Air pollution history elucidated from anthropogenic spherules and their magnetic signatures in marine sediments offshore of Southwestern Taiwan

Kaohsiung City and its neighborhood in the southwestern coastal plain of Taiwan have suffered serious air pollution since the region became the largest center for heavy-industry on the island. In order to unravel the air pollution history of the region, four ²¹⁰Pb- and ¹³⁷Cs-dated sediment box cores recovered in 2006 from offshore of this area were chosen for magnetic and petrographic analyses. The data were used to distinguish changes in concentration, composition and grain size of magnetic particles in the sediments due to inputs of anthropogenic magnetic spherules. Sedimentation rates have been reasonably constant for the last one hundred years, except at the core tops which were affected by a turbidite layer induced by a typhoon in 2005. Down-core profiles of mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χ) and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) are similar among the cores, and reflect similar trends to magnetic spherule counts. This reveals that χ and SIRM of modern marine sediments can be used as air pollution indicators for nearby industrialized upwind areas. The studied record indicates that industrialization of the area was gradual during 1950–1980 and boomed afterward, resulting in a high production of airborne magnetic spherules, which is consistent with evidence for poor air quality at that time. Optical and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) surveys of magnetic extracts indicate that the magnetic spherules have grain sizes ranging from a few micrometers up to 50 μm and consist mainly of iron oxides with variable Si, Al, and Ca contents. X-ray diffraction analysis on magnetic extracts from different depths in the cores further indicates that magnetite and pyrrhotite, which are derived from terrigenous detritus, form the magnetic constituents of the sediments before the area was industrialized. In contrast, during the industrial boom, anthropogenic magnetite and hematite spherules became the dominant magnetic particles in the sediments. Down-core profiles of hard isothermal remanent magnetization (HIRM) below the turbidite layer also reveal similar trends to the corresponding magnetic spherule counts, which indicate that the concentration of hematite in the sediments is also closely related to the extent of air pollution. In addition, relatively low values of χ_ARM/χ, which are indicative of coarse magnetic grains, started to occur when large magnetite spherules became significant during the industrialized period. The air pollution history elucidated from our sediment core data not only reflects the development of Kaohsiung from a small village to a highly industrialized metropolitan area in the 20th century, but it is also consistent with the most recent air pollution trends revealed by real time air quality measurements of PM₁₀. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of magnetic parameters for delineating the air pollution history of coastal marine sediments down-wind of nearby industrialized regions.     

Effect of Seismic Parameters on the Safety Factor for an Underground Cavern北大核心CSCD

In order to quantitatively evaluate the safety of the surrounding rock of an underground cavern under seis-mic load, a comprehensive evaluation method for the stability of surrounding rock is proposed based on the general safety factor and point safety factor. A calculation method for the general safety factor of a cavern based on the prin-ciple of shear strength reduction of a rock mass is given, the run-through of the plastic zone between the main power-house and main transformer room is presented as a critical criterion for the overall instability of the cavern, and the general safety factor is obtained by searching for the reduction coefficient. A point safety factor calculation method based on the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion is given. The influence of different seismic input parameters on the general safety factor of the cavern and the point safety factor of key positions are studied based on an underground power-house cavern of a hydropower station in Southwest China. The results show that the quantitative evaluation method for the stability of the surrounding rock based on the safety factor is feasible and can reflect the general safety de-gree and local safety degree of different positions of the cavern for different working conditions. It is found that the general safety factor of the cavern and the point safety factor of key positions decrease with an increase of the ampli-tude and duration of a seismic wave while they increase with an increase of the incident angle; additionally, the low frequency of a seismic wave has a great influence on the cavern while the high frequency has little effect. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

A new approach for improving the performance of freight train timetabling of a single-track railway system

A new approach for improving the performance of freight train timetabling for single-track railways is proposed. Using the idea of a fixed-block signaling system, we develop a matrix representation to express the occupation of inter- and intra-station tracks by trains illustrating the train blocking time diagram in its entirety. Train departure times, dwell times, and unnecessary stopping are adjusted to reduce average train travel time and single train travel time. Conflicts between successive stations and within stations are identified and solved. A fuzzy logic system is further used to adjust the range of train departure times and checks are made to determine whether dwell times and time intervals can be adjusted for passenger and freight trains at congested stations to minimize train waiting times. By combining manual scheduling expertise with the fuzzy inference method, timetable efficiency is significantly improved and becomes more flexible.     

