Civil society and the state: Turkey after the earthquake

On 17 August 1999 Turkey was hit by a massive earthquake. Over 17,000 lives were lost and there was extensive damage to Turkey's heartland. This paper examines how various public and private institutions, including state and civil society institutions such as NGOs and the media responded to the needs of earthquake survivors. It documents the extensive involvement of NGOs in the relief efforts immediately after the disaster and examines the impact of such participation on state-civil society relations in the country. The data show that state response to the disaster went through several phases from a period of ineptitude to effective management. The paper credits the media and the NGOs for acting as advocates for survivors and forcing changes at the state level. The paper argues that an ideal response system, which fully addresses the needs of victims, can only be based on state-civil society relations that are both collaborative and adversarial.     

我国民航实施安全管理体系(SMS)的思考

中国民航的快速发展需要一种系统的安全管理方法。本文总结了我国民航管理现状和所处的水平，分析了安全管理体系（SMS）方法的本质。同时笔者指出我国在SMS建设中一些人对SMS的建设重点、自愿报告系统等问题的认识上存在误区，最后提出了几点具有实践意义的操作方法帮助实施SMS建设。     

民航安全风险定量评价模型研究

在对民航风险评价的现状和常用的定量风险评价方法进行分析的基础上,建立民航安全风险定量评价模型。在计算风险的可能性时,不仅考虑了风险的历史发生概率,而且利用风险发生概率影响因素所发生的变化对风险的历史发生概率进行修正,从而得出在当前情况下风险的发生概率,并且首次提出指数型权重的概念;在计算风险的后果时,考虑风险的直接损失和间接损失,并通过计算多种可能后果的期望的形式,综合考虑多种可能的后果情况;通过上述的可能性和严重性从而达到对安全风险进行定量评价的目的。最后,给出了一个算例,其结果表明该模型具有很强的实用性。     

Thermal and hydrometallurgical recovery methods of heavy metals from municipal solid waste fly ash

Heavy metals in fly ash from municipal solid waste incinerators are present in high concentrations. Therefore fly ash must be treated as a hazardous material. On the other hand, it may be a potential source of heavy metals. Zinc, lead, cadmium, and copper can be relatively easily removed during the thermal treatment of fly ash, e.g. in the form of chlorides. In return, wet extraction methods could provide promising results for these elements including chromium and nickel. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare thermal and hydrometallurgical treatment of municipal solid waste fly ash. Thermal treatment of fly ash was performed in a rotary reactor at temperatures between 950 and 1050 °C and in a muffle oven at temperatures from 500 to 1200 °C. The removal more than 90% was reached by easy volatile heavy metals such as cadmium and lead and also by copper, however at higher temperature in the muffle oven. The alkaline (sodium hydroxide) and acid (sulphuric acid) leaching of the fly ash was carried out while the influence of temperature, time, concentration, and liquid/solid ratio were investigated. The combination of alkaline-acidic leaching enhanced the removal of, namely, zinc, chromium and nickel.     

Emissions associated with meeting the future global wheat demand: A case study of UK production under climate change constraints

Climate change, population growth and socio-structural changes will make meeting future food demands extremely challenging. As wheat is a globally traded food commodity central to the food security of many nations, this paper uses it as an example to explore the impact of climate change on global food supply and quantify the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Published data on projected wheat production is used to analyse how global production can be increased to match projected demand. The results show that the largest projected wheat demand increases are in areas most likely to suffer severe climate change impacts, but that global demand could be met if northern hemisphere producers exploit climate change benefits to increase production and narrow their yield gaps. Life cycle assessment of different climate change scenarios shows that in the case of one of the most important wheat producers (the UK) it may be possible to improve yields with an increase of only 0.6% in the emission intensity per unit of wheat produced in a 2 °C scenario. However, UK production would need to rise substantially, increasing total UK wheat production emissions by 26%. This demonstrates how national emission inventories and associated targets do not incentivise minimisation of global greenhouse gas emissions while meeting increased food demands, highlighting a triad of challenges: meeting the rising demand for food, adapting to climate change and reducing emissions.     

施工现场安全生产人员聚集性活动安全专项管理

施工安全生产风险是由风险事件概率和风险后果2个要素决定的。从施工安全风险后果,即潜在安全风险后果影响的人员角度,介绍了施工现场安全生产人员聚集性活动安全专项的系统管理方法。施工安全风险跟踪监控实践,表明该方法对促进安全生产绩效具有重要意义。     

Using Sound to Reduce Visual Distraction from In-vehicle Human–Machine Interfaces

Objective: Driver distraction and inattention are the main causes of accidents. The fact that devices such as navigation displays and media players are part of the distraction problem has led to the formulation of guidelines advocating various means for minimizing the visual distraction from such interfaces. However, although design guidelines and recommendations are followed, certain interface interactions, such as menu browsing, still require off-road visual attention that increases crash risk. In this article, we investigate whether adding sound to an in-vehicle user interface can provide the support necessary to create a significant reduction in glances toward a visual display when browsing menus.

