Patterns in environmental priorities revealed through government open data portals

The ways in which environmental priorities are framed are varied and influenced by political forces. One technological advance--the proliferation of government open data portals (ODPs)--has the potential to improve governance through facilitating access to data. Yet it is also known that the data hosted on ODPs may simply reflect the goals and interests of multiple levels of political power. In this article, I use traditional statistical correlation and regression techniques along with newer natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze the corpus of datasets hosted on government ODPs (total: 49,066) to extract patterns that relate scales of governance and political liberalism/conservatism to the priorities and meaning attached to environmental issues. I find that state-level and municipal-level ODPs host different categories of environmental datasets, with municipal-level ODPs generally hosting more datasets pertaining to services and amenities and state-level ODPs hosting more datasets pertaining to resource protection and extraction. Stronger trends were observed for the influences of political conservatism/liberalism among state-level ODPs than for municipal-level ODPs.     

Tuning of emission by effect of local symmetry in BaLaLiWO6:Dy3+/Eu3+ for WLEDs

The luminescence center energy transfer, crystal field strength, and covalency are limited by the crystal structure of the host and subsequently affect the luminescence efficiency, color, and intensity. Here, we report an excellent red phosphor BaLaLiWO₆:0.40Eu³⁺ and the dependence between symmetry and luminous performance. A model for changing symmetry is drawn by analyzing the Coulomb potential and structure for the application of a double-perovskite phosphor BLLWO: Dy³⁺, Eu³⁺ in white light LEDs. The addition of Dy³⁺/Eu³⁺ makes the W-O bond formed by the B-site and oxygen ion longer and the Li-O bond shorter, and the difference between the eight octahedral around the A-site is reduced, increasing the symmetry of the A-site. Local symmetry was successfully modulated by changing the Eu³⁺ concentration to control the Y/B ratio of Dy³⁺ and the R/O ratio of Eu³⁺ and smoothly achieved (0.382, 0.373) warm white light color coordinate. The phosphor has excellent thermal stability and still has 92.3% intensity at 475 K. The above results show that the wavelength composition of the luminescence is tunable by changing the symmetry of the environment in which the doped ions are located. It applies to single hosts for the regulation of white light emission.     

Analytical modeling of complex contact behavior between rock mass and lining structure

Based on the nondestructive test data of operating railway tunnels in China, this paper summarizes the basic characteristics of the complex contact behavior between the rock mass and lining structure. The contact modes are classified into dense contact, local non-contact, and loose contact. Subsequently, the corresponding mechanical model for each contact mode is developed according to its mechanical characteristics using the complex variable method. In the proposed mechanical model, a special algorithm is introduced to detect whether the local non-contact zone is re-contacted. Besides, a novel conformal mapping method is also proposed to accurately calculate the mechanical response of the concrete lining. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed method is verified by comparing it with the finite element method (FEM). Several parameter investigations are conducted to analyze the effects of different contact modes on the rock–lining interaction. The results show that: (i) the height of the local non-contact area does not have a significant effect on the contact stress distribution if no re-contact occurs; (ii) backfill grouting can reduce the local stress concentration caused by poor contact modes; and (iii) reducing the friction coefficient of the interface can lead to a more uniform distribution of internal forces in the concrete lining.     

加权信息熵与增强局部二值模式结合的人脸识别

针对人脸识别因光照、姿态、表情、遮挡及噪声等多种因素的影响而导致的识别率不高的问题，提出一种加权信息熵（IEw）与自适应阈值环形局部二值模式（ATRLBP）算子相结合的人脸识别方法（IE （w） ATR-LBP）。首先，从原始人脸图像分块提取信息熵，得到每个子块的IEw；然后，利用ATRLBP算子分别对每个人脸子块提取特征从而得到概率直方图；最后，将各个块的IEw与概率直方图相乘，再串联成为原始人脸图像最后的特征直方图，并利用支持向量机（SVM）对人脸进行识别。在AR人脸库的表情、光照、遮挡A和遮挡B四个数据集上，IE （w） ATR-LBP方法分别取得了98.37%、94.17%、98.20%和99.34%的识别率。在ORL人脸库上，IE （w） ATR-LBP方法的最大识别率为99.85%；而且在ORL人脸库5次不同训练样本的实验中，与无噪声时相比，加入高斯和椒盐噪声后的平均识别率分别下降了14.04和2.95个百分点。实验结果表明，IE （w） ATR-LBP方法能够有效提高人脸在受光照、姿态、遮挡等影响时的识别率，尤其是存在表情变化及脉冲类噪声干扰时的识别率。     

