ALBERT

Description: The growth of global population and economy continually increases the waste volumes and consequently creates challenges to handle and dispose solid wastes. It becomes more challenging in mixed rural-urban areas (i.e., areas of mixed land use for rural and urban purposes) where both agricultural waste (e.g., manure) and municipal solid waste are generated. The efficiency and confidence of decisions in current management practices significantly rely on the accurate information and subjective judgments, which are usually compromised by uncertainties. This study proposed a resource-oriented solid waste management system for mixed rural-urban areas. The system is featured by a novel Monte Carlo simulation-based fuzzy programming approach. The developed system was tested by a real-world case with consideration of various resource-oriented treatment technologies and the associated uncertainties. The modeling results indicated that the community-based bio-coal and household-based CH4 facilities were necessary and would become predominant in the waste management system. The 95% confidence intervals of waste loadings to the CH4 and bio-coal facilities were 387, 450 and 178, 215 tonne/day (mixed flow), respectively. In general, the developed system has high capability in supporting solid waste management for mixed rural-urban areas in a cost-efficient and sustainable manner under uncertainty.

Description: A plasma sheath enveloping a reentry vehicle would cause the failure of on-board antennas, which is an important effect that contributes to the “blackout” problem. The method of replacing the on-board single antenna with the array antennas and using beamforming technology has been proposed to mitigate “blackout” problem by many other researchers. Because the plasma sheath is a reflective medium, plasma will alter the mutual coupling between array elements and degrade the beamforming performance of array antenna. In this paper, the effects of the plasma sheath on the mutual coupling properties between adjacent array elements are studied utilizing the algorithm of finite integration technique. Results show that mutual coupling coefficients of array elements are deteriorating more seriously with the decrease of collision frequency. Moreover, when electron density and collision frequency are both large, plasma sheath improves the mutual coupling property of array elements; this conclusion suggests that replacing the on-board single antenna with the array antennas and using beamforming technology can be adopted to mitigate the blackout problem in this condition.

Description: The M w  7.0 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake occurred on 15 April 2016 at 16:25 UTC. Using ground accelerations recorded by 104 near-field stations, we investigate spatial variability of observed ground motions, apparent period dependence, and azimuthal variation, as well as rupture directivity effects on various intensity measures. We develop a simplified ground-motion model that includes both geometric and anelastic attenuation terms. Comparisons of observed and predicted ground motions suggest that predictions from the Next Generation Attenuation-West2 models provide good fits for the overall observation. Analysis of spatial distribution of the residuals shows that observed peak ground velocity (PGV) and long-period spectral accelerations (SAs) in the 150°–180° azimuth range along the rupture backward direction (southwest of the fault) can be as low as 0.3–0.8 times the average observation of this event. Long-period ground motions on the northeast side of the fault in the forward direction are much higher than average, with PGV and long-period SAs ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 times the average. There is clear period dependence of the strong ground motion variation. The biases due to directivity generally decrease with decreasing period for all azimuth ranges. On the distance dependence of directivity effects, our study shows that directivity effects can be considered practically nonsignificant for stations close to the hypocenter. We also perform a log–linear regression of the residuals, using a new directivity predictor. Our results show that for the 2016 M w  7.0 Kumamoto earthquake, rupture directivity produces significant amplifications in the rupture forward direction, whereas deamplification effects are observed in the rupture backward region. Directivity effects are particularly relevant for PGV and long-period SA (i.e., SA at periods ≥2.0 s). Such effects do not have systematic influence on peak ground acceleration and short-period ground motions (i.e., SA at periods 〈2.0 s). Electronic Supplement: Figures of variation of regression residuals with R rup for observed peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and spectral accelerations (SAs) and of regression residuals versus V S 30 .

Description: Earthquake ground-motion prediction models usually define site conditions based on the time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the upper 30 m ( V S 30 ). Proxy-based estimations of V S 30 are commonly used, if velocity measurements are not available. We compile a soil-profile database for the Beijing plain area (China), using data from research documents and technical reports. The database contains 479 soil profiles, 463 of which have depths greater than 30 m. We develop regional relationships for the Beijing plain area for extrapolating the time-averaged shear-wave velocity to a given depth less than 30 m to V S 30 , and then compare the performance of available models. We find that the second-order polynomial model ( Boore et al. , 2011 ), based on data from Japan, provides an overprediction, whereas the linear model ( Boore, 2004 ) calibrated on data from California underestimates V S 30 . We develop relationships for estimating V S 30 based on proxies such as ground slope gradients from radar-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) and surface geology at different scales. We find that local V S 30 data in the Beijing plain are generally lower than existing 30 arcsec gradient-based global models. Regression results show a modest correlation between V S 30 and topographic ground slope for several DEM resolutions (3, 15, 30, and 60 arcsec). Geology-based proxies are more effective than ground slope for V S 30 estimation in the analyzed area. We propose a bilinear model based on geologic ages and depositional environments for estimating V S 30 , which shows a statistically significant trend for application in the Beijing plain area. Online Material: Figures showing topographic ground slopes and correlations of V S 30 with topographic slope from digital elevation model (DEM) data and a table summarizing data from the 463 boreholes.

