Several economists agree to say that the need for adjustment was essential for African countries over the decade of the 80’s. The econometric analysis of a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries, from variables r...Several economists agree to say that the need for adjustment was essential for African countries over the decade of the 80’s. The econometric analysis of a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries, from variables regarded as “representatives” for the adjustment objectives, proves that this assertion cannot be completely rejected.展开更多
A 5-year mean seasonal analysis of mean storm height data and histograms from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) have been used to study the storm structure of the major climatic r...A 5-year mean seasonal analysis of mean storm height data and histograms from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) have been used to study the storm structure of the major climatic regions in Africa and over the adjacent Atlantic ocean. The analysis was carried out in two ways. First, the mean storm height and histogram were analyzed for the entire continent bounded by 40?N to 40?S and 20?W to 60?E. Secondly, the analysis was carried out on sub-regional basis, on which Africa was structured into ten regions: Desert (North), Semi-desert (north), Deciduous forest (North), Brush Grass Savanna (North), Tropical Rainforest, Deciduous forest (South), Brush Grass-Savanna (South), Temperate Grassland/Montane Forest, Steppe (East) and Atlantic Ocean. As observed over Africa, and some parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the storm height over the land is higher than that over the sea because ground surfaces tend to be heated more and convections are more easily developed over the land than over the Ocean. There are high storm counts over the land at 250 mb whereas the storm counts are high over the Ocean at 700 mb. Over the regions, the vertical structure of the histograms reveals a distinct bi-modal distribution in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, but a unimodal distribution is close to the equator both in the northern and southern hemisphere.展开更多
Background: The importance of structurally diverse forests for the conservation of biodiversity and provision of a wide range of ecosystem services has been widely recognised. However, tools to quantify structural div...Background: The importance of structurally diverse forests for the conservation of biodiversity and provision of a wide range of ecosystem services has been widely recognised. However, tools to quantify structural diversity of forests in an objective and quantitative way across many forest types and sites are still needed, for example to support biodiversity monitoring. The existing approaches to quantify forest structural diversity are based on small geographical regions or single forest types, typically using only small data sets.Results: Here we developed an index of structural diversity based on National Forest Inventory(NFI) data of BadenWurttemberg, Germany, a state with 1.3 million ha of diverse forest types in different ownerships. Based on a literature review, 11 aspects of structural diversity were identified a priori as crucially important to describe structural diversity. An initial comprehensive list of 52 variables derived from National Forest Inventory(NFI) data related to structural diversity was reduced by applying five selection criteria to arrive at one variable for each aspect of structural diversity. These variables comprise 1) quadratic mean diameter at breast height(DBH), 2) standard deviation of DBH, 3) standard deviation of stand height, 4) number of decay classes, 5) bark-diversity index, 6) trees with DBH ≥ 40 cm, 7) diversity of flowering and fructification, 8) average mean diameter of downed deadwood, 9) mean DBH of standing deadwood, 10) tree species richness and 11) tree species richness in the regeneration layer. These variables were combined into a simple,additive index to quantify the level of structural diversity, which assumes values between 0 and 1. We applied this index in an exemplary way to broad forest categories and ownerships to assess its feasibility to analyse structural diversity in large-scale forest inventories.Conclusions: The forest structure index presented here can be derived in a similar way from standard inventory variables for most other large-scale forest inventories to provide important information about biodiversity relevant forest conditions and thus provide an evidence-base for forest management and planning as well as reporting.展开更多
To evaluate the fatigue damage reliability of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge, according to the stress-number curve and Miner’s rule, the corresponding expressions for calculating the structural ...To evaluate the fatigue damage reliability of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge, according to the stress-number curve and Miner’s rule, the corresponding expressions for calculating the structural fatigue damage reliability were derived. Fatigue damage reliability analysis of some critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge was carried out by using the strain-time histories measured by the structural health monitoring system of the bridge. The corresponding stress spectra were obtained by the real-time rain-flow counting method. Results of fatigue damage were calculated respectively by the reliability method at different reliability and compared with Miner’s rule. The results show that the fatigue damage of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge is very small due to its low live-load stress level.展开更多
文摘Several economists agree to say that the need for adjustment was essential for African countries over the decade of the 80’s. The econometric analysis of a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries, from variables regarded as “representatives” for the adjustment objectives, proves that this assertion cannot be completely rejected.
