Motorcycle crashes potentially preventable by three crash avoidance technologies on passenger vehicles

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the motorcycle crash population that would be potential beneficiaries of 3 crash avoidance technologies recently available on passenger vehicles.

Methods: Two-vehicle crashes between a motorcycle and a passenger vehicle that occurred in the United States during 2011–2015 were classified by type, with consideration of the functionality of 3 classes of passenger vehicle crash avoidance technologies: frontal crash prevention, lane maintenance, and blind spot detection. Results were expressed as the percentage of crashes potentially preventable by each type of technology, based on all known types of 2-vehicle crashes and based on all crashes involving motorcycles.

Results: Frontal crash prevention had the largest potential to prevent 2-vehicle motorcycle crashes with passenger vehicles. The 3 technologies in sum had the potential to prevent 10% of fatal 2-vehicle crashes and 23% of police-reported crashes. However, because 2-vehicle crashes with a passenger vehicle represent fewer than half of all motorcycle crashes, these technologies represent a potential to avoid 4% of all fatal motorcycle crashes and 10% of all police-reported motorcycle crashes.

Discussion: Refining the ability of passenger vehicle crash avoidance systems to detect motorcycles represents an opportunity to improve motorcycle safety. Expanding the capabilities of these technologies represents an even greater opportunity. However, even fully realizing these opportunities can affect only a minority of motorcycle crashes and does not change the need for other motorcycle safety countermeasures such as helmets, universal helmet laws, and antilock braking systems.     

TiO2载体对Mn-Ce/TiO2催化剂脱硝活性的影响

以TiO₂为载体,选取过渡金属元素Mn为活性组分,稀土金属元素Ce为活性助剂,采用分步共混法制备了Mn-Ce/TiO₂催化剂（活性组分负载量16%）,系统研究了TiO₂载体的晶型和晶粒尺寸对催化剂脱硝活性的影响。实验结果表明：分别以锐钛矿型和金红石型TiO₂为载体制备的催化剂,其低温脱硝活性相差不大,活性组分均以无定型态高度分散于载体中,以金红石型TiO₂为载体制备的催化剂中部分TiO₂转变为锐钛矿型;以不同晶粒尺寸TiO₂载体制备的催化剂的低温脱硝活性相差较大,比表面积较大、晶粒尺寸较小的TiO₂载体制备的催化剂,其脱硝活性低于晶粒尺寸较大的TiO₂载体制备的催化剂。     

新型烟囱的节能效果与分析

介绍了一座80m烟囱由径向进气方式改为弧形切向进气的工程案例。列出了烟囱改造前后引风机运行一日的能耗数据,对比分析得出采用弧形烟道具有一定的节能效果,探讨了采用弧形烟道烟囱降低能耗的基本原因。     

Testing The Pearl Hypothesis: Natural resources and trust

Do natural resources reduce social trust? This paper reviews the literature on natural resources and on trust. The existing theoretical and empirical literature suggests that natural resources can reduce trust through several indirect mechanisms. Notably, studies show that natural resources lead to institutional degradation, corruption, inequality, and civil war, all of which have been associated with reduced trust. In addition, game theoretical work on windfall gains suggests that there may be direct effect of natural resources on trust. This paper tests empirically whether there is a direct effect of natural resources on trust (The Pearl Hypothesis), using cross-country data. The results indicate that no such direct effect exists, but we find a significant effect on trust of intermediate variables affected by natural resources, such as institutions, corruption, inequality and/or civil war. Importantly, the relationship between corruption and trust turns out to be non-linear, indicating that the effect of natural resources on trust depends on the initial corruption level of a country. In highly corrupt societies, institutional improvements that reduce corruption may also undermine trust, which poses difficult challenges for anti-corruption policy.     

A theoretical overview of the relationship between the resource curse and genuine savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainability

This paper shows the strong relation between the factors that lead to the resource curse (RC) and factors that lead to a decline of genuine savings (GS). There is substantial empirical evidence that economies that rely predominantly on their natural resources are also characterized by slower economic growth. This so‐called RC is commonly traced back to the fact that natural resources' generate rents that are independent of a country's economic performance, which can lead to suboptimal reinvestments of this consumed natural capital. We argue that the factors responsible for the RC also have a negative effect on GS, a concept that measures “weak” sustainable development by considering reinvestment of natural capital rents in physical and human capital. We discuss whether the RC hampers possibilities for resource abundant countries to obtain sufficiently high rates of GS, and find indeed many reasons why resource‐dependent countries have problems achieving positive GS rates. We survey both areas of research, emphasizing the influence of the exogenous and endogenous determinants of economic growth, which are usually used to theoretically and empirically explain the RC on the three different forms of capital considered by GS. We specify why most countries suffering from the RC have negative GS rates and explain in detail where the linkages are. This overview could help with potential advancements in the explanation of GS through the inclusion of RC effects.     

