Search

With the rapid development of the economy, the impact of light pollution on human life has become increasingly serious. For a long time, people have only paid attention to the positive effects of light, while ignoring the harmful consequences of light pollution. In order to evaluate the degree of light pollution in the region, this research paper has presented the multilevel evaluation model of light pollution (MELP) model. First, the MELP model selected 14 generally applicable indicators, and these indicators are easy to obtain. Second, the MELP model considered the correlation between indicators and utilizes analytic hierarchy process-entropy weight method (AHP-EWM) to determine the weight of indicators. Third, the normal cumulative distribution-Monte Carlo method was used to simulate regional light pollution data. Finally, based on the TOPSIS scoring results, the severity of light pollution was categorized into three levels: slight pollution (I–III), moderate pollution (IV–VI), and severe pollution (VII–IX). A study case is Chengdu City, Southwest China. According to the results of the MELP model, the light pollution level of Chengdu is VIII, which belongs to severe pollution. This study aimed to investigate and reduce the impact of light pollution on humans and the environment, and it can also provide a reference for similar studies around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early work on China's Two-Child Policy identified cost as a major disincentive to having a second child, but financial constraints may work in tandem with cultural factors to shape childbearing desire. In addition, most research has excluded men from the sample. This paper develops Yan's (2003) concepts of 'new' and 'traditional' fertility cultures to childbearing desire, a key component of fertility decision-making that is poorly understood (Hayford & Agadjanian, 2017). In particular, we focus on how differing conceptions of children's needs relate to perceptions of cost. This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with 29 men and women in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. We found that interviewees who espoused views consistent with a traditional fertility framework were more interested in having a second child, and were less concerned about cost. In addition, men were more likely to espouse views consistent with a traditional fertility cultural framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of ride-hailing platforms has significantly improved travel efficiency by providing convenient and personalized transportation services. Designing an effective ride-hailing service generally needs to address two tasks: order matching that assigns orders to available vehicles and proactive vehicle repositioning that deploys idle vehicles to potentially high-demand regions. Recent studies have intensively utilized deep reinforcement learning to solve the two tasks by learning an optimal dispatching strategy. However, most of them generate actions for the two tasks independently, neglecting the interactions between the two tasks and the communications among multiple drivers. To this end, this paper provides an approach based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning where the two tasks are modeled as a unified Markov decision process, and the colossal state space and competition among drivers are addressed. Additionally, a modifiable agent-specific state representation is proposed to facilitate knowledge transferring and improve computing efficiency. We evaluate our approach on a public taxi order dataset collected in Chengdu, China, where a variable number of simulated vehicles are tested. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms seven existing baselines, reducing passenger rejection rate, driver idle time and improving total driver income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of China Tourism Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is widely acknowledged that e-shopping has considerable effects on e-shoppers' travel behavior. Therefore, it is valuable to investigate the built environment effects on online shopping, which can help clarify whether land use policy is effective to manage online shopping and further moderate travel demand. However, this issue has not been fully investigated in prior research. In particular, some existing studies fail to identify a significant link between the built environment and online shopping. One of the possible reasons is that the indirect effects of the built environment on e-shopping through e-shopping attitudes are rarely considered. Against this backdrop, considering the mediating role of e-shopping attitudes, this paper aims to explore the influence of the built environment on the frequency of e-shopping for clothes and shoes, food and drinks, cosmetics, and electronics. Data used in this study are acquired from 675 face-to-face interviews with online buyers in Chengdu, China, and the Structural Equation Modeling method is employed. The outcomes show that higher residential density has a positive impact on online shopping frequency. Higher accessibility to metro stations has an indirect and negative influence on e-shopping frequency through pro-e-shopping attitudes. In contrast, mediated by e-shopping attitudes, higher accessibility to bus stations has an indirect and positive impact on online shopping frequency. The mediating role of attitudes provides a possible explanation for the influences of transportation accessibility on e-shopping frequency. Land use policies seem influential in online shopping attitudes and frequency, and thus moderate e-shoppers' travel demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study comprehensively analyzed air pollution in Chengdu (CD), a megacity in southwest China, evaluated the Variation Characteristics of air quality during 2015–2018, and conducted Random Forest classification of air pollution data of 2017. The classification results showed three pollution periods: severe (December, January and February), ozone (May‒August), and slight (March and November). These features were combined with potential source contribution function (PSCF), concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) and backward trajectory model (HYSPLIT) for simulating spatio-temporal trajectory of air polluted during each pollution periods. The results show that PM2.5 mainly comes from CD and surrounding cities, and some may be from India, Myanmar and Chongqing; PM10 mainly comes from CD and surrounding cities and some may be from India and Myanmar; NO2 mainly comes from CD and surrounding cities and cities and Some of the pollution may come from the input of India, Myanmar, Chongqing and Inner Mongolia; O3 mainly comes from the urban agglomeration of Sichuan Basin and some areas from Chongqing, Sichuan Liangshan and Yunnan Guizhou. Combined with the meteorological data of temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, aerosol optical depth, planetary boundary layer height and thermal anomaly data, the Monthly, daily and hourly spatio-temporal characteristics and the possible occurred cause of the main air pollution during each pollution period in CD were revealed detail. The research in this paper is critical for pollution control and prevention and provides a scientific basis for studying the spatio-temporal characteristics and sources of pollution in megacities in terrain such as basins and mountains. Implications: Air pollution has a significant impact on human and ecological health. In 2013, Chengdu was one of the five cities with the most serious PM2.5 pollution in the world. In the previous study of air pollution in Chengdu, it was only for a short period of pollution. It is impossible to fully understand the spatio-temporal trajectory and cause of air pollution. Chengdu is surrounded by mountains, and the meteorological conditions have been stagnant for a long time. The research on the spatio-temporal evolution of the main air pollution trajectories in each pollution period in Chengdu is particularly important. Quantifying the pollution trajectory and air pollution concentration is helpful to fully understand the air quality in Chengdu. The comprehensive analysis of multi-source data such as air pollution and meteorology has focused on strengthening the in-depth research on the transmission law of air pollution, the spatio-temporal change trend of air pollution, the sources of air pollution and the causes of air pollution, so as to help people fully understand the sources and causes of pollution in Chengdu. Aiming at the trajectory law, causes and occurrence time of air pollution, it is conducive for the government to formulate corresponding