A multilevel dataset of landform mapping and geomorphologic descriptors for the Loess Plateau of China.

The Loess Plateau is a region of importance in geomorphologic research because of its typical loess layers and intense surface erosion. Analysing the landforms on the Loess Plateau is helpful for understanding changes in the surface environment. However, geomorphologic data with high resolution are lacking for the Loess Plateau, which limits the progress of geomorphologic studies at finer scales.

Erosion potential mapping using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fractal dimension.

Assessing landform vulnerability to soil erosion is crucial for improved sustainable land use planning and management. In the Loess Plateau of the Northern Shaanxi Province of China, soil erosion has been reported as a major threat to sustainable land management and impacts on driving the socio-economic benefits that can be accrued from the landforms. Several studies especially on Erosion Potential Mapping (EPM) in the region have been conducted but the role of the fractal dimension (FD) of the terrain features has been limited.

Flower-like patterns in multi-species bacterial colonies.

Diverse interactions among species within bacterial colonies lead to intricate spatiotemporal dynamics, which can affect their growth and survival. Here, we describe the emergence of complex structures in a colony grown from mixtures of motile and non-motile bacterial species on a soft agar surface. Time-lapse imaging shows that non-motile bacteria 'hitchhike' on the motile bacteria as the latter migrate outward.

Evolution of the Physical and Social Spaces of 'Village Resettlement Communities' from the Production of Space Perspective: A Case Study of Qunyi Community in Kunshan.

Village resettlement communities (VRCs) are a special type of urban community that the government has promoted considerably during China's rapid urbanization. This study uses the theory of the production of space as a basis to explore the processes and mechanisms of the physical and social space evolution of VRCs through a case study of Qunyi Community, one of the largest VRCs in Kunshan. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed in this study.

Coexistence and Pattern Formation in Bacterial Mixtures with Contact-Dependent Killing.

Multistrain microbial communities often exhibit complex spatial organization that emerges because of the interplay of various cooperative and competitive interaction mechanisms. One strong competitive mechanism is contact-dependent neighbor killing enabled by the type VI secretion system. It has been previously shown that contact-dependent killing can result in bistability of bacterial mixtures so that only one strain survives and displaces the other.

A stabilized microbial ecosystem of self-limiting bacteria using synthetic quorum-regulated lysis.

Microbial ecologists are increasingly turning to small, synthesized ecosystems as a reductionist tool to probe the complexity of native microbiomes. Concurrently, synthetic biologists have gone from single-cell gene circuits to controlling whole populations using intercellular signalling. The intersection of these fields is giving rise to new approaches in waste recycling, industrial fermentation, bioremediation and human health.

Ownership reform and the changing manufacturing landscape in Chinese cities: The case of Wuxi.

Since the economic transition, manufacturing in China has undergone profound changes not only in number of enterprises, but also in ownership structure and intra-urban spatial distribution. Investigating the changing manufacturing landscape from the perspective of ownership structure is critical to a deep understanding of the changing role of market and government in re-shaping manufacturing location behavior. Through a case study of Wuxi, a city experiencing comprehensive ownership reform, this paper presents a detailed analysis of the intra-urban spatial shift of manufacturing, identifies the location discrepancies, and examines the underlying forces responsible for the geographical differentiations.

Adaptation with transcriptional regulation.

Biochemical adaptation is one of the basic functions that are widely implemented in biological systems for a variety of purposes such as signal sensing, stress response and homeostasis. The adaptation time scales span from milliseconds to days, involving different regulatory machineries in different processes. The adaptive networks with enzymatic regulation (ERNs) have been investigated in detail.

Species-Independent Attraction to Biofilms through Electrical Signaling.

Bacteria residing within biofilm communities can coordinate their behavior through cell-to-cell signaling. However, it remains unclear if these signals can also influence the behavior of distant cells that are not part of the community. Using a microfluidic approach, we find that potassium ion channel-mediated electrical signaling generated by a Bacillus subtilis biofilm can attract distant cells.

Adaptation through proportion.

Adaptation is a ubiquitous feature in biological sensory and signaling networks. It has been suggested that adaptive systems may follow certain simple design principles across diverse organisms, cells and pathways. One class of networks that can achieve adaptation utilizes an incoherent feedforward control, in which two parallel signaling branches exert opposite but proportional effects on the output at steady state.