Shenmu County Research Articles

Recent developments in the research and digitalization of Jurchen script and literature

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research and advancements in Jurchen language and literature since the 20th century. Recent discoveries of multiple Jurchen inscriptions and documents, including the inscription found in Shenmu County and the Arkhara River basin, have presented new sources for the study of Jurchen language and script. Progress in the study of Jurchen language and script has been relatively slow, with major accomplishments made in fields such as the Jurchen phonetic system, interpretation of individual words, and comparative analysis between Jurchen and Manchu languages. In addition, the digitalization of Jurchen script and documents has seen some advancement, including the development of Unicode encoding for Jurchen script and the creation of standard Jurchen characters.

Analysis and Improvement Strategies of Rural Elderly Care Models in Northern Shaanxi Province

Compared to coastal areas in China, the development of rural areas in the central and western regions faces more challenges and difficulties, with more severe labor loss, more fragile ecological environment, and a shortage of government financial funds. At the same time, the issue of aging is becoming increasingly serious, and rural elderly care has become an important issue that restricts rural development. Northern Shaanxi is located on the Loess Plateau. Through literature review and field research, this article analyzes the main elderly care models in Shenmu County and explores the social security system. Taking people as the core, this study proposes optimization measures for elderly care security. In addition to the support of the government and families, more attention should be paid to forming a community security system and implementing unified management based on the community as a unit, which helps to alleviate the contradiction between population and development.

Freezing point of sodium sulfate loess in check dams after freeze-thaw

When evaluating the range of salt weathering of loess check dams during freeze-thaw, the freezing point and its relationship to suction should be considered. Field surveys on the salinity of loess slopes of check dams in Shenmu county of northern Shaanxi were conducted in spring from 2019 to 2021. Marked salt concentration was observed in the slope surface, approaching the threshold of saline soil of 0.3% and sodium sulfate was the main component. Freezing point, suction and microstructure of sodium sulfate loess after freeze-thaw were studied. Results show that soil freezing point decays with freeze-thaw cycles, which is linked to pore structure and particle morphology, as revealed from quantitative indexes of soil microstructure. The matric suction of sodium sulfate loess declines with freeze-thaw, while the osmotic suction that depends mainly on solute concentration is less correlated. The Mizoguchi model was found to be valid for estimating the freezing point of salt-free loess, but it deviates significantly for sodium sulfate loess. To address the above limitation, a modified model that considers the correlation between soil freezing point and suction under freeze-thaw conditions was suggested and verified by test data.

Evaluation of the Ecological Environment Quality of the Kuye River Source Basin Using the Remote Sensing Ecological Index.

Landsat remote sensing images obtained from 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 were analyzed. The normalized vegetation index (NDVI), moisture index (WET), land surface temperature (LST), and normalized building-soil index (NDBSI) were extracted based on the four aspects of greenness, humidity, heat, and dryness. The Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) was calculated using principal component analysis to quantitatively analyze and dynamically monitor and evaluate the ecological environment changes in the Kuye River Basin over the past 20 years. From the perspective of spatial and temporal distribution, the ecological and environmental quality of Kuye River Basin had a downward trend from 2000 to 2020. The overall RSEI grade was medium or poor, and the average RSEI decreased. The proportion of excellent and good grade watershed areas decreased, whereas that of medium, low, and poor grade watershed areas increased over the study period. Spatially, RSEI decreased gradually from southeast to northwest. The degraded areas were mainly distributed in urban areas with frequent human activities. Conversely, the superior eco-environmental quality areas were mainly distributed in eastern sections of the watershed. Compared with 2000, the eco-environmental quality of the Yulin urban area and Shenmu County in the southern section of the watershed are worsening.

