Rediscovery of the sea cucumber "Toxodora" pacifica Ohshima, 1915 (Echinodermata : Holothuroidea : Apodida)

The apodous holothurian species originally described by Ohshima ( 1915) as Toxodora pacifica has been rediscovered, and its known geographic range extended from Suruga Bay, Japan to the western side of the Yellow Sea, China. As the genus name Toxodora is no longer available, a new genus name, Neotoxodora Liao, Pawson, and Wei, is proposed. The type material of Neotoxodora pacifica is lost, and a Neotype is named for this species.

Tripogon debilis (Poaceae), a new species from western China

A new species of Tripogon from western China (Sichuan Province), T. debilis L. B. Cai, is described and illustrated. This species is similar to both T. chinensis (Franchet) Hackel and T sichuanicus S. M. Phillips & S. L. Chen, but distinguished from these two species by its pendent pi spikes, relatively tong glumes and lemma awns, denticulate upper glumes, and its paleas strikingly shorter than the lemmas.

热察绥地区过去300年土地利用覆被变化

The historical land use and land cover changes is one of the key issues in LUCC research. However, the achievement of China in this field doesn't match her position in the world yet. And the reliability of the quantitive records in Chinese historical literature, the basic data for historical land use research, has been doubted. This research focuses on Re-Cha-Sui, a typical area for the farming-pastoral region in the north of China, to make a detailed case study in this field. Based on a deep mining and calibration on the data from massive historical documents and land-use surveys, the author gives a detailed analysis on the administrative region evolution, historical population dynamics, reclamation policy, and the land statistic system. According to textual researches, parallel validation and physical geographical analysis, a unified land use series for recent 300 years, which founded on the results of modern land-use surveys, is constructed. And the thematic maps on the cultivation index for different counties in several temporal sections are plotted. Based on the endeavor above, the dynamic of forest and steppe is reconstructed as well. The temporal-spatial patterns of land use/land cover changes in the area is analyzed. And the influence of different driving forces are discussed. The main conclusions of the research are as followed: 1. The quantitive records in literatures on Re-Cha-Sui area are reflection of real amounts of croplands. It is practical to reconstruct a result comparable with the modern land-use surveys, based of a deep mining and considerate validation on historical documents. The unexceptional negative attitude towards the numerical records in historical documents is unnecessary. 2. In recent 300 years, 3 climax of reclamation appeared in Re-Cha-Sui area and altered the pure pastoral area into a farming-pastoral region. The interval were respectively the early time till mid time of the Qing dynasty, the end of the Qing dynasty till early time of the Republic of China(ROC), and the time after A.D. 1949. After the first expansion, the area of cropland in this region reached 2.0 million ha. Among them, Guisui area, which was most densely cultivated, had a cultivation index over 30%, which is similar with modern situation. The second expansion covered broader area, and the amount of cropland reached 3.5 million ha. The increase of farming area after 1949 is due to the recultivation of abandoned farmland. The current area of cropland in this region is 5.6 million ha. In the southern area where the land was reclaimed early, the amount on of the cropland has some fluctuation in 300 years. While in the new reclaimed area in the north, the area of cropland has kept the trend of increasing. 3. Due to the different natural conditions, most forests in Re-Cha-Sui area distribute in the mountain area of North Hebei province, and the upland of West Liaoning province, especially the former, which has a forest coverage near 70%. However, most of these forests were destroyed before the end of the Qing dynasty. In 1949, the natural forest near Chengde was nearly cleared up. They were partly renewed after 1949 due to plantation. 4. In the steppe zone such as northern Rehe, Suiyuan and Chahar, the area of steppe has a negative correlation with that of cropland. With the expansion of cropland, the percentage of steppe has shrunk from over 80% to 53%. In the mountain area of North Hebei province, steppe expanded with the shrinkage of forest, though cropland was expanding. The percentage once reached 60%, and then fell with the renew of forest. However, in the upland of West Liaoning province, the steppe shrink slowly from original 50% to current 26%, with the expansion of cropland. 5. The land use and land cover change in Re-Cha-Sui area in recent 300 years is driven by various factors, including human dimensions such as population, policy of the government, disorder of the society, cultural tradition, and natural factors such as climate change and natural disasters. Among them, pressure from surplus population is the basic driving force.

Observations of an itinerant : a brief exposition of some missionary problems, methods and results.

Boston University Theological Library

China.

http://www.archive.org/details/handbooksonmissi01episuoft

Urbanisation and sport participation in townships in China

Urbanisation as a phenomenon is a complex social process which can be quite difficult to define and understand. In recent years, urbanisation in China has developed at an ever increasing rate. Urban population rates have now surpassed 50% (figure from 2011). Based on the growing importance placed on the increasing number of urbanised/urbanising townships, the issue of people’s lives within the townships has also become an important feature in regard to the impact that urbanisation is having upon China. Clearly this links China’s urban development to the transformation of sport participation in China. This research aims to examine what the reality of the sport participation on-the-ground is within six selective townships in China and examine the reasons for the reality through the lens of figurational theory. In order to do so, some features of Norbert Elias’s figurational theory (involvement and detachment, power) are employed as the theoretical framework. Two townships in Lüliang of Shanxi province, two townships in Jincheng of Shanxi Province and two townships in Huizhou of Guangdong province were selected in order to answer these key questions. The three cities which the townships are located are in different stages of urbanisation. Semi-structured interview were conducted. The current situation were described from the aspects of age, gender, occupation and income aspects and the transformation of sport participation. This research concludes that the current sport participation situation within these six townships is due to the influences stemming from several aspects: sport policy and sport organisation; economy condition, culture, urbanisation, and self-requirement and individual interest towards sport. This power forms a network of interdependency which also aids our understanding of the current sport participation within these six selected Chinese townships.

