Personal experience with climate change predicts intentions to act

The public's willingness to engage in mitigation actions has not received as much attention as the level of belief in Global Warming (GW), especially on the international stage. Research in Western nations indicates that people systematically misunderstand GW and the actions required for mitigation. Important factors that influence judgments about mitigation actions include personal experiences, beliefs, knowledge, values, and worldviews. We present results of an international survey (25 samples from 24 countries) measuring general intentions to act and willingness to engage in specific actions. Our analysis reveals that endorsement of specific actions is (a) lower than general endorsement of mitigation, (b) accompanied by higher intra-individual variance, and (c) more strongly related to personal experiences with GW. This pattern can be attributed to the compatibility between the proximal construal of specific actions and the nature of the personal experience. Lastly we provide recommendations on how these findings can be used to encourage mitigation action.     

Local collective action: Adaptation to coastal erosion in the Monkey River Village,Belize

Successful adaptation to environmental change and variability is closely connected with social groups’ ability to act collectively, but many social-ecological challenges exceed local adaptive capacity which necessitate assistance from governmental institutions. Few studies have investigated how local collective action can be used to enrol external support for adaptation. This paper reduces this research gap by analysing a locally driven adaptation process in response to coastal erosion in Monkey River Village, Belize. Drawing on literature on adaptation and political ecology, we examine the different strategies the local residents have used over time to influence government authorities to support them in curbing the coastal erosion. Our findings show that the local mobilisation generated government support for a temporary sea defence and that collective strategies emerge as a response to threats to a place specific way of life. Our case illustrates that it was essential that the villagers could ally with journalists, researchers and local NGOs to make their claims for protection heard by the government. The paper contributes to adaptation research by arguing that local collective action, seen as contestation over rights to protection from environmental change, can be a means for places and communities not prioritised by formal policies to enrol external support for adaptation. Our study supports and adds to the perspective that attention to formal arrangements such as adaptation policy alone has limited explanatory power to understand collective responses to change.     

陕北奥陶纪盐盆的区域成矿地质条件分析

本文以鄂尔多斯盆地陕北奥陶纪岩盐为主要研究对象,在深入分析以往岩盐的成因机制和充分利用前人的研究资料基础上,从区域古气候、古地理、古构造和岩相古地理方面综合分析认为,奥陶纪时期,陕北盐盆能够发育巨厚岩盐,并且岩盐沉积时的卤水达到钾石盐至光卤石的阶段,是由有利于成盐的干旱古气候条件,有利于蒸发岩发育的半封闭的区域构造、地质条件,以及区域上有利于氯化物盐类迁移富集的预备盆地发育的区域岩相古地理条件共同作用的结果。     

Performing environmental governance

This essay reflects on issues of researcher positionality within participant observation and action research, and the specific methodological issues surrounding research on neoliberal governance strategies, using my experience at the US Environmental Protection Agency as case material. Although I was initially concerned about participating with the anti-progressive Bush Administration, I attempted to adopt the interests and subjectivity of an environmental bureaucrat. Doing so proved to be an extremely effective way of exploring the multi-vocality and cross-cutting interests constituting the state, which often appears from the outside to be a policy monolith. Participant research among elites in the neoliberal state is an effective way to observe such complexity. It became apparent that, because mainstream economics tends to adopt a totalizing epistemology, both its casual and dogmatic adherents usually do not conceive of a coherent external critique. This often means that researchers of any theoretical background can be quite frank concerning their purposes, background, and interests, even as participants.     

寒区对研究设计施工的影响——第14届寒区工程学术会议综述

由美国土木工程师协会(ASCE)组织召开的寒区工程学术会议是北美寒区岩土工程界最为重要的学术交流会议之一.近年来,参加该会议的北美以外的寒区科研技术人员日渐增多.第14届寒区工程会议于2009年9月在美国Minnesota州Duluth市成功举行.根据本次会议的论文主题,从冻结作用、路面工程、铁路及公路工程以及其它一些方面对会议展示的主要研究进展进行了总结.     

