The role of situation awareness in accidents of large-scale technological systems

In the last two decades, several serious accidents at large-scale technological systems that have had grave consequences, such as that at Bhopal, have primarily been attributed to human error. However, further investigations have revealed that humans are not the primary cause of these accidents, but have inherited the problems and difficulties of working with complex systems created by engineers. The operators have to comprehend malfunctions in real time, respond quickly, and make rapid decisions to return operational units to normal conditions, but under these circumstances, the mental workload of operators rises sharply, and a mental workload that is too high increases the rate of error. Therefore, cognivitive human features such as situation awareness (SA)—one of the most important prerequisite for decision-making—should be considered and analyzed appropriately. This paper applys the SA Error Taxonomy methodology to analyze the role of SA in three different accidents: (1) A runaway chemical reaction at Institute, West Virginia killing two employees, injuring eight people, and requiring the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents adjacent to the facility, (2) The ignition of a vapor cloud at Bellwood, Illinois that killed one person, injured two employees, and caused significant business interruption, and (3) An explosion at Ontario, California injuring four workers and caused extensive damage to the facility. In addition, the paper presents certain requirements for cognitive operator support system development and operator training under abnormal situations to promote operators’ SA in the process industry.     

岩溶塌陷倾向性等级的KPCA-SVM预测模型

为了快速、有效地预测岩溶塌陷倾向性等级,在统计分析大量观测实例的基础上,选取岩性系数、岩体结构系数、地下水系数、覆盖层系数、地形地貌系数和环境条件系数作为特征指标。利用核主成分分析(KPCA)方法在高维空间提取岩溶塌陷影响因子的主成分,将获取的主成分作为支持向量机(SVM)的特征向量,建立基于KPCA的岩溶塌陷倾向性等级的SVM预测模型。将12组观测数据作为学习样本对模型进行训练。采用回代估计法进行回检,误判率为0。利用训练好的模型对2组待判样本进行预测。结果表明:经KPCA后指标个数减少,相关性降低,SVM运算的复杂度降低。用该模型所得预测结果的准确率为100%。     

Development and Operational Testing of a Super‐Ensemble Artificial Intelligence Flood‐Forecast Model for a Pacific Northwest River

Coastal catchments in British Columbia, Canada, experience a complex mixture of rainfall‐ and snowmelt‐driven contributions to flood events. Few operational flood‐forecast models are available in the region. Here, we integrated a number of proven technologies in a novel way to produce a super‐ensemble forecast system for the Englishman River, a flood‐prone stream on Vancouver Island. This three‐day‐ahead modeling system utilizes up to 42 numerical weather prediction model outputs from the North American Ensemble Forecast System, combined with six artificial neural network‐based streamflow models representing various slightly different system conceptualizations, all of which were trained exclusively on historical high‐flow data. As such, the system combines relatively low model development times and costs with the generation of fully probabilistic forecasts reflecting uncertainty in the simulation of both atmospheric and terrestrial hydrologic dynamics. Results from operational testing by British Columbia's flood forecasting agency during the 2013‐2014 storm season suggest that the prediction system is operationally useful and robust.     

Modelling and Prediction of Diesel Engine Performance using Relevance Vector Machine

Diesel engines are being increasingly adopted by many car manufacturers today, yet no exact mathematical diesel engine model exists due to its highly nonlinear nature. In the current literature, black-box identification has been widely used for diesel engine modelling and many artificial neural network (ANN) based models have been developed. However, ANN has many drawbacks such as multiple local minima, user burden on selection of optimal network structure, large training data size, and over-fitting risk. To overcome these drawbacks, this article proposes to apply an emerging machine learning technique, relevance vector machine (RVM), to model and predict the diesel engine performance. The property of global optimal solution of RVM allows the model to be trained using only a few experimental data sets. In this study, the inputs of the model are engine speed, load, and cooling water temperature, while the output parameters are the brake-specific fuel consumption and the amount of exhaust emissions like nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Experimental results show that the model accuracy is satisfactory even the training data is scarce. Moreover, the model accuracy is compared with that using typical ANN. Evaluation results also show that RVM is superior to typical ANN approach.     

Prediction of effluent concentration in a wastewater treatment plant using machine learning models

Of growing amount of food waste, the integrated food waste and waste water treatment was regarded as one of the efficient modeling method. However, the load of food waste to the conventional waste treatment process might lead to the high concentration of total nitrogen(T-N) impact on the effluent water quality. The objective of this study is to establish two machine learning models—artificial neural networks(ANNs) and support vector machines(SVMs), in order to predict 1-day interval T-N concentration of effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan, Korea. Daily water quality data and meteorological data were used and the performance of both models was evaluated in terms of the coefficient of determination(R~2), Nash–Sutcliff efficiency(NSE), relative efficiency criteria(d rel). Additionally, Latin-Hypercube one-factor-at-a-time(LH-OAT) and a pattern search algorithm were applied to sensitivity analysis and model parameter optimization, respectively. Results showed that both models could be effectively applied to the 1-day interval prediction of T-N concentration of effluent. SVM model showed a higher prediction accuracy in the training stage and similar result in the validation stage.However, the sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the ANN model was a superior model for 1-day interval T-N concentration prediction in terms of the cause-and-effect relationship between T-N concentration and modeling input values to integrated food waste and waste water treatment. This study suggested the efficient and robust nonlinear time-series modeling method for an early prediction of the water quality of integrated food waste and waste water treatment process.     

