Simulation-based fault propagation analysis—Application on hydrogen production plant

Recently production of hydrogen from water through the Cu–Cl thermochemical cycle is developed as a new technology. The main advantages of this technology over existing ones are higher efficiency, lower costs, lower environmental impact and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Considering these advantages, the usage of this technology in new industries such as nuclear and oil is increasingly developed. Due to hazards involved in hydrogen production, design and implementation of hydrogen plants require provisions for safety, reliability and risk assessment. However, very little research is done from safety point of view. This paper introduces fault semantic network (FSN) as a novel method for fault diagnosis and fault propagation analysis by using evolutionary techniques like genetic programming (GP) and neural networks (NN), to uncover process variables’ interactions. The effectiveness, feasibility and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated on simulated data obtained from the simulation of hydrogen production process in Aspen HYSYS^®. The proposed method has successfully achieved reasonable detection and prediction of non-linear interaction patterns among process variables.     

基于GA-ELM浆体管道输送临界流速预测模型研究

针对浆体管道输送临界流速预测难度大、精确度低等技术难题,提出了基于极限学习机(ELM)的临界流速预测模型,用训练集对模型进行训练,以验证集预测值的均方误差作为适应度函数,利用遗传算法(GA)对ELM模型参数进行优化,应用优化得到的ELM模型对预测集进行预测。以某矿山为例,模型参数优化结果如下:隐含层节点数L为400,输入权值ai、偏置向量bi最优组合下预测结果适应度为0.0201。采用优化的ELM模型对预测集进行预测,预测结果的最大相对误差x=3.96%,平均相对误差y=1.58%,对比BP神经网络(x=12.95%)和SVM模型(x=3.19%),表明ELM模型更加精确、高效。     

Environmental Protection Bureau Leadership at the Provincial Level in China: Examining Diverging Career Backgrounds and Appointment Patterns

This paper analyses the career backgrounds of local government officials in provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in China and explains the appointment patterns of Chinese EPB bureaucrats. Using biographical information of provincial EPB heads and drawing on fieldwork conducted in Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, this paper finds that only one-fourth of the provincial EPB heads were promoted through the bureau ranks within the EPBs, while the remaining three-fourths were appointed from positions outside the environment field. Further, nearly all EPB heads' professional backgrounds and associated networks can be clearly categorized as environmental, business, provincial government, or local government oriented. This paper delineates these four types of Chinese EPB leaders and explains why an awareness of the different professional orientations is critical to understanding environmental regulation and protection in China. These findings have implications for inferring the unique characteristics of a province's EPB leadership, the implementation capacities of provincial EPBs, and the appointment preferences of provincial leaders.     

Efficient energy management strategies for hybrid electric vehicles using shuffled frog-leaping algorithm

This paper proposes two novel approaches for the problem of energy management in hybrid electric vehicles. Shuffled frog-leaping algorithm (SFLA) is a recently proposed population-based optimization algorithm. This paper first formulates energy management as an optimization problem and optimizes the problem using SFLA. Then the paper makes use of SFLA as a training algorithm to train artificial neural network (ANN) and this SFLA-trained ANN is used for energy management. Interestingly, the proposed approaches of this paper are found to be robust and more efficient than contemporary approaches.     

船舶溢油应急反应人的可靠性分析研究

为减小船舶溢油事故应急反应人员失误概率,提升应急处置效果,在对应急人员可靠性主要影响因素识别的基础上,利用模糊贝叶斯网络(BN)建立船舶溢油应急人的可靠性分析(HRA)模型,将应急反应流程抽象为可进行概率推算的BN,实现单个应急任务和全过程人的可靠性的量化评估,并依据该模型对一起船舶溢油事故进行实例研究。结果表明,首先模糊集值专家评估较好地解决应急人员可靠性情境依赖性强,难以量化评估的问题;其次,BN卓越的概率推理性能实现由单个应急任务向全过程人的可靠性的推算;最后得到应急反应人的可靠性主要取决于关键应急任务的完成情况和相关情境因素的影响。     

