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.     

基于STM32F103ZET6的自定义通信协议电梯监控系统设计

针对电梯运行状态监控问题,提出一种基于自定义通信协议的电梯远程监控系统的设计方案。以STM32F103ZET6为控制核心的电梯监测终端,通过对传感器信号进行检测分析获得电梯运行状态及故障的信息,监测服务平台与电梯监测终端之间采用自定义的通信协议进行数据通信,监测服务平台将所获取的电梯状态及故障信息发送到云计算中心服务器。用户通过客户端登录电梯监控系统,可以实时查看电梯的运行状态、故障信息及历史信息。通过长期实际应用,该监控系统运行稳定可靠,能够实现对电梯远程的实时、可靠监控,为电梯的维修、维护提供及时准确的信息。     

ARTICULATED CONCRETE BLOCK STABILITY TESTING1

ABSTRACT: An articulated concrete block revetment system was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to test and evaluate the practicability of the protocols for overtopping and channelized flow conditions. Test facilities were constructed, prototype articulated concrete blocks were fabricated and installed into the facilities, and the blocks were tested using the established protocols. The test results indicated that both the overtopping and channel flow tests yielded similar results: the blocks reached a point of instability at approximately the same velocity and shear stresses. The similar test results indicate that only one protocol is required to evaluate an articulated concrete block system. It was demonstrated that both protocols can be effectively conducted. It is recommended that the overtopping test be adapted as a standard test procedure because of its reduced construction costs and its efficiency compared to the channelized test.     

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。     

The EU effect: does trade with the EU reduce CO2 emissions in the developing world?

The European Union (EU) is an important destination for developing country exports. Has the EU’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol induced developing countries to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions? Our analyses of 136 developing countries from 1981 through 2007 suggests that: developing countries’ export dependence on the EU is associated with CO₂ emission reductions post-Kyoto in relation to the pre-Kyoto time period; this also holds for SO_2, which, while not covered under Kyoto, is linked with CO₂ emission levels; this does not hold for PM₁₀, a pollutant which is not covered under Kyoto and is not directly associated with CO₂ emissions related to industrial activities; developing countries’ export dependence on non-EU developed countries and on the rest of the world is not associated with significant reductions in emissions between pre- and post-Kyoto for these pollutants . In sum, even in the absence of binding regulatory mandates, the EU appears to exert market leverage to project its regulatory preferences abroad.     

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.