Development of an Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index for the Ivorian Coast in West Africa

This study assesses the vulnerable state of the 566-km Ivorian coastal area using the physical (geomorphology, coastal slope, coastal retreat rate, relative sea level rise and wave/Tide energy) and socio-economic (coastal population density, harbor, airport, road, land use and protected area) factors as indicators. This enabled an Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index to be determined for the Ivorian coastal zone. This Index could be defined as the weighted average of indexes based on physical and socio-economic factors. The study revealed that vulnerability of the western and the eastern coastlines of Cote d’Ivoire are strongly influenced by human activities, while physical forcing affects significantly the vulnerability of the central section. The relative vulnerability of the different sections depends also strongly on the geomorphology, wave energy, coastal population density and land use factors. The west and central sections of the coastline are more resilient than the eastern section when integrating physical and socio-economic factors. The Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index, based on physical and socio-economic factors, appears to be more appropriate for coastal vulnerability assessment. These results could be useful in the development of adaptation strategies to increase the resilience of this coastal area and then extended for West Africa Coastal Areas Management.

FIXED POINT INDEXES AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO NONLINEAR INTEGRAL EQUATIONS MODELLING INFECTIOUS DISEASES

In this paper the fixed point index problem for a class of positive operators with boundary control conditions is discussed,and some sufficient conditions for the fixed pointindex to be equal to1 or 0 are given.Moreover,a general fixed point theorem of expansions and compressions for cone is obtained,which generalizes and improves the corresponding results of[3,8,9].As an application,we utilize the results presented above to study the existence conditions of positive solutions of nonlinear integral equations modelling infectious diseases.

Soil Fertility Comparison between Rotations of Tobacco-Rice (TR) and Rape-Rice (RR)

Tobacco-planting plays an important role in ensuring the high-quality tobacco raw materials supply and the local social and economic development in Chenzhou City. In recent years whether tobacco-planting is better for the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility than other crop-planting has been highly concerned. In this study, 16 soil fertility indicators and soil integrated index (IFI) were compared by 21 pairs of fields in Chenzhou city under the rotations of tobacco-rice (TF) and rice-rice (RR), and results showed that, comparing the mean values of soil fertility indicators, the contents of OM, TN, AN, AK, S and IFI were extremely significantly higher in TR than those in RR (p < 0.01), the contents of Cu, Ca, Mg and Fe were significantly higher in TR than those in RR (p < 0.05), but Mn content was significantly lower in TR than those in RR (p < 0.05). Meanwhile the contents of TP, TK and AP were insignificantly higher in TR than those in RR, and the contents of B, Mo and Zn were insignificantly lower in TR than those in RR. The above significant differences in soil fertility indicators were mainly due to relatively higher fertilizer inputs and less nutrient removal during tobacco-growing season than during rape-growing season, the net increase of N, P2O5 and K2O are 8.61, 5.25 and 24.89 kg per 667 m2 respectively in tobacco-growing season, while the net decrease of N, P2O5 and K2O are 8.88, 4.70 and 4.62 kg per 667 m2 respectively in rape-growing season. C.V. of soil fertility indicators and IFI were meanly lower in TR (52.25% and 15.95%, respectively) than those in RR (63.07% and 22.12%, respectively). Comparatively, tobacco-planting can improve soil fertility better than rape-planting when rotated with late rice in Chenzhou city. For tobacco-planting, Mg fertilizer should be applied for 23.8% TR fields, while more N, K, Ca, Mg, S and B fertilizers should be applied for 42.86%, 23.81%, 14.29%, 47.62%, 80.95% and 47.62% RR fields, respectively.

Sliding Mode Control of Coupled Tank Systems Using Conditional Integrators

For the problem of set point regulation of the liquid level in coupled tank systems, we present a continuous sliding mode control(SMC) with a "conditional integrator", which only provides integral action inside the boundary layer. For a special choice of the controller parameters, our design can be viewed as a PID controller with anti-windup and achieves robust regulation.The proposed controller recovers the transient response performance without control chattering. Both full-state feedback as well as output-feedback designs are presented in this work. Our output-feedback design uses a high-gain observer(HGO) which recovers the performance of a state-feedback design where plant parameters are assumed to be known. We consider both interacting as well as non-interacting tanks and analytical results for stability and transient performance are presented in both the cases. The proposed controller continuous SMC with conditional integrators(CSMCCI) provides superior results in terms of the performance measures as well as performance indices than ideal SMC, continuous SMC(CSMC) and continuous SMC with conventional integrator(CSMCI). Experimental results demonstrate good tracking performance in spite of unmodeled dynamics and disturbances.

RIG-A New Management Information System for Railway Transportation

A grid technology together with data warehouse and mediator is used to develop the railway transport management information system （TMIS）, which is aiming at managing and publishing all kinds of enterprise resources among dynamic collections of such information systems with heterogeneous architectures and distributed in geography within Chinese Ministry of Railway. As one logical information integration framework and a uniform interface for accessing resources, a prototype named railway information grid （RIG） is proposed. Its main modules and the key technologies, together with its feasibility, are discussed in detail. RIG can not only provide the integral information service and the interoperability of information at the application level, but also bring us such benefits as： easy use, high efficiency, and reasonable total cost of ownership.

