Search

Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) are thought to be amongst the most important impacts exerted by humans on climate. However, relatively little research has been carried out so far on the effects of LUCC on extreme climate change other than on regional temperatures and precipitation. In this paper, we apply a regional weather research and forecasting (WRF) climate model using LUCC data from Heilongjiang Province, that was collected between the 1900s and 2010s, to explore how changes in forest cover influence extreme temperature indexes. Our selection of extreme high, low, and daily temperature indexes for analysis in this study enables the calculation of a five-year numerical integration trail with changing forest space. Results indicate that the total forested area of Heilongjiang Province decreased by 28% between the 1900s and 2010s. This decrease is most marked in the western, southwestern, and northeastern parts of the province. Our results also reveal a remarkable correlation between change in forested area and extreme high and low temperature indexes. Further analysis enabled us to determine that the key factor explaining increases in extreme high temperature indexes (i.e., calculated using the number of warm days, warm nights, as well as tropical nights, and summer days) is decreasing forest area; data also showed that this factor caused a decrease in extreme low temperature indexes (i.e., calculated using the number of cold days and cold nights, as well as frost days, and ice days) and an increase in the maximum value of daily minimum temperature. Spatial data demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between forest-to-farmland conversion and extreme temperature indexes throughout most of our study period. Spatial data demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between forest-to-farmland conversion and extreme temperature indexes throughout most of our study period. Positive correlations are also present between decreasing forest area, the more frequent occurrence of extreme high temperature events, and a rise in the maximum value of daily minimum temperature. At the same time, we found clear negative correlations between decreasing forest area and less frequent occurrence of extreme low temperature events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has occurred in northwestern China, threatening the sustainability of its fragile dryland ecosystems. A lack of precise urban land-cover information has limited our understanding on the urbanization in the dryland. Here, we examined urban land-cover changes from 2000 to 2014 in 21 major cities that comprise over 50% of the developed land in arid China, using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and Operational Land Imager data, and a hybrid classification method. The 15-m resolution urban land-cover products (including impervious surfaces, vegetation, bare soil, and water bodies) had an overall accuracy of 90.37%. Based on these new land use products, we found the urbanization in arid China was characterized by the dramatic expansion of impervious surface (+13.23%) and reduction of bare soil (-13.41%), while the proportions of vegetation (+0.27%) and water (-0.10%) remained stable. The observed dynamic equilibrium of vegetated ratio implies an increasing harmonization of urbanization and greening, which was particularly important for the sustainability of fragile urban ecosystems in arid regions. From an economic perspective, gross domestic product and population were significantly correlated with impervious surfaces, and oasis cities displayed a stronger ability to attract new residents than desert cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between postimplant electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR) measures (wave V threshold, wave V latency, input-output functions) and auditory performance and speech intelligibility outcomes measured using parental rating scales, such as Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP; Archbold, Lutman, & Marshall, 1995) and the Speech Intelligibility Rating scale (SIR; Allen, Nikolopoulos, Dyar, &O'Donoghue, 2001), respectively. The secondary purpose was to evaluate the relationship between age at implantation and ratings on the CAP and SIR. Method: Forty children with congenital sensorineural hearing loss participated. Preimplant parental ratings on the CAP and SIR were obtained, and all the children underwent cochlear implantation. Intracochlear EABRs were recorded postimplantation. Postimplant parental ratings on the CAP and SIR were obtained. The relationships between EABR parameters and auditory performance and speech intelligibility outcomes were studied. The effect of age at implantation on auditory performance and speech intelligibility outcomes was also investigated. Results: A significant negative correlation was found between EABR wave V thresholds and SIR growth (r = -.415, p = .016). Children with better CAP growths tended to have lower wave V thresholds than those with poorer CAP growths. Age at implantation had an effect on the auditory performance as measured using the CAP. Conclusions: The present study provides evidence for the relationship between wave V thresholds of the intracochlear EABR and auditory performance and speech intelligibility outcomes measured using parental rating scales in pediatric cochlear implant recipients. Data also indicate that early intervention has a positive impact on auditory performance outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the case of "The Warmest Library in History" and discusses how the library rights ideology has been propagated in Mainland China in recent years, from the perspectives of the planning and promotion activities of professional organizations, advocacy and appeals of professional journals, the scholarship of academics, and the mass media's reporting and influence. This study reveals how the case and the attention it received reflect the progress and positive effect of the propagation of the library rights ideology in China. The people of China have begun to be awakened to those rights, but there is a long way to go until they are fully realized, and theoretical research and practice on library rights in Mainland China are still in their infancy. It is a long-term, arduous and historical mission, and there is an urgent duty for library professionals in China to advocate for making policies on library rights, to protect and preserve those rights, to make people more conscious of those rights, and to conduct more research on library rights theory and practice. Research methods employed in this paper include case study and historical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement proposes a 1.5 °C target to limit the increase in global mean temperature (GMT). Studying the population exposure to