【推荐2】An intelligent monitoring system is helping bird protectors in Chenhu Lake Wetland of Wuhan, Hubei province, by collecting data and learning more about the birds’ habits.

The wetland covers about 11,600 hectares and is located in the area where the Yangtze River and Han River meet. Up to 86,000 birds of 227 species inhabited the wetland last year, its figures showed.

A limited number of bird-watchers and patrol guards may miss out counting some of the birds but the system can do it more accurately, according to the reserve. In July last year, the monitoring system, the first of its kind in Hubei, was put into trial(试验)operation in the wetland. It has since recorded real-time monitoring data and assisted with patrolling. The system can detect the type of birds arriving or leaving and which areas they prefer to move around, by identifying species through the sounds they make. It also monitors sounds in the wild and compares them with those in the database.

A video system tracks key protection areas all day. Photos of birds taken will be automatically compared with those in the database, with a combination of audio and video information increasing the recognition accuracy. The reserve’s employees have also added tracking functions in the monitoring system by placing satellite trackers on bean geese migrating. Bean geese have been found to fly from Russian areas.

Feng Jiang, an engineer of the Chenhu wetland nature reserve management bureau, said, “The tracking data has a positive effect on the protection of species globally. Since November last year, we have tried to clarify the migration routes of birds. We monitor where they stay and when they return to the reserve. The data tells us where birds come from and pass by, so we can cooperate with international organizations or countries to better protect them.”

The monitoring system also uses digital technology to build a simulation (模拟) model. By simulating the flow of tourists, researchers can decide the maximum number of visitors in Chenhu Lake and prevent people from disturbing the birds. This can help researchers predict as well the possibility and scope (范围) of the environmental impact on the wetland through the growth of plants there and roll out targeted measures.

【推荐1】One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting books that have been thrown away and ended up opening a library.

It started when garbage man Durson Ipek found a bag of abandoned books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were ready for landfills (垃圾填埋地) and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library was initially available only to the garbage employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in 2017.

“On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Ankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN. “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. When everyone supported it, this project happened.”

All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition. If they pass, they go on the shelves. Today, the library has over 6,000 books that range from fiction to nonfiction and there’s a very popular children’s section that even has a collection of comic books. An entire section is devoted to scientific research and there are also books available in English and French. The collection has grown so large that the library loans books to schools and educational programs.

“Village school teachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen told CNN. The government has to hire a full-time employee to manage the library.

This library is incredibly popular. It is frequently filled with the children of the city’s workers and students from nearby schools. There is a waiting room set up for readers and chess boards for the people who visit the library. You can even enjoy a cup of tea in the waiting room.

【推荐2】The holiday season is a time for celebrating with friends and family, when people give gifts or decorate their homes. Unfortunately, this can all lead to a lot of waste. However, there are ways to reduce the amount of waste you create.

Gift bags or wrap that can be reused are recommended on the list. You can reuse them the next time you give a gift. You can also wrap gifts in old maps, pages from magazines, and art paper. The person receiving the gift could use the wrap for something else. The Chinese traditional cloth-wrapper is popular wrapping cloth, which is pretty and strong. It can be used for other things, like a colorful scarf or tablecloth, rather than just thrown away.

For many people, sending holiday cards is a tradition. Now people are increasingly accepting electronic holiday cards. “There are so many digital options now, and people get just as much joy out of it,” some people said. These cards offer a range of benefits. With the increasing popularity, electronic cards have become a preferred choice.

For decorating the home, real trees have become first option rather than plastic ones. Some trees are grown for the purpose of being cut, and new ones are typically replanted every year. So, the cycle continues. Buying local trees means that it doesn’t use much fuel. After the holidays, trees are picked and processed into usable products, like small wood pieces for the garden. What’s more, you can’t beat the smell of a fresh-cut tree.

【推荐1】A new study was published last week in The Journal of Heredity. American researchers said that two baby males, called chicks, which hatched in 2001 and 2009 from unfertilized eggs, were related to their mothers. But neither chick was related to a male. It is the first report of asexual reproduction (无性繁殖) in California condors (秃鹰).

Reproduction from an unfertilized egg can happen in other animals such as sharks and bees. But in birds, it usually only takes place when females are not around males. In this case, each mother condor had bred with males before. The two mothers involved in the research had produced 34 chicks. Each was with a fertile male condor at the zoo when they produced the eggs without male help.

The researchers said they believe it is the first case of asexual reproduction in any bird species where the female had access to a mate. Olivia Ryder leads genetics work for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. She is also the study’s co-writer. She said the findings raise questions about whether this kind of reproduction is happening in other species.

California condors are the largest flying birds in North America. They used to be found throughout the West Coast. But only 22 remained in the 1980s when the U.S. government captured condors and placed them in zoos to increase their numbers. About 160 were raised at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. There are now more than 500 California condors, including more than 300 that have been released into the wild in California, Arizona, Utah and Mexico.

California condors can live up to 60 years. But the two male birds that hatched in 2001 and 2009 were not healthy. One was less than 2 years old when he died. The other lived less than eight years.

【推荐2】An anti-viral gene called BTN3A3 (often found in people’s lungs and breath tracts), which blocks most bird flu from jumping to people, has been identified, helping scientists predict which bird flu viruses could cause outbreaks in humans. The discovery was made by the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, Prof Jeremy Farrar, at the MRC-University Centre for Virus Research.

The team compared how our genes worked when faced with either a human or bird flu virus, and found that BTN3A3 blocked most bird flu viruses, but not the seasonal flu viruses people catch regularly. The study also found that some of the bird flu viruses which have occasionally infected people, such as H7N9, also have genetic mutations (变异) which means they can bypass the blocking effects of BTN3A3. This means the presence of BTN3A3 in a bird flu virus may be a strong signal that it could cause a wider outbreak in people, they said.

“Identifying BTN3A3 resistant variants (免疫变种) when they first appear in birds might help prevent human infections,” said Dr Rute Maria Pinto, the first author of the study. “Now, when we find cases of bird flu, we can basically examine sick birds and find out whether the virus can overcome the BTN3A3 gene, simply by looking at its order and determining if this virus is likely to infect humans,” she said. “If the virus can in fact overcome BTN3A3, then stricter measurements should be put in place to prevent spreading.”

The paper comes after a new type of H5N1 bird flu virus, which transmits easily among wild birds, has caused destruction in animals globally. There have been concerns that the increased spread offers more opportunities for the virus to infect people, especially as more and more mammals (哺乳动物) have been infected. And Prof Massimo Palmarini, a co-author of the report told the BBC that just over 50 percent of virus samples from birds and seven cases in people were resistant to BTN3A3.

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