Globalization and basketball in China: governance, market and culture

Chinese sports are developing under very complex and unique political, economic, and cultural circumstances in the global age. This study aims to investigate the process of globalization in basketball through an examination of its multidimensional manifestations. The study aligns itself with Ritzer’s (2003, 2007b) conceptualization of dichotomizing the process of globalization into grobalization and glocalization. On that basis, the trajectory of basketball globalization in China is identified as the result of a contextual and competing interplay between the penetration of the NBA and the consequent engagement of Chinese basketball. A qualitative methodological approach was conducted to achieve the research aim. Data were collected from a number of sources, including official documents and semi-structured interviews with relevant basketball participants. The study reveals that globalization and basketball in China, in the political and institutional dimension, is a conflicting process. The universalization of the NBA’s governance model could not be fully assimilated due to the centralization of power in the Chinese government, which is hindering the further professionalization and marketization of basketball. In the economic dimension, the globalization process is seen to interplay with the local basketball market, which is growing thanks to the adaption of the NBA’s marketing strategies. In the cultural dimension, the study demonstrates that the NBA has to some extent cosmopolitanized and consumerized Chinese basketball culture, while resistance from both the state and the Chinese people has risen, creolizing the globalization of basketball culture in China.

A cultural study on communication and technology with specific reference to media in China

This dissertation examines the role of communications technology in social change. It examines secondary data on contemporary China arguing that many interpretations of events in China are unsuitable at best and at worst conceptually damages our understanding of social change in China. This is especially the case in media studies under the ‘democratic framework’. It proposes that there is an alternative framework in studying the media and social change. This alternative conceptual framework is termed a zone of interpretative development offering a means by which to discuss events that take place in a mediated environment. Taking a theoretical foundation using the philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin this dissertation develops a platform with which to understand communication technology from an anthropological perspective. Three media events from contemporary China are examined. The first examines the Democracy Wall event and the implications of using a public sphere framework. The second case examines the phenomenon of the Grass Mud Horse, a symbol that has gained popular purchase as a humorous expression of political dissatisfaction and develops the problems seen in the first case but with some solutions. Using a modification of Lev Vygotskiĭ’s zone of proximal development this symbol is understood as an expression of the collective recognition of a shared experience. In the second example from the popular TV talent show contests in China further expressions of collective experience are introduced. With the evidence from these media events in contemporary China this dissertation proposes that we can understand certain modes of communication as occurring in a zone of interpretative development. This proposed anthropological feature of social change via communication and technology can fruitfully describe meaning-formation in society via the expression and recognition of shared experiences.

Plastid microsatellites for the study of genetic variability in the widespread Cephalanthera longifolia, C. damasonium and C. rubra (Neottieae, Orchidaceae), and cross-amplification in other Cephalanthera species

Plastid microsatellite loci developed for Cephalanthera longifolia were used to examine the level of genetic variation within and between populations of the three widespread Cephalanthera species (C. damasonium, C. longifolia and C. rubra). The most detailed sampling was in C. longifolia (42 localities from Ireland to China; 147 individuals). Eight haplotypes were detected. One was detected in the vast majority of individuals and occurred from Ireland to Iran. Three others were only found in Europe (Ireland to Italy, England to Italy and Austria to Croatia). Two were only found in the Middle East and two only in Asia. In C. damasonium, 21 individuals from 10 populations (England to Turkey) were sampled. Only one haplotype was detected. In C. rubra, 34 individuals from eight populations (England to Turkey) were sampled. Although it was not possible to amplify all loci for all samples of this species, nine haplotypes were detected. Short alleles for the trnS-trnG region found in two populations of C. rubra were characterized by sequencing and were caused by deletions of 26 and 30 base pairs. At this level of sampling, it appears that C. rubra shows the greatest genetic variability. Cephalanthera longifolia, C. rubra and C. damasonium have previously been characterized as outbreeding, outbreeding with facultative vegetative reproduction and inbreeding, respectively. Patterns of genetic variation here are discussed in the light of these reproductive system differences. The primers used in these three species of Cephalanthera were also demonstrated to amplify these loci in another five species (C. austiniae, C. calcarata, C. epipactoides, C. falcata and C. yunnanensis). Although it is sometimes treated as a synonym of C. damasonium, the single sample of C. yunnanensis from China had a markedly different haplotype from that found in C. damasonium. All three loci were successfully amplified in two achlorophyllous, myco-heterotrophic species, C. austinae and C. calcarata. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London.

UK green building development: investigation of the green architecture development in the UK

This paper reviews the background of green building, content and evaluation system, and on this basis, focuses on the development of the UK Green Building and the latest trends and development of green buildings in China's cause of enlightenment

First report of "Cotoneaster pannosus" Franch. ("Rosaceae") in Tarragona Province, and updated distribution area in Spain

Cotoneaster pannosus (Rosaceae), an ornamental shrub native to China, is reported for the first time in Tarragona Province (Catalonia, Spain). Data on demography and accompanying species for the new locality are provided, in addition to a chrorological update at nation level.

The Tamaricetea arceuthoidis: a new class for the continental riparian thickets of the Middle East, Central Asia and the subarid regions of the Lower Volga valley

The new class, the Tamaricetea arceuthoidis, is described covering riparian and intermittent shrubby vegetation of the Irano-Turanian Region in the southwestern and Central Asia and the Lower Volga valley. The dominating species are species of the genus Tamarix that refer high water table in arid and semi-arid habitats with high to moderate salinity. This new class is an ecological analogon of the Nerio-Tamaricetea occurring in the Mediterranean Basin.