Grating-based X-ray imaging can make use of conventional tube sources to provide absorption, refraction and scattering contrast images from a single set of projection images efficiently. In this paper, a fresh cherry ...Grating-based X-ray imaging can make use of conventional tube sources to provide absorption, refraction and scattering contrast images from a single set of projection images efficiently. In this paper, a fresh cherry tomato and a dried umeboshi are imaged by using X-ray Talbot–Lau interferometer. The seed distribution in the scattering image of the cherry tomato, and the wrinkles of epicarp in the refraction image of the umeboshi, are shown distinctly. The refraction and scattering images provide more information on subtle features than the absorption image. Also, the contrast-to-noise ratio values show distinguishing capacity of the three kinds of imaging techniques. The results confirm that grating-based X-ray imaging is of great potential in non-destructive fruit testing.展开更多
The aim of this study is to establish the prevailing conditions of changing climatic trends and change point dates in four selected meteorological stations of Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri in the Niger Delta re...The aim of this study is to establish the prevailing conditions of changing climatic trends and change point dates in four selected meteorological stations of Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Using daily or 24-hourly annual maximum series (AMS) data with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the modified Chowdury Indian Meteorological Department (MCIMD) models were adopted to downscale the time series data. Mann-Kendall (MK) trend and Sen’s Slope Estimator (SSE) test showed a statistically significant trend for Uyo and Benin, while Port Harcourt and Warri showed mild trends. The Sen’s Slope magnitude and variation rate were 21.6, 10.8, 6.00 and 4.4 mm/decade, respectively. The trend change-point analysis showed the initial rainfall change-point dates as 2002, 2005, 1988, and 2000 for Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri, respectively. These prove positive changing climatic conditions for rainfall in the study area. Erosion and flood control facilities analysis and design in the Niger Delta will require the application of Non-stationary IDF modelling.展开更多
There is considerable concern about the potential impact of climate change on agriculture, such as the accumulation of chilling hours needed to break the dormancy of many perennial plants, like fruit trees. Therefore,...There is considerable concern about the potential impact of climate change on agriculture, such as the accumulation of chilling hours needed to break the dormancy of many perennial plants, like fruit trees. Therefore, this study aimed to determine if there had been a significant change in air temperatures and chill hours, chill units, and chill portion accumulation in South Carolina over the last two decades. Two decades of daily maximum (T<sub>max</sub>) and minimum (T<sub>min</sub>) air temperature records were obtained from weather stations in thirty-one counties in South Carolina. Hourly temperature data, reconstructed from the daily data, were used to calculate the daily and annual chill hours, chill units, and chill portions accumulation using four different chill models for each location and year. The chill models included the T(t) °C model, the 0°C °C model, the Utah model, and the Dynamic model. For each county, regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the historical trends. Despite year-to-year variability, the tendency was a statistically significant (α = 0.05) increase in air temperature, averaging 0.089°C per year for 20 out of 31 counties in South Carolina. The other 11 counties had no significant change in temperature. The average temperature increase in the 31 counties was 0.072°C per year. The temperature increase resulted in a decrease in annual chill accumulation during the fall to spring, averaging 17.7 chill hours, 8.6 chill hours, 17.0 chill units, and 0.40 chill portions per year calculated with the T(t) °C, 0°C °C, Utah, and Dynamic models, respectively. However, whether this decrease in chill values was statistically significant or not depended on the chill model used. This study did not investigate the cause of the observed historical trends in temperature and chill accumulation. Still, if the trends continue, they could significantly impact the future of the temperate fruit tree industry in the state.展开更多
