Analysis of arable land loss and its impact on rural sustainability in Southern Jiangsu Province of China

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in southern Jiangsu Province have consumed a huge amount of arable land. Through comparative analysis of land cover maps derived from TM images in 1990, 2000 and 2006, we identified the trend of arable land loss. It is found that most arable land is lost to urbanization and rural settlements development. Urban settlements, rural settlements, and industrial park-mine-transport land increased, respectively, by 87 997 ha (174.65%), 81 041 ha (104.52%), and 12 692 ha (397.99%) from 1990 to 2006. Most of the source (e.g., change from) land covers are rice paddy fields and dryland. These two covers contributed to newly urbanized areas by 37.12% and 73.52% during 1990-2000, and 46.39% and 38.86% during 2000-2006. However, the loss of arable land is weakly correlated with ecological service value, per capita net income of farmers, but positively with grain yield for some counties. Most areas in the study site have a low arable land depletion rate and a high potential for sustainable development. More attention should be directed at those counties that have a high depletion rate but a low potential for sustainable development. Rural settlements should be controlled and rationalized through legislative measures to achieve harmonious development between urban and rural areas, and sustainable development for rural areas with a minimal impact on the ecoenvironment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Growth of eight Pacific abalone families at three temperatures

Growth rates, measured as shell length and body weight daily growth, were studied in the eight families of Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai Ino, reared at 12, 16 and 20 degrees C for 40 d respectively. The results show that J(1)Rh family grew the best at 12 degrees C, with growth rates of (32.88 +/- 4.66) mu m/d and (5.24 +/- 1.84) mg/d. C(1)Jm family had the highest growth rates of (58.00 +/- 2.00) mu m/d and (9.71 +/- 1.21) mg/d at 16 degrees C. J(1)Jm family ranked the first at 20 degrees C, with growth rates of (66.00 +/- 1.76) mu m/d and (10.99 +/- 0.34) mg/d. RjRh family had the slowest growth rates at all three temperatures. Shell length growth rates were 18.25, 33.00 and 43.13 mu m/d respectively, while body weight growth rates were 2.47, 2.56 and 4.75 mg/d respectively. Both temperature and family had significant effect on growth rates (P<0.05). At 16 and 20 degrees C, maternal effects on growth rates were not significant (P>0.05), but paternal effects on growth rates were significant (P<0.05). Results of this study indicate genetic difference among the families and importance of selecting male breeders in the commercial hatchery.

当代大学生消费价值观与消费行为的调查研究——北京大学生中的消费主义倾向及有关影响因素研究

The aim of this study was to investigate consuming values and behaviors in Chinese college students, to detect the factorial structure in consuming values, and to explore possible determinants of those values and their effects on consuming behaviors. A total of 778 students from various universities in Beijing were investigated with questionnaire survey. The main results and conclusions are as follows: (1) College students were basically satisfied with their current life and study conditions in university, and their main pressures or stresses were from their studies. They were highly motivated in the development of their academic and life careers, and also valued the importance of family and having children in the future. About 11% of the students had pressures due to less favorable financial conditions of their families. (2) Five basic consuming values were found among college students, namely, “industrious and thrifty-aimed value”, “status and brand-aimed value”, “personal and unique-oriented value”, “relation-aimed value”, and “autonomous-aimed value”. The “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” stands for the traditional consuming values in the culture, and the “status and brand-aimed value” shows an explicit tendency of consumerism. The other three consuming values had moderate relations with both of the two values. (3) There was a high negative correlation between the first two values, which showed both a general acceptance and the main trend of “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” among the students. The basic “status and brand-aimed value” was shown among 3.3% of the students. (4) The consuming values were significantly correlated with life values, indicating that consuming values could be in consistence with or be determined by basic life values. The “industrious and thrifty-aimed value” and the “autonomous-aimed value” were shown as collectivistic values, while the “status and brand-aimed value” and “relation-aimed value” were shown as individualistic values. (5) Consuming values had significant influences on consuming behaviors. (6) The demographic factors such as financial conditions of parents, children of number in family, urban-rural location of family, gender, age, and campus culture could affect consuming values and consuming behaviors of college students in both direct and indirect ways.