Urban growth assessment around Winam Gulf of Kenya based on satellite imagery

Urban growth and population dynamics are among the most critical information needed for future economic development planning, natural resources allocation and environmental management. In the present work, two methods, the first based on night-time images produced by NOAA and population maps provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) LandScan, and the second one on SAR imagery, were used in order to assess the expansion of urban areas surrounding the Winam Gulf (Lake Victoria, Kenya) at different scales. In the time covered by night-time lights imagery, the study highlighted a period of constant growth rate between 2002 and 2006 and a negative trend after 2006 and 2008. This decrease may be related to two main events occurring in the study area between 2006 and 2007: the decline of the Lake Victoria level and the abnormal proliferation of the floating weeds within the Winam Gulf. Meanwhile, the urban feature extraction obtained at a different scale within a particular district from 1997 up to 2008 results in a constant growth rate. Population movements around this zone explain different dynamics that should be studied in detail in order to understand their particular roots.     

Height-latitude structure of stationary planetary waves in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere

Daily UK Met Office stratospheric assimilated data for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, accumulated for the period from 2004 to 2012 and pressure range of 1000–0.1 hPa, are used in this paper. The paper presents and thoroughly discusses spatial–temporal distributions of stationary planetary wave (SPW) amplitudes and phases, calculated on the basis of geopotential height, temperature, zonal and meridional wind data for zonal wave numbers 1 and 2 (SPW1 and SPW2). The climatological planetary wave amplitudes and phases are calculated by extracting waves from three types of data: daily, monthly mean and climatological monthly mean. It has been established that magnitude of amplitudes and height-latitude distribution of amplitudes of SPW1 and SPW2 depend on data processing method for all parameters. It has also been established that height-latitude distribution amplitudes and phases significantly differ for geopotential height, temperature, zonal and meridional wind and depend on wave number and hemisphere. However, height-latitude distributions of phases are little different from each other for the used methods of data processing.     

Planetary protection on international waters: An onboard protocol for capsule retrieval and biosafety control in sample return mission

Planetary protection has been recognized as one of the most important issues in sample return missions that may host certain living forms and biotic signatures in a returned sample. This paper proposes an initiative of sample capsule retrieval and onboard biosafety protocol in international waters for future biological and organic constituent missions to bring samples from possible habitable bodies in the solar system. We suggest the advantages of international waters being outside of national jurisdiction and active regions of human and traffic affairs on the condition that we accept the Outer Space Treaty. The scheme of onboard biological quarantine definitely reduces the potential risk of back-contamination of extraterrestrial materials to the Earth.     

Asteroid and comet hazard: Identification problem of observed space objects with the parental bodies

This article focuses on the genetic identification of observed small cosmic bodies with alleged parental bodies; namely, comets, asteroids and meteoroid swarms. There is a problem of the upper D-value limit as a measure of proximity between the orbits of the bodies in the five-dimensional phase space (Southworth and Hawkins, 1963). In the study of genetic relationships of the comet and meteor complexes, the D value is usually taken as equal to 0.2 for all meteor showers. However, the upper D limit should be investigated for each meteoroid complex. For example, such investigation was performed for the Taurid meteor complex (Porub?an et al., 2006). In this paper, the upper D-criterion limit value was investigated for the Perseid meteor shower. The 1862 III Swift–Tuttle comet is its parental comet.     

当前经济增长的周期性、阶段性特征及政策思路

根据经济周期谷底的特性以及中美两国经济紧密关联和经济周期越来越契合的规律,可以印证2009年就是新一轮经济周期的谷底,由此可以断定当前处于复苏阶段.然而近三年来我国经济增速持续下滑至谷底以下,这一反常现象是由于经济短周期冲高回落与经济增长阶段转换相互叠加造成的.河南省与全国经济周期高度一致,时滞半年左右.在高速经济增长阶段河南省潜在经济增长率比全国高出2个百分点,中高速阶段高出1.5个百分点.河南省近几年经济增速深度下滑,其关键原因是投资增速下滑,其根本原因是结构升级缓慢.未来河南经济要摆脱持续下行趋势,保持经济中高速增长,应坚持调结构、扩投资、促改革的政策思路,“调结构”是根本,“扩投资”是基础,“促改革”是保障.     

