Densely populated coastal urban areas are often exposed to multiple hazards, in particular floods and storms. Flood defenses and other engineering measures contribute to the mitigation of flood hazards, but a holistic approach to flood risk management should consider other interventions from the human side, including warning information, adaptive behavior, people/property evacuation, and the multilateral relief in local communities. There are few simulation approaches to consider these factors, and these typically focus on collective human actions. This paper presents an agent-based model that simulates flood response preferences and actions taken within individual households to reduce flood losses. The model implements a human response framework in which agents assess different flood scenarios according to warning information and decide whether and how much they invest in response measures to reduce potential inundation damages. A case study has been carried out in the Ng Tung River basin, an urbanized watershed in northern Hong Kong. Adopting a digital elevation model (DEM) as the modeling environment and a building map of household locations in the case area, the model considers the characteristics of households and the flood response behavior of their occupants. We found that property value, warning information, and storm conditions all influence household losses, with downstream and high density areas being particularly vulnerable. Results further indicate (i) that a flood warning system, which provides timely, accurate, and broad coverage rainstorm warning, can reduce flood losses by 30–40%; and (ii) to reduce losses, it is more effective and cheaper to invest early in response measures than late actions. This dynamic agent-based modeling approach is an innovative attempt to quantify and model the role of human responses in flood loss assessments. The model is demonstrated being useful for analyzing household scale flood losses and responses and it has the potential to contribute to flood emergency planning resource allocation in pluvial flood incidents. 相似文献
The previous studies estimated the association between PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm) exposure during pregnancy and preterm birth, only considered and highlighted the hazard effects of high levels of air pollutant exposure, and underestimated that low levels of pollutant exposure might also affect pregnancy outcome. We conducted a meta-analysis of 11 cohort studies, a total of more than 1,500,000 subjects. The results of these studies were pooled by exposure levels and study periods. PM2.5 exposure during pregnancy was positively associated with preterm birth (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.07–1.23), and during the first trimester of pregnancy, low levels of PM2.5 exposure were also positively associated with preterm birth (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.04–1.30). It is important to protect pregnant women from PM2.5 exposures, especially during their first trimester of pregnancy even when the ambient PM2.5 concentration is relatively low. More relevant health policy should be carried out to prevent hazard effect of air pollutants. 相似文献
With the increasing of high saline waste sludge production, the treatment and utilization of saline waste sludge attracted more and more attention. In this study, the biological hydrogen production from saline waste sludge after heating pretreatment was studied. The substrate metabolism process at different salinity condition was analyzed by the changes of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), carbohydrate and protein in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and dissolved organic matters (DOM). The excitation-emission matrix (EEM) with fluorescence regional integration (FRI) was also used to investigate the effect of salinity on EPS and DOM composition during hydrogen fermentation. The highest hydrogen yield of 23.6 mL H2/g VSS and hydrogen content of 77.6% were obtained at 0.0% salinity condition. The salinity could influence the hydrogen production and substrate metabolism of waste sludge.
Vacuum sealing drainage has excellent therapeutic effects on the complex injuries. There is no relevant report on seawater-immersed sulfur mustard injury. The treatment effects were examined with miniature pigs. Injuries were performed on their back followed by vacuum sealing drainage at various pressures for nine days. Injured tissues were sampled up to 30 d after treatment and healing rates, levels of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor α, and vascular endothelial growth factor were recorded. Vacuum sealing drainage enhances the healing of sulfur mustard wounds significantly, reduces the interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor α levels in the wound, and increases the vascular endothelial growth factor expression. Pressure reduction by 180 mmHg is the most suitable condition for vacuum treatment. 相似文献
A series of Co-La catalysts were prepared using the wet impregnation method and the synthesis of catalysts were modified by controlling pH with the addition of ammonium hydroxide or oxalic solution. All the catalysts were systematically investigated for NO oxidation and SO2 resistance in a fixed bed reactor and were characterized by Brunanuer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X–ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric (TG) and Ion Chromatography (IC). Among the catalysts, the one synthesized at pH = 1 exhibited the maximum NO conversion of 43% at 180°C. The activity of the catalyst was significantly suppressed by the existence of SO2 (300 ppm) at 220°C. Deactivation may have been associated with the generation of cobalt sulfate, and the SO2 adsorption quantity of the catalyst might also have effected sulfur resistance. In the case of the compact selective catalytic reduction (SCR), the activity increased from 74% to 91% at the highest gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 300000 h–1 when the NO catalyst maintained the highest activity, in excess of 50% more than that of the standard SCR.
