Evaluation of wind fields used in Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission analyses

The Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission (GCVTC) was established by the U.S. Congress to assess the potential impacts of projected growth on atmospheric visibility at Grand Canyon National Park and to make recommendations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on what measures could be taken to avoid such adverse impacts. A critical input to the assessment tool used by the commission was three-dimensional model-derived wind fields used to transport the emissions. This paper describes the evaluation of the wind fields used at various stages in the assessment. Wind fields evaluated included those obtained from the Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), the National Meteorological Center's Nested Grid Model (NGM), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion (ATAD) trajectory model. The model-derived wind fields were evaluated at multiple vertical levels at several locations in the southwestern United States by determining differences between model predicted winds and winds that were measured using radiosonde and radar wind profiler data. Model-derived winds were also evaluated by determining the percent of time that they were within acceptable differences from measured winds. All models had difficulties, generally meeting the acceptable criteria for less than 50% of the predictions. The RAMS model had a persistent bias toward southwesterly winds at the expense of other directions, especially failing to represent channeling by north-south mountain ranges in the lower levels. The NGM model exhibited a substantial bias in the summer months by extending northwesterly winds in the eastern Pacific Ocean well inland, in contrast to the observed southwesterlies at inland locations. The simpler ATAD trajectory model performed somewhat better than the other models, probably because of its use of more upper air sites. The results of the evaluation indicated that these wind fields could not be used to reliably predict source-receptor impacts on a particular day; thus, seasonally averaged impacts were used in the GCVTC assessment.     

Exploring motorcyclist injury severity resulting from various crash configurations at T-junctions in the United Kingdom--an application of the ordered probit models

OBJECTIVES: The fact that motorcycle users tend to be more vulnerable to injuries than those using other motorized vehicles may act synergistically with the complexity of conflicting movements between vehicles and motorcycles to increase injury severity in a junction-type accident. A junction-type collision tends to be more severe than a non-junction case due to the fact that some of the injurious crashes such as angle-collision commonly occur. Existing studies have applied several statistical modeling techniques to examine influential factors on the occurrences of different crashes among motorized vehicles but surprisingly very little has empirically explored whether a particular crash type, resulting from a junction-type accident, is more injurious to motorcyclists. This article attempts to investigate whether a particular collision is more deadly to motorcyclists conditioned on crash occurrence at T-junctions in the U.K., while controlling for environment, vehicle, and demographic factors. METHODS: The statistical modeling technique employed is the ordered probit models using the data extracted from the STATS19 accident injury database (1999-2004). RESULTS: The modeling found determinants of injury severity among motorcyclists at T-junctions in the U.K. For example, an approach-turn/head-on collision is much more injurious to motorcyclists; and, those riding in early morning (i.e., 0000-0659) are more likely to be severely injured. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers a guideline for future research, as well as insight into potential prevention strategies that might help moderate motorcyclist injuries.     

Environmentally Benign Blue Emissive Films from Host-Dopant Interaction of PLA–Bischalcone Combination with High UV Endurance

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - This work reports the fabrication of blue luminescent bioplastic PLA films on doping with 4-chloro and 4-fluoro substituted bisarylidene cyclohexanone...     

长期立贮固体发动机药柱变形预估方法研究

目的 研究老化与颠振影响下长期立式贮存固体发动机药柱的蠕变特性,基于广义Kelvin模型,构建一种考虑老化和损伤因素的蠕变本构模型。方法 通过开展温度与应力加速蠕变试验、高温加速老化试验以及往复拉伸损伤试验,获得老化与损伤对蠕变的影响规律,建立蠕变预测模型,获取模型参数,并将其嵌入有限元软件。结果 利用所得蠕变本构模型计算了某型发动机立式贮存15 a后药柱蠕变的应力应变,结果表明,考虑老化因素后,发动机药柱的最大等效应力增大了96.84%,最大等效应变减小了4.07%,在同时考虑老化与损伤因素后,最大等效应力增加了82.77%,最大等效应变减小了3.62%。结论 对比不同条件下的仿真结果,老化和损伤对发动机蠕变状态的影响较大。使用该模型能够较好地体现出固体发动机药柱的老化硬化和损伤软化。     

A critical look at challenges and future scopes of bioactive compounds and their incorporations in the food,energy, and pharmaceutical sector

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Bioactive compounds refer to secondary metabolites extracted from plants, fungi, microbes, or animals. Besides having pharmacological or toxicological...