Vigilance monitoring for operator safety: A simulation study on highway driving

INTRODUCTION: Alertness of individuals operating vehicles, aircrafts, and machinery is a pre-requisite for safety of the individual and for avoiding economic losses. In this paper, we present a new technique for determining the alertness level of the operator and elaborate the methodology for the specific case of highway driving METHOD: Our hypothesis is that the time derivative of force exerted by the driver at the vehicle-human interfaces can be used to construct a signature of individual driving styles and to discern different levels of alertness RESULTS: In this study, we present experimental results corroborating this hypothesis and introduce a parameter, 'spikiness index,' for the time series data of the force derivative to quantify driver alertness IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The low cost, ruggedness, and low-volume data processing requirements of the proposed technique give it a competitive edge over existing predominantly image processing based vigilance monitoring systems.     

再生水利用的病原微生物浓度限值探讨

采用微生物定量风险评价的方法,结合北京市某城市污水回用工程,对再生水用于园林绿化、道路冲洗与降尘等市政用途时的病原微生物浓度限值进行了探讨.提出的限值为:大肠埃希氏杆菌70个/L、沙门氏菌0.5 CFU/L、志贺氏菌0.1CFU/100L、甲肝病毒0.001 PFU/100L、轮状病毒1.2×10^-3PFU/100L、脊髓灰质炎病毒0.07 PFU/100L、柯萨奇病毒0.04PFU/100L、埃可病毒0.05 PFU/100L、隐孢子虫卵囊0.1个/100L、贾弟鞭毛虫卵囊0.03个/100L.     

灰色关联分析评价法在玉溪"三湖"水质评价中的应用

应用灰色关联分析评价法和叠加综合指数模型,分别对玉溪"三湖"丰水期、枯水期水质现状进行了评价.     

Distribution and mobility of metals in agricultural soils near a copper smelter in South China

The distribution and mobility of heavy metals in the paddy soils surrounding a copper smelting plant in south China was investigated. We assessed the degree of metal contamination using an index of geoaccumulation. The metals were divided into two groups: (1) Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd, whose concentrations were heavily affected by anthropogenic inputs, and (2) Ni, Co and Cr, which were mainly of geochemical origin. Concentrations of Cu, Cd, Zn, and Pb in the polluted soils were higher than the Chinese soil quality criteria. The chemical partitioning patterns of Pb, Zn and Cu indicated that Pb was largely associated with the residual and NH₂OH HCl extractable fractions. In contrast, Cd was predominantly associated with the MgCl₂ extractable fraction. A large proportion of Cu was bound to the acidic H₂O₂ extractable fractions, while Zn was predominantly found in the residual phase. The fraction of mobile species, which potentially is the most harmful to the environment, was found to be elevated compared to unpolluted soils in which heavy metals are more strongly bound to the matrix. The mobility of the metals was studied by water extraction using a modification of Tessier’s procedure, and the order of mobility was Zn > Cd > Cu  > Pb.     

Characterization of primary precipitate composition formed during co-removal of Cr(VI) with Cu(II) in synthetic wastewater

BACKGROUND, AIMS AND SCOPE: Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] cannot react with either carbonate or hydroxide to form chromium precipitates. However, by using a precipitation technology to treat plating wastewater containing Cr(VI), Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II), approximately 78% of Cr(VI) (initial 60 mg/L) was co-removed with the precipitation of Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) (each 150 mg/L) by dosing with Na2CO3 (Sun 2003). Direct precipitation by forming Cu(II)-Cr(VI) precipitates followed by adsorption of Cr(VI) onto freshly formed Cu-precipitates was subsequently found to be the main mechanism(s) involved in Cr(VI) co-removal with Cu(II) precipitation by dosing Na2CO3 stepwise to various pH values (Sun et al. 2003). This study was. carried out to further characterize the formation of primary precipitates during the early stages of copper precipitation and simultaneous removal of Cr(VI) with Cu(II). METHODS: Test metal-solutions were prepared with industrial grade chemicals: CuCl2 x 2H2O, Na2SO4 and K2Cr2207. NaCO3 was added drop-wise to synthetic metal-solution to progressively increase pH. For each pH increment, removal of soluble metals was detected by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and surface morphology of precipitates was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). To further characterize the formation of primary precipitates, a series of MINEQL+ thermodynamic calculations/analyses and equilibrium calculations/ analyses were conducted. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: MINEQL+ thermodynamic calculation indicated that, for a system containing 150 mg/L Cu(II) and 60 mg/L Cr(VI) with gradual Na2CO3 dosing, if any precipitates can be formed at pH 5.0 or lower, it should be in the form of CuCrO4. Comparison tests using systems containing the same equivalent of Cu(II) plus Cr(VI) and Cu(II) plus SO4(2-) showed that the precipitation occurred at a pH of around 5.0 in the Cu(II)-Cr(VI) system and around 6.0 in the Cu(II)-SO4(2-) system. The discrepancy of the precipitation was indeed caused by the formation of Cu-Cr precipitates. The initiation of copper removal at pH around 5.0 for the Cu-Cr co-removal test was not attributable to the formation of Cu-CO3 precipitates, instead, it was most likely through the formation of insoluble Cu-Cr precipitates, such as CuCrO4 and CuCrO4 x 2Cu(OH)2. Experimental tests, equilibrium calculations, MINEQL+ thermodynamic calculations and surface morphologies for systems using higher concentrations of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) further verified the most probable composition of primary precipitates is copper-chromate. CONCLUSION: In the Cu-Cr co-removal test with Na2O3 dosing to increase pH and induce metal precipitation, copper-chromate precipitates are the primary precipitates produced and contribute to the initial simultaneous removal of copper and chromium.     