工程机械不同工况下PM_(2.5)排放及其碳质组分特征

我国工程机械排放控制起步较晚.为研究实际工况下工程机械的PM2.5排放特性及其碳质组分构成,采用便携式颗粒物稀释采样系统,对3台工程机械(2台挖掘机和1台装载机)在不同典型工况(行驶、作业和怠速)下的PM2.5及其碳质组分〔OC(有机碳)和EC(元素碳)〕的现场排放特征进行了测试.结果表明:沃尔沃挖掘机、山河智能挖掘机的PM2.5排放因子(基于燃油)分别为1.85~3.26和1.56~2.62 g/kg,厦工装载机的PM2.5排放因子为0.98~1.48 g/kg.不同工况对PM2.5排放因子影响较大,怠速工况下PM2.5排放因子是行驶工况下的1.49~1.76倍.工程机械排放的PM2.5中,碳质组分是最主要的成分,其质量分数高达71.0%~84.5%.其中,w(OC)为44.6%~72.0%,在怠速工况下最高;w(EC)则为8.6%~30.9%,在行驶工况下较高.测试工程机械的PM2.5排放水平较高,因此应尽快加强工程机械排放的污染防治.     

水资源环境承载能力监测预警平台设计探讨

建立水资源环境承载力监测预警平台与机制,是实现我国环境管理战略由以环境污染控制为目标导向,向以环境质量改善为目标导向彻底转变的重要支撑手段。以水资源环境承载力领域的相关研究进展为基础,提出水资源环境承载力监控预警平台的设计框架,平台设计的逻辑结构、核心功能以及相对应的水资源环境承载力评估技术,并对该平台建设的困难、问题及未来的发展趋势进行了分析,以期为水资源环境承载能力监测预警机制建设提供有益的参考。     

战场环境下装备保障信息系统安全风险与防护

目的研究战场环境下装备保障信息系统的安全问题。方法从装备保障及装备保障信息系统的概念、分类和复杂战场环境下装备保障信息系统所面临的安全威胁入手,依照五分法把装备保障信息系统安全风险划分为5个等级,推导出风险评估模型,提出实施装备保障信息系统安全防护的技战术策略。结果战场环境下,为确保整个作战进程中装备保障活动安全、有效、稳定地进行,装备保障信息系统防护必须遵循统一协调、综合利用的积极防护原则,采用有效的风险控制措施加以应对。结论通过积极探索和发展装备保障信息安全与防护理论,找准战场环境信息防护中存在的薄弱环节,制定了装备保障信息安全防护策略,加强装备保障信息系统的安全管理工作,最终提高我军装备保障信息系统的防护能力。     

有机化学品不同温度下(过冷)液体蒸气压预测模型的建立与评价

(过冷)液体蒸气压(PL)是评价化学品在环境中分配、迁移和归趋行为的重要参数。PL具有较强的温度依附性。发展一种能够精确预测不同环境温度下化学品PL的方法,有助于填补化学品生态风险评估的大量数据缺失。本研究收集整理了661种有机化合物在不同温度下(200~830 K)共计10 478个log PL值。在此基础上,采用偏最小二乘(PLS)回归和支持向量机(SVM)方法,构建了PL的线性和非线性预测模型。结果表明:2种模型均具有良好的拟合度、稳健性及预测能力,SVM模型的预测性能略高于PLS模型(PLS:R2adj.tra=0.912,RMSEtra=0.477,Q2ext=0.910;SVM:R2adj.tra=0.997,RMSEtra=0.092,Q2ext=0.967)。机理分析表明,温度是影响PL的主要因素,温度越高,蒸气压越大;其次,X1sol也影响PL大小,X1sol用来描述分子间的色散作用,分子间色散力越小,蒸气压越大;此外,化合物的氢键个数、极性和分子构型等因素也影响PL大小。采用Wiliams plot方法表征了PLS模型应用域。所建立的模型可用来预测烷烃、烯烃、醇、酮、羧酸、苯、酚、联苯、卤代芳香烃、含N化合物及含S化合物在不同温度下的PL数据。     

Prioritisation of citizen‐centric information for disaster response

In the aftermath of a disaster event, and in the absence of trained professionals, many responsibilities are assumed by uninjured citizens who are willing and able to help, such as care of the injured or search and rescue. These citizens are constrained by communications and logistics problems but are less equipped to deal with them as most often they are cut off from any coordinated assistance. The method proposed in this study would increase the survivability of those injured or trapped by a disaster event by providing a facility to allow citizens to coordinate and share information among themselves. This is facilitated by the proposed deployment and the autonomous management of an ad hoc infrastructure that liaises directly with survivors without central control. Furthermore, as energy concerns present critical constraints to these networks, this research proposes a system of categorising information elements within the network to ensure efficient information exchange.