Genetic techniques for livestock breeding: Restructuring institutional relationships in agriculture

This paper explores some of the key institutional transformations in livestock breeding associated with the increasing significance of genetic techniques, situating this within an assessment of an emerging agricultural bioeconomy. Focusing on beef cattle and sheep breeding in the United Kingdom, the paper examines how a move towards the involvement of international and corporate interests in livestock breeding is restructuring the network of institutional interests affecting the knowledge and decision making of individual breeders. The paper suggests that the structural transformation of beef cattle and sheep breeding is complicated by the need for negotiation between breeders’ ‘traditional’ knowledge-practices and the ‘geneticised’ techniques being made available to them. We are thus seeing the emergence of new and complex interactions between the major actors which are reconfiguring power relationships in the UK livestock breeding sector.     

Contested H2O: Science, policy and politics in water resources management in Chile

This paper critically explores the politics that mediate the use of environmental science assessments as the basis of resource management policy. Drawing on recent literature in the political ecology tradition that has emphasised the politicised nature of the production and use of scientific knowledge in environmental management, the paper analyses a hydrological assessment in a small river basin in Chile, undertaken in response to concerns over the possible overexploitation of groundwater resources. The case study illustrates the limitations of an approach based predominantly on hydrogeological modelling to ascertain the effects of increased groundwater abstraction. In particular, it identifies the subjective ways in which the assessment was interpreted and used by the state water resources agency to underpin water allocation decisions in accordance with its own interests, and the role that a desocialised assessment played in reproducing unequal patterns of resource use and configuring uneven waterscapes. Nevertheless, as Chile’s ‘neoliberal’ political-economic framework privileges the role of science and technocracy, producing other forms of environmental knowledge to complement environmental science is likely to be contentious. In conclusion, the paper considers the potential of mobilising the concept of the hydrosocial cycle to further critically engage with environmental science.     

Timings of early crustal activity in southern highlands of Mars:Periods of crustal stretching and shortening

Extensional and compressional structures are globally abundant on Mars. Distribution of these structures and their ages constrain the crustal stress state and tectonic evolution of the planet. Here in this paper, we report on our investigation over the distribution of the tectonic structures and timings of the associated stress fields from the Noachis-Sabaea region. Thereafter, we hypothesize possible origins in relation to the internal/external processes through detailed morphostructural mapping. In doing so, we have extracted the absolute model ages of these linear tectonic structures using crater size-frequency distribution measurements, buffered crater counting in particular. The estimated ages indicate that the tectonic structures are younger than the mega impacts events(especially Hellas) and instead they reveal two dominant phases of interior dynamics prevailing on the southern highlands, firstly the extensional phase terminating around3.8 Ga forming grabens and then compressional phase around 3.5-3.6 Ga producing wrinkle ridges and lobate scarps. These derived absolute model ages of the grabens exhibit the age ca. 100 Ma younger than the previously documented end of the global extensional phase. The following compressional activity corresponds to the peak of global contraction period in Early Hesperian. Therefore, we conclude that the planet wide heat loss mechanism, involving crustal stretching coupled with gravitationally driven relaxation(i.e.,lithospheric mobility) resulted in the extensional structures around Late Noachian(around 3.8 Ga). Lately cooling related global contraction generated compressional stress ensuing shortening of the upper crust of the southern highlands at the Early Hesperian period(around 3.5-3.6 Ga).     

测绘类专业“地球科学概论”理论教学的若干思考

以"地球科学概论"课程角色及测绘类专业特征为基础,分析并给出了测绘类专业发展能够拓展"地球科学概论"教学内容的3个实例,进而对测绘类专业"地球科学概论"课程的理论教学进行了一些思考,能够为相关专业开展该课程教学提供参考。     

Automatic selection of weights for GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis: site selection of transmission towers as a case study

Transmission line (TL) siting consists of finding suitable land to build transmission towers. This is just one of the numerous complex geographical problems often solved using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA), which is a set of techniques that weight several geographical features to identify suitable locations. This technique is mostly employed using expert knowledge to identify the correct set of weights; thus adding a certain amount of subjectivity to the analysis, meaning that for the same problem if we change the experts involved, we may reach different results.This research is a first attempt to try and solve this issue. We employed a statistical analysis to quantitatively calculate these weights and we tested our method on a case study about transmission line siting in Switzerland. We compared the distances between each sample in our dataset, in this case study these are location of transmission towers, with each geographical feature, e.g. distance from water features. Then we calculate the same distances but for random points, sampled throughout the study area. The reasoning behind this method is that if samples present a distance from a geographic feature statistically different from the random, it means that the feature played an important role in dictating the location of the sample. In this case for instance, high-voltage transmission towers are purposely built as far away as possible from urban areas. Random points are on the contrary by definition sampled without any constraint. Therefore, when comparing the two datasets, we should find that transmission towers have a larger average distance from urban areas than random points. This allows us to determine that this criterion (i.e. distance from urban centers) is important for planning new TL.The results indicate that this method can successfully weight and rank the most important criteria to be considered for an MCDA analysis, in line with weights proposed in the literature. The advantage of the proposed technique is that it completely excludes human factors, thus potentially increasing the social acceptance of the MCDA results.     

