Using culturomics and social media data to characterize wildlife consumption

Wildlife provides food, medicine, clothing, and other necessities for humans, but overexploitation can disrupt the sustainability of wildlife resources and severely threaten global biodiversity. Understanding the characteristics of consumer behavior is helpful for wildlife managers and policy makers, but the traditional survey methods are laborious and time-consuming. In contrast, culturomics may more efficiently identify the features of wildlife consumption. As a case study of the culturomics approach, we examined tiger bone wine consumption in China based on social media and Baidu search engine data. Tiger bone wine is one of the most purchased tiger products; its consumption is closely related to tiger poaching, which greatly threatens wild tiger survival. We searched a popular social media website for the term “tiger bone wine” and focused on posts that were originally created from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2018. We filtered and classified posts related to the purchase, sale, or consumption of tiger bone wine and extracted information on providers, consumption motivations, year of production, and place of origin of the tiger bone wines based on the texts and photos of these posts. We found 756 posts related to tiger bone wine consumption, 113 of which mentioned providers of tiger bone wine, including friends (53%), elder relatives (37%), peer relatives (7%), and others (3%). Out of the 756 posts, 266 indicated the motivations of tiger bone wine consumption. Tiger bone wines were consumed as a tonic (34%), medicine (23%), game product (30%), and a symbol of wealth (28%). Some posts indicated ≥2 consumption motivations. These findings were consistent with the search queries from Baidu index. Such information could help develop targeted strategies for tiger conservation. The culturomics approach illustrated by our study is a rapid and cost-efficient way to characterize wildlife consumption.     

Toward harmonizing prospective effectiveness assessment for road safety: Comparing tools in standard test case simulations

Abstract

Objective: With the overall goal to harmonize prospective effectiveness assessment of active safety systems, the specific objective of this study is to identify and evaluate sources of variation in virtual precrash simulations and to suggest topics for harmonization resulting in increased comparability and thus trustworthiness of virtual simulation-based prospective effectiveness assessment.

Methods: A round-robin assessment of the effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems was performed using an array of state-of-the-art virtual simulation tools on a set of standard test cases. The results were analyzed to examine reasons for deviations in order to identify and assess aspects that need to be harmonized and standardized. Deviations between results calculated by independent engineering teams using their own tools should be minimized if the research question is precisely formulated regarding input data, models, and postprocessing steps.

Results: Two groups of sources of variations were identified; one group (mostly related to the implementation of the system under test) can be eliminated by using a more accurately formulated research question, whereas the other group highlights further harmonization needs because it addresses specific differences in simulation tool setups. Time-to-collision calculations, vehicle dynamics, especially braking behavior, and hit-point position specification were found to be the main sources of variation.

Conclusions: The study identified variations that can arise from the use of different simulation setups in assessment of the effectiveness of active safety systems. The research presented is a first of its kind and provides significant input to the overall goal of harmonization by identifying specific items for standardization. Future activities aim at further specification of methods for prospective assessments of the effectiveness of active safety, which will enhance comparability and trustworthiness in this kind of studies and thus contribute to increased traffic safety.     

Modeling of a sequencing batch reactor treating municipal wastewater using multi-layer perceptron and radial basis function artificial neural networks

A sequencing batch reactor was modeled using multi-layer perceptron and radial basis function artificial neural networks (MLPANN and RBFANN). Then, the effects of influent concentration (IC), filling time (FT), reaction time (RT), aeration intensity (AI), SRT and MLVSS concentration were examined on the effluent concentrations of TSS, TP, COD and NH₄⁺-N. The results showed that the optimal removal efficiencies would be obtained at FT of 1 h, RT of 6 h, aeration intensity of 0.88 m³/min and SRT of 30 days. In addition, COD and TSS removal efficiencies decreased and TP and NH₄⁺-N removal efficiencies did not change significantly with increases of influent concentration. The TSS, TP, COD and NH₄⁺-N removal efficiencies were 86%, 79%, 94% and 93%, respectively. The training procedures of all contaminants were highly collaborated for both RBFANN and MLPANN models. The results of training and testing data sets showed an almost perfect match between the experimental and the simulated effluent of TSS, TP, COD and NH₄⁺-N. The results indicated that with low experimental values of input data to train ANNs the MLPANN models compared to RBFANN models are more precise due to their higher coefficient of determination (R²) and lower root mean squared errors (RMSE) values.     

