Rapid Population Growth throughout Asia's Earthquake-Prone Areas: A Multiscale Analysis.

Assessing the changes of the population living throughout the most seismically hazardous area (MSHA) constitutes an important foundation for seismic risk assessment. However, the changes of the population living in the MSHA of Asia, which exhibits the highest number of earthquake related fatalities, were poorly understood. Therefore, this study analyzed the changes of the population in the MSHA between 2000 and 2015 at the continental, subcontinental, and national scales. We found that the population, especially the vulnerable population (i.e., children under or equal to the age of 14 and elderly people over or equal to the age of 65), in Asia's MSHA increased rapidly between 2000 and 2015. The population in the MSHA increased by 185.88 million with a growth rate of 20.93%, which was 3.38% greater than that in the non-MSHA region. Meanwhile, the vulnerable population in the MSHA increased by 63.65 million with a growth rate of 19.73%. The increase of the vulnerable population in the MSHA was 19.93% greater than that in the non-MSHA region. We also found that urban population growth was a major factor impacting the increase in both the population and the vulnerable population throughout Asia's MSHA. Therefore, attention should be paid to the changes of the population in Asia's MSHA, whilst it is imperative to execute strict building codes and select the development location more carefully in the MSHA.

A study of organic acid production in contrasts between two phosphate solubilizing fungi: Penicillium oxalicum and Aspergillus niger.

Phosphate solubilizing fungi (PSF) have huge potentials in enhancing release of phosphorus from fertilizer. Two PSF (NJDL-03 and NJDL-12) were isolated and identified as Penicillium oxalicum and Aspergillus niger respectively in this study. The quantification and identification of organic acids were performed by HPLC. Total concentrations of organic acids secreted by NJDL-03 and NJDL-12 are ~4000 and ~10,000 mg/L with pH values of 3.6 and 2.4 respectively after five-days culture. Oxalic acid dominates acidity in the medium due to its high concentration and high acidity constant. The two fungi were also cultured for five days with the initial pH values of the medium varied from 6.5 to 1.5. The biomass reached the maximum when the initial pH values are 4.5 for NJDL-03 and 2.5 for NJDL-12. The organic acids for NJDL-12 reach the maximum at the initial pH = 5.5. However, the acids by NJDL-03 continue to decrease and proliferation of the fungus terminates at pH = 2.5. The citric acid production increases significantly for NJDL-12 at acidic environment, whereas formic and oxalic acids decrease sharply for both two fungi. This study shows that NJDL-12 has higher ability in acid production and has stronger adaptability to acidic environment than NJDL-03.