Global climate change promotes the energy system reform. Achieving a high proportion of renewable energy becomes the major countries' energy strategy. As proposed in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution...Global climate change promotes the energy system reform. Achieving a high proportion of renewable energy becomes the major countries' energy strategy. As proposed in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDC), China intends to raise the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030. That ambitious goal means the non-fossil energy supplies by 2030 will be 7-8 times that of 2005, and the annual increase rate is more than 8% within the 25 years. Besides, the capacity of wind power, solar power, hydropower and nuclear power reaches 400 GW, 350 GW, 450 GW, and 150 GW respectively, and China's non-fossil power capacity is even greater than the U.S.'s total power capacity. In addition, the scale of natural gas increases. Consequently, by 2030, the proportion of coal falls from the current 70% to below 50%, and the CO_2 intensity of energy consumption decreases by 20% compared with the level of 2005, which play important roles in significantly reducing the CO_2 intensity of GDP. Since China has confirmed to achieve the CO_2 emissions peak around 2030,at that time, the newly added energy demand will be satisfied by non-fossil energy, and the consumption of fossil fuel will stop growing. By2030, non-fossil energy accounts for 20%, and the large scale and sound momentum of new and renewable energy industry will support the growth of total energy demand, which plays a key role in CO_2 emissions peaking and beginning to decline, and lays the foundation for establishing a new energy system dominated by new and renewable energy in the second half of the 21 st century as well as finally achieving the CO2zero-emission.展开更多
Date palm tree（Phoenix dactylifera L.）is an important crop,which is cultivated in many countries extending from North Africa to the Middle East,including many of the GCC（Gulf Cooperation Council）Countries（Allaith...Date palm tree（Phoenix dactylifera L.）is an important crop,which is cultivated in many countries extending from North Africa to the Middle East,including many of the GCC（Gulf Cooperation Council）Countries（Allaith,2008）.展开更多
Natural hazards such as hurricanes may cause extensive economic losses and social disruption for civil structures and infrastructures in coastal areas, implying the importance of understanding the construction perform...Natural hazards such as hurricanes may cause extensive economic losses and social disruption for civil structures and infrastructures in coastal areas, implying the importance of understanding the construction performance subjected to hurricanes and assessing the hurricane damages properly. The intensity and frequency of hurricanes have been reported to change with time due to the potential impact of climate change.In this paper, a probability-based model of hurricane damage assessment for coastal constructions is proposed taking into account the non-stationarity in hurricane intensity and frequency. The nonhomogeneous Poisson process is employed to model the non-stationarity in hurricane occurrence while the non-stationarity in hurricane intensity is reflected by the time-variant statistical parameters(e.g., mean value and/or standard deviation), with which the mean value and variation of the cumulative hurricane damage are evaluated explicitly. The Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA, is chosen to illustrate the hurricane damage assessment method proposed in this paper. The role of non-stationarity in hurricane intensity and occurrence rate due to climate change in hurricane damage is investigated using some representative changing patterns of hurricane parameters.展开更多
基金supported by Japan-Asia Youth Exchange program in Science administered by the Japan Science and Technology Agencythe National Basic Research Program of China(No.2012CB825801)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.11505188 and 11179004)
文摘Grating-based X-ray imaging can make use of conventional tube sources to provide absorption, refraction and scattering contrast images from a single set of projection images efficiently. In this paper, a fresh cherry tomato and a dried umeboshi are imaged by using X-ray Talbot–Lau interferometer. The seed distribution in the scattering image of the cherry tomato, and the wrinkles of epicarp in the refraction image of the umeboshi, are shown distinctly. The refraction and scattering images provide more information on subtle features than the absorption image. Also, the contrast-to-noise ratio values show distinguishing capacity of the three kinds of imaging techniques. The results confirm that grating-based X-ray imaging is of great potential in non-destructive fruit testing.
文摘The aim of this study is to establish the prevailing conditions of changing climatic trends and change point dates in four selected meteorological stations of Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Using daily or 24-hourly annual maximum series (AMS) data with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the modified Chowdury Indian Meteorological Department (MCIMD) models were adopted to downscale the time series data. Mann-Kendall (MK) trend and Sen’s Slope Estimator (SSE) test showed a statistically significant trend for Uyo and Benin, while Port Harcourt and Warri showed mild trends. The Sen’s Slope magnitude and variation rate were 21.6, 10.8, 6.00 and 4.4 mm/decade, respectively. The trend change-point analysis showed the initial rainfall change-point dates as 2002, 2005, 1988, and 2000 for Uyo, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Warri, respectively. These prove positive changing climatic conditions for rainfall in the study area. Erosion and flood control facilities analysis and design in the Niger Delta will require the application of Non-stationary IDF modelling.
