Of timelines and timeliness: lessons from Typhoon Haiyan in early disaster response

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour, adversely affecting at least 11 million people and displacing some 673,000 in the central regions of the country. The disaster clearly overwhelmed the Philippine government despite its seemingly well‐crafted disaster management plan. Using timelines of different organisations, this paper identifies gaps in the government's response, mainly due to its failure in coordinating and managing relief operations, which adversely affected its effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of critical goods and services following the disaster. The paper also demonstrates how non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations, foreign governments and other organisations provided assistance, mainly through aid niching, to cover the government's shortcomings. The paper recommends a paradigm shift in the government's disaster response by integrating collaborative arrangements between government agencies and NGOs, and giving local governments the lead role, with the national government as support, in disaster planning and response.     

Analysis of Daily Peaking and Run‐of‐River Operations with Flow Variability Metrics,Considering Subdaily to Seasonal Time Scales

Environmental flows are an important consideration in licensing hydropower projects as operational flow releases can result in adverse conditions for downstream ecological communities. Flow variability assessments have typically focused on pre‐ and post‐dam conditions using metrics based on daily averaged flow values. This study used subdaily and daily flow data to assess environmental flow response to changes in hydropower operations from daily peaking to run‐of‐river. An analysis tool was developed to quantify flow variability metrics and was applied to four hydropower projects. Significant differences were observed between operations at the 99% confidence level in the median flow values using hourly averaged flow datasets. Median daily rise and fall rates decreased on average 34.5 and 27.9%, respectively, whereas median hourly rise and fall rates decreased on average 50.1 and 50.6%, respectively. Differences in operational flow regimes were more pronounced in the hourly averaged flow datasets and less pronounced or nonexistent in the daily averaged flow datasets. These outcomes have implications for the development of ecology‐flow relationships that quantify effects of flow on processes such as fish stranding and displacement, along with habitat stability. Results indicate that flow variability statistics should be quantified using subdaily datasets to accurately represent the nature of hydropower operations, especially for daily peaking facilities.     

基于Petri网的进近操作管理模型研究

据世界民航所发生的飞行事故情况看,进近着陆阶段时间短、任务重、环境复杂,是飞行事故多发阶段,占很大的比重,因此进近着陆是保证飞行安全的重要阶段。大多数事故是发生在仪表着陆系统出现故障的非精密进近方式。以机组非精密进近的主要飞行操作为基础建立基于Petri网的事故致因模型,统计分析相关的致因因素,计算相关风险值,通过对数据的分析反馈,形成对相应飞行员的针对性学习及训练的系统性管理模式。     

Safety issues related to the maintenance operations in a vegetable oil refinery: A case study

The present work was focused on maintenance hazards related to vegetable oil refining. An incident occurred in an Italian vegetable oil refinery was presented to evidence this safety criticality. The incident took place during a maintenance shut down, and was associated to the ignition of the solid residual in a packed column. No fatalities or injuries were reported, but the column was strongly damaged and removed from the plant. A specific experimental characterization of the solid residues accumulated in the column, sampled both from the damaged and undamaged parts of the column, was carried out in order to determine the conditions leading to unwanted combustion of the residues. At the same time, samples taken from the damaged column steelwork were subjected to metallurgical analysis aimed at the thermal and mechanical characterization of the steel, obtaining information about the incident duration and temperature reached during the combustion phenomenon. The study evidenced the need of adequate maintenance procedures and safety management in the generic framework of food industry, identified as key lessons learned.     

秦山核电厂换料大修高风险作业控制应用及优化

根据秦山核电厂三十万千瓦机组换料大修高风险作业控制实践经验,介绍一种基于安全许可管理的大修高风险作业控制模式,将高风险作业控制流程嵌入电站生产管理系统,与工单直接关联,实现了高危作业活动识别、风险分析及安全防护措施制定电子流程化。通过对电厂最近六次机组换料大修高风险作业控制相关数据统计、比较,评价高风险作业控制模式在电厂大修中应用效果的稳定性与有效性;根据核电厂大修类作业项目特点,提出机组换料大修期间大纲作业项目高风险作业控制改进方向。     

Anaerobic biodegradation of benzene series compounds by mixed cultures based on optional electronic acceptors