policies, carry out regional emission reduction and joint prevention and control, improve air quality and minimize the harm of air pollution to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission inspection of motor vehicles (emission inspection) is a crucial player in solving the problem of motor vehicle exhaust pollution, and research on the features affecting emission inspection results and their importance is a basis for optimizing the environmental management of motor vehicles. However, there is no study on the multi-feature impact analysis of the emission inspection results. This hinders the emission inspection from playing a better guiding role in the policy formulation of motor vehicle management. In this paper, the ensemble learning algorithm and interpretable machine learning theory are used. Nineteen feature indicators and over 400,000 vehicle mass analysis system (VMAS) detection data in Chengdu were selected from the emission inspection database to construct prediction models for emission inspection results. Moreover, the factors affecting emission inspection results and their ranks by importance were also obtained. The results revealed that the environment has a strong influence on the outcomes from emission inspections (accounting for about one-third of the total effect). Besides, the following eight feature indicators displayed great effects on emission inspection results in sequence: emission inspection agency (18.38%), world manufacturer code (15.01%), vehicle usage days (9.60%), transmission type (9.41%), accumulated mileage (9.21%), emission standard (5.82%), temperature (5.54%), and driving mode (5.50%). In this study, prediction models for emission inspection results are established, and the results are interpreted based on the interpretable machine learning theory. It is considered that more attention should be paid to the effect of inspection differences among emission inspection agencies on fairness, as well as the effects of differences in world manufacturer and transmission type on vehicle deterioration in future research. The supervision of emission inspection agencies, training of inspectors, elimination of obsolete vehicles, and government-guided purchase should be strengthened. This study provides empirical support for optimizing the formulation of motor vehicle environmental management policies. Implications: Emission inspection of motor vehicles (emission inspection) is a crucial player in solving the problem of motor vehicle exhaust pollution. In this work, prediction models for emission of motor vehicles inspection results are established. The results revealed that following eight feature indicators displayed great effects on emission inspection results in sequence: emission inspection agency (18.38%), world manufacturer code (15.01%), vehicle usage days (9.60%), transmission type (9.41%), accumulated mileage (9.21%), emission standard (5.82%), temperature (5.54%), and driving mode (5.50%). It is considered that more attention should be paid to the effect of inspection differences among emission inspection agencies on fairness, as well as the effects of differences in world manufacturer and transmission type on vehicle deterioration in future research. The supervision of emission inspection agencies, training of inspectors, elimination of obsolete vehicles, and government-guided purchase should be strengthened. This study provides empirical support for optimizing the formulation of motor vehicle environmental management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water justice can be a delicate balancing act. Conservation regulations ensure urban areas' water demands are met, but these may conflict with the water rights of local people living in catchment areas. No metropolis wants to face water shortages, yet prioritising municipalities' rights over those of local people can result in water injustice. This paper explores water rights and water justice, defining both to show how the latter is achieved by balancing the former. It examines Chengdu's water catchment area using field observation, interviews, and document analysis and investigates the causes of water conflict through the lens of local culture. The study then outlines a water justice framework involving domestic habits and lifestyle, production of water, and management principles with the aim of providing parity of rights that highlight local cultural factors. The justice criteria outlined here could also be used in other places where power structures disregard local people's water rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of government supervision on the development of FFBS by analyzing massive travel information data. Our identification strategy exploits a natural experiment focusing on Mobike in Chengdu. We find that supervision does not necessarily suppress the development of FFBS. It also allows FFBS to increase its focus on alleviating the pressure of public transport and reducing the consumption of public resources. Moreover, we identify that the impact of government supervision on weekends is considerably more significant than on weekdays given that government supervision has a significant suppression effect on the FFBS travel behavior of scattered parking, leisure, and long distance. In contrast, the effect of government supervision on the FFBS travel behavior of commuting and schooling is not significant. We finally present implications for government and operators of FFBS, especially in developing countries, on the sustainable development of FFBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban waterlogging probability assessment is critical to emergency response and policymaking. Remote Sensing (RS) is a rich and reliable data source for waterlogging monitoring and evaluation through water body extraction derived from the pre- and post-disaster RS images. However, RS images are usually limited to the revisit cycle and cloud cover. To solve this issue, social media data have been considered as another data source which are immune to the weather such as clouds and can reflect the real-time public response for disaster, which leads itself a compensation for RS images. In this paper, we propose a coarse-to-fine waterlogging probability assessment framework based on multisource data including real-time social media data, near real-time RS image and historical geographic information, in which a coarse waterlogging probability map is refined by using the real-time information extracted from social media data to acquire a more accurate waterlogging probability. Firstly, to generate a coarse waterlogging probability map, the historical inundated areas are derived from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and historical waterlogging points, then the geographic features are extracted from DEM and RS image, which will be input to a Random Forest (RF) classifier to estimate the likelihood of hazards. Secondly, the real-time waterlogging-related information is extracted from social media data, where the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model is applied to exploit the semantic information of sentences by capturing the local and position-invariant features using convolution kernel. Finally, fine waterlogging probability map scan be generated based on morphological method, in which real-time waterlogging-related social media data are taken as isolated highlight point and used to refine the coarse waterlogging probability map by a gray dilation pattern considering the distance-decay effect. The 2016 Wuhan waterlogging and 2018 Chengdu waterlogging are taken as case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. It can be concluded from the results that by integrating RS image and social media data, more accurate waterlogging probability maps can be generated, which can be further applied for inundated areas identification and disaster monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of gravity and potential models combined with GIS spatial analysis method, this paper analyses the change characteristics of the urban innovation spatial correlation effect in China and its driving factors. The main conclusions are as follows: first, the density of urban innovation spatial correlation in China has increased from 1990 to 2014. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu are the most important node cities in China's urban innovation spatial correlation network. Second, in 1990, seven innovation correlation zones formed around Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Xi'an. Among them, Beijing has the largest innovation correlation radiation intensity. In 2014, the innovation correlation intensities of Guangzhou and Shanghai have exceeded that of Beijing. Relying on good scientific research resources and military infrastructure, the innovation correlation intensities of Chengdu, Xi'an and Wuhan is also increase gradually under the guidance of innovation-driven and military-civilian integration strategies. The innovation correlation intensity of Shenyang shows a certain degree of decline because of the rigid mechanism and other reasons. Third, the geographical adjacency and similarity in marketization degree, economic development level, and human capital significantly positively affect the urban innovation spatial correlation and spillover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we look at differences in travel behavior and location characteristics across income in Chengdu, China at two points of time, 2005 and 2016, using household travel surveys. Specifically, we compare changes over time for different income groups for Chengdu in 2005 and 2016. We find that walking or biking remains the most common mode for all income groups but higher-income households appear to have more choices depending on the proximity of their neighborhood to downtown. We also find that both average local and average regional access have worsened since 2005. Furthermore, it appears that there is less economic diversity within neighborhoods in 2016 when compared to 2005, with more locations appearing to have 40% or more of low-, middle-, or high-income households than in the past. Finally, we find that low-income households and older trip makers are more likely to walk or bike and that high-income households are the most likely to own cars and use motorized modes. Built environment characteristics like mixed land use appear to significantly reduce travel time in 2016 but do not result in higher non-motorized transport mode share. We contribute to existing literature by evaluating changes in the relationship of built environment and travel behavior during a period of rapid urbanization and economic growth in a Chinese city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of neoliberalisation is increasingly applied to China to explain its unprecedented urban transformation. This paper argues against fitting China into a prototype neoliberal model. Instead it proposes a fresh interpretation of its urban planning particularities within a continuity-contestation framework, embodied in the context, governance and practice of planning. Chengdu, the gateway in West China, is chosen as a case study to illustrate this framework. Analysing the successive city Master Plans of Chengdu, it was found that there was a strong path dependency in Chengdu's plan-making process. Yet contestations from the planning context and planning practice pressured for planning transformation. Interestingly, inconsistencies within its Master Plans sometimes worked in line with the market and mediated the conflicts between plan-led and market-led development logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilane roads in vector data are comprised of parallel line features that represent the same road. The extraction of these features is crucial for updating maps and cartographic generalization. This article addresses previous object-level extraction limitations by introducing a mesh-based method that employs a GCNN model to classify them based on geometric features and proximity relationship. A bidirectional region growing clustering method (BRGC) is designed to cluster the identified multilane road meshes belonging to the same road into groups considering their spatial relationships. The object-level multilane roads are extracted based on the clustering results. Validation using road data from OpenStreetMap in Chengdu and Zhengzhou achieved a classification f1-score >90% for multilane road mesh. Moreover, the object-level multilane detection precision and recall were 88.05% and 92.72% on the Chengdu dataset, and 86.99% and 91.37% on the Zhengzhou dataset, which demonstrates the proposed method effectively extracts multilane roads at the object level, aligning with real-world scenarios and human cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the metropolitan city in Western China, Chengdu has been suffered from serious traffic congestion. The strategy of urban public transport priority was put into agenda to relieve traffic congestion. But the public transport sharing rate is only 27% in Chengdu which is much lower than the developed country. Consequently, it is of great importance to study the measures to improve the service, and provide technical support to the policy-makers. This paper selected the traffic corridor between Southwest Jiaotong University district and downtown as the experiment subject. The orthogonal design was used to generate stated preference questionnaires in order to achieve the reliable parameter estimates. Some variables were used to define the utility of the three alternatives and construct the Logit model. Then, the relationships between the cost, time variable and the choice probability of the public transport were analyzed. According to the results, we found that the orthogonal design does improve the goodness-of-fit. The workability of Multinomial Logit Model was better than Nest Logit model. We also put forward some effective measures to improve the service level of public transit, including reducing the access time to Metro, limiting parking supply to control the car use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a large-scale epidemic, a local healthcare system can be overwhelmed by a large number of infected and non-infected patients. To serve the infected and non-infected patients well with limited medical resources, effective emergency medical service planning should be conducted before the epidemic. In this study, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model, which integrally deploys various types of emergency healthcare facilities before an epidemic and serves infected and non-infected patients dynamically at the deployed healthcare facilities during the epidemic. With the service equity of infected patients and various practical requirements of emergency medical services being explicitly considered, our model minimizes a weighted sum of the expected operation cost and the equity cost. We develop two comparison models and conduct a case study on Chengdu, a Chinese city influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic, to show the effectiveness and benefits of our proposed model. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to generate managerial insights and suggestions. Our study not only extends the existing emergency supply planning models but also can facilitate better practices of emergency medical service planning for large-scale epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although natural features like mountains and rivers are widely recognised as key factors in developing ancient Chinese urban strategies, their active role in orderly-planned cities on vast plains has rarely been thoroughly examined. Further insight into this topic is critical to comprehending the formation of Chinese mountain-water-city imagery and its physical manifestation. Chengdu, an ancient plain-dwelling city encircled by mountains and rivers from afar, is an ideal example of this inquiry. This article explores the two-millennium history of how the city responded to its natural surroundings and incorporated the landscape imagery into the architectural and urban forms, which includes the alignment of the city's orientation with distant and neighbouring mountains, the construction of waterway networks to emulate surrounding rivers, and the strategic placement of tower-pavilion architecture to integrate with the nature. Revealing the diversity and complexity of Chengdu's urban-landscape experiences can enrich the intellectual framework of the Chinese mountain-water-city ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The high prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in non-dialysis individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) impacts their prognosis and quality of life. Objective: This study aims to investigate the variables associated with MCI in non-dialysis outpatient patients with CKD and to construct and verify a nomogram prediction model. Methods: 416 participants selected from two hospitals in Chengdu, between January 2023 and June 2023. They were categorized into two groups: the MCI group (n=210) and the non-MCI (n=206). Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were employed to identify independent influences (candidate predictor variables). Subsequently, regression models was constructed, and a nomogram was drawn. The restricted cubic spline diagram was drawn to further analyze the relationship between the continuous numerical variables and MCI. Internally validated using a bootstrap resampling procedure. Results: Among 416 patients, 210 (50.9%) had MCI. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age, educational level, occupational status, use of smartphones, sleep disorder, and hemoglobin were independent influencing factors of MCI (all p<.05). The model’s area under the curve was 0.926,95% CI (0.902, 0.951), which was a good discriminatory measure; the Calibration curve, the Hosmer– Lemeshow test, and the Clinical Decision Curve suggested that the model had good calibration and clinical benefit. Internal validation results showed the consistency index was 0.926, 95%CI (0.925, 0.927). Conclusion: The nomogram prediction model demonstrates good performance and can be used for early screening and prediction of MCI in non-dialysis patients with CKD. It provides valuable reference for medical staff to formulate corresponding intervention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there are many new academic researches about the tenant system, including many productive debates. Some debates are about experiential studies on various districts; other debates are about the application and interpretation on different materials. This paper intends to (1) analyze the tenant protection policy of the national government and how tenant disputes were settled in Chengdu Plain region; (2) observe, from the aspects of both policy and implementation, how the national government manipulated tenant-landlord relationship; and (3) explore the relationship among tenants, landlords, and nation. The article concludes that while it was traditionally regarded as siding with the landlord class, the GMD actually made significant effort to mediate the landlord-tenant relationship in order to guarantee and improve tax revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, arguments for transforming cities' traditional saihui (賽會, 'religious processions') into modern expositions frequently appeared in newspapers, and in 1906, the inland city of Chengdu took the lead in putting this into practice. Unlike expositions in other cities, which were either held at factories or in parks, or put on exhibitions at newly constructed venues, the Chengdu Industrial Exposition was reborn from the Qingyang Palace (青羊宫 Qingyang gong) Flower Fair, which had a long-standing history. Officials began holding industrial expositions at the former site of the Qingyang Palace Flower Fair during the period of the New Policy of the late Qing Dynasty, to revitalize industry and commerce and furthermore in the hopes of achieving the objectives of transforming folk customs and improving society. During the Republican period, the Sichuanese government was controlled by warlords, and the industrial exposition was suspended and reinstated several times, but due to the inertia of folk tradition, the flower fairs were consistently held as they had been before. As a space for temporary public exhibitions in the early modern era, the Qingyang Palace Industrial Exposition not only became a field for the exhibition of and chess games between different wills to power due to the concentration of the city's principal capital forces and agents of power, but furthermore became a focal point for social relationships due to attracting social commentary and a high degree of attention from the media through widespread participation by merchants. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic, in the course of officials holding industrial expositions at and promoting the spatial improvement of Qingyang Palace and Erxian Temple, the pulsation of early modern trends of thought, treachery in local politics, the deep roots of traditional customs, and multilateral chess games between social forces surged, engraving the difficult process of the modern metamorphosis, reshaping and growth of a traditional inland city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visibility is a good indicator of air quality because it reflects the combined influences of atmospheric pollutants and synoptic processes. Trends in visibility and relationships with various factors in Chengdu and Chongqing, two megacities in southwest China, were analyzed using daily data from National Climatic Data Center and the Air Pollution Index (API) of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China. Average annual visibility during the period of 1973–2010 was 8.1 ± 3.9 in Chengdu and 6.2 ± 4.3 km in Chongqing. PM10dominates the reported primary pollutants in both cities, although concentrations have decreased from a high of 127.9 and 150 µg m3before 2005 to 100.4 and 93.5 µg m−3in Chengdu and Chongqing, respectively. Low average visibility and extremely high levels of PM10 were observed in winter, whereas relative humidity had irregular and weak seasonal variations. Visibility in both cities has deteriorated in comparison to the 1960s and 1970s, mostly due to the elevation of optical depth caused by anthropogenic pollution. Correlations and principal component analysis (PCA) were undertaken to determine the key factors affecting visibility. Visibility was only moderately correlated with PM10. In Chengdu, visibility displayed weak correlations with various factors, whereas visibility in Chongqing was most strongly related to relative humidity due to the atmospheric particulates in the region containing more hygroscopic components. PCA results further confirmed that high relative humidity and low wind speed increased the occurrence of low visibility events under high PM10concentrations. Temperature and pressure, as indicators of weather systems, also played important roles in affecting visibility. Mathematical models of visibility prediction indicated that wind speed had the largest coefficients among all meteorological factors, and reductions in PM10concentration only led to minor improvements in visibility. Supplemental Materials: Supplemental materials are available for this paper. Go to the publisher's online edition of theJournal of the Air & Waste Management Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the production and transformation of homosexual identities in Chengdu under the background of Chinese society in transition. From a constructionist perspective, I complicate the identity construction process by examining the interaction of three male homosexual identities found in the local context - piao piao, tongzhi, and gay. While gay men in present-day Chengdu often use piao piao, tongzhi, and gay interchangeably, these terms entail different cultural references and political connotations. I argue that the piao piao identity serves as a critical linkage between the traditional imagination of male homosexuality and the modern gay identities, while the tongzhi identity facilitates the shift of Chinese homosexuality from behavior to identity, and contributes to the development of gay communities in present-day China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism has been widely recognized as a powerful tool for economic growth in rural communities around the world. The growth of rural tourism has always been a significant start in targeting poverty alleviation and promoting economic change in rural China. Rural tourism development is the participation of rural people in tourism and full integration into tourism development. Rural tourism development depends on the participation and support of rural residents. Therefore, this research explores the influencing factors of rural tourism residents' happiness and their influence on tourism support. The sample was selected from Anren Town, Chengdu City, China, and the research subjects were residents of Anren Town. In this study, data were collected from 370 residents of Anren Town via a questionnaire survey. The results show that Community Involvement (CI) and Community Attachment (CA) positively affect residents' Authentic Happiness (AH). This research found that improving residents' support for tourism development can promote the development of rural tourism. The study finding provides a new perspective for the treatment of residents' problems in tourism development and has guiding significance for the improvement of residents' happiness index in tourism destinations. If the community is better, the happiness of the residents will be stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in non-dialysis individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) impacts their prognosis and quality of life. This study aims to investigate the variables associated with MCI in non-dialysis outpatient patients with CKD and to construct and verify a nomogram prediction model. 