权力制约：经典范式、内在逻辑与语境化

实质意义上的权力制约肇始于权力分化之后，历经以道德制约权力、以权力制约权力、以社会制约权力等经典范式，体现了权力制约活动从关注权力执掌者、权力本体到关注权力归属者不断演变的内在逻辑。植根于我国国情的权力制约实践在伦理学、社会学途径方面与西方存有共性，但于政治学途径却存有个性。实现我国权力制约的语境化既需要体现权力制约的普遍性规律，更需要把握马克思主义政治观视域下权力制约的特殊性。     

合肥市会计服务业发展研究

对合肥市会计服务业及其发展进行了研究,研究2009-2013年安徽省（合肥市）会计师事务所数量和注册会计师数量,发现合肥市会计服务业发展形势较为严峻,具体表现为：会计师事务所规模较小,内部治理机制不够完善、业务种类不够全面,管理机制不够健全,人才结构不够合理,高端人才较少,国际化程度不高,并提出合肥市应当加强会计服务行业地方法规政策的完善与制定、提高会计服务业的社会透明度、加强会计服务业的多元化发展、加强业务创新,开创自身特色、加强复合型人才培养,提升会计服务业人员整体素质、推行联合重组,避免内部竞争,以促进会计服务业的进一步发展。     

小积液情况下卧式转子的稳定性实验研究

盘腔积液现象在舰用燃气轮机工作过程中时有发生，汽化的滑油和水蒸气凝结形成积液。转子带动腔内的积液旋转，引发振动失稳，严重时会对发动机结构造成致命性破坏。为此，本文开展燃气轮机压气机盘腔积液的模拟实验研究，以双盘双支承的卧式柔性转子系统作为研究对象，重点关注小积液量的特点，对积液转子的动力学稳定性进行了研究。观测到转子的失稳现象，开展了不同积液体积、不同积液类型（水、植物油和滑油）等因素的影响规律研究，揭示了小积液的卧式转子动力学特征。研究结果表明：①对于积液失稳振动，存在失稳边界积液量，当积液量大于该边界值时，失稳将会发生。②失稳边界转速及恢复转速均高于临界转速。当转速高于失稳边界转速时，失稳将会发生。转速进一步增加，高于恢复转速时，失稳现象可能消失。③失稳时的振动特征为：出现幅值突增，次谐波成分也随之增加；基频和次谐波发生调制，表现出拍振特征。④随着积液体积的增加，失稳边界转速先减小后增加。⑤随着积液粘度系数增大，失稳边界转速和边界积液量均增大。     

热解气体燃烧对炭化复合材料烧蚀热响应影响规律

在近空间高超声速飞行器飞行时间长、马赫数不断增加的发展趋势下，热防护与轻量化的矛盾越来越突出。基于此，开展了热解气体燃烧对炭化复合材料表面烧蚀影响的相关数值模拟研究，并与风洞试验结果进行了对比。结果表明：热解气体的燃烧可降低炭化复合材料表面的烧蚀厚度，并且随着气动热的增加，热解气体燃烧对材料表面碳的保护作用越来越明显。研究成果可为下一代近空间高超声速飞行器热防护系统的优化设计提供技术支撑。     

焊缝补强方式对大直径贮箱箱底承载性能影响

基于有限元法研究了典型10 m级直径贮箱箱底焊缝在双面对称补强、内表面补强及外表面补强三种情况下的内压承载性能。数值计算采用二维对称平面模型,考虑了筒段和短壳真实边界条件及焊缝对承载能力的影响,构建的考虑材料塑性的非线性数值分析模型准确地获得了贮箱箱底内外表面经向应力。结果表明:顶盖和瓜瓣焊缝区域是箱底的薄弱位置,使用内压下,双面对称补强的加强区内外表面经向应力差较小,结构均未进入塑性,单面补强的加强区内外表面经向应力差远大于双面对称补强,局部进入塑性,且外表面补强的加强区最大和最小经向应力差相对于内表面补强分别增加了9.7%和27.2%,变形不协调；设计内压下,箱底内外表面均有局部进入塑性,材料塑性对内外表面经向应力差有一定的缓解作用,能够显著缓解内外表面应力差造成的附加弯矩；双面对称补强优于内表面补强,内表面补强优于外表面补强,单面补强易产生附加弯矩,不利于箱底的均匀承载和变形协调。该研究结果指导了大直径贮箱箱底结构的优化设计。