In accordance with a revision of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, there is an accelerating trend towards charging for plastic shopping bags (PSBs) in Japan for the purpose of reducing their discharge. The...In accordance with a revision of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, there is an accelerating trend towards charging for plastic shopping bags (PSBs) in Japan for the purpose of reducing their discharge. The objectives of this research were to gauge, by means of a questionnaire survey, the opinions of retailers with regard to charging for PSBs, and to consider future directions for reducing the quantity of waste discharged. A questionnaire survey on charging for PSBs was conducted for retail stores in Shizuoka City. The survey was carried out in two phases. The results of the first phase (August to October 2008) showed that supermarkets were generally positive, while conversely other retailer types were negative. The results of the second phase (November to December, 2010), targeting only supermarkets that had introduced charging after the first survey, showed that there was no major confusion and the shift proceeded relatively smoothly. In addition, the number of customers did not decline on account of charging, and the ratio of shoppers bringing their own reusable "eco bags" jumped dramatically. On these accounts, it is evident that charging for PSBs is an effective means of reducing usage of PSBs. The authors view it as important for the relevant governmental agencies to work towards promoting charging at retailers and simultaneously repeatedly explaining to consumers the necessity for charging.展开更多
Business as Usual (BaU) scenario in developing countries has been a debated issue in climate change negotiations. This paper analyzes different definitions of BaU and points out that the major difference among these...Business as Usual (BaU) scenario in developing countries has been a debated issue in climate change negotiations. This paper analyzes different definitions of BaU and points out that the major difference among these definitions is how to set the starting point of BaU projections, that is the so called base year. Some international institutions use current policy scenarios to project a BaU trajectory of developing countries. Such definition will lead to an underestimation of BaU emissions of developing countries and thus an underestimation of mitigation efforts. This paper concludes with a suggestion to use a without policy scenario with a clear base year as definition of BaU. Such a definition will set an objective benchmark to assess mitigation efforts of develonin countries.展开更多
In order to realize the prediction of a chaotic time series of mine water discharge,an approach incorporating phase space reconstruction theory and statistical learning theory was studied.A differential entropy ratio ...In order to realize the prediction of a chaotic time series of mine water discharge,an approach incorporating phase space reconstruction theory and statistical learning theory was studied.A differential entropy ratio method was used to determine embedding parameters to reconstruct the phase space.We used a multi-layer adaptive best-fitting parameter search algorithm to estimate the LS-SVM optimal parameters which were adopted to construct a LS-SVM prediction model for the mine water chaotic time series.The results show that the simulation performance of a single-step prediction based on this LS-SVM model is markedly superior to that based on a RBF model.The multi-step prediction results based on LS-SVM model can reflect the development of mine water discharge and can be used for short-term forecasting of mine water discharge.展开更多
文摘In accordance with a revision of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, there is an accelerating trend towards charging for plastic shopping bags (PSBs) in Japan for the purpose of reducing their discharge. The objectives of this research were to gauge, by means of a questionnaire survey, the opinions of retailers with regard to charging for PSBs, and to consider future directions for reducing the quantity of waste discharged. A questionnaire survey on charging for PSBs was conducted for retail stores in Shizuoka City. The survey was carried out in two phases. The results of the first phase (August to October 2008) showed that supermarkets were generally positive, while conversely other retailer types were negative. The results of the second phase (November to December, 2010), targeting only supermarkets that had introduced charging after the first survey, showed that there was no major confusion and the shift proceeded relatively smoothly. In addition, the number of customers did not decline on account of charging, and the ratio of shoppers bringing their own reusable "eco bags" jumped dramatically. On these accounts, it is evident that charging for PSBs is an effective means of reducing usage of PSBs. The authors view it as important for the relevant governmental agencies to work towards promoting charging at retailers and simultaneously repeatedly explaining to consumers the necessity for charging.
基金supported by Natural Science Foundation(No.71173131)National Program on Key BasicResearch Projects(No.2010CB95500)of China
文摘Business as Usual (BaU) scenario in developing countries has been a debated issue in climate change negotiations. This paper analyzes different definitions of BaU and points out that the major difference among these definitions is how to set the starting point of BaU projections, that is the so called base year. Some international institutions use current policy scenarios to project a BaU trajectory of developing countries. Such definition will lead to an underestimation of BaU emissions of developing countries and thus an underestimation of mitigation efforts. This paper concludes with a suggestion to use a without policy scenario with a clear base year as definition of BaU. Such a definition will set an objective benchmark to assess mitigation efforts of develonin countries.
基金supported by the Science and Research projects for Ph.D. candidates in the faculty of Xuzhou Normal University (No.08XLR12)Natural Science Foundation of Xuzhou Normal University (No.09XLA10)
文摘In order to realize the prediction of a chaotic time series of mine water discharge,an approach incorporating phase space reconstruction theory and statistical learning theory was studied.A differential entropy ratio method was used to determine embedding parameters to reconstruct the phase space.We used a multi-layer adaptive best-fitting parameter search algorithm to estimate the LS-SVM optimal parameters which were adopted to construct a LS-SVM prediction model for the mine water chaotic time series.The results show that the simulation performance of a single-step prediction based on this LS-SVM model is markedly superior to that based on a RBF model.The multi-step prediction results based on LS-SVM model can reflect the development of mine water discharge and can be used for short-term forecasting of mine water discharge.