Mapping Air Quality Using Remote Sensing Technology: A Case Study of Nairobi County

Nairobi County experiences rapid industrialization and urbanization that contributes to the deteriorating state of air quality, posing a potential health risk to its growing population. Currently, in Nairobi County, most air quality monitoring stations use low-cost, inaccurate monitors prone to defects. The study’s objective was to map Nairobi County’s air quality using freely available remotely sensed imagery. The Air Pollution Index (API) formula was used to characterize the air quality from cloud-free Landsat satellite images i.e., Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+, and Landsat 8 OLI from Google Earth Engine. The API values were computed based on vegetation indices namely NDVI, TVI, DVI, and the SWIR1 and NIR bands on the QGIS platform. Qualitative accuracy assessment was done using sample points drawn from residential, industrial, green spaces, and traffic hotspot categories, based on a passive-random sampling technique. In this study, Landsat 5 API imagery for 2010 provided a reliable representation of local conditions but indicated significant pollution in green spaces, with recorded values ranging from -143 to 334. The study found that Landsat 7 API imagery in 2002 showed expected results with the range of values being -55 to 287, while Landsat 8 indicated high pollution levels in Nairobi. The results emphasized the importance of air quality factors in API calibration and the unmatched spatial coverage of satellite observations over ground-based monitoring techniques. The study recommends the recalibration of the API formula for characteristic regions, exploring newer satellite sensors like those onboard Landsat 9 and Sentinel 2, and involving key stakeholders in a discourse to develop a suitable Kenyan air quality index.

Fluid-chemical modeling of the near-cathode sheath formation process in a high current broken in DC air circuit breaker

When the contacts of a medium-voltage DC air circuit breaker(DCCB) are separated, the energy distribution of the arc is determined by the formation process of the near-electrode sheath. Therefore, the voltage drop through the near-electrode sheath is an important means to build up the arc voltage, which directly determines the current-limiting performance of the DCCB. A numerical model to describe the near-electrode sheath formation process can provide insight into the physical mechanism of the arc formation, and thus provide a method for arc energy regulation. In this work, we establish a two-dimensional axisymmetric time-varying model of a medium-voltage DCCB arc when interrupted by high current based on a fluid-chemical model involving 16 kinds of species and 46 collision reactions. The transient distributions of electron number density, positive and negative ion number density, net space charge density, axial electric field, axial potential between electrodes, and near-cathode sheath are obtained from the numerical model. The computational results show that the electron density in the arc column increases, then decreases, and then stabilizes during the near-cathode sheath formation process, and the arc column's diameter gradually becomes wider. The 11.14 V–12.33 V drops along the17 μm space charge layer away from the cathode(65.5 k V/m–72.5 k V/m) when the current varies from 20 k A–80 k A.The homogeneous external magnetic field has little effect on the distribution of particles in the near-cathode sheath core,but the electron number density at the near-cathode sheath periphery can increase as the magnetic field increases and the homogeneous external magnetic field will lead to arc diffusion. The validity of the numerical model can be proven by comparison with the experiment.

Study of three-dimensional spatial diffuse discharge in contact electrode structure applied to air purification

In this work,based on the role of pre-ionization of the non-uniform electric field and its effect of reducing the collisional ionization coefficient,a diffuse dielectric barrier discharge plasma is formed in the open space outside the electrode structure at a lower voltage by constructing a three-dimensional non-uniform spatial electric field using a contact electrode structure.The air purification study is also carried out.Firstly,a contact electrode structure is constructed using a three-dimensional wire electrode.The distribution characteristics of the spatial electric field formed by this electrode structure are analyzed,and the effects of the non-uniform electric field and the different angles of the vertical wire on the generation of three-dimensional spatial diffuse discharge are investigated.Secondly,the copper foam contact electrode structure is constructed using copper foam material,and the effects of different mesh sizes on the electric field distribution are analyzed.The results show that as the mesh size of the copper foam becomes larger,a strong electric field region exists not only on the surface of the insulating layer,but also on the surface of the vertical wires inside the copper foam,i.e.,the strong electric field region shows a three-dimensional distribution.Besides,as the mesh size increases,the area of the vertical strong electric field also increases.However,the electric field strength on the surface of the insulating layer gradually decreases.Therefore,the appropriate mesh size can effectively increase the discharge area,which is conducive to improving the air purification efficiency.Finally,a highly permeable stacked electrode structure of multilayer wire-copper foam is designed.In combination with an ozone treatment catalyst,an air purification device is fabricated,and the air purification experiment is carried out.

