Environmental Restrictions Research Articles

Localizing damage on stainless steel structures using acoustic emission signals and weighted ensemble regression-based convolutional neural network

Nuclear power generation is an essential part of the electrical supply in the United States, and it is an effective way to achieve low carbon power generation. Nuclear power generation produces spent radioactive fuel. If improperly disposed of or improperly stored, spent fuel can affect the environment and human health. Currently, in the United States, spent fuel is typically stored in stainless steel canisters. Some stainless steel canisters deployed in coastal areas are subject to stress corrosion cracks. Long-term monitoring and to provide timely maintenance of the storage canisters is necessary to prevent leakage of spent fuel due to damaged canisters. Acoustic emission (AE) is a structural health monitoring (SHM) technique that can be utilized to monitor large-scale metallic structures because it is extremely sensitive to damage initiation and propagation in materials. However, the challenge in using AE is in deploying a minimal number of AE sensors on a canister due to cost and environmental restrictions while still being able to precisely detect and localize damage formation. The innovation of this paper lies in the development of an automated damage localization method to estimate the coordinates of damage by using a single AE sensor. A data fusion approach was designed to integrate the information from waveforms, fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrums, and spectrum entropy and then convert the AE signals into three types of images along with short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and continuous wavelet transforms (CWT). A weighted ensemble regression-based convolutional neural network was proposed to analyze the images and compute the coordinates of damage. The proposed method was validated on a large-scale steel plate specimen that simulate the canister, and three-fold cross-validation was conducted to ensure the method was effectively evaluated. The results suggest that the proposed method has a high performance rate for locating damage.

River Sediment Runoff in the Aldan River Basin and Mining Activities

Abstract—The article contains the results of a study of the features and causes of a sharp decrease of water turbidity and the suspended sediment discharges of rivers (1.5–5 times) in the Aldan River basin, which has been recorded since the second half of the 1980s and 1990s. The possible factors of this decrease are considered in detail. These are the runoff and temperature of water, economic activities, and the method of measurements at the gauging stations. It was found that water runoff, in general, increased in the average range of 5–30%. The maximum water discharges on the different stations had a multidirectional trends. The water temperature, as an important factor of thermal erosion, has increased. That is, hydrological factors could not have caused such a reduction in sediment runoff. Since the 1990s, the reliability of stationary data has decreased Main reason lies in the mining industry, its degradation in the 1990s, a new revival in the XXI century, but already under the pressure of strict environmental restrictions. Using numerous open sources, the author has built a map of exploited mineral deposits, identified the main stages of their development and the parameters of mining operation. All this information allowed us to substantiate the conclusion about the similarity of long-term fluctuations in river sediment runoff and the dynamics of mining, the stages of discovery and development of deposits, changes in the structure and localization, the implementation of measures to reduce the negative impact of mining on rivers. It was also found that the data of the stations from the very beginning of their collection did not reflect the natural regime of sediment discharges and water turbidity.

Performance evaluation of resource utilization with environmental externality: Evidence from Chinese agriculture

Agriculture is of crucial importance to the food security of each country. As the most populous country, China has to pay more attention to agriculture to ensure enough agricultural production. Most research focuses on efficiency or productivity change in agriculture, while capacity utilization and environmental externality may often be ignored. Based on the measurement of plant capacity utilization (PCU), this study investigated Chinese agriculture during the period 1997–2018. We extended the PCU model with undesirable outputs to a novel input- and output-oriented long-run PCU measurement with by-product technology. The novelty lies in the introduction of an environmental PCU measure to capture the possible capacity of economic growth and pollution control. The empirical result shows a significant disparity in capacity utilization in agriculture among provinces. For instance, the central provinces have the highest level of PCU, followed by the eastern region, and the western region performed worst. Furthermore, possible policy implications are derived to promote agricultural production with environmental restrictions.