On the numerical solution of Fredholm integral equations utilizing the local radial basis function method

The current investigation describes a computational technique to solve one- and two-dimensional Fredholm integral equations of the second kind. The method estimates the solution using the discrete collocation method by combining locally supported radial basis functions (RBFs) constructed on a small set of nodes instead of all points over the analysed domain. In this work, we employ the Gauss–Legendre integration rule on the influence domains of shape functions to approximate the local integrals appearing in the method. In comparison with the globally supported RBFs for solving integral equations, the proposed method is stable and uses much less computer memory. The scheme does not require any cell structures, so it is meshless. We also obtain the error analysis of the proposed method and demonstrate that the convergence rate of the approach is high. Illustrative examples clearly show the reliability and efficiency of the new method.     

地方高校发展规划编制方法与思路的探索研究

地方高校发展建设不断面对新的机遇和挑战，能否科学的制定并实施发展规划，对高校的发展具有重要的战略意义。规划编制要对内容与方法不断探索研究，是总结上一规划制定及执行情况，对学校内外发展形势准确剖析，是明确学校今后一段时间的建设任务和建设发展目标的理性探究。     

巴西油气合同模式与财税政策新动向

巴西Lula油田的发现证实了桑托斯盆地世界瞩目的勘探潜力,巴西政府调整油气战略,针对盐下地区的核心资源推出了产品分成合同。随着2015年以来巴西经济衰退与腐败丑闻的冲击,巴西政府为吸引国际投资,在财税政策上做出了部分让步,废除了巴西国家石油公司在盐下地区强制作业者权力和至少30%权益的保障、延长了"REPETRO"免税机制20年、大幅降低了本地化采购比例的要求,促进了2017年深水勘探区块的招投标。通过合同模式的对比发现,政府能够在产品分成合同获取更高的分成比例,加强了盐下核心资源的控制。通过对本地化采购要求和间接税体制的解剖,深入认识到采购策略、本地化采购要求和间接税纳税筹划三者之间紧密相连,为中国油公司在巴西油气项目的招投标、并购和运作提出了合适的建议。     

Drug and ion releasing tetracalcium phosphate based dual action cement for regenerative treatment of infected bone defects

Calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) are ideally suited for the local delivery of antibiotics in infected bone defects as they have multiple binding sites for loading various drugs. CPCs can also be substituted with ions such as Ag⁺, Zn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sr²⁺, etc., to exhibit extended broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. Strontium (Sr) in particular is known to enhance the new bone formation and decrease bone resorption. The current work aims to develop a dual action tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP) based cement which releases both the Sr²⁺ ion and ornidazole antibiotic drug for the treatment of bone infections. The TTCP with Sr²⁺ ion substitution was prepared by the solid state reaction method and it was used to form ornidazole loaded CPC. The ornidazole loaded cement prepared using 8?at% Sr substituted TTCP (8SCPC-O) showed complete hydroxyapatite (HA) formation in phosphate buffered solution at the end of 1 week. Fine needle-shaped HA crystals were observed in 8SCPC-O cement. In vitro drug release studies showed an accelerated ornidazole release from the 8SCPC-O sample when compared to samples without Sr substitution. Ornidazole releasing cements were found to be biocompatible with skeletal myoblast (L6) cells. Antibacterial activity of ornidazole releasing cement was evident from day 1 onwards against E. coli. The above results suggest 8SCPC-O as a good candidate for treating local bone infections.     

Interface reactions between rutile coatings and molten aluminium or AlSi7Mg0.6 alloy

Rutile coatings deposited on corundum substrates are considered as promising functional elements improving the efficiency of the filtration of oxide inclusions out of aluminium melts. This contribution describes the reactions between rutile and two kinds of the aluminium melts and discusses the consequences of these reactions for the filtration process. It was found that the contact of rutile coatings with molten aluminium leads to the formation of a corundum layer at the solid/liquid interface. The exposure of the rutile coatings to molten AlSi7Mg0.6 alloy produces an interface layer of MgTiO₃. The interface layers possess defined orientation relationship to rutile which is characteristic for locally heteroepitaxial growth. The density functional theory calculations revealed that the TiO₂/α-Al₂O₃ and TiO₂/MgTiO₃ interfaces with the orientation relationships observed experimentally have low interface energies. The mechanisms of the interface layer formation and the impact of these layers on the degradation of the rutile coatings are discussed.