文摘There is considerable concern about the potential impact of climate change on agriculture, such as the accumulation of chilling hours needed to break the dormancy of many perennial plants, like fruit trees. Therefore, this study aimed to determine if there had been a significant change in air temperatures and chill hours, chill units, and chill portion accumulation in South Carolina over the last two decades. Two decades of daily maximum (T<sub>max</sub>) and minimum (T<sub>min</sub>) air temperature records were obtained from weather stations in thirty-one counties in South Carolina. Hourly temperature data, reconstructed from the daily data, were used to calculate the daily and annual chill hours, chill units, and chill portions accumulation using four different chill models for each location and year. The chill models included the T(t) °C model, the 0°C °C model, the Utah model, and the Dynamic model. For each county, regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the historical trends. Despite year-to-year variability, the tendency was a statistically significant (α = 0.05) increase in air temperature, averaging 0.089°C per year for 20 out of 31 counties in South Carolina. The other 11 counties had no significant change in temperature. The average temperature increase in the 31 counties was 0.072°C per year. The temperature increase resulted in a decrease in annual chill accumulation during the fall to spring, averaging 17.7 chill hours, 8.6 chill hours, 17.0 chill units, and 0.40 chill portions per year calculated with the T(t) °C, 0°C °C, Utah, and Dynamic models, respectively. However, whether this decrease in chill values was statistically significant or not depended on the chill model used. This study did not investigate the cause of the observed historical trends in temperature and chill accumulation. Still, if the trends continue, they could significantly impact the future of the temperate fruit tree industry in the state.
文摘Global climate change promotes the energy system reform. Achieving a high proportion of renewable energy becomes the major countries' energy strategy. As proposed in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDC), China intends to raise the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030. That ambitious goal means the non-fossil energy supplies by 2030 will be 7-8 times that of 2005, and the annual increase rate is more than 8% within the 25 years. Besides, the capacity of wind power, solar power, hydropower and nuclear power reaches 400 GW, 350 GW, 450 GW, and 150 GW respectively, and China's non-fossil power capacity is even greater than the U.S.'s total power capacity. In addition, the scale of natural gas increases. Consequently, by 2030, the proportion of coal falls from the current 70% to below 50%, and the CO_2 intensity of energy consumption decreases by 20% compared with the level of 2005, which play important roles in significantly reducing the CO_2 intensity of GDP. Since China has confirmed to achieve the CO_2 emissions peak around 2030,at that time, the newly added energy demand will be satisfied by non-fossil energy, and the consumption of fossil fuel will stop growing. By2030, non-fossil energy accounts for 20%, and the large scale and sound momentum of new and renewable energy industry will support the growth of total energy demand, which plays a key role in CO_2 emissions peaking and beginning to decline, and lays the foundation for establishing a new energy system dominated by new and renewable energy in the second half of the 21 st century as well as finally achieving the CO2zero-emission.
基金supported by the grant from The Research Council,Oman(RC/AGR/FOOD/11/01)
文摘Date palm tree（Phoenix dactylifera L.）is an important crop,which is cultivated in many countries extending from North Africa to the Middle East,including many of the GCC（Gulf Cooperation Council）Countries（Allaith,2008）.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No.51578315the Major Projects Fund of Chinese Ministry of Transport under contract No.201332849A090
文摘Natural hazards such as hurricanes may cause extensive economic losses and social disruption for civil structures and infrastructures in coastal areas, implying the importance of understanding the construction performance subjected to hurricanes and assessing the hurricane damages properly. The intensity and frequency of hurricanes have been reported to change with time due to the potential impact of climate change.In this paper, a probability-based model of hurricane damage assessment for coastal constructions is proposed taking into account the non-stationarity in hurricane intensity and frequency. The nonhomogeneous Poisson process is employed to model the non-stationarity in hurricane occurrence while the non-stationarity in hurricane intensity is reflected by the time-variant statistical parameters(e.g., mean value and/or standard deviation), with which the mean value and variation of the cumulative hurricane damage are evaluated explicitly. The Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA, is chosen to illustrate the hurricane damage assessment method proposed in this paper. The role of non-stationarity in hurricane intensity and occurrence rate due to climate change in hurricane damage is investigated using some representative changing patterns of hurricane parameters.