Methods: Two sound concepts were developed and studied; spearcons (time-compressed speech sounds) and earcons (musical sounds). A simulator study was conducted in which 14 participants between the ages of 36 and 59 took part. Participants performed 6 different interface tasks while driving along a highway route. A 3 × 6 within-group factorial design was employed with sound (no sound /earcons/spearcons) and task (6 different task types) as factors. Eye glances and corresponding measures were recorded using a head-mounted eye tracker. Participants’ self-assessed driving performance was also collected after each task with a 10-point scale ranging from 1 = very bad to 10 = very good. Separate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted for different eye glance measures and self-rated driving performance.

Results: It was found that the added spearcon sounds significantly reduced total glance time as well as number of glances while retaining task time as compared to the baseline (= no sound) condition (total glance time M = 4.15 for spearcons vs. M = 7.56 for baseline, p =.03). The earcon sounds did not result in such distraction-reducing effects. Furthermore, participants ratings of their driving performance were statistically significantly higher in the spearcon conditions compared to the baseline and earcon conditions (M = 7.08 vs. M = 6.05 and M = 5.99 respectively, p =.035 and p =.002).

Conclusions: The spearcon sounds seem to efficiently reduce visual distraction, whereas the earcon sounds did not reduce distraction measures or increase subjective driving performance. An aspect that must be further investigated is how well spearcons and other types of auditory displays are accepted by drivers in general and how they work in real traffic.     

Numerical simulation of premixed methane–air deflagration in a semi-confined obstructed chamber

In this paper, large eddy simulation coupled with a turbulent flame speed cloure (TFC) subgrid combustion model has been utilized to simulate premixed methane–air deflagration in a semi-confined chamber with three obstacles mounted inside.The computational results are in good agreement with published experimental data, including flame structures, pressure time history and flame speed. The attention is focused on the flame flow field interaction, pressure dynamics, as well as the mechanism of obstacle-induced deflagration. It is found that there is a positive feedback mechanism established between the flame propagation and the flow field. The pressure time history can be divided into four stages and the pseudo-combustion concept is proposed to explain the pressure oscillation phenomenon. The obstacle-induction mechanism includes direct effect and indirect effect, but do not always occur at the same time.     

The Effect of Local Biomass Projects on Energy Balance and GHG Emission: A Life Cycle Approach

Emerging attention has been given to the use of biomass in local areas for its contribution to reducing fossil fuel dependence and mitigating global warming. The objective of the present study is to develop a method that quantitatively assesses the effects of local biomass projects on fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. A practical method based on a life cycle approach is proposed and applied to a case of bioethanol project in Miyako Islands of Japan. The project is aiming to produce bioethanol from molasses within the islands, and to replace the entire gasoline consumed in the islands to E3 fuel (i.e., a mixture of 3% ethanol and 97% gasoline by volume). The assessment using the developed method revealed that, first, the complete shift from gasoline to E3 fuel allows for decreases in fossil fuel consumption and GHG emission. Second, the performance of the project is improved by the integration of the ethanol plant and the sugar factory. Moreover, the assessment found that, in small-scale bioethanol projects, the contribution of capital goods to life cycle fuel consumption and GHG emission is not negligible.     

Application of an odd/even predominance of n-alkanes in oil–source rock correlation: taking the lower Paleozoic strata of the Tarim Basin as an example

The composition and distribution of n-alkanes carbon numbers reflect the source of kerogenic organic matter, sedimentary environment, and maturity of the rocks. The comparison results of the n-alkanes GC (gas chromatography) chromatograms in the Tazhong Low Uplift show that the n-alkanes of the source rocks in Upper Ordovician display an odd carbon number predominance. At the same time, Cambrian–Lower Ordovician exhibit an even carbon number predominance. The correlation between oil and source rock illustrates that crude oils in the fields of well TZ10-12 and well TZ24 stem from the Upper Ordovician source rocks. The origins of the crude oils in the fields of well TZ161-162 and well TZ45 are Cambrian–Lower Ordovician. The strata corresponding to the crude oils with odd/even carbon number predominance match the oil–source rock correlation. Thus, the characteristics of odd/even carbon number predominance in n-alkane compounds are effective for oil–source rock correlation in the Tazhong Low Uplift, Tarim Basin.