Biofilm early stage development in two nutrient‐rich streams with different urban impacts

The aim of this study was to describe the colonization of the biofilm during its early stages under different concentrations of nutrients and organic matter, specifically in urban streams influenced by agriculture and urbanization. We hypothesized that in a stream with higher concentrations of nutrients and organic matter, the initial biomass growth would be faster, and the changes in the structure of the community would be greater. Sterile glass substrates were placed in 2 urban streams that differed in nutrient and organic matter concentrations; samples were collected during their first week of colonization to measure total biomass, bacterial biomass, chlorophyll a, activity of the electron transfer system, and the community composition. Results show that biofilm development in both streams began within a few hours and differed under different conditions of nutrients; in the stream with a better water quality, the colonization dynamics consisted of 2 increments of bacterial biomass linked with an increase of algal biomass. In the urban stream with higher nutrient and organic matter concentrations, biofilm development was slower and consisted of a simultaneous increase of bacteria and algae, consistent with a lower electron transfer system activity. Therefore, the dynamics of the colonization process in addition to those characteristics of the fully developed biofilm could have potential applications in water monitoring of urban streams.     

Species composition and plant traits: Characterization of the biogeomorphological succession within contrasting river corridors

Plant communities and dynamics can be characterized according to species composition or plant traits. Here, we used species composition and plant traits to compare their effectiveness in discriminating the biogeomorphological (involving reciprocal feedbacks between physical and biological processes) and ecological (mainly biologically driven) phases of the fluvial biogeomorphological succession (FBS) model. The comparison was done between two French rivers, the largely unchannelized lower Allier and the channelized middle Garonne. One reach representative of each river section was selected for the study. Within each river reach, we chose two contrasted study sites in terms of channel and floodplain dynamics: a reference site (least altered channel and floodplain dynamics) and an altered site (laterally stabilized by riprap and constrained). In the four study sites, we sampled vegetation in 402 plots of 4 m². The 512 species identified in the plots were characterized in terms of plant traits (20) from a literature review. When comparing reaches in unconstrained ordinations and permutational multivariate analyses of variance, both species composition and plant traits led to a similar identification of the biogeomorphological and the ecological successional trajectories. Nevertheless, the trait approach was less influenced by local and regional bioclimatic, hydrogeomorphological, and anthropogenic settings and thus produced a more comprehensive and general classification of the biogeomorphological and ecological phases of the FBS model. A lower than expected contrast between the four sites was found, because neither species composition nor plant traits could entirely characterize distinct successional trajectories occurring in our reference or altered sites. Furthermore, our results contributed to a better understanding of the multiple successional trajectories that can occur in midlatitude river corridors. It also showed that relating plant traits to their effects on fluvial landform dynamics remains a core challenge in explaining succession including feedback mechanisms between hydrology, morphodynamics, and vegetation dynamics.     

A review of the geomechanics aspects of a double fatality coal burst at Austar Colliery in NSW,Australia in April 2014

A coal burst occurred on 15 April, 2014 at the Austar Coal Mine, located west of Newcastle, NSW,Australia. The burst resulted in fatal injuries to two men working as part of the mining crew at the development face. At the time, a continuous miner was being used to mine a longwall development gate road through heavily structured coal, at a depth of approximately 550 m. A number of pre-cursor bumps had occurred on previous shifts, emanating from the coal ribs of the roadway, in proximity to the coal face.This paper reviews the geological, geotechnical and mining conditions and circumstances leading up to the coal burst event; and presents and discusses the available evidence and possible interpretations relating to the geomechanical behaviour mechanisms that may have been critical factors in this incident. The paper also discusses some key technical and operational considerations of ground support systems and mining practices and strategies needed for operating in such conditions in the future.     

