Land Patterns Research Articles

Impacts of Cropland Utilization Patterns on the Sustainable Use Efficiency of Cropland Based on the Human–Land Perspective

Confronted with China’s burgeoning population and finite arable land resources, the enhancement of sustainable arable land efficiency is of paramount importance. This study, grounded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), introduces a robust framework for assessing sustainable arable land use. Utilizing the Sustainable Utilization of Arable Land (SUA) indicator system, the DGA–Super-SBM model, the Malmquist–Luenberger production index, and the TO–Fisher–OSM algorithm, we evaluated the efficiency of sustainable utilization of arable land (ESUA) in 52 prefecture-level cities within China’s major grain-producing regions of the Yellow and Huaihai Seas. We analyzed the cropland utilization patterns from 2010 to 2020, examining the influence of these patterns on sustainable utilization efficiency. Our findings indicate that between 2010 and 2020, the arable land usage in these regions exhibited minimal transformation, primarily shifting towards construction land and conversely from grassland and water systems. Notably, the ESUA of arable land demonstrated an upward trend, characterized by pronounced spatial clustering, enduring high efficiency in the northern regions, and a significant surge in the southern sectors. The declining ESUA (D-ESUA) trend was general but increased in half of the cities. The change in the center of gravity of ESUA correlated with the north–south movement of the proportion of cultivated land area, the turn-in rate, and the turn-out rate, yet moved in the opposite direction to that of cultivated land density and yield per unit area. Variables such as the replanting index, cropland density, yield per unit area, and cropland turn-in rate significantly affected ESUA. These findings offer a scientific basis and decision-making support for optimizing the utilization pattern of arable land and achieving a rational allocation of arable land resources.

Spatial distribution pattern of colonized native semi-shrubs in two artificial vegetation restoration patterns in Mu Us sandy land, North China

Spatial distribution pattern of colonized native semi-shrubs in two artificial vegetation restoration patterns in Mu Us sandy land, North China

High resolution assessment of commercial fisheries activity along the US West Coast using Vessel Monitoring System data with a case study using California groundfish fisheries

Commercial fisheries along the US West Coast are important components of local and regional economies. They use various fishing gear, target a high diversity of species, and are highly spatially heterogeneous, making it challenging to generate a synoptic picture of fisheries activity in the region. Still, understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of US West Coast fisheries is critical to meet the US legal mandate to manage fisheries sustainably and to better coordinate activities among a growing number of users of ocean space, including offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, shipping, and interactions with habitats and key non-fishery species such as seabirds and marine mammals. We analyzed vessel tracking data from Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) from 2010 to 2017 to generate high-resolution spatio-temporal estimates of contemporary fishing effort across a wide range of commercial fisheries along the entire US West Coast. We identified over 247,000 fishing trips across the entire VMS data, covering over 25 different fisheries. We validated the spatial accuracy of our analyses using independent estimates of spatial groundfish fisheries effort generated through the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Observer Program. Additionally, for commercial groundfish fisheries operating in federal waters in California, we combined the VMS data with landings and ex-vessel value data from California commercial fisheries landings receipts to generate highly resolved estimates of landings and ex-vessel value, matching over 38,000 fish tickets with VMS data that included 87% of the landings and 76% of the ex-vessel value for groundfish. We highlight fisheries-specific and spatially-resolved patterns of effort, landings, and ex-vessel value, a bimodal distribution of fishing effort with respect to depth, and variable and generally declining effort over eight years. The information generated by our study can help inform future sustainable spatial fisheries management and other activities in the marine environment including offshore renewable energy planning.

Movement Quality Assessment of Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps Cadets: A Report of Validity and Normative Data.

