Animals as valuable instinctive and ‘learned’ beings in the field of disaster management: a comparative perspective

Natural Hazards - This article justified the role of animals in the field of disaster management by testing the hypothesis that if animal behavior is meaningful, then it deserves a systematic...     

Learning and climate change

Abstract

Learning—i.e. the acquisition of new information that leads to changes in our assessment of uncertainty—plays a prominent role in the international climate policy debate. For example, the view that we should postpone actions until we know more continues to be influential. The latest work on learning and climate change includes new theoretical models, better informed simulations of how learning affects the optimal timing of emissions reductions, analyses of how new information could affect the prospects for reaching and maintaining political agreements and for adapting to climate change, and explorations of how learning could lead us astray rather than closer to the truth. Despite the diversity of this new work, a clear consensus on a central point is that the prospect of learning does not support the postponement of emissions reductions today.     

The Use of Stable Sulfur, Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotope Ratios as Geochemical Tracers of Sulfates in the Podwiśniówka Acid Drainage Area (South-Central Poland)

The paper presents the results of determinations of stable S and O isotopes of dissolved sulfates and O and H stable isotopes of waters from three ponds, that is, Marczakowe Do?y acid pond, Marczakowe Do?y fish pond and Podwi?niówka acid pit pond, located in the Holy Cross Mountains (south-central Poland). The δ³⁴S_V-CDT and δ¹⁸O_V-SMOW of SO₄ ^2? in waters of three ponds (n = 14) varied from ?16.2 to ?9.5 ‰ (mean of ?13.6 ‰) and from ?8.1 to ?3.2 ‰ (mean of ?4.8 ‰), respectively. The mean δ³⁴S–SO₄ ^2? values were closer to those of pyrite (mean of ?25.4 ‰) and efflorescent sulfate salts (mean of ?25.6 ‰), recorded previously in the Podwi?niówka quarry, than to sulfates derived from other anthropogenic or soil and bedrock sources. The SO₄ ^2? ions formed by bacterially induced pyrite oxidation combined with bacterial (dissimilatory) dissolved sulfate reduction, and presumably with subordinate mineralization of carbon-bonded sulfur compounds, especially in both Marczakowe Do?y ponds. In addition, the comparison of δ¹⁸O–SO₄ ^2? and δ¹⁸O–H₂O values indicated that 75–100 % of sulfate oxygen was derived from water. Due to the largest size, the Podwi?niówka acid pit pond revealed distinct seasonal variations in both δ¹⁸O–H₂O (?9.2 to ?1.6) and δD–H₂O (?29.7 to ?71.3) values. The strong correlation coefficient (r ² = 0.99) was noted between δ¹⁸O–H₂O and δD–H₂O values, which points to atmospheric precipitation as the only source of water. The sediments of both acid ponds display different mineral inventory: the Marczakowe Do?y acid pond sediment consists of schwertmannite and goethite, whereas Podwi?niówka acid pit pond sediment is composed of quartz, illite, chlorite and kaolinite with some admixture of jarosite reflecting a more acidic environment. Geochemical modeling of two acid ponds indicated that the saturation indices of schwertmannite and nanosized ε-Fe₂O₃ (Fe³⁺ oxide polymorph) were closest to thermodynamic equilibrium state with water, varying from ?1.44 to 3.05 and from ?3.42 to 6.04, respectively. This evidence matches well with the obtained mineralogical results.     

Detection of mean-field bias of the radar rain rate using rain gauges available within a small portion of radar umbrella: a case study of the Donghae (East Sea) radar in Korea

Observation of a storm approaching from the ocean to the in-land area is very important for the flood forecasting. Radar is generally used for this purpose. However, as rain gauges are mostly located within the in-land area, detection of the mean-field bias of radar rain rate cannot be easily made. This problem is obviously different from that with evenly-spaced rain gauges over the radar umbrella. This study investigated the detection problem of mean-field bias of radar rain rate when rain gauges are available within a small portion of radar umbrella. To exactly determine the mean-field bias, i.e. the difference between the radar rain rate and the rain gauge rain rate, the variance of the difference between two observations must be small; thus, a sufficient number of observations are indispensable. Therefore, the problem becomes determining the number of rain gauges that will satisfy the given accuracy, that being the variance of the difference between two observations. The dimensionless error variance derived by dividing the expected value of the error variance by the variance of the areal average rain rate was introduced as a criteria to effectively detect the mean field bias. Here, the variance of the areal average rain rate was assumed to be the climatological one and the expectation for the error variance could be changed depending one the sampling characteristics. As an example, this study evaluated the rainfall observation over the East Sea by the Donghae radar. About 6.8 % of the entire radar umbrella covered in-land areas, where the rain gauges were available. It was found that, to limit the dimensionless error variance to 2 %, a total of 26 rain gauges are required for the entire radar umbrella; whereas, a total of 24 rain gauges would be required within the in-land area with available for the rain gauge data.     

