Development Of Human Society Research Articles

Fire disaster management in South Africa: Look at statistics and impacts.

The existence of wildfires has been present since before humans, eventually, humans learned to control it. Today, fire is used for light, warmth, hunting, gathering, agriculture, energy, and so on. Fire has led to the evolution of flora and fauna of the world and the development of human society. Fire is both a natural and manmade disaster that causes a significant threat to life, property in residential, urban, rural areas, as well as industrial areas and the environment. Im-pacts of fire can be social, economic, and environmental, such as demolishing wildlife habitat, watershed and water supply damages, damage to property such as public recreation facilities, trails, campgrounds, and signs that affect tourists, destruction of timber, degraded air quality, and smoke-related illnesses. Fires when not controlled become disasters that should be addressed. This is done through disaster management, which can be summarized through the disaster management cycle that includes mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Disaster management of fire should be carried out in accordance with the Disaster Management Act, the Fire Brigade Service Act, the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, and the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act. Fire in South Africa is a usual occurrence. The National Disaster Management Center recorded that in 2016/17, over 17,000 fires occurred, de-stroying almost 5,900 dwellings, resulting in the death of 142 people. Fires greatly affect informal settlements as well as other hazards that are poorly built and overcrowded, therefore are vulnerable.

Legal gaps as an anomaly of the legal system - consideration of the term and nature of legal gaps

With the development of human society, new social situations arise in which the law often needs to be revised, and, therefore, the need to regulate legal gaps arises. Another possibility is that the legislator is unskilled, that he used vague terms when standardizing certain relations, or that, for various reasons, he failed to standardize those relations. Thus, legal gaps arise in law, which need to be analyzed and filled, especially since the law is expected to regulate those relationships that enable and facilitate social functioning. Therefore, it is necessary to present a thorough theoretical approach to the problem of the existence of legal gaps from the point of view of legal theory. Particular attention should be paid to filling legal gaps; however, as this is not the subject of this paper, we will only emphasize the necessity of solving this issue.

A Review of Marine In Situ Sensors and Biosensors

The exploration of the ocean is essential for the exploitation of marine resources and the sustainable development of human society. In order to assess both the health and the resources of the marine environment, a variety of chemical and biological sampling is needed. Traditionally, marine samples are collected on site and transported to a laboratory for analysis. Analytical methods are often tedious, and it is difficult to know the in situ real-time status. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the development of in situ chemical and biological sensors for the typical compounds in the ocean, including methane, radon, ferrous ion, carbon dioxide, microorganisms, pollutants, nutrients and seafood. Different types of sensors for each compound are highlighted, such as novel electrochemical and optical sensors. Commercial status of different sensors is introduced, and performance of representative sensors is compared and discussed deeply. The advantages and disadvantages of each sensing technique are analyzed and evaluated in detail. Finally, future prospects and work directions are presented, such as the deployment of these in situ sensors on fixed and/or moving platforms, development of microfluidic sensors and exploration of new antifouling materials and methods. This paper could serve as a resource for developing more advanced in situ chemical sensors and biosensors for marine scientific research, as well as related practical applications for monitoring marine resource exploration and exploitation and for environmental protection.

The Marxist View of Science and Technology and China's Independent Innovation and Development

Science and technology have played an important role in the development of human society. Marx and Engels attached great importance to the development of science and technology, and had unique views on science and technology. Marxist view of science and technology has the scientific attribute of keeping pace with the times and seeking truth from facts. The Marxist view of science and technology points out that scientific progress is an important driving force for technological development, which provides important guidance for China to build an independent and innovative country. This paper expounds the formation and development of the Marxist view of science and technology, discusses its views on science and technology and social development, and then, under the guidance of the Marxist view of science and technology, points out the development and innovation of the Marxist view of science and technology in China at different stages in combination with the actual development of China. According to the scientific judgment of the Marxist view of science and technology, summing up the historical experience and lessons, this paper obtains the enlightenment of the Marxist view of science and technology on the development of China's independent innovation, and holds that China should continue to improve the scientific and technological innovation system and continuously strengthen the construction of infrastructure; focus on developing innovative human resources; create a good innovation atmosphere and build a new pattern of independent scientific and technological innovation and development.

