Injury severity analysis of rollover crashes for passenger cars and light trucks considering temporal stability: A random parameters logit approach with heterogeneity in mean and variance

Problem: The rollover crash is a serious crash type that often causes higher injury severities. Moreover, factors that contribute to the injury severities of rollover crashes may show instabilities in different vehicle types and time periods, which requires further investigations. This study utilizes the rollover crash data in North Carolina from Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) to study the effect instabilities of factors in vehicle type and time periods in rollover crashes. Methods: The injury severities of drivers are estimated using the random parameters logit (RPL) model with heterogeneity in means and variances. Available factors in HSIS have been categorized into three groups, which are drivers, road, and environment, respectively. This study also justifies the segmentations through transferability tests. The effects of identified significant factors are evaluated using marginal effects. Results: Factors such as FWP (farm, wood, and pasture areas), unhealthy physical condition, impaired physical condition, road adverse, and so forth have shown instabilities in marginal effects among vehicle types and time periods. Practical Applications: The finding of this research could provide important references for policy makers and automobile manufactures to help mitigate the injury severity of rollover crashes.     

Assessment of soil erosion under rainfed sugarcane in KwaZulu‐Natal,South Africa

Soil erosion from agricultural land use runoff is a major threat to the sustainability of soil composition and water resource integrity. Sugarcane is an important cash and food security crop in South Africa, subjected to an intensive soil erosion, and consequently, severe land degradation. This study aimed to investigate soil erosion and associated soil and cover factors under rainfed sugarcane, in a small catchment, KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. Three replicated runoff plots were installed at different slope positions (down, mid and upslope) within cultivated sugarcane fields to monitor soil erosion during the 2016–2017 rainy season. On average, annual runoff (RF) was significantly greater from 10 m² plots with 1163.77 ± 2.63 l/m/year compared to 1 m² plots. However, sediment concentration (SC) was significantly lower in 10 m² (0.34 ± 0.04 g/l) compared to 1 m² (6.94 ± 0.24 g/l) plots. The annual soil losses (SL) calculated from 12 rainfall events was 58.36 ± 0.77 and 8.84 ± 0.20 t/ha from 1 m² and 10 m² plots, respectively. The 1 m² plot, SL (2.4 ± 1.41 ton/ha/year) in the upslope experienced 33% more loss than the midslope and 50% more loss than the downslope position. SL was relatively lower from the 10 m² plots than the 1 m² plots, which is explained by high sediment deposition at the greater plot scale. SL was negatively correlated with the soil organic carbon stocks (r = ?0.82) and soil surface cover (r = ?0.55). RF decreased with the increase of slope gradient (r = ?0.88) and soil infiltration rate (r = ?0.87). There were considerable soil losses from cultivated sugarcane fields with low organic matter. These findings suggest that to mitigate soil erosion, soil organic carbon stocks and vegetation cover needs to be increased through appropriate land management practices, particularly in cultivated areas with steep gradients.     

Implementing wildlife-management strategies into road infrastructure in southern Ontario: a critical success factors approach

Wildlife-road conflict has profound negative impacts on both wildlife populations and society. Despite a long-held understanding of this problem, in most regions the wildlife-management strategies (WMS) available to mitigate this conflict are still relatively underutilized. This study examines the implementation of these strategies into road infrastructure, using Southern Ontario as a case study, in order to develop an understanding of what leads to successful WMS implementation. The project management concept of critical success factors was applied and interviews with project decision-makers and key stakeholders were conducted. Nine factors were identified and a comparison between a ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ project is used to illustrate the cumulative effects that these factors, and their interrelationships, have on project implementation success. Practitioners can use these findings to evaluate WMS projects based on likelihood of success and allocate resources accordingly, ultimately leading to increased chances of implementation and overall benefit to conservation and society.     

Postural assessment in pen-and-paper-based observational methods and their associated health effects: a review

Introduction. This review describes standardized ergonomics assessment based on pen-and-paper observational methods for assessing ergonomics risk factors. Objective. The three main objectives are to analyze published pen-and-paper observational methods, to extract and understand the risk levels of each method and to identify their associated health effects. Methodology. The authors searched scientific databases and the Internet for materials from 1970 to 2013 using the following keywords: ergo, posture, method, observational, postural angle, health effects, pain and diseases. Postural assessments of upper arms, lower arms, wrists, neck, back and legs in six pen-and-paper-based observational methods are highlighted, extracted in groups and linked with associated adverse health effects. Results. The literature reviewed showed strengths and limitations of published pen-and-paper-based observational methods in determining the work activities, risk levels and related postural angles to adverse health effects. This provided a better understanding of unsafe work postures and how to improve these postures. Conclusion. Many pen-and-paper-based observational methods have been developed. However, there are still many limitations of these methods. There is, therefore, a need to develop a new pen-and-paper-based observational method for assessing postural problems.     