Assessment of river ecosystem health in Tianjin City,China:index of ecological integrity and water comprehensive pollution approach

Evaluation of the river ecological environment can provide a basis for river management and ecological restoration.To conduct a comprehensive health assessment of the rivers in Tianjin,their biological,physical,and chemical indicators are investigated on the basis of 32 river monitoring sites from August to September 2018.The comprehensive pollution and ecological integrity indexes of the rivers are analyzed.Results of the two evaluations,compared to achieve the river ecological environment evaluation,are as follows.1)Index of Ecological Integrity evaluation shows that among the sampling points,18.8%are"healthy",28.1%are"sub-healthy",40.6%are"fair",6.3%are"poor",and 6.3%are"very poor".2)The comprehensive evaluation of the chemical properties of the 32 river ecosystems in Tianjin shows severe overall river pollution and low standard water function area.Of the total sampling sites,16(50%)are heavily contaminated and 10(31.3%)are moderately contaminated.Excessive chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen are the main causes of water pollution.3)The Index of Ecological Integrity(IEI)has high correspondence with environmental factors.Pearson correlation analysis results show that the IEI index is significantly correlated with permanganate index(R=-0.453;P=0.023<0.05).Analysis results using BEST show that ammonia nitrogen is the best environmental parameter to explain the changes in IEI(R_(ho)=0.154;P=0.02<0.05)and those using RELATE show significant correlation between the biotic index and the environmental parameter matrices(R_(ho)=0.154;P=0.034<0.05).

Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine Is Included in Science Citation Index Expanded Journal List from 2008

Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine is included in Science Citation Index Expanded Journal List (SCl-E)from 2008 after a strict judgment process.In addition,this journal is also indexed and abstracted by Index Medicus/PubMed,Chemical Abstract(CA),Excerpta Medica(EMBASE),Abstract Journal

Evaluation of heavy metal contamination hazards in nuisance dust particles, in Kurdistan Province, western Iran

The effects of natural andgeochemical factors depending on heavy metal contamination in nuisance dust particles were evaluated. The nuisance dust particles were sampled using passive deposit gauge method for one year from April2010 to March2011 and the obtained samples were measured for the total contents and the contamination levels of Fe, Mn, Cu and As usinggeo-accumulation index （Igeo ）, enrichment factor （EF） and the integrated pollution index （IPI）. The results showed that, the contamination levels of Fe and Mn based on Igeo values, were uncontaminated （Igeo 〈 0） （variations of the Igeo index was from -3.11 to -1.751 for Fe, from -0.630 to -1.925 for Mn）, while the values of Cu and As were demonstrated to have moderate contamination based on Igeo values （variations of Igeo index was from -1.125 to 0.848 for Cu, and from -2.002 to 1.249 for As）. The analysis of EF also revealed minor to moderate enrichment for Mn （1.215-4.214）, minor to moderately severe enrichment for Cu （2.791-6.484）, and As （1.370-8.462）, respectively. The variation of the IPI index also showed low to moderate level of heavy metal pollution in nuisance dust particulates （0.511-1.829）. The analysis of the results also approved that the natural processes andgeochemical variables （the changing meteorological parameters） can significantly affect the availability of heavy metals in nuisance dust particles in Western Iran.

The next steps in academic integrity-education,awareness,norms,duty and law

We conducted and analyzed several internet surveys in order to understand the profile of global research integrity and ethical awareness,encompassing global population distribution.These were(1)the global distribution of Committee of Publishing Ethics(COPE)membership;(2)the global distribution of“Integrity”or“Ethics”journals;(3)the level of academic integrity awareness in European higher education institutions and(4)awareness of academic integrity in the top universities of Asia and Africa.The results of this survey series highlight seriously imbalanced awareness of research integrity and publishing ethics across the world,especially in developing areas with the highest population density.We therefore propose a new index,the“Academic Integrity Awareness Index”for future discussions across the linked spheres of publishing and research.

The Evolution and Driving Force on Integrating Environmental Protection and High-Quality Economic Development

An index system is constructed to measure the integration of environmental protection and high-quality economic development in different cities in China from 2006 to 2018,and to explore its evolution and driving forces.From the three dimensions of integration foundation,integration depth and integration performance,this paper adopts AHP-Entropy combined weighting method to build the integration index.In addition,this paper comprehensively uses exponential decomposition,comparative analysis and o convergence and divergence analysis to explore the spatio-temporal differences and dynamic mechanisms.The results show that the overall integration level of China's cities continues to improve,of which technological progress is the core driving force,the transformation of development mode is a crucial path,and the intensity of environmental governance is the key support.The evolution and driving forces of the integration level of first-tier cities,new first-tier cities and other cities are significantly different.Promoting integration level is a critical way for resourcebased cities to break the resource curse.Urban agglomeration integration led by the growth pole can effectively improve the overall regional integration level.This paper innovates that the relationship between environmental protection and high-quality economic development is discussed from the perspective of integration,and the paths to improve the integration level of resource-based cities and urban agglomerations are identified.This paper is helpful to clarify the differences in integration levels and driving forces of different cities,and provide a reference value for the precise implementation of high-quality development and“beautiful China.”