CO2 Geological Storage and Utilization

With increasing greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities, climate change is affecting the survival and development of human society [...]

2D Antiferroelectric Hybrid Perovskite with a Large Breakdown Electric Field And Energy Storage Density

AbstractEnergy conversion and storage devices are highly desirable for the sustainable development of human society. Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have shown great potential in energy conversion devices including solar cells and photodetectors. However, its potential in energy storage has seldom been explored. Here the crystal structure and electrical properties of the 2D hybrid perovskite (benzylammonium)2PbBr4 (PVK‐Br) are investigated, and the consecutive ferroelectric‐I (FE1) to ferroelectric‐II (FE2) then to antiferroelectric (AFE) transitions that are driven by the orderly alignment of benzylamine and the distortion of [PbBr6] octahedra are found. Furthermore, accompanied by field‐induced AFE to FE transition near room temperature, a large energy storage density of ≈1.7 J cm−3 and a wide working temperature span of ≈70 K are obtained; both of which are among the best in hybrid AFEs. This good energy storage performance is attributed to the large polarization of ≈7.6 µC cm−2 and the high maximum electric field of over 1000 kV cm−1, which, as revealed by theoretical calculations, originate from the cooperative coupling between the [PbBr6] octahedral framework and the benzylamine molecules. The research clarifies the discrepancy in the phase transition character of PVK‐Br and shed light on developing high‐performance energy storage devices based on 2D hybrid perovskite.

Risk preferences and the low-carbon agricultural technology adoption: Evidence from rice production in China

Climate change which is mainly caused by carbon emissions is a global problem affecting the economic development and well-being of human society. Low-carbon agriculture is of particular significance in slowing down global warming and reaching the goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”. Therefore, taking straw incorporation as an example, this paper aims to investigate the impact of risk preferences on farmers’ low-carbon agricultural technology (LCAT) adoption. Based on a two-phase micro-survey data of 1 038 rice farmers in Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Hunan provinces, this paper uses experimental economics methods to measure farmers’ risk aversion and loss aversion to obtain the real risk preferences information of the farmers. We also explore the data to examine the actual LCAT adoption behavior of farmers. The results revealed that both risk aversion and loss aversion significantly inhibit farmers’ LCAT adoption: more risk-averse or more loss-averse farmers are less likely to adopt LCAT. It is further found that crop insurance, farm scale and governmental regulations can alleviate the negative impact of risk aversion and loss aversion on farmers’ LCAT adoption. Therefore, we propose that local governments need to promote low-carbon agricultural development by propagating the benefits of LCAT, extending crop insurance, promoting appropriate scale operations, and strengthening governmental regulations to promote farmers’ LCAT adoption.

Variables and Constants in Literature: A Discussion of “Extrinsic Research” and “Intrinsic Research”

The variables and constants in literature are as difficult to separate and understand as the intricacies of quantum physics. This is the basic mode of literary existence and also an important precondition for the longevity of literary classics. However, since the late 19th century, literary currents have been turbulent, and wave upon wave of critical theory has evinced a discord between “the intrinsic and the extrinsic,” even amounting to mutual exclusion, with the result that literary constants or common sense have been intentionally or unintentionally ignored. This is not only clear evidence of the accelerated development of human society, but also the result of the interaction of many complex factors. For this reason, a dialectical analysis of the relationship between variables and constants or “extrinsic research” and “intrinsic research” has long been a major issue not easily avoided.

Editorial: Multiphase flow in energy studies and applications—A special issue for MTCUE-2022

Establishing a clean, low-carbon, and efficient energy system is paramount for the sustainable development of industries and human society. Multiphase flows are encountered extensively in various energy applications, including transportation, conversion, and utilization of fossil, renewable, hydrogen, and nuclear energies. These flows encompass a wide range of phenomena, such as fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, combustion, and chemical reactions. However, multiphase flows are highly intricate due to the coexistence of multiple phases, states, and components, as well as the interactions among them that occur across diverse spatiotemporal scales. Consequently, both academia and industry face significant challenges in comprehending and harnessing multiphase flows. Thus, establishing connections between basic research and industrial applications in the field of multiphase flows is fundamental and indispensable for advancements in energy science and technologies.