Automated Extraction of Ground Fissures Due to Coal Mining Subsidence Based on UAV Photogrammetry

Widespread ground fissures caused by coal mining subsidence are a main cause of ecological destruction in coal mining areas, and the rapid monitoring of ground fissures is essential for ecological restoration. Traditional fissure monitoring technologies are time consuming and laborious. Therefore, we developed a method to automatically extract ground fissures from high-resolution UAV images. First, a multiscale Hessian-based enhancement filter was utilized to enhance the ground fissures in grayscale images. Then, a simple single-thresholding operation was applied to segment the enhanced image to generate a binary ground fissure map. Finally, incomplete path opening was performed to eliminate the noises in the fissure extraction results. We selected the N1212 working face of the Ningtiaota Coal Mine in Shenmu County, China, as the study area. The results indicated that the ranges of correctness, completeness, and the kappa coefficient of the extracted results were 66.23–79.00%, 69.03–73.22%, and 67.91–75.88%, respectively. Image resolution is the key factor for successful fissure detection; the method proposed in this paper can extract ground fissures with a width greater than one pixel (2.64 cm), and the detection ratio for fissures with a width greater than two pixels was over 87%. Our research has solved the problem of the rapid monitoring of ground fissures to a certain extent and can act as a valuable tool for ecological restoration in mining areas.

Terrain Skeleton Construction and Analysis in Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi

A terrain skeleton determines the overall structure and characteristics of the terrain and indicates the presence of significant terrain features, such as ridges and valleys. It plays an important role in terrain representation and reconstruction, hydrological analysis of watersheds, and other scientific studies and engineering applications. Previous studies of terrain skeleton have been mostly focused on the extraction of terrain skeletons, ignoring their important effect on terrain analysis. Therefore, this work proposes a new terrain skeleton, which includes three types of terrain skeleton points and two types of terrain skeleton lines. The terrain control points are peak, saddle, and valley nodes, while the terrain skeleton lines are connection lines of peaks and saddles and connection lines of saddles and valley nodes. The terrain skeleton connects isolated terrain control points together. The data structure is designed, and three analysis indicators, namely, nearest-neighbor index, topological connectivity index and landscape shape index are selected. Results show that the three selected indicators can reflect the spatial structure of the terrain skeleton and describe the landform development to a certain extent. Different areas of the same landform, such as the two sample areas in Shenmu County, show variations.

Coal exploitation and income inequality: Testing the resource curse with econometric analyses of household survey data from northwestern China

AbstractCoal resources have always been an important driving force for macroeconomic growth and GDP growth in resource‐rich regions. However, this growth has also caused inequality of household income in developing regions. Using survey data on rural household livelihoods in Shenmu county, Shaanxi Province, in northwestern China, this paper analyzes the relationship between coal exploitation and income inequality. Four multivariate econometric analyses are developed. We find evidence for the resource curse theory of natural resource exploitation leading to inequality: the Gini coefficient for household revenue is discovered to be markedly related with the location of and participation in coal exploitation. Nevertheless, this correlation is not linear. Rather, household income inequality primitively rises with environmental and resource subsidies. We analyze the impacts of household income inequality and contrast the characteristics of household livelihood and location characteristics in the coal exploitation site of northern Shenmu with those in the whole survey site. Our statistical analysis shows that out‐migration, the level of total household income, and convenience of household transportation are the important elements devoting to household income in northern Shenmu, the coal resources endowment region. However, the environmental damage and pollution caused by coal exploitation has substantial negative impacts upon household income, especially for households not participating in coal activities. Overall, we found that coal exploitation did not develop local industries. Adversely, the ecological environment problem and the high subsidy for coal mining caused by the exploitation of coal resources have aggravated the inequality of household income in the sample areas. Additionally, the development of coal resources attracted youth labor from agriculture to the coal industry, which exacerbated the lack of labor force and weakened village agricultural productivity.

