中国北极科技外交论析

鉴于北极特殊的地理位置和自然环境,北极科技外交往往是各国参与北极事务的起点和实现北极利益的先导。中国也概不能外,北极科技外交对保障北极科研装备、提高北极认识水平和促进北极资源开发等都具有重要意义。回溯中国参与北极事务的历程,北极科技外交是其中的主要线索和核心内容,现已取得了一些成绩。但作为域外国家和发展中国家,中国北极科技外交还面临着缺乏顶层设计、政策和资金支持不足以及若干国际因素的掣肘。对此,中国应通过充分发挥政府的主导作用、强化和完善运行机制、扩展北极科技外交的广度和深度等加以改进。     

Geography Deserts: State and Regional Variation in the Formal Opportunity to Learn Geography in the United States, 2005–2015

The formal opportunity to learn geography in the United States is unevenly distributed across space, creating possible geography deserts. Data on the number of exams taken in Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) and bachelor’s degrees earned in geography are mapped at the state and regional scales. Normalized rates are ranked and grouped into quintiles. For APHG exams, states in the southeastern region of the United States are in the uppermost quintiles while states in the northeastern region are in the lowermost quintiles. The pattern for bachelor’s degrees in geography is somewhat the spatial inverse of that for APHG.     

2003～2015年中国城市劳动力技能互补、收入水平与人口城镇化

基于2003~2015年中国256个地级市面板数据,对城市中高低技能劳动力耦合协调度进行衡量,并就扩大低技能劳动力规模对城市收入水平的影响进行了分析。主要结论为：① 过去10 a间,中国市级层面的高低技能劳动力耦合协调度总体上升,但上升幅度存在显著的区域间差异;② 七大国土区域内部的高低技能劳动力耦合协调度差异不断扩大,表明城市间高低技能劳动力流动正在加速;③ SLM和SEM模型均表明,地市级层面的低技能劳动力比重、城市收入水平和城市规模三者正相关,说明城市经济规模越大,扩大其低技能劳动力比重,越有助于提升城市总体收入水平。     

中国台商农业技术时空扩散的格局、路径与机制——以福建省漳浦县为例

结合统计数据及实地调研、访谈数据,研究中国台湾青枣种植技术透过台商直接投资渠道在福建省漳浦县落地、发散与传播过程,分析其时空扩散路径、格局与机制,以期揭示中国台商农业技术在中国大陆地区独具特色的扩散规律与机制,为加速两岸农业合作交流、制定技术应用政策提供理论与实践依据。研究发现,在时间维度,中国台商农业技术扩散过程呈现典型的S型曲线,但其扩散迅速、周期较短,扩散阻力小且示范效应显著;在空间维度,形成多核心、多强度、梯度扩散体系（中国台湾扩散源与本地扩散节点）,扩散场相互叠加,以就近扩展扩散为主、等级扩散为辅的特色扩散格局。     

Cartographic Design and the Space–Time Cube

This paper reports on the results of an empirical evaluation that aimed to define the effectiveness and efficiency of different visual variables in depicting the Space–Time Cube’s (STC) content. Existing STC applications demonstrate that the most used visual variables are size and colour hue. Less is known, however, about their usability metrics. The research sets design criteria for STC contents, such as space–time paths, based on the cartographic design theory. The visual variables colour hue, colour value, colour saturation, size and orientation have been applied in two different use case studies. Besides, to support the three-dimensional visual environment, depth cues such as shading and transparency were considered too. User tests have been executed based on real-world problems with particular attention for the visualization strategy and data complexity. The outcomes revealed the most efficient and effective visual variables to represent data of various complexities in the STC.     

Cartographic Symbol Design Considerations for the Space–Time Cube

The cartographic representation of geographic phenomena in the space–time cube comes with special challenges and opportunities when compared with two-dimensional maps. While the added dimension allows the display of attributes that vary with time, it is difficult to display rapidly varying temporal data given the limited display height. In this study, we adapt 2D cyclic point symbols to construct 3D surfaces designed along a helical path for the space–time cube. We demonstrate how these complex?3D helical surfaces can display detailed data, including data reported daily over 100 years and data reported in four-hour intervals over a year. To create the point symbols, each value is plotted along the curve of a helix, with each turn of the helix representing one year or week, respectively. The model is modified by varying the radii from the time axis to all points using the attribute value, in these cases maximum daily temperature and four-hourly ridership, and then creating a triangulated surface from the resulting points. Using techniques common to terrain representation, we apply hue and saturation to the surface based on attribute values, and lightness based on relief shading. Multiple surfaces can be displayed in a space–time cube with a consistent time interval facing the viewer, and the surfaces or viewer perspective can be rotated to display synchronized variations. We see this method as one example of how cartographic design can refine or enhance operations in the space–time cube.     

