Using culturomics and social media data to characterize wildlife consumption

Wildlife provides food, medicine, clothing, and other necessities for humans, but overexploitation can disrupt the sustainability of wildlife resources and severely threaten global biodiversity. Understanding the characteristics of consumer behavior is helpful for wildlife managers and policy makers, but the traditional survey methods are laborious and time-consuming. In contrast, culturomics may more efficiently identify the features of wildlife consumption. As a case study of the culturomics approach, we examined tiger bone wine consumption in China based on social media and Baidu search engine data. Tiger bone wine is one of the most purchased tiger products; its consumption is closely related to tiger poaching, which greatly threatens wild tiger survival. We searched a popular social media website for the term “tiger bone wine” and focused on posts that were originally created from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2018. We filtered and classified posts related to the purchase, sale, or consumption of tiger bone wine and extracted information on providers, consumption motivations, year of production, and place of origin of the tiger bone wines based on the texts and photos of these posts. We found 756 posts related to tiger bone wine consumption, 113 of which mentioned providers of tiger bone wine, including friends (53%), elder relatives (37%), peer relatives (7%), and others (3%). Out of the 756 posts, 266 indicated the motivations of tiger bone wine consumption. Tiger bone wines were consumed as a tonic (34%), medicine (23%), game product (30%), and a symbol of wealth (28%). Some posts indicated ≥2 consumption motivations. These findings were consistent with the search queries from Baidu index. Such information could help develop targeted strategies for tiger conservation. The culturomics approach illustrated by our study is a rapid and cost-efficient way to characterize wildlife consumption.     

Auxinic herbicides induce oxidative stress on Cnesterodon decemmaculatus (Pisces: Poeciliidae)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Pesticides might increase the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Dicamba (DIC) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) are auxinic...     

湖北省农业地质灾害及防治对策

本文论述了湖北省农业地质灾害的类型、分布、危害,并提出了防治对策。     

可张孔曝气器曝气能耗试验研究

通过试验研究，总结出可张孔曝气阻力损失的影响因素，以优化产品的结构设计参数，降低产品在工程应用中的能耗，获取更好的经济效益。     

金属加工过程中应力状态的分析方法

分析简单地拉伸、压缩和扭转的情况时,应力状态能容易地被确定.但是,实际上在金属加工过程中材料是承受复杂的应力状态,在模具——工件接触面上增加有摩擦力.而且,这些应力和摩擦力一般地沿着接触面变化.准确的计算或预测载荷、力、应力和温度,不但对设计适宜的设备是重要的,而且对研究工艺期间材料的变化过程也是重要的.本文将讨论材料变形过程中所运用的主要分析方法及其优缺点.     

Diffusion pollution from livestock and poultry rearing in the Yangtze Delta,China

BACKGROUND: The Yangtze Delta is one of the most developed regions in China and includes Shanghai, eight cities in Jiangsu province and eight cities in Zhejiang province. Meat consumption in this region has increased with economic growth, and most of the consumed meat is produced locally. The water quality of surface waters has deteriorated in recent years. An example was the huge blue-green algae bloom in Tai Lake in late May 2007, which affected millions of people's daily drinking water. However, animal husbandry is considered to be one of the main pollution sources. METHODS: Pollutants (NH3-N, total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN)) excreted by livestock and poultry, and the resultant COD (chemical oxygen demand) and BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), were estimated using two different methods based on different data sets. RESULTS: The number of livestock and poultry has remained stable in the Yangtze Delta over the four years from 1999 to 2002, with the average number of pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry being 21.1 M, 0.4 M, 7.7 M and 597.6 M, respectively. Pollutants in livestock and poultry excreta estimated by Method I were: 0.12 Mt NH3-N, 0.11 Mt TP and 0.29 Mt TN, resulting in COD and BOD of 1.34 Mt and 1.30 Mt, respectively, while the estimations based on Method II were: 0.18 Mt NH3-N, 0.15 Mt TP and 0.40 Mt TN, resulting in COD and BOD of 1.95 Mt and 1.80 Mt, respectively. DISCUSSION: Pollutants excreted annually by livestock and poultry in the Yangtze Delta are estimated to be: 0.17 Mt NH3-N, 0.16 Mt TP and 0.42 Mt TN, giving rise to a COD of 1.86 Mt and a BOD of 1.72 Mt. Approximately 25% of this pollution was estimated to enter water bodies, which means that the annual pollutant load is 43,700 t NH3-N, 39,400 tTP, 104,600t TN with a COD of 465,000 tand a BOD of 430,100 t. Pollutants from animal husbandry were similar in magnitude to those from industrial wastewater. Pigs produced the most pollution, followed by poultry, cattle and sheep. The pollution load from animal husbandry in the Yangtze Delta is about twice the average level of the whole of China. CONCLUSIONS: Domestic wastewater was the main pollution source in the Yangtze Delta, followed by pollution from raising livestock and poultry and from industrial wastewater. The pollution load in Shanghai and Jiaxing were the greatest, followed by 7 cities of Jiangsu province (except Suzhou) and other cities of Zhejiang province and Suzhou. Pigs and poultry produced about 90% of the total pollutants from animal husbandry. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: The local governments, especially in Shanghai and Jiaxing, should focus their attention on the pollution produced by livestock and poulrry. Controlling pollution from pigs and poultry will have the greatest impact in this region. Control of pollution will be facilitated by the development of large-scale livestock and poultry farming units and a shift away from small scale husbandry.     

抑制斑点噪声的SAR与多光谱图像融合方法

通过将主成分变换与IHS变换相结合,避免了会导致SAR信息量损失的滤波过程,实现了一种可降低SAR斑点噪声影响的遥感影像融合算法。与主成分变换融合方法、IHS变换融合方法在主观视觉效果分析和客观统计参数两方面进行比较,新方法不仅很好地保留了多光谱影像的光谱信息,增强了结果影像的空间细节表现能力,而且有效地抑制了SAR斑点噪声,提高了结果影像的信息量与清晰度。     

Asparagus ploidy distribution related to climates adaptation in Iran

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Asparagus basic chromosome number is 2n?=?2x?=?20. The high rate of polyploidy in wild asparagus has been found in natural...     

Ca(OH)2解吸并固定混合吸收液中CO2的实验研究

CO₂化学吸收法分离纯度高,技术成熟,但能耗过高及成本是困扰该技术发展的瓶颈.在常压条件下对利用Ca（OH）₂直接矿物碳酸化固定MDEA/PZ混合吸收富液中CO₂进行了一系列实验研究,考察了吸收液负荷、Ca（OH）₂投加量、pH、温度及搅拌速率等因素对解吸率的影响,并利用动态吸收-解吸循环实验研究了其CO₂吸收性能和循环使用稳定性,最后对碳酸化反应产物进行了XRD、TEM分析.结果表明,在常压条件下,Ca（OH）₂可以通过液相直接矿物碳酸化对CO₂进行直接固定,并实现吸收富液的再生;随着负荷的升高及Ca（OH）₂投加量、pH、搅拌速率的增大,解吸率随之增加;随着溶液温度升高,解吸率下降;经过5次动态吸收-解吸循环实验后CO₂吸收量可以达到并保持在0.57 mol·L^-1,显示出了良好的循环稳定性.