Strategic implications of counter-geoengineering: Clash or cooperation?

Solar geoengineering has received increasing attention as an option to temporarily stabilize global temperatures. A key concern is that heterogeneous preferences over the optimal amount of cooling combined with low deployment costs may allow the country with the strongest incentive for cooling, the so-called free-driver, to impose a substantial externality on the rest of the world. We analyze whether the threat of counter-geoengineering technologies capable of negating the climatic effects of solar geoengineering can overcome the free-driver problem and tilt the game in favour of international cooperation. Our game-theoretical model of countries with asymmetric preferences allows for a rigorous analysis of the strategic interaction surrounding solar geoengineering and counter-geoengineering. We find that counter-geoengineering prevents the free-driver outcome, but not always with benign effects. The presence of counter-geoengineering leads to either a climate clash where countries engage in a non-cooperative escalation of opposing climate interventions (negative welfare effect), a moratorium treaty where countries commit to abstain from either type of climate intervention (indeterminate welfare effect), or cooperative deployment of solar geoengineering (positive welfare effect). We show that the outcome depends crucially on the degree of asymmetry in temperature preferences between countries.     

Personality and economic choices

There is substantial variation in individual preferences for public goods, yet much of that variation remains poorly understood. However, simple measures of personality can help to explain economic values and choices in a systematic way. In this paper, we examine the effects of personality on individual economic choices over public environmental goods. Based on three datasets from three separate stated preference studies, we use a hybrid choice econometric framework to examine the effects of personality on preferences for the status quo, changes in environmental quality, and costs of investing in environmental improvements. We find effects that are consistent across all datasets. Personality, a stable feature of an individual's character that is simple to measure, enriches explanations of why the demand for environmental goods varies across people, provides an indication of how different people are likely to react to the introduction of environmental policies, and explains substantial differences in Willingness to Pay.     

Resilience-based approach to safety barrier performance assessment in process facilities

The performance assessment of safety barriers is essential to find vulnerable elements in a safety barrier system. Traditional performance assessment approaches mainly focus on using several static indicators for quantifying the performance of safety barriers. However, with the increasing complexity of the system, emerging hazards are highly uncertain, making it challenging for the static indicators to assess the performance of safety barriers. This paper proposes a resilience−based performance assessment method for safety barriers to overcome this problem. Safety barriers are classified according to their functions first. The dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is then introduced to calculate the availability function under normal and disruption conditions. The ratio of the system's availability, when affected by the disruption, to the initial availability, is used to determine the absorption capacity of the system. The ratio of the quantity of availability recovery to the total quantity of system represents the adaptation and restoration capacity of the system. The system's resilience is represented by the sum of absorption, adaptation, and restoration capacities. The wax oil hydrogenation process is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology.     

Diagnosis of Temperature Field by Ultrasonic CT-In case of limited projection angle

超声波CT作为一种热测量方法 ,具有不接触、对温度场不干扰的优点。本文发展一种新的超声波CT再现方法 ,用于解决受限透视角度所产生的信息量不足的问题。新的超声波CT再现算法建立在逆矩阵变换的基础上 ,它不同于通常的采用SL过滤器的所谓FBPCT再现方式。论文中描述了三种CT迭代再现算法 ,用计算机模拟结果和三维温度场测量实验数据验证了再现算法的可靠性。同时根据计算和实验结果 ,建议在受限的透视角度情况下 ,迭代方法采用修正的正则最小二乘法CGM是合适的     

航空用2D12铝合金在海洋大气环境中的腐蚀行为研究

在海南万宁试验站开展2D12铝合金海洋大气暴露试验,通过质量损失分析、力学性能分析和金相显微形貌分析,研究了2D12铝合金在海洋大气环境中腐蚀的规律和行为。结果表明,2D12铝合金的腐蚀质量损失与暴露时间的关系可用幂函数回归;随暴露时间的延长,2D12铝合金的抗拉强度先下降、后趋于平稳,断后伸长率则逐渐降低;金相显微分析表明,2D12铝合金的腐蚀由初始的点蚀逐渐发展成晶间腐蚀。     

Characterizing pesticide sorption and degradation in microscale biopurification systems using column displacement experiments

Biopurification systems treating pesticide contaminated water are very efficient, however they operate as a black box. Processes inside the system are not yet characterized. To optimize the performance, knowledge of degradation and retention processes needs to be generated. Therefore, displacement experiments were carried out for four pesticides (isoproturon, bentazone, metalaxyl, linuron) in columns containing different organic mixtures. Bromide, isoproturon and bentazone breakthrough curves (BTCs) were well described using the convection-dispersion equation (CDE) and a first-order degradation kinetic approach. Metalaxyl and linuron BTCs were well described using the CDE model expanded with Monod-type kinetics. Freundlich sorption, first-order degradation and Monod kinetics coefficients were fitted to the BTCs. Fitted values of the distribution coefficient K_f,column were much lower than those determined from batch experiments. Based on mobility, pesticides were ranked as: bentazone > metalaxyl - isoproturon > linuron. Based on degradability, pesticides were ranked as: linuron > metalaxyl - isoproturon > bentazone.     

