Kinetic Analysis of Thermal Decomposition Process of Emulsion Explosive Matrix in the Presence of Sulfide Ores

This study aims to characterize the whole reaction process of (i) emulsion explosive matrix and sulfide ores, and (ii) ammonium nitrate and pyrite by the thermodynamics analysis method. A series of experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure from 25 °C to 350 °C at four heating rates (3, 5, 10, and 15 K/min) and the Coats–Redfern method was applied to calculate the apparent activation energy of samples at different heating rates. The results show that the thermogravimetric (TG) curve of sulfide ores and emulsion explosive matrix can be divided into four stages: the water evaporation stage, the dynamic balance stage, the thermal decomposition stage, and the extinguishment stage. However, the thermal decomposition process of ammonium nitrate and pyrite can be divided into the dynamic balance stage, the thermal decomposition stage, and the burnout stage. The ignition temperature (T0) and maximum peak temperature (Tm) of the samples increased with the heating rate, but the shape of the TG/DTG (Derivative Thermogravimetric) curve was not affected. The results show that the reaction process of sulfide ores and emulsion explosive matrix is similar to the reaction process of pyrite and ammonium nitrate. The thermal stability of emulsion explosive matrix decreases when sulfide ores are added. By contrast, when pyrite is added, the thermal stability of the ammonium nitrate decreases more significantly.Safety and Security Scienc

A CAST-Based Analysis of the Metro Accident That Was Triggered by the Zhengzhou Heavy Rainstorm Disaster

Emergency management research is used to deal with the increasing number of extreme weather threats in urban areas. This paper uses causal analysis based on systems theory (CAST) to review the subway water ingress accident and the government's emergency management actions in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, during the heavy rainstorm disaster on 20 July 2021. The aims of this article are to establish safety control structures at both the enterprise level and the government level, and to systematically analyze the problems in emergency management in Zhengzhou City. Our analysis found that the construction of disaster prevention facilities restricted emergency management. Therefore, we suggest that enterprises and governments not only pay attention to emergency management, but also to the construction of disaster prevention facilities. This article also points out that the system of chief executive responsibility that is implemented in China is becoming a double-edged sword in emergency management. Our study makes recommendations for enhancing the capacities of emergency management, points out the shortcomings of the existing emergency management structure, and provides knowledge gained for future emergency management research.Safety and Security Scienc

Influence of liquid-binder ratio on the performance of alkali-activated slag mortar with superabsorbent polymer

The influences of liquid-binder ratio and mixing sequence on the performance of superabsorbent polymer (SAP)-containing alkali-activated slag (AAS) mortar are investigated in this study. It is found that the SAP absorbs much less liquid in upper supernatant of AAS than in water. Mixing SAP with liquid first induces a larger absorption capacity of the SAP than mixing it with solid first. Increasing the liquid-binder ratio improves the flowability but reduces the strength of AAS mortar with SAP. Nonetheless, the strength of internally cured mixtures is higher than that of the reference even with an extra liquid-binder ratio of 0.09. The reason behind lies in the refinement of capillary and gel porosity by internal curing, despite the presence of large voids originated from SAP. The autogenous shrinkage of AAS paste is reduced significantly by the incorporation of SAP but the further mitigating effect of increased liquid-binder ratio is limited.Materials and Environmen

Effect of superabsorbent polymer introduction on properties of alkali-activated slag mortar

Internal curing by superabsorbent polymer (SAP) has been applied in alkali-activated slag (AAS) systems by a few previous studies with the purpose to mitigate the autogenous shrinkage. However, the effects of SAP on other properties of AAS have been rarely studied. In this paper, the workability, strength, permeability, and frost resistance of AAS mortar with synthesized SAP are investigated besides the autogenous shrinkage. Two SAP introducing ways (dry mixing and wet mixing) are considered. It is found that the flowability of AAS mortar decreases with the increase of SAP dosage regardless of the introducing way. The strength and permeability increase with the SAP dosage when it is below a certain amount depending on the mixing way. The autogenous shrinkage can be mitigated significantly by the incorporation of SAP and the mitigating effect is more pronounced by wet mixing. The frost resistance becomes better when more SAP is introduced in either way. The mechanisms behind these phenomena are explained based on the characterization results on the reaction kinetics, reaction products and pore structure of the mixtures with SAP.Materials and Environmen

