Distribution Of Different Kinds Research Articles

From Slavery to Modern Slavery, Trafficking in Human Beings (Challenges and Solutions) At the Regional and International Level

Human trafficking crimes threaten societies' security and stability. They also hinder social growth and harm economic, social, and security institutions. These crimes also confront global security agencies, pushing the international community to fight them. By establishing accords and conventions to address slavery and enslavement, one of the most disgraceful global afflictions and a grave infringement on human rights, including the trafficking, sale, and exploitation of individuals, sometimes called transnational organized crime, Unfortunately, every country is vulnerable to humanitarian violations. through Crossing borders takes many forms. There is also a lack of accurate statistical data and thorough information on human trafficking, especially for women and children.
 in the light of the lack of agreement on basic assessments, data, and indications of the volume and geographic distribution of different kinds of trafficking makes tackling this problem difficult. A crime cannot be called a "phenomenon" without specifying its scope. also, the victims' ambition for quick and large financial gain drives them into trouble. Organized crime syndicates exploit this tendency, coupled with poverty, unemployment, military conflicts, and natural disasters. Family disintegration, population growth, slums, globalization, the Internet, and an environment of culture that exploits people, especially vulnerable groups, contribute to perceiving them as a commodity that can generate income. Human trafficking victims face security, economic, social, political, psychological, and health risks. Some of these effects may be lethal. The victim's broke immigration and employment rules, as well as fraud, forgery, bribery, smuggling, and rape. Thus, this crime may exceed traditional criminality by including a variety of interrelated violations that result in inhumane deeds.
 Technology serves as a catalyst for the amplification of trafficking operations, facilitating the widespread commercialization and exploitation of victims. Victims are subject to recurrent exploitation when perpetrators reproduce identical advertisements and engage in live-streaming activities across various platforms, with the intention of maximizing their reach and financial gains.
 Technology has also contributed to reducing the barriers for individuals involved in human trafficking. In the past, criminal organizations would have had to establish physical control and dominance over specific urban areas, typically relying on a large network of members. However, newcomers to the human trafficking industry can now effectively operate an online business without the necessity of a physical criminal infrastructure and with a smaller workforce. Consequently, the acquisition of technological expertise may enhance the potency of a criminal organization while also rendering it more elusive to law enforcement entities.
 So the paper will clarify the challenges of these serious crimes in all their forms (traditional and modern) and the weakness of international, rigorous cooperation in confrontation and its negative impacts on international society as a whole.

More or Less Unnatural: Semantic Similarity Shapes the Learnability and Cross-Linguistic Distribution of Unnatural Syncretism in Morphological Paradigms.

Morphological systems often reuse the same forms in different functions, creating what is known as syncretism. While syncretism varies greatly, certain cross-linguistic tendencies are apparent. Patterns where all syncretic forms share a morphological feature value (e.g., first person, or plural number) are most common cross-linguistically, and this preference is mirrored in results from learning experiments. While this suggests a general bias towards natural (featurally homogeneous) over unnatural (featurally heterogeneous) patterns, little is yet known about gradients in learnability and distributions of different kinds of unnatural patterns. In this paper we assess apparent cross-linguistic asymmetries between different types of unnatural patterns in person-number verbal agreement paradigms and test their learnability in an artificial language learning experiment. We find that the cross-linguistic recurrence of unnatural patterns of syncretism in person-number paradigms is proportional to the amount of shared feature values (i.e., semantic similarity) amongst the syncretic forms. Our experimental results further suggest that the learnability of syncretic patterns also mirrors the paradigm's degree of feature-value similarity. We propose that this gradient in learnability reflects a general bias towards similarity-based structure in morphological learning, which previous literature has shown to play a crucial role in word learning as well as in category and concept learning more generally. Rather than a dichotomous natural/unnatural distinction, our results thus support a more nuanced view of (un)naturalness in morphological paradigms and suggest that a preference for similarity-based structure during language learning might shape the worldwide transmission and typological distribution of patterns of syncretism.

Diversity and distribution of Symbiodiniaceae detected on coral reefs of Lombok, Indonesia using environmental DNA metabarcoding.