Recent progress of self-supported air electrodes for flexible Zn-air batteries

Smart wearable devices are regarded to be the next prevailing technology product after smartphones and smart homes,and thus there has recently been rapid development in flexible electronic energy storage devices.Among them,flexible solid-state zinc-air batteries have received widespread attention because of their high energy density,good safety,and stability.Efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts are the primary consideration in the development of flexible solid-state zinc-air batteries,and self-supported air cathodes are strong candidates because of their advantages including simplified fabrication process,reduced interfacial resistance,accelerated electron transfer,and good flexibility.This review outlines the research progress in the design and construction of nanoarray bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.Starting from the configuration and basic principles of zinc-air batteries and the strategies for the design of bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts,a detailed discussion of self-supported air cathodes on carbon and metal substrates and their uses in flexible zinc-air batteries will follow.Finally,the challenges and opportunities in the development of flexible zinc-air batteries will be discussed.

Space/Air Covert Communications:Potentials,Scenarios,and Key Technologies

Space/air communications have been envisioned as an essential part of the next-generation mobile communication networks for providing highquality global connectivity. However, the inherent broadcasting nature of wireless propagation environment and the broad coverage pose severe threats to the protection of private data. Emerging covert communications provides a promising solution to achieve robust communication security. Aiming at facilitating the practical implementation of covert communications in space/air networks, we present a tutorial overview of its potentials, scenarios, and key technologies. Specifically, first, the commonly used covertness constraint model, covert performance metrics, and potential application scenarios are briefly introduced. Then, several efficient methods that introduce uncertainty into the covert system are thoroughly summarized, followed by several critical enabling technologies, including joint resource allocation and deployment/trajectory design, multi-antenna and beamforming techniques, reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS), and artificial intelligence algorithms. Finally, we highlight some open issues for future investigation.

The Design of an Air Rower That Can Purify Indoor Air

To solve the problem that utilizing an air rower lowers indoor air quality due to the dust stirred up in the course of rowing, an air rower is designed to have the extra function of air purifying. The designed rower is composed of six parts, which are the frame, air generator, transmission part, air purifying filter cartridge, performance monitor, and electric motor. To fulfill the task, the filter cartridge is vertically arranged to lead the air to enter from the lower part and vent out of the upper part to filter and purify the air before it enters the generator so as that the indoor air is well circulated to improve the air purification effect when the rower is utilizing. The modular detachable design allows the air filter and electric motor to be installed and disassembled to adapt to different air purification needs. The designed rower has the benefit of lower purchasing cost and energy saving that may motivate exercising, bringing more fun and the sense of accomplishment.

具有时滞效应的air2stream河流水温模型及应用研究

高精度河流水温模型对于深入了解水温的时空变化特征和河流生态修复具有重要意义。基于数据驱动的air2stream模型在保证预测精度的同时,避免了计算的复杂性,已成为河流水温模拟常用的模型。由于水的热惯性及水文条件等的影响,河流水温变化往往显著滞后于气温变化,而air2stream原模型并未考虑滞后效应,导致该模型在流量未知情况下实际精度偏低。为解决该问题,采用气温-水温皮尔逊相关系数计算时滞天数,构建具有时滞的air2stream新模型,进一步根据长江中下游地区两个监测站的多年实测数据验证新模型的有效性和稳定性。结果表明:新模型在不引进额外观测数据的条件下具有更高精度且性能更稳定。相比原模型,在两个监测站新模型的均方根误差分别降低约4.29%和5.85%。新模型具有精度高、水文要素需求少的特点,可为长江中下游的水环境影响评价和生态保护提供依据。