Preparation and characterization of phase change capsules containing waste cooking oil for asphalt binder thermoregulation

The green utilization of waste is of great significance to the sustainable development of human society. In this work, a new kind of capsule with the phase change heat storage function was prepared using waxy components extracted from waste cooking oil (WCO) as core material for the thermoregulation of asphalt binder. The differences in waxy components before and after hydrolysis treatment were studied including functional groups, phase transition temperature, and phase transition enthalpy. Meanwhile, the surface morphology, thermodynamic properties, and mechanical properties of the phase change capsules (PCCs) were also characterized comprehensively. Additionally, the effect of PCCs on asphalt thermoregulation was also examined in the laboratory. The results indicate that the waxy components after hydrolysis treatment are more suitable for asphalt binder thermoregulation in terms of the phase transition temperature, phase transition enthalpy, and thermal stability. According to the results of differential scanning calorimeter and thermogravimetric experiments, it can be calculated that the ratio of wall material and core material in PCCs is about 1:1, which endows the capsule with excellent heat storage properties (125 J/g), mechanical properties (>13 N), and thermal stability (>190 ℃). With the help of the temperature sensor, it is found that PCCs can delay the change rate of asphalt temperature with the environment by undergoing a phase transition to mitigate the damage of asphalt pavement in extremely hot climates. However, the performance of PCCs in asphalt mixtures still needs to be further explored. Overall, the findings of this research can further promote the green utilization of WCO and the functionalization of construction and building materials.

Emerging infectious diseases never end: The fight continues.

Emerging infectious diseases have accompanied the development of human society while causing great harm to humans, and SARS-CoV-2 was only one in the long list of microbial threats. Many viruses have existed in their natural reservoirs for a very long time, and the spillover of viruses from natural hosts to humans via interspecies transmission serves as the main source of emerging infectious diseases. Widely existing viruses capable of utilizing human receptors to infect human cells in animals signal the possible outbreak of another viral infection in the near future. Extensive and close collaborative surveillance across nations, more effective wildlife trade legislation, and robust investment into applied and basic research will help to combat the possible pandemics of new emerging infectious diseases in the future.

The efficiency of the horizontal directional drilling method in the rehabilitation and modernization projects of the underground infrastructure

"The evolution of human society was and is dependent on natural resources (oil, natural gas, coal, ores, industrial water, drinking water, etc.) and, obviously, on their transportation through pipelines. The existence of resources in the earth's crust, at depths not always accessible, required the finding of methods for their exploration and exploitation. Consequently, in the last 30 years, drilling methods, techniques and technologies have been developed. Today, the Horizontal Directional Drilling method covers the entire geological spectrum, and in terms of rehabilitation and modernization projects of the underground infrastructure, it ensures high quality. Therefore, Horizontal Directional Drilling is the smart, clean and efficient solution for installing the network sections to be installed. The authors, under the auspices of the Romanian Academy of Technical Sciences (ASTR) and the General Association of Romanian Engineers (AGIR), in this paper, highlight the use and advantages of Horizontal Directional Drilling. The main objective is to install such services in Romania without using traditional trenching methods, helping to avoid any unnecessary impact on the environment and, evidently, offering extra security. "

Investigation of the interactions and influencing variables between water and land resources in the upper Yellow River's wind-sand region

Water and land resources (WLR) are the fundamental resources for social and economic growth, and there is a complicated interaction association between WLR. The rational utilization and coordinated development of WLR are related to the sustainable development of human society. Innovatively combing the comprehensive assessment index (CAI) methodology, the regional centre of gravity method, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, and the panel model, the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the relationship between WLR and the relationship’s influencing factors from 2004 to 2020 was investigated in the wind-sand region of the upper Yellow River (WSUYR). The results show that: (1) Nevertheless, the WLR system CAI for the WSUYR demonstrated steady growth, and the regions with a favourable WLR system CAI were concentrated in the middle and east of the area. (2) The WSUYR represents the point where the CCD of the WLR system exponentially transitioned from the discoordination degree to the coordination stage, establishing a favourable overall trend. In the WSUYR, there are wide geographical variances in the CCD of the WLR system, but even though the divergence throughout cities has steadily closed to a growth trajectory. The two underlying variables that limit the CCD of local WLR are the scarcity of water resources and the destabilization of the water resources subsystem. (3) The CCD of the WLR system in the WSUYR is significantly influenced by factors such as population density, total water resources per capita, vegetation index, the green coverage rate of built-up areas, per capita GDP, and science and technology expenditure. This study can offer a scientific justification and pertinent recommendations for the sensible utilization and effective management of WLR in the WSUYR.

