In our today's societies, many dangerous chemicals are produced and transported. Due to the vast use of chemicals, more chemical accidents are taking place with huge losses. In this study a city hazardous gas monitoring network was designed to detect the dispersion of toxic and combustible gases in the primary stages. The network could cover hazardous chemical facilities, important hazardous chemical routes, warehouses and special locations which may be the targets of terrorist attacks. The network is consisted of several local networks and a central control panel complex. Each local network has a local control panel in the center and many detectors and sounders around it at distances less than 3000 m that communicate with the local control panels wirelessly. In each location there are two types of gas detectors, toxic and combustible, and a sounder which are equipped with a wireless, radio frequency modem allowing the units to communicate readings and other information on a real-time basis with a remotely located local control panel. High sensitive Photo Ionization Detectors, PIDs, are used to provide fast and low-level on-site screening for chemicals contamination. Combustible gas detectors are the second choice to sense the combustible gas and verify the readings of PIDs in this regard. The central panel consists of several connected control panels work uniquely helping a computer set and the appropriate software and communicate with local control panels via telephone lines. All of the network components are shown on the monitor of central panel with special symbols by geographical information system program. The system is fully addressable so that the high level detection of a detector produces a blinking color double-circle around its symbol in GIS plan. In case of high level gas detection, a team of experts who are fully equipped with different portable detectors depart to the site to test the field to identify the chemicals. All readings of detectors are saved in a data bank and then analyzed to find any chemicals spills and leakages. The network was simulated by a special program so that the components of local networks and the central panel are shown in separate windows. By clicking on one detector on environmental window the formerly designed responses will be activated in central panel window. 相似文献
ABSTRACT: High springtime river flows came earlier by one to two weeks in large parts of northern New England during the 20th Century. In this study it was hypothesized that late spring/early summer recessional flows and late summer/early fall low flows could also be occurring earlier. This could result in a longer period of low flow recession and a decrease in the magnitude of low flows. To test this hypothesis, variations over time in the magnitude and timing of low flows were analyzed. To help understand the relation between low flows and climatic variables in New England, low flows were correlated with air temperatures and precipitation. Analysis of data from 23 rural, unregulated rivers across New England indicated little evidence of consistent changes in the timing or magnitude of late summer/early fall low flows during the 20th Century. The interannual variability in the timing and magnitude of the low flows in northern New England was explained much more by the interannual variability in precipitation than by the interannual variability of air temperatures. The highest correlation between the magnitude of the low flows and air temperatures was with May through November temperatures (r =?0.37, p= 0.0017), while the highest correlation with precipitation was with July through August precipitation (r = 0.67, p > 0.0001). 相似文献
The inherent risks associated with accidental releases of hazardous materials during transport have drawn attention and concerns in the recent decades. The aim of this study is to propose a tool for evaluation and comparison of the transportation networks which can be used to assess the routing options between origins and destinations of the cargos for their suitability for transporting hazardous material cargos by tanker trucks and to identify routes which provide lower accidental release risks, lower public exposure risks, and offer economical benefits. Each route segment of transportation networks were evaluated using specific criteria which included health risk and cost of delay in case of an accidental release of materials, trucking cost and proximity to vulnerable areas. Since, the health impact of hazardous materials differ depending on the characteristics of the material being transported as well as release quantities and atmospheric conditions; this paper aimed in providing a tool that can be used to estimate the impact radius (for health risks) after accidental release of hazardous materials by taking into account different atmospheric conditions based on the meteorological data and solar elevation angle. The Gaussian air dispersion model paired with ArcGIS using Python programming were employed to estimate the health risk impact zones by considering the meteorological data, and accordingly to analyze road segments for cost impacts (delay and trucking costs), and the proximity to vulnerable areas. The route assessment tool was demonstrated with a case study. The results of this study can efficiently aid decision makers for transportation of hazardous materials. 相似文献
The illegal wildlife trade has emerged as a growing and urgent environmental issue. Stakeholders involved in the efforts to curb wildlife trafficking include nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academia, and state government and enforcement bodies. The extent to which these stakeholders work and communicate among each other is fundamental to effectively combatting illicit trade. Using the United Kingdom as a case study, we used a social network analysis and semistructured interviews of stakeholders to assess communication relationships in the counter wildlife trafficking community. The NGOs consistently occupied 4 of the 5 most central positions in the generated networks, whereas academic institutions routinely occupied 4 of the 5 most peripheral positions. However, NGOs were the least diverse in their communication practices compared with the other stakeholder groups. Stakeholders identified personal relationships as the most important aspect of functioning communication. Participant insights also showed that stakeholder-specific variables (e.g., ethical and confidentiality concerns), competition, and fundraising can have a confounding effect on intercommunication. Evaluating communication networks and intrastakeholder communication trends is essential to creating cohesive, productive, and efficient responses to the challenges of combatting illegal wildlife trade. Article impact statement: Communication among those combatting illegal wildlife trade is confounded by stakeholder variables (ethics, confidentiality), competition, and fundraising. 相似文献
Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the evolution footprints of simulated driving research in the past 20 years through rigorous and systematic bibliometric analysis, to provide insights regarding when and where the research was performed and by whom and how the mainstream content evolved over the years.
