Suchergebnisse

Abstract. The 14 April 2010 Ms = 7.1 Yushu Earthquake (YE) had caused severe damage in the Jiegu township, the residential centre of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. In view of the fragile geological conditions after YE, risk assessment of secondary geohazards becomes an important concern for the reconstruction. A quantitative methodology was developed to assess the risk of debris flow by taking into account important intensity information. Debris flow scenarios were simulated with respect to rainfall events with 10, 50 and 100 yr returning period, respectively. The possible economic loss and fatalities caused by damage to buildings were assessed both in the settlement area and in the low hazard settlement area regarding the simulated debris flow events. Three modelled building types were adopted, i.e. hollow brick wood (HBW), hollow brick concrete (HBC) and reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. The results suggest that HBC structure achieves a good balance for the cost-benefit relationship compared with HBW and RC structures and thus could be an optimal choice for most of the new residential buildings in the Jiegu township. The low hazard boundary presents significant risk reduction efficiency in the 100 yr returning debris flow event. In addition, the societal risk for the settlement area is unacceptable when the 100 yr returning event occurs but reduces to ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) level as the low hazard area is considered. Therefore, the low hazard area was highly recommended to be taken into account in the reconstruction. Yet, the societal risk might indeed approach an unacceptable level if one considers that YE has inevitably increased the occurrence frequency of debris flow. The quantitative results should be treated as a perspective for the reconstruction rather than precise numbers of future losses, owing to the complexity of the problem and the deficiency of data.

Despite the grave threat illegal wildlife trade poses to species survival, few studies have attempted to link supply and demand data for the same wildlife product. All ca. 29,000 orchid species are listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and many are protected under domestic legislation too, but a growing body of evidence suggests that orchids continue to be subject to unsustainable harvesting and undocumented trade. South China is a known black spot for trade in wild-collected ornamental orchids but understanding of the drivers determining the flow of species diversity, volume and value remains wanting. We conducted systematic monthly surveys at five markets along a West-East transect from Yunnan to Hong Kong for one year, recording variables including species, numbers of individuals, weight and price. Although wild orchid diversity is highest in Yunnan, the diversity of orchids in trade increased eastwards and mean price per stem rose more than four-fold, albeit always significantly cheaper than that for artificially produced hybrids. Part of this trade appears to be in breach of CITES. Few orchids in trade conformed to six criteria highlighted in prior demand-side studies as being of higher utility value, but most conformed to a combination of four or more, suggesting that vendors can readily offer products that meet a majority of consumer preferences. Effective supply-side regulation, through government intervention and social media campaigns, is needed to facilitate behavioural change and allow artificially propagated plants to compete in the market-place.

A series of strict emission control measures were implemented in Beijing and surrounding regions to ensure good air quality during the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and 2015 Grand Military Parade (Parade), which led to blue sky days during these two events commonly referred to as >APEC Blue> and >Parade Blue>. Here we calculated Multi-Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO and HCHO results based on well known DOAS trace gas fitting algorithm and WRF-Chem model (with measured climatology parameter and newest emission inventor) simulated trace gases profiles. We found the NO columns abruptly decreased both Parade (43%) and APEC (21%) compared with the periods before these two events. The back-trajectory cluster analysis and the potential source contribution function (PSCF) proved regional transport from southern peripheral cities plays a key role in pollutants observed at Beijing. The diminishing transport contribution from southern air mass during Parade manifests the real effect of emission control measures on NO pollution. Based on the ratios of HCHO over NO we found there were not only limited the NO pollutant but also suppress the O contaminant during Parade, while O increased during the APEC. ; Peer Reviewed

As one of the common natural disasters, drought is extremely destructive to agriculture. Drought has risen in recent years, so how to effectively monitor drought has become the focus of attention of relevant government departments. When drought occurs, irrigation measures will be taken in the irrigation district for drought resistance and disaster reduction. At this time, drought monitoring based on meteorological data and remote sensing index has certain limitations. Based on the surface temperature data of MODIS, this paper extracted the irrigation area information in the irrigated district, compared the drought monitoring results of irrigated area with those based on precipitation anomaly percentage and vegetation anomaly index, and analysed the importance of agricultural drought monitoring based on remote sensing of irrigated area. This paper considers that it is necessary to consider the distribution of the irrigated area when conducting drought monitoring in the irrigation district, it can improve the accuracy of agricultural monitoring, and it can provide the basis for government and agriculture and other related departments to manage water resources and formulate drought-resistance policies.