Discussion on the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution from the perspective of new structural economics

How to effectively protect the ecological environment while socio-economic development, to achieve the harmonious and sustainable development of human society and the natural ecological environment, has been paid more and more attention by governments and academic circles around the world. Therefore, the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution is proposed from the perspective of new structural economics. Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this paper provides a new explanation of the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution, according to the economic and technical indicators related to ecological environmental pollution, with the help of the subjective and objective empowerment method combined with the analysis of hierarchy method and entropy method, the weight of each ecological environment pollution evaluation index in the evaluation and division of ecological environmental pollution level is studied, and the comprehensive evaluation method is used to construct the ecological environment pollution technology rating evaluation model, and the compensation value of regional environmental pollution is finally obtained by combining the panel regression model. The method of this paper has wide applicability and significant advantages. The experimental results show that the COD emission of the North Water Source Area (QZ) of the Qingzhang River is 208t/a, and the upstream of the drinking water source area needs to compensate 3.88 million yuan downstream for water quality and water ecological restoration.

Ocean Sciences with the Spilhaus Projection: A Seamless Ocean Map for Spatial Data Recognition

The ocean, as a vast interconnected body of water on Earth, plays an essential role in Earth’s planetary dynamics, climate change, and the evolution of human society and decision-making processes. An ocean-focused global map is necessary to visually capture numerous phenomena within the world’s ocean and seafloor. Here we present the power of the Spilhaus square projection with various geological and geophysical datasets, including bathymetry, teleseismicity, seafloor geography, and seafloor spreading parameters. The Spilhaus projection, compared to widely-used map projections (e.g., Mercator and Robinson), emphasizes the seamless connection of water masses surrounded by continents. This projection has recently garnered attention for presenting ocean-oriented data, although it is not extensively used and currently supported by the ArcGIS software. Maps presented here provide not only a novel geological perspective on the world ocean as a whole body, but also new insights/questions to be addressed regarding features and processes of the water body, the seafloor, and ocean-atmosphere dynamics, which can be used for research, education, media, and policy decisions, and promote similar approaches.

WHICH TEACHERS SHOULD BE REPLACED BY AI

Teaching complex, abstract content is the key foundation of our civilization. Even before Internet there were technologies which thus significantly improved teaching and learning process and accelerated development of human society. With Internet and digital technology a number of new, powerful technologies are available to education. They significantly change the role of the teacher. No teacher can provide data, information, explanation, discussion or advice that cannot be found online nor can do it better than someone already did, or will do online. However, instead trying to do all for all, modern teacher should focus on doing something particular what they excel in for a fraction of students who truly need that teacher. Due to Internet the quantity of that small fraction of students will be larger than ever. Schools also need to transform, both physically and institutionally. Physically they need to provide spaces and resources for collaboration and exploration as well as cohabitation with their teachers. Institutionally they will specialize for some aspect of educational process from creation of new knowledge, its curation to its assessment.