Description: An inventory-theory-based inexact multistage stochastic programming (IB-IMSP) method is developed for planning water resources systems under uncertainty. The IB-IMSP is based on inexact multistage stochastic programming and inventory theory. The IB-IMSP cannot only effectively handle system uncertainties represented as probability density functions and discrete intervals but also efficiently reflect dynamic features of system conditions under different flow levels within a multistage context. Moreover, it can provide reasonable transferring schemes (i.e., the amount and batch of transferring as well as the corresponding transferring period) associated with various flow scenarios for solving water shortage problems. The applicability of the proposed IB-IMSP is demonstrated by a case study of planning water resources management. The solutions obtained are helpful for decision makers in not only identifying different transferring schemes when the promised water is not met, but also making decisions of water allocation associated with different economic objectives.

Description: In this study, an interval-stochastic fractile optimization (ISFO) model is advanced for developing optimal water-resources management strategies under multiple uncertainties. The ISFO model can not only handle uncertainties presented in terms of probability distributions and intervals with possibility distribution boundary, but also quantify subjective information (i.e., expected system benefit preference and risk-averse attitude) from different decision makers. The ISFO model is then applied to a real case of water-resources systems planning in Kaidu-kongque watershed, China, and a number of scenarios with different ecological water-allocation policies under varied p-necessity fractiles are analyzed. Results indicate that different policies for ecological water allocation can lead to varied water supplies, economic penalties, and system benefits. The solutions obtained can help decision makers identify optimized water-allocation alternatives, alleviate the water supply-demand conflict, and achieve socioeconomic and ecological sustainability, particularly when limited water resources are available for multiple competing users.

Description: A plasma sheath enveloping a reentry vehicle would affect performances of on-board antenna greatly, especially the navigation antennas. This paper studies the effects of reentry plasma sheath on a GPS right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) patch antenna polarization property during a typical reentry process. Utilizing the algorithm of finite integration technique, the polarization characteristic of a GPS antenna coated by a plasma sheath is obtained. Results show that the GPS RHCP patch antenna radiation pattern distortions as well as polarization deteriorations exist during the entire reentry process, and the worst polarization mismatch loss between a GPS antenna and RHCP GPS signal is nearly 3 dB. This paper also indicates that measures should be taken to alleviate the plasma sheath for maintaining the GPS communication during the reentry process.

Description: In this study, an interval fuzzy credibility-constrained programming (IFCP) method is developed for river water quality management. IFCP is derived from incorporating techniques of fuzzy credibility-constrained programming (FCP) and interval-parameter programming (IPP) within a general optimization framework. IFCP is capable of tackling uncertainties presented as interval numbers and possibility distributions as well as analyzing the reliability of satisfying (or the risk of violating) system’s constraints. A real-world case for water quality management planning of the Xiangxi River in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (which faces severe water quality problems due to pollution from point and nonpoint sources) is then conducted for demonstrating the applicability of the developed method. The results demonstrate that high biological oxygen demand (BOD) discharge is observed at the Baishahe chemical plant and Gufu wastewater treatment plant. For nonpoint sources, crop farming generates large amounts of total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN). The results are helpful for managers in not only making decisions of effluent discharges from point and nonpoint sources but also gaining insight into the tradeoff between system benefit and environmental requirement.

Description: Composite material is widely used in the conformal load-bearing antenna structure (CLAS), and the manufacturing flaws in the packaging process of the CLAS will lead to the degradation of its wave-transparent property. For this problem, a novel inverse method of the flaw’s dimension by antenna-radome system’s far field data has been proposed. Two steps are included in the inversion: the first one is the inversion from the far filed data to the transmission coefficient of the CLAS’s radome; the second one is the inversion from the transmission coefficient to the flaw’s dimension. The inversion also has a good potential for the separable multilayer composite material radome. A 12.5 GHz CLAS with microstrip antenna array is used in the simulation, which indicates the effectiveness of the novel inversion method. Finally, the error analysis of the inversion method is presented by numerical simulation; the results is that the inversed error could be less than 10%, if the measurement error of far field data is less than 0.45 dB in amplitude and ±5° in phase.