文摘A 5-year mean seasonal analysis of mean storm height data and histograms from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) have been used to study the storm structure of the major climatic regions in Africa and over the adjacent Atlantic ocean. The analysis was carried out in two ways. First, the mean storm height and histogram were analyzed for the entire continent bounded by 40?N to 40?S and 20?W to 60?E. Secondly, the analysis was carried out on sub-regional basis, on which Africa was structured into ten regions: Desert (North), Semi-desert (north), Deciduous forest (North), Brush Grass Savanna (North), Tropical Rainforest, Deciduous forest (South), Brush Grass-Savanna (South), Temperate Grassland/Montane Forest, Steppe (East) and Atlantic Ocean. As observed over Africa, and some parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the storm height over the land is higher than that over the sea because ground surfaces tend to be heated more and convections are more easily developed over the land than over the Ocean. There are high storm counts over the land at 250 mb whereas the storm counts are high over the Ocean at 700 mb. Over the regions, the vertical structure of the histograms reveals a distinct bi-modal distribution in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, but a unimodal distribution is close to the equator both in the northern and southern hemisphere.
基金supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science,Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg(7533-10-5-78)to Jürgen BauhusFelix Storch received additional support through the BBW ForWerts Graduate Program
文摘Background: The importance of structurally diverse forests for the conservation of biodiversity and provision of a wide range of ecosystem services has been widely recognised. However, tools to quantify structural diversity of forests in an objective and quantitative way across many forest types and sites are still needed, for example to support biodiversity monitoring. The existing approaches to quantify forest structural diversity are based on small geographical regions or single forest types, typically using only small data sets.Results: Here we developed an index of structural diversity based on National Forest Inventory(NFI) data of BadenWurttemberg, Germany, a state with 1.3 million ha of diverse forest types in different ownerships. Based on a literature review, 11 aspects of structural diversity were identified a priori as crucially important to describe structural diversity. An initial comprehensive list of 52 variables derived from National Forest Inventory(NFI) data related to structural diversity was reduced by applying five selection criteria to arrive at one variable for each aspect of structural diversity. These variables comprise 1) quadratic mean diameter at breast height(DBH), 2) standard deviation of DBH, 3) standard deviation of stand height, 4) number of decay classes, 5) bark-diversity index, 6) trees with DBH ≥ 40 cm, 7) diversity of flowering and fructification, 8) average mean diameter of downed deadwood, 9) mean DBH of standing deadwood, 10) tree species richness and 11) tree species richness in the regeneration layer. These variables were combined into a simple,additive index to quantify the level of structural diversity, which assumes values between 0 and 1. We applied this index in an exemplary way to broad forest categories and ownerships to assess its feasibility to analyse structural diversity in large-scale forest inventories.Conclusions: The forest structure index presented here can be derived in a similar way from standard inventory variables for most other large-scale forest inventories to provide important information about biodiversity relevant forest conditions and thus provide an evidence-base for forest management and planning as well as reporting.
基金Project(2001G025) supported by the Foundation of the Science and Technology Section of Ministry of Rail way of Chinaproject(2005) supported by the Postdoctoral Foundation of Central South University
文摘To evaluate the fatigue damage reliability of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge, according to the stress-number curve and Miner’s rule, the corresponding expressions for calculating the structural fatigue damage reliability were derived. Fatigue damage reliability analysis of some critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge was carried out by using the strain-time histories measured by the structural health monitoring system of the bridge. The corresponding stress spectra were obtained by the real-time rain-flow counting method. Results of fatigue damage were calculated respectively by the reliability method at different reliability and compared with Miner’s rule. The results show that the fatigue damage of critical members of the Nanjing Yangtze river bridge is very small due to its low live-load stress level.
