Effectiveness of Africa's tropical protected areas for maintaining forest cover

The effectiveness of parks for forest conservation is widely debated in Africa, where increasing human pressure, insufficient funding, and lack of management capacity frequently place significant demands on forests. Tropical forests house a substantial portion of the world's remaining biodiversity and are heavily affected by anthropogenic activity. We analyzed park effectiveness at the individual (224 parks) and national (23 countries) level across Africa by comparing the extent of forest loss (as a proxy for deforestation) inside parks to matched unprotected control sites. Although significant geographical variation existed among parks, the majority of African parks had significantly less forest loss within their boundaries (e.g., Mahale Park had 34 times less forest loss within its boundary) than control sites. Accessibility was a significant driver of forest loss. Relatively inaccessible areas had a higher probability (odds ratio >1, p < 0.001) of forest loss but only in ineffective parks, and relatively accessible areas had a higher probability of forest loss but only in effective parks. Smaller parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than larger parks (T = ?2.32, p < 0.05), and older parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than younger parks (F_2,154 = ?4.11, p < 0.001). Our analyses, the first individual and national assessment of park effectiveness across Africa, demonstrated the complexity of factors (such as geographical variation, accessibility, and park size and age) influencing the ability of a park to curb forest loss within its boundaries.     

基于污染指数与ArcGIS的聊城市耕地OCPs污染研究

按8 km×8 km网格将聊城市耕地划分为136个采样点,调查六六六(BHCs)、滴滴涕(DDTs)、艾氏剂、狄氏剂、异狄氏剂、六氯苯和七氯等7种有机氯农药(OCPs)的残留状况。采用单因子污染指数和综合污染指数法进行污染评价,以此判断OCPs的污染程度。对7种OCPs在各样点中的含量进行差异分析,并应用ArcGIS8.3,以污染评价结果为数据支持,进行OCPs污染空间分布研究。结果表明,聊城市OCPs污染程度依次为DDTs>狄氏剂>七氯>艾氏剂>BHCs>异狄氏剂>六氯苯,总体变异程度依次为DDTs>狄氏剂>异狄氏剂>BHCs>七氯>六氯苯>艾氏剂。各OCPs空间分布没有固定的变化趋势;各采样点综合污染水平存在地域差异,以临清市污染最为严重,其他各县市污染较轻。     

基于ArcGIS的坡度分析

坡度对土壤侵蚀的影响最大,是水土保持工作中首先要考虑的因素之一。用传统方法计算研究区坡度组成和平均坡度的效率低、精度低;而应用ArcGIS软件的空间分析功能对研究区进行坡度分析的效率高、精度高,减少了人为主观因素的影响,为水土保持工作提供一种新技术、新方法。     

Modelling and Prediction of Diesel Engine Performance using Relevance Vector Machine

Diesel engines are being increasingly adopted by many car manufacturers today, yet no exact mathematical diesel engine model exists due to its highly nonlinear nature. In the current literature, black-box identification has been widely used for diesel engine modelling and many artificial neural network (ANN) based models have been developed. However, ANN has many drawbacks such as multiple local minima, user burden on selection of optimal network structure, large training data size, and over-fitting risk. To overcome these drawbacks, this article proposes to apply an emerging machine learning technique, relevance vector machine (RVM), to model and predict the diesel engine performance. The property of global optimal solution of RVM allows the model to be trained using only a few experimental data sets. In this study, the inputs of the model are engine speed, load, and cooling water temperature, while the output parameters are the brake-specific fuel consumption and the amount of exhaust emissions like nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Experimental results show that the model accuracy is satisfactory even the training data is scarce. Moreover, the model accuracy is compared with that using typical ANN. Evaluation results also show that RVM is superior to typical ANN approach.     

Investigation of Nanoparticle Additives to Biodiesel for Improvement of the Performance and Exhaust Emissions in a Compression Ignition Engine

Worldwide energy demand has been growing steadily during the past five decades and most experts believe that this trend will continue to rise. The amount of emitted harmful emission gases increases in parallel with increasing energy consumption. This increase has forced many countries to take various precautions, and various restrictions on emitted emissions have been carried. In this study, effects of addition of oxygen containing nanoparticle additives to biodiesel on fuel properties and effects on diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions were investigated. Two different nanoparticle additives, namely MgO and SiO₂, were added to biodiesel at the addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm. Fuel properties, engine performance, and exhaust emission characteristics of obtained modified fuels were examined. As a result of this study, engine emission values NO_x and CO were decreased and engine performance values slightly increased with the addition of nanoparticle additives.     

