Addressing Scottish rural fuel poverty through a regional industrial symbiosis strategy for the Scottish forest industries sector

Tackling fuel poverty is central to the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to social justice. Many Scottish rural households are not linked into the mains gas network and rely on expensive alternatives, despite being surrounded by plentiful supplies of low-cost renewable wood biomass. A regional study was undertaken to establish the potential market for pelletised wood fuel, available as a low-value by-product from the rapidly expanding Scottish forest industry sector. The wider implications of the research findings are analysed by extending the principles of industrial symbiosis from a site-specific to a regional scale. Promoting an indigenous pellet-based wood fuel market for rural Scotland would fulfil important Scottish Executive economic, social and environmental sustainability objectives. Adding off-site social symbiotic elements increases the potential for on-site technical symbiosis in nascent Scottish forest industry clusters. At present, market failure is preventing the realisation of these benefits, and the paper concludes by identifying ways in which market intermediation, through wood fuel energy service companies, might overcome the current barriers to exploiting such symbiosis.     

Errors prediction for vector-to-raster conversion based on map load and cell size

Vector-to-raster conversion is a process accompanied with errors.The errors are classified into predicted errors before rasterization and actual errors after that.Accurate prediction of the errors is beneficial to developing reasonable rasterization technical schemes and to making products of high quality.Analyzing and establishing a quantitative relationship between the error and its affecting factors is the key to error prediction.In this study,land cover data of China at a scale of 1:250 000 were taken as an example for analyzing the relationship between rasterization errors and the density of arc length(DA),the density of polygon(DP) and the size of grid cells(SG).Significant correlations were found between the errors and DA,DP and SG.The correlation coefficient(R2) of a model established based on samples collected in a small region(Beijing) reaches 0.95,and the value of R2 is equal to 0.91 while the model was validated with samples from the whole nation.On the other hand,the R2 of a model established based on nationwide samples reaches 0.96,and R2 is equal to 0.91 while it was validated with the samples in Beijing.These models depict well the relationships between rasterization errors and their affecting factors(DA,DP and SG).The analyzing method established in this study can be applied to effectively predicting rasterization errors in other cases as well.     

Kainsaz(CO3)陨石中两个富Al球粒的氧同位素组成特征与形成演化

富Al球粒是原始球粒陨石中一种矿物岩石学特征介于富钙铝包体(CAIs)和镁铁质硅酸盐球粒之间的特殊集合体,所以常常认为富Al球粒在认识CAIs和镁铁质硅酸盐球粒形成演化过程中的相互联系具有特殊意义。然而,对富Al球粒的初始物质组成以及形成演化过程一直存在较多争议,而氧同位素组成研究能够对球粒演化和早期星云环境等提供重要的信息。在本文中我们报导了来自Kainsaz(1937年降落于俄罗斯,CO3型)碳质球粒陨石中的2个富Al球粒(编号K1-CH1和K2-CH2)的矿物岩石学和氧同位素组成特征。K1-CH1的矿物组成主要为橄榄石、低钙辉石和富钙长石,K2-CH2为橄榄石和富钙长石。2个球粒中的矿物均具有贫~(16)O同位素组成特征。K1-CH1中矿物的△~(17)O组成基本上位于2个区间:-11.1‰～-8.7‰和-3.9‰～0.4‰;而K2-CH2的△~(17)O介于-6.6‰～-0.6‰之间,且具有从中部至边部升高的趋势。矿物岩石学和氧同位素特征表明,这2个富Al球粒的初始物质组成为富CAIs和镁铁质硅酸盐。在球粒熔融结晶过程中,与贫~(16)O同位素组成(△~(17)O:-8.7‰～-7.8‰)的星云发生了氧同位素交换。球粒形成后,发生迁移进入陨石母体,在相对更贫~(16)O同位素组成(△~(17)O:-0.6‰～0.4‰)的母体中(流体参与)发生变质作用,并再次发生了氧同位素交换。     

地质钻探中的井漏及堵漏材料研究

通过对钻探过程中井漏的复杂地质因素分析,提出了水化膨胀复合材料体系,并对该体系进行了膨胀性、封堵性及复合桥接堵漏模拟实验.实验结果表明,堵漏材料PAR具有很强的吸水膨胀性能,可膨胀至原体积的几十倍,且时间快有利于形成快速的封堵.材料PAR与稻谷和锯末形成的复合堵漏材料具有很强的堵塞率,可达70%以上.承压堵漏测量装置中测试表明:复合堵漏体系不仅能形成封堵,而且能够承受一定的压差.在云南临仓市勐简乡铅锌矿钻探过程中,运用复合堵漏体系满足了该地区复杂地矿钻探需要.     

