Radar-based collision avoidance for unmanned surface vehicles

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become a focus of research because of their extensive applications. To ensure safety and reliability and to perform complex tasks autonomously, USVs are required to possess accurate perception of the environment and effective collision avoidance capabilities. To achieve these, investigation into realtime marine radar target detection and autonomous collision avoidance technologies is required, aiming at solving the problems of noise jamming, uneven brightness, target loss, and blind areas in marine radar images. These technologies should also satisfy the requirements of real-time and reliability related to high navigation speeds of USVs. Therefore, this study developed an embedded collision avoidance system based on the marine radar, investigated a highly real-time target detection method which contains adaptive smoothing algorithm and robust segmentation algorithm, developed a stable and reliable dynamic local environment model to ensure the safety of USV navigation, and constructed a collision avoidance algorithm based on velocity obstacle (V-obstacle) which adjusts the USV’s heading and speed in real-time. Sea trials results in multi-obstacle avoidance firstly demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed avoidance system, and then verify its great adaptability and relative stability when a USV sailing in a real and complex marine environment. The obtained results will improve the intelligent level of USV and guarantee the safety of USV independent sailing.     

Early Mesozoic Southward Subduction of the Eastern Mongol–Okhotsk Oceanic Plate: Evidence from Zircon U–Pb–Hf Isotopes and Whole‐rock Geochemistry of Triassic Granitic Rocks in the Mohe Area,NE China

In this paper, we present new U–Pb zircon ages, Hf isotope data and major and trace elements for Early Mesozoic granitic rocks in Mohe area in the Erguna Massif of northeast China to elucidate the southward subduction of the eastern Mongol–Okhotsk Oceanic plate in Early Mesozoic. Zircons from two representative intrusions, syenogranites and monzogranites, in the Mohe area are euhedral–subhedral in shape, display oscillatory growth zoning in cathodoluminescence (CL) images, and have Th/U ratios of 0.10–0.72, and in combination these features indicating that the zircons are of igneous origin. U–Pb zircon dating results demonstrate that the syenogranites formed at 245.1 ± 1.4 Ma and monzogranites formed at 212.2 ± 1.7 Ma. These granitic rocks are characterized by high SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and (Na₂O + K₂O), low TFeO, MgO, TiO₂ and P₂O₅ concentrations, belonging to the high‐K calc‐alkaline series. They are enriched in LREE and large ion lithophile elements (e.g., Rb, K, and Sr), depleted in HREE and high field strength elements (e.g., Nb, Ta, Th, and Ti), as well as very weak negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.48 ~ 1.01). Their zircon εHf(t) values range from −7.9 to −2.0 and range from 0.20 to 0.49, in response to their two‐stage Hf model ages (T_DM2) range from 1.40 Ga to 1.77 Ga range from 0.94 Ga to 1.24 Ga, respectively, indicating that primary magmas of syenogranites were derived from partial melting of newly accreted juvenile crustal material that formed from the enriched mantle during the Mesoproterozoic, monzogranites are generated by partial melting of newly accreted juvenile crustal material that formed from the depleted mantle during the Meso‐ to Neoproterozoic. We conclude, therefore, that the early Mesozoic granitic rocks of the Mohe area are associated with the continuous southward subduction of the Mongol–Okhotsk oceanic plate rather than the Paleo‐Asian and circum‐Pacific tectonic regimes.     

五硼酸铷溶液的物化性质及物种分布

碳酸铷、硼酸化学计量比混合,蒸发溶液,直至五硼酸铷RbB5O8·4H2O晶体析出。经粉末X射线衍射（XRD）、拉曼光谱（Raman spectroscopy）、热重/微商热重/差示扫描量热（TG/DTG/DSC）、原子吸收光谱等实验方法,确定其化学组成及结构。298.15、333.15K时测量溶液的物理化学性质（密度、电导、pH）,并与经验方程进行拟合,研究五硼酸铷溶液的物化性质随浓度、温度的变化规律。根据文献报道的平衡常数,实验测量的pH数据,采用牛顿迭代法进一步研究五硼酸铷溶液中主要存在的硼酸根离子对类型、含量以及物种的形成。     

Snow disaster characteristics in Palongzangbu River Basin and mitigation countermeasures for road engineering

The Palongzangbu River Basin contains the highest number of maritime province glaciers in China.There are 130 glacial lakes,64 snow avalanche sites and 28 glacial debris flow gullies distributed within the basin.Snow disasters play a controlling role in the Sichuan-Tibet Highway construction,due to the terrain's special characteristics of high altitude and large height differential.Segmentation mitigation countermeasures for the Sichuan-Tibet Highway are presented based on snow disaster severity level and damage mode of the road.In the Ranwu to Midui section,snow avalanches are regional disasters, so the line should be placed in sunny slopes.In the Midui Gully to Yupu section,the line should be placed in shady slopes and at higher elevations to reduce the risk of glacial lake outburst.In the Yupu to Guxiang section,all three snow disasters are minimal.In the Guxiang to Tongmai section,glacier debris flows are the major threat,thus the road should be placed in shady slopes.     