便携式水下监视系统在三号地水位异常中的应用

GW112AD型水下监视系统是携带方便、结构新颖、功能齐全和图像清晰的一款水下监视装置,通过对三号地井下环境进行检查发现,井管腐蚀老化,淤泥堵塞现象较严重,对水位变化影响较大,三号地水位多次突降异常的信度一般,需对该井进行必要的洗井清理工作.     

Factors influencing the behavior of buried pipelines subjected to earthquake faulting

Seismic ground faulting is a severe hazard for continuous buried pipelines. Over the years, researchers have attempted to understand pipe behavior, most frequently via numerical modeling and simulation. However, there has been little, if any, physical modeling and tests to verify the numerical modeling approaches and assumptions. This paper presents results of five pairs of centrifuge tests designed to investigate the influence of various factors on the behavior of buried high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipelines subjected to strike-slip faulting. Parameters considered are the soil moisture content, fault offset rate, relative burial depth (H/D), and pipe diameter. The centrifuge test results show that pipe behavior, specifically pipe strain, is nominally not affected by the soil moisture content and fault offset rate when the pipe is subjected to strike-slip faulting. On the other hand, the burial depth ratio (H/D) and pipe diameter influence peak pipe strain, and in some cases, the ground soil failure pattern.     

我国农村地震安全政策法规综述

通过文献调查、问卷调查、专家组访谈和入户访谈等方法收集基础资料,对我国中央和地方农村地震安全政策法规现状进行了调查统计和简要分析,分别从各级政府农村地震安全政策和农村地震安全法律法规两个大方面梳理总结农村地震安全相关的要求与规定。指出农村地震安全政策法规存在的问题有:需进一步明确农村地震安全的战略和目标、需进一步完善农村地震安全的法律法规、需进一步强化政府监管、需进一步建立健全农村地震安全投入和保障机制。     

Economic reforms and the New Master Plan of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Implementation issues and policy recommendations

The economic reforms or `doi moi' introduced in 1986 have transformed Vietnam's planned economy to a more market-oriented one. Rise in international capital, market liberalisation and greater population mobility have contributed towards a greater concentration of squatters in the city centre, and extended metropolitan development in the fringes of Ho Chi Minh City. Rapid urbanisation and, to a lesser extent, industrialisation have converted large tracts of farmlands to urban use, and greater rural exodus. Such dramatic changes have drawn the city government's attention to face the new challenges. As a very important political and economic centre in the south, Ho Chi Minh City has prepared for itself a new Master Plan, approved in 1997, to provide a legitimate and institutional framework to guide its future spatial development. This paper introduces the background and explains the rationale behind the drafting of the Master Plan, and highlights the constraints that are expected in implementing it. The administrative framework in planning is also examined in terms of its advantages and disadvantages in a planning system with four levels: national, provincial, district and local. Land availability in the city centre, source of funding and technical expertise are all parts and parcels of the challenges in the process of modernising HCMC to accommodate the need of its residents and rapid global change. Ho Chi Minh City's strong relationships with its hinterlands have equally required the planners to look at the planning field using the whole national and regional scenarios. Policy recommendations aimed at improving the implementation capability are finally presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

导电涂料性能的研究

实验研究几种基料配比和不同导电填料（ 铜或石墨） 在导电性能方面的差异,探讨了导电涂料的导电机理,并研究了不同石墨粒径对涂层导电率的影响。     

Combined effect of the East Atlantic/West Russia and Western Pacific teleconnections on the East Asian winter monsoon

This study investigates the individual effects of the East Atlantic/West Russia (EATL/WRUS) and Western Pacific (WP) teleconnection patterns and their combined effect on the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). The contributions of the respective EATL/WRUS and WP teleconnection patterns to the EAWM are revealed by removing the dependence on the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) using a linear regression, which are named as N_EATL/WRUS and N_WP, respectively. This is because the EATL/WRUS (WP) is closely linked to the Arctic (tropics) region. A significant increase (decrease) in temperature over East Asia (EA) corresponding to a weak (strong) EAWM is associated with the N_EATL/WRUS and N_WP teleconnection patterns during the positive (negative) phases. In order to examine impacts of these two teleconnections on the EAWM, three types of effects are reconstructed on the basis of ± 0.5 standard deviation: 1) Combined effect, 2) N_EATL/WRUS effect, and 3) N_WP effect. The positive N_EATL/WRUS teleconnection induces to a weakened Siberian High and a shallow EA trough at the mid-troposphere through wave propagation, leading to the weak EAWM. During the positive N_WP pattern, warm air from the tropics flows toward the EA along western flank of an anomalous anticyclone over the North Pacific that is relevant to the meridional shift of the Aleutian Low. When the two mid-latitude teleconnections have the in-phase combination, the increase in temperature over EA appears to be more pronounced than the individual effects by transporting warm air from tropics via strong southeasterly wind anomalies induced by anomalous zonal pressure gradient between the Siberian High and Aleutian Low. Therefore, the impact of the mid-latitude teleconnections on the EAWM becomes robust and linearly superimposed, unlike a nonlinear in-phase combined effect of the AO and ENSO.