Measurements of Wastewater True Color by 4/6 Wavelength Methods and Artificial Neural Network

The ADMI (American Dye Manufactures’ Institute) 3 and 31 wavelength (WL) methods are the most popular measurements of the wastewater true color. However, significantly different measured results were found between the ADMI 3 and 31 WL methods for the same sample. This finding indicates that the ADMI 3 and 31 WL values should not be directly substituted for each other, resulting in the incomparability of these two color values. An innovative calculation using the Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPN) was therefore proposed to replace the original calculation method proposed in Standard Method. The BPN-calculated ADMI 3 WL values were found to be very close to the corresponding measured ADMI 31 WL values. Additionally, for more accurate measurement of the true color, new measurement methods containing 4 and 6 wavelengths were proposed and cooperated with the BPN calculation model. The new approaches performed very accuracy measured results of the wastewater true color. Finally, the trained BPN calculation models were built to be applied to measure the true color of real textile samples and also performed very good measured results.     

生态城市评价中的RBF神经网络模型--以厦门市为例

生态城市的定量化评价尚处于探索阶段,存在缺陷与不足,有待于进一步研究。本文将径向基函数(RBF)神经网络应用于生态城市评价,并在MATLAB环境下将其程序化,不但简化了评价过程,而且提高了定量评价的精度和综合性,充分体现了各因子相互作用对城市生态系统的综合效应。以此为基础,对厦门市生态化程度进行了综合评价,并对课题组在厦门市生态城市概念性规划中所作的指标目标值进行了分析,明确了相应年份规划目标值的生态化程度。若将城市历年指标值进行规范化处理。通过RBF神经网络进行定量评价,可分析城市的发展轨迹,为生态城市建设提供科学依据和决策支持。     

Using Social Network Analysis to examine the role that institutional integration plays in community-based adaptive capacity to climate change in Caribbean small island communities

Remote island communities in the Caribbean are known to be disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As a result, there is a need to better understand the factors that contribute to increasing local-scale adaptive capacity through large-scale adaptation projects. While it has been argued that strong institutional networks are highly influential in a community’s ability to leverage funds and to implement tailored adaptation projects, limited empirical research has been undertaken. Social Network Analysis was used to retrospectively evaluate the importance of institutional integration for enhancing adaptive capacity in the small island community of Paget Farm in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Paget Farm successfully adapted to a lack of fresh water through the implementation of a funded solar-powered desalination plant – and as a result the community represents an ideal case study for analysis. Results reveal that while the level of vertical integration varied throughout the temporal phases of the adaptation project, horizontal integration was consistently low. These findings suggest that high integration between institutions may not be required during all project phases in order to ensure success and that more consistent rather than high levels of integration between sectors may be more meaningful for enhancing adaptive capacity.     

The Power of Legitimation: The Role of Expert Networks in Global Environmental Governance

As part of the debate on the legitimacy of governance networks in global environmental politics, this article investigates the conditions under which policy solutions can be transferred worldwide as a result of a particular type of interaction within transnational expert networks and technical committees. To this end, the article hypothesises that policy solutions can be legitimised in governance networks meeting four cumulative criteria: participation, flexibility, horizontality and inclusiveness. This hypothesis is then tested by means of two heuristic case studies dedicated to the worldwide transfer of environmental standards via United Nations specialized agencies. The empirical work partly strengthens the validity of the hypothesis but also underscores the limits of legitimation strategies in the face of strong heterogeneity of interests. In such cases, environmental policy networks may adopt fairly “vertical” features and resort to classical bargaining and constraint strategies whereby compromises are exchanged and power asymmetries are mobilised.     

Hurricanes and hegemony: A qualitative analysis of micro-level climate change denial discourses

The climate change countermovement and its program of climate change denial have been well documented and studied. However, individual rationales for rejecting climate science remain under-studied. Twitter data related to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 are used to understand why individuals reject the orthodox climate consensus, using a summative content analysis of climate change denial discourses. Three major discourses are discovered: rejecting climate science because climate science is a conspiracy favoring growth of government; opposing renewable energy and energy taxation; and expressing fear of governmental abuse of power. Importantly, each discourse expressed certainty that climate science itself was a wholesale fraud; the denial discourses themselves focused far more on climate politics than on science.     

基于Abaqus软件的并行计算集群平台构建与优化方法

根据有限元显式算法和隐式算法的特点,研究了岩土工程动力分析并行计算集群系统的硬件要求、集群系统的构建方法,构建了基于EM64T硬件构架、双路Intel Xeon处理器、Linux操作系统和64位Abaqus软件的32CPU并行计算集群平台,测试了存储子系统对集群性能的影响,比较了两种千兆以太网络作为集群子网络的性能优化方法。以地下结构的地震反应分析为例,测试了优化前后该集群系统的计算速度,发现两种以太网络性能优化方法都可以有效提高集群计算速度。列举了该集群系统在深水桥梁基础流固耦合动力分析、地下结构地震反应分析和快速轨道交通环境振动分析中的应用,显示了该集群在显式算法、隐式算法及小规模、大规模数值计算问题中的并行计算效率,证明所构建的Abaqus数值模拟并行计算集群平台能够满足计算规模、计算精度和时效性的要求。     

