高土石坝抗震性态分析与灾害对策研究

首先介绍了中国目前高土石坝建设现状,然后回顾了循环加荷动三轴测试技术、堆石料动力性质的研究、高土石坝动力反应分析方法和土石坝地震永久变形的研究进展,最后讨论了高土石坝抗震措施和土石坝地震安全评价及防灾对策专家系统的基本思路。     

板锥网壳结构的风振响应分析

板锥网壳结构是一种受力性能合理,技术经济效益良好的新型空间结构形式。采用谐波法模拟了Daven-port脉动风谱;采用时程分析法对板锥网壳结构进行了风振响应时程分析,并对板锥网壳结构的风振响应特性进行了全面和深入的研究,为板锥网壳结构的抗风设计提供理论上的依据,得出了可应用于工程实践的重要结论。     

Disaster mental health training programmes in New York City following September 11, 2001

The need for mental health resources to provide care to the community following large‐scale disasters is well documented. In the aftermath of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster on September 11, 2001, many local agencies and organizations responded by providing informal mental health services, including disaster mental health training for practitioners. The quality of these programmes has not been assessed, however. The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's School of Public Health reviewed disaster mental health training programmes administered by community‐based organizations, professional associations, hospitals, and government agencies after September 11. Results indicate that the quality and the effectiveness of programmes are difficult to assess. A wide range of curricula and a widespread lack of recordkeeping and credentialing of trainers were noted. Most of the training programmes provided are no longer available. Recommendations for improving the quality of disaster mental health training programmes are provided.     

MnO_2陶粒臭氧氧化催化剂的制备及其性能

以凹凸棒土为载体、MnO_2为活性组分,制备了MnO_2陶粒臭氧氧化催化剂,并以草酸为模拟污染物,采用响应面法对催化剂的制备条件进行了优化。实验结果表明:各因素对草酸去除率影响的显著性顺序为MnO_2投加量盐酸溶液质量分数煅烧时间煅烧温度。催化剂的最佳制备条件为:MnO_2投加量200 mg/g,盐酸溶液质量分数20%,煅烧时间2 h,煅烧温度400℃。在初始草酸质量浓度150 mg/L、溶液pH 3.11、臭氧投加量8.10 mg/min、臭氧-氧气曝气量400 m L/min的条件下,最佳条件制备的催化剂在反应30 min时的草酸去除率达66.99%。催化剂具有良好的活性稳定性,且催化过程中Mn~(2+)溶出量低。催化剂具有较大的比表面积,负载的MnO_2类型为α-MnO_2和β-MnO_2。     

Adaptive response criteria in road hazard detection among older drivers

Objectives: The majority of existing investigations on attention, aging, and driving have focused on the negative impacts of age-related declines in attention on hazard detection and driver performance. However, driving skills and behavioral compensation may accommodate for the negative effects that age-related attentional decline places on driving performance. In this study, we examined an important question that had been largely neglected in the literature linking attention, aging, and driving: can top-down factors such as behavioral compensation, specifically adaptive response criteria, accommodate the negative impacts from age-related attention declines on hazard detection during driving?

Methods: In the experiment, we used the Drive Aware Task, a task combining the driving context with well-controlled laboratory procedures measuring attention. We compared younger (n = 16, age 21–30) and older (n = 21, age 65–79) drivers on their attentional processing of hazards in driving scenes, indexed by percentage of correct responses and reaction time of hazard detection, as well as sensitivity and response criteria using signal detection analysis.

Results: Older drivers, in general, were less accurate and slower on the task than younger drivers. However, results from this experiment revealed that older, but not younger, drivers adapted their response criteria when the traffic condition changed in the driving scenes. When there was more traffic in the driving scene, older drivers became more liberal in their responses, meaning that they were more likely to report that a driving hazard was detected.

Conclusions: Older drivers adopt compensatory strategies for hazard detection during driving. Our findings showed that, in the driving context, even at an older age our attentional functions are still adaptive according to environmental conditions. This leads to considerations on potential training methods to promote adaptive strategies that may help older drivers maintain performance in road hazard detection.     

Validation of auditory detection response task method for assessing the attentional effects of cognitive load

Objectives: There are 3 standardized versions of the Detection Response Task (DRT), 2 using visual stimuli (remote DRT and head-mounted DRT) and one using tactile stimuli. In this article, we present a study that proposes and validates a type of auditory signal to be used as DRT stimulus and evaluate the proposed auditory version of this method by comparing it with the standardized visual and tactile version.

Methods: This was a within-subject design study performed in a driving simulator with 24 participants. Each participant performed 8 2-min-long driving sessions in which they had to perform 3 different tasks: driving, answering to DRT stimuli, and performing a cognitive task (n-back task). Presence of additional cognitive load and type of DRT stimuli were defined as independent variables. DRT response times and hit rates, n-back task performance, and pupil size were observed as dependent variables.