基于Aqua卫星AIRS数据的南大洋大气逆温和逆湿特性研究

南大洋大气普遍存在着逆温和逆湿现象,其分布和变化对海-冰-气之间的物质和通量交换具有重要影响。利用Aqua卫星上搭载的大气红外探测器(AIRS)观测数据,提取了南大洋大气的逆温和逆湿特性,并研究了其时空分布与变化特征。此外,以全球无线电探空数据集的探测结果为参考值,分析了AIRS在进行大气逆温和逆湿探测过程中受到云量影响的特征。结果表明,AIRS估计的逆温特性受云量的影响较小,在多云条件下AIRS也可精确地估计逆温特性。利用AIRS最新的第7版(V7)数据产品对2004-2020年南大洋大气逆温和逆湿的频率(强度)进行研究,发现秋冬季比春夏季高(强),在龙尼冰架、罗斯冰架和南极半岛附近的海域的大气出现逆温和逆湿现象较其他区域更频繁,且强度更强。

基于AirTOp的终端区扇区负荷校准方法研究

管制员工作负荷的评估是扇区运行的一个重要论题,它对提高机场终端区容量值,进而增加航班量和经济收益具有重要意义。结合北京终端区的管制员实际工作负荷评估和校准工作,提出了一种基于AirTOp仿真软件的终端区进近扇区负荷校准的新思路和方法。通过对比同等运行环境下的实际管制负荷与仿真输出,校准管制负荷权重设置,获得一个可用于仿真管制员负荷评估的负荷权值汇总表,使用交叉验证方法将校准后的权值作为输入进行面向扇区的计算机仿真。结果显示仿真负荷与实际负荷偏差值小于±2,证明该校准方法可以适用于对复杂终端区扇区负荷的评估。

磁共振AIR-魔毯线圈在胸椎结核扫描中的应用价值

目的探讨联合应用AIR-魔毯线圈磁共振成像(MRI)对胸椎结核扫描图像信噪比(signal to noise ratio,SNR)、对比噪声比(contrast to noise ratio,CNR)和脂肪抑制成像效果的价值。方法选取我院80例经手术病理证实为胸椎结核患者,按1:1随机分为两组,应用常规线圈(脊柱相控阵线圈,头颈联合线圈)、常规线圈联合AIR魔毯线圈对两组患者分别进行扫描。扫描序列包括胸椎矢状位T_(2)WI,T_(1)WI,T_(2)FLEX,进一步测量、比较SNR,CNR及脂肪抑制效果,分析MRI多序列诊断胸腰椎结核的准确率、特异度和灵敏度。结果常规线圈联合AIR-魔毯线圈扫描组,胸椎矢状位图像的SNR、CNR及压脂效果优于常规线圈组。结论联合应用AIR-魔毯线圈的图像SNR、CNR得到提高,脂肪抑制效果稳定良好。

Effects of air damping on quality factors of different probes in tapping mode atomic force microscopy

The AFM probe in tapping mode is a continuous process of energy dissipation,from moving away from to intermittent contact with the sample surfaces.At present,studies regarding the energy dissipation mechanism of this continuous process have only been reported sporadically,and there are no systematic explanations or experimental verifications of the energy dissipation mechanism in each stage of the continuous process.The quality factors can be used to characterize the energy dissipation in TM-AFM systems.In this study,the vibration model of the microcantilever beam was established,coupling the vibration and damping effects of the microcantilever beam.The quality factor of the vibrating microcantilever beam under damping was derived,and the air viscous damping when the probe is away from the sample and the air squeeze film damping when the probe is close to the sample were calculated.In addition,the mechanism of the damping effects of different shapes of probes at different tip–sample distances was analyzed.The accuracy of the theoretical simplified model was verified using both experimental and simulation methods.A clearer understanding of the kinetic characteristics and damping mechanism of the TM-AFM was achieved by examining the air damping dissipation mechanism of AFM probes in the tapping mode,which was very important for improving both the quality factor and the imaging quality of the TM-AFM system.This study’s research findings also provided theoretical references and experimental methods for the future study of the energy dissipation mechanism of micro-nano-electromechanical systems.