Tradeoffs among free-flow speed, capacity, cost, and environmental footprint in highway design

This paper investigates differentiated design standards as a source of capacity additions that are more affordable and have smaller aesthetic and environmental impacts than modern expressways. We consider several tradeoffs, including narrow versus wide lanes and shoulders on an expressway of a given total width, and high-speed expressway versus lower-speed arterial. We quantify the situations in which off-peak traffic is sufficiently great to make it worthwhile to spend more on construction, or to give up some capacity, in order to provide very high off-peak speeds even if peak speeds are limited by congestion. We also consider the implications of differing accident rates. The results support expanding the range of highway designs that are considered when adding capacity to ameliorate urban road congestion.     

Vulnerability analysis for large-scale and congested road networks with demand uncertainty

To assess the vulnerability of congested road networks, the commonly used full network scan approach is to evaluate all possible scenarios of link closure using a form of traffic assignment. This approach can be computationally burdensome and may not be viable for identifying the most critical links in large-scale networks. In this study, an “impact area” vulnerability analysis approach is proposed to evaluate the consequences of a link closure within its impact area instead of the whole network. The proposed approach can significantly reduce the search space for determining the most critical links in large-scale networks. In addition, a new vulnerability index is introduced to examine properly the consequences of a link closure. The effects of demand uncertainty and heterogeneous travellers’ risk-taking behaviour are explicitly considered. Numerical results for two different road networks show that in practice the proposed approach is more efficient than traditional full scan approach for identifying the same set of critical links. Numerical results also demonstrate that both stochastic demand and travellers’ risk-taking behaviour have significant impacts on network vulnerability analysis, especially under high network congestion and large demand variations. Ignoring their impacts can underestimate the consequences of link closures and misidentify the most critical links.     

偏压连拱隧道施工方法研究

文章采川三维有限元数值模拟研究了偏压连拱隧道不同施工顺序下拱顶下沉、中墙稳定性及初期支护受力特征.研究结果表明,先开挖浅埋侧时,拱顶沉降较小,中墙在施工中的稳定安全系数较大、弯矩较小,初期支护受力较大;对于浅埋偏压连拱隧道,围岩变形及中墙在施工中的稳定性控制更为重要.所以,从有利于围岩变形、中墙稳定性控制以及中墙受力的角度出发,宜采用先开挖浅埋侧的施工方法.     

富水砂层中暗挖隧道施工沉降控制技术

富水砂层中暗挖隧道施工是地铁施工中的一大难点,常常因沉降过大而引发安全事故。在深圳地铁安-侨区间隧道工程中,通过洞内帷幕注浆、水平旋喷桩、地表井点降水等辅助措施做到了超前控制,在解决隧道开挖安全问题的同时有效地减少了沉降量;施工过程中严格执行了"管超前、短进尺、强支护、早封闭、勤量测"的方针,控制了时空效应,解决了富水砂层中暗挖隧道沉降过大的问题。文章重点分析了沉降原因及控制沉降的关键技术和有效措施。     

光面爆破技术在城市地铁隧道施工中的应用

文章从光面爆破机理、光面爆破技术中各主要参数的确定,以及光面爆破在实际工程中的应用几个方面出发,以深圳地铁安-侨区间隧道硬岩段施工为例,研究分析了如何利用光面爆破技术来提高城市地铁浅埋暗挖法的光爆效果,特别是近距离穿越重要建(构)筑物时如何有效进行光面爆破。     

兰渝线新龙凤隧道涌水分析

文章结合兰渝线新龙凤隧道发生的岩溶涌水突泥地质灾害问题,在对隧道地质环境及岩溶发育特征分析研究的基础上,从隧道所处地段的岩溶发育强度、岩溶水动力垂直及横向分带,以及大气降雨条件等方面分析了隧道涌水的原因,认为新龙风隧道发生的涌水是揭露中小型岩溶管道所致,涌水的主要控制因素为大气降雨.     

高速公路ETC车道防邻道及跟车干扰研究

在ETC车道系统中,相邻两个ETC车道之间的OBU与RSU相互影响,RSU与非本车道上的OBU进行通讯并完成交易,引起邻道干扰;工程实施、设备等原因引起跟车干扰,造成ETC收费失败。针对存在的问题,分析工程安装、设备原因,提出切实可行的解决方案,保证ETC车道功能的正确性、完整性,是交通运输行业节能减排绿色发展成果之一。