No abstract

In order to combat land desertification and to evaluate the soil quality of different cover land types, and thereby determine the best land use strategy for vegetation restoration, this research comprehensively analyzed the soil quality of different land use/cover types in the hilly sandy area of the Loess Plateau by using the Kruskal–Wallis test (K–W test) and principal component analysis (PCA) technique for order preference by the similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and the potential ecological risk index (RI). The result indicated that the cropland abandonment over a period of time could improve the soil quality to a certain extent; however, the process of natural restoration was very slow compared with that of the planted mixed shrubs. The soil quality of all land use/cover types in the hilly sandy area of Youyu County clearly improved after 10–25 years of revegetation, but the degree of improvement varied greatly with the different planted species and their combinations. The low levels of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and available phosphorus were the major limiting factors affecting soil quality improvement under different land use/cover types, not metal toxicity. Pioneer species of H. rhamnoide, C. korshinskii and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, etc. are vital to vegetation restoration of the study area. Revegetation using these species is therefore recommended to combat future desertification in this area.

Qiang religious culture is the result of its adaptation to the natural environment and socio–economic development. The Upper Reaches of Min River has been the main inhabiting district of the Qiang ethnic group in China. Based on the construction of the resource system for Qiang religious culture, this study quantitatively illustrated the cognitive characteristics of this culture in the basin and the main factors influencing its regional differentiation using statistical methods, Moran’s I method, Getis-Ord Gi* method, and the Geo-detector model. The results suggested that the respondents’ cognitive degree (RCD) in relation to the religious culture in the study area was 0.258 ± 0.031, and the cognitive degrees for religious buildings, supplies, literature, and beliefs were as follows: religious literature (0.332) > religious supplies (0.287 ± 0.076) > religious buildings (0.222 ± 0.037) > religious beliefs (0.193 ± 0.023). This result was mainly related to the dissemination methods of religious cultural elements, the status of their preservation, and changes in the production and lifestyle of the people. Furthermore, the respondents’ cognition presented significant regional differentiation characteristics. Two natural factors, namely, humidity and elevation, were the major ones that influenced cognitive regional differentiation with influences values of 0.293 and 0.280, respectively. Elevation and average night light index exhibited significant correlations with cognition (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the influence was enhanced when various factors interacted with one another. This study contributes to the quantitative research on the sustainable development of the Qiang religious culture and national culture inheritance.

No abstract

With the continuous development of the Internet of Things technology, people’s requirements for quality of life are gradually improving. However, cutting vegetables is still a manual work with low efficiency. Food processing has many shapes, high requirements, time-consuming and labor-consuming, and there is a certain risk factor. Therefore, a new type of vegetable cutter is designed. After the objects are loaded in the feeding box, they are conveyed and fixed, so that the device can automatically press, cut and drive vegetables, and make artificially desired slices, filaments, blocks, peels and the like according to different requirements of dishes, which is small in size, low in noise, safe and convenient.