A Spark-based genetic algorithm for sensor placement in large scale drinking water distribution systems

Water pollution incidents have occurred frequently in recent years, causing severe damages, economic loss and long-lasting society impact. A viable solution is to install water quality monitoring sensors in water supply networks (WSNs) for real-time pollution detection, thereby mitigating the risk of catastrophic contamination incidents. Given the significant cost of placing sensors at all locations in a network, a critical issue is where to deploy sensors within WSNs, while achieving rapid detection of contaminant events. Existing studies have mainly focused on sensor placement in water distribution systems (WDSs). However, the problem is still not adequately addressed, especially for large scale WSNs. In this paper, we investigate the sensor placement problem in large scale WDSs with the objective of minimizing the impact of contamination events. Specifically, we propose a two-phase Spark-based genetic algorithm (SGA). Experimental results show that SGA outperforms other traditional algorithms in both accuracy and efficiency, which validates the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed approach.     

基于水量与水质的太湖流域水生态服务供需关系及多情景评估

耦合水量供给与水质净化的水生态服务供需关系的多尺度空间量化评估，有助于刻画和识别丰水区水质性缺水问题，并丰富水生态服务研究。在构建水量供给和水质净化服务供需评估方法的基础上，利用空间分析方法在现状情景基础上分别设置提升用水效率、改善土地管理方式和优化土地利用空间配置三种优化情景，并在栅格、子流域和县域三个尺度上开展基于水量供给和水质净化的水生态服务供需关系的定量评估，分别探讨了不同情景不同尺度下的水生态服务供需变化、空间响应及其机制特征。研究结果表明：(1)太湖流域的水量供需状况显著优于水质供需状况，节水能够有效改善流域内的水量赤字，而减量施肥和优化土地利用配置能够显著改善流域内的水质赤字。(2)多尺度的水量供给与水质净化服务供需解析，有助于精准识别不同尺度下亟需治理的关键区域。(3)水量赤字区主要集中在建设用地分布区域，耕地仍是引致水质赤字的主要原因，但随着尺度的逐渐增大，水质赤字区的建设用地面积也在不断增加。(4)优化土地利用结构方案是解决水质性缺水的最有效方法，但需要突破现有政策尤其是耕地保护政策的刚性约束，故耦合提升用水效率等方法是当前治理太湖流域“水质性缺水”问题首选措施。     

生物传感器快速测定BOD的研究

生化需氧量(biochemicaloxygendemand,BOD)是一种表征水体有机污染程度的综合指标,广泛应用于水体监测和废水处理厂的运行控制。由于BOD的标准测定方法需时5天,不能及时地反映水质状况和反馈处理信息,因此快速测定BOD的方法和仪器化研究近年来得到广泛的重视。利用生物传感器测定BOD是一种有效地快速测定废水中可生化降解有机物的方法。介绍生物传感器的工作原理及其生物敏感材料,讨论BOD传感器的性能参数以及BOD快速测定值(BODst)与标准BOD5值的一致性问题。对现阶段市场上常见的几种BOD快速测定仪进行简单的介绍,并对它们的性能进行比较 。     

基于生命周期视角的产业资源生态管理效益分析——以虚拟共生网络系统为例

资源流代谢失调是造成产业生态环境问题的主要原因之一,对其实施基于共生网络的生态管理是解决问题的一项重要的举措。运用全生命周期的思想构建了产业资源共生网络及其管理框架,并运用全生命周期评价的方法,借助生命周期评价软件GaBi4,分别选取EI99 (Eco-Indicator 99)、CML2001 EP评价体系,以武汉市造纸产业为例,通过设计合理的资源流网络关系及中水、废纸和污泥利用共生路径构建虚拟造纸产业共生网络,对比分析了共生设计系统与原有共生系统的各生态环境影响。并运用市场价值法对共生设计系统的经济效益进行了分析。结果表明:共生设计系统总的环境影响、生态系统质量、人体健康、资源损耗值的环境影响分值分别为1166.445、814.509、148.893、203.045,比原有系统分别减少23.91%、19.15%、46.56%、22.26%;其中富营养化、气候变化的影响分别比原有系统降低56.25%、16.62%。同时共生设计系统通过污水、废纸及污泥的回用,在不考虑市场波动的情况下,可获得1018-7252万元的经济效益。可见,通过构建共生网络的生态管理是提高资源利用效率的有效手段之一,在一定条件下可取得明显的环境和经济效益。     

Microbial Source Tracking for Identification of Fecal Pollution

Fecal pollution is a serious environmental problem that affects many coastal and inland waters worldwide. Both human and animal fecal pollution impose risks to human health from exposure to pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. To assist authorities with the implementation of the changes suggested by more restricted legislation concering water quality in Europe, methods are needed which can identify the sources of fecal pollution. Management of fecal contamination of water would be improved if the origin of the fecal pollution could be correctly identified since remediation efforts could then be allocated in a more effective manner. The concept that the origin of fecal pollution can be traced has been termed microbial source tracking. In microbial source tracking (MST) endogenous markers of fecal sources are used for identification of the fecal pollution in aquatic environments. Chemical MST-methods can be used to trace mainly sewage pollution, but the used chemical targets have no direct relationship with pathogenic bacteria. This is not the case in microbial MST-methods where source-specific bacteria or viruses are cultured to identify fecal pollution sources. However, sometimes these microbial targets can be present in too low numbers to be detected. This is circumvented by using molecular assays for host-specific marker detection. Phenotypic and genotypic library-based methods can be used to discriminate among different fecal sources. However, the isolation step makes this procedure very labour-intensive, and issues as temporal and geographical variability remain unresolved. The underlying assumptions will be discussed and the methods mostly used in microbial source tracking will be described in more detail.     