Factors of heavy social media use among 13-year-old adolescents on weekdays and weekends

BackgroundFew studies have investigated which factors were related to adolescents’ social media use. This study aimed to evaluate which factors were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends among 13-year-old adolescents.MethodsWe analyzed data from 3727 children from the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Associations of demographic factors (child age, sex, ethnic background, and family situation), socioeconomic position (parental educational level, parental employment status, and net household income), screen-based behaviors (computer playing and TV viewing), and the home environment (communication, supervision, and restriction) with adolescents’ heavy social media use (≥ 2 hours/day) were assessed separately on weekdays and weekends. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied.ResultsThe prevalence of heavy social media use was 37.7% on a weekday and 59.6% on a weekend day. Being a girl, living in a one-parent family, and more time spent playing on the computer were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends (all P < 0.05). Low socioeconomic position adolescents (low parental educational level and low household income) were more likely to show heavy social media use only on weekends (all P < 0.05). Children whose social media use was restricted by parents on weekdays or children whose social media use was supervised by parents on weekends had lower odds of heavy social media use (all P < 0.05).ConclusionsBeing a girl, living in a one-parent family, or having a longer computer playing time were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends. More studies are needed to understand the factors associated with heavy social media use and the impact of heavy social media use on child health.

Refining wind and solar potential maps through spatial multicriteria assessment. Case study: Colombia

Despite the abundance of energy resource assessments for wind and solar power around the globe, the existing studies seldom integrate the environmental restrictions into the analysis, which results in overestimation of the available resources. Existing potential maps show that wind and solar resources are abundant in Colombia, but these studies do not consider the multiple restrictions developers face when a project is considered. This paper proposes a methodology to determine the areas with the best characteristics to develop wind and photovoltaic solar farms in Colombia, using Geographic Information Systems that depict the distribution of the physical, biotic, economic, cultural, and political characteristics restricting or conditioning the implementation of these projects. To consider financial performance, the LCOE associated with each location was subsequently calculated, and the environmental characteristics were assessed through interviews with a group of experts. Maps were developed where the areas with potential can be viewed, classified according to their profitability and the ease of developing a project at that location. The most promising locations for wind and solar farms for the continental territory of Colombia were determined integrating levels of difficulty in the environmental management, and financial project performance. The results were unified in a tool useful for stakeholders, decision-makers, researchers, and investors, in which basically no technical knowledge is required for its interpretation. The results allow estimating the real installable potential in each technology throughout the Colombian territory and providing signals for the national interconnected system (SIN) on where the country's new energy developments are expected to take place.

Tannery: Environmental impacts and sustainable technologies

The tannery is an old industrial sector well-developed, plays an important role in the global economy, and has been heavily industrialized over the years in all countries. In developed countries, the legislation forces the tannery sector to develop clean and sustainable production. Due to the strict legislation policies, there was a continuous change in the distribution of the processing sites. There are two main reasons for this shift of the distribution, namely: 1) lower labour costs in some countries than in others; 2) fewer environmental restrictions in some countries than in others.The current tanning process is still mainly based on the traditional one, making use of chromium salts and being able to give leather of very high quality, despite its severe environmental drawbacks. Since its industrialization, the tannery has shown its heavy environmental impacts, caused by the operations and the processes done in the productive/supply chain, from the raw hides and skins to the final leather. Especially, this sector consumes a huge amount of water, which generates wastewater with high concentrations of pollutants (mainly, chromium(III), sodium sulfide, ammonium chloride, biocides, aldehydes, dyes, etc.). Emissions to the air and solid waste production are worth of consideration, too. At last, the health effects on the workers can give problems in the short as well as long term.Looking at the current distribution of the processing sites, most are in developing countries, where the legislation is still weak.Little amounts of leather derive from the green tannery, where the use of chromium is limited or completely avoided. The reason is the lower quality of the leather produced by the so-called “green technologies”.This paper analyzes the impacts deriving from the tannery industry due to the conventional chromium process. The reduced-chrome processes and green technologies are discussed, too, considering the role of nanotechnologies.