A series of batch experiments were performed using mixed bacterial consortia to investigate biodegradation performance of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and three xylene isomers （BTEX） under nitrate, sulfate and ferric iron reducing conditions. The results showed that toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene and o-xylene could be degraded independently by the mixed cultures coupled to nitrate, sulfate and ferric iron reduction. Under ferric iron reducing conditions the biodegradation of benzene and p-xylene could be occurred only in the presence of other alkylbenzenes. Alkylbenzenes can serve as the primary subs＇rates to stimulate the transformation of benzene and p-xylene under anaerobic conditions. Benzene and p-xylene are more toxic than toluene and ethylbenzene, under the three terminal electron acceptors conditions, the degradation rates decreased with toluene 〉 ethylbenzene 〉 m-xylene 〉 o-xylene〉 benzene 〉 p- xylene. Nitrate was a more favorable electron acceptor compared to sulfate and ferric iron. The ratio between sulfate consumed and the loss of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m-xylene, p-xylene was 4.44, 4.51, 4.42, 4.32, 4.37 and 4.23, respectively; the ratio between nitrate consumed and the loss of these substrates was 7.53, 6.24, 6.49, 7.28, 7.81, 7.61, respectively; the ratio between the consumption of ferric iron and the loss of toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m-xylene was 17.99, 18.04, 18.07, 17.97, respectively.     

黄河三角洲湿地土壤微生物群落结构分析

采用末端限制性片段长度多态性分析(T-RFLP)技术和16S rDNA克隆文库的方法,分析了黄河三角洲滨海湿地土壤不同深度细菌和古菌的群落结构.研究表明,随着深度的增加,细菌群落的多样性下降,而古菌群落多样性则有上升的趋势,且土壤的细菌和古菌群落结构都呈现出规律的层状分布.该土壤包括各种硫酸盐还原菌、产甲烷古菌、光合细菌等丰富的细菌和古菌资源.图5参27     

Potential nitrogen enrichment of soil and surface water by atmospheric ammonia sorption in intensive livestock production areas

Elevated atmospheric NH₃ levels near intensive livestock operations can add significant N to local agroecosystems. In this study, the potential atmospheric NH₃ sorbed by soil and water was assessed over a 2-year period starting October 2000 in an intensive livestock production area in southern Alberta, Canada. Fifty-two uneven grid sampling sites were selected in the 53,905 ha study area. The sorption rate of atmospheric NH₃ was estimated weekly by exposing distilled water and air-dried soil samples to the atmosphere at the sampling sites. The increases in NH₄–N content in the samples after 1-week exposure was regarded as an index of the atmospheric NH₃ sorbed for that week. The NH₃ sorption rates were highly variable across the 52 sites, with water ranging from 4 to 125 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ with a mean of 22 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ and soil from 5 to 84 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ with a mean of 20 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Considerable variation in NH₃–N sorption across the study area reflects the effects of size, direction (upwind or downwind) and proximity of nearby livestock operations or other NH₃ sources and operators’ activities around the sampling sites. The NH₃ sorption rate at each site also varied considerably in response to weather conditions. The high rate of NH₃ input poses a direct risk of surface water eutrophication in intensive livestock operation areas. If fertilizer recommendations are not reduced to account for NH₃ sorption by soil, excess N may also contribute to eutrophication through runoff and leaching.     

末端产物对乙醇型发酵菌群产氢能力及代谢进程的影响

利用连续流搅拌槽式反应器(CSTR)在一定条件下驯化成功的乙醇型产氢发酵菌群,通过静态培养实验,以葡萄糖为碳源,利用缓冲液控制反应体系pH值,通过不同的pH值环境使产氢发酵菌群末端产物生成比例发生改变,考察了不同的末端产物生成比例对菌群产氢能力的影响.结果表明,在液相末端产物总量相当的情况下,乙醇生成比例高时氢气产量也较高.通过外加乙醇和乙酸进行静态产氢实验发现,乙醇对发酵产氢的抑制作用不明显,同对照组相比,外加40 mmol/L时氢气产量仅下降了34%,而乙酸的存在对菌群的发酵产氢有较强的抑制,外加乙酸浓度为10 mmol/L时即对产氢发酵产生明显抑制,浓度为40 mmol/L时产氢量较对照组降低了84.3%,液相末端产物也大幅降低,混合菌群最终形成乙醇型发酵应是菌群自然选择的结果.