Movement quality screening in early-career military populations, like Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (AROTC) cadets, could decrease the negative impact of musculoskeletal injury observed within the military. Movement quality screening techniques should be valid before being pursued in the field. Normative data describing movement quality of AROTC cadets are also needed. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine criterion validity of several movement quality assessments and report normative jump-landing kinematics of AROTC cadets. This cross-sectional research was approved by the Institutional Review Board. As part of a larger study, 20 AROTC cadets (21.3 ± 3.4 years; 1.7 ± 0.1 m; 73.8 ± 14.8 kg) had 3-dimensional (3D) and 2-dimensional (2D) kinematic data collected simultaneously while performing a jump-landing task. Variables of interest were 3D hip and knee sagittal, frontal, and transverse joint angles at maximum knee flexion. An experienced rater calculated sagittal and frontal 2D joint angles at maximum knee flexion. Averages of 2D and 3D angles were calculated to describe normative data and for further data analysis. Bivariate correlations between 3D and 2D variables were used to determine criterion validity. Moderate correlations were found between 2D and 3D hip frontal plane angles (P = .05, r =-0.33), 2D and 3D knee sagittal plane angles (P = .04, r = 0.35), and 2D and 3D knee frontal plane angles (P = .03, r = -0.36). Normative values of knee and hip kinematics demonstrated averages of 17.58° of knee adduction, 16.48° of knee external rotation, 11.57° of hip abduction, 10.76° of hip internal rotation, and 103.47° of knee flexion during landings. However, ranges demonstrated that landing patterns vary within AROTC cadets. The normative values of 3D jump-landing kinematic data indicate that movement quality varies greatly within AROTC cadets, and some cadets display potentially injurious movements. Therefore, screening movement quality could be beneficial to determine musculoskeletal injury risk in AROTC cadets. Based on the correlations discovered in this study, we recommend the 2D techniques used in this study be researched further as they may serve as alternatives to expensive, timely 3D techniques that could be better utilized in military environments.

Tree frogs Polypedates Dennysi landing on horizontal perches: the effects of perch diameters.

Secure landing is indispensable for both leaping animals and robotics. Tree frogs, renowned for their adhesive capabilities, can effectively jump across intricate 3D terrain and land safely. Compared to jumping, the mechanisms underlying their landing technique, particularly in arboreal environments, have remained largely unknown. In this study, we focused on the landing patterns of the tree frogs Polypedates Dennysi on horizontally placed perches, explicitly emphasizing the impact of perch diameters. Tree frogs demonstrated diverse landing postures, including the utilization of (1) single front foot, (2) double front feet, (3) anterior bellies, (4) middle bellies, (5) posterior bellies, (6) single hind foot, or (5) double hind feet. Generally, tree frogs favour bellies on slimmer targets but double front feet on large perches. Analysis of limb-trunk relationships revealed their adaptability to modifying postures, including body positions and limb orientations, for successful landing. The variations in the initial landing postures affect the succeeding landing procedures and, consequently, the dynamics. As the initial contact position was switched from front foot to hind foot, the stabilization time decreased first, reaching the minimum in middle belly landings, and then increased. The maximum vertical forces changed in an inverse trend, whereas the maximum fore-aft forces continuously increased as the initial contact position switched. As the perch diameter rose, the time expenses dropped, whereas the maximum impact increased. These findings not only added to our understanding of frog landings but also highlighted the necessity of considering perch diameters and landing styles when studying the biomechanics of arboreal locomotion.

Projected patterns of land uses in Africa under a warming climate

Land-use change is a direct driver of biodiversity loss, projection and future land use change often consider a topical issue in response to climate change. Yet few studies have projected land-use changes over Africa, owing to large uncertainties. We project changes in land-use and land-use transfer under future climate for three specified time periods: 2021–2040, 2041–2060, and 2081–2100, and compares the performance of various scenarios using observational land-use data for the year 2020 and projected land-use under seven Shared Socioeconomic Pathways Scenarios (SSP): SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, SSP4-3.4, SSP4-6.0 and SSP5-8.5 from 2015 to 2100 in Africa. The observational land-use types for the year 2020 depict a change and show linear relationship between observational and simulated land-use with a strong correlation of 0.89 (P < 0.01) over Africa. Relative to the reference period (1995–2014), for (2021–2040), (2041–2060), (2081–2100), barren land and forest land are projected to decrease by an average of (6%, 11%, 16%), (9%, 19%, 38%) respectively, while, crop land, grassland and urban land area are projected to increase by (36%, 58%, and 105%), (4%, 7% and 11%), and (139%, 275% and 450%) respectively. Results show a substantial variations of land use transfer between scenarios with major from barren land to crop land, for the whole future period (2015–2100). Although SSP4-3.4 project the least transfer. Population and GDP show a relationship with cropland and barren land. The greatest conversion of barren land to crop land could endanger biodiversity and have negative effects on how well the African continent's ecosystem’s function.