Development of Experimental Techniques for the Phase Equilibrium Study in the Pb-Fe-O-S-Si System Involving Gas, Slag, Matte, Lead Metal and Tridymite Phases

Present society challenges, including metal scarcity, recycling, and environmental restrictions, resulted in the increased complexity and variability of metallurgical feed streams. Metallurgical processes involving complex lead and copper-containing slag and matte phases are now commonly used in response. Optimization of existing and development of new metallurgical processes require fundamental information on slag–matte phase equilibrium. Development of the experimental methodology for the characterization of slag–matte phase equilibrium is presented in the paper. Following a detailed analysis of the potential reaction pathways, experimental techniques have been developed that enable accurate measurement of slag–matte phase equilibrium in the Pb-Fe-O-S-Si system. The application of the techniques has been demonstrated for two important sets of conditions: (i) Condensed phase equilibrium for the slag–matte–metal–tridymite subsystem; and (ii) Gas–slag–matte–tridymite equilibrium at fixed oxygen and sulfur partial pressures. The experimental methodology involves high-temperature equilibration of synthetic samples, fast quenching, and microanalysis of the compositions of phases using electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA). The experimental results are not affected by the changes in the bulk composition of samples during equilibration; this helps to overcome the significant barriers previously encountered in undertaking accurate measurement and characterization of these systems.

Flow simulation in direct ethanol fuel cells using multifunctional anode catalysts

Fuel cells have been seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuel engines, mainly driven by environmental restrictions. In this work, a direct ethanol fuel cell is modeled using a dynamic model, which considers fuel and air flow, anode and cathode losses, membrane, multifunctional catalysts (Pt/C, Pt−Ru/C and Pt−Sn/C), temperature, and the variation of species concentration in relation to the current density, since the cell operation is influenced by them. The equations are discretized using the finite difference method and the integration is performed using the Rosenbrock method. The results obtained for the flow using the dynamic model developed reasonably agree with data found in the literature. The molar fractions of the species shown contribute to the understanding of the behavior of the reactive flow that occurs inside an ethanol fuel cell.

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling of Constraint Factors Affecting Project Performance in the Egyptian Building Industry

Building constraints hinder building operations from meeting a project’s time, budget, and quality objectives. For a construction project to provide satisfying results, it is essential to recognize and address such constraints early on. Unfortunately, research on the causes of building constraints and their implications for building management has been limited. Therefore, there is a pressing need to study the sources of constraints and how they impact project results. Consequently, this study addresses this gap by examining the hurdles confronting Egypt’s general building construction projects. Building constraints were identified from previous studies, which were then contextually investigated using a survey questionnaire within the Egyptian construction sector. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) findings indicated that the constraint factors could be divided into six constructs: environment, stakeholders, regulations, policies, management, and traditional beliefs and ownership. Partial least square structural equation modeling was also utilized to create a constraint factor model. The findings demonstrated that environmental restrictions were significant obstacles to the effective execution of a project. The results of this research can assist decision makers in Egypt’s building sector in cutting costs and improving sustainability by easing the effects of limiting variables.

Photocatalytic Degradation of Acid Orange 7 by NiO-TiO2/TiO2 Bilayer Film Photo-Chargeable Catalysts

Photocatalysis as an eco-friendly technology has the potential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, an improvement of conventional photocatalysts is necessary to overcome their limitations such as slow kinetics, wavelength for excitation, and environmental restrictions. In particular, the development of a photocatalyst that can operate even in the absence of light is constantly conducted, and a photo-chargeable photocatalyst could be one of the answers. In this paper, a heterojunction composed of TiO2 and NiO-TiO2 bilayer film photocatalyst (BLF) was prepared. The effect of the synthesis conditions of the NiO-TiO2 layer on the photocatalytic properties was investigated. Photocatalytic degradation measurements were conducted with an acid orange 7 (AO7) solution under light and dark conditions. The highest degradation BLF was synthesized at a NiO loading of 52% and calcination temperature of 300 °C. The prepared sample showed about five-fold greater photocatalytic activity of 48% in AO7 degradation after 8 h compared to an ordinary TiO2 film (9%) under light conditions. Moreover, under dark conditions it exhibited 13.6% degradation, while the naked layers of TiO2 and NiO-TiO2 showed no degradation. The proposed mechanism suggested that photocatalysis in the dark was possible due to the stabilization of photogenerated holes by anionic intercalation during illumination.