企业社会责任:推动可持续发展的第三种力量

可持续发展是企业社会责任的重要领域。企业社会责任在推动可持续发展方面发挥着独特的作用。一定程度上弥补了政府干预和市场调节的缺陷。我国企业承担可持续发展责任需要企业和社会的互动。     

Prioritization of Sustainable Groundwater Management Needs: The Case of the Israel's Stressed Coastal Aquifer

On-going population growth and resulting domestic demand for water require rapid and effective decision-making as regards groundwater management and control of the various sources of salinization and pollution in Coastal aquifers. Sustainability of water resources for utilization by future generations must therefore be a high priority, not only for the purpose of fulfilling needs for water usage but also for bringing people into harmony with their ambient natural environment.The objective of this paper is to propose an empirical approach for prioritization of the needs involved for sustainable aquifer management. The approach involves a schematic format to:(1) develop a global understanding of an aquifer's hydrological and environmental properties in order to delineate appropriate eco-hydrological scenarios and recommend corresponding operational management activities; and(2) emphasize the importance of educating and increasing the awareness of the population involved as to the need for and viability of socially acceptable measures for sustainable management of groundwater and other resources.The psychologist Abraham Maslow utilized a pyramid to illustrate that until people's most basic needs were fulfilled, higher levels of needs would remain irrelevant. This paper postulates a comparable pyramid prioritizing hydrological needs required for progressing towards sustainable groundwater resources. Two sub-regions of Israel's Coastal aquifer in the Sharon region have been presented as representative areas, each characterized by different stress of exploitation. In assessing these sub-regions situation, specific measures have been recommended for achieving and/or maintaining sustainable groundwater resources in light of the ambient environment, and the level of the population on the pyramidal hierarchy of groundwater needs.     

社会和谐与可持续发展

本文运用系统科学原理阐释了社会和谐的内涵,指出社会和谐须以人与自然和谐为基础,以人与人之间的平等、友爱和同合作为表征,其构建与实现应遵从人类社会的演化规律,依赖予在把握人类社会需求演绎、协同人与自然关系的基础上推动生产力的高效有序发展和自然资源、生态环境的可持续支持.进而从可持续发展角度,提出了人与自然和谐的"双剩余理论",以揭示其间的供瓣枧理和协同准则;推导出了社会收益分配的相对公平系数,以衡量人与人公平要求下的社会和谐.针对国情和战略目标要求,提出了以加强小城镇建设为轴心的城市、小城镇与农村人流、物流、财流和信息流合理聚散的"三元结构"发展模式,以促进我国和谐社会的建设和可持续发展战略的有序实践.     

SUSTAINABILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MUNICIPAL TAX INCENTIVE MODEL

The implementation of sustainable development may seem a simple concept when written on paper. However to carry-out long term actions put forward by the Agenda 21 (AG21) at the local level represents one of the main challenges as municipal governments in general do not have the capacity to effectively implement the process. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement sustainable actions. However this requires long-term investments of AG21 plans and projects. The allocation of regular and consistent financial resources is one of the main ingredients for the sustainable development process. But traditional plans and projects financed by national and/or international funds may not be sustainable in the long-term because they become dependent on external funding. Research demonstrate that innovative economic instruments such as ecotaxes represent a feasible alternative to sponsor local sustainability because taxes are collected permanently by the government and could be invested in continuous actions. Ecotaxes experiences have provided important reference to structure a municipal incentive model (MIM) to sponsor AG21’s environmental plans and projects on a long-term (permanent) basis. However sustainable development cannot be solely through economic investments. A comprehensive municipal environmental management scheme (MEMS) has been established to support the incentive model. The scheme seeks not only to improve local institutional framework but also incentive continuous participation of local stakeholders at all levels of society. Participatory events and the provision of incentives (educational and financial) are key to motivate society to protect the environment and support actively the sustainable development process as emphasised in the RIO-92 Conference.     