Monitoring Land Use Changes in the Yellow River Delta Using Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data and Machine Learning from 2000 to 2020

The Yellow River Delta (YRD), known for its vast and diverse wetland ecosystem, is the largest estuarine delta in China. However, human activities and climate change have significantly degraded the wetland ecosystem in recent decades in the YRD. Therefore, an understanding of the land use modifications is essential for the efficient management and preservation of ecosystems in this region. This study utilized time series of remote sensing data and the extreme gradient boosting method to generate land use maps of the YRD from 2000 to 2020. Several methods, including transition matrix, land use dynamic degree, and standard deviation ellipse, were employed to explore the characteristics of land use transitions. The results underscore significant spatial variations in land use over the past two decades. The most rapid increase was observed in built-up area, followed by terrestrial water and tidal flats, while unutilized land experienced the fastest decrease, followed by forest–grassland. The spatial distribution patterns of agricultural land, built-up area, terrestrial water, and forest–grassland demonstrated stronger directionality compared to other land use types. The wetlands have expanded in size and improved in structure. Unutilized land has been converted into artificial wetlands comprising ponds, reservoirs, salt ponds, shrimp and crab ponds, and natural wetlands featuring mudflats and forest–grassland. The wetland conservation efforts after 2008 have proven very effective, playing a positive role in ecological and environmental preservation, as well as in regional sustainable development.

Conspicuity of staircase configuration: Effects of markings and contrast.

To be able to walk safely up or down a staircase, we must be able to judge the configuration and slope of the staircase and our viewing position. Adding markings to the stairs might help form correct perceptions of the staircase geometry. In this study, we examined how visual judgements about staircase configuration are affected by different marking patterns. Fifteen normally sighted young participants viewed computer-generated images of staircases as seen from the top landing of the stairs. Marking patterns included contrasting baseboard, transverse edge-stripes, longitudinal side-stripes, longitudinal stripes, diamond patterns, longitudinal stripes extended to landing and diamond patterns extended to landing. For comparison, we included the no-marking condition as a control. We tested several contrast levels of marking patterns (3.2%-50%), pitch lines of the staircases (shallow/medium/steep) and viewing positions (left/centre/right). The effect of the overall shape cue of the staircase on participants' performance was also evaluated. We measured participants' accuracies in judging whether the staircase was shallow, medium or steep, and whether the viewing position was located to the left, centre or right. Transverse edge-stripes markings yielded fewer underestimations of slope (9% [transverse] vs. 18% [others]) when compared with other markers. The presence of an overall shape cue helped both slope (67% [presence] vs. 51% [absence]) and viewing position judgements (79% [presence] vs. 62% [absence]). When the overall shape cue was present, only the transverse edge-stripes markings yielded a significant improvement in performance (compared with no-marking condition). When the cue was absent, performance was significantly better with markings with high and moderate contrasts. Adding marking patterns such as high-contrast transverse stripes to stairs may help enhance the visibility of the stairs and judgements of staircase geometry. This might be particularly useful for people with visual impairment or normally sighted individuals under compromised environmental conditions.

Growth Patterns, Status of Well-Being and Trend Analysis of Three Commercially Important Clupeid Species from Selangor Landing Port