村镇供水管网优化设计探讨

如何合理确定村镇供水管网敷设方案,关系到整个供水系统的安全性和可靠性。通过生成树变化法,将环状管网转化成树状管网,确定供水管网中最短供水路线,再计算最短供水路线下的最低综合费用、供水系统的经济管径,以确定最优管道敷设方案。根据该方法对四川省某镇供水系统进行了设计。     

陕西省产业结构演变的城市化响应地域差异分析

将产业结构演变的城市化响应系数作为衡量区域产业结构演变城市化响应强度的变量指标,运用变异系数和离差分析方法对陕西省产业结构演变的城市化响应进行类型划分,可划分为强响应区、中等响应区、弱响应区三种类型区;运用广义脉冲响应法对三种类型区分别进行产业结构演变城市化响应系数与各影响因素之间相关性的动态研究,探讨陕西省产业结构演变的城市化响应时至差异性。     

A Socio-Ecological Assessment Aiming at Improved Forest Resource Management and Sustainable Ecotourism Development in the Mangroves of Tanbi Wetland National Park, The Gambia, West Africa

Although mangroves dominated by Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle are extending over 6000 ha in the Tanbi Wetland National Park (TWNP) (The Gambia), their importance for local populations (both peri-urban and urban) is not well documented. For the first time, this study evaluates the different mangrove resources in and around Banjul (i.e., timber, non-timber, edible, and ethnomedicinal products) and their utilization patterns, including the possibility of ecotourism development. The questionnaire-based results have indicated that more than 80% of peri-urban population rely on mangroves for timber and non-timber products and consider them as very important for their livelihoods. However, at the same time, urban households demonstrate limited knowledge on mangrove species and their ecological/economic benefits. Among others, fishing (including the oyster—Crassostrea cf. gasar collection) and tourism are the major income-generating activities found in the TWNP. The age-old practices of agriculture in some parts of the TWNP are due to scarcity of land available for agriculture, increased family size, and alternative sources of income. The recent focus on ecotourism (i.e., boardwalk construction inside the mangroves near Banjul city) received a positive response from the local stakeholders (i.e., users, government, and non-government organizations), with their appropriate roles in sharing the revenue, rights, and responsibilities of this project. Though the guidelines for conservation and management of the TWNP seem to be compatible, the harmony between local people and sustainable resource utilization should be ascertained.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-012-0248-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Radium geochemistry in Na-Cl type groundwater in Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Radium isotopes in 23 Na-Cl type groundwater sampled mainly from deep wells in Niigata Prefecture, which is the site of the largest oil- and gas-fields in Japan, were measured along with U isotopes, chemical components and hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios to elucidate the distribution and behavior of Ra in a brackish environment underground. Also analyzed were U and Th isotopes in 38 rock samples collected from outcrops at 17 locations. Ra-226 concentrations (8.86-1637 mBq kg⁻¹) of groundwater samples roughly correlated with total dissolved solid (TDS) concentrations and other alkaline earth contents. Their ²²⁸Ra/²²⁶Ra activity ratios (0.32-5.2) were similar to or higher than the ²³²Th/²³⁸U activity ratios (0.6-1.7) in the rocks. The most likely transport mechanism of Ra isotopes into groundwater was due to their α-recoil from the solid phase, probably from the water-rock interface where Th isotopes had accumulated, and adsorption/desorption reaction based on the increase in ²²⁶Ra contents with TDS.     

农村分散型的生活污水处理工程实例

介绍了农村小城镇分散型的生活污水处理经验,即采用隔油沉淀、水解酸化、接触氧化法的处理工艺;污水处理设施采用埋地式土壤覆盖型;最终废水出水的各项水质指标均达到《城镇污水处理厂污染物排放标准》（GB18918—2002）中的一级B类标准。