The Upper Middle Rhine Valley as a risk area

The Upper Middle Rhine Valley, granted the status of a World Heritage site, is well known for its unique inner narrow valley of Quaternary age with its historical legacy of numerous medieval castles and old towns. Less known is that this has always been a risk area of floods and gravitative mass movements. Up to the recent past, mainly ice floods caused enormous damage. The inhabitants of the valley were well aware that they lived in a risk area, but they had learned to handle the flood hazard. With the demise of ice floods over the last 40 years, due to climate change and because of the additional heating of the river water by power plants, the awareness of flood hazards has been much diminished, in contrast to that of potential damage by rockfalls and landslides which were also much feared in the past, though at the local level only. Still in the people’s memory is the Kaub catastrophe of March 10, 1876, when 28 persons were killed by a landslide. Nowadays, even minor rockfalls are a major threat, as they will affect the much-used traffic lines on both banks of the river, in particular the railroads. Therefore, since 2002, on behalf of German Rail (Deutsche Bahn, DB), all problematic slopes have been protected by costly steel-ring nets, although they are an aesthetic problem by UNESCO standards. The feeling of absolute safety created among the public is only subjective, though, as planners are well aware of. Moreover, the impact of modern climate change on slope stability is nearly unknown. Therefore, it is still necessary to develop a risk map for the narrow valley, with emphasis on gravitational hazards.     

Resolving the landfill siting impasse: modelling technocratic and indigenous perspectives using GIS multicriteria approach

Increase in waste generation calls for an effective waste management as this has become a necessity for environmental sustainability. Several methods are adopted in managing waste, which include waste reduction, reuse, thermal treatment, recycling and landfilling. The landfill method is recognised as the most used of all the waste management methods in developing countries such as Ghana. However, the selection of a suitable landfill site is very difficult and tedious. This is because it involves a consideration of many factors such as environmental, topographic, economic, socio-cultural and civil engineering. This research sought to identify a suitable landfill site by applying GIS multicriteria and weighted overlay approach in the Bongo District of Northern Ghana. The analysis relied on criteria and weights provided by the technocrats and the indigenes in the district as a way of demonstrating how landfill siting impasse can be resolved by incorporating the various stakeholders. The results obtained provided clear areas for landfill sites in the study area from the technocratic and the indigenous perspectives. However, the technocratic perspective failed to include an important cultural criterion, sacred groves, as a factor. The indigenous perspective also compromised on the factor related to nearness to residential areas, and is equally not sufficient on its own. The optimal landfill sites, which meets the expectations of both the technocrats and indigenes, was identified. This perspective has produced technically favourable and socio-culturally acceptable landfill site. However, it is recommended an environmental impact assessment (EIA) be conducted to identify the full environmental and social cost of the site. It is concluded that in landfill site selection much attention be given to cultural factors in the same way as the technical factors.     

锂离子选择电极的研究 Ⅲ.：开链聚醚三（二环己酰胺）锂电极的制备和应用

以合成的开链聚醚三(二环己酰胺)等中性载体制成了PVC膜Li~+电极,研究了载体结构、膜成分与电极性能的关系,在聚醚三酰胺的胺基中,以环己基取代直链的烷基,显著地改善了Li~+—载体的性能,以邻苯二甲酸二癸酯或其和二苄醚混合增塑的1,1,1—三[1′—(2′—氧杂—3′—二环己胺基羰基)丙基]丙烷Li~+—电极的线性响应范围为2×10~(-5)～10~(-1)mol/L LiCl,K_(Li+Na)~(pot)～8×10~(-3),以Mg(Ac)_2为离子强度调节缓冲剂,用标准比较法或样品加入法测定了LiCl—HCl—H_2O或LiCl—MgCl_2—HCl—H_2O体系中的Li~+,LiCl含量≥2％的样品,测定误差≤5％。     

补偿向下延拓方法研究及应用

位场向下延拓是重、磁处理和解释的常用方法,但其不稳定性限制了其在资料处理及反演中的应用.本文基于补偿圆滑滤波思想以及空间域向下延拓迭代法,通过逐次补偿的办法实现位场的稳定向下延拓.同时,在频率域空间给出了该下延方法的频率域响应因子,并讨论了其低通滤波特性,理论模型和实际位场资料试验表明该方法向下延拓稳定性具有较高的延拓精度.将其应用于重力密度界面反演中,改进反演的稳定性,实际莫霍界面反演表明下延因子具备实用性.     

柴达木盆地东部地区石炭系泥页岩生烃条件及选区

柴达木盆地石炭系露头、钻井资料均揭示,其为海相沉积烃源岩,且石炭系泥页岩气展现出良好的勘探前景。对柴达木盆地东部石炭系泥页岩沉积环境、有机质丰度、类型和演化程度进行综合评价,利用野外露头、探井、地震、非震等资料证实了石炭系的残留及分布。研究认为,柴东地区石炭系泥页岩主要集中在上石炭统滨岸潮坪沉积的克鲁克组,发育炭质泥页岩、暗色泥岩2种烃源岩,有机碳均值为3.08%,有机质类型为Ⅱ-Ⅲ型,处于成熟-高成熟演化阶段,73%的样品达到中等-好烃源岩。平面上主要分布于尕丘、欧南、霍布逊和德令哈凹陷,分隔性较强,具有多个厚度中心,其中以欧南凹陷石灰沟地区和霍布逊凹陷落实程度高、资源潜力大,是泥页岩气最有利的发育区。     