Disaster management and mitigation: the telecommunications infrastructure

Among the most typical consequences of disasters is the near or complete collapse of terrestrial telecommunications infrastructures (especially the distribution network–the 'last mile') and their concomitant unavailability to the rescuers and the higher echelons of mitigation teams. Even when such damage does not take place, the communications overload/congestion resulting from significantly elevated traffic generated by affected residents can be highly disturbing. The paper proposes innovative remedies to the telecommunications difficulties in disaster struck regions. The offered solutions are network-centric operations-cap able, and can be employed in management of disasters of any magnitude (local to national or international). Their implementation provide ground rescue teams (such as law enforcement, firemen, healthcare personnel, civilian authorities) with tactical connectivity among themselves, and, through the Next Generation Network backbone, ensure the essential bidirectional free flow of information and distribution of Actionable Knowledge among ground units, command/control centres, and civilian and military agencies participating in the rescue effort.     

Two modelling approaches to water-quality simulation in a flooded iron-ore mine (Saizerais, Lorraine, France): a semi-distributed chemical reactor model and a physically based distributed reactive transport pipe network model

The flooding of abandoned mines in the Lorraine Iron Basin (LIB) over the past 25 years has degraded the quality of the groundwater tapped for drinking water. High concentrations of dissolved sulphate have made the water unsuitable for human consumption. This problematic issue has led to the development of numerical tools to support water-resource management in mining contexts. Here we examine two modelling approaches using different numerical tools that we tested on the Saizerais flooded iron-ore mine (Lorraine, France). A first approach considers the Saizerais Mine as a network of two chemical reactors (NCR). The second approach is based on a physically distributed pipe network model (PNM) built with EPANET 2 software. This approach considers the mine as a network of pipes defined by their geometric and chemical parameters. Each reactor in the NCR model includes a detailed chemical model built to simulate quality evolution in the flooded mine water. However, in order to obtain a robust PNM, we simplified the detailed chemical model into a specific sulphate dissolution-precipitation model that is included as sulphate source/sink in both a NCR model and a pipe network model. Both the NCR model and the PNM, based on different numerical techniques, give good post-calibration agreement between the simulated and measured sulphate concentrations in the drinking-water well and overflow drift. The NCR model incorporating the detailed chemical model is useful when a detailed chemical behaviour at the overflow is needed. The PNM incorporating the simplified sulphate dissolution-precipitation model provides better information of the physics controlling the effect of flow and low flow zones, and the time of solid sulphate removal whereas the NCR model will underestimate clean-up time due to the complete mixing assumption. In conclusion, the detailed NCR model will give a first assessment of chemical processes at overflow, and in a second time, the PNM model will provide more detailed information on flow and chemical behaviour (dissolved sulphate concentrations, remaining mass of solid sulphate) in the network. Nevertheless, both modelling methods require hydrological and chemical parameters (recharge flow rate, outflows, volume of mine voids, mass of solids, kinetic constants of the dissolution-precipitation reactions), which are commonly not available for a mine and therefore call for calibration data.     

Reduced European emissions of S and N--effects on air concentrations, deposition and soil water chemistry in Swedish forests

Changes in sulphur and nitrogen pollution in Swedish forests have been assessed in relation to European emission reductions, based on measurements in the Swedish Throughfall Monitoring Network. Measurements were analysed over 20 years with a focus on the 12-year period 1996 to 2008. Air concentrations of SO₂ and NO₂, have decreased. The SO₄-deposition has decreased in parallel with the European emission reductions. Soil water SO₄-concentrations have decreased at most sites but the pH, ANC and inorganic Al-concentrations indicated acidification recovery only at some of the sites. No changes in the bulk deposition of inorganic nitrogen could be demonstrated. Elevated NO₃-concentrations in the soil water occurred at irregular occasions at some southern sites. Despite considerable air pollution emission reductions in Europe, acidification recovery in Swedish forests soils is slow. Nitrogen deposition to Swedish forests continues at elevated levels that may lead to leaching of nitrate to surface waters.     

A fuzzy analytic network process for multi-criteria evaluation of contaminated site remedial countermeasures

The Analytic Network Process (ANP) has been proposed to incorporate interdependence and feedback effect in the prioritization of remedial countermeasures using a hierarchical network decision model, but this approach seems to be incapable of capturing the vagueness and fuzziness during value judgment elicitation. The aim of this paper is to present an evaluation method using a fuzzy ANP (FANP) approach to address this shortcoming. Triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN) and their degree of fuzziness are used in the semantic scale as human judgment expressed in natural language is most often vague and fuzzy. The method employs the alpha-cuts, interval arithmetic and optimism index to transform the fuzzy comparative judgment matrix into set of crisp matrices, and then calculates the desired priorities using the eigenvector method. A numerical example, which was drawn from a real-life case study of an uncontrolled landfill in Japan, is presented to demonstrate the process. Results from the sensitivity analysis describe how the fuzziness in judgment could affect the solution robustness of the prioritization method. The proposed FANP approach therefore could effectively deal with the uncertain judgment inherent in the decision making process and derive the meaningful priorities explicitly from a complex decision structure in the evaluation of contaminated site remedial countermeasures.