SWATMOD‐Prep: Graphical User Interface for Preparing Coupled SWAT‐MODFLOW Simulations

This article presents SWATMOD‐Prep, a graphical user interface that couples a SWAT watershed model with a MODFLOW groundwater flow model. The interface is based on a recently published SWAT‐MODFLOW code that couples the models via mapping schemes. The spatial layout of SWATMOD‐Prep guides the user through the process of importing shape files (sub‐basins, hydrologic response units [HRUs], river network) from an existing SWAT model, creating a grid, performing necessary geo‐processing operations to link the models, writing out SWAT‐MODFLOW files, and running the simulation. The option of creating a new single‐layer MODFLOW model for near‐surface alluvial aquifers is available, with the user prompted to provide groundwater surface elevation (through a digital elevation model), aquifer thickness, and necessary aquifer parameter values. The option of simulating nitrate transport in the aquifer also is available, using the reactive transport model RT3D. The interface is in the public domain. It is programmed in Python, with various software packages used for geo‐processing operations (e.g., selection, intersection of rasters) and inputting/outputting data, and is written for Windows. The use of SWATMOD‐Prep is demonstrated for the Little River Experimental Watershed, Georgia. SWATMOD‐Prep and SWAT‐MODFLOW executables are available with an accompanying user's manual at: http://swat.tamu.edu/software/swat-modflow/ . The user's manual also accompanies this article as Supporting Information.     

Effects of investment on energy intensity: evidence from China

This article explores the effects of investment upon energy intensity by applying a unique panel data of China’s 27 provinces between 2004 and 2013. In addition, it also particularly studies other factors, such as energy price, economic structure, and urbanization. The results, based on four econometric regression model results, suggest that in general, the indigenous investment on research and development is a more powerful tool to decrease China’s energy intensity regardless of region disparity. The foreign direct investment (FDI) has a prominent but not persistent effect on energy intensity. However, the outward direct investment has not shown its significant impact on energy intensity. At the level of an aggregate economy and China’s eastern region, the results demonstrate that FDI improves energy efficiency significantly. For the central and western provinces, FDI does not support the similar conclusion. Based on these analyses, we present the corresponding regional policies for policymakers.     

NHDPlusHR: A National Geospatial Framework for Surface‐Water Information

The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a new geospatial hydrographic framework for the United States, called the National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlusHR), that integrates a diversity of the best‐available information, robustly supports ongoing dataset improvements, enables hydrographic generalization to derive alternate representations of the network while maintaining feature identity, and supports modern scientific computing and Internet accessibility needs. This framework is based on the High Resolution National Hydrography Dataset, the Watershed Boundaries Dataset, and elevation from the 3‐D Elevation Program, and will provide an authoritative, high precision, and attribute‐rich geospatial framework for surface‐water information for the United States. Using this common geospatial framework will provide a consistent basis for indexing water information in the United States, eliminate redundancy, and harmonize access to, and exchange of water information.     

Cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes in fish from the Baltic Sea

Laboratory studies suggest that the cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes (cVMS) octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) and dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) will persist in the aquatic environment and bioaccumulate in fish. Here these cVMS were measured in herring collected in the Swedish waters of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea and in grey seals from the Baltic Proper. D4, D5, and D6 were present in herring muscle at concentrations around 10, 200, and 40 ng g⁻¹ lipid weight, respectively. The ratio of these concentrations was similar to the relative magnitude of estimated emissions to water, suggesting that the efficiency of overall transfer through the environment and food web was similar (within a factor 2–3) for the three chemicals. The concentrations of D5 and D6 were similar in herring caught in the highly populated Baltic Proper and in the less populated Bothnian Sea and Bothnian Bay. The D4 concentrations were lower at the most remote northern station, suggesting that D4 is less persistent than D5 and D6. Herring from the North Sea had lower levels of all three chemicals. The concentrations of D4, D5 and D6 in grey seal blubber were lower than the lipid normalized concentrations in herring, indicating that they do not biomagnify in grey seals.