企业社区居民地方认同变化及作用机理——以西北第一印染厂社区为例

地方认同是衡量人地情感、理解人与地方认知关系的重要概念,能够反映人地互动的复杂动态关系。企业社区作为重要的城市居住空间,理解居民地方认同对于科学开展城市社区更新、街区振兴与可持续发展具有重要意义。以西安市西北第一印染厂社区为例,采用扎根理论方法,分析社会环境变迁和社区重构影响下,居民个人身份与地方认同的变化及作用机理。研究发现：1）企业社区居民个人身份认同是从单位人向社会人,以及未来作为留守老年群体的转变。2）延续传承的集体记忆维系居民积极式认同,社会交往生疏化和社区管理社会化加剧地方认同弱化,破败的建筑环境和落后的配套设施带来消极式认同。3）居民在生活、成长的企业社区环境和社会互动中构建了自身及对地方的认同,随着外部社会环境与内部居民个体特征而变化。外部社会环境的国企改革、住房改革使企业转轨、社区社会空间转变,加以居住时间差异、个体特征、心理因素与个人经历变化等内部因素,共同塑造居民的地方认同及其变化过程。     

中国经济增长与制度变迁的空间面板数据分析

以North的体制经济学为理论依据,将新古典经济学的Solow增长模型扩展为一个包含制度变量的计量经济学模型,并结合空间面板数据分析方法,使用1997—2005年中国省区的社会经济数据实证检验了经济制度环境对经济增长的影响。研究结果表明:该时期的制度变迁对中国的经济增长具有显著贡献力,证实了North的制度经济学理论假设。此外,空间面板数据的分析方法深入地揭示了省域经济活动之间存在的空间自相关性,即地区之间通过技术扩散、要素转移以及社会文化交流等在地理空间上发生相互影响。     

Near-source noise suppression of AMT by compressive sensing and mathematical morphology filtering

In deep mineral exploration, the acquisition of audio magnetotelluric (AMT) data is severely affected by ambient noise near the observation sites; This near-field noise restricts investigation depths. Mathematical morphological filtering (MMF) proved effective in suppressing large-scale strong and variably shaped noise, typically low-frequency noise, but can not deal with pulse noise of AMT data. We combine compressive sensing and MMF. First, we use MMF to suppress the large-scale strong ambient noise; second, we use the improved orthogonal match pursuit (IOMP) algorithm to remove the residual pulse noise. To remove the noise and protect the useful AMT signal, a redundant dictionary that matches with spikes and is insensitive to the useful signal is designed. Synthetic and field data from the Luzong field suggest that the proposed method suppresses the near-source noise and preserves the signal well; thus, better results are obtained that improve the output of either MMF or IOMP.     

The trade network of the Belt and Road Initiative and its topological relationship to the global trade network

Unimpeded trade is one of the cooperation priorities in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China. On 15 May 2017, the Joint Communique of the Leaders Roundtable of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation reaffirmed the participants’ shared commitment to build an open economy and ensure free and inclusive trade. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only China's new action to drive its open and global development, but also a platform for an increasing number of countries to explore free and inclusive trade and promote a universal, rule-based, open, non-discriminatory, and equitable multilateral trade system. It is therefore important to examine the topological relationship between the BRI and global trade networks. More specifically, this article first analyzes the community structure of trade networks using a community detection algorithm, and then estimates the topological relationship between different trade communities. The findings of this article are as follows. First, this research identified three trade communities and two sub-communities in the BRI trade network, in which China is the core, Russia is the sub-core of the biggest trade community, and India, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are cores of the second trade community (South Asia-West Asia). Second, it identified five trade communities in the global trade network, centred on China, USA, Russia, India-United Arab Emirates, and Germany- Netherlands-France-Britain and other European developed countries. Third, the topological analysis indicated that in the global trade network, most BRI countries are attracted by the core nodes of the BRI regions, such as the China, Russia and India-United Arab Emirates core nodes, and have strong trade contacts with BRI countries. Most Central-East European countries are mainly attracted by Germany-Netherlands-France-Britain and other developed European countries with a low penetration of BRI trade. Although some Southeast Asian countries are incorporated into the Asia-Australia-South Africa community with China as the core, they still need to strengthen trade linkages with BRI countries.     

Potential implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba shells for paleoenvironmental reconstruction in peatlands

Testate amoebae are now commonly used in paleoenvironmental studies but little is known of their taphonomy. There is some experimental evidence for differential preservation of some testate amoeba shell types over others, but it is unclear what, if any impact this has on palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. To investigate this issue we looked at palaeoecological evidence for the preservation of different shell types. We then investigated the possible impact of selective preservation on quantitative palaeoenvironmental inference. We first used existing palaeoecological data sets to assess the vertical patterns of relative abundance in four testate amoeba shell types: (1) shells made of secreted biosilica plates (idiosomes, e.g. Euglypha), (2) idiosomes with thick organic coating (Assulina), (3) proteinaceous shells (e.g. Hyalosphenia), (4) shells built from recycled organic or mineral particles (xenosomes) (e.g. Difflugia, Centropyxis). In three diagrams a clear pattern of decay was only observed for the idiosome type. In order to assess the implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba taxa for paleoenvironmental reconstruction we then carried out simulations using three existing transfer functions and a wide range of scenarios, downweighting different test categories to represent the impact of selective test decomposition. Simulation results showed that downweighting generally reduced overall model performance. However downweighting a shell type only produced a consistent directional bias in inferred water table depth where that shell type is both dominant and shows a clear preference along the ecological gradient. Applying a scenario derived from previous experimental work did not lead to significant difference in inferred water table. Our results show that differential shell preservation has little impact on paleohydrological reconstruction from Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. By contrast, for the minerotrophic peatlands data-set loss of idiosome tests leads to consistent underestimation of water table depth. However there are few studies from fens and it is possible that idiosome tests are not always dominant, and/or that differential decomposition is less marked than in Sphagnum peatlands. Further work is clearly needed to assess the potential of testate amoebae for paleoecological studies of minerotrophic peatlands.