of distortion parameters and stable camera interior orientation (IO) parameters act as the final camera calibration results. The Canon and GoPro in-air calibration experiments show that GoPro owns distortions seven times larger than Canon. Most Canon distortions have been described with the Australis model, while most decentering distortions for GoPro still exist. Using the proposed method, all the Canon and GoPro distortions are decreased to close to 0 after four calibrations. Meanwhile, the stable camera IO parameters are obtained. The GoPro Hero 5 Black underwater calibration indicates that four sets of distortion parameters and stable camera IO parameters are obtained after four calibrations. The camera calibration results show a difference between the underwater environment and air owing to the refractive and asymmetric environment effects. In summary, the proposed method improves the accuracy compared with the conventional method, which could be a flexible way to calibrate low-cost cameras for high accurate in-air and underwater measurement and 3D modeling applications

Geometric Positioning for Satellite Imagery without Ground Control Points by Exploiting Repeated Observation

With the development of space technology and the performance of remote sensors, high-resolution satellites are continuously launched by countries around the world. Due to high efficiency, large coverage and not being limited by the spatial regulation, satellite imagery becomes one of the important means to acquire geospatial information. This paper explores geometric processing using satellite imagery without ground control points (GCPs). The outcome of spatial triangulation is introduced for geo-positioning as repeated observation. Results from combining block adjustment with non-oriented new images indicate the feasibility of geometric positioning with the repeated observation. GCPs are a must when high accuracy is demanded in conventional block adjustment; the accuracy of direct georeferencing with repeated observation without GCPs is superior to conventional forward intersection and even approximate to conventional block adjustment with GCPs. The conclusion is drawn that taking the existing oriented imagery as repeated observation enhances the effective utilization of previous spatial triangulation achievement, which makes the breakthrough for repeated observation to improve accuracy by increasing the base-height ratio and redundant observation. Georeferencing tests using data from multiple sensors and platforms with the repeated observation will be carried out in the follow-up research

An Automatic Shadow Detection Method for VHR Remote Sensing Orthoimagery

The application potential of very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing imagery has been boosted by recent developments in the data acquisition and processing ability of aerial photogrammetry. However, shadows in images contribute to problems such as incomplete spectral information, lower intensity brightness, and fuzzy boundaries, which seriously affect the efficiency of the image interpretation. In this paper, to address these issues, a simple and automatic method of shadow detection is presented. The proposed method combines the advantages of the property-based and geometric-based methods to automatically detect the shadowed areas in VHR imagery. A geometric model of the scene and the solar position are used to delineate the shadowed and non-shadowed areas in the VHR image. A matting method is then applied to the image to refine the shadow mask. Different types of shadowed aerial orthoimages were used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed shadow detection method, and the results were compared with the results obtained by two state-of-the-art methods. The overall accuracy of the proposed method on the three tests was around 90%, confirming the effectiveness and robustness of the new method for detecting fine shadows, without any human input. The proposed method also performs better in detecting shadows in areas with water than the other two methods

Altered local activity and functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex in elderly individuals with subthreshold depression

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is recognized as a key structure in the pathogenesis of depression. This study aimed to investigate the resting-state regional activity and functional connectivity of the ACC in a community sample of elderly individuals with subthreshold depression (StD). We employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to acquire data from 19 elderly subjects with StD and 18 normal controls. We used a regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analysis and a correlation-based functional connectivity (FC) approach to explore changes in local activity and remote connectivity of the ACC in StD. Compared to controls, the StD group demonstrated increased ALFF in the anterior portion of the dorsal ACC (adACC). The adACC also displayed increased PC with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area and decreased PC with several subcortical regions. The FC levels of the adACC displayed a trending correlation with self-reported depressive symptoms. This study is the first to reveal the ACC changes in resting-state activity and connectivity in the elderly with StD, suggesting that altered ALFF/FC of the adACC is an important feature of StD. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved