What did Lotka really say? A critical reassessment of the “maximum power principle”

This paper presents a critical discussion of the so-called “maximum power principle”, often quoted in studies about the energy balance of living systems and also known in the emergy literature as “maximum em-power principle”. Several authors consider this principle highly relevant and some even proposed it as a “fourth law of thermodynamics”. A critical analysis of the original source, namely Alfred Lotka's 1921-22 papers, conducted both in an historical perspective (the connection between Lotka's writings and the ongoing debate at his time) and in a more modern context, leads to a more detailed and less biased assessment. It turns out that in spite of Lotka's very anticipatory and incredibly sharp vision of the possible interconnections between the second law of thermodynamics and evolutionism, doubts arise about the general applicability of his “maximum power principle”. From an accurate analysis of his writings, it can be concluded that: (a) Lotka explicitly and consistently addressed the “optimal use” of the flow of exergy (available energy), and therefore the quantity defined as “em-power” is an incorrect interpretation of Lotka's constrained maximum power principle; (b) “Lotka's principle” can be reformulated within Ziegler's “maximum entropy production” or Prigogine “minimum entropy generation” paradigm only under two different respective sets of rather stringent additional conditions which Lotka was probably already aware of but never explicitly stated.     

Occupational Entropy and Mind Indicators for Sustainable Energy Development

Abstract

A concept of occupational entropy is developed and related to the efficient use of mental (cognitive, emotional, and moral) resources and capacities. The corresponding “mind” indicators and pertinent response actions have proven essential for monitoring the state and projecting the behavior changes toward energy sustainability, as well as sustainable development in general.     

盛夏低温及其对农业的影响

本文首次制定了盛夏低温标准;并划分了弱、中、强、极强四个等级;对武汉盛夏低温进行了详尽的统计分析和最大熵谱周期分析。专题分析了1989年极强盛夏低温天气气候特征及其对湖北省农业的影响,最后提出了防治对策。     

基于熵技术的石化企业安全模糊综合评价方法研究

鉴于石化企业安全评价所存在的模糊性和随机性 ,基于熵技术和模糊数学理论 ,将定性分析和定量分析相结合 ,提出了一种新的基于熵技术的石化企业安全模糊综合评价模型。借用信息论中熵的概念计算客观权重的方法 ,避免了人为的主观性。简要地介绍了该模型的步骤 ,并给出应用实例。研究表明 ,笔者所提出的模型实用性强 ,易于推广。因此 ,该方法用于石化企业安全评价是一种新的尝试 ,对此进行全面的介绍有着一定的工程实际应用价值。     

Adaptations in a hierarchical food web of southeastern Lake Michigan

Two issues in ecological network theory are: (1) how to construct an ecological network model and (2) how do entire networks (as opposed to individual species) adapt to changing conditions? We present a novel method for constructing an ecological network model for the food web of southeastern Lake Michigan (USA) and we identify changes in key system properties that are large relative to their uncertainty as this ecological network adapts from one time point to a second time point in response to multiple perturbations. To construct our food web for southeastern Lake Michigan, we followed the list of seven recommendations outlined in Cohen et al. [Cohen, J.E., et al., 1993. Improving food webs. Ecology 74, 252–258] for improving food webs. We explored two inter-related extensions of hierarchical system theory with our food web; the first one was that subsystems react to perturbations independently in the short-term and the second one was that a system's properties change at a slower rate than its subsystems’ properties. We used Shannon's equations to provide quantitative versions of the basic food web properties: number of prey, number of predators, number of feeding links, and connectance (or density). We then compared these properties between the two time-periods by developing distributions of each property for each time period that took uncertainty about the property into account. We compared these distributions, and concluded that non-overlapping distributions indicated changes in these properties that were large relative to their uncertainty. Two subsystems were identified within our food web system structure (p < 0.001). One subsystem had more non-overlapping distributions in food web properties between Time 1 and Time 2 than the other subsystem. The overall system had all overlapping distributions in food web properties between Time 1 and Time 2. These results supported both extensions of hierarchical systems theory. Interestingly, the subsystem with more non-overlapping distributions in food web properties was the subsystem that contained primarily benthic taxa, contrary to expectations that the identified major perturbations (lower phosphorous inputs and invasive species) would more greatly affect the subsystem containing primarily pelagic taxa. Future food-web research should employ rigorous statistical analysis and incorporate uncertainty in food web properties for a better understanding of how ecological networks adapt.     

