The challenges of regulating water and sanitation tariffs under a three-level shared-authority federalism model: The case of Brazil

Water and sanitation regulation in Brazil shall be addressed as part of a major problem that involves institutional disputes and legal uncertainty. The paper investigates the hypothesis that the complex institutional framework plays a central role in explaining country's poor performance in the sector. Methodology is mainly qualitative, presenting an analysis that shows how political, institutional and legal hurdles play a major role in explaining the government's inability to secure a financially self-sustainable structure to the sector. The paper suggests that empowering the National Water Agency to issue general guidelines may help reducing transaction costs and fostering sector's development.     

考虑煤层倾角和钻孔倾角的钻屑量理论研究

为准确预测与预防深部开采煤与瓦斯突出,建立了考虑煤层倾角与钻孔倾角的新钻屑量理论计算公式,并分析了煤层倾角和钻孔倾角对钻屑量的影响。以平煤股份有限公司八矿为研究对象,将钻屑量理论计算值与该矿己15-21030风巷现场钻屑量实测值进行对比验证,得出在煤层倾角一定时,钻屑量随钻孔倾角增大呈幂指数递减关系,减小的比率呈“V”形变化趋势,原钻屑量理论值与实测值平均误差为5.5%,在考虑煤层倾角与钻孔倾角情况下的新钻屑量理论值与实测值平均误差为3.9%。     

井下作业面巷道切顶卸压施工设计探究

以井下作业面巷道切顶卸压施工设计为对象开展探究,结合具体工程实际,从切顶卸压爆破施工设计和爆破施工分析两个角度,对切顶卸压技术的全面应用进行总结分析,希望能够为其他矿井相似工程的开展提供借鉴与参考。     

3D MHD cross flow over an exponential stretching porous surface

The present study aims to investigate the effects of thermal‐diffusion and diffusion‐thermo onan magnetohydrodynamic convective flow of viscous fluids over an exponentially stretching sheet. Thermal radiation effects are also considered in the study. This analysis is carried out in three dimensions and a similarity transformation is adopted to get a set of ordinary differential equations from a set of partial differential equations. And the Fourth‐order Runge‐Kutta method and shooting technique along with the secant method are employed to find out an iterative solution. We also analyze here the influence of the variable magnetic field, nonuniform permeability and variable chemical reaction on the fluid flow. The impact of various pertinent parameters of interest has extensively been explored through graphs and tables. The major findings of the present study are that resistive Lorentz force diminishes the fluid velocity and uplifts the thermal as well as concentration fields. Inclusion of porous matrix improves the viscous drag force which in turn augments wall shear stresses and peters out the heat and mass transfer rates from the sheet. In addition, the thermal expansion coefficient has an inverse relation with temperature.     

Adaptive Discretization for Computerized Tomography

Two adaptive discretization frameworks are tested for computerized tomography (CT) data reconstruction. Removal of inactive pixels is primary motivation. Efficient and user independent entropy optimized masking is employed for spatial filtering purposes. Density of nodes at high gradient of reconstructed physical property is used as adaptation criterion. An alternative option, independent from noisy projection data and nature of the physical properties, is also discussed. Sensitivity analysis between the uniform and nonuniform (evolved via adaptive route) reconstruction grid reveals the utility of nonuniform grids. Iterative and transform based reconstruction techniques are used. Outcomes are tested successfully on three real world projection data from two different compact CT setups and one commercial high-resolution micro-CT scanner.     

Early-warning performance monitoring system (EPMS) using the business information of a project

An early-warning performance monitoring system (EPMS) is proposed to objectively measure and monitor the performance of a project for early detection of inherent poor performance problems. The EPMS is built based on project progress data and consists of a database of business information, an optimized theoretical model used as a performance measurement baseline, and an index for monitoring and forecasting the performance. By monitoring the performance through an application of the EPMS to the Korean construction project, the quarterly variation of index was found to differ by project type. These results could explain the environmental changes in the project execution. Therefore, the EPMS is expected to be an alternative for objective performance monitoring and forecasting while applying the existing methods is difficult because of the limited available data on performance indicators. The development procedures may also be useful to researchers interested in approaches to quantitatively analyze trends in various industries.     

公民水素养评价表征因素模型构建与分析

针对我国水资源紧缺、水生态损害、水环境污染等相关水问题,以提升全民爱水惜水节水护水的意识和能力为目标,从水素养概念出发,通过扎根理论质性研究方法对公民水素养评价的表征因素进行筛选和提炼,最终得出包含水知识、水态度、水行为为主范畴的10个表征因素并运用解释结构模型(ISM)深入剖析各因素之间的内在联系。在此基础上建立了3级多层次递阶结构模型,进一步精确描述系统各要素两两之间的直接关系。结果表明:公民水素养评价的表征因素自上而下形成了表象层、中间层和根源层等3个层级,可直观、清晰地反映表征因素之间的递阶、层级关系;水态度在各表征因素中具有调节作用以及各表征因素之间存在内在逻辑关系。研究成果为提高公民水素养水平提供一定的科学依据和政策参考。     

基于Hadoop的电力运维审计系统的设计

国家电网公司信息化程度越来越高，单机运维审计系统产生的数据量日益增多，对海量数据高效率存储分析性能严重下降，系统稳定性降低。为满足国家电网当前对运维审计系统数据存储分析以及系统稳定性的需求，在Hadoop开源架构的基础上，本文提出基于Hadoop集群的海量数据分布式存储方法和基于Heartbeat的心跳检测技术，实现基于Hadoop的电力运维审计系统。〖JP2〗实验测试结果表明，基于Hadoop的电力运维审计系统相比单机系统可用性提高了8.42%，大大提升了存储分析海量数据的性能，具有系统工作稳定和服务不间断等优势。     

差分准对立学习多目标蚁狮算法

为解决多目标优化问题，对经典的蚁狮算法进行改进，提出了基于差分进化的准对立学习多目标蚁狮算法（DEQOMALO）。该算法针对蚁狮算法易陷入局部最优的不足，一方面，该算法引用差分进化的思想，充分利用种群和精英蚁狮的信息对原算法中蚂蚁个体的位置更新方式进行改进；另一方面采用反向学习策略对蚂蚁种群进行优化，将原种群个体和其准对立个体进行混合并择优作为新的种群，大大增加种群的多样性。选取典型的标准测试函数，将提出的算法与原始蚁狮算法以及其他传统进化策略优化的蚁狮算法进行比较。实验结果表明，改进算法在收敛性和分布性上均有很大程度的提升，在解决双目标优化问题上具有较好的鲁棒性和有效性。     

结合边缘特征先验引导的深度卷积显著性检测

针对当前基于深度学习的显著性检测算法缺少利用先验特征和边缘信息，且在复杂场景中难以检测出鲁棒性强的显著性区域的问题，提出了一种结合边缘特征，利用先验信息引导的全卷积神经网络显著性检测算法。该算法利用三种被经常用到的先验知识结合边缘信息形成先验图，通过注意力机制将提取的先验特征与深度特征有效融合，最终通过提出的循环卷积反馈优化策略迭代地学习改进显著性区域，从而产生更可靠的最终显著图预测。经过实验定性定量分析，对比证明了算法的可靠性。