BackgroundDinoflagellates of family Symbiodiniaceae are important to coral reef ecosystems because of their contribution to coral health and growth; however, only a few studies have investigated the function and distribution of Symbiodiniaceae in Indonesia. Understanding the distribution of different kinds of Symbiodiniaceae can improve forecasting of future responses of various coral reef systems to climate change. This study aimed to determine the diversity of Symbiodiniaceae around Lombok using environmental DNA (eDNA).MethodsSeawater and sediment samples were collected from 18 locations and filtered to obtain fractions of 0.4–12 and >12 µm. After extraction, molecular barcoding polymerase chain reaction was conducted to amplify the primary V9-SSU 18S rRNA gene, followed by sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). BLAST, Naïve-fit-Bayes, and maximum likelihood routines were used for classification and phylogenetic reconstruction. We compared results across sampling sites, sample types (seawater/sediment), and filter pore sizes (fraction).ResultsPhylogenetic analyses resolved the amplicon sequence variants into 16 subclades comprising six Symbiodiniaceae genera (or genera-equivalent clades) as follows: Symbiodinium, Breviolum, Cladocopium, Durusdinium, Foraminifera Clade G, and Halluxium. Comparative analyses showed that the three distinct lineages within Cladocopium, Durusdinium, and Foraminifera Clade G were the most common. Most of the recovered sequences appeared to be distinctive of different sampling locations, supporting the possibility that eDNA may resolve regional and local differences among Symbiodiniaceae genera and species.ConclusionseDNA surveys offer a rapid proxy for evaluating Symbiodiniaceae species on coral reefs and are a potentially useful approach to revealing diversity and relative ecological dominance of certain Symbiodiniaceae organisms. Moreover, Symbiodiniaceae eDNA analysis shows potential in monitoring the local and regional stability of coral–algal mutualisms.

Wave propagation characteristics in porous medium containing a solid in pores

Aiming at the propagation characteristics of acoustic waves in a porous medium containing a solid in pores, the equations of motion and constitutive relation are deducted in the case of two-solid porous media. The frequency dispersion and attenuation characteristics of wave modes are analyzed by a plane wave analysis. In addition, based on the first-order velocity-stress equations, the time-splitting high-order staggered-grid finite-difference algorithm is proposed and constructed for understanding wave propagation mechanisms in such a medium, where the time-splitting method is used to solve the stiffness problem in the first-order velocity-stress equations. The generation mechanisms and energy distributions of different kinds of waves are investigated in detail. In particular, the influences of the friction coefficient between solid grains and pore solid as well as frequency on wave propagation are analyzed. It can be known from the results of plane wave analysis that there are two compression waves (P1 and P2) and two shear waves (S1 and S2) in a porous medium containing a solid in pores. The attenuations of P2 wave and S2 wave are much larger than those of P1 wave and S1 wave. This is due to the friction between the solid grains and the pore solid. The results show that our proposed numerical simulation algorithm can effectively solve the problem of stiffness in the velocity-stress equations, with high accuracy. The excitation mechanisms of the four wave modes are clearly revealed by the simulation results. The P1 wave and S1 wave propagate primarily in the solid grain frame, while P2 wave and S2 wave are concentrated mainly in the pore solid, which are caused by the relative motion between the solid grains and the pore solid. Besides, it should be pointed out that the wave diffusions of the P2 wave and S2 wave are influenced by the friction coefficient between solid grains and pore solid. The existence of friction coefficient between two solids makes P2 wave and S2 wave attenuate to a certain extent at high frequency, but the attenuation is much smaller than that at low frequency. This is the reason why it is difficult to observe the slow waves in practice. However, because the slow waves also carry some energy, it may not be ignored in the studying of the energy attenuation of acoustic waves in porous media.