Spatial differences in the radial growth responses of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia Linn.) to climate on the Loess Plateau, China

The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia Linn.) is the dominant tree species in the “grain for green” project on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China, and brings many ecological benefits to this planted region. However, there are concerns regarding its suitability as a plantation forest species in different regions of the LP. We used a dendroclimatological approach to investigate the radial growth response of black locust to varying climate in two sites on the LP with differing precipitation gradients. We took tree-ring samples from black locust in Yongshou County (in the semi-humid southern LP) and Shenmu County (in the semi-arid northern LP), and developed tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies for each. We performed moving correlation analyses between TRW chronologies and aggregated thermal (maximum temperature (TMX), minimum temperature (TMN), mean temperature (TMP)) and hydroclimatic factors (precipitation, self-calibrated Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), and humidity). The results demonstrated the increased influence of thermal factors during autumn, and the generally decreased influence of hydroclimatic factors on black locust radial growth in Yongshou, compared with the decreasing influence of thermal factors (during all seasons) and increasing influence of hydroclimatic factors (precipitation during summer, scPDSI and humidity during autumn) on black locust radial growth in Shenmu. The results indicated that black locust radial growth might benefit from the current climatic conditions in the southern LP. However, black locust radial growth stressed by water availability in the northern LP, which may reduce its vitality and productivity as climate warms in the future. These results have implications for regional forestry planning and ecological restoration strategies on the LP.

The Effects of Leaf Extracts of Four Tree Species on Amygdalus pedunculata Seedlings Growth.

Vegetation reconstruction is an urgent problem in fragile environment like coal mine subsidence areas. Amygdalus pedunculata is an important eco-economic shrub species that promotes wind prevention, sand fixation as well as soil and water conservation. The natural regeneration of pure Amygdalus pedunculata forests is difficult to achieve because of its low seed germination rate and weak seedling growth. A stereo-complex ecosystem could potentially promote the germination and seedling growth of A. pedunculata and establish a steady mixed plantation consisting of trees and shrubs. Here, laboratory and pot experiments were conducted to assess the effect of four tree species on morphological and physiological indexes of A. pedunculata. The laboratory experiment showed that A. pedunculata seed germination and seedling growth from Yuyang County (YC-1) and Shenmu County (SC-6) were higher when plants were treated with the aqueous leaf extracts of Pinus sylvestris, Broussonetia papyrifera, and Pinus tabulaeformis compared with Populus simonii at concentrations of 2.5% (E2.5) and 5% (E5). Furthermore, the donor leaf extract was more sensitive to YC-1 than to SC-6. The pot experiment showed that the E2.5 and E5 treatments with the aqueous leaf extracts on the three tree species had strong promoting effects of seedling length, root length, seedling fresh weight, root fresh weight, and ground diameter for YC-1. The activity of catalase of A. pedunculata seedlings first increased and then decreased, while the activity of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, roots, and the contents of soluble protein and chlorophyll decreased; the opposite patterns were observed for malondialdehyde, soluble sugar, cell membrane permeability, and proline were the opposite. Synthetical allelopathic effect index values of the leaf extracts of the three species on YC-1 were as follows: P. sylvestris > B. papyrifera > P. tabulaeformis (E2.5 to E20). Therefore, P. sylvestris and B. papyrifera could be used to promote the growth of A. pedunculata seedlings as well as for the construction of mixed plantations in coal mine degradation areas. Generally, this study provides new insight into the creation of stereo-complex ecosystems (P. sylvestris + A. pedunculata and B. papyrifera + A. pedunculata) in arid fragile environment.

Establishment of High Precision Terrain Model of Eroded Gully with UAV Oblique Aerial Photos

Taking the example of aerial modeling of erosion gullies in Shenmu county of northern Shaanxi in China, with oblique aerial photos acquired by a COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) (DJI INSPIRE-1) and 30 high-precision pre-deployed ground control points (GCPs) measured by FIFO A30 RTK (real-time kinematic). Establish the high-resolution measured 3D terrain model with the aid of high-precision ground control points, the efficiency of airphoto and modeling is relatively high, it indicates that eroded gully modeling and monitoring relying on UAV has good application prospect.