Responding to Global Warming: Mitigation Policies and Actions of Stakeholders in China’s Tourism Industry

China’s tourism industry has witnessed rapid progress in recent years, and is now an important part of global tourism in dealing with climate change. Within a framework of Pressure-State-Response (PSR), this paper focuses on the emission reduction pressure, carbon emission status, and responses of stakeholders in China’s tourism industry. Findings include: 1) The central government’s strategy and rapid growth of the industry scale exert rising pressure on China’s tourism to reduce carbon emissions. 2) Carbon emissions of China's tourism account for 13%-14.6% of global tourism, and about 3% of China’s emissions overall. Chinese tourists’ per capita carbon emission is lower than half of the global level. 3) The Chinese government attaches great importance to energy-saving and carbon emission reduction. In the tourism industry, documents, standards and other regulative measures have been issued to ensure that business practitioners set up green operational and managerial systems. In the field of tourism transportation, China's high-speed rail, new energy vehicles, and urban shared bicycles, have developed very rapidly in recent years, and they have effectively reduced the carbon emissions in traveling. Furthermore, this paper finds that Chinese tourists already have awareness and willingness for low-carbon tourism.     

Hydrodynamic performance of a T-shaped floating breakwater

The comprehensive utilization of floating breakwaters, specially acting as a supporting structure for offshore marine renewable energy explorations, has received more and more attention recently. Based on linear water-wave theory, the hydrodynamic performance of a T-shaped floating breakwater is semi-analytically investigated through the matched eigenfunction expansion method (MEEM). Auxiliary functions, to speed up the convergence and improve the accuracy in the numerical computations, are introduced to represent the singular behavior of fluid field near the lower salient corners of the structure. The effects of the height and installation position of the vertical screen on the reflection and transmission coefficients, dynamic response and wave forces are examined. It is found that the presence of the screen shifts the resonance frequency of RAO for both surge and pitch modes to the low-frequency area, while has no effect on heave mode. The identical added masses, damping and transmission coefficients can be obtained in the cases where the screen holds the same distance away from the longitudinal central axis of the upper box-type structure. Moreover, a relatively small pitch response can be achieved in a wide wave–frequency range, when the breakwater is Γ-shaped.     

Formation control of multiple underwater vehicles subject to communication faults and uncertainties

This paper proposes a novel approach to analyze and design the formation keeping control protocols for multiple underwater vehicles in the presence of communication faults and possible uncertainties. First, we formulate the considered vehicle model as the Port-controlled Hamiltonian form, and introduce the spring-damping system based formation control. Next, the dynamics of multiple underwater vehicles under uncertain relative information is reformulated as a network of Lur’e systems. Moreover, the agents under unknown disturbances generated by an external system are considered, where the internal model is applied to tackle the uncertainties, which still can be regulated as the Lur’e systems. In each case, the formation control is derived from solving LMI problems. Finally, a numerical example is introduced to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical approach.     

CFD modelling of a small–scale fixed multi–chamber OWC device

Wave Energy Converters (WECs) have excellent potential as a source of renewable energy that is yet to be commercially realised. Recent attention has focused on the installation of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices as a part of harbor walls to provide advantages of cost–sharing structures and proximity of power generation facilities to existing infrastructure. In this paper, an incompressible three–dimensional CFD model is constructed to simulate a fixed Multi–Chamber OWC (MC–OWC) device. The CFD model is validated; the simulation results are found to be in good agreement with experimental results obtained from a scale physical model tested in a wave tank. The validated CFD model is then used for a benchmark study of 96 numerical tests. These investigate the effects of the PTO damping caused by the power take–off (PTO) system on device performance. The performance is assessed for a range of regular wave heights and periods. The results demonstrate that a PTO system with an intermediate damping can be used for all chambers in the MC–OWC device for most wave period ranges, except for the long wave periods. These require a higher PTO damping. An increased incident wave height reduces the device capture width ratio, but there is a noticeable improvement for long wave periods.