Land Use and Facilities and the Spatial Distribution of Urban Property Crime

The main research problem of this article is to check whether and how selected land use and facilities influence the spatial distribution of different kinds of urban thefts (and burglary) in Krakow. The analysis uses data on all crimes committed in Krakow in the years 2016–2018. Its results are generally consistent with the results of other similar studies in so far as they indicate a relationship between the increased criminal activity of perpetrators and the availability of potential victims or objects of attack. Both the higher density of crimes in general and theft in general occurred above all in facilities or in the immediate vicinity of facilities which accumulate large communities for various purposes (activity nodes) or in places which produce the high intensity of people flows (communication nodes). One land use and facilities coexist with an increased density of all types of thefts, while others coexist only with some of them. The results, however, seem inconsistent with the rational choice theory assumptions as high crime density rates were observed in the immediate vicinity of public and private monitoring cameras, as well as within 50 meters of police stations.

Political Rhetoric in theHán Fēizǐ韓非子

AbstractPersuasion is one of the main rhetorical techniques employed in debates by early Chinese “wandering persuaders,” as it is attested by several examples preserved in Classical Chinese pre-imperial and early imperial politico-philosophical literature. The present article contributes to the study of persuasion by providing a detailed structural analysis of one of the most famous texts that openly deals with this technique, Chapter 12 ‘Shuìnán’ 說難 (The Difficulties of Persuasion) of the composite “Masters text”Hán Fēizǐ韓非子. Through such analysis, the article discloses the complex, multi-layered underlying rhetorical structure of the text, and the thick network of conceptual cross-references that are established among its different sections through the ingenious distribution of different kinds of text-structuring elements. As the present case study will show, this type of analysis is an invaluable hermeneutic tool that provides a substantial contribution to a better and fuller understanding of Classical Chinese texts.

Growing status observation for oil palm trees using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images

For both the positive economic benefit and the negative ecological impact of the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in tropical developing countries, it is significant to achieve accurate detection for oil palm trees in large-scale areas. Especially, growing status observation and smart oil palm plantation management enabled by such accurate detections would improve plantation planning, oil palm yield, and reduce manpower and consumption of fertilizer. Although existing studies have already reached a high accuracy in oil palm tree detection, rare attention has been paid to automated observation of each single oil palm tree’s growing status. Nowadays, with its high spatial resolution and low cost, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has become a promising tool for monitoring the growing status of individual oil palms. However, the accuracy is still a challenging issue because of the extreme imbalance and high similarity between different classes. In this paper, we propose a Multi-class Oil PAlm Detection approach (MOPAD) to reap both accurate detection of oil palm trees and accurate monitoring of their growing status. Based on Faster RCNN, MOPAD combines a Refined Pyramid Feature (RPF) module and a hybrid class-balanced loss module to achieve satisfying observation of the growing status for individual oil palms. The former takes advantage of multi-level features to distinguish similar classes and detect small oil palms, and the latter effectively resolves the problem of extremely imbalanced samples. Moreover, we elaborately analyze the distribution of different kinds of oil palms, and propose a practical workflow for detecting oil palm vacancy. We evaluate MOPAD using three large-scale UAV images photographed in two sites in Indonesia (denoted by Site 1 and Site 2), containing 363,877 oil palms of five categories: healthy palms, dead palms, mismanaged palms, smallish palms and yellowish palms. Our proposed MOPAD achieves an F1-score of 87.91% (Site 1) and 99.04% (Site 2) for overall oil palm tree detection, and outperforms other state-of-the-art object detection methods by a remarkable margin of 10.37–17.09% and 8.14%-21.32% with respect to the average F1-score for multi-class oil palm detection in Site 1 and Site 2, respectively. Our method demonstrates excellent potential for individual oil palm tree detection and observation of growing status from UAV images, leading to more precise and efficient management of oil palm plantations.

Social Capital as a Resource of Subjective Well-Being: Mediating Role of Health Status

Increase in social capital increases the social support in society, thus improves the health and well-being of an individual. This paper aims to analyze the role of social capital on subjective well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, and worth of life) and self-reported health status. The study deploys the Generalized Structural Equation Model with order logit to link social capital with health and subjective well-being (SWB) of people by utilizing the data of 1566 households and individuals in Punjab, Pakistan. Results of the study illustrate that social trust and the number of friends are strong predictors of self-reported health (SRH) status and subjective well-being of people. While memberships with organizations or alike is a weak predictor of SRH, it significantly affects the happiness of people. Our results also depict that SRH is the strong mediator between social capital and SWB; improved social networks lower the risk of poor health status, which improves the level of happiness and life satisfaction. The study suggests that a balanced distribution of different kinds of social networks is important for the self-reported health and subjective wellbeing of people in Pakistan.