Subsistence and Persistence: Indigenous Foodways Within Mission Santa Clara de Asís

ABSTRACT This study explores the subsistence strategies and dietary practices of Indigenous people who resided in Mission Santa Clara de Asìs (1777–1836). Through the analysis of faunal remains from recent archaeological work of the ranchería, the housing location of Native families, this research reveals the persistence of Indigenous foodways within Mission Santa Clara. While colonization efforts by the Spanish impacted both local environments and traditional foodways, Native Californians continued to procure and utilize a high diversity of traditional wild fauna throughout the Mission Period. These findings provide evidence for the rearticulation and continuation of Indigenous foodways within the Mission despite social and environmental restrictions that limited access to wild resources.

Milos, the minerals island and its important asset: Bentonite

The island of Milos is an active mining site since the Antiquity. Exploitation began with the extraction of obsidian lumps and volcanic lavas and tuffs of specific type, that were used as millstones, sulphur and alum (alunite). Currently, the mining activity is focused on perlite and bentonite, even though some years ago, kaolin, silica, pozzolans and barite were also exploited. Milos bentonite is rather a specialty and not a commodity, as it has multifunctional properties, and therefore used in a wide range of industrial applications, such as foundry sand, drilling muds, lubricant oil, civil engineering structures (waterproofing and sealing, diaphragm wall construction, grouting, concrete workability additive, etc.), cat litter, iron ore pelletizing - Fe metallurgy in blast furnaces and also as “improver” for poor quality bentonites. The peculiar behaviour of Milos bentonites can be attributed to the combination of various geological and hydrogeological factors that occurred at the time of its formation from a glassy tuff precursor. Despite the continuous flourishing of tourism at the island, the mining activity does not face any threats to its existence, as both parties follow the specified regulations and environmental restrictions necessary to allow dual economic growth.

Экологические ограничения в схемах территориального планирования российских агломераций

Экологические ограничения в схемах территориального планирования российских агломераций

Effects of Filler Types and High RAP Content on the Ability of HMA to Withstand Moisture Damage

Using hot mix asphalt (HMA) and recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) simultaneously has many technological benefits. At all service temperatures, moisture damage is a hazard with these mixes. Thus, moisture's effects on mixtures' effectiveness were studied using experimental techniques, such as the tensile strength ratio (TSR). Four different ratios of RAP for the surface layer (20, 30, 40, and 50%)) were added to the asphalt mixture (HMA) to study as well as find the content Optimal RAP for both layers RAP through Marshall stability and hygroscopic resistance of asphalt mixtures through moisture damage is examined. The ratio (TSR) of the optimal RAP content mixture is compared with the asphalt mixture without RAP for three fillers and for both layers. The findings revealed a slight reduction in tensile strength of the (HMA) that does not contain RAP in contrast to the asphalt control mix containing the reclaimed pavement, where it was found that the percentages were slightly more and still higher than 80%. The results indicate that, in general, "Hot asphalt mixtures" containing RAP can be recommended for areas that experience moisture damage without worrying about environmental and natural resource restrictions.

Approach of Some Economic and Mathematical Models of Production and Transportation Problems with Environmental Pollution Restrictions

The paper addresses some decisionmaking processes in the economic areas of production and transport, focused on the optimization, in various aspects, of these processes. A special emphasis is given to capitalizing on optimal decisions, respecting traditional conditions and special restrictions imposed by the pollution phenomenon. Pollution is the consequence of economic activities in the respective fields. In most economic and mathematical models, the pollution functions define constraints, which can essentially reduce, compared to classical situations, the set of admissible solutions. For certain situations, constructive numerical algorithms are proposed, which could effectively and in real time solve the problems in question.

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ СТРАТЕГИЙ ТОРГОВЫХ СЕТЕЙ

in the modern world, retailers face the need to adjust their strategies to the pressure of the external environment, consumer preferences and legislative restrictions. Such a need has arisen throughout the whole history of their development, and those retailers who managed to respond to the challenges of the time in a timely manner and change their development strategies continued to expand and develop. This article is devoted to strategies for the development of retail chains through the study of their activities at different time intervals from the opening of the first stores to the transformation into multinational companies. Five stages of retailers’ development are considered and strategies for each of them are outlined: resource-based development, internationalization (development in international markets), adaptation, consolidation, multichannel. The article examines the cases of the world’s largest retailers – Auchan, Leroy Merlin, Ikea, etc. in order to identify and substantiate the patterns of development in each allocated period of time.