Microstructure design of advanced magnesium-air battery anodes

Metal-air battery is an environmental friendly energy storage system with unique open structure.Magnesium(Mg)and its alloys have been extensively attempted as anodes for air batteries due to high theoretical energy density,low cost,and recyclability.However,the study on Mg-air battery(MAB)is still at the laboratory level currently,mainly owing to the low anodic efficiency caused by the poor corrosion resistance.In order to reduce corrosion losses and achieve optimal utilization efficiency of Mg anode,the design strategies are reviewed from microstructure perspectives.Firstly,the corrosion behaviors have been discussed,especially the negative difference effect derived by hydrogen evolution.Special attention is given to the effect of anode micro-structures on the MAB,which includes grain size,grain orientation,second phases,crystal structure,twins,and dislocations.For further improvement,the discharge performance,long period stacking ordered phase and its enhancing effect are considered.Meanwhile,given the current debates over Mg dendrites,the potential risk,the impact on discharge,and the elimination strategies are discussed.Microstructure control and single crystal would be promising ways for MAB anode.

Mastering air combat game with deep reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning has been applied to air combat problems in recent years,and the idea of curriculum learning is often used for reinforcement learning,but traditional curriculum learning suffers from the problem of plasticity loss in neural networks.Plasticity loss is the difficulty of learning new knowledge after the network has converged.To this end,we propose a motivational curriculum learning distributed proximal policy optimization(MCLDPPO)algorithm,through which trained agents can significantly outperform the predictive game tree and mainstream reinforcement learning methods.The motivational curriculum learning is designed to help the agent gradually improve its combat ability by observing the agent's unsatisfactory performance and providing appropriate rewards as a guide.Furthermore,a complete tactical maneuver is encapsulated based on the existing air combat knowledge,and through the flexible use of these maneuvers,some tactics beyond human knowledge can be realized.In addition,we designed an interruption mechanism for the agent to increase the frequency of decisionmaking when the agent faces an emergency.When the number of threats received by the agent changes,the current action is interrupted in order to reacquire observations and make decisions again.Using the interruption mechanism can significantly improve the performance of the agent.To simulate actual air combat better,we use digital twin technology to simulate real air battles and propose a parallel battlefield mechanism that can run multiple simulation environments simultaneously,effectively improving data throughput.The experimental results demonstrate that the agent can fully utilize the situational information to make reasonable decisions and provide tactical adaptation in the air combat,verifying the effectiveness of the algorithmic framework proposed in this paper.

Effects of dust controls on respirable coal mine dust composition and particle sizes:case studies on auxiliary scrubbers and canopy air curtain

Control of dust in underground coal mines is critical for mitigating both safety and health hazards.For decades,the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH)has led research to evaluate the effectiveness of various dust control technologies in coal mines.Recent studies have included the evaluation of auxiliary scrubbers to reduce respirable dust downstream of active mining and the use of canopy air curtains(CACs)to reduce respirable dust in key operator positions.While detailed dust characterization was not a focus of such studies,this is a growing area of interest.Using preserved filter samples from three previous NIOSH studies,the current work aims to explore the effect of two different scrubbers(one wet and one dry)and a roof bolter CAC on respirable dust composition and particle size distribution.For this,the preserved filter samples were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis and/or scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray.Results indicate that dust composition was not appreciably affected by either scrubber or the CAC.However,the wet scrubber and CAC appeared to decrease the overall particle size distribution.Such an effect of the dry scrubber was not consistently observed,but this is probably related to the particular sampling location downstream of the scrubber which allowed for significant mixing of the scrubber exhaust and other return air.Aside from the insights gained with respect to the three specific dust control case studies revisited here,this work demonstrates the value of preserved dust samples for follow-up investigation more broadly.

