Emission drivers of cities at different industrialization phases in China

As cities are the center of human activity and the basic unit of policy design, they have become the focus of carbon dioxide reduction, especially metropolitan areas that are high energy consumers and carbon dioxide emitters in countries such as China. The fact cities differ in their levels of development and stages of industrialization points to the need for tailor-made low-carbon policies. This study is the first to consider cities' different phases of industrialization when analyzing city-level emission patterns and drivers, as well as the decoupling statuses between economic growth and their emission levels in China. The results of 15 representative cities at different phases of industrialization show that various decoupling statuses, driving factors and decoupling efforts exist among cities, and that heterogeneity among these factors also exists among cities at the same industrialization phase. For further decomposition, energy intensity contributed the most to emissions reduction during the period 2005 to 2010, especially for cities with more heavy manufacturing industries, whereas industrial structure was a stronger negative emission driver during the period 2010 to 2015. Based on those findings, we suggest putting into practice a diversified carbon-mitigation policy portfolio according to each city's industrialization phase rather than a single policy that focuses on one specific driving factor. This paper sets an example on emissions-reduction experience for other cities undergoing different industrialization phases in China; it also sheds light on policy initiatives that could be applied to other cities around the world

Investigation of Blocking Characteristics by Particles in Heterogeneous Reservoir

A mathematical model of suspension filtration in porous media has been established based on mass conservation principle and characteristics of particles depositing and blocking. On this basis, percolation rules and blocking characteristics of suspension in heterogeneous reservoir were investigated. It is showed that suspension injection could remarkably reduce the permeable ratio and improve the heterogeneity significantly. Low-speed and low-viscosity injection could achieve shallow profile control, and high-speed and high-viscosity injection could achieve deep profile control. Adjusting the injection rate or viscosity of carrying fluid slug at the right time to make the particle retention concentration profile in thief zones and the water-flood front keep consistent could achieve dynamic profile control. For the reservoirs without a good interlayer, the optimum injection rate and viscosity of carrying fluid were chosen based on the connectivity of layers, and in the reservoirs with good interlayers the injection rate and viscosity should be lowered appropriately under the field permitting conditions. When the suspension concentration was constant, the instantaneous fractional flow of high permeable layer first decreased sharply and then ramped up with the increasing injection volume. Initial percolation coefficient is the basis of a high utilization of suspension and a good result in profile control. Key words: Heterogeneous reservoir; Suspension; Percolation; Profile control; Retention concentration; Blocking characteristic

A case study on workstation dependent acoustic characterization of open plan offices

Open-plan space is used in interior building design to create shared functional environments. The basic idea is to foster flexibility, cooperation and spaciousness in indoor environments by eliminating any boundaries hindering sight and speech intelligibility, such as walls. However, the complexity of sound propagation in open-plan spaces makes acoustic modelling a particularly challenging problem. Moreover, in open-plan offices (see Figure 1) the acoustic environment is a mixture of machine- and human-made sounds. Thus employees often feel annoyed by various types of acoustic noise. Examples for typical noise sources are speech, walking sounds, environmental noise and working sounds (eg. typing on keyboards). In contrast to the intention of increased cooperation, for tasks requiring high levels of concentration the acoustic situation of the open-plan space is a drawback. Consequently, a number of studies have begun to examine employees\u27 responses to acoustic noise. At the same time, it is unclear which acoustical treatment is better for open-plan spaces in order to improve the well-being in the working environment. The common practices include applying sound absorbing (meta-) materials on ceilings and baffles or screens, or applying sound masking.It is greatly acknowledged that sound and vibration noise is addressed as an important factor in job satisfaction ratings, which is closely related with perceived health conditions. Therefore, it is important to reduce noise annoyances which may impair cognitive performance. However, the acoustics in open-plan offices remain often an unquantified issue. Even in cases where the acoustics are taken into account it is difficult to relate objective acoustic measurements to the employees\u27 subjective feeling. As a result, in many cases measures to improve the acoustics are not targeted on a precise issue

A critical review on fundamental mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and the impact of boundary condition, fluid viscosity and wettability

Spontaneous imbibition (SI) is one of the primary mechanisms of oil production from matrix system in fractured reservoirs. The main driving force for SI is capillary pressure. Researches relating to SI are moving fast. In the past few years, amount of literature on the development of SI with respect to many variables, such as mechanism of imbibition, scaling of imbibition data and wettability of matrix blocks. In this review, we first introduced the fundamental physics mechanism of SI through capillary tube models and micromodels. Then both conventional and more novel experimental methods of measuring oil production are discussed thoughtfully. This is followed by reviewing the oil production performance under various boundary conditions and the characteristic length in scaling equations that have been used to account for different cores shape and boundary conditions. The effect of fluid viscosity on the rate of oil production and final oil recovery as well as the development of viscosity term in the scaling equation are reported. The commonly used methods to quantitatively evaluate the wettability of cores and the SI under mix- and oil-wet conditions are introduced. And last but not least, the methods and mechanism of wettability alteration for enhanced oil recovery in mix- or oil-wet fractured reservoirs are presented.Cited as: Meng, Q., Liu, H., Wang, J. A critical review on fundamental mechanisms of spontaneous imbibition and the impact of boundary condition, fluid viscosity and wettability. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2017, 1(1): 1-17, doi: 10.26804/ager.2017.01.0

Association of serum levels of lipid and its novel constituents with the different stages of esophageal carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the study was to evaluate the association of immunoglobulin G type of autoantibodies to oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL-lgG) and oxLDL-lgM with the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESSC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Residents from Feicheng, China aged 40 to 69 years were screened for esophageal lesions in a screening program conducted during the period of January 2008 to December 2006. There were 33 controls with normal esophageal squamous epithelium cells, 37 patients with basal cell hyperplasia, 47 with esophageal squamous cell dysplasia, and 43 with ESCC. All the participants were diagnosed by biopsy and histopathological examination. Adiponectin, oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), autoantibodies against oxLDL (oxLDL-ab), OxLDL-lgG, and OxLDL-lgM were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Total cholesterol, High-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride, serum albumin, and blood pressure were co-estimated. Analysis of covariance for lipid levels was used to control the influence of covariates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The level of oxLDL-lgM increased gradually along with esophageal carcinoma progression. The oxLDL-lgM levels in the ESCC group were the highest after possible covariates were controlled. Binary logistic regression showed that oxLDL-lgM had a positive correlation with the development of esophageal carcinoma, while oxLDL and oxLDL-ab had a negative correlation with ESSC. No significant association between the levels of oxLDL-lgG and adiponectin and the different stages of ESSC was observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present study shows that the decreased oxLDL and oxLDL-ab and the elevated oxLDL-lgM serum levels may relate to the development and progression of ESSC.</p