Methods: The analysis began with data retrieval in Web of Science with defined search terms related to simulated driving. BibExcel and CiteSpace were employed to conduct the performance analysis and co-citation network analysis; that is, probe of the performance of institutes, journals, authors, and research hotspots.
Results: A total of 3,766 documents were filtered out and presented an exponential growth from 1997 to 2016. The United States contributed the most publications as well as international collaborations followed by Germany and China. In addition, several universities in The Netherlands and the United States dominated the list of contributing institutes. The leading journals were in transportation and ergonomics. The leading researchers were also recognized among the 8,721 contributing authors, such as J. D. Lee, D. L. Fisher, J. H. Kim, and K. A. Brookhuis. Finally, the co-citation analysis illuminated the evolution of simulated driving research that covered the following topics roughly in chronological order: task-induced stress, drivers with neurological disorders, alertness and sleepiness while driving, trust toward driving assistance systems, driver distraction, the effect of drug use, the validity of simulators, and automated driving.
Conclusions: This article employed bibliometric tools to probe the contributing countries, institutes, journals, authors, and mainstream hotspots of simulated driving research in the past 20 years. A systematic bibliometric analysis of this field will help researchers realize the panorama of global simulated driving and establish future research directions. 相似文献
Hazard classification of waste is a necessity, but the hazard properties (named “H” and soon “HP”) are still not all defined in a practical and operational manner at EU level. Following discussion of subsequent draft proposals from the Commission there is still no final decision. Methods to implement the proposals have recently been proposed: tests methods for physical risks, test batteries for aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicity, an analytical package for exhaustive determination of organic substances and mineral elements, surrogate methods for the speciation of mineral elements in mineral substances in waste, and calculation methods for human toxicity and ecotoxicity with M factors.In this paper the different proposed methods have been applied to a large assortment of solid and liquid wastes (>1 0 0).Data for 45 wastes – documented with extensive chemical analysis and flammability test – were assessed in terms of the different HP criteria and results were compared to LoW for lack of an independent classification. For most waste streams the classification matches with the designation provided in the LoW. This indicates that the criteria used by LoW are similar to the HP limit values.This data set showed HP 14 ‘Ecotoxic chronic’ is the most discriminating HP. All wastes classified as acute ecotoxic are also chronic ecotoxic and the assessment of acute ecotoxicity separately is therefore not needed. The high number of HP 14 classified wastes is due to the very low limit values when stringent M factors are applied to total concentrations (worst case method). With M factor set to 1 the classification method is not sufficiently discriminating between hazardous and non-hazardous materials. The second most frequent hazard is HP 7 ‘Carcinogenic’. The third most frequent hazard is HP 10 ‘Toxic for reproduction’ and the fourth most frequent hazard is HP 4 “Irritant – skin irritation and eye damage”. In a stepwise approach, it seems relevant to assess HP 14 first, then, if the waste is not classified as hazardous, to assess subsequently HP 7, HP 10 and HP 4, and then if still not classified as hazardous, to assess the remaining properties.The elements triggering the HP 14 classification in order of importance are Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd and Hg. Progress in the speciation of Zn and Cu is essential for HP 14. Organics were quantified by the proposed method (AFNOR XP X30-489) and need no speciation. Organics can contribute significantly to intrinsic toxicity in many waste materials, but they are only of minor importance for the assessment of HP 14 as the metal concentrations are the main HP 14 classifiers. Organic compounds are however responsible for other toxicological characteristics (hormone disturbance, genotoxicity, reprotoxicity…) and shall be taken into account when the waste is not HP 14 classified. 相似文献
Organic matters (OMs) and their oxidization products often influence the fate and transport of heavy metals in the subsurface aqueous systems through interaction with the mineral surfaces. This study investigates the ethanol (EtOH)-mediated As(III) adsorption onto Zn-loaded pinecone (PC) biochar through batch experiments conducted under Box–Behnken design. The effect of EtOH on As(III) adsorption mechanism was quantitatively elucidated by fitting the experimental data using artificial neural network and quadratic modeling approaches. The quadratic model could describe the limiting nature of EtOH and pH on As(III) adsorption, whereas neural network revealed the stronger influence of EtOH (64.5%) followed by pH (20.75%) and As(III) concentration (14.75%) on the adsorption phenomena. Besides, the interaction among process variables indicated that EtOH enhances As(III) adsorption over a pH range of 2 to 7, possibly due to facilitation of ligand–metal(Zn) binding complexation mechanism. Eventually, hybrid response surface model–genetic algorithm (RSM–GA) approach predicted a better optimal solution than RSM, i.e., the adsorptive removal of As(III) (10.47 μg/g) is facilitated at 30.22 mg C/L of EtOH with initial As(III) concentration of 196.77 μg/L at pH 5.8. The implication of this investigation might help in understanding the application of biochar for removal of various As(III) species in the presence of OM. 相似文献