Artificial ground freezing of underground mines in cold regions using thermosyphons with air insulation

Current practice of underground artificial ground freezing(AGF)typically involves huge refrigeration systems of large economic and environmental costs.In this study,a novel AGF technique is proposed deploying available cold wind in cold regions.This is achieved by a static heat transfer device called thermosyphon equipped with an air insulation layer.A refrigeration unit can be optionally integrated to meet additional cooling requirements.The introduction of air insulation isolates the thermosyphon from ground zones where freezing is not needed,resulting in:(1)steering the cooling resources(cold wind or refrigeration)towards zones of interest;and(2)minimizing refrigeration load.This design is demonstrated using well-validated mathematical models from our previous work based on two-phase enthalpy method of the ground coupled with a thermal resistance network for the thermosyphon.Two Canadian mines are considered:the Cigar Lake Mine and the Giant Mine.The results show that our proposed design can speed the freezing time by 30%at the Giant Mine and by two months at the Cigar Lake Mine.Further,a cooling load of 2.4 GWh can be saved at the Cigar Lake Mine.Overall,this study provides mining practitioners with sustainable solutions of underground AGF.

Air pressure law of a reservoir constructed in karst sinkholes

Karst sinkholes with natural negative landform provide favorable conditions for the pumped storage reservoir construction for less excavation work.However,the construction of the reservoir would plug the natural karst channels for water and air,which would cause remarkable air pressure in karst channels when the groundwater level fluctuates.A large laboratory simulation test was carried out to study the air pressure variation of a reservoir built on the karst sinkhole.The air pressure in the karst channel and inside the model was monitored during the groundwater rising and falling process.Result showed that the variation of air pressure in the karst channel and the surrounding rock exhibited a high degree of similarity.The air pressure increased rapidly at the initial stage of water level rising,followed by a slight decrease,then the air pressure increased sharply when the water level approached the top of the karst cave.The initial peak of air pressure and the final peak of air pressure were defined,and both air pressure peaks were linearly increasing with the water level rising rate.The negative air pressure was also analyzed during the drainage process,which was linearly correlated with the water level falling rate.The causes of air pressure variation in karst channels of a pumped storage reservoir built on the karst sinkhole were discussed.The initial rapid increase,then slight decrease and final sudden increase of air pressure were controlled by the combined effects of air compression in karst channel and air seepage into the surrounding rock.For the drainage process,the instant negative air pressure and gradual recovering of air pressure were controlled by the combined effects of negative air pressure induced by water level falling and air supply from surrounding rock.This work could provide valuable reference for the reservoir construction in karst area.

Different bactericidal abilities of plasma-activated saline with various reactive species prepared by surface plasma-activated air and plasma jet combinations

Plasma-activated water(PAW),as an extended form of cold atmospheric-pressure plasma,greatly expands the application of plasma-based technology.The biological effects of PAW are closely related to the aqueous reactive species,which can be regulated by the activation process.In this study,surface plasma-activated air(SAA)and a He+O_(2)plasma jet(Jet)were parallelly combined(the SAA+Jet combination)or sequentially combined(the SAA→Jet combination and the Jet→SAA combination)to prepare plasma-activated saline(PAS).The PAS activated by the combinations exhibited stronger bactericidal effects than that activated by the SAA or the Jet alone.The concentrations of H_(2)O_(2)and NO_(2)^(-)were higher in the PAS activated by the Jet→SAA combination,while ONOO^(-)concentrations were close in the three kinds of PAS and^(1)O_(2)concentrations were higher in the PAS activated by the SAA+Jet combination.The analysis of scavengers also demonstrated that H_(2)O_(2),^(1)O_(2),and ONOO^(-)in the PAS activated by the SAA+Jet combination,and^(1)O_(2)in the PAS activated by the Jet→SAA combination played critical roles in bactericidal effects.Further,the effective placement time of the three PAS varied,and the PAS activated by the Jet→SAA combination could also inactivate 2.6-log_(10)of MRSA cells after placement for more than 60 min.The regulation of reactive species in plasma-activated water via different combinations of plasma devices could improve the directional application of plasma-activated water in the biomedical field.

