Animal agency in wildlife conservation and management

Wildlife conservation and management (WCM) practices have been historically drawn from a wide variety of academic fields, yet practitioners have been slow to engage with emerging conversations about animals as complex beings, whose individuality and sociality influence their relationships with humans. We propose an explicit acknowledgement of wild, nonhuman animals as active participants in WCM. We examined 190 studies of WCM interventions and outcomes to highlight 3 common assumptions that underpin many present approaches to WCM: animal behaviors are rigid and homogeneous; wildlife exhibit idealized wild behavior and prefer pristine habitats; and human–wildlife relationships are of marginal or secondary importance relative to nonhuman interactions. We found that these management interventions insufficiently considered animal learning, decision-making, individuality, sociality, and relationships with humans and led to unanticipated detrimental outcomes. To address these shortcomings, we synthesized theoretical advances in animal behavioral sciences, animal geographies, and animal legal theory that may help conservation professionals reconceptualize animals and their relationships with humans. Based on advances in these fields, we constructed the concept of animal agency, which we define as the ability of animals to actively influence conservation and management outcomes through their adaptive, context-specific, and complex behaviors that are predicated on their sentience, individuality, lived experiences, cognition, sociality, and cultures in ways that shape and reshape shared human–wildlife cultures, spaces, and histories. Conservation practices, such as compassionate conservation, convivial conservation, and ecological justice, incorporate facets of animal agency. Animal agency can be incorporated in conservation problem-solving by assessing the ways in which agency contributes to species’ survival and by encouraging more adaptive and collaborative decision-making among human and nonhuman stakeholders.     

长三角空气质量区域预报准确性评估方法研究

根据长三角空气质量区域预报工作的实际需要,对分区文字预报和落区图预报两种方式分别制定了不同的空气质量指数级别预报准确性评估方法。分区文字预报根据设定的预报准确性判定方法计算预报评分,落区图预报按区域内预报准确城市占比进行准确率统计。分区文字预报结果显示,2017年长三角区域的预报准确天数占比为62.2%,预报评分为70.2,区域预报评估效果良好。落区图预报评估结果显示,预报级别偏差具有地域性差异,安徽北部、江苏北部和江西中北部预报等级偏高,长三角中南部沿海城市预报等级偏低。该套评估方法可为区域空气质量预报偏差成因分析提供依据,为区域预报工作的改进提供定量参考。     

论中国环境预警制度的法治化--以行政权力的规制为核心

环境预警制度蕴含了一项使行政权力合法扩张的"对应性架构",即预警级别与"强制型"或"限制型"措施之间的充分必要关系。在制度运行过程当中,环境行政权力却出现了"选择性失语"和"运动式肆意"的问题,具体表现为:一是预警级别发布时的"隐匿"与"从轻",从而对公民健康权益保护不足;二是预警状态下环境行政权力的扩张过度,使得对个人自由与企业经济自由侵害过度。由于环境治理领域"被害人-加害人"二元对立关系的模糊化、趋同化甚至同一化,传统公法学体系中的权力制约理论无法对预警状态下多样化和多层次性的行政权力进行有效地规制。那么,便有必要对现有的环境预警制度进行修正与纠偏。因此,可以从"对应性架构"的载体及其前后两端入手,对环境预警制度进行法治化建构。具体而言,对环境预警的载体"应急预案"进行形式改造,提高环境应急预案的规范层级,完善环境应急预案制定、修改等程序性规定;明确不同预警级别设定的规范层级,将作为被宪法所保护的客观利益——生态环境利益与经济利益的边界——通过"前端"预警标准予以划分;对预警状态下行政权力的"外部"制约程序予以完善。基于预警级别标准体系的划分,可以通过司法程序对"后端"环境应急预案进行"附带性审查",同时,赋予私主体直接针对预警状态下具有"外化"法效力的内部行政行为提起行政诉讼的诉权。     

Misoperation monitoring and early warning during startup and shutdown of petrochemical units

Most petrochemical units run under extreme conditions, such as high temperatures, pressures, and speeds. Consequently, the equipment operators may commit errors because the startup and shutdown processes usually involve complicated operation steps; moreover, the operators may lack experience in handling abnormal situations. Misoperation can lead to accidents, including fires and explosions. Thus, risk analysis for process operations and the development of preventive measures have become an effective means of avoiding misoperation-related accidents. However, it is challenging to ensure the comprehensiveness of risk-analysis results. In this paper, we present a method for misoperation monitoring and early warning in the startup and shutdown processes of petrochemical units. The mechanisms of misoperation occurrence are summarized based on investigations of serious accidents in the recent past. Knowledge regarding the mechanisms of misoperation is crucial for the risk analysis of petrochemical units. The potential risk information, such as causes, adverse consequences, key monitoring parameters, and prevention control solutions, should be acquired and be employed to construct an early-warning knowledge database. Furthermore, misoperation judgment rules need to be formulated to identify misoperations. The data obtained from the monitoring module, misoperation judgment rules, and analysis results can aid in developing schemes to avoid possible abnormal situations. This paper reports a misoperation monitoring and early-warning system for a hydrogenation unit. As demonstrated, conducting risk analysis to determine the potential operational risks and formulating misoperation judgment rules to analyze the process data are essential for enabling early warning. The application of this method will contribute to operational guidance, economic loss reduction, and accident avoidance.     