北京南部城区PM2.5中碳质组分特征

为了解《大气污染防治行动计划》实施后北京市大气PM_2.5中碳质组分特征,于2017年12月至2018年12月在北京污染较重的南部城区进行了PM_2.5连续采样,对其中的有机碳（OC）和元素碳（EC）进行了全面研究.结果表明,北京大气PM_2.5、OC和EC浓度变化范围分别为4.2~366.3、0.9~74.5和0.0~5.5 μg ·m^-3,平均浓度分别为（77.1±52.1）、（11.2±7.8）和（1.2±0.8）μg ·m^-3,碳质组分（OC和EC）整体占PM_2.5的16.1%.OC质量浓度季节特征表现为：冬季[（13.8±8.7）μg ·m^-3] > 春季[（12.7±9.6）μg ·m^-3] > 秋季[（11.8±6.2）μg ·m^-3] > 夏季[（6.5±2.1）μg ·m^-3],EC四季质量浓度水平均较低,范围为0.8~1.5 μg ·m^-3.二次有机碳（SOC）年均质量浓度为（5.4±5.8）μg ·m^-3,四季贡献比例范围为45.7%~52.3%,年均贡献为48.2%,凸显了二次形成的重要贡献.随污染加重,尽管OC和EC贡献比例均降低,但浓度水平却成倍升高,OC和EC浓度在严重污染天分别是空气质量为优天的6.3和3.2倍.与非供暖时段相比,供暖时段PM_2.5、OC和SOC浓度分别增加了14.4%、47.9%和72.1%,体现了OC对供暖季PM_2.5污染的重要贡献.PSCF分析表明,位于北京西南的山西省和河南省部分区域是PM_2.5和OC的主要潜在源区,且PM_2.5潜在源区更为集中;EC的PSCF高值（>0.7）区域较少,主要位于北京南部,如山东省和河南省部分地区,且北京市及周边地区贡献明显.     

节水灌溉措施下湘东北丘陵林-稻汇水区复合系统铅的迁移

铅通过食物链的迁移和积累对人类健康的毒害作用日益为社会所重视,而水稻是人类铅摄入的主要途径之一,因此,对稻田土壤铅的迁入途径及其过程特征的研究十分必要.为了探明湖南地区远离城镇、工矿区的丘陵稻区铅的输入、迁移、滞留机制,选择位于湘东北地域的汩罗市桃林林场的林地-山塘-稻田汇水区系统作为研究对象,在水稻大田生长期间,原位研究其大气沉降、岗地径流、山塘水、稻田水、水稻生长等过程的铅通量.结果表明：①输入系统的铅源是大气沉降,其中,在水稻生育前期通过东南季风输入的区域外源铅占90%;②山塘是大气沉降铅的主要集纳地貌单元,存留了大气沉降输入岗地和山塘总铅的66%;③林-稻汇水区系统岗地铅净留存28.8~57.7 g·hm^-2,山塘铅净留存604.3~961.9 g·hm^-2,稻田铅净留存89.6~90.9 g·hm^-2;而对照系统岗地铅净输出173.3 g·hm^-2,山塘净留存3427.6 g·hm^-2,稻田净留存87.1 g·hm^-2;④岗地和山塘对铅的截留量能够互补;⑤从岗地通过径流-山塘水过程迁移到稻田的大分子有机物能够增强稻田对铅的截留.综上所述,丘陵林-稻汇水区系统中铅的循环与大气沉降有关,系统内岗地森林类型、郁闭度、降水产流及泥沙、有机物的输出都会影响铅在系统中的迁移和分配.