416 participants selected from two hospitals in Chengdu, between January 2023 and June 2023. They were categorized into two groups: the MCI group (n = 210) and the non-MCI (n = 206). Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were employed to identify independent influences (candidate predictor variables). Subsequently, regression models was constructed, and a nomogram was drawn. The restricted cubic spline diagram was drawn to further analyze the relationship between the continuous numerical variables and MCI. Internally validated using a bootstrap resampling procedure. Among 416 patients, 210 (50.9%) had MCI. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age, educational level, occupational status, use of smartphones, sleep disorder, and hemoglobin were independent influencing factors of MCI (all p<.05). The model's area under the curve was 0.926,95% CI (0.902, 0.951), which was a good discriminatory measure; the Calibration curve, the Hosmer–Lemeshow test, and the Clinical Decision Curve suggested that the model had good calibration and clinical benefit. Internal validation results showed the consistency index was 0.926, 95%CI (0.925, 0.927). The nomogram prediction model demonstrates good performance and can be used for early screening and prediction of MCI in non-dialysis patients with CKD. It provides valuable reference for medical staff to formulate corresponding intervention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, a large number of universities had to close their campuses. To maintain teaching and learning during this disruption to the traditional teaching, most universities have adopted online teaching model. The current study aimed at investigating the efficacy of various online teaching modes as well as comparing a proposed combined model of online and flipped learning to other online and traditional models. The Learning under COVID-19questionnaire was designed and administered to undergraduate engineering students at Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT). The questionnaire included five parts: demographic questions, frequencies of online courses, types of online courses, the communication and Q&A in online classes and the effect of online classes, as well as the effect of combined model learning. The results of the study showed that, students were dissatisfied with online learning in general, and they were especially dissatisfied with the communication and Q&A modes. In addition, the combined model of online teaching with the flipped learning improved students' learning, attention, and evaluation of courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport data are important for understanding human mobility and urban interactions within a city. As China's transportation infrastructure continues to grow, more research is needed to analyse the spatial patterns of travel flows and to understand how these patterns change over time. With the development of online car-hailing and ride sharing services, floating car data have become a new resource to facilitate the analysis of human mobility patterns and the interactions of urban mobility within a city. The detection of urban communities based on urban networks is a helpful way to represent urban interactions. However, understanding community changes using online car-hailing data remains an underexplored topic. To this end, this study applies a community detection method to explore community changes over time based on the newly available floating car data (DiDi Chuxing ('DiDi')) in Chengdu, China. We applied undirected graphs to examine the spatial distribution of DiDi usage and the spatial patterns of travel distance. In addition, we explored the spatial-temporal variations of the communities at the taxi zone level using Blondel's iterative algorithm, a modularity optimization approach. Results suggest that: 1) taxi zones on the south and west sides of Chengdu have more average daily trips compared to those in other areas; 2) residential taxi zones in the northeast area have a long median travel distance, indicating people living in those areas travel longer distances; and 3) the detected community structures change at different times. These findings provide valuable information for urban planning and location-based services in Chengdu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how capital/industrial relocation interacts with work regime dynamics through a case study of geographical relocation of four electronics multinationals from China's coastal regions to its interior. Based on fieldwork conducted in Chongqing and Chengdu between 2012 and 2017, I find that a migrant labor regime in coastal regions has shifted to a local-labor based development strategy in western regions when capital moves inland. This shift, I argue, has increased labor agency and given rise to capital's labor control problems and work regime dynamics that are unique to the relocation process and western China. Specifically, rather than a race-to-the-bottom in labor conditions, three distinct work regimes have emerged in the new sites of production, depending on firms' positions in the global production networks (GPNs) and workers' responses/agency embedded in the GPNs and local labor institutions. They are: (1) advanced quality production and negotiated commitment between workers and management; (2) lean-and-dual and fragmented worker discontent; and (3) flexible Taylorism and high-level worker resistance. The evidence highlights the important role of local state in building location-sensitive labor institutions and workers' constrained, varied agency in influencing work regime dynamics, which challenge many assumptions of the race-to-the-bottom argument associated with capital relocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has become a mainstream data collection platform in precision agriculture. For more accessible UAV--visible imagery, the high spatial resolution brings the rich geometric texture features triggered large differences in same crop image's features. We proposed an encoder--decoder's fully convolutional neural network combined with a visible band difference vegetation index (VDVI) to perform deep semantic segmentation of crop image features. This model ensures the accuracy and the generalization ability, while reducing parameters and the operation cost. A case study of crop classification was conducted in Chengdu, China, where classified four crops, namely, maize, rice, balsam pear, and Loropetalum chinese, it was shown more effective results. In addition, this study explores a fine crop classification method based on visible light features, which is feasible with low equipment cost, and has a prospect of application in crop survey based on UAV low altitude remote sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on statistical data from 2005 to 2019, we used the back propagation (BP) neural network model to predict the production amount of plastic waste in Chengdu. In addition to the amount of waste produced we wanted to achieve an understanding of its composition and environmental impacts. Compositions of plastic waste were analyzed by sampling. Particulate matter in the air and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from plastic waste incineration, bisphenol A (BPA) from plastic waste landfills, were also evaluated. Results indicated that (a) economic development, urban construction level, and residents' consumption were pusitively correlated to different degrees to plastic waste production; (b) the production of plastic waste in Chengdu in 2025 and 2030 will reach 865.3 and 931 kilotons (Kt), respectively; (c) high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) are the two main components of plastic waste in Chengdu and accounted for 40.17% and 24.96%, respectively; (d) different degrees of environmental impacts occurred during plastic waste incineration and landfill (taking 2019 as an example, the incineration of plastic waste in Chengdu produced between 2874.82 and 4711.73 tons of inhalable particulate matter (PM) and emitted between 725.4 and 867.4 Kt of CO2, and between 65.02 and 910.27 kg of bisphenol A (BPA) leached from sanitary landfills); (e) positive policies and measures from the beginning to the end-of-life of plastics should be carried out in the future, which would improve the level of plastic waste management in Chengdu and mitigate the side-impacts from plastic waste treatment and disposal. Implications: The implications of this article are Generation trends of plastic waste were revealed by a BP neural network model, which provided essential data for authorities to make decisions on waste management. Influencing