湿式电除尘器用于生物质气化燃气除尘的实验研究

生物质粉尘是生物质气化燃气中主要的杂质之一,其清除效果对生物质气化发电机组的安全运行有着重要的影响。以湿式电除尘装置作为试验平台,研究了生物质粉尘的特性和不同影响因素下湿式电除尘器的除尘效率,并对干法、湿法除尘效率进行对比。研究结果表明:生物质粉尘主要含C、O、Mg、Al、Si、K、Ca、Fe等元素,中位径为26.05μm。在相同条件下,除尘效率随着水压的增大而逐渐增大,当增加到0.4 MPa以后,无较大变化,除尘效率随着电场风速、焦油浓度的增加而减少,在洗涤水中添加少量的碱液有利于除尘。采用极配型式为RS二刺芒刺线配480C型板,当水压为0.4 MPa、电场风速为1.0 m/s,除尘效率可达99.21%。     

基于环境“一张图”的环境网格化管理平台建设思路探讨——以长吉产业创新发展示范区为例

阐述了网格和网格化的发展,总结典型城市环境网格化管理实践经验,提出环境网格化管理思路。根据环境总体规划中环境空间管控要求,将环境"一张图"与环境网格化管理相结合,提出建立"行政网格+标准公里网格"的环境网格化管理平台。以长吉产业创新发展示范区为例,通过建立层次分析法模型,实现水、大气、生态等环境要素"一张图"管控,识别网格保护优先等级,为下一步环境网格化平台建设提供技术支持。     

海南岛近岸海域环境容量与纳污总量分析

通过对海南岛"十二五"期间近岸海域纳污总量、环境质量状况及环境容量比较分析,得出各主要排污区环境容量的剩余环境容量。结果表明,全省主要污染物化学需氧量入海量仅占环境容量的2.6%,氨氮占环境容量的26.6%,虽然全省近岸海域环境基本未受污染物入海量影响,仍有较大的纳污空间,可利用的环境容量非常充裕。为避免出现排污达标但环境质量下降的状况,提出建立近岸海域主要污染物总量控制制度,由浓度控制到总量和浓度控制并存。     

胜坨油田原油温室气体排放特征及其影响因素

为研究油田开发过程中原油在大气条件下的碳排放特征,完善油气系统潜在温室气体排放清单,以胜利油田典型区块——胜坨油田原油为研究对象,通过改进的静态室-气相色谱及质谱法对原油在大气条件下的自然脱气(排放)过程进行模拟试验研究. 结果表明:CH₄和CO₂是胜坨油田原油溶解气中的两种主要温室气体;将模拟时间(48 h)均分为4个时段,CH₄、CO₂的主要排放阶段为0~12 h,并且其排放量远高于>12~24、>24~36和>36~48 h,其中,不同温度下CH₄、CO₂的最大排放率均出现在0~2 h. 原油在空气中暴露时间的长短及所处大气温度的高低直接影响温室气体的累积排放,CH₄、CO₂的累积排放量均随模拟试验的进行而递增;原油所处环境温度越高,累积排放量越大,3 ℃时CH₄、CO₂的累积排放量分别为12.498、15.071 g/m3,13 ℃时为20.626、21.004 g/m3,27 ℃时为31.353、26.954 g/m3. CH₄、CO₂在不同温度下的相对排放量存在差异,表现为低温(3、13 ℃)条件下CH₄排放量低于CO₂,相对高温(27 ℃)条件下表现相反. 研究显示,原油所处大气环境的温度及暴露时间是影响原油温室气体排放的重要因素.      

Reasons for implementing ISO 14001 in Malaysia

Environmental management systems (EMS) have been introduced globally to reduce environmental degradation issues brought about by industrial development. The research discussed in this paper is aimed at identifying the benefits and motivations of the implementation of EMS in compliance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 standard in Malaysian industries by using the pairwise comparison method. Experts in EMS from the Scientific and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia were invited to participate in the research panel. Based on the experts’ input, data analysis was carried out by using multi‐criteria pairwise comparisons. The findings showed the ranked benefits and motivations of the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard for businesses. The results can indicate to policy‐makers and business advisors how businesses can be encouraged to implement the ISO 14001.     

Power,responsibility and justice: a review of local stakeholder participation in European flood risk management

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the active involvement of local stakeholders in the management of floods in Europe. Such involvement is seen as necessary as the management of floods becomes more complex. Management approaches now seek to include a range of potential measures to reduce risk (e.g. structural defence, spatial planning and property-level protection measures). Local stakeholder involvement is seen to be important because governments lack the capacities such as knowledge and funding required to deliver all these measures alone. This paper focuses on the implications that more participative approaches have on the fairness of European flood risk management (FRM). Studies of environmental justice are well placed to address this question because they are interested in who is included and excluded from decisions related to the distribution of environmental goods (resources) and bads (risks). Existing literature suggests that fair decision-making processes (procedural justice) can lead to fair distribution or resources and risks (distributive justice). This literature review of 30 peer-reviewed papers provides an analysis of justice and FRM by assessing practices of participation which are presented in the recent literature on local stakeholder involvement in FRM in England, Germany and the Netherlands. It was found that participation in practice generally focuses on transferring responsibility to the local level at the expense of power. This paper discusses the implications that this finding has for justice and synthesises potential ways forward based on recommendations of the reviewed literature.