The Imperial City Terrace Locality of the Shimao City Site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province

Abstract The Imperial City Terrace (Huangchengtai), a high terrace clad with stone retaining walls on all sides, was the core area of the Shimao Archaic City Site enclosed by the inner city and outer city. In 2016, the gate remains and the upper part of the northern section of the eastern retaining wall, which was the best preserved part of the retaining walls of the Imperial City Terrace, were excavated. The gate remains of the Imperial City Terrace consisted of the square, the outer barbican, the bastions, and the inner barbican. The square was in front of the gate, and the gateway was paved with stone slabs. The entire gate has more complex structure, more magnificent scale and more elaborate construction techniques than that of the eastern gate of the Outer City. This excavation sets a new starting point for the exploration of the large-scale stone city settlement pattern of the Longshan Age.

Allelopathic Effects of Aqueous Leaf Extracts from Four Shrub Species on Seed Germination and Initial Growth of Amygdalus pedunculata Pall.

This study aimed to screen out the shrub species which can promote the seed germination and seedling growth of Amygdalus pedunculata Pall. and offer insight for ecological environment governance of the coal mines subsidence area in Mu Us Sandy Land, Yulin City of Shaanxi Province. The indoor bioassay method was used to study the aqueous leaf extracts from Amorpha fruticosa Linn., Hedysarum mongolicum Turez., Sabina vulgaris Ant., and Hippophae rhamnoides Linn. under different concentration gradients to examine seed germination, initial growth, and physiological and biochemical of two Amygdalus pedunculata varieties (YY-1 from Yuyang County (YY) and SM-6 from Shenmu County (SM), Shaanxi Province, China). The results showed that with aqueous leaf extracts concentrations at lower concentrations of 0.025 (T1) and 0.05 g·mL−1 (T2) from A. fruticosa, H. mongolicum, and S. vulgaris significantly promoted seed germination and seedling growth of two A. pedunculata varieties. Moreover, H. rhamnoides aqueous leaf extracts had the strongest inhibitory effect on seed germination and seedling growth of A. pedunculata, and death occurred at concentrations of 0.15 (T4) and 0.20 g·mL−1 (T5). The enzyme activity and chlorophyll content of the A. pedunculata leaves decreased with an increase in the aqueous leaf extracts concentration of the four shrubs; the change trend of malondialdehyde content was the opposite. Root activity of the A. pedunculata increased and then decreased. The H. mongolicum and S. vulgaris are the most suitable mixed tree species for YY-1, while H. mongolicum and A. fruticosa are the most suitable mixed tree species for SM-6 at a relatively low density with more security. The results provide a theoretical basis and technical support for the establishment of an artificial mixed forest of A. pedunculata in the coal mine subsidence area of Mu Us Sandy Land.

Monitoring the response of vegetation dynamics to ecological engineering in the Mu Us Sandy Land of China from 1982 to 2014.

The Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) has undergone climate changes and shifts in human activities driven by a series of ecological restoration projects in recent decades. We analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation in this region using the satellite-retrieved normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging and Spectroradiometer (MODIS) datasets during the past 33years. The results show that (1) the vegetation in 53.46% of the MUSL exhibited an upward trend, and 34.45% of the area displayed a large increase, mainly in the eastern part of the MUSL region, including most of Shenmu County, Yuyang District, Hengshan County, and Jingbian County. (2) By the end of 2014, the rapid increase in vegetation encompassed 16.85% of the total area of the study region due to the construction of ecological engineering projects. (3) Based on the residual regression method, the area of positive effects accounted for 55.07% of the total area, and the vegetation in the study area was positively affected by human activities. Our study suggests that these multiple ecological restoration programs contributed to the accelerated greening trend in the MUSL region and highlights the importance of human intervention in regional vegetation growth under climate change conditions.

