Causal modelling of multivariate outcomes from developmental toxicity experiments

Exposure to developmental toxicants may cause foetal malformations, increase foetal death or resorption and reduce foetal weight. The correlations among these developmental endpoints have been reported, but their causal relationships have not been investigated. Structural equation models (path models) were applied to study the patterns of causation among the four developmental outcomes, number of viable foetuses, number of malformations, number of deaths/resorptions, and average foetal weight; these outcomes were modelled as response variables with the dose level and number of implants (litter size) modelled as independent variables. Three hypothesized path models were fitted to developmental toxicity data from a study of the herbicide 2,4,5-T exposure in mice. One model, which hypothesized that foetal weight, implicitly a mechanism such as cellular growth, affects both malformations and death/resorption (equivalently, viability) with no causation relationship between malformation and death/resorption, described data consistently well for three strains of mice. The most consistent relationship found was a strong direct effect of foetal weight on malformations, and the correlation between malformations and death/resorption (or reduced viability) was likely spurious.     

Threats to Avifauna on Oceanic Islands

Abstract:  Results of the study by Blackburn et al. (2004 a ) of avifauna on oceanic islands suggest that distance from the mainland and time since European colonization have major influences on species extinctions and that island area is a significant but secondary contributing factor. After augmenting the data of the study on geographical properties for some of the islands they examined, we used a causal analysis approach with structural equation modeling to reexamine their conclusions. In our model geographical properties of islands, such as island area and isolation, were considered constraints on biological factors, such as the number of introduced mammalian predators and existing number of avifauna, that can directly or indirectly influence extinction. Of the variables we tested, island area had the greatest total influence on the threat of extinction due to its direct and indirect effects on the size of island avifauna. Larger islands had both a greater number of threatened bird species and more avifauna, increasing the number of species that could become threatened with extinction. Island isolation also had a significant, positive, and direct effect on threats to island avifauna because islands farther from the mainland had fewer current extant avifauna. Time since European colonization had a significant negative, but relatively weaker, influence on threats compared with the traditional biogeographic factors of island area and distance to the mainland. We also tested the hypothesis that the amount of threat is proportionally lower on islands that have had more extinctions (i.e., there is a "filter effect"). Because the proportion of bird extinctions potentially explained only 2.3% of the variation in the proportion of threatened species on islands, our results did not support this hypothesis. Causal modeling provided a powerful tool for examining threat of extinction patterns of known and hypothesized pathways of influence.     

岛屿地形下的核电厂护岸防洪设计研究

对国内第一个岛屿地形下核电厂的护岸防洪设计进行了研究,提出直立式护岸结构方案以满足核电厂防洪和避让毗邻海岛的要求。在波浪数值模拟计算结果基础上,开展了波浪整体物理模型试验、波浪局部整体物理模型试验和波浪断面物理模型试验,对护岸的越浪量和结构稳定性进行了优化验证。研究结果表明,岛屿地形下,波浪破碎和波能集中导致护岸堤身坡脚处波高增大,须加高挡浪墙和优化挡浪墙结构型式;在相同的越浪量标准下,采用直立堤结构相对斜坡堤结构对应的护岸挡浪墙的高程须明显加高;利用部分海岛地形斜坡高地作为厂区护岸一部分时,原状海岛地形斜坡高地处的波浪爬高效应明显,须加高邻近护岸挡浪墙的高程。     

在役工业厂房建筑维护管理分析评价

在调研了全国各区域各行业工业厂房结构安全的基础上,提出工业厂房后期运营阶段的结构安全性和可靠性需要通过科学的维修制度来保证。分析了引起工业厂房结构失检、误判的因素,建立了相应的评价指标体系,以评价企业厂房结构安全的维护管理水平。理论分析和实例评价表明,通过提高维护管理水平可以减少厂房结构失检、误判事件的发生,加强厂房的检测、维护,可以有效预防工业厂房结构渐发性事故发生,在有限成本内实现对工业厂房结构安全管理的效益最大化。     