Atmospheric insight to climatic signals of δ~(18)O in a Laohugou ice core in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau during 1960–2006

δ~(18)O variations;;ice core;;outgoing longwave radiation;;meridional wind;;northeastern Tibetan Plateau     

Effects of experimental warming on soil microbial communities in two contrasting subalpine forest ecosystems,eastern Tibetan Plateau,China

Soil microbial communities are primarily regulated by environmental temperature. Our study investigated the effects of global warming on soil microbial community composition as measured via phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and soil chemical characteristics in relation to soil depth in a dragon spruce plantation and a spruce-fir-dominated natural forestin the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Open-top chambers were utilized to increase the soil and air temperature. Soil samples were collected from the 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm layers after a 4-year warming. Our results showed that the soil microbial community and the contents of TC (Total carbon), TN (Total nitrogen), NO ₃ ^- , and NH ₄ ⁺ responded differently to warming in the two contrasting forests, especially at the 0-10 cm soil depth. Warming increased soil microbial biomass at the 0-20 cm depth of soil in natural forest but reduced it at the 0-10 cm depth ofsoil in the plantation. In contrast, the TC and TN contents were reduced in most soil layers of a natural forest but increased in all of the soil layers of the plantation under warming conditions. This result suggested that the effects of warming on soil microbial community and soil C and N pools would differ according to soil depth and forest types; thus, the two contrasting forests would under go differing changes following the future climate warming in this region.     

A public Cloud-based China’s Landslide Inventory Database (CsLID): development,zone, and spatiotemporal analysis for significant historical events, 1949-2011

Landslide inventory plays an important role in recording landslide events and showing their temporal-spatial distribution. This paper describes the development, visualization, and analysis of a China's Landslide Inventory Database (CsLID) by utilizing Google’s public cloud computing platform. Firstly, CsLID (Landslide Inventory Database) compiles a total of 1221 historical landslide events spanning the years 1949-2011 from relevant data sources. Secondly, the CsLID is further broken down into six zones for characterizing landslide cause-effect, spatiotemporal distribution, fatalities, and socioeconomic impacts based on the geological environment and terrain. The results show that among all the six zones, zone V, located in Qinba and Southwest Mountainous Area is the most active landslide hotspot with the highest landslide hazard in China. Additionally, the Google public cloud computing platform enables the CsLID to be easily accessible, visually interactive, and with the capability of allowing new data input to dynamically augment the database. This work developed a cyber-landslide inventory and used it to analyze the landslide temporal-spatial distribution in China.     

Length of stay in urban areas of circular migrants from the mountainous areas in China

Currently, there is limited literature dealing with the length of stay of circular migrants in urban areas (LSCMU), although many studies have discussed the phenomenon of migration and the determinants of migration. This study attempts to fill that gap using survey data from the mountainous areas of Chongqing, Southwest China. From a comparative perspective, this study divided workers into two groups (a young group aged between 16 and 35 years and an old group aged between 36 and 65 years). The average LSCMU values for the young and old groups were 225 days and 174 days, respectively. Two multi-regression models were used to estimate the determinants of LSCMU in the two groups. The results showed that LSCMU was closely related to individual factors in both groups, including gender, age and job training. Family and community factors, including household size, arable land per capita and the distance from market, had much weaker effects on the dependent variable, especially in the older group. It was noticeable that job training had significant positive effects on LSCMU in both groups; these findings have special implications for the urbanization process in China.     

The characteristics of rill development and their effects on runoff and sediment yield under different slope gradients

Rill formation is the predominant erosion process in slope land in the Loess Plateau, China. This study was conducted to investigate rill erosion characteristics and their effects on runoff and sediment yielding processes under different slope gradients at a rate of 10°, 15°, 20° and 25° with rainfall intensity of 1.5 mm min-1 in a laboratory setting. Results revealed that mean rill depth and rill density has a positive interrelation to the slope gradient. To the contrary, width-depth ratio and distance of the longest rill to the top of the slope negatively related to slope gradient. All these suggested that increasing slope steepness could enhance rill headward erosion, vertical erosion and the fragmentation of the slope surface. Furthermore,total erosion tended to approach a stable maximum value with increasing slope, which implied that there is probably a threshold slope gradient where soil erosion begins to weaken. At the same time, the correlation analysis showed that there was a close connection between slope gradient and the variousindices of soil erosion: the correlation coefficients of slope gradient with maximal rill depth, number of rills and the distance of the longest rill from the top of the slope were 0.98, 0.97 and-0.98, respectively,indicating that slope gradient is the major factor of affecting the development of rills. Furthermore,runoff was not sensitive to slope gradient and rill formation in this study. Sediment concentration,however, is positively related to slope gradient and rill formation, the sediment concentrations increased rapidly after rill initiation, especially. These results may be essential for soil loss prediction.