Abstract. Hydrogeochemistry of 10 hot springs in the Kangding district was investigated by analyzing cation and anion concentrations in the spring water. The water samples were collected in the 5 days after the Lushan MS = 7.0 earthquake, which occurred on 20 April 2013. The spring waters are classified into seven chemical types based on their hydrochemical compositions. Compared with hydrochemical data before the Lushan earthquake, concentrations of Ca2+, HCO3- and total dissolved solid (TDS) in water samples from the Guanding, Erdaoqiao, Gonghe, Erhaoying, Tianwanhe and Caoke springs significantly increased, which may be the result of a greater increase in groundwater from carbonate rocks, and water–carbonate rock interactions, enhanced by the increment of CO2. Concentrations of Na+, Cl- and SO42- in water samples from the Guanding, Zheduotang, Xinxing and Gonghe springs decreased, indicating a dilution of shallow waters. Concentrations of Na+ and SO42- in water samples from the Erhaoying spring water increased, which may be attributed to water–granite interactions enhanced by H2S. The results indicated that hydrochemical components of spring water could be used as an effective indicator for earthquakes.

Purpose of the studyThe primary Week 48 analysis of this ongoing, randomized, double‐blind, double‐dummy, active‐controlled Phase 3 trial of elvitegravir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir DF (Quad) in treatment‐naïve patients demonstrated that Quad was non‐inferior to efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir DF (EFV/FTC/TDF) with a differentiated safety profile. We report the Week 96 interim data.MethodsKey eligibility criteria included HIV‐1 RNA ≥5,000 c/mL and eGFR ≥70 mL/min. Virologic success (HIV‐1 RNA <50 c/mL) at Week 96 was assessed per snapshot algorithm. Adverse events and laboratory data were collected prospectively.Results700 patients (89% male, 63% white, 33% with HIV‐1 RNA >100,000 c/mL) were randomized and treated. At Week 48, Quad was non‐inferior to EFV/FTC/TDF (88% vs 84%, difference +3.6%, 95% CI ‐1.6% to 8.8%). High rates of virologic success were maintained at Week 96 (84% vs 82%, difference 2.7%, 95% CI ‐2.9% to 8.3%). Subgroup analysis revealed similar rates of virologic success in patients with baseline HIV‐1 RNA >100,000 c/mL (81% vs 83%). Mean CD4 cell increase (cells/mm3) was 295 vs 273. Emergent resistance was infrequent (3% vs 3%). Rates of study drug discontinuation due to adverse events (AEs) were low and comparable (5% vs 7%). Rates of neuropsychiatric AEs were lower in Quad than in EFV/FTC/TDF (47% vs 66%, P<0.001), as were rates of rash (21% vs 31%, P=0.006). Drug discontinuation due to renal reasons occurred in 7 (2%) vs 0 patients through Week 96; only two patients discontinued Quad since Week 48 due to serum creatinine (Cr) increase without features of proximal renal tubulopathy. Median changes in serum Cr (µmol/L [mg/dL]) at Week 96 in Quad vs EFV/FTC/TDF (11.5 vs 0.9 [0.13 vs 0.01]) were similar to those at Week 48 (12.4 vs 0.9 [0.14 vs 0.01]). Quad had smaller median increases (mmol/L [mg/dL]) in total (0.23 vs 0.47 [9 vs 18], P<0.001) and LDL cholesterol (0.23 vs 0.41 [9 vs16], P=0.011), and similar increase in triglycerides (0.05 vs 0.09 [4 vs 8], P=0.41).ConclusionsAt Week 96, Quad demonstrated high rates of virologic suppression with low rates of resistance and a differentiated safety and tolerability profile relative to EFV/FTC/TDF. These results support the durable efficacy and long‐term safety of Quad in HIV‐1 infected patients.

Multifunctional building façades have become an increasingly critical component in modern buildings, especially after the tremendous scrutiny triggered by the utilization of combustible aluminum cladding panels (ACP) in the construction sector. Following the massive effort by both industry and government agencies to reduce the fire risks of combustible façades in recent years, façades with insufficient fire ratings have been continuously causing severe building fires leading to countless human casualties and properties damages. This review aims to provide an in-depth overview of the previous developments and current progress for establishing relevant fire standards with regards to ACPs, from an Australian standpoint. The fire spread mechanisms associate with ACPs, and their potential hazards were discussed. Furthermore, the current building regulations for ACPs have been reviewed, including detailed experimental procedures and rating criterion for all existing international standards. To address the research knowledge gap in terms of the understanding of the cladding fire mechanisms, and combustibility of existing ACP polymer composites, recent advancement in experimental and numerical studies has been summarized and discussed to identify the critical issues and concerns for current ACP products. Future perspectives involving cutting-edge approaches such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling coupled with artificial neural network (ANN) optimization are advocated in this article. Additionally, fundamental material characterization techniques using molecular dynamics (MD) approaches can be implemented to deliver a better description of the degradation kinetics and smoke/toxicity generations.