Surface pollen assemblages of human-disturbed vegetation and their relationship with vegetation and climate in Northeast China

Pollen assemblages of 53 surface pollen samples from farmlands and wastelands in Northeast China were analyzed. Tree pollen percentages were usually higher than 30%, with Pinus (26.9%), Quercus (0.9%), Betula (0.9%) and Populus (0.7%) as the major types, and herb pollen percentages were usually higher than 50%, with weedy Poaceae (8.7%), Chenopodiaceae (7.1%), Artemisia (1.9%) and Compositae (3.5%) as the major taxa. Thus, the pollen assemblages were consistent with the regional vegetation compositions. However, there were differences in pollen assemblages among regions, especially among different geomorphological units. For example, in the mountains, there were more types of tree pollen and higher total percentages (average 42%) than in other areas, while cereal pollen percentages were lowest (11.2%). In the hills and high plains, herbs made up more than 60% of the pollens, with cereals (average 53.6%) the dominant type. In the low plains, pollen types were similar to those in the hills and high plains, but total pollen concentrations and the proportion of Concentricystes were much higher, while cereal pollen percentages were slightly lower (average 41.6%). Pollen assemblages in different land use types also differed. For example, in farmland, cereal pollen percentages were more than 40% and Chenopodiaceae was usually less than 2.5%, while in wasteland, weedy Poaceae was usually less than 10% and Chenopodiaceae was usually higher than 25%. Total pollen concentrations in farmland (average 3909 grains/g) were much lower than in wasteland (average 15074 grains/g). Redundancy analysis revealed that pollen assemblages were significantly negatively correlated with mean annual temperature (-0.73) and July mean temperature (-0.81) and significantly positively correlated with mean annual precipitation (0.48), indicating that pollen assemblages in the artificial or human-disturbed vegetation reflect regional climate well. Comparison of pollen assemblages in different areas of northern China showed that pollen concentrations reflect the intensities of human impact to some degree. For example, pollen concentrations decrease as human impacts increase in intensity. The cereal pollen proportions in farmland differed by area. In Northeast China, cereal pollen proportions were distinctly higher than in most other areas of northern China, suggesting differences in planting habits and climate.     

Statistical inference for simple tree order in the means of stochastic order on stratified contingency tables

In this paper, we consider testing the hypothesis that all multinomial populations in the stratified contingency table are identically distributed against the alternative that all these popula-tions are in simple tree order. We provide an asymptotic represen-tation of the order-restricted maximum likelihood estimate of the unknown parameters. The resulting estimators are proven to be n-consistent and asymptotically normal under appropriate con-ditions. A chi-squared test method is used for this hypothesis t...     

Process capability analysis and estimation scheme for autocorrelated data

<正>Autocorrelation is prevalent in continuous production processes,such as the processes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.With the development of measurement technology and data acquisition technology,sampling frequency is getting higher and the existence of autocorrelation cannot be ignored.This paper analyzes five estimation schemes of process capability for autocorrelated data.Comparisons among these schemes are discussed for small sample and large sample.In conclusion,this paper gives a procedure of process capability analysis for autocorrelated data.     

New design and analysis of finite difference domain decomposition algorithm for the two-dimensional heat equation

<正> It is presented in this paper that the new design and its analysis of finite difference domaindecomposition algorithms for the two-dimensional heat equation,and the numerical results have shownthe stability and accuracy of the algorithms,where Saul'yev asymmetric schemes have been used atthe interface points.The Algorithm Ⅱ in this paper has further extended those developed by Dawsonand the others,Zhang and Shen.     

And Yet It Moves: The Observability of the Rotation of the Earth

A central point of controversy in the time of the Copernican Revolution was the motion, or not, of the earth. We now take it for granted that Copernicus and Galileo were right; the earth really does move. But to what extent is this conclusion based on observation? This paper explores the meaning and observability of the rotation of the earth and shows that the phenomenon was not observable at the time of Galileo, and it is not observable now.     

Informational Branching Universe

This paper suggests an epistemic interpretation of Belnap’s branching space-times theory based on Everett’s relative state formulation of the measurement operation in quantum mechanics. The informational branching models of the universe are evolving structures defined from a partial ordering relation on the set of memory states of the impersonal observer. The totally ordered set of their information contents defines a linear “time” scale to which the decoherent alternative histories of the informational universe can be referred—which is quite necessary for assigning them a probability distribution. The “historical” state of a physical system is represented in an appropriate extended Hilbert space and an algebra of multi-branch operators is developed. An age operator computes the informational depth of historical states and its standard deviation can be used to provide a universal information/energy uncertainty relation. An information operator computes the encoding complexity of historical states, the rate of change of its average value accounting for the process of correlation destruction inherent to the branching dynamics. In the informational branching models of the universe, the asymmetry of phenomena in nature appears as a mere consequence of the subject’s activity of measuring, which defines the flow of time-information.     