基于熵权法和聚类分析法的成都市空气质量综合评价

传统方法在评价大气环境质量中存在因素较为单一等缺点,文章综合考虑多评价单元的多种指标,运用熵权系数法对成都市各区域AQI进行计算,以区域AQI年均值,区域年污染天数两个评价参数,构建成都市现阶段各区域空气质量状况的指标体系。同时利用聚类分析方法对成都市21个区县,根据空气质量指数AQI日均值进行结果验证。研究结果表明:郫县,青白江区和新都区综合评价等级最高,均在8.5以上,体现出这三个区域空气质量状况较差,综合评价等级较低的都江堰和蒲江县AQI年均值也较低,污染天数很少,其余区域的评分和其AQI以及污染天数均相符合,可以得出该综合评价模型可以很好的很客观的反映出各区域的空气质量状况。聚类分析呈现出较好的聚类效果,整个成都市各区域空气质量均值分布分为四大区域,较符合实际结果,可以为其他城市的空气质量综合评价提供一定的参考。     

我国能源结构-产业结构协调性演进规律研究

从我国目前实际发展现状来看,只有能源结构与产业结构协调发展、共同调整,才能实现经济增长和保障能源安全的目标。运用灰色系统理论的灰色关联分析方法建立能源结构一产业结构协调度定量评价模型,引入熵权法客观赋权,根据各个指标值的变异程度,引用信息熵所反映数据本身的效用值来计算指标的权重系数,有效地避免了由于人的主观因素而形成的权重分配偏差。研究表明从1990年至2007年之间,中国的能源结构一产业结构协调度值经历了增长——下降——再增长的波浪演进过程,目前的能源结构与产业结构并没有达到充分的良性互动作用。研究结论为中国能源结构一产业结构协调度评价的解析化、定量化提供了有力的手段和理论参考依据。     

基于熵权的属性识别模型在土壤重金属污染评价中的应用

综合考虑了熵权赋值的客观性以及属性识别模型在解决有序分割问题上的优越性,本文将基于熵权的属性识别模型应用于土壤重金属污染评价中,并用此模型对鸟鲁木齐市主要蔬菜基地的土壤环境质量进行评价,结合实际,将其结果与模糊数学模型评价结果进行比较,表明此模型用于土壤重金属污染评价方法可行,且精确度高。     

国家可持续发展实验区政策实施效果评价研究

探索科学有效的评价方法,量化评价实验区建设的实施效果,对推进国家可持续发展实验区与国家可持续发展议程创新示范区战略,进一步提升实验区与示范区建设质量具有重要意义。本文将创新驱动维度引入可持续发展评价体系,构建了包含三级指标、四大维度、五种权重方案的实验区可持续发展水平评价框架,使用熵值法与主观赋权法、灰色聚类法、序参量法三类各有侧重又相互关联的方法,以25个地级市型实验区及其所在省份2013—2016年发展成果的量化评估,探究了实验区政策的实施效果。本文使用的三类评价方法在实验区政策效果评价方面具有一致性,研究发现:各实验区可持续发展水平均有显著提升;与所在省份相比,实验区整体上跳出了传统发展空间锁定的发展模式,发展协调度提升更为显著;实验区在某些维度下可持续发展水平进步速率更快,但仍有部分实验区尚未探究出环境、经济等多维度协调发展的路径。     

Safety performance measurement in collectivized oil companies in China: Contribution of leading indicators to lagging indicators

With the collectivization of the Chinese oil industry, oil companies have been expanding in size. However, the intensified differences in the safety performance of subsidiaries have severely hindered the collaborative management of the headquarters. Understanding the safety status of each member is urgent for parent companies and their subsidiaries to identify gaps and make improvements. A unified set of safety performance indicators and a practical measurement tool are essential for the Chinese oil industry. Hence, this study identified a set of safety performance indicators encompassing both leading and lagging indicators using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and entropy weight method (EWM) to reveal the critical factors affecting the safety performance of the oil industry. A total of 300 front-line workers from eight subsidiaries of an oil company participated in the survey. The identified indicators were preliminarily weighted using EWM. Then, DEA was employed to measure the safety performance of the eight subsidiaries, demonstrating that management commitment was the most crucial factor in distinguishing safety performance; safety culture was more differentiated than risk management. Safety performance was not entirely positively correlated with safety investments, but the reasonable allocation of safety resources played a vital role. In addition, the weaknesses in each subsidiary's safety management were identified, and the quantitative effects of each leading indicator on safety performance were obtained.