Study on the Moisture Absorption and Thermal Properties of Hygroscopic Exothermic Fibers and Related Interactions with Water Molecules.

The aim of this paper is to study the hygroscopic behavior of hygroscopic exothermic fiber-based materials and to obtain a better understanding of the thermal performance of these fibers during the moisture absorption process. The temperature distribution of different kinds of hygroscopic exothermic fibers in the process of moisture absorption, observed by infrared camera, demonstrated two types of heating performance of these fibers, which might be related to its hygroscopic behavior. Based on the sorption isotherms, a Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) multi-layer adsorption model was selected as the optimal moisture absorption fitting model to describe the moisture absorption process of these fibers, which illustrated that water sorption capacity and the water–fiber/water–water interaction had a significant influence on its heating performance. The net isosteric heats of sorption decreased with an increase of moisture content, which further explained the main factor affecting the heat dissipation of fibers under different moisture contents. The state of adsorbed water and water vapor interaction on the fiber surface were studied by simultaneous thermal analysis (TGA-DSC) measurement. The percentage of bound and unbound water formation at low and high humidity had a profound effect on the thermal performance of fibers. It can therefore be concluded that the content of tightly bound water a strong water–fiber interaction was the main factor affecting the heating performance of fibers at low moisture content, and the content of loosely bound water reflected that water sorption capacity was the main factor affecting the heating performance of fibers at high moisture content. This was further proven by the heat of desorption.

The spatial and functional structure of the settlement from the Early Iron Age in Milejowice, site 19, district Wrocław, in the social aspect

In this paper the authors present the results of spatial analyses performed using GIS tools which were used to recognize the spatial and functional structure of the settlement in Milejowice, site 19, dating back to the Early Iron Age. The aim of the study was to more precisely define the function of the discovered complexes with pole construction buildings arranged around an empty area and to make another attempt at gaining insight into the structure of the society that lived in the settlement. The acquired results allowed a discussion on the earlier interpretations of the settlement in Milejowice, according to which a part of the site functioned as a seat of the elite who distinguished their place of residence with circular fences. The results of GIS analyses did not make it possible to precisely determine the character of the society that inhabited the site. However, in the opinion of the authors, the specific organization of spatial development in Milejowice, taking into account the distribution of different kinds of artifacts within its area, may indicate social stratification among the inhabitants. The basis of the stratification was, above all, access to prestige goods and the division of social roles connected with particular economic or professional activity.

Investigation on Magnetic Force of a Flux-Modulated Double-Rotor Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine for Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Flux-modulated double-rotor (FMDR) machine topology has recently attracted much attention, particularly for the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) propulsion. To maintain the driving stability and safety of the vehicle, the analysis of the magnetic force and the evaluation of the vibration performance for such kind of machine are indispensable. However, for the FMDR machine with the magnetic-gearing (MG) effect, there are at least two rotating magnetic fields with different speeds and frequencies. This leads to the complicated time harmonics of the radial force density. Actually, the publications on the FMDR machine hardly take into account the magnetic force or vibration characteristics. In this article, the sources, variations, and different kinds of magnetic forces are thoroughly investigated for a proposed FMDR machine. First, the machine topology and operation principle are introduced. Second, the theoretical analysis of the flux density and radial force density is implemented from the harmonic point of view, which is followed by the finite-element simulation, comparison, and validation. Also, an effective solution is proposed and discussed for the problem of different mixed electrical frequencies in the machine. Finally, the distributions of different kinds of magnetic forces appearing in the FMDR machine are concluded.

