The relationship between centrality and land use patterns: Empirical evidence from five Chinese metropolises

The relationship between location and land use patterns is one of the classic theoretical issues in urban studies. Classic models based on the monocentricity hypothesis have limitations in the interpretation of modern urban structure. China has experienced institutional transformation in recent decades, and the interaction of national government policy, market forces and the natural environment has influenced urban planning in Chinese metropolises, resulting in urban structures with special characteristics. This paper examines the distribution of location and land use intensity, and tested the Alonso model by the relationship between them in five Chinese metropolises using Point of Interest data, space syntax methodology, the grid weighted statistical method and the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model. Universal patterns about the scaling relation between intensity of land use types and the centrality of location are revealed. The elasticity of land use types to location, from high to low sensitivity, is commercial, residential then industrial land in most of the five metropolises studied. The sensitivity sequence of land use studied suggests that the hypothetical model based on the classical Alonso model can explain the spatial structure of modern metropolises in China to some extent, especially for the commercial land. But the order of sensitivity of residential land and industrial land to location does not conform to the model. The spatial heterogeneity in land use intensity and centrality were explored and the factors embedded were discussed. It can be found that the relation between centrality and land use intensity conforms to power law. In most of the metropolises studied, when the scaling relation between land use intensity and centrality is super linear, the sequence of the frequency value from high to low are commercial, residential and industrial land; when the scaling relation is sublinear, the sequence of the frequency value is industrial, residential and commercial land.     

Residual learning rates in lead-acid batteries: Effects on emerging technologies

The low price of lead-acid, the most popular battery, is often used in setting cost targets for emerging energy storage technologies. Future cost reductions in lead acid batteries could increase investment and time scales needed for emerging storage technologies to reach cost-parity. In this paper the first documented model of cost reductions for lead-acid batteries is developed. Regression to a standard experience curve using 1989–2012 data yield a poor fit, with R² values of 0.17 for small batteries and 0.05 for larger systems. To address this problem, battery costs are separated into material and residual costs, and experience curves developed for residual costs. Depending on the year, residual costs account for 41–86% of total battery cost. Using running-time averages to address volatility in material costs, a 4-year time average experience curve for residual costs yield much higher R², 0.78 for small and 0.74 for large lead-acid batteries. The learning rate for residual costs in lead-acid batteries is 20%, a discovery with policy implications. Neglecting to consider cost reductions in lead-acid batteries could result in failure of energy storage start-ups and public policy programs. Generalizing this result, learning in incumbent technologies must be understood to assess the potential of emerging ones.     

ICT application in the informal sector: The case of the Kariokor market MSE cluster in Nairobi

Conclusion A successful informal sector of sustainable ICT clusters requires that the ICT provided are the ones in demand by the entrepreneurs and that they should be located strategically, in order to generate optimal utilisation and avoid the loss of man-hours by the informal sector having to search for the services. There should also be a strategy aiming at investment in human capital, which will trigger active absorption of skills and technology. This calls for a collaboration or partnership between government and other development partners, especially those who can facilitate training in business development and management skills, as well as the use of ICT. A special focus of this ICT strategy should be to demystify and promote diffusion of ICT as a general-purpose technology to the informal sector. It is believed that the use of new technologies can be crucial to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in a timely and effective fashion. In response to this noble call the study concludes that there is a need to prevent further marginalization of the informal sector by availing ICT services which are mixed appropriately and also properly located. This will help them access markets and other business information which can enable, or make their economic activities, more vibrant and facilitate availability of information about new opportunities. The study concludes that for one to understand the application of ICT and their locational dynamics in informal sector clusters there is a need to comprehend and acknowledge the drivers and pressures leading to the adoption of new technology such as ICT in the informal sector.     

