Simulation of smoke from a burning vehicle and pollution levels caused by traffic jam in a road tunnel

Detailed analyses of smoke movement from a burning vehicle in a road tunnel have been carried out for the westbound Melbourne City Link tunnel. The time-averaged equations for velocity, pressure, temperature, and mass fraction of emissions were solved for transient condition using the CFD software FLUENT 6.0. For the analysis, a burning bus was assumed to release an equivalent energy of burning 500 l of diesel in 6 min, with vehicles upstream of the fire at a standstill. On the other hand, the vehicles downstream of the fire had enough time to escape from the tunnel through the exit portal. Due to the action of jet fans, most of the smoke was pushed downstream of the fire. The smoke had also dispersed about 55 m upstream of the fire, putting the passengers in this region at great risk. The emissions released from the vehicles in the jam, with their engines running, also posed a threat to human health. Within 8 min after the fire had started, the mass concentrations of O₂, CO₂ and CO were in the ranges of 0.12–0.15, 0.08–0.11 and 0.0006–0.0014, respectively. Therefore, quick evacuation of the passengers is essential in the event of a fire in the tunnel.     

Protecting against key-exposure: strongly key-insulated encryption with optimal threshold

Key-insulated encryption schemes use a combination of key splitting and key evolution to protect against key exposure. Existing schemes, however scale poorly, having cost proportional to the number t of time periods that may be compromised by the adversary, and thus are practical only for small values of t. Yet in practice t might be large. This paper presents a strongly key-insulated encryption scheme with optimal threshold. In our scheme, t need not be known in advance and can be as large as one less than the total number of periods, yet the cost of the scheme is not impacted. This brings key-insulated encryption closer to practice. Our scheme is based on the Boneh-Franklin identity-based encryption (IBE) scheme [9], and exploits algebraic properties of the latter. Another contribution of this paper is to show that (not strongly) key-insulated encryption with optimal threshold and allowing random-access key updates (which our scheme and all others known allow) is equivalent to a restricted form of IBE. This means that the connection between key-insulated encryption and IBE is not accidental. Supported in part by NSF grants CCR-0098123, ANR-0129617 and CCR-0208842, and by an IBM Faculty Partnership Development Award. Supported in part by an NSF graduate fellowship.     

Effect of Li+ ions on structure,properties, and actuation of cellulose electro‐active paper actuator

We have reported an electro‐active paper actuator from regenerated cellulose. After dissolving cellulose fibers with a solution of lithium chloride in N,N‐dimethylacetamide, cellulose was regenerated by combining distillation of cellulose solution along with washing with the mixture of deionized water, isopropyl alcohol, and running water. However, the effect of Li⁺ ions on structure, properties, and the actuation behavior of the actuator was not studied. This article describes the changes in these parameters when the Li⁺ ions are removed by subjecting it to different running water exposure time. The structure and properties of cellulose electro‐active paper and its actuation behavior were studied. As Li⁺ ions content reduced from 4354.17 to 10.26 ppm by increasing the exposure time of running water, crystallinity, Young's modulus, and bending displacement decreased. Details about the investigation have been explained. This elimination of ions is important to increase the piezoelectric effect in EAPap by decreasing the ion migration effect. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2008     

Siblings' differential experiences of marital conflict and differences in psychological adjustment.

The present study examined whether siblings experience marital conflict differently and whether such differences, if present, were associated with differences in their adjustment. Self-report data about marital conflict, children's depressed mood, behavioral conduct, and externalizing problems were obtained from 122 sibling pairs (mean ages = 10 and 12 years) and their parents. Results indicated that siblings were significantly different in exposure to and appraisals of marital conflict. Differences in siblings' exposure to marital conflict were significantly correlated with differences in their depressed mood, behavioral conduct, and externalizing problems. Differences in siblings' feelings of self-blame for marital conflict were significantly correlated with differences in their depressed mood and behavioral conduct. Children who experienced more marital conflict than their siblings had more adjustment problems than their siblings. These results highlight the importance of studying siblings' unique experiences of marital conflict to better understand its impact on children's adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytical prediction of composite beams response in fire situations