A novel numerical method for infinite domain potential problems

The infinite domain potential problems arise in many branches of scientific and engineering fields, which by now still pose a great challenge to scientific computing community.This study proposes a novel meshless singular boundary method (SBM) to solve infinite domain potential problems.The SBM is mathematically simple, easy-to-program, meshless and integration-free.To guar-antee the uniqueness of numerical solutions, this article adds a constant term into the SBM approximate representation.The effi-ciency ...     

Sedimentation processes and sedimentary characteristics of tidal bores along the north bank of the Qiantang Estuary

A tidal bore is a unique Earth surface process, characterized by its highly destructive energy, predictable periodicities and magni-tudes, and the production of characteristic sedimentary features. Tidal bores and associated rapid flood flows are highly turbulent flows of the upper-flow regime with a velocity over several meters per second. Reynolds (Re) and Froude (Fr) numbers, respectively, are larger than 104 and 1.0, making them significantly different from regular tidal flows but analogous to turbidity currents. Until now, understanding of tidal-bore depositional processes and products has been limited because of the difficulty and hazards involved with gauging tidal bores directly. The Qiantang bore is known as the largest breaking bore in the world. Field surveys were carried out in May 2010, along the north bank of the Qiantang Estuary to observe the occurrence of peak bores, including regular observations of current, water level and turbidity at the main channel. Several short cores were sampled on the intertidal flats to study the characteristic sedimentary features of tidal bores. Hydrodynamic and sedimentological studies show that the processes of sediment resuspension, transport and deposition are controlled primarily by the tidal bores, and the subsequent abruptly accelerated and decelerated flood flows, which only account for one tenth of each semidiurnal tidal cycle in the estuary. Tidal-bore deposits are generally poorly sorted because of rapid sedimentation after highly mixed suspension by intense turbulence. This behavior is characteristic of the absence of tractive-current depositional components in a C-M diagram. It also goes along with well-developed massive bedding, graded bedding, basal erosion structures, convolute bedding and dewatering structures. Together, these sedimentary features can constitute fingerprinting of turbidites, widely distributed in the deep-water environment. However, a tidal bore is triggered by intensely deformed tidal waves propagating into a shallow-water environment, which returns to regular tidal flows rapidly after the passage of the bore head. The tidal-bore deposits are usually bounded by the intertidal-flat deposits with typical tidal beddings at the top and on both flanks. The difference between tidal-bore deposits (TBD) and tidal sandy/muddy deposits (TSD/TMD) is evident not only in sedimentary structures, but also in the grain-size composition. They can be clearly distinguished in grain-size bivariate plots, typically the plot of mean grain size vs. standard deviation (or sorting). Some trend variations generally exist in mean grain size with TBD>TSD>TMD, sorting with TMD>TBD>TSD (larger value indicating poorer sorting), and both skewness and kurtosis with TSD>TBD>TMD. These findings will undoubtedly shed new light on our understanding of tidal-bore sedimentology, ancient tidal-bore sedimentary facies and environments, and related oil-and-gas field prospecting.     

Stabilization of Euler-Bernoulli beam with a nonlinear locally distributed feedback control

This paper studies the stabilization problem of uniform Euler-Bernoulli beam with a nonlinear locally distributed feedback control. By virtue of nonlinear semigroup theory, energy-perturbed approach and polynomial multiplier skill, the authors show that, corresponding to the different values of the parameters involved in the nonlinear locally distributed feedback control, the energy of the beam under the proposed feedback decays exponentially or in negative power of time t as t → ∞.     

A bioinformatic evaluation of potential allergenicity of 85 candidate genes in transgenic organisms

The potential of genetically modified organisms(GMOs) to increase allergenicity or predispositions to allergies has attracted much attention.An approach that will properly and holistically evaluate the allergenicity of GMOs is yet to be found.Here,85 transgenes that have been reported in both international and domestic studies during recent years are summarized case by case;49 of the transformed genes were from plant sources and 36 were from animal sources.EVALLERTM,a web server for the in silico assessment of potential protein allergenicity,was used to evaluate the potential of the transgenic proteins as allergens.The biomedical journals listed in Highwire(http://highwire.stanford.edu/) were searched and reviewed to decipher whether any of the transformed genes were linked to allergenicity or human health.The EVALLER analysis identified 5 allergenic genes,whilst our literature review found 11 genes that were either related to allergic cases or to clinical adverse events;all 16 of these genes have been used in GMOs.The analysis pathway that we have developed can help guide the selection of genes to be used in genetic modification.The pathway also provides a paradigm for allergenicity analysis of transgene candidates.