By presenting stakeholders’ competing representations of an extraordinary geological formation, an island with a surface that is comprised of runoff from an infamous mud volcano in East Java, this article explores the communicative openings and closures that arise during an environmental disaster. A particular concern is attuning communicative practices to the diverse human and nonhuman actors that not only produce disasters but also shape our understandings and responses to disasters. Drawing on the work of Bruno Latour, this article suggests that non-anthropocentric modes of inquiry present new communicative and political possibilities for pursuing both social justice and safe environments. While this article focuses on a specific set of incidents in Indonesia, this project develops tools and perspectives that can be applied to environmental conflicts at other places. 相似文献
In order to enhance Chinese workers’ occupational safety awareness, it is essential to learn from developed countries’ experiences. This article investigates thoroughly occupational safety and health (OSH) in China and the UK; moreover, the article performs a comparison of Chinese and British OSH training-related laws, regulations and education system. The following conclusions are drawn: China’s work safety continues to improve, but there is still a large gap compared with the UK. In China a relatively complete vocational education and training (VET) system has been established. However, there exist some defects in OSH. In the UK, the employer will not only pay attention to employees’ physiological health, but also to their mental health. The UK’s VET is characterized by classification and grading management, which helps integrate OSH into the whole education system. China can learn from the UK in the development of policies, VET and OSH training. 相似文献
Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a novel algorithm on a mobile system that can warn drivers about the possibility of a collision with a pedestrian. The constraints of the algorithm are near-real-time detection speed and a good detection rate.
Method: Histogram of gradients (HOG)-based detection is widely used in pedestrian safety applications; however, it has low detection speed for real-time systems. Hence, it has no direct usage for mobile systems. In order to achieve near-real-time detection speed, partial Haar transform predetections are applied to an image before HOG detection. The partial and HOG detections are merged and a score-based confidence level is defined for the final detection phase. In this way, the outcome is prioritized and different warning levels can be issued to warn the driver before a possible pedestrian collision.
Results: The proposed algorithm provides an increase in detection speed (from 46 to 76 fps) and detection rate (from 80 to 91%) with respect to HOG-based pedestrian detection. It also improves confidence of the results by multidetection merging and score assignment to detections.
Conclusions: Performance improvement of the algorithm is compared with respect to state-of-the-art detectors/algorithms. Based on the detection rate and detection speed performance, it can be concluded that the proposed algorithm is suitable to be used for mobile systems to warn drivers about the possibility of collision with a pedestrian. 相似文献
The formation of hydrate will lead to serious flow assurance problems in deepwater submarine natural gas transmission pipelines. However, the accurate evaluation model of the hydrate blocking risk for submarine natural gas transportation is still lacking. In this work, a novel model is established for evaluating the hydrate risk in deepwater submarine gas pipelines. Based on hydrate growth-deposition mechanism, the mathematical model mainly consists of mass, momentum and energy conservation equations. Meantime, the model results are obtained by finite difference method and iterative technique. Finally, the model has been applied in the production of deepwater gas field (L Gas Field) in China, and the sensitivity analysis of relevant parameters has been carried out. The results show that: (a). The mathematical model can well predict the hydrate blockage risk in deepwater natural gas pipelines after verification. (b). Hydrate is easily formed at the intersection of horizontal pipeline and vertical riser, and the maximum blocking position often occurs in middle of the riser. (c). The hydrate blockage degree and length of hydrate formation region (HFR) decrease with the increase of gas transport rate. (d). The hydrate blockage degree and length of HFR decrease with the increase of gas transport temperature. (e). The hydrate blockage degree and length of HFR increase with the extension of horizontal pipeline. (f). Injecting inhibitors can effectively inhibit hydrate formation and blockage, but the improvement of transmission measures can significantly reduce the dosage of inhibitor. It is concluded that measures such as increasing gas transportation rate and temperature, shortening horizontal pipeline length, optimizing inhibitor injection point and injection rate can play a safe, economic and efficient role in hydrate preventing and controlling. 相似文献
The increasing use and subsequent accumulation of polystyrene containers has triggered a substantial environmental problem. This study investigated using varied percentages of solid waste polystyrene disposable food dishes in the production of lightweight concrete samples with 350 kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3) of cement and a density of 1,300 kg/m3. The polystyrene disposable dishes were ground into beads of 0–3 millimeters (mm) and 3–6 mm in size. First, the characteristics of Type II Portland cement, polystyrene, and aggregates were examined. The following characteristics of concrete using ASTM International and British Standards Institution standards were tested: slump, compressive strength, ability to resist chloride ion penetration, and resistance of concrete to rapid freezing and thawing cycles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analytical techniques were also used. The slump of samples varied between 40 and 70 mm and was not dependent on either the polystyrene percentage or the size of the polystyrene beads in the concrete samples (p‐value > .05). The compressive strength of the concrete samples after 90 days of curing, and using different percentages of polystyrene, varied between 96 and 113 kilograms per square centimeter (kg/cm2). The resistance of the samples to the freezing and thawing cycle and chloride ion penetration were affected unfavorably by the presence of the polystyrene. The SEM technique indicated that concrete samples containing 15% and 25% polystyrene had denser crystals and less void than concrete samples with 40% and 55% polystyrene. 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
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the principal anthropogenic activity that globally contributes to overloading our environment with mercury. Although the Minamata Convention, led by the United Nations, is a crucial instrument to eliminate its use progressively, novel approaches to accelerate this difficult transition are welcome. This article proposes a framework for policy-making or improvement, fostering the enforcement of mercury elimination through the lens of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the excluded artisanal and small-scale gold miners and their dependents. We move forward with a literature review of the Artisanal and Small Mining topic, taking each SDG as a unit of analysis. Understanding the problem as a puzzle of four sets of pieces, namely: (1) social, (2) environmental, (3) economic, and (4) institutional, the paper offers potential opportunities for the decision-makers and practitioners to accelerate the substitution of this heavy metal and develop sustainable futures for the ASGM communities. We conclude by proposing a pragmatic framework that synthesizes the means, actions, and ends to accelerate a sustainable transition. 相似文献
A nutrient loss reduction strategy is necessary to guide the efforts of improving water quality downstream of an agricultural watershed. In this study, the effectiveness of two winter cover crops, namely cereal rye and annual ryegrass, is explored as a loss reduction strategy in a watershed that ultimately drains into a water supply reservoir. Using a coupled optimization-watershed model, optimal placements of the cover crops were identified that would result in the tradeoffs between nitrate-N losses reduction and adoption levels. Analysis of the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% adoption levels extracted from the optimal tradeoffs showed that the cover crop placements would provide annual nitrate-N loss reductions of 3.0%–3.7%, 7.8%–8.8%, 15%–17.5%, and 20.9%–24.3%, respectively. In addition, for the same adoption levels (i.e., 10%–75%), sediment (1.8%–17.7%), and total phosphorus losses (0.8%–8.6%) could be achieved. Results also indicate that implementing each cover crop on all croplands of the watershed could cause annual water yield reduction of at least 4.8%, with greater than 28% in the months of October and November. This could potentially be detrimental to the storage volume of the downstream reservoir, especially in drought years, if cover crops are adopted in most of the reservoir's drainage area. Evaluating water yield impacts, particularly in periods of low flows, is thus critical if cover crops are to be considered as best management practices in water supply watersheds. 相似文献