1957—2012年中国参考作物蒸散量时空变化及其影响因子分析

根据1957—2012年全国608个气象站的逐日气象资料,利用Penman-Monteith公式计算作物潜在蒸散量,对全国及水资源一级分区潜在蒸散量时空分布特征、变化趋势进行分析;基于Arc GIS及SPSS软件,采用主成分分析方法,对潜在作物蒸散量的影响因子及其分布特征进行探讨。结果表明:近56 a来,全国年潜在蒸散量在616~2 128 mm之间,河西走廊、南部岭南地区、海南岛以及华南沿海作物潜在蒸散量较大,而在黑龙江一带、四川盆地及西南地区东部,潜在蒸发量较小。各分区年均潜在蒸发量均呈现减少趋势,西北诸河区倾向率最大,为-12.22 mm/10 a;影响潜在蒸散量的因子中,第1主成分为热力学因子,第2主成分为水分因子和辐射因子,第3主成分为地理因子和空气动力学因子,第4主成分为高程因子。     

Experimental study on fire suppression performance of the high pressure water mist in the engine room of an offshore platform

The total flooding application water mist system is a new type of environmentally-friendly fixed extinguishing system. The optimizing design can improve its fire extinguishing performance. At present, the water mist fire extinguishing system in the engine room of the offshore deepwater semi-submersible support platform has not attracted sufficient attention. In this paper, the water mist in the engine room of a deepwater semi-submersible support platform was studied. It contains the effect of water mist on the heat absorption and oxygen insulation of diesel pool fires. The applicable parameters of the water mist fire extinguishing system were also determined. Moreover, based on the shielding of the fire source in the engine room and the different requirements for water mist extinguishing parameters, a hierarchical multi-parameter combined high-pressure water mist fire extinguishing system was proposed. In the full-scale experimental engine room model, according to the fire extinguishing experiments for diesel pool fires with different areas, this kind of hierarchical multi-parameter water mist system is very effective on shielded and non-shielded fires. In addition, it is still effective even in a non-closed environment coupled with smoke exhausting.     

飞机发动机舱灭火剂用量试验验证与优化研究

为提升飞机的安全性,飞机防火系统越来越受到重视。航空防火系统中常用灭火剂Halon 1301会破坏臭氧层、造成环境污染,但至今仍未找到理想的替代品。从优化灭火剂的用量着手,以达到降低污染、减轻飞机重量的目的。目前灭火剂的用量没有结合实际仅依靠理论公式进行计算,为优化灭火剂用量,以某型飞机发动机舱防火系统为例,通过模拟真实环境试验验证不同灭火剂用量下的灭火效果。结果表明优化灭火剂用量后依然能充分地保证灭火效果。     

城镇污水处理设施空间优化配置研究

城镇污水处理设施建设总体规模不足、空间布局不平衡等问题突出,基于效率最大化、费用最小化原则,从微观效率和宏观布局两个维度进行空间优化配置,为解决城镇污水处理设施的空间均衡问题提供思路.以淮安市盱眙县盱城镇为例,利用ArcGIS网络分析工具,构建"目标市场份额"和"最小阻抗"模型,进行镇区污水处理设施的空间优化配置.结果表明:已有的污水处理设施中,由于管网配套不足,富春运行负荷低,未来扩大服务范围、提高运行效率是重点;在合理运行条件下,已有的污水厂的设计能力仍不满足治理需求,根据排污治污缺口,需新建一座2万t/d规模的污水处理设施;新建污水厂的最佳位置位于缺口地区的最小费用点.微观效率与宏观布局的协同优化方案可为盱城镇污水处理设施的格局优化提供科学依据,同时也为全国同类地区城镇污水处理设施空间规划管理提供参考.     

基于ArcGIS技术的桥梁隧道地震灾情场景模拟系统

针对我国地震应急指挥和抗震救灾工作的实际需要,运用ArcG IS技术研制了桥梁隧道地震灾情场景模拟系统。基于地震应急基础数据库和设定的地震参数,考虑地震动影响场和不同类型桥梁隧道的抗震性能,可对震前和震后公路桥梁隧道通行能力场景进行较为准确的模拟,亦可为地震现场救援指挥工作提供辅助支持。