In this paper an extension of the method of the Fourier series expansion to the fire analysis of composite beams is presented. In particular the extension concerns the introduction of the temperature dependent interaction of all the components: steel beams, concrete slab and steel connectors. These last are considered of finite stiffness, and a proper account is given to the combined effect of thermal degradation of the properties, and stress amplification caused by the differential thermal expansion across the interface.The proposed method compares very well with some experimental fire tests of simply supported and framed composite beams. Due to its relative simplicity and speed, it can be used for design purposes in evaluating the critical temperature in terms of critical deflection. Finally we recall that the method is capable of dealing with every type of fastening distribution, such as discontinuous or variable length.     

Personal Exposure in Displacement Ventilated Rooms

Personal exposure in a displacement ventilated room is examined. The stratified flow and the considerable concentration gradients necessitate an improvement of the widely used fully mixing compartmental approach. The exposure of a seated and a standing person in proportion to the stratification height is examined by means of full-scale measurements. A breathing thermal manikin is used to simulate a person. It is found that the flow in the boundary layer around a person is able to a great extent to entrain and transport air from below the breathing zone. In the case of non-passive, heated contaminant sources, this entrainment improves the indoor air quality. Measurements of exposure due to a passive contaminant source show a significant dependence on the flow field as well as on the contaminant source location. Poor system performance is found in the case of a passive contaminant released in the lower part of the room close to the occupant. A personal exposure model for displacement ventilated rooms is proposed. The model takes the influence of gradients and the human thermal boundary layer into account. Two new quantities describing the interaction between a person and the ventilation are defined.     

Spline-regression estimation of the influence of exposure dose on cancer probability

Spline regression is used to analyze the influence of radiation on the cancer probability in a group of participants of Chernobyl accident mitigation, depending on the exposure dose. A new method is proposed to approximate modified polygons by linear splines with two nodes. An algorithm for the identification of a transition point is outlined. __________ Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 3, pp. 168–176, May–June 2006.     

森林火情监测预报研究

对现行的森林火情监测方法进行了分析比较。根据实际存在的难题，提出了料为产用的实施方案及应采取的技术措施，进行了实地试验，取得较好的效果。     

Monitoring herbaceous fuel moisture content with SPOT VEGETATION time-series for fire risk prediction in savanna ecosystems

This paper evaluated the capacity of SPOT VEGETATION time-series to monitor herbaceous fuel moisture content (FMC) in order to improve fire risk assessment in the savanna ecosystem of Kruger National Park in South Africa. In situ herbaceous FMC data were used to assess the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Vegetation Dryness Index (VDI), Improved VDI (IVDI), and Accumulated Relative NDVI Decrement (ARND) during the dry season. The effect of increasing amounts of dead vegetation on the monitoring capacity of derived indices was studied by sampling mixed live and dead FMC. The IVDI was proposed as an improvement of the VDI to monitor herbaceous FMC during the dry season. The IVDI is derived by replacing NDVI with the integrated Relative Vegetation Index (iRVI), as an approximation of yearly herbaceous biomass, when analyzing the 2-dimensional space with NDWI. It was shown that the iRVI offered more information than the NDVI in combination with NDWI to monitor FMC. The VDI and IVDI exhibited a significant relation to FMC with R² of 0.25 and 0.73, respectively. The NDWI, however, correlated best with FMC (R² = 0.75), while the correlation of ARND and FMC was weaker (R² = 0.60) than that found for NDVI, NDWI, and IVDI. The use of in situ herbaceous FMC consequently indicated that NDWI is appropriate as spatio-temporal information source of herbaceous FMC variation which can be used to optimize fire risk and behavior assessment for fire management in savanna ecosystems.     

浅谈液化石油气火灾的特点及消防措施

以某煤气公司液化石油气火灾事故为例,详细分析了液化石油气火灾的特点。并针对防火、安全管理、应急预案、扑救措施等问题提出了可借鉴的措施。