Multiscale approach to geo‐composite cellular structures subjected to rock impacts

Geo‐composite cellular structures are an efficient technological solution for various applications in civil engineering. This type of structure is particularly well adapted to resisting rockfalls and can act as a defensive structure. However, the design of such structures is for the most part empirically based; this lack of research‐based design stagnates optimization and advanced development. In this paper, the mechanical behaviour of a geo‐composite cellular structure is investigated using a multi‐scale approach, from the individual cell made up of an assembly of rocky particles contained in a wire netting cage to the entire structure composed of a regular array of cells. Based on discrete modelling of both the cell and structure scales, a computational tool has been developed for design purposes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can Protection Motivation Theory predict pro-environmental behavior? Explaining the adoption of electric vehicles in the Netherlands

Scholars have proposed that the Protection Motivation Theory provides a valuable framework to explain pro-environmental choices, by employing a wide set of predictors, such as the costs and benefits of current (maladaptive) behavior as well as prospective adaptive behavior. However, no comprehensive empirical tests of the Protection Motivation Theory in the slow onset environmental risk domain have been published yet to our knowledge. This paper aims at closing this gap. We first conceptualized the Protection Motivation Theory for the use in this environmental domain. Next, we present results of a questionnaire study among a large representative sample of Dutch drivers that showed that the Protection Motivation Theory is a relevant theory for modeling different indicators of full electric vehicle adoption. Notably, all theoretical antecedents proved to be significant predictors of different adoption indicators. Respondents were particularly more likely to adopt an electric vehicle when they perceived the negative consequences caused by conventional vehicles as more severe, and when they expected electric vehicles to decrease these consequences. The most important barriers for electric vehicle adoption were perceived high monetary and non-monetary costs of electric vehicles, and benefits associated with the use of a conventional vehicle. Interestingly, we found that environmental risks are more prominent in predicting close adoption indicators; while energy security risks are more prominent in predicting distant adoption indicators. As expected, our findings suggest that both collective concerns and individual concerns predict different indicators of adoption. Individual concerns (in particular perceived costs of driving an electric vehicle) played a more prominent role when predicting close measures of adoption, while collective concerns (e.g., perceived severity of environmental and energy security risks) played a somewhat more prominent role when predicting distant measures of adoption. Implications for research and practice are provided.     

国际标准物质数据库COMAR及有证标准物质

有证标准物质（CRMs）是具有准确量值的测量标准,在分析方法研究和评价、定性和定量分析、矿产勘查、仲裁检验、质量监督检验等领域发挥着重要的作用。20世纪80年代成立的国际标准物质数据库（COMAR）是目前国际上最大的CRMs数据库,收录来自25个成员国274个生产机构提供的CRMs数量超过10200种。本文从CRMs的数量、分类、发展变化等角度全面评述了国际数据库COMAR,阐述了欧盟组织、美国、中国、日本、澳大利亚等成员国的标准物质研究情况。英、美、法、德等国家的标准物质研究开展较早,研究水平高,处于世界领先地位;中国、日本等亚洲国家标准物质的发展虽起步晚,但发展迅速,已成为向COMAR提供CRMs最多的两个国家,分别为1194种和1456种（截至2013年8月）。COMAR建立以来,工业、有色金属和物理特性三大传统应用领域的CRMs占COMA数据库总CRMs的份额一直较大,比例始终保持50%以上,其中工业领域的CRMs数量最多,占19%;有机、生物与临床类CRMs所占份额最少,仅为7%和3%。随着社会需求的增加,生物与临床、生活质量领域标准物质成为未来标准物质发展的热点方向。本文指出,未来标准物质的发展将由过去的钢铁、有色金属、物理特性等传统领域逐渐转向食品安全、环境保护、气候变化、临床医学、制药产业、生物能源等新兴领域,标准物质的研究制备、定值及不确定度将面临新的技术挑战。     

基于图像区域特征的细胞识别方法及实现

先提取目标物体的面积、中心矩、圆形度、细长度、核浆比等区域特征。然后采用单原型模式表征方法，利用集群分析技术中最小距离分类器，构造判别函数，并依此作为识别类型的依据。最后，通过对鳞细胞的区域特征进行计算比较，选择出能够较明显地辨别出类别的特征向量，建立判别函数并对结果的可信度进行了讨论。     

GGR Critical Review of Analytical Developments in 2004–2005

In 2005 Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research embarked upon a new initiative for its readers. Key researchers in various fields of geoanalytical technique development and their application were identified and invited to provide reviews pertinent to their expertise. As noted in the first of these publications "…instead of revisiting the historical context or decades of development in each analytical technique, the goal here has been to capture a snapshot of "hot topics" across a range of fields as represented in the… literature" (Hergt et al . 2005). Rather than prepare an annual review, a decision was taken earlier this year to provide a biennial summary of progress and accomplishments, in this case for the years 2004–2005. The principal techniques employed in Earth and environmental sciences are covered here, and include laser ablation and multicollector ICP-MS, ICP-AES, thermal ionisation and secondary ion mass spectrometry, as well as neutron activation analysis, X-ray fluorescence and atomic absorption spectrometry. A comprehensive review of the development of reference materials, often essential to these techniques, is also provided. The contributions assembled serve both to keep readers informed of advances they may be unfamiliar with, but also as a means of showcasing examples of the breadth and depth of work being conducted in these fields.