factors affecting plastic waste generation were analyzed, which will strongly support policy considerations regarding plastic waste control. This investigation first explored and reported the compositions of plastic waste mixed with municipal solid waste (MSW), which yielded valuable information concerning plastic waste and details concerning the impacts of plastic waste disposal processes. Those results of this investigation, being published here for the first time, will guide plastic waste management in Chengdu and could also provide useful information to other cities regarding that issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining traffic micro-simulation models and emission models is a primary method to estimate traffic emissions. However, there has been limited research on the impact of traffic micro-simulation model parameters on simulator outputs, which are critical to emissions calculations. Based on combining VISSIM and MOVES, this study uses the Morris and Sobol methods to explore the impact of parameters in VISSIM on operating mode distribution and travel time distribution. Taking an urban signal control intersection with three traffic scenarios in Chengdu, China as an example, this study verifies the methods' feasibility. Apart from these parameters, which have been proved to be necessary calibration parameters, including the desired speed distribution, the desired acceleration function, and the desired deceleration function, an additional 24 parameters related to simulation setting and driving behaviour models are selected as the initial parameters. The number of interaction objects, maximum look-ahead distance, average standstill distance, additive part of safety distance, and safety distance reduction factor close to a stop line, are considered to be the important parameters for this case study. The impact of these five parameters on the bins of operating mode distribution and travel time distribution are further analyzed with One-at-a-time, and these parameters are compared with those reported in previous studies. It is concluded that the important parameters selected in this study are reasonable and can support the calibration of VISSIM parameters for this case's traffic emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact and transmission mechanism of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the economic growth of city clusters. Via theoretical analysis, a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and mediating effect model are applied based on panel data of the three major city clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 1997 to 2018. The results reveal the following: (1) FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters in the YREB, but the degrees of impacts on the three city clusters are different; (2) the spatial effects of FDI inflows differ across city clusters; the effects are negative in city clusters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, and positive in the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster; (3) urbanization and industrial structure upgrading are two important mechanisms by which FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters. However, there are differences among the three major city clusters; the intermediary effect of urbanization is more significant in city clusters of Chengdu-Chongqing and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, while the intermediary effect of industrial structure upgrading is more significant in the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing city clusters. Policy implications are proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, it has become obvious that simultaneous backfill grouting is of great significance to the design of the tunnel lining and process control of shield construction. It is essential to know the grout pressure distribution around the tunnel lining. The purpose of this study is to seek an alternative method to simulate the grout diffusion process and obtain pressure distribution of different time during simultaneous backfill grouting of tunnel construction. A lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based free surface flow model is introduced and modified, and a Smagorinsky large-eddy simulation model serves to deal with the small-scale turbulent problem, which is a challenge for LBM to simulate the large-scale real-world engineering. The simulation results obtain the grout filling state with time and pressure distribution around the tunnel lining. Additionally, the grout pressures on site are measured at a ring in line 8 of Chengdu Rail tunnel, and the measurement results are also compared with ones taken from numerical simulation, it is showed that the numerical results are consistent with that of measurement on the whole. Through simulating different grouting strategies, it is concluded that for four-holes grouting schemes, the grouting pressures of upper holes are significant for the grout pressure distribution and should be paid most attention in construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the symposium related to the 2011 workshop that was held at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu, China. It offers information on the ethical leadership across nation. It presents information on the confucianism with liberal democracy.

Tourism is a common social behaviour, and is classified differently according to its purpose or destination. Plant-viewing tourism (PVT) and its impact on destinations has been studied; however, research on flower-viewing tourism (FVT) is still deficient. This study investigates the impact of FVT on the perceptions and attitudes of residents in Chengdu city. A questionnaire survey was conducted involving 305 residents. A total of 17 items representing three main dimensions (environmental, economic, and socio-cultural) of explanatory factors were considered after exploratory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationship between these dimensions and the attitudes of residents. Results show that residents' positive attitudes towards FVT were associated with the positive response of economic and environmental impacts, but no significant correlation was found between socio-cultural impacts and attitudes. Results are discussed and analyzed in-depth, and three conclusions and policy recommendations of this study are proposed. These results can provide suggestions for future development in cities, formulation of tourism policies, and promotion of sustainable tourism development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young women account for almost half the rural-to-urban migrant work force among youth aged 16 to 20 in mainland China. But training of the work force remains insufficient and gender-insensitive. There is a rising demand for young women migrant workers to enhance life skills in accordance with vocational skills. Taking a pioneer vocational training program in Chengdu as an example, this single case study aimed to explore female participants' experiences and perceptions of the program, as well as to identify key empowerment factors. Data were gathered from five in-depth interviews with service providers, a focus group interview with seven service users, and participant observation. Findings show that life skills education creates an environment conducive to experiential learning and reflective learning, promotes participants' understanding of selfhood, and raises their awareness to effect change. This research argues that life skills education should be incorporated so as to empower young women migrant workers at intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral levels, and to promote their whole-person development. Implications of future services and research are discussed. This study necessitates models of policy and program planning that would enhance young women migrant workers' life skills and thereby help them negotiate the rural-urban transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a theory on the role of journalists as contentious actors or third-party advocates in society and focuses on incidents involving the media in China. The argument is that newspaper journalists and media have the power to incite collective action when grievances disrupt everyday life, have specific targets, and are framed as moral rights to gain external support. The three incidents are: an open letter concerning employee compensation and leaks onto the Internet by "China Youth Daily" reporters; a walk out by staff at "Xin Jing Bao (Beijing News)" after the dismissal of their editor-in-chief for criticizing authority; and a boycott on press coverage for the movie "Wu Ji (The Promise)" in Chengdu.