Length-weight relationships (LWRs) and condition factors are vital to quickly understanding the fitness and well-being of fish. There is currently no available evidence on LWRs, condition factors and landing trend for these three species and an absence of this information will result in improper management and monitoring of fish species. In this study, the growth patterns, status of well-being and trend analysis of commercially important clupeid species from the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia were studied. Sardinella lemuru, Amblygaster sirm and Nematalosa japonica were selected due to high commercial value and conservation status. S. lemuru was specifically categorized as near threatened by the IUCN with decreasing global populations. Total length (cm) and body weight (g) of S. lemuru, A. sirm and N. japonica were accounted for in this study, which was obtained from the wet market in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The relationships between length and, weight and, condition factors (Fulton’s, KF; relative condition factor, Kn; Allometric) were assessed. The allometric equation; W = aLb was used to evaluate the length-weight relationships while KF = 100W/Lb and Kn = W/aLb were used to estimate fish condition factor. ARIMA (1,1,1) and ARIMA (0,1,0) models were utilised to forecast the fish landing pattern until 2030. The results showed that the coefficient of determination R2 values varied between 0.263 (Sardinella lemuru), 0.5187 (Amblygaster sirm) and 0.8443 (Nematalosa japonica) and b values ranged from 0.0959 to 2.1005. From this, all three fish species have shown a negative allometric growth pattern b&lt;3, reflecting a relatively slow growth rate and size of fish. No positive allometry was detected for any of the sampled fish species. A low value of relative condition factor (Kn &lt; 1) suggests that all the fish species in this study have poor physical characteristics due to inadequate food resources, and unsuitable habitats for expansion of the fish population. Prediction based on Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model showed that N. japonica would increase gradually in the coming years, while S. lemuru would remain constant. This study contributes to the knowledge base for S. lemuru, A. sirm and N. japonica in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and is crucial in terms of understanding the ecology of the habitat for supporting conservation strategies, and the restoration and management of these species in future.

Streamflow Variation under Climate Conditions Based on a Soil and Water Assessment Tool Model: A Case Study of the Bailong River Basin

We coupled the global climate models (GCMs) from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) and Future Land Use Simulation model (FLUS) to evaluate land use change in the Bailong River Basin (BRB) under three shared socioeconomic pathway and representative concentration pathway scenarios (SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP5–8.5). Additionally, we used calibrated soil and water assessment tools (SWATs) to evaluate the streamflow in the BRB from 2008 to 2100 under the combined influence of climate and land use changes. The results indicate that (1) under the SSP126-EP scenario, forests have been well preserved, and there has been an increase in the combined area of forests and water bodies. The SSP245-ND scenario has a similar reduction pattern in agricultural land as SSP126-EP, with relatively good grassland preservation and a moderate expansion rate in built-up land. In contrast, the SSP585-EG scenario features a rapid expansion of built-up land, converting a significant amount of farmland and grassland into built-up land. (2) From 2021 to 2100, the annual average flow increases under all three scenarios, and the streamflow change is most significant under SSP5–8.5. (3) Compared to the baseline period, the monthly runoff increases, with the most significant increase occurring during the summer months (June to August). This study offers a thorough assessment of potential future changes in streamflow. Its findings are expected to be applied in the future to improve the management of water resources at a local level.

Trends and Factors Influencing the Evolution of Spatial Patterns of Cropland toward Large-Scale Agricultural Production in China

Considering the essential expansion of agricultural production, current research primarily focuses on static factors, such as the distribution of fine-grained arable land, omitting an in-depth analysis of its developmental dynamics and key drivers. Addressing this knowledge gap is crucial for enhancing the scalability of agricultural production. This research utilizes landscape ecology techniques, correlation analysis, random forest algorithms, and structural equation modeling to explore spatial pattern trends of arable land in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. Its objective is to clarify how the expansion of agricultural production scale affects food production through changes in arable land patterns and to determine the impact of socio-economic factors on these configurations. The results show that: (1) the landscape pattern of arable land is transitioning to a more fragmented arrangement with complex contours, (2) grain yield per unit area correlates positively with the landscape pattern index in Beijing, negatively in Hebei, and exhibits no significant correlation in Tianjin, and (3) land ownership plays a crucial role in land fragmentation, alterations in land morphology, and influences other socio-economic variables. Analyzing the spatial pattern of arable land in conjunction with socio-economic factors is essential for developing holistic land management approaches, improving resource efficiency, minimizing external inputs, and mitigating food security challenges.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Transformation Regulation Strategies of Rural Residential Land on the Grand Canal (China)

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Transformation Regulation Strategies of Rural Residential Land on the Grand Canal (China)

Comprehensive analysis of land use and cover dynamics in djibouti using machine learning technique: A multi-temporal assessment from 1990 to 2023