Epidemic Processes on Complex Networks

As a fascinating branch of the emerging network science, the mission of the epidemic dynamics on networks is to understand how objects spread in networks and thereby to work out cost-effective strategy for restraining undesirable objects or promoting desirable objects. This special issue contains ten excellent papers about this subject.Network Architectures and Service

國民小學資優班教師角色期望與角色踐行之研究

[[abstract]]本研究旨在瞭解目前我國國民小學資優班教師角色期望與角色踐行及其二者間的差異 情形，據以提供建議，俾供資優班教師師資培育訓練機構暨國民小學資優班教師改進 其角色行為之參考。 本研究係採用問卷調查法，調查學校行政人員、普通班教師、資優生家長及資優班教 師等四種不同類型人員對國民小學資優班教師角色期望的差異情形，及資優班教師角 色踐行的情形。統計方法採用單因子變異數分析、獨立樣本 T檢定、重複量數 T檢定 進行資料考驗。 本研究主要發現如下： 一、不同性別、年齡、服務年資、最高學歷及實驗地區之資優班教師，其自我角色期 望在總分及各層面上均無顯著差異。 二、學校行政人員、普通班教師、資優生家長、資優班教師等四種不同類型人員對國 民小學資優班教師角色期望程度高。 三、學校行政人員、普通班教師、資優生家長、資優班教師等四種不同類型人員對資 優班教師角色期望，除「課程」層面未達顯著差異外，其餘在總分及「班級教學」、 「學生輔導」、「溝通工作」及「行政與研究」等層面上均有顯著的差異。 四、資優班教師角色踐行並不十分理想。 五、學校行政員、普通班教師、資優生家長、資優班教師四種不同類型人員對國民小 學資優班教師角色期望與資優班教師角色踐行之間有顯著差異存在。 基於以上的發現，本研究的建議如下： 一、強化資優班教師專業知能，以承擔起多重角色任務。 二、加強觀念構通、促進其人際知能與技巧。 三、重視資優班教師在職進修教育，以提高其角色踐行之效果。 四、鼓勵與獎勵資優班教師，以提高其服務士氣。

Mapping knowledge domains for mine heat hazard: a bibliometric analysis of research trends and future needs

As the shallow mineral resources are nearly depleted, the mining of deep resources has become an urgent problem to be studied. The increase in mine depth can lead to the increase of mine heat hazard, which is a critical concern for mining safety/occupational health and safety. However, there are limited review articles available regarding the prevention of mine heat hazard. To fill in this gap, a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping of the field of mine heat hazard prevention are presented in this paper. A total of 314 papers from the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database that published between January 1998 and July 2022 were analyzed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. China, South Africa, Poland, USA, and Australia are the top five countries in this field. The important journals are Applied Thermal Engineering, Applied Energy, Energies, and International Journal of Mining Science and Technology. In addition, the research focal points and two research fronts were identified and discussed. The knowledge base of mine heat hazard research focuses on mine cooling technology, energy efficiency optimization of cooling systems, thermodynamic theory, and occupational health. There are two research fronts. One is to use the numerical simulation method to study various problems such as simulate the performance of refrigeration systems and thermal comfort in mines. The second is to study the occupational health impact of climate change on miners. Therefore, this paper provides readers and academics with an overview of the intellectual structure and knowledge body that have been developed on the subject of mine heat hazard.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Safety and Security Scienc