EgoFish3D: Egocentric 3D Pose Estimation From a Fisheye Camera via Self-Supervised Learning

Egocentric vision has gained increasing popularity recently, opening new avenues for human-centric applications. However, the use of the egocentric fisheye cameras allows wide angle coverage but image distortion is introduced along with strong human body self-occlusion imposing significant challenges in data processing and model reconstruction. Unlike previous work only leveraging synthetic data for model training, this paper presents a new real-world EgoCentric Human Pose (ECHP) dataset. To tackle the difficulty of collecting 3D ground truth using motion capture systems, we simultaneously collect images from a head-mounted egocentric fisheye camera as well as from two third-person-view cameras, circumventing the environmental restrictions. By using self-supervised learning under multi-view constraints, we propose a simple yet effective framework, namely EgoFish3D, for egocentric 3D pose estimation from a single image in different real-world scenarios. The proposed EgoFish3D incorporates three main modules. 1) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">The third-person-view module</i> takes two exocentric images as input and estimates the 3D pose represented in the third-person camera frame; 2) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">the egocentric module</i> predicts the 3D pose in the egocentric camera frame; and 3) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">the interactive module</i> estimates the rotation matrix between the third-person and the egocentric views. Experimental results on our ECHP dataset and existing benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed EgoFish3D, which can achieve superior performance to existing methods.

Актуальность оптимизации процессов смешения и переработки мазутов на нефтеперерабатывающих заводах России

The article discusses the issues of mixing fuel oil at domestic refineries. The main brands of fuel oil are presented, the processesof mixing and preparation of fuel oil at refineries are described. The preservation of the need for low-sulfur fuel oil and the relevance of optimizing its mixing processes are indicated. Market indicators for fuel oil, prospects for demand in the domestic market andfor exports due to MARPOL environmental restrictions and economic sanctions barriers were studied. The importance of automation and digitalization of the process of mixing fuel oil in the framework of the implementation of projects of optimal calendar mixingof petroleum products is noted.

Занятость как показатель устойчивого развития сельских территорий в регионе Дальнего Востока с особым режимом природопользования (на примере Республики Бурятия)

The article is a continuation of a cycle of publications devoted to the study of social problems and contradictions of sustainable development of the territories. The authors note that significant restrictions on the development of economic activity, including agriculture, due to the special nature management regime in the Baikal natural territory, generally hinder the development of the regional economy. In particular, in this article, the authors explore the impact of environmental restrictions on the employment of the rural population as an indicator of the sustainable development of rural areas. The object of study was the Barguzinsk, Pribaikalsk, Kabansk, Severo-Baikalsk districts and the city of Severobaikalsk, within the boundaries of which the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory in the Republic of Buryatia passes. The study used methods of comparative analysis and economic and statistical methods. The information base was the data of the Federal State Statistics Service for 1990–2023. Changes in the basic types of economic activity in terms of the share of the population employed in them are considered. The factors negatively affecting the development of agriculture and other branches of the agro-industrial complex in the region with environmental regulation are determined. Studies have shown that in order to develop agriculture, increase employment in rural areas, and reduce the risk of migration losses, targeted measures are needed to increase the availability of transport and social services. The main conclusions and recommendations can be used by the authorities in development of the programs to promote employment and socio-economic development of the regions.

Field investigation and design of debris nets in an environmentally sensitive area

Flexible debris nets are an excellent choice for emergency debris protection. They are lightweight, have a small footprint, and are relatively easy to construct. Available design methodology based on testing and modelling makes engineering simplified with straightforward calculations. After a huge wildfire, Montecito, California sustained devasting debris flows. The need to quickly design and construct protection was made possible proven methodologies under difficult environmental restrictions.