Results: Significant changes in pupil size for trials with a cognitive task compared to trials without showed that cognitive load was induced properly. Each DRT version showed a significant increase in response times and a decrease in hit rates for trials with a secondary cognitive task compared to trials without. Similar and significantly better results in differences in response times and hit rates were obtained for the auditory and tactile version compared to the visual version. There were no significant differences in performance rate between the trials without DRT stimuli compared to trials with and among the trials with different DRT stimuli modalities.

Conclusions: The results from this study show that the auditory DRT version, using the signal implementation suggested in this article, is sensitive to the effects of cognitive load on driver's attention and is significantly better than the remote visual and tactile version for auditory–vocal cognitive (n-back) secondary tasks.     

Patterns of preference and practice: bridging actors in wildfire response networks in the American Northwest

The roles of bridging actors in emergency response networks can be important to disaster response outcomes. This paper is based on an evaluation of wildfire preparedness and response networks in 21 large‐scale wildfire events in the wildland—urban interface near national forests in the American Northwest. The study investigated how key individuals in responder networks anticipated seeking out specific people in perceived bridging roles prior to the occurrence of wildfires, and then captured who in fact assumed these roles during actual large‐scale events. It examines two plausible, but contradictory, bodies of theory—similarity and dissimilarity—that suggest who people might seek out as bridgers and who they would really go to during a disaster. Roughly one‐half of all pre‐fire nominations were consistent with similarity. Yet, while similarity is a reliable indicator of how people expect to organise, it does not hold up for how they organise during the real incident.     

Continue to blame it on the rain? Conceptualization of drought and failure of food systems in the Greater Horn of Africa

Food insecurity continues to be prevalent in parts of Africa. In December 2015, there were approximately 21.6 million food insecure people in the Horn and East Africa. Climate change is likely to exacerbate current volatility of agricultural production and lead to further food insecurity. Whilst the academic literature has acknowledged the complexity of food insecurity and systems, it is not clear to what extent this has been translated into practice. We argue that there is a tendency to explain complex failures of food systems as ‘droughts’, with insufficient attention paid to other drivers. We analyse humanitarian documents and climate outlook statements in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and assess how these are reflected in the humanitarian responses to food insecurity in the region by analysing the financing of humanitarian operations. Our findings indicate that the continued evolution in understanding the complex causes of food insecurity and attempts to move away from emergency relief to a more sophisticated approach has not translated into an observable change in humanitarian responses. The reasons behind this persistence of short-term relief, which is being justified with reference to climatic factors, mainly drought, would warrant further research into the decision-making process that triggers humanitarian responses.

List of abbreviations: ACF: Action Contre le Faim; DCM: Drought Cycle Management; DEC: Disaster Emergency Committee; ECHO: European Commission Humanitarian Office; EU: European Union; EWS: Early Warning System; FAO: Food and Agricultural Organization; FEWSNET: Famine Early Warning System Network; FSNAU: Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit; FTS: Financial Tracking Service; GHACOF: Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum; GIEWS: Global Information and Early Warning System; IASC: Inter Agency Standing Committee; ICPAC: IGAD Climate Application and Prediction Centre; IFRC: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; IGAD: Inter-Governmental Authority on Development; IPCC: International Panel for Climate Change; LEWS: Livestock Early Warning System; ODI: Overseas Development Initiative; PASDEP: Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to Eradicate Poverty; PSNP: Productive Safety Net Programme; UNDRO: United Nations Disaster Relief Office; UNISDR: United Nations International; UN OCHA: United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; USAID: United States Agency for International Development; WFP: World Food Programme     

Optimization of pretreatment conditions for enhanced sugar release

Present investigation was done to evaluate various algal genera found in water bodies of Varanasi city. The potential of any biomass for biofuels (bioalcohols, biohydrogen, etc.) production depends on the quantity of extractable sugar present in it. Acid (H₂SO₄) and alkali (NaOH) pretreatment were performed, and H₂SO₄ was chosen due to its nearly double yield as compared with alkaline pretreatment. Response surface methodology was utilized for the optimization of operating parameters such as treatment temperature, time, and acid concentration. Sugar yield up to 0.33 g/g of dry biomass was obtained using cyanobacterial biomass of Lyngbya limnetica, at 100°C, 59.19 min, and H₂SO₄ concentration of 1.63 M.     

高架桥路交通噪声主观反应调查研究

采用调查与噪声测量同步进行的方法研究人们对城市高架桥路交通噪声的主观反应,分析了主观烦恼度,睡眠干扰率随等效声级变化的规律,指出不同人群主观烦恼反应,睡眠干扰反应的差异,高架桥路建设前后及非高架桥主观反应的差异。