Quantitative Research Performing other Worlds: lessons from sustainable agriculture in the Philippines

For those interested in ethical research, quantitative methods are often dismissed as apolitical; as unreflective exercises in ‘mere counting’. If, however, in doing research, we bring into being the very worlds we purport to describe, the question begs: what kinds of worlds might quantitative methods bring into being? Is there space for a reflexive, quantitative research agenda? In this paper, I will discuss an action-based predominantly quantitative research project that aimed to investigate the diverse impacts of sustainable agriculture on small-scale farmers in the Philippines. The study, one of the largest ever undertaken on organic rice production, was consciously designed, not merely to describe, but to perform organic agriculture differently. While most quantitative, and indeed much qualitative, research ignores its performativity, this research was intended to enact a reality of sustainable agriculture as a viable and vital alternative to mainstream, capitalist agriculture.     

新型旋转减冲装置对桩基局部冲刷防护试验研究

为减轻海上风电单桩基础周围局部冲刷对其结构安全的影响,提出了一种新型旋转减冲装置。在波流水槽中开展物理模型试验,改变波流条件、装置安装高度、安装距离,记录桩周冲刷发展历时,运用激光地形仪扫描冲刷坑形态,分析各工况下冲刷坑形态差异,验证装置不同安装距离、安装高度下的冲刷防护效果,提出了不同安装位置下的防护效率公式。结果表明：新型旋转减冲装置具有较好的冲刷防护效果,本试验工况下,桩周最大冲刷深度可减小44%左右。装置安装距离对冲刷防护效果影响较小,波流作用下的冲刷防护效果受装置安装高度影响显著,冲刷防护效果随装置安装高度的增加而减弱。     

How the Method of Minimization of Action Avoids Singularities

The method of minimization of action is a powerful technique of proving the existence of particular and interesting solutions of the n-body problem, but it suffers from the possible interference of singularities. The minimization of action is an optimization and, after a short presentation of a few optimization theories, our analysis of interference of singularities will show that:(A) An n-body solution minimizing the action between given boundary conditions has no discontinuity: all n-bodies have a continuous and bounded motion and thus all eventual singularities are collisions;(B) A beautiful extension of Lambert's theorem shows that, for these minimizing solutions, no double collision can occur at an intermediate time;(C) The proof can be extended to triple and to multiple collisions. Thus, the method of minimization of action leads to pure n-body motions without singularity at any intermediate time, even if one or several collisions are imposed at initial and/or final times.This method is suitable for non-infinitesimal masses only. Fortunately, a similar method, with the same general property with respect to the singularities, can be extended to n-body problems including infinitesimal masses.     

“翻台法”提高地震定位精度的数学原理

对于震中偏离台网情况下的地震定位，常规方法定位效果较差。“翻台法”有效地提高了其定位精度。从均匀地壳模型的走时方程组出发，分析了“翻台法”定位中方程组系数的变化特点，推导了选取最佳翻转台站的方法，并得出如下结论：（１）“翻台法”增加了原定位方程组的约束方程，翻台数与已知条件和所求参数个数有关，从理论上讲，翻转台数超过独立的约束方程数时对增加定位精度不再有意义；（２）考虑到具体的台网布局和台站资料质量，翻转不同台站对提高地震定位精度所起的作用大小各不相同，因而存在选取最佳翻转台站问题。     

地震与强降雨作用下堆积体滑坡变形破坏机理及防治方案分析

位于西南山地堆积体滑坡常受到地震和强降雨的双重作用,查明此类滑坡变形破坏机理是地质灾害防治和风险防控的基础。文章的研究对象是鲜水河断裂带附近的炉霍县马居滑坡。研究表明,地震作用对位于斜坡地带堆积体滑坡体结构损伤明显,不但使滑坡整体稳定性下降,还促使坡体内裂隙大量发育,利于降雨入渗,进一步恶化滑坡的水文地质条件。强降雨形成的大规模洪水和泥石流下切坡脚沟道,牵引滑坡体整体向下。长历时强降雨入渗影响坡体稳定性,且在降雨结束后较长时间持续影响坡体稳定性。因此,对此类滑坡防治的对策应考虑坡脚防护和抗滑支挡设置。在对防治方案的有效性分析后,表明防护方案在极端条件下仍然能保障安全性,达防治和风险管控的目的。