Performance and Risks of Salt-Accumulating Renders in Relation to Their Moisture Transport Properties

Salt-accumulating renders are usually applied in several layers with different specific properties of moisture transport. An extensive experimental programme was carried out to establish a relationship between those properties of individual layers and the performance of combined systems on a salt-laden substrate. Each of the 20 renders was characterized separately in absorption and drying tests, vacuum saturation tests, dry cup tests, mercury intrusion porosimetry, and ultrasound wave velocity measurements. Each of the 12 combined render systems was applied on a brick, which was then saturated with a concentrated NaCl solution by free capillary uptake. Subsequently the assembly was closed at the bottom and subjected to an accelerated drying test (50° C and 15% relative humidity). Moisture and salt profiles over the depth were taken regularly during 1 month. The results reveal very different degrees of effectiveness and levels of risk for the substrate, which are related to the moisture transport properties.     

Corrupted Infrastructure: Imperialism and Environmental Sovereignty in Shanghai, 1873–1911

The introduction of Western science in order to change physical and operational aspects of Shanghai’s Huangpu River had been debated by Qing and Western officials since almost the beginning of its history as a Treaty Port. At stake in those debates was the perception of the river’s proper use: as a natural barrier for military defense, or as a conduit for global trade. After the Western powers unified to militarily suppress the Boxer Uprising in 1900, they attained their long-awaited goal of the right to transform the river for global trade as part of Article 11 of the Boxer Protocol: the Junpuju (or Huangpu Conservancy Board) was created and authorized by the central government to make the Huangpu River navigable for shipping vessels. Although the Junpuju continued the ethos of earlier extra-bureaucratic organizations established during the Self-Strengthening Movement, after 1901 the organization bore the authority of the central government. During the era of the New Policies, Qing officials were intent on revising the original terms of river conservancy so that they would be more favorable to Chinese sovereignty. At the same time, imperialist rivalries among the Western powers ruptured the apparent unity of the earlier alliance during the suppression of the Boxer Uprising. Before long, Western corruption in the Huangpu River dredging was brought to the attention of Qing officials, who deftly used it to recover Qing control over certain parts of the body of the river.     

30年来国际“贸易-交通-旅游”(3T)互动的统计分析

经济全球化背景下,国际"贸易-交通-旅游"(3T)互动日益增强。采用1982-2011年时间序列数据,分析国际贸易、交通和旅游总量的发展历程,从进、出口分量视角考察三者相关关系,运用最小二乘法构建回归方程。结果发现:①30年来国际贸易、交通和旅游的发展呈持续增长态势。国际贸易和旅游日益重要。②国际贸易、交通和旅游增长过程具有同步性,表现为波动周期同涨同落。③所构建的回归方程决断系数R²均在0.99以上,国际贸易、交通和旅游存在显著相关性。国际货运与国际贸易,国际客运与国际旅游之间具有确定、直接的因果关系;国际贸易与国际旅游的因果性尚待探究。     

微观视角下中国大城市家庭汽车拥有情况研究——以北京市为例

目前国内从微观角度对家庭汽车所有权的研究很少。本文试图基于对北京市的一项大型问卷调查数据,从微观视角分析中国大城市家庭汽车所有权的主要影响因素。结果显示,中国城市家庭汽车所有权主要受能力因素和需求因素两方面影响。具体而言,家庭收入越高、持有驾照的成员数越多、户主受教育程度越高、户主年龄越大、离地铁站越远,家庭拥有汽车的可能性越大。家庭规模、家庭内的孩子数及是否住在内城等在国外研究中较为重要的解释变量在国内并不显著。有车家庭的户主在日常通勤中对汽车的使用强度较高,说明居民购买汽车主要为满足实际需要,"炫耀性"消费的因素不多。     

Exploring the Conditions for Cooperative Energy Governance: A Comparative Study of Two Asian Pipelines

A central but often unasked question in political and sociological scholarship concerns the conditions that precipitate cooperation on large-scale transnational energy projects, especially among “developing” and “emerging” economies. Using the example of two multi-billion dollar pipeline systems – the Trans-ASEAN Natural Gas Pipeline (TAGP) Network in Southeast Asia and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline in the Caspian Sea – this article explores the factors that result in successfully completed projects, and those that lead to conflict and contention. After drawing from extensive research interviews and field research, the article approaches politics and technology through the lens of science and technology studies. It relies on the interdisciplinary concepts of “relevant social group” and “technological frame” to identify coalitions of actors associated with each pipeline project. The paper then investigates the interests and motivations behind these groups to illuminate the challenges facing the TAGP and those that accelerated the completion of the BTC. The paper concludes by offering some thoughts on the diverse elements needed to incentivise cross-border energy infrastructure, and what these may mean for energy and public policy scholars.     