The Contrast Research of Human Papillomavirus Infection Genotypes in Tissues of Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Cervical Adenocarcinoma

The large sample data of HPV genotypes on cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) and cervical adenocarcinoma (CAC) tissues are rarely reported in China. This study is aimed to investigate the clinical value of distribution of different kinds of genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) within regional (mainly in Jiangsu Province in China) patients of both CSCC and CAC. We collected tissue samples of from 1044 women with CSC (826 cases) and CAC (218 cases) in 29 hospitals of 6 Provinces in China from November 1978 to December 2017. HPV DNA was extracted and 23 genotypes of HPV were detected through the combination of gene-chip and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to analyze distribution of HPV infection types among subjects of CSCC and CAC. Among 1044 cases of CSCC and CAC, 901 were found HPV positive making total HPV detection rate of 86.30% (901/1044). Total detection rate of CSCC was 91.53% (756/826) in which 16, 18, 58, 33, 52, 31 were the most common types where detection frequencies of 16 and 18 types were 56.84% (544/957) and 9.93% (95/957), respectively. Total detection rate of CAC was 66.51% (145/218) in which 16, 18, 31, 33, 52, 58 were the most common types where detection frequencies of 16 and 18 types were 35.29% (84/238) and 32.35% (77/238), respectively. The HPV detection rates were different in female CSCC and CAC tissues of region studied. The 16, 18, 31, 33, 52 and 58 types are the most common genotypes found in two sorts of cervical carcinoma tissues. The detection rate of 16 types was higher than 18 types in CSCC and were very close in CAC tissues. Conducting HPV genotypes detection of CSCC and CAC will help doctors evaluating onset risk of cervical carcinoma and tracking HPV infected patients with high cancerogenic risk. The early detection will play important role in prevention and treatment of female CSCC and CAC in our nation.

The outer stellar halos of galaxies: how radial merger mass deposition, shells, and streams depend on infall-orbit configurations

Galaxy mergers are a fundamental part of galaxy evolution. To study the resulting mass distributions of different kinds of galaxy mergers, we present a simulation suite of 36 high-resolution isolated merger simulations, exploring a wide range of parameter space in terms of mass ratios (mu = 1:5, 1:10, 1:50, 1:100) and orbital parameters. We find that mini mergers deposit a higher fraction of their mass in the outer halo compared to minor mergers, while their contribution to the central mass distribution is highly dependent on the orbital impact parameter: for larger pericentric distances we find that the centre of the host galaxy is almost not contaminated by merger particles. We also find that the median of the resulting radial mass distribution for mini mergers differs significantly from the predictions of simple theoretical tidal-force models. Furthermore, we find that mini mergers can increase the size of the host disc significantly without changing the global shape of the galaxy, if the impact occurs in the disc plane, thus providing a possible explanation for extended low-surface brightness disks reported in observations. Finally, we find clear evidence that streams are a strong indication of nearly circular infall of a satellite (with large angular momentum), whereas the appearance of shells clearly points to (nearly) radial satellite infall.

A novel phase function describing light scattering of layers containing colloidal nanospheres.

Light scattering from small particles exhibit unique angular scattering distributions, which are strongly dependent on the radius to wavelength ratio as well as the refractive index contrast between the particles and the surrounding medium. As the concentration of the particles increases, multiple scattering becomes important. This complicates the description of the angular scattering patterns, and in many cases one has to resort to empirical phase functions. We have measured the angle dependence of light scattering from a polymer layer containing sub-micron metallic and dielectric particles. The samples exhibited strongly forward and backward peaked scattering patterns, which were fitted to a number of empirical approximative phase functions. We found that a novel two-term Reynolds-McCormick (TTRM) phase function gave the best fit to the experimental data in all cases. The feasibility of the TTRM approach was further validated by good agreement with numerical simulations of Mie single scattering phase functions at various wavelengths and sizes, ranging from the Rayleigh scattering regime to the geometrical optics regime. Hence, the widely adaptable TTRM approach is able to describe angular scattering distributions of different kinds of nanospheres and nanocomposites, both in the single scattering and multiple scattering regimes.

Efficient feature selection and classification for microarray data.