Profile distribution of soil moisture in the gully on the northern Loess Plateau, China

Gully is a typical geographical unit and a key component of the slope–gully system on the northern Loess Plateau. Understanding the distribution of soil moisture in gullies aids water resource regulation and ecological restoration. To investigate temporal–spatial variability of soil moisture, we measured values of soil water content (SWC) within 0–500 cm by using a neutron probe on 19 occasions from October 2014 to July 2017 in the gully and bank of a developed gully in Liudaogou catchment of Shenmu County. Results showed that the values of space–averaged soil water storage (SWS) in the gully were significantly (P < 0.01) higher than those in the bank. Soil clay content (SCC) and topography (including site elevation and distance from the gully head) were the most important factors affecting SWS of 0–500 cm in the gully. Topography can indirectly control SWS by redistribution of rainfall and soil properties. SWS and SCC rose with increasing distance from the gully head to the outlet. SWS in the gully exhibited strong temporal stability, and two time–stable sites around the middle section can be used to represent mean SWS within 500 cm depth in the gully. The gully sidewall significantly (P < 0.05) aggravated drought of soils in the bank between 150 and 250 cm from the gully edge. Gullies make the temporal–spatial patterns of soil moisture complex in slope–gully system. These results were expected to improve understanding of soil moisture distribution in the gully region and aid vegetative restoration of the northern Loess Plateau.

Studies on the materials and manufacturing technology of the murals unearthed at Shimao Site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi

AbstractThis paper presents preliminary scientific analytical results and discussion on the murals unearthed at the Shimao Site in Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province. The murals were composed of pigment layer, plaster base layer and daub layer. The pigments used include hematite, goethite, glauconite and carbon black. Same with the floor plaster layer of the house foundations in the site, the plaster layer of murals is made of calcium carbonate. For the painting procedure, a draft had firstly been designed by engraved lines, and then the murals were painted with various pigments. A tentative comparative study shows that the manufacturing technology and painting techniques of the Shimao mural are similar to that of the murals of the Han and Tang Dynasties. It indicates that the fundamental manufacturing technology of mural had probably been established in the Erlitou Period at latest, which was just followed and enriched over the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Changes in the Disease Spectrum of Hospitalized Children in a County Hospital of China

Introduction: Considering the present situation of disease spectrum changes, it is very important to understand the changes of disease in primary settings, to find out the feature of disease area, to direct the decision making so as to allocate the medical resources accordingly. The objectives of this study were to understand the changing trends in disease spectrum and mortality rate of children hospitalised in the department of paediatrics in Shenmu hospital, and to provide scientific basis for the future medical care and prevention of childhood diseases.Material and Methods: A retrospective statistical analysis was done using the data regarding hospitalization of children in Shenmu County. The study lasted fifteen years, from January 1998 to December, 2012.Results: A total of 23,448 children were hospitalized below the age of 14. Majority of the patients were younger than three years old constituting 78.8% (which included age 1 month~1 year 57.2%). The average number of days of hospitalization was 6~8 days, with a median time of six days. The leading cause of hospitalization was respiratory disease. Other major illnesses causing hospitalization included: infectious diseases, digestive tract diseases, neonatal diseases and nervous system diseases. A total of 144 children died during this period. The top three causes of death were: asphyxia, premature birth and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.Conclusion: The changing trends in paediatric disease hospitalisations and mortality rate over the 15 years are significant for clinicians so as to prevent and minimise such diseases by appropriate preventive and therapeutic options to contain them.J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2016;36(1):19-23

Stem biomass estimation models for dominant shrubs on the northern Loess Plateau of China