水质高锰酸盐指数在线自动分析仪的发展现状

对水质高锰酸盐指数在线自动分析仪的方法原理、主要类型、主要技术性能以及主要仪器型号等发展现状进行了评述。     

The water-energy-food nexus: Trade-offs,thresholds and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development

Global challenges have exacerbated a search for solutions to poverty and environmental degradation. Integration it was argued would help address the twin challenge. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was supposed to be that magic bullet and was embraced by scientists because of the clinical efficiency with which it argued for integrated analysis of sectors and resources and of systems and scale conditions. This paper argues that effective implementation of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus can be supported by robust science. The corollary that robust science automatically leads to effective implementation is not always known to be true. The nexus approach sheds light on the challenges of implementation by introducing concepts of trade-offs and thresholds and consequently emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development. This paper reviews the results of recent research to offer tentative answers to the following questions: (a) Why is the governance dimension important to undertake an integrated analysis of water-energy-food challenges? (b) What does the nexus approach connote in normative and institutional terms? (c) What does implementation mean in nexus terms? (d) How can we establish if the nexus approach is an improvement over business as usual? and (e) What tools are available that would enable translation of results of scientific research to create an evidence base that would enable decision makers to act in support of sustainable development?     

Use of Community‐Composition Data to Predict the Fecundity and Abundance of Species

Abstract: Species distribution models are critical tools for the prediction of invasive species spread and conservation of biodiversity. The majority of species distribution models have been built with environmental data. Community ecology theory suggests that species co‐occurrence data could also be used to predict current and potential distributions of species. Species assemblages are the products of biotic and environmental constraints on the distribution of individual species and as a result may contain valuable information for niche modeling. We compared the predictive ability of distribution models of annual grassland plants derived from either environmental or community‐composition data. Composition‐based models were built with the presence or absence of species at a site as predictors of site quality, whereas environment‐based models were built with soil chemistry, moisture content, above‐ground biomass, and solar radiation as predictors. The reproductive output of experimentally seeded individuals of 4 species and the abundance of 100 species were used to evaluate the resulting models. Community‐composition data were the best predictors of both the site‐specific reproductive output of sown individuals and the site‐specific abundance of existing populations. Successful community‐based models were robust to omission of data on the occurrence of rare species, which suggests that even very basic survey data on the occurrence of common species may be adequate for generating such models. Our results highlight the need for increased public availability of ecological survey data to facilitate community‐based modeling at scales relevant to conservation.     

Transaction of Marine Fishing Right： Theoretical Analysis

The difference between fishermen＇s fishing catch and the optimal fishing catch is the basic reason for the transaction of marine fishing rights （TMFR）. The effects of productive cost, non-productive cost, use-cost, transaction cost, productive revenue and non-productive revenue on the TMFR and the optimal fishing catch are analyzed. This paper draws following conclu- sions： the non-productive revenue has a positive effect on the TMFR, and other factors, such as non-productive cost, usecost and transaction cost, have a negative effect; the TMFR will promote the resource allocation; the high transaction cost may affect the implementation of TMFR.     

Patterns of Citations of Open Access and Non‐Open Access Conservation Biology Journal Papers and Book Chapters

Abstract: Open access (OA) publishing, whereby authors, their institutions, or their granting bodies pay or provide a repository through which peer‐reviewed work is available online for free, is championed as a model to increase the number of citations per paper and disseminate results widely, especially to researchers in developing countries. We compared the number of citations of OA and non‐OA papers in six journals and four books published since 2000 to test whether OA increases number of citations overall and increases citations made by authors in developing countries. After controlling for type of paper (e.g., review or research paper), length of paper, authors’ citation profiles, number of authors per paper, and whether the author or the publisher released the paper in OA, OA had no statistically significant influence on the overall number of citations per journal paper. Journal papers were cited more frequently if the authors had published highly cited papers previously, were members of large teams of authors, or published relatively long papers, but papers were not cited more frequently if they were published in an OA source. Nevertheless, author‐archived OA book chapters accrued up to eight times more citations than chapters in the same book that were not available through OA, perhaps because there is no online abstracting service for book chapters. There was also little evidence that journal papers or book chapters published in OA received more citations from authors in developing countries relative to those journal papers or book chapters not published in OA. For scholarly publications in conservation biology, only book chapters had an OA citation advantage, and OA did not increase the number of citations papers or chapters received from authors in developing countries.