Who will win the green race? In search of environmental competitiveness and innovation

As the world considers greener forms of economic growth, countries and sectors are beginning to position themselves for the emerging green economy. This paper combines patent data with international trade and output data in order to investigate who the winners of this “green race” might be. The analysis covers 110 manufacturing sectors in eight countries (China, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, UK and the US) using date for the period 2005–2007. We identify three success factors for green competitiveness at the sector level: the speed at which sectors convert to green products and processes (measured by green innovation), their ability to gain and maintain market share (measured by existing comparative advantages) and a favourable starting point (measured by current output). We find that the green race is likely to alter the present competitiveness landscape. Many incumbent country-sectors with strong comparative advantages today lag behind in terms of green conversion, suggesting that they could lose their competitive edge. Japan, and to a lesser extent Germany, appear best placed to benefit from the green economy, while other European countries (Italy in particular) could fall behind. However, the green economy is much broader than the few flagship sectors on which the debate tends to focus, and each country has its niches of green competitiveness.     

The extremely intense CNA events observed at Zhongshan Station in July, 2000

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Analysis on Soil Degradation Resulted From Human Activities Near City Area in China By Use of DMSP/OLS and Other Data

In order to study land use and cover changes (LUCC), especially urbanization accompanied soil degradation, authors used Asia DMSP/OLS data in 1992, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD, by ISRIC) in 1992, etc. In China the major type of soil degradation is water erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China and happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China and happened in arable land and grassland and was mainly caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is mainly distributed in North and Northwest China and happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical deterioration only concentrated in local area in North China and happened in arable land and paddy. Chemical and physical deterioration were resulted from unreasonable agricultural activity. From city to city + 200km with different distance away from city, different types and strength of human activities resulted in different types and distributions of soil degradation. In China human activity mainly concentrated within city+ 50km, therefore, accompanied soil degradation, such as chemical and physical deterioration, mainly happened near and around city.     

LUCC and Accompanied Soil Degradation in China from 1960''s to 1990''s

This paper tries to qualitatively analyze land use and cover changes (LUCC) and accompanied soil degradation in China, the data of World Atlas of Agriculture in 1969, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation in 1992, etc. have been used. From 1960' s to 1990's, the area of forestland had increased, arable land and paddy as well as grassland had significantly decreased in China. The major type of soil degradation is due to water erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China, this happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China, it happened in arable land and grassland and was caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is distributed in North and Northwest China, which happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical deterioration only concentrated in local area in North China, it happened in arable and paddy. Chemical and physical deteriora-tion mainly resulted from unreasonable activity. Because of different human activities, different LUCC and different natural conditions, the types and strength of soil degradation can be different.     

Gamma-ray burst neutrino background and star formation history in the universe

We estimate the flux of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) neutrino background and compute the event rate at SK and TITAND in the collapsar model, assuming that GRB formation rate is proportional to the star formation rate. We find that the predicted background neutrino flux is highly sensitive to unknown model parameters, mainly to the mass–accretion rate, to the fraction of disk energy emitted in thermal neutrinos (as opposed to emission through electromagnetic processes), and to the fraction of collapsar events leading to GRBs. The predicted neutrino flux varies over many orders of magnitude as the values of unknown model parameters are varied. We investigate the detection possibility of thermal neutrinos from collapsars which lead to GRBs by TITAND. We find that the GRB neutrino background might be detected by TITAND within 10 yrs only for the optimistic cases in which the average mass–accretion rate is high ( a few M s⁻¹), and the probability that one collapsar generates a GRB is high (f=0.5–1.0).     

Numerical simulation of impact cratering on granular material

A new numerical code based on the Distinct Element Method (DEM) is developed to study the impact cratering processes on granular material. This code has a potential advantage to simulate the cratering process on granular material, since the movement of discrete particles can be treated. To show the physical plausibility of this code, we conduct 3-D numerical simulations of vertical impact into granular material targets that consist of 384,000 particles, and compare the results with those from experimental studies. It is shown that the excavation stage of cratering derived from experimental studies is represented well by our simulation: the size of the crater cavity, and the ejecta velocity and angle distributions are consistent with those obtained in laboratory experiments. The impact simulation code developed in this study is thus suggested to be useful for the analysis of the impact cratering process on granular material.     

Direct ascent to the surface of asthenospheric magma in a region of convex lithospheric flexure

The stress field of oceanic lithosphere controls the distribution of submarine petit-spot volcanoes. However, the eruption sites of these petit-spot volcanoes are considered to be limited to concavely flexed regions of lithosphere off the outer rise. Here, we present new data for a recently identified petit-spot lava field on a convexly flexed section of the lithosphere adjacent to the subduction zone offshore of northeast Japan in an area containing more than 80 volcanoes. This area is marked by strongly alkaline lavas that were erupted on the convexly flexed region. As for the concavely flexed region where the petit-spots previously reported, the base of the lithosphere beneath the eruption sites is under extension, whereas the upper part of the lithosphere is under compression. This change in the stress field, from the lower to upper lithosphere, causes ascending dikes to stall in the mid-lithosphere, leading to metasomatic interaction with the surrounding peridotite. The new geochemical data of rocks and xenocrysts presented in this study indicate that strongly alkaline magmas erupted on the convexly flexed region would have ascended more rapidly through the mid-depth of lithosphere because of the extensional regime of the upper lithosphere and decreasing the degree of metasomatic reaction with the surrounding mantle peridotite. The results indicate that the degree of metasomatism and the compositional variations of petit-spot magmas are controlled mainly by the stress field of the lithosphere.