长江经济带交通基础设施空间均衡度研究

利用1997-2013年长江经济带各省份数据,研究了交通基础设施空间均衡和极化程度及其影响因素,并构建动态面板数据模型,采用系统GMM估计进行了实证检验。研究结果表明:长江经济带交通基础设施发展较快,但存在空间非均衡和空间极化特征;铁路密度和公路密度的空间非均衡程度依次递减,区域间差距是空间非均衡的主要原因;公路密度空间极化程度不断增加,且高于铁路密度的极化程度;财政支出、国际贸易、人力资源和新经济地理四大因素对交通基础设施空间均衡和极化具有影响,但影响效果不同。本文拓展了交通基础设施的研究,为长江经济带交通基础设施协调发展及互联互通战略顺利实施提供了政策依据。     

Chemical modification of pyroclastic rock by hot water: an experimental investigation of mass transport at the fluid–solid interface

Hydrothermal water–(pyroclastic) rock interactions were examined using flow-through experiments to deduce the effect of mass transport phenomena on the reaction process. A series of experiments were conducted over the temperature range 75–250°C, with a constant temperature for each experiment, and at saturated vapour pressure, to estimate the apparent rate constants as a function of temperature.
Based on the chemistry of analysed solutions, the water–rock interaction in the experiments was controlled by diffusion from the reaction surface and by the existence of a surface layer at the rock–fluid interface, which regulated the chemical reaction rate. The reaction progress depended to a high degree on flow velocity and temperature conditions, with element abundances in the fluid significantly affected by these factors. Mass transport coefficients for diffusion from the rock surface to the bulk solution have been estimated. Ca is selectively depleted under lower temperature conditions ( T  < 150°C), whereas Na is greatly depleted under higher temperature conditions ( T  > 150°C), and K reaction rates are increased when flow velocity increases. Using these conditions, specific alkali and alkali earth cations were selectively leached from mineral surfaces. The 'surface layer' comprised a 0.5–1.8 mm boundary film on the solution side (the thickness of this layer has no dependence on chemical character) and a reaction layer. The reaction layer was composed of a Si, Al-rich cation-leached layer, whose thickness was dependent on temperature, flow velocity and reaction length. The reaction layer varied in thickness from about 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻⁷ mm under high temperature/low fluid velocity and low temperature/high fluid velocity conditions, respectively.     

Scotland's wartime airfields: Conflict and legacy

Prior to the outbreak of World War 2 there were very few active military airfields in Scotland but with the end of Appeasement in 1938 a major programme of expansion was underway. This paper traces the origins of the airfields used in World War 2 and discusses wartime roles and duties undertaken. Spatial distribution and socio‐economic effects are considered along with post‐war uses of this substantial legacy.     

Crude controversies: Disputes along Niger’s petro-infrastructure

The article focuses on spatializing struggles in relation to Niger's new oil infrastructure and shows how it turned public and political. Two different but interconnected perspectives are employed: first, a historical perspective illuminates how economic theories of growth, visions of industrialization, desires for energy autonomy, political projects for constitutional change and infrastructural developments in neighbouring countries were, from the very beginning, entangled in Niger's oil assemblage. These entanglements made the petro-infrastructure political even before it had materialized. Second, by focusing ethnographically on the spatial dispersion of the petro-infrastructure over different administrative regions in Niger, the article examines territorializing processes in which temporally and spatially separated histories of marginalization were stitched together to reconfigure collective identities. These dynamics go beyond existing explanations of resource curse theories, showing how oil acts as a catalyst that accelerates pre-existing dynamics, slowly transforming the socio-political configuration in which it operates in the process.     

城镇基础设施供给的政治经济学分析及其管治构建

基础设施供给包括规划决策、生产建设、运营管理一系列过程。计划经济时期的基础设施供给程式具有历时分离决策的特点,并且政府包揽了供给的全部过程。由于我国行政管理体制滞后于经济体制改革,致使基础设施供给程式无法适应由于分权化和市场化改革所引起的基础设施供给约束条件与作用机制的变化,导致基础设施供给中暴露出诸多严重问题。论文从政治经济学的角度分析了产生这些问题的机理,并设计了一个可以解释这个机理的政府竞争基础设施供给的结构模型。最后论文勾画了一个由规划决策层管治和建设、运营、管理层管治构成的适应市场经济的基础设施供给管治结构,并就两个层次的八种管治模式进行了分析。