Understanding land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics in semi-arid regions is vital for unraveling complex environmental processes and resource management. This study delves into the intricate interplay of land patterns and resource dynamics, offering indispensable insights into the environmental repercussions of these changes. The study aims to quantify land use categories in Djibouti's semi-desert region using remote sensing. It analyzes temporal changes and evaluates Random Forest (RF) algorithms for land use classification. Through meticulous quantification and comprehensive temporal analysis, the research contributes significantly to remote sensing and environmental science by enhancing understanding of land use dynamics and informing sustainable land management practices. Leveraging machine learning supervised classification on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform using Landsat data spanning four time periods (1990, 2002, 2012, and 2023), alongside spectral indices and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, our study achieves unprecedented insights. Our findings reveal a significant landscape transformation, delineating seven major land cover classes: mangroves, bushes, farmland, built-up areas, water bodies, barren land, and salt plains. With overall accuracy ranging from 89 % to 95 %, our assessments demonstrate significant changes in land use types over the studied period. Notably, mangroves, bushes, farmland, and salt areas witnessed declines, while built-up areas, water bodies, and barren lands expanded. This research underscores the pivotal role of remote sensing in monitoring long-term land use changes and their ecological impacts. By harnessing technological advancements, our study empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions for sustainable resource management and environmental conservation in semi-arid landscapes.

Change pattern and stability of oasisization land in Mu Us Sandy Land.

Understanding land structure change and stability in the process of oasisization is particularly important for the desertification control in sandy land. Based on land use data of eight periods from 1980 to 2020, we extracted the spatial distribution information of oasis land in Mu Us Sandy Land, and analyzed the spatio-temporal variations of land transformation patterns and stability of oasis land with overlay analysis and grid analysis. The results showed that desertification in the Mu Us Sandy Land had reversed, with a significant process of oasis. The area of forest and grassland increased from 10.2% in 1980 to 73.7% in 2020, while the area of oasisization land increased from 32500 km2 in 1980 to 33900 km2 in 2020. The area of extremely severe, severe, and moderate desertification significantly decreased, while the area of non-desertification and mild desertification obviously increased. The four patterns of oasisization land transformation, including stability, fluctuation, expansion, and retreat, which accounted for 78.7%, 12.2%, 6.2%, and 2.9% of the oasisization land area in 2020, respectively. The oasisization land with low change intensity (the cumulative change intensity less than 0.12) in the Mu Us Sandy Land accounted for 82.7% of the total oasisization area, and the oasisization land in the sandy land was generally stable. Zoning management strategies should be applied according to the stability of sand belt and transformation pattern of oasisization land to achieve the goal of efficient system management and improvement, including eliminating sand hazards at desertification expansion areas with strong wind and sand activities, consolidating sand resources at oasisization areas where ecologically fragile desertification was frequent, and sustainably managing and utilizing sand resources at stable expansion of oases in forest- and grass-rich oasisization areas.

Predicting overstriding with wearable IMUs during treadmill and overground running

Running injuries are prevalent, but their exact mechanisms remain unknown largely due to limited real-world biomechanical analysis. Reducing overstriding, the horizontal distance that the foot lands ahead of the body, may be relevant to reducing injury risk. Here, we leverage the geometric relationship between overstriding and lower extremity sagittal segment angles to demonstrate that wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) can predict overstriding during treadmill and overground running in the laboratory. Ten recreational runners matched their strides to a metronome to systematically vary overstriding during constant-speed treadmill running and showed similar overstriding variation during comfortable-speed overground running. Linear mixed models were used to analyze repeated measures of overstriding and sagittal segment angles measured with motion capture and IMUs. Sagittal segment angles measured with IMUs explained 95% and 98% of the variance in overstriding during treadmill and overground running, respectively. We also found that sagittal segment angles measured with IMUs correlated with peak braking force and explained 88% and 80% of the variance during treadmill and overground running, respectively. This study highlights the potential for IMUs to provide insights into landing and loading patterns over time in real-world running environments, and motivates future research on feedback to modify form and prevent injury.