空气质量多模式预报系统在中山市的应用

介绍了中山市空气质量多模式预报系统。对2015年3月—2016年2月的预报效果评估表明:系统可以较好地反映污染物的变化趋势但仍存在系统性偏差。通过对排放源清单的调整优化及对模式干沉降模块的改进使模式系统的偏差显著减小。总结并建立中山市污染天气案例库,发现在典型污染天气形势下,除O3-8 h外,其他污染物均值均能达到空气质量二级标准。未来将从2个方面提高中山市空气质量预报预警系统的实用性,包括逐步实现污染源排放清单的动态及时更新和提高极端气象条件下O3污染预报能力。     

Low‐concentration hydrogen peroxide decontamination for Bacillus spore contamination in buildings

Remediation and recovery efforts after a release of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) spores may be difficult and costly. In addition, response and recovery technologies may be focused on critical resources, leaving the small business or homeowner without remediation options. This study evaluates the efficacy of relatively low levels of hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) delivered from off‐the‐shelf equipment for the inactivation of Bacillus spores within an indoor environment. Decontamination evaluations were conducted in a house using both Bacillus atrophaeus var. globigii (Bg; as surrogates for B. anthracis) inoculated on the carpet and galvanized metal as coupons and Geobacillus stearothermophilus (Gs) as biological indicators on steel. The total decontamination time ranged from 4 to 7 days. Using the longer exposure times, low concentrations of HPV (average levels below 20 parts per million) effectively inactivated Bg and Gs spores on the materials tested. The HPV was generated with commercial humidifiers and household‐strength hydrogen peroxide solutions. The presence of home furnishings did not have a significant impact on HPV efficacy. This simple, inexpensive, and effective decontamination method could have significant utility for remediation following a B. anthracis spore release, such as following a terrorist attack.     

Improving pedestrian safety using combined HOG and Haar partial detection in mobile systems

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.     

不同警告方式下驾驶人应激反应能力模拟试验研究

为研究在道路突发危险场景下先进驾驶辅助系统的不同警告方式对驾驶人应激反应能力的影响，利用自主开发的驾驶人应激反应能力测试软件，以计算机模拟与驾驶模拟器为试验平台，以实际驾驶视频为试验场景，选取操作准确率和反应时间为测试指标，分析不同警告方式下驾驶人的应激反应能力。研究结果表明:视觉警告可有效缩短应激反应时间；视听觉组合警告中，视觉警告占主导作用，听觉警告起辅助作用；在真实场景视频试验环境下，驾驶模拟器模拟试验的操作效果优于计算机模拟试验。     

Factors associated with driving under the influence of alcohol

Objective: This study examined the risk factors of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) among drivers of specific vehicle categories (DSC). On the basis of this research, the variables related to DUI and involvement in traffic crashes were defined. The analysis was conducted for car drivers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, bus drivers, and truck drivers.

Method: The research sample included drivers involved in traffic crashes on the territory of Serbia in 2016 (60,666). Two types of analyses were conducted in this study. Logistic regression established the correlation between DUI and DSC and the The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Multi-criteria decision making) method was applied to consider the scoring and explore the potential for the prevalence of DUI on the basis of 2 data sets (DUI and non DUI).

Results: The study results showed that driver error and male drivers were the 2 most significant risk factors for DUI, with the highest scores and potential for prevalence. The nonuse of restraint systems, driver experience, and driver age are the factors with a significant prediction of involvement in an accident and an insignificant prediction of DUI.

Conclusions: Following the development of the logistic prediction models for DUI drivers, testing of the model was conducted for 3 control driver groups: Car, motorcycle, and bicycle. The prediction model with a probability greater than 50% showed that 77% of car drivers were under the influence of alcohol. Similarly, the prediction percentage for motorcyclists and bicyclists amounted to 71 and 67%, respectively. The recommendation of the study is that drivers whose DUI probability is above 50% should be potentially suspected of DUI. The results of this study can help to understand the problem of DUI among specific driver categories and detect DUI drivers, with the aim of creating successful traffic safety policy.     

阿什河底栖动物群落特征及影响因子

阿什河作为松花江的一级支流,全境包含了从Ⅰ类到劣Ⅴ类的各种类型水质。通过对阿什河沿线底栖动物群落构成进行调查,结合典范对应性分析(CCA)对底栖动物群落与环境因子进行相关性分析得出结论,溶解氧和高锰酸盐指数为研究区域内底栖动物群落构成的主要限制因子。为分析不同水质条件下底栖动物种群变化成因和从生物学角度提出阿什河治理方法提供技术依据。