Feature selection and classification are the main topics in microarray data analysis. Although many feature selection methods have been proposed and developed in this field, SVM-RFE (Support Vector Machine based on Recursive Feature Elimination) is proved as one of the best feature selection methods, which ranks the features (genes) by training support vector machine classification model and selects key genes combining with recursive feature elimination strategy. The principal drawback of SVM-RFE is the huge time consumption. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a more efficient implementation of linear support vector machines and improve the recursive feature elimination strategy and then combine them together to select informative genes. Besides, we propose a simple resampling method to preprocess the datasets, which makes the information distribution of different kinds of samples balanced and the classification results more credible. Moreover, the applicability of four common classifiers is also studied in this paper. Extensive experiments are conducted on six most frequently used microarray datasets in this field, and the results show that the proposed methods have not only reduced the time consumption greatly but also obtained comparable classification performance.

Velocity axial distribution of fragments from non-cylindrical symmetry explosive-filled casing

With the technical development of new warhead designs and explosive protection, theoretical research on the velocity distribution along the axis is important. The velocity distribution of fragments along the axis of 2 kinds of non-cylindrical casings, which were detonated at one end, was obtained and investigated in this paper with a flash-radiograph technique. The results of the experiments indicated that the rarefaction wave generated at 2 ends of the non-cylindrical casings was only related to the diameter of the explosive, instead of the filled ratio. According to the experimental conclusion, an “extended hard core” model was proposed, and its parameters were determined based on the analysis of the velocity distribution of different kinds of explosive-filled casings. This formula is able to directly obtain the velocity distribution of the non-cylindrical casing, which was detonated at one end, without needing experiments to determine unknown parameters. The formula is highly accurate and has a wide range of applications, which provides the basis for the new engineering design of diverse conventional warheads and explosive protection structure.

Reading impairment in neurodegenerative diseases: a multiple single-case study

ABSTRACTBackground: Reading impairment is frequently associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease (AD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). Notwithstanding the clinical relevance of reading processes in these conditions, only a relatively small number of studies have been published on this topic so far.Aims: We investigated the reading impairment in patients with different types of neurodegenerative diseases. In the light of the marked variability in pathological changes affecting brain areas potentially relevant to reading, it could be hypothesised that these neurodegenerative conditions may lead to different patterns of reading impairment.Methods & Procedures: Three groups of patients (AD, PPA, and PCA) and a control sample of neurologically healthy participants were examined with five tasks to test the ability to read and to repeat words and nonwords, as well as with an auditory and visual lexical decision task.Outcomes & Results: No specific pattern emerged as strongly diagnostic of a specific degenerative disease. Overall, AD and PPA patients were significantly more impaired in reading nonwords than words. Lexical decision impairment in the visual modality appears to be related to PCA, while a similar deficit in the auditory modality is more suggestive of AD. A multiple single-case analysis on the reading performance was run to identify the distribution of different kinds of dyslexia: phonological dyslexia occurred in 50% of patients affected by PCA: it occurred less often in patients affected by AD (15.8%) and PPA (16.7%). Surface dyslexia occurred only in one case of AD. Age of acquisition was predictive of the reading performance for AD patients, but not for PCA and PPA patients.Conclusions: Phonological dyslexia predominates in PCA. Surface dyslexia occurred only in one AD patient. Reading nonwords was predominantly impaired in AD and PPA cases. Impairment in visual lexical decision was associated with PCA, whereas a lexical decision deficit in the auditory modality emerged in AD. Data indicate the importance of extensive testing of reading and input lexical abilities in neurodegenerative diseases.

Evolutionary lessons from California plant phylogeography.