珠江口盆地惠州凹陷泥岩压实特征及其成因

为了弄清楚珠江口盆地惠州凹陷新生界地层泥岩压实与油气生成和聚集的关系,首先探讨了该地区泥岩压实的特征,并运用最高热解温度和生烃指数等对欠压实的成因进行了讨论。研究表明:从纵向上来看,惠州凹陷内发育浅部快速压实段、正常压实段和低幅度欠压实段等3种类型,浅部快速压实段主要发育在深度小于700m的万山组和第四系地层,正常压实段自万山组底部或者粤海组顶部到珠海组底部或者恩平组顶部(1800～3200m),低幅度欠压实段自恩平组顶部向深部延伸到文昌组(2400～4000m);从横向上来看,惠州凹陷划分为东北部和中西部两个具有不同欠压实特征的区域,东北部欠压实区地层发育珠江组—韩江组和文昌组—恩平组2个低幅度欠压实段,中西部欠压实区只发育文昌组—恩平组欠压实段;珠江组—韩江组欠压实段主要由泥质高含量和快速沉积沉降引起,文昌组—恩平组欠压实段主要由沉积作用、高地热值和生烃作用共同引起,后者为有效生油段;惠州凹陷新生界地层砂岩不存在超压。     

Spatio-temporal succession of iron and manganese microbial community in biological filter layer

This paper studied the structure and dynamic change of microbial communities in bio-reactor for treating ground water which contained high concentration of iron and manganese.In this study,polymerase chain reaction(PCR) denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE) was used to evaluate the bacterial diversity.Different samples in spatio-temporal of bacterial community suceession in sands were analyzed,and the removal of iron and manganese were discussed.The results showed that a significant change in the community structure was observed during running time and the bio-reactor which designed by ourselves:the removal rate of iron and manganese could achieve 88.93%.The mass of microrganisms was decreasing,and the type of micro-organisms tended to stable with the increase of operating time.Besides,the change of mass and types of micro-organisms in sands was related to temperature.Along the depth of filter layer,the mass and types of micro-organisms were gradually decreasing.Further,pseudomonas were found to be the main microbiology by recycling the band sequencing and phylogenetic analysis.And with time increasing the mass and kind of bacteria were growing from less to more,finally to be stable.     

A <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-norm pruning algorithm for decision tree classifiers based on error rate estimation

Decision trees are well-known and established models for classification and regression. In this paper, we focus on the estimation and the minimization of the misclassification rate of decision tree classifiers. We apply Lidstone’s Law of Succession for the estimation of the class probabilities and error rates. In our work, we take into account not only the expected values of the error rate, which has been the norm in existing research, but also the corresponding reliability (measured by standard deviations) of the error rate. Based on this estimation, we propose an efficient pruning algorithm, called k-norm pruning, that has a clear theoretical interpretation, is easily implemented, and does not require a validation set. Our experiments show that our proposed pruning algorithm produces accurate trees quickly, and compares very favorably with two other well-known pruning algorithms, CCP of CART and EBP of C4.5. Editor: Hendrik Blockeel.     

Radiometric correction of multi-temporal Landsat data for characterization of early successional forest patterns in western Oregon

Detecting and characterizing continuous changes in early forest succession using multi-temporal satellite imagery requires atmospheric correction procedures that are both operationally reliable, and that result in comparable units (e.g., surface reflectance). This paper presents a comparison of five atmospheric correction methods (2 relative, 3 absolute) used to correct a nearly continuous 20-year Landsat TM/ETM+ image data set (19-images) covering western Oregon (path/row 46/29). In theory, full absolute correction of individual images in a time-series should effectively minimize atmospheric effects resulting in a series of images that appears more similar in spectral response than the same set of uncorrected images. Contradicting this theory, evidence is presented that demonstrates how absolute correction methods such as Second Simulation of the Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6 s), Modified Dense Dark Vegetation (MDDV), and Dark Object Subtraction (DOS) actually make images in a time-series somewhat less spectrally similar to one another. Since the development of meaningful spectral reflectance trajectories is more dependant on consistent measurement of surface reflectance rather than on accurate estimation of true surface reflectance, correction using image pairs is also tested. The relative methods tested are variants of an approach referred to as “absolute-normalization”, which matches images in a time-series to an atmospherically corrected reference image using pseudo-invariant features and reduced major axis (RMA) regression. An advantage of “absolute-normalization” is that all images in the time-series are converted to units of surface reflectance while simultaneously being corrected for atmospheric effects. Of the two relative correction methods used for “absolute-normalization”, the first employed an automated ordination algorithm called multivariate alteration detection (MAD) to statistically locate pseudo-invariant pixels between each subject and reference image, while the second used analyst selected pseudo-invariant features (PIF) common to the entire image set. Overall, relative correction employed in the “absolute-normalization” context produced the most consistent temporal reflectance response, with the automated MAD algorithm performing equally as well as the handpicked PIFs. Although both relative methods performed nearly equally in terms of observed errors, several reasons emerged for preferring the MAD algorithm. The paper concludes by demonstrating how “absolute-normalization” improves (i.e., reduces scatter in) spectral reflectance trajectory models used for characterizing patterns of early forest succession.     

