Public perceptions on artificial intelligence driven disaster management: Evidence from Sydney,Melbourne and Brisbane

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly utilised in disaster management activities. The public is engaged with AI in various ways in these activities. For instance, crowdsourcing applications developed for disaster management to handle the tasks of collecting data through social media platforms, and increasing disaster awareness through serious gaming applications. Nonetheless, there are limited empirical investigations and understanding on public perceptions concerning AI for disaster management. Bridging this knowledge gap is the justification for this paper. The methodological approach adopted involved: Initially, collecting data through an online survey from residents (n = 605) of three major Australian cities; Then, analysis of the data using statistical modelling. The analysis results revealed that: (a) Younger generations have a greater appreciation of opportunities created by AI-driven applications for disaster management; (b) People with tertiary education have a greater understanding of the benefits of AI in managing the pre- and post-disaster phases, and; (c) Public sector administrative and safety workers, who play a vital role in managing disasters, place a greater value on the contributions by AI in disaster management. The study advocates relevant authorities to consider public perceptions in their efforts in integrating AI in disaster management.     

A strategic roadmap for large-scale green hydrogen demonstration and commercialisation in China: A review and survey analysis

Hydrogen is gaining increased attention from industries and policymakers in China. However, most of the current demonstration projects in the country have relied on conventional energy sources, including industrial byproduct hydrogen and grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. Moreover, strategies and policy frameworks leading to a shift to green or low-carbon hydrogen have neither been explored in-depth nor been identified clearly in the context of China. This study aims at bridging such gaps. Roadmapping techniques enhanced by the Delphi method and SWOT analysis are used to survey hydrogen energy experts from government bodies, industries, and academia to achieve basic agreement on strategically enabling large-scale green hydrogen demonstrations followed by commercialisation in China. The outcome of two rounds of surveys showed that experts' opinions converged on a strategic roadmap with three stages of development. The corresponding policies needed in each stage are evaluated and selected to form a systemic framework.     

基于整体性视角的社区更新：框架、模式与案例 — —以佛山桂华邨社区为例

现行的政府单一主导、政府与开发 商合作的社区更新模式与业主的自主更新需 求产生了矛盾。针对现有研究对社区更新的 系统性缺乏关注的问题，本文从整体视角出 发，通过构建“参与主体—程序设计—法规 政策—资金调配”四维框架，分析现行社区 更新模式与业主自主更新需求产生冲突的内 在机制。在优化现有模式的基础上，提出三 种适应业主自主更新需求的理论模式。桂华 邨业主自主更新失败的实践案例证明了本文 所提出的四维框架的重要性。最后，从政府 视角对我国社区更新机制提出优化建议。     

Impact of urban development on residents’ public transportation travel energy consumption in China: An analysis of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alternatives

Urban development has an important influence on the energy consumption of transportation. To develop public transportation is one of the important ways to decrease the energy consumption of urban transportation. It is very urgent to upgrade technology to reduce the energy consumption and emissions of the vehicles constantly. The popularization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the trend of the future automobile industry, which can effectively reduce traffic energy consumption and alleviate urban pollution. This article analyzes the impact of urban development on public transport and private transportation energy consumption from 2013 to 2015; and uses hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alternatives in urban public transport as a scenario. It shows that urban economic development can effectively reduce public transport. Population growth will increase greatly energy consumption of public transport, while larger cities with reasonable spatial density can reduce traffic energy consumption. Moreover, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can effectively reduce the energy consumption and pollution emissions of urban transportation during operating. Based on the above conclusions, this article will eventually provide targeted recommendations for the development of Chinese cities, public transport, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.     