Phylogeography documents the spatial distribution of genetic lineages that result from demographic processes, such as population expansion, population contraction, and gene movement, shaped by climate fluctuations and the physical landscape. Because most phylogeographic studies have used neutral markers, the role of selection may have been undervalued. In this paper, we contend that plants provide a useful evolutionary lesson about the impact of selection on spatial patterns of neutral genetic variation, when the environment affects which individuals can colonize new sites, and on adaptive genetic variation, when environmental heterogeneity creates divergence at specific loci underlying local adaptation. Specifically, we discuss five characteristics found in plants that intensify the impact of selection: sessile growth form, high reproductive output, leptokurtic dispersal, isolation by environment, and the potential to evolve longevity. Collectively, these traits exacerbate the impact of environment on movement between populations and local selection pressures-both of which influence phylogeographic structure. We illustrate how these unique traits shape these processes with case studies of the California endemic oak, Quercus lobata, and the western North American lichen, Ramalina menziesii Obviously, the lessons we learn from plant traits are not unique to plants, but they highlight the need for future animal, plant, and microbe studies to incorporate its impact. Modern tools that generate genome-wide sequence data are now allowing us to decipher how evolutionary processes affect the spatial distribution of different kinds of genes and also to better model future spatial distribution of species in response to climate change.

Loess and early land use: Geoarchaeological investigation at the early Neolithic site of Guobei, Southern Chinese Loess Plateau

Prehistoric land use at the Guobei site and its relationship with the local environment are examined by applying OSL dating, micromorphological examination and geo-physical analysis. The majority of the OSL dates are of early to middle Holocene ages and are thus comparable to many OSL dates derived from other studies in the same region. According to the particle size analysis, silt-sized particles (2–60μm) were predominant throughout the profiles examined. However, there are spatial and temporal variations of different size groups of particles throughout the profiles, which provide complementary information for the micromorphological interpretation. The total organic component of the samples examined through LOI is relatively high (all >2%), with those of the overlying Holocene deposits higher than those of the underlying Malan loess by about 0.2%. Moreover, in all three profiles, the highest organic contents appear in the palaeosols, confirming that there was greater organic accumulation during soil formation periods. The groundmass of most slides collected from the early to middle Holocene horizons displays a very homogeneous pattern, while the abundance and distribution of different kinds of pedo-features, mainly including clay textural, calcitic, iron/Mn and crustal features, vary greatly temporally and spatially. These different lines of information demonstrate diversified pedo/sedimentary processes due to variations in micro-environmental conditions and cultural activities. We discuss the importance of a palaeo-ecological perspective, allowed by the geoarchaeological study, to an improved understanding of the relationship between loess, changing hydrology, prehistoric farming practice and land use, and long-term landscape change in the Chinese Loess area. This will thus contribute to a comparison on the dynamic relationship between loess and prehistoric farming in other regions of the world such as Europe and North America.

A Facile Multi-interface Transformation Approach to Monodisperse Multiple-Shelled Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica Hollow Spheres.

The synthesis of well-defined and complex hollow structures via a simple method is still a major challenge. In this work, a facile and controllable "multi-interface transformation" approach for preparation of monodisperse multi-shelled periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) hollow spheres has been established by a one-step hydrothermal treatment of successively grown organosilica particles. The multi-shelled PMO hollow spheres have inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks, controllable number (1-4) of shells, high surface area (∼805 m(2)/g), accessible ordered mesochannels (∼3.2 nm), large pore volume (1.0 cm(3)/g), and uniform and tunable diameter (300-550 nm), chamber size (4-54 nm), and shell thickness (10-30 nm). In addition, various organic groups (alkyl, aromatic, and heteroelement fragments) are successfully incorporated into the multi-shelled PMO hollow spheres by successively adding different bridged organosilica precursors. Notably, the distribution of different kinds of organic groups in the multi-shelled PMO hollow spheres can be precisely controlled, showing great potential for future applications. We propose that the formation of the multi-shelled PMO hollow structures is ascribed to the creation of multiple highly cross-linked organosilica interfaces, providing a new and interesting fundamental principle for PMO materials. Due to their unique structure and frameworks, triple-shelled ethane-bridged PMO hollow spheres were successfully loaded with an anti-cancer drug doxorubicin and perfluoropentane gas, which present excellent effects in the killing of cancer cells and ultrasound imaging. It is expected that the multi-interface transformation strategy provides a simple, controllable, versatile, and template-free method for preparation of various multifunctional PMOs for different applications.