Linear mixture model applied to Amazonian vegetation classification

Many research projects require accurate delineation of different secondary succession (SS) stages over large regions/subregions of the Amazon basin. However, the complexity of vegetation stand structure, abundant vegetation species, and the smooth transition between different SS stages make vegetation classification difficult when using traditional approaches such as the maximum likelihood classifier (MLC). Most of the time, classification distinguishes only between forest/non-forest. It has been difficult to accurately distinguish stages of SS. In this paper, a linear mixture model (LMM) approach is applied to classify successional and mature forests using Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery in the Rondônia region of the Brazilian Amazon. Three endmembers (i.e., shade, soil, and green vegetation or GV) were identified based on the image itself and a constrained least-squares solution was used to unmix the image. This study indicates that the LMM approach is a promising method for distinguishing successional and mature forests in the Amazon basin using TM data. It improved vegetation classification accuracy over that of the MLC. Initial, intermediate, and advanced successional and mature forests were classified with overall accuracy of 78.2% using a threshold method on the ratio of shade to GV fractions, a 7.4% increase over the MLC. The GV and shade fractions are sensitive to the change of vegetation stand structures and better capture biophysical structure information.     

Assessment of the MODIS LAI product for Australian ecosystems

The leaf area index (LAI) product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is important for monitoring and modelling global change and terrestrial dynamics at many scales. The algorithm relies on spectral reflectances and a six biome land cover classification. Evaluation of the specific behaviour and performance of the product for regions of the globe such as Australia are needed to assist with product refinement and validation. We made an assessment of Collection 4 of the MODIS LAI product using four approaches: (a) assessment against a continental scale Structural Classification of Australian Vegetation (SCAV); (b) assessment against a continental scale land use classification (LUC); (c) assessment against historical field-based measurement of LAI collected prior to the Terra Mission; and (d) direct comparison of MODIS LAI with coincident field measurements of LAI, mostly from hemispherical photography. The MODIS LAI product produced a wide variety of geographically and structurally specific temporal response profiles between different classes and even for sub-groups within classes of the SCAV. Historical and concurrent field measurements indicated that MODIS LAI was giving reasonable estimates for LAI for most cover types and land use types, but that major overestimation of LAI occurs in some eastern Australian open forests and woodlands. The six biome structural land cover classification showed some significant deviations in class allocation compared to the SCAV particularly where grasslands are allocated to shrubland, savanna woodlands are allocated to shrubland, savanna and broadleaf forest, and open forests are allocated to savanna and broadleaf forest. The land cover and LAI products could benefit from some additional examination of Australian data addressing the structural representation of Eucalypt canopies in the “space of canopy realisation” for savanna and broadleaf forest classes.     

浅析南通僮子传承的原因

僮子的娱人性越来越强,内涵较为宽泛,呈示形态多姿多彩。贴近生活的表现方式、劝人为善的美好愿望、各种知识的广泛结合以及一定的治疗效果等等使得他的市场越来越宽广。