Species composition, plant cover and diversity of recently reforested wild lands near Dabao Highway in Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region of Yunnan Province, China

Deforestation, over-cultivation and rural growth have severely damaged native vegetation of woodlands along roadsides in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region of Yunnan Province. This study wasconducted to evaluate the effect of different reforestation practices, which consisted of natural restoration or planting with tree seedlings that varied in species composition, coverage and diversity,on damaged roadside woodlands. Three randomly selected 10 m x 10 m plots in each reforestation practice were investigated. The results showed that the species composition, plant cover and speciesdiversity of the planted communities varied with reforestation strategies and time since planting. A higher number of species, proportion of native species and woody plants, canopy cover and speciesdiversity were found in naturally restored plots and in 3 - 4 year old plots that were planted with native plants. In the early stages of reforestation, herbs dominated the plant community in most plots, andwoody plants became more important with time after reforestation. Preliminary results suggest that plant height can be used an auxiliary indicator of plant cover to assess ecosystem function status ofthe restoration project. Also, evenness may be easier to restore than species richness. Natural restoration or reforestation with native dominant plants is a good management strategy for vegetationrestoration or improvement

Structure-property relationships in structural glass fibre reinforced composites from unsaturated polyester and inherently fire retardant phenolic resin matrix blends

The effects of matrices from co-cured blends of an unsaturated polyester (UP) with inherently fire-retardant and char-forming phenolic resoles (PH) on the mechanical and fire performances of resultant glass fibre-reinforced composites have been investigated. Three different phenolic resoles with increasing order of compatibility with UP have been used. These are: (i) an ethanol soluble resin, (PH-S), (ii) an epoxy-functionalized resin (PH-Ep), and (iii) an allyl-functionalized resin (PH-Al). The mechanical properties of the composites increased with increasing compatibility with two resin types as might be expected, but not previously demonstrated. However, even with the least compatible resin (PH-S), the impact properties were unaffected and the flexural/tensile properties while reduced, were still acceptable for certain applications. Fire properties were however, in reverse order as previously observed in cast resin samples from these composites. Moreover, the reduction in flammability was less compared to those of the cast resin samples, reported previously, explained here based on the insulating effect of glass fibre reinforcement

Multi-channel Transformers for Multi-articulatory Sign Language Translation

Sign languages use multiple asynchronous information channels (articulators), not just the hands but also the face and body, which computational approaches often ignore. In this paper we tackle the multi-articulatory sign language translation task and propose a novel multi-channel transformer architecture. The proposed architecture allows both the inter and intra contextual relationships between different sign articulators to be modelled within the transformer network itself, while also maintaining channel specific information. We evaluate our approach on the RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather-2014T dataset and report competitive translation performance. Importantly, we overcome the reliance on gloss annotations which underpin other state-of-the-art approaches, thereby removing future need for expensive curated datasets

Spatial contrast sensitivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls underwent a rigorous psychophysical assessment that measured contrast sensitivity to seven spatial frequencies (0.5-20 cycles/degree). A contrast sensitivity function (CSF) was then fitted for each participant, from which four measures were obtained: visual acuity, peak spatial frequency, peak contrast sensitivity, and contrast sensitivity at a low spatial frequency. There were no group differences on any of the four CSF measures, indicating no differential spatial frequency processing in ASD. Although it has been suggested that detail-oriented visual perception in individuals with ASD may be a result of differential sensitivities to low versus high spatial frequencies, the current study finds no evidence to support this hypothesis

Breast cancer, psychological distress and life events among young women

Since 1983, studies have suggested an interaction between the severe life events, psychological distress and the etiology of Cancer. However, these associations are still under dispute

Physical Stress, Not Biotic Interactions, Preclude an Invasive Grass from Establishing in Forb-Dominated Salt Marshes

Biological invasions have become the focus of considerable concern and ecological research, yet the relative importance of abiotic and biotic factors in controlling the invasibility of habitats to exotic species is not well understood. Spartina species are highly invasive plants in coastal wetlands; however, studies on the factors that control the success or failure of Spartina invasions across multiple habitat types are rare and inconclusive.We examined the roles of physical stress and plant interactions in mediating the establishment of the smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, in a variety of coastal habitats in northern China. Field transplant experiments showed that cordgrass can invade mudflats and low estuarine marshes with low salinity and frequent flooding, but cannot survive in salt marshes and high estuarine marshes with hypersaline soils and infrequent flooding. The dominant native plant Suaeda salsa had neither competitive nor facilitative effects on cordgrass. A common garden experiment revealed that cordgrass performed significantly better when flooded every other day than when flooded weekly. These results suggest that physical stress rather than plant interactions limits cordgrass invasions in northern China.We conclude that Spartina invasions are likely to be constrained to tidal flats and low estuarine marshes in the Yellow River Delta. Due to harsh physical conditions, salt marshes and high estuarine marshes are unlikely to be invaded. These findings have implications for understanding Spartina invasions in northern China and on other coasts with similar biotic and abiotic environments

