Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant-induced crop damage

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.     

Efficacy-based and normative interventions for facilitating the diffusion of conservation behavior through social networks

Research suggests that encouraging motivated residents to reach out to others in their social network is an effective strategy for increasing the scale and speed of conservation action adoption. However, little is known about how to effectively encourage large numbers of residents to reach out to others about conservation causes. We examined the influence of normative and efficacy-based messaging at motivating residents to engage in and to encourage others to participate in native plant gardening in their community. To do so, we conducted a field experiment with messages on mailings and tracked native plant vouchers used. Efficacy messages tended to be more effective than normative messages at increasing residents’ willingness to reach out to others to encourage conservation action, as indicated by a several percentage point increase in native plant voucher use by residents’ friends and neighbors. Messages sometimes had different impacts on residents based on past behaviors and perceptions related to native plant gardening. Among these subgroups, efficacy and combined efficacy and norm messages most effectively encouraged individual and collective actions, as indicated by increased voucher usage. Our findings suggest that interventions that build residents’ efficacy for engaging in a conservation behavior and for reaching out to others may be a promising path forward for outreach. However, given our results were significant at a false discovery rate cutoff of 0.25 but not 0.05, more experimental trials are needed to determine the robustness of these trends.     

驾驶舱空气动力源致振动响应分析研究

目的分析驾驶舱外形上多处凸起对驾驶舱内若干重要部位的振动响应的影响。方法首先采用大涡模拟方法,计算多种飞行工况下分离气流产生的作用于机身前段外表面的非定常脉动压力载荷,然后将所得载荷作用于前机身详细有限元模型上,获得所关心的驾驶舱内部分站位的加速度响应。结果通过对加速度响应结果的分析处理及与试飞测试数据对比,可知驾驶舱外形上多处凸起对驾驶舱内的振动量值影响比较大,气流分离对驾驶舱舱内振动贡献,峰值位置处达到了25%左右。结论相关计算结果可用于驾驶舱工效性评估和驾驶舱外形优化。     

提高环境科研和监测工作质量和效能的探讨

西部大开发中，就如何提高内蒙古自治区环境科技和环境监测工作质量和效能的问题，本文围绕在工作定位，工作重点及实施措施等方面进行了探讨，供同仁们讨论。     

谈沸腾炉的节能增效

本文从节增效的角度谈提高沸腾炉的效率，即通过调节风量，风室风压，沸腾温度，提高锅炉热效率，节能增效。     

复杂人——机系统中的人因失误

随着人——机系统变得越来越多，装置的可靠性越来越高，人因失误已成为重要的潜在事故源。本文描述了复杂人——机系统的特征，探讨了该系统中人因失误的定义、分类、数据采集和事故模型。这些研究有助于对人因失误的预测、预防和减少。     

战斗机座舱人机界面基本模型分析

讨论战斗机人机界面的组成部分及其功能,把各部分划分到飞行员和战斗机的三要素中,在此基础上建立了战斗机座舱人机界面三要素基本模型;通过分析要素组成部分间相互关系,利用不同的线条表示其不同程度的相互作用关系;对飞行员和战斗机的三要素组成部分进行了工效分析,进而探讨其在战斗机人机界面中的作用。通过人机界面模型的建立以及对战斗机座舱人机界面模型中的三要素进行的工效分析,得出了在人机界面中各个因素的重要程度及其功能作用,为战斗机座舱人机界面的设计提供了参考。     

人-机系统事故预防理论研究

分析人-机系统事故发生原因,剖析经典以人失误为主因的事故致因模型存在的不足,在该模型基础上增加"刺激"形成的原因,构建了改进事故致因模型。对两模型进行比较研究,指出人机工程学与防止事故的关系,提出了人机工程学防止事故的方法,并给出人机界面合理性主观评价检查表。研究及论证表明:预防人-机系统事故的本质在于有效防止人失误的发生,除安全管理措施以外,最重要的是人机工程学问题,笔者提出的基于人机工程学的人-机系统事故预防理论,对人-机系统事故的预防起到积极的指导作用。     

Making neighborhoods safer: Examining predictors of residents’ concerns about neighborhood safety

This study examined what factors best predict residents’ concerns about neighborhood safety. One-hundred and twenty-two participants were selected from a large, Midwestern metropolitan area. All participants lived in high crime areas. Participants completed a 22-item questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of neighborhood safety and vigilance. These items were clustered as: 1) Community care and vigilance, 2) neighborhood safety concerns, 3) physical incivilities, and 4) social incivilities. Police crime data were also used in the analyses. Our findings suggest that aspects of the broken window theory, collective efficacy, and place attachments/territoriality play a role in affecting residents’ concerns about neighborhood safety.