droughts under this 1.5 °C target will be helpful in guiding new policies that mitigate and adapt to disaster risks under climate change. Based on simulations from the inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was used to calculate drought frequencies in the reference period and 1.5 °C global warming scenario. Then population exposure was evaluated by combining drought frequency with simulated population data from shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). In addition, the relative importance of climate and demographic change and the cumulative probability of exposure change were analyzed. Results revealed that population exposure to droughts on the east side of the Hu line is much more than on the west side; exposure in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region is the highest and lowest in the Qinghai-Tibet region. An additional 6.97 million people will be exposed to droughts under the 1.5 °C global warming scenario relative to the reference period. Demographic change is the primary contributor to exposure (79.95 %) in the 1.5 °C global warming scenario, more than climate change (29.93 %) or the interaction effect (-9.88 %). Of the three drought intensities, mild, moderate, and extreme, moderate droughts contribute the most to exposure (63.59 %). The frequency of extreme droughts is likely to decrease (71.83 % probability), while mild and moderate droughts may increase slightly (55.17 % and 51.71 % probability, respectively) in the 1.5 °C global warming scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat is one of the most common and productive crops in the world, and the growth and production of wheat are sensitive to climate change. Climate change affects wheat phenology by influencing sowing/maturity dates and the duration of growing stages, and ultimately affects the grain yield. Reliable prediction of changes in wheat yield is significant for maintaining global food security. However, studies addressing the potential impact of crop phenology changes on grain yield are rarely reported, which is a big challenge. Using the CERES-Wheat model and first-order differential equation models, we quantified the impact of future climate change on wheat phenology and grain yield for two periods (P1: 2011-2040; P2: 2041-2070) under three representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5) in China's twomain wheat-growing areas (Northwest SpringWheat-Growing Area(NWSWA) and Huang-Huai-Hai Winter Wheat-Growing Area (HHWWA)); the baseline period was 1981-2010. Accumulated thermal time during thewhole growing period (WGP) tends to significantly increase in NWSWA and HHWWA under all RCPs and periods. This rising accumulated thermal time will reduce the time to anthesis and maturity and shorten the vegetative growing period (VGP), reproductive growing period (RGP), and theWGP. In P2, spring wheat grain yield is projected to diminish by a regional average of 2.67% for RCP2.6, 4.07% for RCP4.5, and 5.66% for RCP8.5, which is dominated by the lower accumulated solar radiation during the VGP in NWSWA. Additionally, for the winter wheat grain yield in HHWWA in P2, its grain yield reduction is projected to decline by 4.8% (RCP2.6), 7.9% (RCP4.5), and 9.8% (RCP8.5), which is caused by increasing accumulated thermal time in the VGP. These results suggest that breeding high-temperature-tolerant varieties with high calorie requirements is an adaptive strategy to mitigate the negative impact of climate change on wheat yield in the study areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to design a voice training program for Chinese speakers, and to evaluate its efficacy. It was a prospective, randomized, case–control study practiced in three middle schools in Beijing, China. Teachers in the treatment group received voice training for 4 weeks, whereas the control group subjects received no treatment. The voice training program, which was adapted for Chinese, contained vocal hygiene education and group voice training. The outcome was assessed by voice handicap index (VHI), maximum phonation time (MPT) and acoustic analysis parameters including, noise to harmonic ratio (NHR), jitter and shimmer. The results showed that at the onset of the study, no significant differences were found between the subjects in two groups for VHI, MPT and NHR. VHI of treatment group subjects who received voice training decreased significantly, whereas VHI of control group subjects showed no significant change. Treatment group MPT was significantly increased after training, whereas the control group one presented no significant change during the same period. NHR in treatment group decreased significantly after training, whereas the one in control group showed no significant change. There were no significant changes for jitter and shimmer in both groups before and after the study. So we conclude that the voice training program is suitable to treat voice diseases, particularly for middle school teachers. This result provided reliable evidence for carrying out further voice training in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most populous countries, China has policies protecting the amount of land available for crop production, but it does not consider the quality of land. Thus, an important issue is the impact on crop production by land use change under such policies and by notable climate variability during the past decades. Using a productivity attenuation method, we estimated the climatic productivity of winter wheat (WWCP) in the North China Plain, based on land use classification data and daily weather data from 1980 to 2010. Impacts of historic climate variability and land use change on WWCP were quantified. Results indicate: (1) on average, WWCP for newly-increased dry land was lower than that for the lost land, which may result in reduced land quality associated with conversion. (2) In recent years, the increasing area of dry land provided sufficient wheat yield to compensate for the loss resulted from reduction of WWCP. (3) Both historic climate variability and land use change decreased WWCP, but the effects of the latter (within -1%) were less than those of the former (about -3%). Given the scarce land resource and rapidly growing food demand, the approach through expanding the area of cultivated land to maintain grain yield is not a long-term guarantee of food security. Thus, cultivated land conservation policy should shift from protecting land quantity into preserving land productivity. In addition, agriculture policies should further emphasize the critical role of adaptation strategies in coping with climate change. Obtaining higher yield production will depend upon adopting adaptation measures which could effectively mitigate effects of dramatic climate change or even take advantage of possible climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]