Relaxing the control-gain assumptions of DSC design for nonlinear MIMO systems

This work focuses on adaptive neural dynamic surface control (DSC) for an extended class of nonlinear MIMO strict-feedback systems whose control gain functions are continuous and possibly unbounded. The method is based on introducing a compact set which is eventually proved to be an invariant set: thanks to this set, the restrictive assumption that the upper and lower bounds of control gain functions must be bounded is removed. This method substantially enlarges the class of systems for which DSC can be applied. By utilizing Lyapunov theorem and invariant set theory, it is rigorously proved that all signals in the closed-loop systems are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) and the output tracking errors converge to an arbitrarily small residual set. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Accepted Author ManuscriptTeam DeSchutte

Seasonal Cooling Effect of Vegetation and Albedo Applied to the LCZ Classification of Three Chinese Megacities

The urban heat island effect poses a growing threat to human society, especially in densely populated and developed megacities. With the introduction of the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) framework, new perspectives and findings have been brought to urban heat island studies. This study investigated the cooling effect of vegetation and albedo on the surface urban heat island (SUHI) in the classification system of LCZ during different seasons, using three Chinese megacities as case study areas. Single-factor linear regression and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were applied to analyze the seasonal cooling effect of both albedo and the NDVI on the SUHI within different LCZs. The results show that (1) the variability of the SUHI is reflected in its dominance and intensity within certain LCZs in different cities and in the efficiency of cooling factors; (2) the cooling effect of vegetation is dominant in each season, and the cooling effect produced by albedo within specific seasons can be differentiated by LCZs. This study provides valuable information for the mitigation of the SUHI magnitude in specific regions and at specific times of the year.Optical and Laser Remote Sensin

Characterizing the thermal effects of vegetation on urban surface temperature

Vegetation is important for urban heat mitigation. The cooling intensity of vegetation is affected by background climate and urban design. How to evaluate vegetation cooling efficiency under different climate conditions is still an issue open to discussion. In this study, a normalized indicator of urban vegetation cooling efficiency (NVCE) is proposed as a metric of urban vegetation cooling efficiency applicable and comparable under different climate and urban conditions. When surfaces are only covered by vegetation, the cooling effects should be highest than other pixels at the local climate scale. The difference of surface temperature between the pure vegetation surfaces and surfaces without vegetations (Tr, b − Tr, v) is the range of the vegetation cooling intensity at the same local climate conditions. Difference between radiometric surface temperature of a mixed pixel and the vegetation temperature within the mixed pixel (Ti, r − Ti, v) is excess temperature of pixel i. The ratio of (Ti, r − Ti, v) to (Tr, b − Tr, v) can indicate how much percent of existed excess temperature after vegetation cooling effects for pixel i under such local climate condition. Thus, the NVCE is defined as (Ti, r − Ti, v)/(Tr, b − Tr, v). Based on the high spatial resolution data, the Ti, v and Ti, rwithin each 30 m × 30 m grid are derived to calculate the NVCE and the relationships between NVCE and fractional vegetation cover were studied under different conditions. Results showed that NVCE can reduce the differences caused by background climate in the assessment of vegetation cooling efficiency, i.e. making vegetation cooling efficiency under different climate conditions comparable. The NVCE is also sensitive to the vegetation fraction. When vegetation fraction is smaller than 0.2, the mean value of NVCE is about 0.5 and no obvious change. This means that the vegetation has no obvious cooling effects when vegetation fraction is smaller than 0.2. When the vegetation fraction is higher than 0.2, NVCE decreases linearly with increasing vegetation fraction. When the vegetation fraction is higher than 0.9, NVCE tends to 0. This indicates that 0.2 for vegetation fraction is the threshold of vegetation cooling effects. This study can provide information for evaluating the vegetation cooling efficiency under different climate and geometric conditions. This study also can provide useful information for urban green infrastructure design and planning, e.g. the vegetation fraction should be higher than 0.2 for urban cooling and the vegetation cooling efficiency can reach maximum when SVF is about 0.5 to 0.6.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Optical and Laser Remote Sensin