Block Incremental Dense Tucker Decomposition with Application to Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Air Quality Data

How can we efficiently store and mine dynamically generated dense tensors for modeling the behavior of multidimensional dynamic data?Much of the multidimensional dynamic data in the real world is generated in the form of time-growing tensors.For example,air quality tensor data consists of multiple sensory values gathered from wide locations for a long time.Such data,accumulated over time,is redundant and consumes a lot ofmemory in its raw form.We need a way to efficiently store dynamically generated tensor data that increase over time and to model their behavior on demand between arbitrary time blocks.To this end,we propose a Block IncrementalDense Tucker Decomposition(BID-Tucker)method for efficient storage and on-demand modeling ofmultidimensional spatiotemporal data.Assuming that tensors come in unit blocks where only the time domain changes,our proposed BID-Tucker first slices the blocks into matrices and decomposes them via singular value decomposition(SVD).The SVDs of the time×space sliced matrices are stored instead of the raw tensor blocks to save space.When modeling from data is required at particular time blocks,the SVDs of corresponding time blocks are retrieved and incremented to be used for Tucker decomposition.The factor matrices and core tensor of the decomposed results can then be used for further data analysis.We compared our proposed BID-Tucker with D-Tucker,which our method extends,and vanilla Tucker decomposition.We show that our BID-Tucker is faster than both D-Tucker and vanilla Tucker decomposition and uses less memory for storage with a comparable reconstruction error.We applied our proposed BID-Tucker to model the spatial and temporal trends of air quality data collected in South Korea from 2018 to 2022.We were able to model the spatial and temporal air quality trends.We were also able to verify unusual events,such as chronic ozone alerts and large fire events.

Influences of the Fresh Air Volume on the Removal of Cough-Released Droplets in a Passenger Car of a High-Speed Train Using CFD

The spread and removal of pollution sources,namely,cough-released droplets in three different areas(front,middle,and rear areas)of a fully-loaded passenger car in a high-speed train under different fresh air flow volume were studied using computational fluid dynamics(CFD)method.In addition,the structure of indoor flow fields was also analysed.The results show that the large eddies are more stable and flow faster in the air supply under Mode 2(fresh air volume:2200m3/h)compared to Mode 1(fresh air volume:1100m3/h).By analysing the spreading process of droplets sprayed at different locations in the passenger car and with different particle sizes,the removal trends for droplets are found to be similar under the two air supply modes.However,when increasing the fresh air flow volume,the droplets in the middle and front areas of the passenger car are removed faster.When the droplets had dispersed for 60s,Mode 2 exhibited a removal rate approximately 1%–3%higher than Mode 1 for small and medium-sized droplets with diameters of 10 and 50μm.While those in the rear area,the situation is reversed,with Mode 1 slightly surpassing Mode 2 by 1%–3%.For large droplets with a diameter of 100μm,both modes achieved a removal rate of over 96%in all three regions at the 60 s.The results can provide guidance for air supply modes of passenger cars of high-speed trains,thus suppressing the spread of virus-carrying droplets and reducing the risk of viral infection among passengers.

Experimental study on secondary air mixing along the bed height in a circulating fluidized bed with a multitracer-gas method

A multitracer-gas method was proposed to study the secondary air(SA)mixing along the bed height in a circulating fluidized bed(CFB)using carbon monoxide(CO),oxygen(O_(2)),and carbon dioxide(CO_(2))as tracer gases.Experiments were carried out on a cold CFB test rig with a cross-section of 0.42 m×0.73 m and a height of 5.50 m.The effects of superficial velocity,SA ratio,bed inventory,and particle diameter on the SA mixing were investigated.The results indicate that there are some differences in the measurement results obtained using different tracer gases,wherein the deviation between CO and CO_(2) ranges from 42%to 66%and that between O_(2) and CO_(2) ranges from 45%to 71%in the lower part of the fluidized bed.However,these differences became less pronounced as the bed height increased.Besides,the high solid concentration and fine particle diameter in the CFB may weaken the difference.The measurement results of different tracer gases show the same trends under the variation of operating parameters.Increasing superficial velocity and SA ratio and decreasing particle diameter result in better mixing of the SA.The effect of bed inventory on SA mixing is not monotonic.