To analyze the anthropogenic activities on water-environment conditions, sampling campaigns and isotope measurement for precipitation, river water and groundwater were conducted in Jinjiang River System, Chengdu, China for one year. The results show that runoff is the main factor affecting the isotopic composition in natural-state rivers, while in rivers affected by human activities, the isotopic composition varies greatly due to the influence of impermeable surface and municipal pipe networks on water evaporation and mixing. The warm-and-humid moisture source and "heat island" effect lead to high slope and intercept of local meteoric water line (LMWL), and the characteristics of surface water line (SWL) are closely related to land types. Isotope changes along the flow path indicate significant evaporation effect in wet season, while the operation of municipal pipe networks partially conceals the evaporation effect in dry season. The intensity of river evaporation is positively correlated with the urbanization level along the river. Isotope mixing model shows that precipitation and river water are the recharge sources of groundwater in rain and dry seasons, respectively, and the mixing ratios between Jiangan River and Fuhe River shows significant seasonal variation. The combination of isotopic analysis and pollutant data reveals that the seasonal water contribution is the main factor influencing the water quality. Risks for water safety and environmental health in Chengdu and cities along lower Minjiang River were assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the "15th China Drying Conference" held on October 22-24, 2015 in Chengdu, China which was organised by the Council of Drying Division, Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Sichuan Wangchang Drying Equipment Co. Ltd. Several topics discussed at the conference including drying fundamentals and drying technologies. It also mentions that more participation was from equipment manufacturers.

With the widespread emphasis on sustainability in transportation, dockless bike-sharing (DBS) is gaining popularity. This research proposed an extended norms activation model (NAM) to study the effects of personal norms, perceived green value and perceived pleasure on users' green intention to use DBS. This model was empirically tested through partial least squares regression, which was performed to analyze the data collected from 308 participants in Chengdu China. Results show that personal norms, green perceived values, and perceived pleasure have a positive impact on green intention. Given that green perceived value and perceived pleasure mediate the positive relationship between personal norms and green intention, these factors have proved that human inner feelings play a vital rule in green intention. The findings help to give a better understanding of consumers' adoption behavior of DBS, and would be helpful for policymakers to take effective measures to enhance consumers' adoption behavior of DBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban China, the study of the welfare stigma of poor females receiving social assistance is neglected. An in-depth interview method was used with 16 urban female assistance recipients aged 16–70 years old in the city of Chengdu to examine the forms and the consequences of welfare stigma on them. The purpose of the study is to examine the issue of welfare stigma of female assistance recipients in urban China by means of empirical evidence. The findings suggest that female assistance recipients suffer from welfare stigma in three forms: identity stigma, treatment stigma, and procedure stigma. The three kinds of stigmas mingled with each other are imposed on the female assistance recipients and make them victims of constructed welfare stigma. Welfare stigma does not affect the decision to apply for assistance to meet basic living expenses. Suffering from welfare stigma positions female recipients in a state of isolation and exclusion. The study's results suggest that efforts should be made to reduce and eliminate welfare stigma of social assistance on female assistance recipients in urban China. Future study should be broadened to consider the comparison of the stigma on female recipients with that on male recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For shield-driven tunnels, the strength characteristics and the over consolidation ratio of the soil are major factors influencing ground settlement caused by shield tunnelling. However, the influence of groundwater was usually neglected. In order to predict the ground settlement caused by shield tunnelling under the influence of groundwater, a three-dimensional fluid–soil full coupling mathematical model was established. This work was based on the Biot's consolidation theory. And the soil constitutive relation had extended to visco-elastic-plasticity. Besides, the dynamic relationship between soil parameters and effective stress were taken into account. The finite element discretisation equations were obtained by the Galerkin weighted residual method. The finite element method (FEM) program of three-dimensional fluid–soil full coupling model of ground settlement caused by shield tunnelling was developed by FORTRAN. The shield-driven tunnels from Yushuang Road Station to Shuanglin Road Station in Chengdu Metro Line 4 were taken as an example. The FEM program was used to predict ground settlement and pore water pressure variation caused by shield tunnelling. The results showed that the variation tendency of pore water pressure was similar to that of ground settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) sponsors an annual tour of China for CAPA teachers, supervisors and therapists, their friends and family members, mental health professionals, and other people interested in China and mental health. The purpose of the tour is to form a deeper connection between CAPA members and the Chinese mental health professionals they teach and treat online. The highlights of the tour are the graduation ceremonies in Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai and the opportunity to see the joy on the faces of the motivated Chinese mental health professionals who have graduated from their CAPA programs of study. The author shares his memories of the 2017 CAPA tour he took with his wife and 13 other CAPA fellow travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Professional Geographer is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recently, researchers have introduced deep learning methods such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) to model spatio-temporal data and achieved better results than those with conventional methods. However, these CNN-based models employ a grid map to represent spatial data, which is unsuitable for road-network-based data. To address this problem, we propose a deep spatio-temporal residual neural network for road-network-based data modeling (DSTR-RNet). The