Establishing protected areas (PAs) is an essential strategy to reduce biodiversity loss. However, many PAs do not provide adequate protection due to poor funding, inadequate staffing and equipment, and ineffective management. As part of China's recent economic growth, the Chinese government has significantly increased investment in nature reserves over the past 20 years, providing a unique opportunity to evaluate whether PAs can protect threatened species effectively. We compiled data from published literature on populations of gibbons (Hylobatidae), a threatened taxon with cultural significance, that occurred in Chinese reserves after 1980. We evaluated the ability of these PAs to maintain gibbon habitat and populations by comparing forest cover and human disturbance between reserves and their surrounding areas and modeling the impact of reserve characteristics on gibbon population trends. We also assessed the perspective of reserve staff concerning PA management effectiveness through an online survey. Reserves effectively protected gibbon habitat by reducing forest loss and human disturbance; however, half the reserves lost their gibbon populations since being established. Gibbons were more likely to survive in reserves established more recently, at higher elevation, with less forest loss and lower human impact, and that have been relatively well studied. A larger initial population size in the 1980s was positively associated with gibbon persistence. Although staff of all reserves reported increased investment and improved management over the past 20–30 years, no relationship was found between management effectiveness and gibbon population trends. We suggest early and emphatic intervention is critical to stop population decline and prevent extinction. 相似文献
Objective: The present study examines the accelerating and braking behaviors of drivers at different blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) in heterogeneous driving conditions using driving simulator experiments.
Methods: Eighty-two licensed drivers performed simulated driving in a rural road environment designed in the driving simulator at 4 BAC levels: 0.00, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.08%. Driving performance was analyzed using vehicle control variables such as mean acceleration and mean brake pedal force. Generalized linear mixed models were developed to quantify the effect of different alcohol levels and explanatory variables such as driver’s age, gender, and other factors on the driving performance indicators.
Results: Alcohol use was reported as a significant factor affecting the accelerating and braking performance of drivers. The acceleration model results indicated that drivers’ mean acceleration increased by 0.013, 0.026, and 0.027 m/s2 for BAC levels of 0.03, 0.05, and 0.08%, respectively. Results of the brake pedal force model showed that drivers’ mean brake pedal force increased by 1.09, 1.32, and 1.44 N for BAC levels of 0.03, 0.05, and 0.08%, respectively. Age was a significant factor in both the models where a 1-year increase in driver age resulted in a 0.2% reduction in mean acceleration and a 19% reduction in mean brake pedal force. Driving experience could compensate for the negative effects of alcohol to some extent while driving.
Conclusions: The findings of the present study revealed that drivers tend to be more aggressive and impulsive under the influence of alcohol, which deteriorates their driving performance. Impairment in accelerating and braking behaviors of drivers under the influence of alcohol leads to increased crash probabilities. The conclusions may provide reference in making countermeasures against drinking and driving and contribute to traffic safety. 相似文献
This paper examines various control locations in heavy mining vehicles. Three trucks have been tested on a skid pad in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions. The skid lengths were measured after each trial. The primary focus of the study was the positioning of various controls and their relevance to various skid lengths. Some additional measures such as NASA-TLX scales were also used to make subjective evaluations. The results are presented in this paper. The findings clearly indicate the relevance of control locations to actual skid lengths. The poorly located controls resulted in greater skid lengths. This is an important finding as skid lengths are related to greater reaction times in a skidding situation and hence greater risk of accidents on relevant trucks. Such accidents can incur large repair bills for damaged equipment whereas more importantly, jeopardizing the life and safety of heavy mining vehicle drivers. 相似文献
In the current investigation, raw biogas obtained from rural sectors was used as the alternative to gasoline fuel in the spark ignition (SI) engine. The performance and efficiency are mainly dependent on the combustion phasing for which “ignition timing” is an effective tool in a SI engine. Hence, the objective of the present work is to understand the effect of “variable ignition timing” for a biogas-fueled SI engine. For this purpose, a single cylinder, 4-stroke, SI engine of rated power 4.5 kW was operated with raw biogas at a compression ratio (CR) of 10. By maintaining a speed of 1650 rpm, the engine was operated in wide open (WOT) and part throttle (PT) mode with an equivalence ratio of 0.81 and 0.83, respectively. It was observed that the biogas fueled SI engine was found to be operative only within the ignition advance (IA) range of 33–47° CA bTDC both in WOT and PT conditions. The results showed optimal brake power (BP), brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) are achieved at 45° CA bTDC. The average peak cylinder pressure, neat heat release rate (NHRR) and mean gas temperature (MGT) are also observed to be maximum while CO and HC emission at this point of IA were found to be minimum. Due to controlled and complete combustion, CO2 and NOx concentration in the exhaust emission were found to be higher at this point of ignition timing. 相似文献