Comparative study on economic contribution rate of education of China and foreign countries based on soft computing method

Economic contribution rate of education (ECRE) is the key factor of education economics. This article selected China, South Korea, United States and other countries for a total of 15 samples, and put the data of the same period under the framework of soft computing, to simulate the production chain of “education–potential human capital–actual human capital–economic growth”. The basic idea is: Firstly, 15 countries are softly categorized according to the level of science and technology (S&T) progress. Secondly, potential human capital and actual human capital establish the internal correlation (fuzzy mapping) in the same classification, and we conceptualize actual human capital as one production factor, joined with the other two production factors, fixed asset and land, to set up the fuzzy mapping to economic growth., and then calculate economic contribution rate of education of China and foreign by two fuzzy mapping of them. Thirdly, this paper analyzes the present state and differences in the development of education between China and foreign according to different ECRE, and offers proposals for promoting the education in China.     

分段线性动态矩匹配条带去除

由于探测器之间对接收的地物辐射信号的响应特征不同,导致遥感数据含有条带噪声,严重影响了图像质量及后续的定量计算。针对探测器响应函数在图像低值区及高值区呈非线性的特点,在着重分析矩匹配方法的基础上,提出分段线性动态矩匹配条带去除方法。方法设定阈值分割高中低值域统计区间,对探测器响应函数进行分段线性拟合,并对探测器每一分图像动态采用其领域内均值和标准差作为参考值进行条带纠正。应用TM数据第4波段及环境一号卫星高光谱数据进行去条带实验,并定性和定量地比较了该方法与动态矩匹配、傅里叶变换、自动均衡化曲线方法的去条带效果。结果表明该方法能够在保留图像基本信息的前提下,获得最佳的去条带效果,尤其能够提高非均匀地物分布区域内水体的条带去除效果。     

由长春第一汽车制造厂厂前宿舍区外部空间环境引发的思考

作为长春市的历史保护街区,一汽厂前宿舍区的外部空间环境受到了人们的关注.良好宜人的空间尺度,围合式布置,在我国特定历史时期的居住区建设起到了示范作用.笔者针对一汽厂前宿舍区外部空间环境的特点进行分析,引发对长春当今居住区建设的思考.     

Pavement crack detection using hessian structure propagation

Pavement images are widely used in transportation agencies to detect cracks accurately so that the best proper plans of maintenance and rehabilitation could be made. Although crack in a pavement image is perceived because the intensity of crack pixels contrasts with that of the pavement background, there are still challenges in distinguishing cracks from complex textures, heavy noise, and interference. Unlike the intensity or the first-order edge feature of crack, this paper proposes the second-order directional derivative to characterize the directional valley-like structure of crack. The multi-scale Hessian structure is first proposed to analytically adapt to the direction and valley of cracking in the Gaussian scale space. The crack structure field is then proposed to mimic the curvilinear propagation of crack in the local area, which is iteratively applied at every point of the crack curve to infer the crack structure at the gaps and intersections. Finally, the most salient centerline of the crack within its curvilinear buffer is exactly located with non-maximum suppression along the perpendicular direction of crack. The experiments on large numbers of images of various crack types and with diverse conditions of noise, illumination and interference demonstrate the proposed method can detect pavement cracks well with an average Precision, Recall and F-measure of 92.4%, 88.4%, and 90.4% respectively. Also, the proposed method achieves the best performance of crack detection on the benchmark datasets among methods that also require no training and publicly offer the detection results for every image.     

腐殖活性污泥生化特征及处理效能

为探讨腐殖活性污泥的生物化学特征及其作用机理,对腐殖生物填料进行扫描电镜和能谱(SEM-EDAX)测定,表明填料中主要组成元素为C、O、Si,同时含有少量Al、S、Fe. 腐殖活性污泥与普通活性污泥中若干特征菌群的对比分析表明,腐殖活性污泥中的一般细菌总量、硝酸菌、亚硝酸菌、脱氮菌及放线菌含量明显高于普通活性污泥;腐殖活性污泥中有机质的质量分数比普通活性污泥低,但腐殖酸及富里酸和胡敏酸质量分数明显高于普通活性污泥;腐殖活性污泥法运行的SBR反应器对CODCr、TP和TN的去除效果优于普通SBR反应器,分别高出4％、14％和10％．