proposed model constructs locally-connected neural network layers (LCNR) to model road network topology and integrates residual learning to model the spatio-temporal dependency. We test the DSTR-RNet by predicting the traffic flow of Didi cab service, in an 8-km2 region with 2,616 road segments in Chengdu, China. The results demonstrate that the DSTR-RNet maintains the spatial precision and topology of the road network as well as improves the prediction accuracy. We discuss the prediction errors and compare the prediction results to those of grid-based CNN models. We also explore the sensitivity of the model to its parameters; this will aid the application of this model to network-based data modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing influence of media on tourism destination marketing, this research proposes a possible psychological process of music effect on place attachment, using the narrative transportation theory. Data were collected through an online survey in China (n = 531) and analyzed using SEM. Results indicate that (1) music transportation positively affects individuals' attachment; (2) attitude plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between music transportation and place attachment; (3) previous visits have significant moderate effects on the attitude-attachment path rather than on the transportation-attachment path or the transportation-attitude path. Theoretical and practical implications for destination marketing are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In downtown Chengdu a pocket of Tibetan culture has sprung up: a Tibetan market where Tibetans and Han Chinese meet to buy and sell ethnic minority products. Pointing to how Tibetan migration to Chengdu has contributed to the growth of a vibrant ‘minzumarket’ attracting Tibetan and Han Chinese merchants, customers, Buddhist devotees, and voyeurs, this article presents novel understandings of the ethnic goods market in urban Chengdu. The article first explores the growth of the market, which is the result of a history of political and economic reforms, increased mobility, and religious revival. Second, it maps the market infrastructure according to the ethnicity of the shopkeepers and the commodities that are traded. Although there is still a clear ethnic division in the market, this article also documents the emergence of Han Chinese market participation in forms of trade that have historically been dominated by Tibetans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thalassemia is the most common inherited disease in southern China. However, this disorder is usually ignored by the health system in the Sichuan Province due to the lack of epidemiological data. To provide basic epidemiological data for thalassemia screening, genetic counseling, and prenatal diagnosis (PND) in the Chengdu region, a total of 3262 healthy subjects were assessed by complete blood count (CBC), reverse dot-blot gene chip, gap-polymerase chain reaction (gap-PCR), and PCR-DNA sequencing. A frequency of heterozygous thalassemia of 3.43% (112/3262) was found, of which 2.21% (72/3262) patients carried α-thalassemia (α-thal), 1.19% (39/3262) β-thalassemia (β-thal) and 0.3% (1/3262) hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (Hb) (HPFH)/δβ-thalassemia (δβ-thal). Four types of α-thal mutations were found, the most prevalent being – –SEA(68.06%), followed by −α3.7(rightward deletion, 25.0%), Hb Quong Sze (Hb QS;HBA2: c.377 T > C) (4.17%), and −α4.2(leftward deletion, 2.78%). The seven β-thal mutations included: codons 41/42 (−TTCT),HBB: c.126_129delCTTT (13/39, 33.33%); codon 17 (A > T),HBB: c.52 A > T (11/39, 28.95%); IVS-II-654 (C > T),HBB: c.316-197 C > T (9/39, 23.68%); −28 (A > G),HBB: c.–78 A > G (3/39, 7.69%); −29 (A > G),HBB: c.–79 A > G (1/39, 2.56%); codons 27/28 (+C),HBB: c.84_85insC (1/39, 2.56%), and the rare IVS-II-850 (G > T),HBB: c.316-1 G > T (1/39, 2.56%). Only one case of the Southeast Asian HPFH deletion was found. This is the first detailed molecular epidemiological survey of thalassemia in the Chengdu region, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China (PRC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the 13th China International Nanoscience and Technology Symposium, Chengdu (CINST-2014) and the Nano-products Exposition that was held from October 26-30, 2014 in Chengdu, China.

The aim of this study is to determine the patterns of mortality from cardiac-cerebral vascular disease (CCVD) and how they relate to cosmophysical factors over a six-year span. The daily number of deaths recorded in Chengdu over 2192 consecutive days (2007–2012), together with several factors related to solar activity (SA), geomagnetic activity (GMA), and the interplanetary magnetic field, were analyzed by the extended cosinor to estimate the parameters of major cycles characterizing each variable. Estimates of their respective periods with a measure of uncertainty serve to find coperiodisms (i.e. shared rhythms). The results show that mortality of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and CCVD on days of GMA in quiet level was relatively higher on days of GMA in unsettled level. Whereas mortality data are characterized by a one-year synchronized component, most GMA and SA indices have periods differing from precisely one year. A half-year cycle is shared by almost all SA, GMA, and mortality variables with 95% confidence interval of the period covering 0.5 year. A transyear cycle (about 1.3 years) is found for all mortality data and many of the environmental variables. A cis-half-year (about 0.43 year) is shared between mortality from CCVD and flow pressure, sunspot numbers and storm-time variation. These results suggest the presence of complex temporal relations between patterns of CCVD mortality and cosmophysical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visitor experiences and interpretation at wildlife tourism sites are often designed to encourage visitors to adopt conservation actions. Typically, conservation messages are delivered via one-size-fits-all interpretive signage, with little consideration given to whether the same information attracts and engages different cultural groups. This study explores Chinese and international visitors’ perceptions of signage at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China. Four sign prototypes were designed and a combination of visitor observations, interviews, and exit surveys were used to test their attracting and holding power. Comparisons of Chinese and Western visitors revealed no significant difference in the proportion who stopped to read signs. Preferences for signage elements were also similar across the two cultural groups; however, there were differences in terms of what visitors thought should be included in wildlife interpretation. Implications for the design and delivery of interpretation in Chinese wildlife tourism settings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]