Lake Chivero: A management case study

Lake Chivero in Zimbabwe was shown to be hypereutrophic. Historical data showed that the eutrophication process had been arrested in the late 1970s. However, a combination of poor planning, multiplicity of jurisdiction, mismatch between rate of urbanization and waste management investment, recent changes in the local climate and a permissive, immature political system that called for no public accountability resulted in environmental management breakdown leading to hypereutrophication of the lake. The case of Lake Chivero is presented as an example of a wider global issue regarding the status of environmental management in competition with other priorities in emerging democracies.     

A Lattice Approach to Image Segmentation

After a formal definition of segmentation as the largest partition of the space according to a criterion σ and a function f, the notion of a morphological connection is reminded. It is used as an input to a central theorem of the paper (Theorem 8), that identifies segmentation with the connections that are based on connective criteria. Just as connections, the segmentations can then be regrouped by suprema and infima. The generality of the theorem makes it valid for functions from any space to any other one. Two propositions make precise the AND and OR combinations of connective criteria. The soundness of the approach is demonstrated by listing a series of segmentation techniques. One considers first the cases when the segmentation under study does not involve initial seeds. Various modes of regularity are discussed, which all derive from Lipschitz functions. A second category of examples involves the presence of seeds around which the partition of the space is organized. An overall proposition shows that these examples are a matter for the central theorem. Watershed and jump connection based segmentations illustrate this type of situation. The third and last category of examples deals with cases when the segmentation occurs in an indirect space, such as an histogram, and is then projected back on the actual space under study. The relationships between filtering and segmentation are then investigated. A theoretical chapter introduces and studies the two notions of a pulse opening and of a connected operator. The conditions under which a family of pulse openings can yield a connected filter are clarified. The ability of segmentations to generate pyramids, or hierarchies, is analyzed. A distinction is made between weak hierarchies where the partitions increase when going up in the pyramid, and the strong hierarchies where the various levels are structured as semi-groups, and particularly as granulometric semi-groups. The last section is based on one example, and goes back over the controversy about “lattice” versus “functional” optimization. The problem is now tackled via a case of colour segmentation, where the saturation serves as a cursor between luminance and hue. The emphasis is put on the difficulty of grouping the various necessary optimizations into a single one.     

Daily impact of climate on the pattern of urban family life : Indigenous courtyard houses of Baghdad regions of the hot-dry climates Part I: Daily shifts or daily movements in summer

During the day, there are considerable variations in the climatic factors prevailing in these regions. This is especially so during the 24-hour daily cycle of the long, hot and dry summer (mid-May to midOctober). Such climatic conditions have had a considerable impact on the daily living pattern of family life in the same season, particularly in the urban areas. During the same 24-hour cycle, they have compelled the inhabitants to shift their living activities both vertically in section and horizontally in plan; they do this in pursuit of more acceptable, if not, desirable internal thermal environmental ambience.     

Restoration of masonry facades, renders and final coats in a severe climate

The restoration of relatively old masonry buildings, 1870-1920, represents about 119930 flats and offices in the 4-5 largest cities in Norway. Driving rain and a severe climate are the key factors for deterioration. The paper describes a case study at the city campus of the University of Oslo.     

Cyclic strength of parts with overlapping zones formed by roller burnishing

The authors study residual stresses in and cyclic strength of shaft with overlapping zones formed during roller burnishing. The most significant decrease in fatigue strength is shown to occur in the presence of an overlapping zone with the areas arising due to a lowered roller burnishing pressure in the second pass. __________ Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 3, pp. 144–148, May–June, 2006.     

Cross-Border Migration of Hong Kong Residents Under the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy

Hong Kong is known as a migrant city because its population was sourced from mainland China, and because there has always been outflows of people to overseas countries, especially from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. Emigration to mainland China has become a significant recent trend. This article discusses this phenomenon in the theoretical contexts of migration and trans-border residential development. It contends that the trend will intensify more quickly than other cross-border movements because the two systems are separated by a political border within one country, and because there are common cultural ties and rapid economic integration.     

Health and Indoor Climate Complaints of 7043 office Workers in 61 Buildings in the Netherlands

During the winter of 1988/1989, the relationships between the prevalence of work-related health and indoor climate complaints and a number of building, management, workplace and personal characteristics have been investigated in a study in more than 60 office buildings located throughout the Netherlands. To collect the information, a questionnaire was prepared on health and indoor climate complaints and personal and workplace characteristics. A checklist was used to obtain information on building characteristics More than 7000 questionnaires were completed by the regular users of the buildings investigated. The results showed that the prevalence of symptoms was higher in air-conditioned buildings than in naturally or mechanically ventilated buildings. some other variables were also related with most work-related complaints after adjustment for selected management, personal, workplace and job characteristics. These included gender, work satisfaction in general, presence of allergies and/or respiratory symptoms, and personal control over temperature at the workplace. No differences were found in symptom prevalences between buildings with spray and steam humidification. The combination of air-conditioning and humidification did not lead to further increases in the prevalence of complaints as compared to buildings with only airconditioning or only humidification.     

无线传感器网络在温室环境监测中的应用研究

以温室环境监测为应用背景,分析温室环境监控的特点,给出温室环境监控的系统体系结构,并结合温室监控的具体应用提出节能的数据融合算法,仿真实验表明该算法能有效提高节点能量的利用率和延长网络生命周期。     

拉萨河流域径流对土地利用和气候变化的响应分析

拉萨河流域处青藏高原中南部,因其独特的地理位置是对气候变化较为敏感的区域之一,同时也是青藏高原人口和耕地较为密集区域。在建立SWAT模型对拉萨河流域水循环过程进行模拟的基础上,通过设置不同气候情景与土地利用状况,分析近30 a来拉萨河流域径流变化的成因,并研究径流对气候因子变化的敏感性。结果表明:①气候变化与土地利用对径流影响占比分别约为82.95%和17.05%,主要原因在于近30 a拉萨河流域土地利用情况变化不大,而气温、降水则呈显著增加趋势;②降水每增加10%,流域径流约增加11.8%,且径流对降水变化敏感性的空间差异性较小;③气温每增加1 ℃,流域总径流约增加2.5%,但径流随气温变化的空间差异性较大,其中,中上游地区径流减小0.7%,下游地区径流约增加3.6%。