Comparison of a two-stage sampling design and its composite sample alternative: An application to soil studies

The objective of a long-term soil survey is to determine the mean concentrations of several chemical parameters for the pre-defined soil layers and to compare them with the corresponding values in the past. A two-stage random sampling procedure is used to achieve this goal. In the first step, n subplots are selected from N subplots by simple random sampling without replacement; in the second step, m sampling sites are chosen within each of the n selected subplots. Thus n · m soil samples are collected for each soil layer. The idea of the composite sample design comes from the challenge of reducing very expensive laboratory analyses: m laboratory samples from one subplot and one soil layer are physically mixed to form a composite sample. From each of the n selected subplots, one composite sample per soil layer is analyzed in the laboratory, thus n per soil layer in total. In this paper we show that the cost is reduced by the factor m — 1 when instead of the two-stage sampling its composite sample alternative is used; however, the variance of the composite sample mean is increased. In the case of positive intraclass correlation the increase is less than 12.5%; in the case of negative intraclass correlation the increase depends on the properties of the variable as well. For the univariate case we derive the optimal number of subplots and sampling sites. A case study is discussed at the end.     

Biodiesel production from vegetable oil and waste animal fats in a pilot plant

In this study, corn oil as vegetable oil, chicken fat and fleshing oil as animal fats were used to produce methyl ester in a biodiesel pilot plant. The FFA level of the corn oil was below 1% while those of animal fats were too high to produce biodiesel via base catalyst. Therefore, it was needed to perform pretreatment reaction for the animal fats. For this aim, sulfuric acid was used as catalyst and methanol was used as alcohol in the pretreatment reactions. After reducing the FFA level of the animal fats to less than 1%, the transesterification reaction was completed with alkaline catalyst. Due to low FFA content of corn oil, it was directly subjected to transesterification. Potassium hydroxide was used as catalyst and methanol was used as alcohol for transesterification reactions. The fuel properties of methyl esters produced in the biodiesel pilot plant were characterized and compared to EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 biodiesel standards. According to the results, ester yield values of animal fat methyl esters were slightly lower than that of the corn oil methyl ester (COME). The production cost of COME was higher than those of animal fat methyl esters due to being high cost biodiesel feedstock. The fuel properties of produced methyl esters were close to each other. Especially, the sulfur content and cold flow properties of the COME were lower than those of animal fat methyl esters. The measured fuel properties of all produced methyl esters met ASTM D6751 (S500) biodiesel fuel standards.     

汶川地震灾区受灾群众重建意愿实证研究

选择何种重建方式(原址重建或异地搬迁等)是灾后重建的首要问题.所谓重建意愿即在原居住地受到地震等自然灾害破坏时,受灾居民对不同重建方式(原址重建还是异地搬迁或者两者之间的状态)的选择倾向.了解灾区群众的重建意愿及其因素影响是受灾县(市)制订灾后重建规划、并推动实施的重要前提.通过对五大极重灾区1243户城乡受灾居民家庭问卷调查、深度访谈.结果表明:受灾居民所在县(市)、目前安置地、户口类型、受教育程度、适应新环境能力及未来经济预期等因素对其重建意愿有显著影响.研究认为:选择重建方式应在尊重群众意愿的前提下,结合实际充分论证;在此基础上,应结合目前的临时安置地对城乡布局合理规划;应将灾后重建和城乡统筹及生态扶贫相结合来考虑,着力提高受灾居民的就业技能和受教育程度,从而提高适应新环境生产生活的能力;加大在灾区的产业恢复重建力度,特别尽快恢复关系民生的产业以及就业容量大的产业.     

Environmental Damage,Abandoned Treaties,and Fossil-Fuel Dependence: The Coming Costs of Oil-and-Gas Exploration in the “1002 Area” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Contrary to claims from American politicians, lobbyists, and oil and gas executives, allowing energy development in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will harm the environment, compromise international law, erode the social significance of wilderness protection, and ultimately fail to␣increase the energy security of the United States. After exploring a brief history of the ANWR controversy, this piece argues that the operation of oil and gas refineries in ANWR will release discharged solids, drilling waste, and dirty diesel fuel into the ecosystem’s food-chain, as they have from oil operations in Prudhoe Bay. Less obvious but equally important, oil and gas exploration in ANWR will violate a number of international treaties on biodiversity protection. In the end, development in ANWR will threaten the concept of wilderness protection, and will do little to end US dependence on foreign sources of energy. About the Author: Benjamin K. Sovacool is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He works as a research analyst for the Consortium on Energy Restructuring and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. He also just completed a Graduate Fellowship in Energy Policy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

某热电厂灰坝工程坝坡稳定性分析

某热电厂灰坝由粘聚力较小的石渣填筑,而粘聚力较小的砂粘土、砂土、砾石、碎石等筑成的土坡、大坝,边坡破坏时其破裂面近似平面,在横断面上近似直线.利用此理论,在有渗水和无渗水作用时对该灰坝外侧坝坡进行稳定性分析.     

关于国际油污赔偿基金组织索赔手册

介绍了国际油污赔偿基金组织索赔手册的主要内容，包括法律框架、索赔的提出以及可以得到的赔偿等。     

市场转型对中国环境治理结构的影响——国家污染物减排指标的分配机制研究

国家统计局数据显示,2006年我国节能减排任务均远未实现国家"十一五"规划开局之年的目标,特别是主要污染物排放总量不降反升.本文在分析了中国环境治理体系和国家"十一五"规划主要污染物减排指标分配机制的基础上,研究了市场转型对中国环境治理结构的影响.中国的市场转型可以抽象为以"分权让利"、"市场化"和"工业化"为主要特征的结构演进过程.文中提出,中国市场转型过程对环境治理结构造成了重大影响,而环境治理的各项措施反过来也应与市场转型相适应.当前中国主要污染物减排指标没有实现达标的重要原因是国家污染物减排指标的分配机制无法适应我国市场转型的要求.为此,本文提出一系列国家主要污染物减排指标分配机制的政策建议.     

Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along Reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong

There is an obvious departure from the regional equilibrium of developments between the upper and lower reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong, which resulted in ＂the effects of contra-geography-grads development＂. It is mainly because the upriver mountainous areas have been deeply stuck in industrialization delay and marginalization plights, so that nearly 40 million local people have conceived a dream to get rid of ＂the vicious circle of poverty＂ by speeding up industrial development. But the problem is that such industrialization efforts on a large scale in mountainous areas are encountering the bottleneck of environmental capacity that strictly limits industrial emissions along the upper reaches of any water system. As a solution, an institutional arrangement called ＂the Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along the Pearl River＂ is put forward supposed to give corresponding compensation to the rights of industrial development yielded by some areas with lower environmental capacity through the distribution and trading of IDQs.     

珠江上游少数民族县域经济活动的累积环境效应研究--以贵州三都水族自治县为例

为了探索珠江上游少数民族区域经济活动的累积环境效应与生态安全，我们选择三都水族自治县作为定位研究基地．对建国以来区域内经济活动变迁进行历史、现状研究和综合评估，揭示历史时期发展政策、发展模式、重大经济活动等人为扰动因素在区域生态环境系统退化过程中的作用．评估少数民族经济活动的累积环境效应与生态安全。