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.     

Pitfalls in molecular diagnosis in a family with severe factor VII (FVII) deficiency—misdiagnosis by direct sequence analysis using a PCR product

Molecular diagnostic tests are becoming a routine analysis in many laboratories. These modern analyses are widely used in clinical medicine, forensic, genetic and prenatal diagnosis and also in preimplantation genetic diagnosis. The accuracy of analysis is highly dependent on the success achieved in minimising genotyping errors. The pitfalls in molecular diagnostic tests can be due to a simple technique such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) used universally. This technique is routinely used for its apparent accuracy, but it is also a well-known source of errors. We report an error introduced during PCR reaction that leads to a wrong sequence result and consequently to a ‘false’ molecular result in a next prenatal diagnosis in a family with severe factor VII (FVII) deficiency. This error was verified using an unsuitable primer design in a rich repetitive sequence of the FVII gene that leads to a false annealing and then to a wrong molecular diagnosis. It is essential to link closely molecular data with clinical and phenotype analysis in order to avoid false-negative or false-positive results, which is of great importance to diagnosis and molecular prevention. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

全球液化石油气运输网络贸易社区特征及其演化分析

液化石油气在全球清洁能源消耗市场中扮演着极为重要的角色,其通过船舶在不同港口之间进行运输,而港口之间通过局部密集的运输关系,形成了联系极为紧密的贸易社区。采用复杂网络社区探测方法,基于2013—2017年全球液化石油气船舶轨迹大数据构建运输网络,并对其贸易社区特征及其演化趋势开展分析。结果表明：（1）液化石油气（Liquefied Petroleum Gas,LPG）贸易社区内的港口之间的联系更加紧密,不同社区内的枢纽港口联系也日益紧密;（2）各个贸易社区的规模呈现出增长趋势,且同一社区内的港口在地理空间上变得更为集聚;（3）亚太地区、中东、西北欧和地中海地区形成的社区在全球LPG贸易中一直保持着重要地位,而随着时间推移,美洲社区已逐渐从一个相对孤立的社区发展成为与其他社区存在紧密联系的社区。     

基于网络数据的乡村旅游热点识别及成因分析——以江苏省为例

基于旅游网站数据,提出一种乡村旅游热点识别方法,以江苏省为例,运用趋势面、核密度、热点分析等方法探寻乡村旅游冷热格局及演变特征,并借助地理探测器揭示其时空演化的影响因素。结果表明：（1）江苏省乡村旅游热度的时间演化规律明显,年际变化呈“S”型演变轨迹;季节变化呈“三峰四谷”特征。（2）江苏省乡村旅游热度的空间结构在2009—2017年间经历了“单核—双核—三核”的演化过程,但其空间异质性依然显著,整体表现为“南高北低,东高西低”的差异特征。（3）影响因素在不同时段的影响强度各异,交通条件、服务能力一直是主导因素,经济水平对乡村旅游发展早期的热度提升有显著影响,资源禀赋的显著性趋于下降,生态环境和政府导向的影响力逐渐增强。基于网络数据的乡村旅游热点识别为乡村旅游定量研究提供了新的研究视角,对乡村旅游资源开发与区域合作具有重要的指导意义。     

A Variance Estimator for Constrained Estimates of Change in Relative Categorical Frequencies

Consistent estimators of change and state becomes an issue when sample data come from a mix of permanent and temporary observation units. A joint maximum likelihood estimator of state and change creates estimates of state that depend on antecedent viz. posterior survey results and may differ from estimates of state derived from a single-date analysis of the sample data. A constrained estimator of change in relative categorical frequencies that eliminates this potential inconsistency is proposed and a model based estimator of their sampling variance is developed. The performance of the constrained estimator is quantified against six criteria and a joint maximum likelihood estimator in simulated sampling from 15 populations with three combinations of permanent and temporary samples, four to six categorical class attributes, and constant size between sampling dates. Bias of the constrained estimators was negligible but larger than for joint maximum likelihood estimators. Mean absolute deviations and variances of constrained estimators were generally at par with the joint estimators. Constrained estimators of root mean square errors and achieved coverage of nominal confidence intervals of constrained estimators were occasionally better. A generalized variance function for the constrained estimates of change is provided as a computational shortcut.     

用EXCEL进行精密度-偏性分析质控数据处理

利用EXCEL强大的数据处理功能，可以方便地对精密度—偏性分析质控数据进行处理，具有较高的推广价值。     

对大气采样误差的理论研究

环境监测数据是环境保护工作的基础,监测仪器设备的精良及监测方法的科学性则是获得优质数据的保障工具.本文运用数学方法对目前广泛使用的采样仪器进行了采样误差的分析研究,指出了改善仪器和改善监测方法去获取更精确数据的途径.     

环境科学研究中两变量非线性相关时的线性回归方程

以环境科学研究两变量非线性相关的问题为对象，讨论建立线性回归方程的方法。有绝对误差均方和最小的最小二乘法、相对误差最小的新回归法。以简易的方法，建立相关性好、误差小的回归方程。介绍了两变量各种非线性相关时的线性回归方程在环境科学研究中的应用。     

地球化学数据去噪方法研究

在简要介绍移动平均、傅立叶交换和小波变换基本原理的基础上，比较了它们在地球化学数据处理过程中去除噪声效果的优劣，并应用于塔北雅克松-轮台地区的地球化学勘探实际。研究结果表明，小波变换是一种理想的数据处理方法。     

浅议提高废水污染源监测数据代表性

对废水污染源监测中影响监测数据代表性的主要因素进行了分析,并对提高废水污染源监测数据代表性提出了可行性建议。