Silk Road In China Research Articles

ESA Activities in Earth Observation for Cultural Heritage Applications

An overview is provided of the activities of the European Space Agency, ESA, to support the documentation, monitoring and management of Cultural Heritage through the use of Earth Observation, EO. These activities include: participation in international agreements; funding of service demonstration projects and support to researchers through the provision of data, training courses and the hosting of research students at the ESA European Space Research Institute, ESRIN, establishment. Since ESA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, signed the “Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technologies to Support the World Heritage Convention”, world heritage has become increasingly prominent in ESA as an emerging application area. Various demonstration projects have successfully revealed the potential to bridge the gap between research and operational service delivery. These projects include Heritage Observation and Retrieval Under Sand, HORUS, which used radar to document archaeological structures buried beneath the sand in Egypt, and ArchEO, a project recently kicked-off, aimed at demonstrating optical Earth observation techniques for the detection of archaeological structures in Poland. An increasing number of research projects are exploiting ESA and Third Party Mission, TPM, data for cultural heritage applications. Some of these include a project using radar remote sensing for subsurface archaeological feature detection, a project focussing on monitoring land subsidence over Syrian archaeological sites using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, InSAR, and a project documenting archaeological structures over the Silk Road in China. In addition to the provision of data and processing tools, ESA supports the heritage research and user community through training courses that focus on the application of EO for cultural heritage. Finally, ESA contributes to workshops to provide a forum for the heritage and remote sensing communities to exchange ideas, and provide insights into evolving user needs and technological achievements. ESA activities are driven by user requirements. The increasing involvement of ESA in EO related activities in cultural heritage is indicative of the emerging awareness of the benefits of EO on the part of the heritage community, and their growing interest in its integration into their activities. In order to most efficiently channel resources and plan future EO developments to meet this increased demand, interdisciplinary dialogue is essential between the heritage and remote sensing communities.

Correction: The Contribution of Genetic Diversity to Subdivide Populations Living in the Silk Road of China

Correction: The Contribution of Genetic Diversity to Subdivide Populations Living in the Silk Road of China

The contribution of genetic diversity to subdivide populations living in the silk road of China.

There are several indigenous ethnic populations along the silk road in the Northwest of China that display clear differences in culture and social customs, perhaps as a result of geographic isolation and different linguistic traditions. However, extensive trade and other interactions probably facilitated the admixture of different gene pools between these populations over the last two millennia. To further explore the evolutionary relationships of the 13 ethnic populations residing in Northwest China and to reveal the features of population admixture, the 9 most-commonly employed CODIS loci (D3S1358, TH01, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, CSF1PO, vWA, TPOX, FGA) were selected for genotyping and further analysis. Phylogenetic tree and principal component analysis revealed clear pattern of population differentiation between 4 populations living in Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region and other 9 populations dwelled in the upper regions of Silk Road. R matrix regression showed high-level gene flow and population admixture dose exist among these ethic populations in the Northwest region of China. Furthermore, the Mantel test suggests that larger percent of genetic variance (21.58% versus 2.3%) can be explained by geographic isolation than linguistic barriers, which matched with the contribution of geographic factors to other world populations.

Antioxidant activities of Uyghur medicinal tea in human HL-60 cell line and rat hepatic microsomes

Uyghur medicinal tea (UMT) is preferably used as a common nutritional additive by Uyghur population, especially by the aged people including centenarians from southern part of Xinjiang, along the Silk Road of China. The study showed an evidence for the antioxidant properties of UMT extract by using two different oxidative systems in vitro: (1) the myeloperoxidase/H2O2/HOCl enzymatic system in human HL-60 cell line and (2) the cytochrome P450/NADPH reductase system in rat liver microsomes. The EGB 761 Ginkgo biloba extract was used as the reference. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was measured by fluorescence of 2’,7’-dichlorofluorescein (DCF) originated from 2’,7’-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFHDA) probe oxidation. UMT extract inhibited ROS formation by 81, 86 and 73% in the HL 60 cell line system (at the concentrations of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 mg/ml) and at similar rates in the microsomal system. In the same conditions, G. biloba extract inhibited ROS activity by 39, 78 and 81% in HL 60 cells, and by 78, 87 and 89% in the microsomal system. The present study shows that UMT possesses relatively high antioxidant activity, comparable to the free radical scavenger properties of EGB 761 extract. This effect could explain its benefic preventive action against age-related pathologies. Habitual consumption of UMT may provide beneficial effects in prevention of atherosclerosis and oxidative stress in aging process. Key words: Uyghur medicinal tea, antioxidant activity, HL 60 cells, hepatic microsomes.

Durability of Ancient Earthen Architecture under Wind Erosion in the Milan Ancient City along the Silk Road of China

Wind erosion is one of the most familiar and serious diseases to Ancient Earthen Architectures (AEA). As far as the durability of AEA is concerned, most previous researches focus on laboratory test with little on field simulative test. In order to find out actual effect of PS (high mole ratio potassium silicate) in enhancing the durability of AEA under wind erosion, this paper combines laboratory test and field test. In the former part, we treated samples with PS of 7% and 10%, then carried out laboratory tests on water stability and compressive strength, as well as wind tunnel tests on wind erosion durability. In the latter part, we infiltrated the test region with PS of 3%、5% and 7%, and carried out wind erosion test on field. The results indicate that the compressive strength and water stability of PS-treated samples are obviously advanced. In the wind tunnel test, the critical wind speed of untreated and treated samples respectively are 12m/s and 20 m/s. In the field test, the durable time of being eroded increases and the failure depth of test region decreases along with the increase of PS concentration. The surface layer of W starts exfoliating in short time, the eroding styles of W3 and W5 are delves-little piece-large piece and delves-little piece, however, there are only several delves in the W7. Laboratory and field results indicate that the PS can to a large extent change the characters of soil, and the durability of AEA under wind erosion is enhanced along with the increase of PS concentration.

Medicine and health care along the silk road in China

Medicine and health care along the silk road in China