1995年山东苍山5.2级地震构造背景及前兆地震活动特征

简述了苍山ＭＳ５．２地震的基本概况，分析了苍山５２级地震构造背景，据这次地震的余震空间分布、等震线长轴、震源机制解、地震活动条带和地质资料分析认为北西向的苍山 新泰断裂和北东向的荣成 临沂断裂可能是苍山５２级地震的地震断层。在１９８５年６月以前，鲁南地区的地震活动呈随机分布，１９８５年６月以后ＭＬ≥３．０地震主要集中在新泰 苍山 莒县之间的三角地带，来回迁移；１９７４年以后沿苍山 尼山断裂的ＭＬ≥３．０地震都发生在５２级地震震中附近，说明在苍山 尼山断裂与沂沭断裂带交汇区西侧较长时间的能量积蓄。苍山５２级地震前最后发生的两个ＭＬ≥２．０地震与苍山５２级地震震中形成沿地震断层的临震小震活动条带。     

Linking 3D spatial models of fuels and fire: Effects of spatial heterogeneity on fire behavior

Crown fire endangers fire fighters and can have severe ecological consequences. Prediction of fire behavior in tree crowns is essential to informed decisions in fire management. Current methods used in fire management do not address variability in crown fuels. New mechanistic physics-based fire models address convective heat transfer with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and can be used to model fire in heterogeneous crown fuels. However, the potential impacts of variability in crown fuels on fire behavior have not yet been explored. In this study we describe a new model, FUEL3D, which incorporates the pipe model theory (PMT) and a simple 3D recursive branching approach to model the distribution of fuel within individual tree crowns. FUEL3D uses forest inventory data as inputs, and stochastically retains geometric variability observed in field data. We investigate the effects of crown fuel heterogeneity on fire behavior with a CFD fire model by simulating fire under a homogeneous tree crown and a heterogeneous tree crown modeled with FUEL3D, using two different levels of surface fire intensity. Model output is used to estimate the probability of tree mortality, linking fire behavior and fire effects at the scale of an individual tree. We discovered that variability within a tree crown altered the timing, magnitude and dynamics of how fire burned through the crown; effects varied with surface fire intensity. In the lower surface fire intensity case, the heterogeneous tree crown barely ignited and would likely survive, while the homogeneous tree had nearly 80% fuel consumption and an order of magnitude difference in total net radiative heat transfer. In the higher surface fire intensity case, both cases burned readily. Differences for the homogeneous tree between the two surface fire intensity cases were minimal but were dramatic for the heterogeneous tree. These results suggest that heterogeneity within the crown causes more conditional, threshold-like interactions with fire. We conclude with discussion of implications for fire behavior modeling and fire ecology.     

高层住宅火灾风险综合评估体系研究

火灾风险评估对于高层住宅的火灾事故预防有着重要意义。本文分析了高层住宅火灾风险因素,并结合现行的建筑设计防火规范,建立了高层住宅火灾风险评价指标体系,将高层住宅火灾风险评价指标分为三级,一、二级指标采用重要性排序的方法,三级指标采用专家打分的方法,各指标权重使用结构熵权法进行计算。最后,利用该方法进行实例分析,对高层住宅的实际火灾风险进行评估,得出其火灾等级,验证了所提评估方法的可行性。对制定高层住宅火灾控制方案有着重要的意义。     

公路桥面伸缩装置及其对桥梁静动力性能影响综述∗

桥梁伸缩装置(以下简称伸缩缝)使用环境恶劣、受荷形式复杂,易出现多种病害。伸缩缝病害会造成桥梁耐久性降低,车致桥梁动力响应加重等不利现象。因此,伸缩缝病害机理及其处置方法和考虑伸缩缝参数影响的车-桥耦合动力响应规律研究受到了广泛关注。本文综述了桥梁伸缩缝力学性能,常见病害及其影响,病害机理及其处置方法等的发展现状;重点讨论了考虑伸缩缝参数及其变化影响的桥梁动力响应的研究进展及存在的问题;展望了未来桥梁伸缩缝研究中有待解决的关键问题。