Exergetic and Sustainability Aspects of Green Energy Systems

This paper discusses current environmental problems caused by energy utilization, energy-use patterns, and the role of green (renewable) energy systems as one of the potential solutions to challenging environmental problems, particularly global warming. It also presents some key aspects of green energy systems in terms of energy, exergy, environmental impact, and sustainable development and their linkages. The results show that assessments of green energy processes and systems though exergy analysis are essential to increase efficiency and decrease environmental impact, and hence contribute to sustainable development.     

The generalized Pareto sum

The generalized Pareto distribution has received much popularity as models for extreme events in hydrological sciences. In this note, the important problem of the sum of two independent generalized Pareto random variables is considered. Exact analytical expressions for the probability distribution of the sum are derived and a detailed application to drought data from Nebraska is provided. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

科技与社会视野中的科学发展观

科学发展观的实质就是要处理好人与人、人与社会、人与自然的关系,构建和谐社会,促进人的全面发展.从科技与社会的互动关系看,科学发展观为科学全面进步提供了良好机遇,而实践科学发展观又对科学进步提出了新的要求,故实现科技进步与社会发展的良性互动,推进科教兴国战略是新世纪新阶段落实科学发展观的必然举措.     

Looking beyond the fisheries crisis: Cumulative learning from small-scale fisheries through diagnostic approaches

The common scientific and media narrative in fisheries is one of failure: poor governance, collapsed stocks, and vanishing livelihoods. Yet, there are successful fisheries – instances where governments and/or communities have maintained or rebuilt stocks, where fishers have robust livelihoods, and where institutions are strong. Scientists and managers alike are becoming increasingly interested in moving beyond the doom-and-gloom stories of fisheries failures toward cumulative knowledge for making fisheries governance more successful. Recent literature has attempted to determine what separates the successes from the failures and better understand how lessons learned for effective fisheries governance can be cumulatively compiled. In this special issue, we present a range of fisheries studies from around the world – Latin America, The Pacific, and East Africa. The studies look at varying fisheries outcomes, including sustainability, cooperation, self-governance, and sustaining livelihoods. The contributions in this special issue all tackle the challenge of exploring, testing, and refining the Diagnostic Framework for Analyzing Social-Ecological Systems developed by Elinor Ostrom as a way to cumulate knowledge on the potential conditions that could be causing a problem or creating a benefit in the governance of small-scale marine fisheries. These articles successfully explore the applicability and contributions of the framework while providing important theoretical refinements for small-scale fisheries.     

Thinking like a geologist: The culture of geology Mawson lecture 1996∗

Geology plays a crucial role in both the scientific and the popular culture; it has transformed the way ordinary people look at the world over the last two centuries. Much of this transformation is understood in terms of information about the age of the earth, the disposition of the continents, and the evolution of living things. The two main concerns of this paper are with geology as education, and geology as a system of thought, a way of thinking about the world. My central question is how does a grounding in geology affect the cast of mind, the way one thinks, perceives and behaves? What is the culture of geology? Conclusions are of two kinds. Some of the propositions advanced about the nature of geology in relation to the other sciences and our general culture are: (i) there is no hierarchy of the sciences; (ii) geology is a Romantic science rather than a Classical one; (iii) there is no such thing as the scientific method; (iv) geologists often attempt to reconcile competing hypotheses; (v) geological phenomena are often of an almost irreducible complexity and their investigation is beset by problems of scale, both spatial and temporal; and (vi) the concept of ‘universality’ has a distinctive application in geology. Among the non‐professional uses of geology are: (i) human history is incomplete without environmental history; (ii) geology has application in environmental planning and management, but this requires judgement and experience as knowledge of the geology is not enough, it is equally important to know when it can safely be overridden, when it is useful background, and when it is critically important to decision‐making; and (iii) an awareness of the geology of a region enhances the sense of place—our sense of our individual and communal identities owes much to an awareness of place.     

A brief history of the development of wind-profiling or MST radars

The history of the development of the wind-profiling or MST radar technique is reviewed from its inception in the late 1960s to the present. Extensions of the technique by the development of boundary-layer radars and the radio-acoustic sounding system (RASS) technique to measure temperature are documented. Applications are described briefly, particularly practical applications to weather forecasting, with data from networks of radars, and scientific applications to the study of rapidly varying atmospheric phenomena such as gravity waves and turbulence.     

发展气象知识产业的对策与思考

发展气象知识产业是当代气象工作者的历史使命,气象部门必须将发展气象信息产业作为启动气象知识产业的突破口,大力培养高素质的科技人才,尽快建立新型的气象科技进步体系。     

Methodological frameworks for the geography of organizations

In this paper, we present three methodological frameworks for the geographic study of organizations. These are situated within three meta-theoretical perspectives in human geography: spatial science, critical realism, and post-structuralism. Each framework offers a different theorization of organizations, and each prompts different research questions that can be used to guide their geographic study. The research questions we offer are general, and are pertinent to all types of organizations. To supplement the methodological contributions of this paper, we suggest how each of these frameworks might inform empirical investigations of Appalshop, a media arts organization located in Whitesburg, Kentucky.     

Climate and global change in relation to sustainable development: The challenge to science

In the light of the current worldwide concern on climate and global change and the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, the paper relates climate and global change to sustainable development. It emphasizes the importance of scientific research in the advancement of knowledge in the related areas. The role of science to socio-economic development is discussed in the context of the symbiotic relationship between science and society. In this connection, the four areas identified by the Rio Conference are discussed.