A New NTRU-Type Public-Key Cryptosystem over the Binary Field

As the development of cloud computing and the convenience of wireless sensor netowrks, smart devices are widely used in daily life, but the security issues of the smart devices have not been well resolved. In this paper, we present a new NTRU-type public-key cryptosystem over the binary field. Specifically, the security of our scheme relies on the computational intractability of an unbalanced sparse polynomial ratio problem (DUSPR). Through theoretical analysis, we prove the correctness of our proposed cryptosystem. Furthermore, we implement our scheme using the NTL library, and conduct a group of experiments to evaluate the capabilities and consuming time of encryption and decryption. Our experiments result demonstrates that the NTRU-type public-key cryptosystem over the binary field is relatively practical and effective.     

Systematic approach for recognizing limiting factors for growth of biomethane use in transportation sector – A case study in Finland

In this paper, limiting factors for increased use of biomethane as a transportation fuel are studied. The aim of this research is to recognize and estimate the limiting factors for biomethane utilization in the transportation sector. The limiting factors are studied by using calculation models from Life cycle perspective and literature reviews. According to the results, the main limiting factors can be classified into the following categories: production potential, technology, economy or policy. For biomethane utilization in Finland, the main limiting factors seem to be the lack of distribution infrastructure in northern parts of the country and the uncertain economical feasibility for agricultural biomass producers and for vehicle owners. From the political perspective, the external costs for petrol operated vehicles are higher than for biomethane operated vehicles. Reductions from the external costs could be used by political decisions as a base to support the growth of biomethane in the transportation sector which could lead to GHG emission reductions. A similar systematic approach can also be used to study limiting factors for other transportation energy systems.     

Federal policy documentation and geothermal water consumption: Policy gaps and needs

With U.S. geothermal power production expected to more than triple by 2040, and the majority of this growth expected to occur in arid and water-constrained areas, it is imperative that decision-makers understand the potential long-term limitations to and tradeoffs of geothermal development due to water availability. To this end, water consumption data, including documentation triggered by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, production and injection data, and water permit data, were collected from state and federal environmental policy sources in an effort to determine water consumption across the lifecycle of geothermal power plants. Values extracted from these sources were analyzed to estimate water usage during well drilling; to identify sourcing of water for well drilling, well stimulation, and plant operations; and to estimate operational water usage at the plant level. Nevada data were also compared on a facility-by-facility basis with other publicly available water consumption data, to create a complete picture of water usage and consumption at these facilities. This analysis represents a unique method of capturing project-level water data for geothermal projects; however, a lack of statutory and legal requirements for such data and data quality result in significant data gaps, which are also explored.     

The effect of economic policy uncertainty on stock-commodity correlations and its implications on optimal hedging

Motivated by previous studies documenting significant return and volatility effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the stock market, this study examines whether EPU has an effect on the dynamic conditional correlations between stock and commodity returns. Our findings point to a positive and significant effect of EPU on stock-commodity correlations with particularly stronger effects in the case of energy and industrial metals. The EPU effect is stronger during weak economic conditions, while VIX as a proxy of market uncertainty is generally found to be insignificant. Finally, we show that the EPU effect on correlations has investment implications as well, implied by a significant effect on optimal hedge ratios in commodities in order to mitigate stock market risks. Our results underscore the importance of selective hedging strategies in which risk managers base the timing and size of their hedging programs on future price expectations, conditional on the level of policy uncertainty state and prevalent economic conditions.     

2019年我国石油市场分析与2020年展望

2019年,我国成品油消费增速放缓,炼油产能快速扩张使成品油产量增速加快,成品油净出口再创新高;在增储上产政策促动下,国内原油储产量探底回升;受炼油能力增长拉动原油净口量仍较快增长、首次突破5亿t,对外依存度依然维持高位。油气体制改革举措逐步落地,石油市场进一步开放、主体多元化进程加快,油气管网运营机制改革取得标志性进展,同时在调整税费政策、完善油气资源开发利用政策等方面出台了系列规定。新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对一季度我国成品油需求造成较大影响,但将逐步回复,全年成品油需求预计低速增长,原油产量有望持续回升,炼油能力持续较快增长将推动成品油出口继续增加。