How to guide a sustainable industrial economy: Emergy account for resources input of Chinese industry

AbstractEmergy analysis provides a feasible approach to evaluate the status and position of different energy carriers in the universal energy hierarchy. In this paper, an emergy-based method is conducted to measure the resources input of Chinese industry from 1997 to 2006. Resources inflows including fossil fuels, mineral resources, agricultural products, and other imported materials are accounted, based on which related indicators including resources intensity, industrial output, and environmental emissions are investigated. Results show a steady upward trend for the total resources input of Chinese industry during the past decade. The total resources input amounted to 1.53×1025 sej in 2006, of which non-renewable one accounted for 70.65% owing to the dominating input of fossil fuels and nonmetal minerals. Resources intensity measured by the ratio of resources input to industrial value added declined gradually during 1997–2002, but the rapid expansion of resource–intensive sub–sectors resulted in a reverse trend since 2003. The current resources use pattern of Chinese industry is characterized by increasing input of non-renewable resources, excessive expansion of resource–intensive production, and tremendous challenge from environmental pressure

Quantum Entanglement and fixed point Hopf bifurcation

We present the qualitative differences in the phase transitions of the mono-mode Dicke model in its integrable and chaotic versions. We show that a first order phase transition occurs in the integrable case whereas a second order in the chaotic one. This difference is also reflected in the classical limit: for the integrable case the stable fixed point in phase space suffers a bifurcation of Hopf type whereas for the second one a pitchfork type bifurcation has been reported

Rho properties in a hot meson gas

Using effective meson Lagrangians we study the interaction of rho mesons in a hot baryon-free system. Various mesonic resonances in direct $s$-channel reactions are investigated employing standard self-energy techniques, including new reactions that have up to now not been considered in a self-consistent approach at finite temperature. The importance of subthreshold resonances, which are readily accounted for through off-shell effects within our framework, is emphasized. Special care is taken in reproducing radiative decay widths, as they provide valuable constraints on the evaluation of dilepton spectra. In particular, we compare our results for dilepton production rates to earlier calculations based on an incoherent summation of individual processes.Comment: 14 pages ReVTeX including 5 eps-figures, slightly revised version (modified title, additional comparative comments

Monovision-based vehicle detection, distance and relative speed measurement in urban traffic

This study presents a monovision-based system for on-road vehicle detection and computation of distance and relative speed in urban traffic. Many works have dealt with monovision vehicle detection, but only a few of them provide the distance to the vehicle which is essential for the control of an intelligent transportation system. The system proposed integrates a single camera reducing the monetary cost of stereovision and RADAR-based technologies. The algorithm is divided in three major stages. For vehicle detection, the authors use a combination of two features: the shadow underneath the vehicle and horizontal edges. They propose a new method for shadow thresholding based on the grey-scale histogram assessment of a region of interest on the road. In the second and third stages, the vehicle hypothesis verification and the distance are obtained by means of its number plate whose dimensions and shape are standardised in each country. The analysis of consecutive frames is employed to calculate the relative speed of the vehicle detected. Experimental results showed excellent performance in both vehicle and number plate detections and in the distance measurement, in terms of accuracy and robustness in complex traffic scenarios and under different lighting conditions

Kaon properties in (proto)neutron stars

The modification on kaon and antikaon properties of in the interior of (proto-)neutron stars is investigated using a chiral SU(3) model. The parameters of the model are fitted to nuclear matter saturation properties, baryon octet vacuum masses, hyperon optical potentials and low energy a kaon-nucleon scattering lengths. We study the kaon/antikaon medium modification and explore the possibility of antikaon condensation in (proto-)neutron star matter at zero as well as finite temperature/entropy and neutrino content. The effect of hyperons on kaon and antikaon optical potentials is also investigated at different stages of the neutron star evolution.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure

Galaxy Clusters Associated with Short GRBs. II. Predictions for the Rate of Short GRBs in Field and Cluster Early-Type Galaxies

We determine the relative rates of short GRBs in cluster and field early-type galaxies as a function of the age probability distribution of their progenitors, P(\tau) \propto \tau^n. This analysis takes advantage of the difference in the growth of stellar mass in clusters and in the field, which arises from the combined effects of the galaxy stellar mass function, the early-type fraction, and the dependence of star formation history on mass and environment. This approach complements the use of the early- to late-type host galaxy ratio, with the added benefit that the star formation histories of early-type galaxies are simpler than those of late-type galaxies, and any systematic differences between progenitors in early- and late-type galaxies are removed. We find that the ratio varies from R(cluster)/R(field) ~ 0.5 for n = -2 to ~ 3 for n = 2. Current observations indicate a ratio of about 2, corresponding to n ~ 0 - 1. This is similar to the value inferred from the ratio of short GRBs in early- and late-type hosts, but it differs from the value of n ~ -1 for NS binaries in the Milky Way. We stress that this general approach can be easily modified with improved knowledge of the effects of environment and mass on the build-up of stellar mass, as well as the effect of globular clusters on the short GRB rate. It can also be used to assess the age distribution of Type Ia supernova progenitors.Comment: ApJ accepted versio

Fine structure in the α decay of 223U

Fine structure in the α decay of 223U was observed in the fusion-evaporation reaction 187Re(40Ar, p3n) by using fast digital pulse processing technique. Two α-decay branches of 223U feeding the ground state and 244 keV excited state of 219Th were identified by establishing the decay chain 223U →α1 219Th →α2 215Ra →α3 211Rn. The α-particle energy for the ground-state to ground-state transition of 223U was determined to be 8993(17) keV, 213 keV higher than the previous value, the half-life was updated to be 62−10+14 μs. Evolution of nuclear structure for N = 131 even-Z isotones from Po to U was discussed in the frameworks of nuclear mass and reduced α-decay width, a weakening octupole deformation in the ground state of 223U relative to its lighter isotones 219Ra and 221Th was suggested