论地球空间信息科学的形成

从分析地球空间信息科学与全球变化监测和社会可持续发展的关系出发,回顾了地球空间信息科学产生的背景,提出地球空间信息科学的定义及内涵,概括了学科当前的发展状况,提出了现阶段学科研究的主要内容,最后,展望了地球空间信息科学的发展。     

The progress of human geography in China under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China

This paper analyzes the role of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in advancing human geography in China by focusing on five key research areas: land use, urban systems and urban agglomeration, economic globalization, climate change and social and cultural geographies. All NSFC-funded human geography programs related to these five topics from 1986 to 2017 comprise the sample for analysis, and the research topics, content, teams, and peer-reviewed journal publications supported by these programs are investigated. Specifically, this paper analyzes the NSFC’s promotion of the expansion of research topics in response to national developmental needs and the shifting frontiers of human geography research internationally, its enhancement of interdisciplinary research, and its contributions to the assembly of specialized research teams. The paper also reports important progress in Chinese human geography over the past 30 years through the institutional lens of the NSFC, revealing major characteristics and trends in the discipline. The paper concludes by calling for further collaboration between the research community and the NSFC for the development of a locally suitable and globally influential Chinese human geography.     

A new algorithm to find raster-based least-cost paths using cut and fill operations

We developed a least-cost path analysis algorithm that satisfies a slope threshold condition in hilly terrain. The new algorithm uses an expanding moving-window to explore a combination of cells that satisfy an elevation threshold condition and then supplements this by executing cut and fill operations when there are obstacle cells between source and destination cells. Cut and fill factors regarding the difference in the actual elevation and revised elevation are considered and a least-cost path is analyzed after calculating the accumulated travel cost to the destination point. After applying the developed algorithm to synthetic and real-world data, the least accumulated travel cost from the source point can then be calculated for all cells on the raster surface by considering various slope thresholds, moving-window sizes and raster data resolutions. This algorithm can be implemented as a useful tool in GIS software as well as engineering design software utilized in the construction and mining industries.     

GeoSOT-3D椭球体剖分真三维数据表达

随着地球观测技术和信息技术的进步,以全球为背景的科学探索不断增多,不仅是地球表面信息,地下、水下、空中等地球上各个层次的空间信息都受到极大的关注。地球球体剖分网格可以构建真三维的数据模型,进而实现空天地、地下水下一体化的空间数据组织、管理、表达与应用。本文详细论述了GeoSOT-3D椭球体剖分网格的剖分空间框架、剖分编码与剖分尺度特性等理论体系。建立基于GeoSOT-3D的空间对象的真三维表达模型。利用该真三维模型实现了地球椭球体的地上地下可视化,点线面体等空间实体的可视化。研究表明,GeoSOT-3D椭球体剖分具有椭球剖分框架简单、体系完整、二三维一致等特点,因而在该框架下的真三维数据模型可用于下一代地理信息系统中的空间大数据的组织管理与表达。     

Scale effects in food environment research: Implications from assessing socioeconomic dimensions of supermarket accessibility in an eight-county region of South Carolina

Choice of neighborhood scale affects associations between environmental attributes and health-related outcomes. This phenomenon, a part of the modifiable areal unit problem, has been described fully in geography but not as it relates to food environment research. Using two administrative-based geographic boundaries (census tracts and block groups), supermarket geographic measures (density, cumulative opportunity and distance to nearest) were created to examine differences by scale and associations between three common U.S. Census–based socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics (median household income, percentage of population living below poverty and percentage of population with at least a high school education) and a summary neighborhood SES z-score in an eight-county region of South Carolina. General linear mixed-models were used. Overall, both supermarket density and cumulative opportunity were higher when using census tract boundaries compared to block groups. In analytic models, higher median household income was significantly associated with lower neighborhood supermarket density and lower cumulative opportunity using either the census tract or block group boundaries, and neighborhood poverty was positively associated with supermarket density and cumulative opportunity. Both median household income and percent high school education were positively associated with distance to nearest supermarket using either boundary definition, whereas neighborhood poverty had an inverse association. Findings from this study support the premise that supermarket measures can differ by choice of geographic scale and can influence associations between measures. Researchers should consider the most appropriate geographic scale carefully when conducting food environment studies.