Modern immunobiological preparations for veterinary medicine

With the development of human society, the intensification of agricultural production, climatic changes, environmental pollution, which negatively affect human and animal health, significant changes are taking place in the micro-world. The experience of infectionists show that the most effective way of protection against bacterial, as well as many viral and parasitic diseases, are antibiotics and vaccines.The article provides an overview of immunobiological remedies of veterinary medicine - whole-corpuscular, subunit, genetically engineered, vector and DNA vaccines, vaccines based on virus-like particles and transgenic plants. Whole–body vaccines are live and inactivated biological products, consisting of bacteria or viruses, that retain their integrity during the manufacturing process. Subunit vaccines consist of fragments of infectious disease pathogens capable of providing a specific immune response against a specific pathogen. The technology of manufacturing vector genetically engineered vaccines is based on the use of the virus as a vector for the transfer of genes of protective antigens of other viruses. A gene of the virus of interest is inserted into the genome of the avirulent virus, encoding an antigen that causes an immune response in the vaccinated organism. The avirulent virus modified in this way is used as a live viral vaccine. For the prevention of viral and bacterial diseases in veterinary practice, currently, the advantage is still given to live and inactivated whole-cell biologics, which have a full set of antigens and create intense immunity against infections. The last is the promising direction is the work on the design of genetically engineered vector and DNA vaccines.

Bioconversion of CO2 and potential of gas fermentation for mainstream applications: Critical advances and engineering challenges

AbstractThe undesirable consequences of climate change are attributed to the ever‐increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. For the sustainable development of human society, there is an urgent need to develop novel techniques for efficient conversion and utilization of carbon dioxide. Hence, carbon capture and storage, artificial bioconversion of carbon dioxide are topics of great interest for current researchers across the globe. Here, we elucidate the different techniques of carbon fixation, which fall under the broad categories of natural fixation pathways, thermo‐catalytic conversion techniques, and synthetic carbon fixation pathways. Based on a comparative analysis, gas fermentation is a promising method for the microbial conversion of CO2‐containing gases into fuels and chemicals. However, for mainstream applications, in‐depth reviews of different reactor configurations and the various engineering aspects related to process development are still lacking. We have analyzed the published literature relating to artificial bioconversion of carbon dioxide and focused on the factors like equipment selection and reactor design that can assist in scale‐up of gas fermentation technology. The review provides an in‐depth understanding of engineering aspects related to stirred tank and bubble column reactors, focusing on the technical design parameters and discussing the conditions for optimal operation and performance during commercial gas fermentation processes.

Improving the Gross Primary Production Estimate by Merging and Downscaling Based on Deep Learning

A reliable estimate of the gross primary productivity (GPP) is crucial for understanding the global carbon balance and accurately assessing the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to support the sustainable development of human society. However, there are inconsistencies in variations and trends in current GPP products. To improve the estimation accuracy of GPP, a deep learning method has been adopted to merge 23 CMIP6 data to generate a monthly GPP merged product with high precision and a spatial resolution of 0.25°, covering a time range of 1850–2100 under four climate scenarios. Multi-model ensemble mean and the merged GPP (CMIP6DL GPP) have been compared, taking GLASS GPP as the benchmark. Compared with the multi-model ensemble mean, the coefficient of determination between CMIP6DL GPP and GLASS GPP was increased from 0.66 to 0.86, with the RMSD being reduced from 1.77 gCm−2d−1 to 0.77 gCm−2d−1, which significantly reduced the random error. Merged GPP can better capture long-term trends, especially in regions with dense vegetation along the southeast coast. Under the climate change scenarios, the regional average annual GPP shows an upward trend over China, and the variation trend intensifies with the increase in radiation forcing levels. The results contribute to a scientific understanding of the potential impact of climate change on GPP in China.

GAN-based one dimensional medical data augmentation

With the continuous development of human life and society, the medical field is constantly improving. However, modern medicine still faces many limitations, including challenging and previously unsolvable problems. In these cases, artificial intelligence (AI) can provide solutions. The research and application of generative adversarial networks (GAN) are a clear example. While most researchers focus on image augmentation, there are few one-dimensional data augmentation examples. The radiomics feature extracted from RT and CT images is one-dimensional data. As far as we know, we are the first to apply the WGAN-GP algorithm to generate radiomics data in the medical field. In this paper, we input a portion of the original real data samples into the model. The model learns the distribution of the input data samples and generates synthetic data samples with similar distribution to the original real data, which can solve the problem of obtaining annotated medical data samples. We have conducted experiments on the public dataset Heart Disease Cleveland and the private dataset. Compared with the traditional method of Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) and common GAN for data augmentation, our method has significantly improved the AUC and SEN values under different data proportions. At the same time, our method has also shown varying levels of improvement in ACC and SPE values. This demonstrates that our method is effective and feasible.