Changes in the design and operational wind due to climate change at the Indian offshore sites

The increasing global warming is most likely to affect the magnitude and pattern of wind at a regional level and such an effect may or not follow the trend predicted at the global scale. Regional level exercises are therefore necessary while making decisions related to engineering infrastructure. In this paper an attempt is made to know the extent of change in design as well as operational wind conditions at two offshore locations along the west coast of India. The design wind speeds with return periods of 10, 50 and 100 years derived for two 30-year time slices in the past and future are compared. In two separate exercises the past and future wind at the local level is simulated by empirical downscaling as well as by interpolation of the general circulation model (GCM) output. Both sets of past and future data are fitted to the Generalized Pareto as well as Weibull distributions using the peak over threshold method to extract long term wind speeds with a specified return. It is noticed that at the given locations the operational and design wind may undergo an increase of around 11%–14% when no downscaling is adopted and 14%–17% when the GCM data are downscaled. Although these figures may suffer from a certain level of statistical uncertainty the study points out to take a relook into the safety margins kept in the design and operation of ocean structures in the light of global warming.     

农村单车道公路错车道设置参数研究

以农村公路人和车辆安全为出发点,对错车道设置条件、长度、宽度、间距及渐变段长度和宽度进行了研究,综合考虑农村单车道公路车型分布、行驶车速、交通量等因素,推导出错车道设置长度、宽度、间距及渐变段长度的计算公式.以福建省某地区的农村公路为实例,证明提出的错车道设置参数是合理的.     

Energy efficiency,technological change and the dieselization of agriculture in the United States

This study focuses on the increase in the relative importance of diesel fuel consumption on farms in the United States over the 1971–1989 period. Four factors are identified as being central to the observed trend. These include the relative efficiency of diesel powered equipment versus gasoline powered equipment, technological changes that have impacted energy efficiency, the trend towards larger farms, and the enhanced energy conservation by farmers as a result of the adoption of reduced tillage practices.     

Regulation and Approval of Drugs and Pesticides Used in Canadian Salmon Culture

When Canadian salmon farmers find the health of their stock is compromised by infection or disease, the use of drugs or pesticides can be required. In Canada, there is a very limited range of these chemicals legally available to farmers and veterinarians. The formal approval and registration process for these chemotherapeutants is complicated. It involves the overlap of a variety of government departments, depending on the method of application of the therapeutic compound. These formal channels, through which chemotherapeutic products, specifically drugs and pesticides, are licensed for use, are both lengthy and costly to navigate. Often, these costs exceed any potential returns from the sale of the products (OCAD, 2001; Harper, 2002). Consequently, unapproved drugs, which would not normally be available for use, are obtained through alternative channels, which may pose a number of environmental, human, and animal safety concerns. This article seeks to provide a better understanding of the approval process and regulations governing drugs and pesticides and how they are made available for use in Canadian salmon culture.     

Structural damage identification by a cross modal energy sensitivity based mode subset selection strategy

This paper presents a strategy specialized for modal energy (ME) based methods, including modal strain energy (MSE) and modal kinetic energy (MKE), to select the best mode subset prior to damage identification. The damages due to the changes in stiffness and mass of structural members are both considered. In order to apply the proposed scheme to a more general situation, the cross modal energy (CME) sensitivity instead of the usual ME sensitivity is derived and designated as a sensitivity index. According to this index, the mode combinations (MCs) that are more sensitive to stiffness and mass changes are retained, while the remaining MCs that complicate the process of damage detection are eliminated. One of the important applications of the proposed mode subset selection strategy (MSSS) is to optimize the Cross-model cross-mode (CMCM) system by eliminating some redundant equations, thereby improving the performance of the CMCM method and reducing the computational burden. Numerical and experimental studies are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The results show that the performance of the CMCM method has been significantly improved after adopting the MSSS.     

非稳态电伴热管道参数计算简化模型的研究

本文用集总参数分析法，对非稳态电伴热介质管道温度和传热量随时间变化的规律进行分析，得到了其中的函数表达式；作者尝试建立线性模型来简化介质管道的传输热量、介质温度如何随时间变化的计算过程，并提出了该计算模型的可行性。     

客运专线缓和曲线参数合理性的试验验证

客运专线线路参数设置的合理与否,直接关系列车运行的平稳性和旅客舒适度,而在试验列车运行条件下进行的轮轨力测试和列车运行平稳性试验是验证线路参数设置合理与否的主要手段。秦沈客运专线是我国第一条时速200 km的客运专线,对设计中采用参数合理性的实验验证是必不可少的。本文叙述了对半径10 000 m和5 500 m两个曲线的缓和曲线的轮轨作用力和列车通过时的车体加速度和平稳性的测试过程,根据测试数据得出在试验列车250 km/h速度条件下通过这两个曲线的缓和曲线是安全的,列车的舒适度达到良限值,说明缓和曲线参数的设置是合理的。     

CTCS-3级列控系统方向控制

就CTCS-3级列控系统方向控制特点、区间改方原则等方面进行了较为详细的阐述。     

The Arctic Shipping and Environmental Management Agreement: A Regime for Marine Pollution

Climate change is predicted to have particularly challenging impacts throughout the Arctic. For instance, there is a great probability of sea ice melting, leading to increased vessel traffic and oil pollution. Eight major nation-states have vested concerns in the potential opening of Arctic sea routes. They each have pledged to take protective action through the Arctic Council. However, there is still a need to develop an international institution to simultaneously address Arctic marine pollution and protect the needs of these states. This article seeks to design a legally binding regime for oil pollution control in the Arctic. In creating this new regime, we shall utilize several shared design elements of historically effective international regimes and take advantage of the legal innovations of these agreements. Our new regime, entitled the Arctic Shipping and Environmental Management Agreement (ASEMA), will take into account both the economic and environmental interests of the parties involved.     

Risk of increasing temperature due to climate change on high-speed rail network in Spain

With more than 3,200 km of track, the Spanish high-speed rail network is the longest network in Europe and the second largest in the world after China. Due to its geographical location in southern Europe, the entire network is exposed to periods of elevated temperatures that can cause disturbances and severe disruptions such as rail deformation, or in the worst case, lateral track buckling. In this study, the vulnerability of the current Spanish high-speed rail network is analysed in terms of track buckling failures with a Monte Carlo simulation. Downscaled temperature projections from a range of Global Climate Models (GCMs), under three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5), were forced in a buckling model and particularized for different segments of the network. With that, the proposed methodology provides the number of rail buckles expected per year by assuming current maintenance standards and procedures. The result reveals significant increase in the occurrence of buckling events for future years, mainly in the central and southern areas of mainland Spain. However, relevant variations are found in different climates and time horizon scenarios in Spain. The anticipated buckling occurrences highlight the vulnerability of the Spanish rail network in the context of global warming scenarios. Overall, the proposed methodology is designed to be applicable in large-scale railway networks to identify potential buckling sites for the purpose of understanding and predicting their behaviour.