Investigating the Interdependent Influence of Multiple Environmental Features of Urban Green Spaces on Human Thermal Comfort at Microscale Using a Multi-parameter Approach

The three studies in this dissertation investigate the interdependent influence of various environmental features in Urban Green Space (UGS) on human thermal comfort at the microscale. This research pertains to microscale urban climatology. Urban climatology is an interdisciplinary field focused on advising urban construction to achieve the preferred urban climate. Microscale urban climatological studies have more application potential than those at meso- and local scales. Yet, current limitations in microscale urban climatological research hinder realizing this potential. Firstly, the costs of microscale studies are generally high. Secondly, it is difficult to apply the research results elsewhere. As a results, the high-cost microscale studies must be continuously repeated in various locations. The challenge of generalizing research results is a common limitation in urban climatology. Approaches have been proposed to alleviate this limitation in urban climatological studies at meso- and local scales. However, there is a lack of such attempts at the microscale. This research aims to propose an approach contributing to the generalization of research results in microscale urban climatological studies. This approach upgrades from the previous single-parameter approach to a multi-parameter approach. The multi-parameter approach views the UGS holistically by exploring the interdependent influence of various environmental features on human thermal comfort. The interdependent influence can enhance the comprehensiveness of results, improve the results generalization, and facilitate the knowledge transfer into specific guidelines for climate-adaptative UGS design and planning. To explore the interdependent influence, the multi-parameter approach utilizes the factorial experimental design. The microclimate model ENVI-met is used to simulate scenarios in the factorial experiments. The simulations are conducted on idealized and simplified scenarios to minimize the research costs. To control the research cost, the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) design is adopted to sample a subset of scenarios from the factorial experiment for field measurement and simulation. For result applicability, this research evaluates UGS cooling effects using both climatic parameters and biometeorological index -- Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET). PET values in this research are calculated using the RayMan model. This thesis comprises three independent studies on the interdependent influence of various environmental features of UGS on human thermal comfort. The following common conclusions can be drawn from these three studies. Firstly, different environmental features influence the cooling effects of UGS in an interdependent way. Specifically, the correlation between an environmental feature and the PCI effect depends on various environmental features. Secondly, the multi-parameter approach is significantly superior to the single-indicator approach in comprehensively and accurately capturing the interdependent influence. Additionally, these three studies provide specific and generalizable suggestions for the climate-adaptative UGS design and planning, demonstrating the capability of the multi-parameter approach to enhance the applicability and generalizability of findings in urban climatological studies. The characteristics of the multi-parameter approach include the following three aspects. At the practical level, it can provide specific guidelines for practical UGS design and planning; at the research level, it explores the interdependent influence of multiple environmental features on human thermal comfort; and at the philosophical level, it adopts the holistic view. This research is not only an attempt to enhance methodology and promote the application of research results, but also a manifestation of the philosophical paradigm shift in urban climatology

The effect of a second stimulus on the first reaction time within the psychological refractory period paradigm

This study was to examine the effects of the second stimulus and response on the first response by investigating RT1 under controlled conditions with different S2-R2. 24 subjects participated in this study. Results of the repeated measure ANOVA revealed that the effect of the second stimulus and response on the first response in PRP paradigm was significant. The findings of this study suggest that PRP exist not only in the processing of the second stimulus but also in the processing of the first stimulus and response. The result from this study failed to support either traditional bottleneck models or parallel model. An alternative model, a model consists of characteristics of both bottleneck and parallel models, is proposed to explain the result of this study

Space-Invariant Projection in Streaming Network Embedding

Newly arriving nodes in dynamics networks would gradually make the node embedding space drifted and the retraining of node embedding and downstream models indispensable. An exact threshold size of these new nodes, below which the node embedding space will be predicatively maintained, however, is rarely considered in either theory or experiment. From the view of matrix perturbation theory, a threshold of the maximum number of new nodes that keep the node embedding space approximately equivalent is analytically provided and empirically validated. It is therefore theoretically guaranteed that as the size of newly arriving nodes is below this threshold, embeddings of these new nodes can be quickly derived from embeddings of original nodes. A generation framework, Space-Invariant Projection (SIP), is accordingly proposed to enables arbitrary static MF-based embedding schemes to embed new nodes in dynamics networks fast. The time complexity of SIP is linear with the network size. By combining SIP with four state-of-the-art MF-based schemes, we show that SIP exhibits not only wide adaptability but also strong empirical performance in terms of efficiency and efficacy on the node classification task in three real datasets

A Dual Toll Policy for Regulating the Transportation of Hazardous Materials

The transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat) has drawn significant attention from various stakeholders due to the undesirable impacts on the environment and public health. Focusing on the connection between the traffic and the risk associated with the hazmat shipments, the present research aims to assist the regulator in designing a policy of dual tolls, imposed on both hazmat and non-hazmat shipments, to mitigate the hazmat risk in a road network. A bi-objective bi-level programming formulation is constructed. To be specific, the upper-level model indicates the regulator’s decision problem, minimizing the maximum link risk and the total network risk by imposing a dual-toll policy on any carrier. The lower level jointly considers the decisions of multiple hazmat carriers and non-hazmat travelers, minimizing the total transportation cost, including the toll cost. (By “non-hazmat traveler", we mean both people who carry and do not carry products.) Given the bi-level structure and the non-linear nature, a solution procedure with two parts is designed. First, we develop two alternative linearization approaches. One is piecewise linearization, transforming the non-linear terms into linear ones. The other applies the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, an iterative first-order optimization algorithm. Then a genetic-algorithm-based methodology will integrate both levels. Computational experiments on different sizes of networks are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. Various analyses, involving trade-offs, sensitivities, and examination of convergence, are conducted to provide additional managerial insights. These can be used to facilitate stakeholders’ decision making

Possible reusing of household ceramic wastes as mineral admixtures in ecological cement/concrete

Both the Ceramic wastes and the pollution of the cement industry can cause strong damage to the environment and the sustainable development. In the present study, the pozzolanic activity of household ceramic waste powder was investigated by SAI test and Frattini Test; the possibility of the partial substitution of Portland cement blended with ceramic waste powder was analyzed. The results indicate that the compressive strengths of mortar containing ceramic waste at both early age and after 28 days were generally increased as the ceramic waste ratio increased up to at least 15\% replacement, and the ground ceramic waste show clear pozzolanic activity.The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant: 51578109), and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/22680/ 2005).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the Improvement and Deepening of the Chinese Manufacturing Informationization Construction

Abstract. This paper discourses on the status of China's manufacturing industry informationization construction work, the main problem it is currently facing, and how to resolve these issues to improve and deepen the manufacturing enterprise informationization construction level, to help enterprises to avoid detours in the course of informationization, and make information technology to really serve manufacturing enterprises, and become the source of the power of enterprise development