Divergent urban land trajectories under alternative population projections within the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

Population change is a main driver behind global environmental change, including urban land expansion. In future scenario modeling, assumptions regarding how populations will change locally, despite identical global constraints of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), can have dramatic effects on subsequent regional urbanization. Using a spatial modeling experiment at high resolution (1 km), this study compared how two alternative US population projections, varying in the spatially explicit nature of demographic patterns and migration, affect urban land dynamics simulated by the Spatially Explicit, Long-term, Empirical City development (SELECT) model for SSP2, SSP3, and SSP5. The population projections included: (1) newer downscaled state-specific population (SP) projections inclusive of updated international and domestic migration estimates, and (2) prevailing downscaled national-level projections (NP) agnostic to localized demographic processes. Our work shows that alternative population inputs, even those under the same SSP, can lead to dramatic and complex differences in urban land outcomes. Under the SP projection, urbanization displays more of an extensification pattern compared to the NP projection. This suggests that recent demographic information supports more extreme urban extensification and land pressures on existing rural areas in the US than previously anticipated. Urban land outcomes to population inputs were spatially variable where areas in close spatial proximity showed divergent patterns, reflective of the spatially complex urbanization processes that can be accommodated in SELECT. Although different population projections and assumptions led to divergent outcomes, urban land development is not a linear product of population change but the result of complex relationships between population, dynamic urbanization processes, stages of urban development maturity, and feedback mechanisms. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for spatial variations in the population projections, but also urbanization process to accurately project long-term urban land patterns.

Grey markov land pattern analysis and forecasting model incorporating social factors

The focus of attention has shifted to land use and land cover changes as a result of the world’s fast urbanisation, and logical planning of urban land resources depends greatly on the forecast and analysis of these changes. In order to more precisely forecast and assess patterns of land use change, the study suggests a grey Markov land pattern analysis and prediction model that incorporates social aspects. The study builds a land pattern analysis and prediction model using a major city as the research object. The outcomes demonstrated the high accuracy and reliability of the grey Markov land pattern analysis and prediction model incorporating social factors, which can more accurately reflect and predict the land use pattern of the study area, with an average relative error of less than 0.01, an accuracy of more than 98%, and an overall fit that has increased by more than 3%. The overall pattern of change is very consistent with the reality. The model predicts that the main trend of future land use in the study area is the continued expansion of urban land such as industrial land, land for transport facilities and land for settlements, while non-construction land such as agricultural land and forest land will continue to decrease. The optimized land pattern analysis and prediction model of the study has a good application environment.

Analysis of the comparison between concentric and eccentric muscle strength in the bilateral knee joint of elite female volleyball players

