Carbon emission mitigation through regulatory policies and operations adaptation in supply chains: theoretic developments and extensions

Along with carbon emission regulations launched by governments and consumers’ rising concerns about climate changes and global carbon footprint, interests of academia and industry have risen in carbon-efficient supply chain management. This research focuses on some product supply chain to make a literature review-based investigation on proposing a theoretical framework. We also solve potential research issues of how diverse carbon emission regulations can work on supply chain performance as well as emission; in what way we can find coordination mechanisms and optimal policies for supply chain operations to abate emission and enhance system profitability within different scenarios; and also to evaluate the effect on emission reduction for each emission regulation aforementioned through comparing their associated supply chain performances and system emission. Both practitioners in industry and academia might find this study useful, as it generates concepts with a formal framework of potential and values theoretical issues in the emerging field of carbon-efficient supply chain management which combines carbon emission regulations with mature operation management to enrich the theory of supply chain management. This study is perhaps to be valuable and constructive both for operational decisions in firms and for the enactment as well as implementation of emission-reduction regulations. This study should activate further potential researches.     

Rock Mass Deformation Characteristics in High-Steep Slopes Influenced by Open-Pit to Underground Mining

In Daye Iron Mine, the open-pit mining has ended and the underground mining started in 2003. The present pit slopes are as high as 430 m and the slope angle is up to 43°. During the process of open-pit to underground mining, the high-steep pit slopes would be affected by both open-pit mining and underground mining, and its deformation characteristics would become more complex. So in this paper, the trinity method of numerical simulation, model experiment and field test was adopted to analyze the displacement and stress fields systematically. The results show that: (1) Prominent rebound deformation occurs near the slope foot, which is induced by the unloading in open-pit mining. When it is backfilled to 0 m level, the rebound deformation decreases, which indicate that backfilling mass can restrict the deformation and improve the slope stability; (2) Subsidence dominates the slope deformation in open-pit to underground mining and it increases with an increasing elevation of monitoring point; the maximum horizontal displacement occurs in the lower part of the slopes, because the backfilled part is squeezed by both the north slope and the south slope, and it has a lower elastic modulus than the previous orebody; (3) The stress and its variability near the slope foot are much larger than other places, indicating that the slope foot is most affected by stress redistribution and stress concentration may occur here; the stress at other stress monitoring points changes little, indicating that the influence of open-pit to underground mining is local; (4) The effect of underground mining on the deformation of the faults is not prominent; (5) Mining operations in near-ground part affect more on the variation of deformation and stress of pit slopes than that in deeper part.     

The effect of slight to minor biodegradation on C<Subscript>6</Subscript> to C<Subscript>7</Subscript> light hydrocarbons in crude oils: a case study from Dawanqi Oilfield in the Tarim Basin,NW China

Light hydrocarbons (LHs) are one of the main petroleum fractions in crude oils, and carry much information regarding the genetic origin and alteration of crude oils. But secondary alterations—especially biodegradation—have a significant effect on the composition of LHs in crude oils. Because most of the LHs affected in oils underwent only slight biodegradation (rank 1 on the biodegradation scale), the variation of LHs can be used to describe more the refined features of biodegradation. Here, 23 crude oils from the Dawanqi Oilfield in the Tarim Basin, NW China, eleven of which have been biodegraded to different extents, were analyzed in order to investigate the effect of slight to minor biodegradation on C₆–C₇ LHs. The study results showed that biodegradation resulted in the prior depletion of straight-chained alkanes, followed by branched alkanes. In slight and minor biodegraded oils, such biodegradation scale could not sufficiently affect C₆–C₇ cycloalkanes. For branched C₆–C₇ alkanes, generally, monomethylalkanes are biodegraded earlier than dimethylalkanes and trimethylalkanes, which indicates that branched alkanes are more resistant to biodegradation, with the increase of substituted methyl groups on parent rings. The degree of alkylation is one of the primary controlling factors on the biodegradation of C₆–C₇ LHs. There is a particular case: although 2,2,3-trimethylbutane has a relative higher alkylation degree, 2,2-dimethylpentane is more resistant to biodegradation than 2,2,3-trimethylbutane. 2,2-Dimethylpentane is the most resistant to biodegradation in branched C₆–C₇ alkanes. Furthermore, the 2-methylpentane/3-methylpentane and 2-methylhexane/3-methylhexane ratios decreased steadily with increasing biodegradation, which implies that isomers of bilateral methyl groups are more prone to bacterial attack relative to mid-chain isomers. The position of the alkyls on the carbon skeleton is also one of the critical factors controlling the rate of biodegradation. With increasing biodegradation, Mango’s LH parameters K1 values decrease and K2 values increase, the values of n-heptane and isoheptane decrease, and the indices of methylcyclohexane and cyclohexane increase. LH parameters should be applied cautiously for the biodegraded oils. Because biodegraded samples belong to slight or minor biodegraded oils, the values of n-heptane and isoheptane from Dawanqi Oilfield can better reflect and determine the “Biodegraded” zone. When the heptane value is 0–21 and the isoheptane value is 0–2.6, the crude oil in Dawanqi Oilfield is defined as the “Biodegraded” zone.     

