ZAM BIA＇S third largest city Ndola, headquarters of the country＇s famed copper-mining region known as the Copperbelt, has long wished for a modern air- port. Now the wish is to materialize with a $500-mil- lion faci...ZAM BIA＇S third largest city Ndola, headquarters of the country＇s famed copper-mining region known as the Copperbelt, has long wished for a modern air- port. Now the wish is to materialize with a $500-mil- lion facility on the drawing board. The project is being developed by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China （AVIC）, a company involved in the production of military aircraft and information and communications technology products as well as construction of commercial airports. The artistic impressions of the airport developed by AVIC include a terminal, aircraft and other vehicle parking spaces, and a hotel. At the time of writing this, the Zambian Government was looking for over $500 million so that construction could begin on the 2,000-hectare site in a forest reserve west of the city.展开更多
Adverse weather has serious implications for flight timeliness, as well as passenger and aircraft safety. This often implies that alternative flight paths have to be used by aircraft to avoid adverse weather. To reduc...Adverse weather has serious implications for flight timeliness, as well as passenger and aircraft safety. This often implies that alternative flight paths have to be used by aircraft to avoid adverse weather. To reduce the impact of such path re-routes, exact techniques such as artificial potential field model and Dijkstra’s algorithms have been proposed. However, such approaches are often unsuitable for real time scenarios involving large number of waypoints and constraints. This has led to the use of metaheuristic techniques that give sub-optimal solutions in good time. In this work, an improved genetic algorithm-based technique has been proposed. The algorithm used an improved mutation operator, reduced passenger inconvenience and considered the schedules of aircraft.展开更多
By recording nocturnally migrating passerines with tracking radar we have investigated how coastlines affect the migrants＇ flight paths. Birds could use coastlines as an orientation aid or as a reference cue to compe...By recording nocturnally migrating passerines with tracking radar we have investigated how coastlines affect the migrants＇ flight paths. Birds could use coastlines as an orientation aid or as a reference cue to compensate for wind drift while mi- grating. However, on the small scale of Falsterbo Peninsula in southern Sweden, we found very little effect of coastlines on migrants flight paths, irrespective of altitude. We tracked 2 930 migrants in three autumn and two spring seasons, at altitudes from 60 up to 3 000 meters. We compared tracks of migrants flying in three different areas, which correspond to the three main coastlines, and can demonstrate that the orientation of the tracks did not differ in a way consistent with the coastlines between the areas in autumn, and showed only a slight effect in spring. This is in accordance with earlier infrared device monitoring in Falsterbo, but contrary to earlier visual observations. It supports the view of nocturnally migrating passerines as mainly broad-front migrants. Even though the coastlines on the scale of the peninsula affected the flight paths very little, it is possible that the coastline has an effect on a larger regional scale, by migrants avoiding long sea crossings and thereby being funneled towards the peninsula, but this remains to be investigated [Current Zoology 60 （5）： 660-669, 2014].展开更多
文摘ZAM BIA＇S third largest city Ndola, headquarters of the country＇s famed copper-mining region known as the Copperbelt, has long wished for a modern air- port. Now the wish is to materialize with a $500-mil- lion facility on the drawing board. The project is being developed by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China （AVIC）, a company involved in the production of military aircraft and information and communications technology products as well as construction of commercial airports. The artistic impressions of the airport developed by AVIC include a terminal, aircraft and other vehicle parking spaces, and a hotel. At the time of writing this, the Zambian Government was looking for over $500 million so that construction could begin on the 2,000-hectare site in a forest reserve west of the city.
文摘Adverse weather has serious implications for flight timeliness, as well as passenger and aircraft safety. This often implies that alternative flight paths have to be used by aircraft to avoid adverse weather. To reduce the impact of such path re-routes, exact techniques such as artificial potential field model and Dijkstra’s algorithms have been proposed. However, such approaches are often unsuitable for real time scenarios involving large number of waypoints and constraints. This has led to the use of metaheuristic techniques that give sub-optimal solutions in good time. In this work, an improved genetic algorithm-based technique has been proposed. The algorithm used an improved mutation operator, reduced passenger inconvenience and considered the schedules of aircraft.
文摘By recording nocturnally migrating passerines with tracking radar we have investigated how coastlines affect the migrants＇ flight paths. Birds could use coastlines as an orientation aid or as a reference cue to compensate for wind drift while mi- grating. However, on the small scale of Falsterbo Peninsula in southern Sweden, we found very little effect of coastlines on migrants flight paths, irrespective of altitude. We tracked 2 930 migrants in three autumn and two spring seasons, at altitudes from 60 up to 3 000 meters. We compared tracks of migrants flying in three different areas, which correspond to the three main coastlines, and can demonstrate that the orientation of the tracks did not differ in a way consistent with the coastlines between the areas in autumn, and showed only a slight effect in spring. This is in accordance with earlier infrared device monitoring in Falsterbo, but contrary to earlier visual observations. It supports the view of nocturnally migrating passerines as mainly broad-front migrants. Even though the coastlines on the scale of the peninsula affected the flight paths very little, it is possible that the coastline has an effect on a larger regional scale, by migrants avoiding long sea crossings and thereby being funneled towards the peninsula, but this remains to be investigated [Current Zoology 60 （5）： 660-669, 2014].