A total of 200 stems of Caragana korshinskii and 210 stems of Salix psammophila were collected in the late August of 2015 in the Liudaogou catchment of Shenmu County, Shaanxi Pro-vince, China. Basal diameter (D), length (H), water content (W0), fresh mass (WF) and dry mass (W) were measured for each stem of the two species. Exponential and allometric equations were used to establish relationship models relating stem biomass to its morphological parameters. Altogether four models were established for each species, and their accuracy of estimation was also validated. The results showed that, the allometric model that used D2H as input variable was optimal in estimating stem biomass for C. korshinskii and S. psammophila, after transformed into its linear form. Meanwhile, the heteroscedasticity of the biomass data was greatly eliminated. This model had a maximum value of coefficient of determination (R2), and meanwhile minimum values of mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE), total relative error (TRE), mean systematic error (MSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MPSE), thus basically meeting the requirement of the accuracy in ecological study.

An improved pixel-tracking method for monitoring mining subsidence

ABSTRACTUnderground mining always induces large vertical displacements in the ground surface and, because of the large subsidence gradient, the phase-unwrapping methods of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) are unable to give accurate results. Pixel tracking based on normalized cross-correlation maximization overcomes the limitations imposed by the subsidence gradient and can be used to monitor large displacements. This paper introduces and analyses each component of the offset field and then describes the improved method used to efficiently remove orbital error and topography-related offset caused by rugged terrain with the help of a digital elevation model (DEM). Eleven TerraSAR-X images in spotlight mode and Shuttle Radar Tomography Mission (SRTM) DEM data are used to monitor mining subsidence by the improved pixel-tracking method in Shenmu County of Yulin City. The root mean square error (RMSE) between the improved method and Global Positioning System (GPS) data in the strike and dip directions are 0.143 and 0.108 m, respectively. The approach presented here is shown to be appropriate for monitoring large vertical displacements in mining subsidence.

Impact of meteorological factors on lower respiratory tract infections in children.

ObjectiveTo evaluate retrospectively the relationship between meteorological factors in Shenmu County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, China and the incidence of lower respiratory tract infections in children.MethodsMeteorological data (air temperature, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, hours of sunlight, wind speed and relative humidity) for Shenmu County and medical data from hospitalized patients aged ≤16 years were collected between January 2009 and December 2012. The association between meteorological factors and rate of hospitalization due to lower respiratory tract infections was investigated; the total hospitalization rate was compared with the rate of lower respiratory tract disease-related hospitalizations.ResultsThe leading bacterial causes of lower respiratory tract infections were Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae type B; the main viral cause was respiratory syncytial virus. Lower respiratory tract infection hospitalization rate was significantly correlated with air temperature (R = −0.651), atmospheric pressure (R = 0.560), rainfall (R = −0.614) and relative humidity (R = −0.470), but not with hours of sunlight (R = −0.210) or wind speed (R = 0.258). Using multiple linear regression, lower respiratory tract infection hospitalization rate decreased with a gradual increase in air temperature (F = 38.30) and relative humidity (F = 15.58).ConclusionAir temperature and relative humidity were major influencing meteorological factors for hospital admissions in children due to lower respiratory tract infections.

Does the ``National Free Health Care'' have financial sustainability in China? A case of Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province, China.

The most populous country in the world, China needs more health care. Shenmu's practices show that National Free Health Care (NFHC) system has played an active role in fulfilling the citizen's needs of health care, and alleviating the difficulties in affording the medical costs and seeing doctors. But NFHC system needs substantial financial supporting. It is worth in-depth discussing and reflecting on whether the NFHC system suits China's national conditions. The paper establishes the population age structure forecasting model and NFHC financial burden model by decomposition methodology and actuarial modelling. And it finds than the financial burden of NFHC system in Shenmu will be increased from 256.64 million Yuan to 656.04 million Yuan in 2013-2020, with the growth rate 12.45%. Meanwhile, the percentage of the financial burden in government's annual revenue is less than 2% in 2013-2020, NFHC system has financial sustainability in Shenmu. According to the successful experience abroad and the calculated results in Shenmu, to extend the NFHC system to the whole of China has financial sustainability and realistic possibility.