Analysis on Marine Science and Technology Strategy and Key Layout of Japan and the Inspirations to China

The Basic Ocean Law (BOL) and Basic Ocean Plan (BLP) are important guarantee for the maritime strategy of Japan, which has established a complete policy system for the development of marine science and technology. On the other hand, the Japanese Government has started some major marine strategies and plans to promote the BLP. In this paper, the marine science and technology plans launched by the Japanese Government and its participation in the international cooperative research projects were introduced. The research of Japan Marine Science and Technology Center and the University of Tokyo Institute of Oceanography in the long-term planning and focus on the layout features, deep sea research technology layout, contents and advanced equipment were analyzed. At last, some recommendations for China’s development on marine science and technology were proposed, such as strengthening the legislation work and process, carrying out research and development of marine infrastructure with independent intellectual property rights, actively participating in international large-scale ocean plan, improving the discourse right and enhancing national maritime awareness and suggestions and so on.     

Fifteen Years of Ocean Observations with China Argo

For 15 years since the beginning of China Argo project, China has deployed over 350 profiling floats in Pacific and Indian ocean, and constructed China Argo ocean observing network. Moreover, we have setup the Argo data receiving, processing and distributing system, and developed various Argo data products using Argo observations, which has promoted the progress of ocean data sharing in China. The abundant Argo data have become a main data source in oceanic and atmospheric basic researches and operational applications. A batch of important achievements in basic research and operational application have been brought, e.g. in aspects of tropical cyclone (typhoon), ocean circulation, meso-scale eddy, turbulence, heat/salt storage and transport and water mass, as well as in ocean, atmosphere/climate operational forecasting and predicting. With the extension of the international Argo program from “Core Argo” to “Global Argo”, we are faced with great challenges in the long-term maintaining and sustained developing of our Argo ocean observing network. It is suggested that we should take the opportunity to construct China regional Argo ocean observing network as soon as possible in adjacent northwestern Pacific and Indian ocean using Chinese BeiDou profiling floats, which will make us to take responsibility and obligation of a big country for addressing global climate changes and preventing natural disasters.     

Application of ICTs in Airspace Management and Collaborative Decision-Making—Analyzing the Risk Avoidance in the Condition of Risky Weather as an Example

The application of ICTs makes structural change of the development and effective utilization of airspace. Next generation air transportation system (NextGen) includes new automation concepts with automated information to support the traffic control decision-making. As a result, in the field of academia and industry, air traffic controllers integrate information automatically while making decisions to change the previous manually integrated and decided pattern. The safety ability of airspace is reduced and airspace system is endangered under risky weather conditions of airspace. So there is an urgent demand for new information and communication technologies. The paper is an overview of the information constitution and support of NextGen and provides the study of the development of technique of airspace collaborative decision-makings to confirm the new features based on ICTs. It contains basic application-the input of data and output of the routes of airspace management and collaborative decision-making, and general application-the choose of probability nets of avoiding risky weather, and special application-the affection in the management of the air routes, which are made up of position and direction. The research shows the accurate schedule characteristics of airspace management and collaborative decision-making based on ICTs, which made the space accurate by time accurate. Second, the visualization of airspace management and collaborative decision-making based on ICTs made the maps of flight path under mobile data quickly generated. This could make the fully development and utilization of national airspace, ensure safety, and reduce air traffic controllers’ workload and the costs in delaying and operating in risky weather.     

基于小波分析的抚松县降水量变化对矿泉水资源量的响应研究

大气降水是抚松县矿泉水资源的重要补给来源,探究其变化规律及极值概率对泉流量是否能够得到持续补给具有重要意义。为此,首先利用1960~2013年的降水资料和1981~2008年部分泉流量观测数据,对抚松县降水量的年内分配、年际变化和不同年代降水量均值变化进行降水特征分析;之后,运用皮尔逊Ⅲ型模型分析最大年降水量的概率分布;接着,利用1981年7月~2008年11月期间降水量和部分泉的泉流量监测数据,采用连续小波分析法对二者周期进行分析;最后,运用交叉小波变换法对同一时段内降水量和泉流量多时间尺度变化的相关性进行分析。结果表明:1960~2013年的54间,研究区内年降水量呈现周期性变化,变差系数为1.017×10-17,降水稳定,未发生异常变化。降水量和泉流量均存在约11个月的主震荡周期,二者属于同相位(即泉流量对降水量的变化产生即刻反应),降水量作为本区矿泉水补给的重要影响因素,可为矿泉水资源得到有效补给提供保证。