Objectives: The accuracy of self-reported driving exposure has questioned the validity of using self-reported mileage to inform research questions. Studies examining the accuracy of self-reported driving exposure compared to objective measures find low validity, with drivers overestimating and underestimating driving distance. The aims of the current study were to (1) examine the discrepancy between self-reported annual mileage and driving exposure the following year and (2) investigate whether these differences depended on age and annual mileage.
Methods: Two estimates of drivers’ self-reported annual mileage collected during vehicle installation (obtained via prestudy questionnaires) and approximated annual mileage driven (based upon Global Positioning System data) were acquired from 3,323 participants who participated in the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study.
Results: A Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that there was a significant difference between self-reported and annual driving exposure during participation in SHRP 2, with the majority of self-reported responses overestimating annual mileage the following year, irrespective of whether an ordinal or ratio variable was examined. Over 15% of participants provided self-reported responses with over 100% deviation, which were exclusive to participants underestimating annual mileage. Further, deviations in reporting differed between participants who had low, medium, and high exposure, as well as between participants in different age groups.
Conclusions: These findings indicate that although self-reported annual mileage is heavily relied on for research, such estimates of driving distance may be an overestimate of current or future mileage and can influence the validity of prior research that has utilized estimates of driving exposure. 相似文献
Biomethane production through biogas upgrading is a promising renewable energy for some industries which could be part of the equilibrium needed with fossil fuels consumption to achieve a sustainable society. This paper presents a comprehensive list of biogas upgrading technologies focused on carbon dioxide removal as well as recent advances reported by researcher with wide expertise in this topic. Additionally, an extensive costs–performance comparison among the technologies studied is discussed. Among the different alternatives, chemical scrubbing stood out to achieve high biomethane purities while cryogenic technologies proved to be effective against methane losses. Regarding the different costs, water scrubbing and membrane separation seem to be the most affordable techniques. 相似文献
Background, Aim and Scope Air quality is an field of major concern in large cities. This problem has led administrations to introduce plans and regulations
to reduce pollutant emissions. The analysis of variations in the concentration of pollutants is useful when evaluating the
effectiveness of these plans. However, such an analysis cannot be undertaken using standard statistical techniques, due to
the fact that concentrations of atmospheric pollutants often exhibit a lack of normality and are autocorrelated. On the other
hand, if long-term trends of any pollutant’s emissions are to be detected, meteorological effects must be removed from the
time series analysed, due to their strong masking effects.
Materials and Methods The application of statistical methods to analyse temporal variations is illustrated using monthly carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations
observed at an urban site. The sampling site is located at a street intersection in central Valencia (Spain) with a high traffic
density. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. It is a typical Mediterranean city in terms of its urban structure and
climatology. The sampling site started operation in January 1994 and monitored CO ground level concentrations until February
2002. Its geographic coordinates are W0°22′52″ N39°28′05″ and its altitude is 11 m. Two nonparametric trend tests are applied.
One of these is robust against serial correlation with regards to the false rejection rate, when observations have a strong
persistence or when the sample size per month is small. A nonparametric analysis of the homogeneity of trends between seasons
is also discussed. A multiple linear regression model is used with the transformed data, including the effect of meteorological
variables. The method of generalized least squares is applied to estimate the model parameters to take into account the serial
dependence of the residuals of this model. This study also assesses temporal changes using the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter.
The KZ filter has been shown to be an effective way to remove the influence of meteorological conditions on O3 and PM to examine underlying trends.
Results The nonparametric tests indicate a decreasing, significant trend in the sampled site. The application of the linear model
yields a significant decrease every twelve months of 15.8% for the average monthly CO concentration. The 95% confidence interval
for the trend ranges from 13.9% to 17.7%. The seasonal cycle also provides significant results. There are no differences in
trends throughout the months. The percentage of CO variance explained by the linear model is 90.3%. The KZ filter separates
out long, short-term and seasonal variations in the CO series. The estimated, significant, long-term trend every year results
in 10.3% with this method. The 95% confidence interval ranges from 8.8% to 11.9%. This approach explains 89.9% of the CO temporal
variations.
Discussion The differences between the linear model and KZ filter trend estimations are due to the fact that the KZ filter performs the
analysis on the smoothed data rather than the original data. In the KZ filter trend estimation, the effect of meteorological
conditions has been removed. The CO short-term componentis attributable to weather and short-term fluctuations in emissions.
There is a significant seasonal cycle. This component is a result of changes in the traffic, the yearly meteorological cycle
and the interactions between these two factors. There are peaks during the autumn and winter months, which have more traffic
density in the sampled site. There is a minimum during the month of August, reflecting the very low level of vehicle emissions
which is a direct consequence of the holiday period.
Conclusions The significant, decreasing trend implies to a certain extent that the urban environment in the area is improving. This trend
results from changes in overall emissions, pollutant transport, climate, policy and economics. It is also due to the effect
of introducing reformulated gasoline. The additives enable vehicles to burn fuel with a higher air/fuel ratio, thereby lowering
the emission of CO. The KZ filter has been the most effective method to separate the CO series components and to obtain an
estimate of the long-term trend due to changes in emissions, removing the effect of meteorological conditions.
Recommendations and Perspectives Air quality managers and policy-makers must understand the link between climate and pollutants to select optimal pollutant
reduction strategies and avoid exceeding emission directives. This paper analyses eight years of ambient CO data at a site
with a high traffic density, and provides results that are useful for decision-making. The assessment of long-term changes
in air pollutants to evaluate reduction strategies has to be done while taking into account meteorological variability 相似文献
为了研究好氧颗粒污泥系统处理低碳氮比废水的长期运行稳定性,采用低碳氮比(C/N)条件下逐步增加碳氮负荷的进水方法,分别在反应器A和B中接种好氧颗粒污泥,考察其长期运行过程中的理化性质、处理性能及应对冲击负荷的稳定性.其中A反应器的碳氮比一直维持在2,而B则由4逐步降至2.结果表明,在4℃存储30d的好氧颗粒污泥,经过25d的培养,其活性基本恢复,A、B反应器化学需氧量(COD)和氨氮(NH4+-N)的去除效率均达到90%以上.在其后的稳定阶段,B反应器COD和NH4+-N去除率达到90%以上,实现了完全硝化;而A反应器COD去除率仅80%左右,虽然NH4+-N去除率最终也达到90%以上,但仅实现短程硝化.在冲击负荷阶段,A和B反应器COD去除率仍维持在80%以上,但是NH4+-N去除受到很大冲击.A反应器NH4+-N去除效率恶化,B反应器仅实现了部分硝化.整个运行过程,好氧颗粒污泥的物理性质受到的影响不大,A和B反应器的污泥容积指数(SVI30)分别维持在60 mL ·g-1和75 mL ·g-1左右,混合液悬浮固体(MLSS)在5g ·L-1和3.7g ·L-1左右.颗粒污泥微生物群落分析表明,B反应器相对于A反应器丰富度和多样性更高.同时B反应器具有更高丰度的Zoogloea属,在颗粒中能产生更多的胞外蛋白促使颗粒结构更稳定,保证系统的长期稳定运行.以上结果表明,与C/N为2的好氧颗粒污泥系统相比,C/N为4的系统脱碳硝化效果好,抗冲击负荷能力强,更有利于颗粒污泥的长期稳定运行. 相似文献