Mercury Bioaccumulation and Prediction in Terrestrial Insects from Soil in Huludao City, Northeast China

Mercury accumulation was investigated by constructing and testing empirical equations based on mercury in soil (Cs) and in 10 terrestrial insects (Ci). Cs ranged from 0.13 to 41.01 mg/kg. Ci differed with species and the highest was found in dragonfly. Cs and Ci showed a good linear fit, and a simple equation was used in predicting Ci when insects were classified into one Insecta group (r = 0.3399, p = 0.0037). The taxonomy can affect validities of empirical equations, which fit field data well when insects were grouped by feeding habits, and when grouped by species, empirical equations were suitable only for certain insects

Small Polarons in Transition Metal Oxides

The formation of polarons is a pervasive phenomenon in transition metal oxide compounds, with a strong impact on the physical properties and functionalities of the hosting materials. In its original formulation the polaron problem considers a single charge carrier in a polar crystal interacting with its surrounding lattice. Depending on the spatial extension of the polaron quasiparticle, originating from the coupling between the excess charge and the phonon field, one speaks of small or large polarons. This chapter discusses the modeling of small polarons in real materials, with a particular focus on the archetypal polaron material TiO2. After an introductory part, surveying the fundamental theoretical and experimental aspects of the physics of polarons, the chapter examines how to model small polarons using first principles schemes in order to predict, understand and interpret a variety of polaron properties in bulk phases and surfaces. Following the spirit of this handbook, different types of computational procedures and prescriptions are presented with specific instructions on the setup required to model polaron effects.Comment: 36 pages, 12 figure

Using the cre-lox recombination system to assess functional impairment caused by amino acid substitutions in yeast proteins

A method was developed to assess the functional significance of a sequence motif in yeast Upf3p, a protein required for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). The motif lies at the edge of the Upf3p-Upf2p interaction domain, but at the same time resembles the canonical leucine-rich nuclear export sequence (NES) found in proteins that bind Crm1p exportin. To test the function of the putative NES, site-directed mutations that cause substitutions of conserved NES-A residues were first selected to identify hypermorphic alleles. Next, a portable Crm1p-binding NES from HIV-1 Rev protein that functions in yeast was fused en masse to the C-terminus of variant Upf3 proteins using loxP sites recognized by bacterial cre-recombinase. Finally, variant Upf3-Rev proteins that were functional in NMD were selected and examined for the types of amino acid substitutions present in NES-A. The mutational analysis revealed that amino acid substitutions in the Upf3 NES impair both nuclear export and the Upf2p-Upf3p interaction, both of which are required for Upf3p to function in NMD. The method described in this report could be modified for the genetic analysis of a variety of portable protein domains

Health Newscasts for Increasing Influenza Vaccination Coverage: An Inductive Reasoning Game Approach

Both pandemic and seasonal influenza are receiving more attention from mass media than ever before. Topics such as epidemic severity and vaccination are changing the way in which we perceive the utility of disease prevention. Voluntary influenza vaccination has been recently modeled using inductive reasoning games. It has thus been found that severe epidemics may occur because individuals do not vaccinate and, instead, attempt to benefit from the immunity of their peers. Such epidemics could be prevented by voluntary vaccination if incentives were offered. However, a key assumption has been that individuals make vaccination decisions based on whether there was an epidemic each influenza season; no other epidemiological information is available to them. In this work, we relax this assumption and investigate the consequences of making more informed vaccination decisions while no incentives are offered. We obtain three major results. First, individuals will not cooperate enough to constantly prevent influenza epidemics through voluntary vaccination no matter how much they learned about influenza epidemiology. Second, broadcasting epidemiological information richer than whether an epidemic occurred may stabilize the vaccination coverage and suppress severe influenza epidemics. Third, the stable vaccination coverage follows the trend of the perceived benefit of vaccination. However, increasing the amount of epidemiological information released to the public may either increase or decrease the perceived benefit of vaccination. We discuss three scenarios where individuals know, in addition to whether there was an epidemic, (i) the incidence, (ii) the vaccination coverage and (iii) both the incidence and the vaccination coverage, every influenza season. We show that broadcasting both the incidence and the vaccination coverage could yield either better or worse vaccination coverage than broadcasting each piece of information on its own