&lt;p&gt;目的：本研究目的為探討優秀女子排球選手在雙側膝關節伸展與屈曲動作肌力與肌力平衡特徵之差異。方法：以等速肌力測量儀檢測參與者雙側膝關節之力矩，研究參與者為 16 名大專公開一級女子排球選手。統計分析以成對樣本t-tset比較女子排球選手在雙側膝關節伸屈肌力矩之差異及傳統式腿後肌與四頭肌比值 (hamstring to quadriceps strength ratio, H/Q 比值) 與功能性 H/Q 比值的差異，顯著水準訂為&amp;alpha; ＝ .05。結果：排球選手在雙側膝關節的伸屈肌向心最大力矩中，只有在 60 &amp;deg;/s 時的伸肌未達顯著差異，其餘向心最大力矩皆有達顯著差異，且慣用側大於非慣用側；在雙側膝關節肌力之伸屈肌離心最大力矩與傳統式 H/Q 比值皆未達顯著差異，傳統式 H/Q 比值雖未達顯著差異，但都低於理想的安全值；在功能性比值方面，60 &amp;deg;/s 時伸、屈動作皆未達顯著差異，而 180 &amp;deg;/s 時伸展與屈曲動作則皆達到顯著差異，且非慣用側大於慣用側。結論：參與者應加強雙側的腿後肌群向心力矩，以提高傳統式 H/Q 比值，降低受傷的風險。功能性比值在伸展與屈曲動作的爆發力矩皆出現差異，這與排球攻擊動作落地時以非慣用側著地緩衝的特性有關。因此，應重視非慣用側的肌力訓練，以降低受傷的風險，更進一步提升選手攻擊的能力。&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in muscular strength and muscle balance characteristics in bilateral knee joint flexion-extension movements of elite female volleyball players. Methods: The study utilized the isokinetic dynamometer to measure the torque of the knee joint in 16 collegiate division Ⅰ female volleyball players. Statistical analysis was us-ing paired sample t-tests to compare the differences in knee joint flexion-extension torque, tradi-tional H/Q ratio(hamstring to quadriceps strength ratio, H/Q ratio) and functional H/Q ratio be-tween the dominant and non-dominant sides, with a significance level set at &amp;alpha; = .05. Results: The study found that in the concentric maximum torque of knee joint flexion-extension muscles, sig-nificant differences were observed at all angular velocities except for the extension muscle at 60&amp;deg;/s. The dominant side exhibited greater torque than the non-dominant side. However, there were no significant differences in eccentric maximum torque and traditional H/Q ratio of knee joint muscles. Although the traditional H/Q ratio did not show significant differences, it remained below the ideal safety value. Regarding functional H/Q ratio, there were no significant differences in both flexion and extension movements at 60&amp;deg;/s, while at 180&amp;deg;/s, significant differences were observed in both flexion and extension movements, with the non-dominant side exhibiting greater values than the dominant side. Conclusion: Participants should enhance the concentric force of the traditional H/Q ratio to reduce the risk of injury. Discrepancies in functional ratios are evident in the torque generated during extension and flexion movements, attributed to the characteristic landing pattern, which involves buffering on the non-dominant side during volleyball attacking actions. Therefore, prioritizing strength training on the non-dominant side is crucial to mitigate injury risks and further enhance athletes’ attacking capabilities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Analysis of land use/land cover changes and driving forces during the period 1992–2022: a case study of Jinan City, China

Abstract This research aims to quantify the spatial pattern of urban land use/land cover (LULC) change while considering environmental effects. This paper integrates historical Landsat imagery, The Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI), geographical information system (GIS), and socioeconomic data to determine the spatial–temporal urban LULC dynamics and the conversion of LULC in response to the rapid urbanization from 1992 to 2022. Principle component analysis and multiple linear regression are used to determine and model the relationship between the socioeconomic factors and the changes for identifying the driving forces. The results indicate that impervious surfaces have exponentially increased, expanding more than two times from 2,348 to 4,795 km2, in contrast to bare lands, which drastically declined by 95%, from 1,888 to 87 km2. Water bodies have always been relatively fewer, at approximately 100 km2. In addition, the majority of farmland in Jinan City is concentrated in the northern region with a steady area in the range of 2,100–2,900 km2, while the majority of woodland located in the southern region declined from 3,774.52 km2 (37%) to 3,088.28 km2 (30%). Economic development, population growth, and climate change are the primary factors that have an obvious impact on LULC changes.

A new method applied for explaining the landing patterns: Interpretability analysis of machine learning

As one of many fundamental sports techniques, the landing maneuver is also frequently used in clinical injury screening and diagnosis. However, the landing patterns are different under different constraints, which will cause great difficulties for clinical experts in clinical diagnosis. Machine learning (ML) have been very successful in solving a variety of clinical diagnosis tasks, but they all have the disadvantage of being black boxes and rarely provide and explain useful information about the reasons for making a particular decision. The current work validates the feasibility of applying an explainable ML (XML) model constructed by Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP) for landing pattern recognition in clinical biomechanics. This study collected 560 groups landing data. By incorporating these landing data into the XML model as input signals, the prediction results were interpreted based on the relevance score (RS) derived from LRP. The interpretation obtained from XML was evaluated comprehensively from the statistical perspective based on Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) and Effect Size. The RS has excellent statistical characteristics in the interpretation of landing patterns between classes, and also conforms to the clinical characteristics of landing pattern recognition. The current work highlights the applicability of XML methods that can not only satisfy the traditional decision problem between classes, but also largely solve the lack of transparency in landing pattern recognition. We provide a feasible framework for realizing interpretability of ML decision results in landing analysis, providing a methodological reference and solid foundation for future clinical diagnosis and biomechanical analysis.