基于在线检测信息的储罐底板腐蚀状态智能评价方法

为了解决利用声发射在线检测技术对储罐底板腐蚀状态进行评价时,主要依赖检测人员经验的问题,使该项技术能更好地推广和应用,利用储罐底板在线检测的声发射信息和外观检查信息,并根据相关标准及专家经验,确定与储罐底板腐蚀状态相关的表征因素。采用遗传算法(GA)改进贝叶斯网络(BN)搜索方法,建立基于GA的BN智能评价方法。针对声发射在线检测信息和外观检查信息,分别建立基于标准用声发射因素、基于声发射因素和综合考虑声发射因素和外观检查因素的基于在线检测信息的储罐底板腐蚀状态评价模型。通过对测试样本的评价,对比声发射检测专家评价结果,其中基于在线检测信息的储罐底板腐蚀状态评价模型的准确率为96%,该模型能够对储罐底板腐蚀状态进行可靠的智能评价。     

物联网技术在地震救灾中的应用

研究了物联网技术在地震救灾中的应用。在体系结构设计中主要针对无线传感器网络节点、自组网技术、数据采集与灾情分析软件、多源信息融合等几个方面开展研究,构造出基于物联网技术的信息处理平台,在此基础上组建一个地震监测、预警及救灾部署控制中心,并实现信息处理平台与城市基础设施的互连接口。最终,在地震救灾中能够利用多源信息融合技术为控制中心实现决策和指挥提供科学、高效的服务。     

遥感技术在湖泊水质监测中的应用

环境污染遥感监测技术具有监测范围广、速度快、成本低,且便于进行长期的动态监测等优点,是实现宏观、快速、连续、动态地监测环境污染的有效方法,已成为湖泊环境动态变化监测的重要技术手段.湖泊水质遥感监测是基于经验、统计分析或水质参数的光谱特征,选择遥感波段数据与地面实测水质参数数据进行数学分析,建立水质参数反演模型实现的.在运用遥感技术对湖泊进行水质监测的方法中有传统方法和神经网络模型.与传统方法相比,神经网络模型有较强的水质识别的容错性,水质状况识别的可信度.今后,神经网络模型、高光谱遥感技术以及RS与GIS、GPS的结合运用等将是遥感技术在此领域中的发展方向.     

Predictability of marine nematode biodiversity

In this paper, we investigated: (1) the predictability of different aspects of biodiversity, (2) the effect of spatial autocorrelation on the predictability and (3) the environmental variables affecting the biodiversity of free-living marine nematodes on the Belgian Continental Shelf. An extensive historical database of free-living marine nematodes was employed to model different aspects of biodiversity: species richness, evenness, and taxonomic diversity. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), often considered as “black boxes”, were applied as a modeling tool. Three methods were used to reveal these “black boxes” and to identify the contributions of each environmental variable to the diversity indices. Since spatial autocorrelation is known to introduce bias in spatial analyses, Moran's I was used to test the spatial dependency of the diversity indices and the residuals of the model. The best predictions were made for evenness. Although species richness was quite accurately predicted as well, the residuals indicated a lack of performance of the model. Pure taxonomic diversity shows high spatial variability and is difficult to model. The biodiversity indices show a strong spatial dependency, opposed to the residuals of the models, indicating that the environmental variables explain the spatial variability of the diversity indices adequately. The most important environmental variables structuring evenness are clay and sand fraction, and the minimum annual total suspended matter. Species richness is also affected by the intensity of sand extraction and the amount of gravel of the sea bed.     

Network structure and parasite transmission in a group living lizard,the gidgee skink, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Egernia stokesii</Emphasis>

Gidgee skinks (Egernia stokesii) form large social aggregations in rocky outcrops across the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Group members share refuges (rock crevices), which may promote parasite transmission. We measured connectivity of individuals in networks constructed from patterns of common crevice use and observed patterns of parasitism by three blood parasites (Hemolivia, Schellackia and Plasmodium) and an ectoparasitic tick (Amblyomma vikirri). Data came from a 1-year mark-recapture study of four populations. Transmission networks were constructed to represent possible transmission pathways among lizards. Two lizards that used the same refuge within an estimated transmission period were considered connected in the transmission network. An edge was placed between them, directed towards the individual that occupied the crevice last. Social networks, a sub-set of same-day only associations, were small and highly fragmented compared with transmission networks, suggesting that non-synchronous crevice use leads to more transmission opportunities than direct social association. In transmission networks, lizards infested by ticks were connected to more other tick-infested lizards than uninfected lizards. Lizards infected by ticks and carrying multiple blood parasite infections were in more connected positions in the network than lizards without ticks or with one or no blood parasites. Our findings suggest higher levels of network connectivity may increase the risk of becoming infected or that parasites influence lizard behaviour and consequently their position in the network. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. This contribution is part of the special issue “Social Networks: new perspectives” (Guest Editors: J. Krause, D. Lusseau and R. James).