Performance Indicator Importance in MPA Management Using a Multi-Criteria Approach

Much has been written about the usefulness of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a management tool. Their performance has been measured using biological and ecological indicators. However, objectives of management also include economic and social responsibilities. As such, stakeholder objectives in MPA management are frequently incompatible. This has been attributed to the variety of stakeholders with an interest in how MPAs are managed. This article considers the development of a performance indicator hierarchy for the Egadi Islands Marine Reserve, and a multi-criteria approach implemented to define compromise positions between stakeholders in decision-making. Data was obtained from a pairwise comparison survey using the analytic hierarchy process to investigate preferences of stakeholder groups for performance indicators in evaluating marine protected area management. The analysis showed that although there are five key stakeholder groups, none are homogenous in prioritizing performance indicators and that none are clear with respect to what the MPA means for them.     

Collaborative merging strategy for freeway ramp operations in a connected and autonomous vehicles environment

In a connected vehicle environment, vehicles are able to communicate and exchange detailed information such as speed, acceleration, and position in real time. Such information exchange is important for improving traffic safety and mobility. This allows vehicles to collaborate with each other, which can significantly improve traffic operations particularly at intersections and freeway ramps. To assess the potential safety and mobility benefits of collaborative driving enabled by connected vehicle technologies, this study developed an optimization-based ramp control strategy and a simulation evaluation platform using VISSIM, MATLAB, and the Car2X module in VISSIM. The ramp control strategy is formulated as a constrained nonlinear optimization problem and solved by the MATLAB optimization toolbox. The optimization model provides individual vehicles with step-by-step control instructions in the ramp merging area. In addition to the optimization-based ramp control strategy, an empirical gradual speed limit control strategy is also formulated. These strategies are evaluated using the developed simulation platform in terms of average speed, average delay time, and throughput and are compared with a benchmark case with no control. The study results indicate that the proposed optimal control strategy can effectively coordinate merging vehicles at freeway on-ramps and substantially improve safety and mobility, especially when the freeway traffic is not oversaturated. The ramp control strategy can be further extended to improve traffic operations at bottlenecks caused by incidents, which cause approximately 25% of traffic congestion in the United States.     

MINOE: A Software Tool to Analyze Ocean Management Efforts in the Context of Ecosystems

Transitioning ocean governance into an integrated ecosystem-based approach requires improved knowledge of existing governance arrangements. This article presents a software tool, MINOE, to assist policymakers, scientists, and others involved in ecosystem-based management initiatives to navigate through management documents as they relate to a user-defined ecosystem. The tool uses a conceptually modeled ecosystem, defined by the user, and text analysis of a set of management-related documents to determine which ecosystem linkages are potentially acknowledged in the documents. For illustration, the set of documents included with MINOE currently (and used to demonstrate the software in this article) are laws and regulations from four geopolitical jurisdictions for the year 2006; however, users may also import other documents for a more tailored application. Features include an interactive matrix containing results about the set of management documents within the user's scope and scale of interest. In addition, MINOE includes metrics and visualization tools to synthesize information derived from the documents. The article presents the software tool, describes potential uses for the tool, and ends with a discussion of future work to expand the program.     

新转化膜在汽车行业内的应用近况

1 引言 伴随着20世纪初Thomas Coslett及其他众多人士的研究工作,在1943年引入了Jernstadt磷酸盐后,诞生了今天人们所熟知的用于镀锌工艺前预浸处理的含钛磷酸氢二钠溶液.使用该磷酸盐后,可以更快地形成更为细小的磷酸锌晶体组织.过去60多年间,这种基础工艺在众人的努力下愈发精细,但是基本的化学特性及功能仍然保持不变.     

A cost-benefit study of the Suez Canal large-scale dredging project

The choices faced by shippers are generally complex. Typically, the shipper is presented with a range of alternative carriers, each of which has its individual strengths and weaknesses. A survey of companies purchasing shipping services in an overnight RO/RO ferry trade was conducted to identify their priorities and to help understand and the decision-making process. The shippers were found to be conservative decision makers with a strong emphasis on quality of service.     

Study on Tire Dynamic Cornering Properties Using Experimental Modal Parameters

Based on the modeling of tire vertical characteristics and steady cornering properties, the model of tire nonsteady cornering is established in this paper using tire modal parameters extracted experimentally. In order to consider the influence of tire rolling effect on its cornering properties, the induced transfer function is introduced. The analytical formulae for calculation of transfer-function of lateral force and self-aligning torque with respect to lateral displacement and yaw angle are derived. The nonsteady cornering characteristics of tire under different loads can be calculated. The results of calculation are consistent with the experimental ones in the literature. The influence of rolling speed on tire cornering properties including the static case is analyzed. The nonsteady cornering properties in high frequency range are given by the model. The study demonstrates the consistency between steady and nonsteady tire modeling by using modal parameters.     

Annual uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the Weddell Sea derived from a surface layer balance, including estimations of entrainment and new production

Data from two cruises, one in April/May 1996 and one in December/January 1993, covering the same wide area in the offshore Weddell Sea, were used to derive the annual extent of entrainment and the capacity of the biological pump. The former property was obtained with the help of dissolved oxygen data, whereas the latter was approximated with nutrients. Especially the data from April/May, representing the initial state of the winter surface layer, were crucial to assess the annual extent of these processes. The results were applied to our carbon dioxide data. The annual increase of the Total CO₂ (TCO₂) concentration in the surface layer due to vertical transport amounts to 16.3 μmol kg⁻¹. An entrainment rate of deep water in the surface layer amounting to 35±10 m yr⁻¹ was deduced. The compensating, biologically mediated TCO₂ reduction was calculated to be larger than the TCO₂ increase due to vertical transport. Since the balance of these two processes determines whether the Weddell Sea is a source or a sink of CO₂, this indicates that the Weddell Sea, albeit upwelling area, is definitely a sink for atmospheric CO₂ on an annual basis. This conclusion is further supported by contemplations that the biological drawdown of CO₂ in the Weddell Sea as a whole is probably underestimated by our calculations. The new production for the Weddell Sea on a per unit area basis was found to be much higher than that for the Antarctic Ocean, when the latter value is being obtained by traditional biological methods. On the other hand, the CO₂ uptake by the Weddell Sea on a per unit area basis is somewhat smaller than the CO₂ uptake by the world ocean.     

基于GATS算法的城市土地使用规划问题研究

土地使用规划就是确定和选择可能的发展区域以满足使用土地的要求，包括新区域的形成及提供公共服务设施），最优土地发展规划就是从许多可能的发展区域和人口分配方案中选择最好的方案，这一问题能归结为一个单目标0－1规划问题，本文根据遗传算法和禁忌搜索算法自身的优势与不足，提出一种将二者混合使用求解土地使用规划的算法，以使总的费用最少，同时针对此模型中约束函数的特点，提出一种处理约束的新方法，并用实际问题进行了数值实验，这是第一次将遗传算法和禁忌搜索算法应用于实际的土地使用规划问题。