珠江佛山与广州交界河段潮水河水质水量监测与评价

受潮汐的影响,潮水河中污染物的迁移和变化规律极其复杂。针对这一问题,开展如何布设合理的监测断面,制定合乎潮汐规律的潮水河水质水量同步监测方案等方面的研究,更好地为摸清潮水河段的污染物输入量以及河流的水质状况服务。通过对佛山与广州交界潮水河段水质水量的同步监测发现:该区域日化学需氧量输入量为288.8t,日氨氮输入量为88.8t;采用代表时段法计算出污染物的输入量及采用单项指标法评价潮水河水体现状比较可靠、合理;纳污量超过河段环境容量是导致水质不断恶化的原因;加强交界河段上游地区面污染治理,建立重点取水水源地水质自动监测站,对水源地水质状况实时监测,是保证不同季节取水安全的有效措施。     

基于“生态系统服务网”理论的国土空间规划研究

生态环境恶化使国土空间的管理从重视开发到重视保护转变，相应的思想体系、理论体系与管理机制需要打破旧的路径依赖，建立新的国土空间规划体系。生态系统服务网理论将生态系统服务供给与需求融合到一起，推动生态系统服务"一张网"与国土空间规划"一张图"的衔接。（1）生态系统服务网的网络属性诠释了山水林田湖草-人生命共同体思想体系；（2）生态系统服务网理论强调供给与需求的有效匹配与融合，是国土空间规划的重要依据；（3）生态系统服务网的尺度特征与国土空间规划层级体系存在对应关系，有助于规划的传导与实施；（4）生态系统服务网中供给能力和空间需求匹配的评价是"双评价"的主要内容，为"三区三线"的划定与落地提供了依据；（5）生态系统服务网的价值评估、空间制图与优化，为确定国土空间开发边界与规模奠定了基础，为两山转化路径提供思路和依据，可有效促进国土空间的高质量开发利用。     

Spatial Multiobjective Optimization of Agricultural Conservation Practices using a SWAT Model and an Evolutionary Algorithm

Finding the cost-efficient (i.e., lowest-cost) ways of targeting conservation practice investments for the achievement of specific water quality goals across the landscape is of primary importance in watershed management. Traditional economics methods of finding the lowest-cost solution in the watershed context (e.g.,^5,12,20) assume that off-site impacts can be accurately described as a proportion of on-site pollution generated. Such approaches are unlikely to be representative of the actual pollution process in a watershed, where the impacts of polluting sources are often determined by complex biophysical processes. The use of modern physically-based, spatially distributed hydrologic simulation models allows for a greater degree of realism in terms of process representation but requires a development of a simulation-optimization framework where the model becomes an integral part of optimization.Evolutionary algorithms appear to be a particularly useful optimization tool, able to deal with the combinatorial nature of a watershed simulation-optimization problem and allowing the use of the full water quality model. Evolutionary algorithms treat a particular spatial allocation of conservation practices in a watershed as a candidate solution and utilize sets (populations) of candidate solutions iteratively applying stochastic operators of selection, recombination, and mutation to find improvements with respect to the optimization objectives. The optimization objectives in this case are to minimize nonpoint-source pollution in the watershed, simultaneously minimizing the cost of conservation practices. A recent and expanding set of research is attempting to use similar methods and integrates water quality models with broadly defined evolutionary optimization methods^{3,4,9,10,13-15,17-19,22,23,25}. In this application, we demonstrate a program which follows Rabotyagov et al.''s approach and integrates a modern and commonly used SWAT water quality model⁷ with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm SPEA2²⁶, and user-specified set of conservation practices and their costs to search for the complete tradeoff frontiers between costs of conservation practices and user-specified water quality objectives. The frontiers quantify the tradeoffs faced by the watershed managers by presenting the full range of costs associated with various water quality improvement goals. The program allows for a selection of watershed configurations achieving specified water quality improvement goals and a production of maps of optimized placement of conservation practices.     

Analysis of the water quality at Cipeusing river,Indonesia using the pollution index method

River pollution is still a problem in most countries, especially in developing countries, such as Indonesia. Several methods have been used to reduce the level of pollution across these water sources. In West Java Indonesia, Cipeusing is one of the highest polluted rivers that need analysis of pollution index to produce a value for indicating the relative pollution levels of the water quality standard.The study was conducted between 2016 and 2017 at the Cipeusing River, to assess it's pollution levels using the Pollution Index (PI) method. The results showed that the water pollution changed from 2016 to 2017. In terms of physical, chemical and microbiological analysis using the PI method in 2016, Cipeusing River gave a value of 5.05–7.07 (moderately polluted), and in 2017, this value was 15.65–17.65 (severelly polluted). The highest pollution index was at the downstream area of the river. Thus, efforts are needed in order to control the water pollution levels at the Cipeusing River.     

The Ecological Dynamics of Fecal Contamination and Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A in Municipal Kathmandu Drinking Water

One of the UN sustainable development goals is to achieve universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030. It is locations like Kathmandu, Nepal, a densely populated city in South Asia with endemic typhoid fever, where this goal is most pertinent. Aiming to understand the public health implications of water quality in Kathmandu we subjected weekly water samples from 10 sources for one year to a range of chemical and bacteriological analyses. We additionally aimed to detect the etiological agents of typhoid fever and longitudinally assess microbial diversity by 16S rRNA gene surveying. We found that the majority of water sources exhibited chemical and bacterial contamination exceeding WHO guidelines. Further analysis of the chemical and bacterial data indicated site-specific pollution, symptomatic of highly localized fecal contamination. Rainfall was found to be a key driver of this fecal contamination, correlating with nitrates and evidence of S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A, for which DNA was detectable in 333 (77%) and 303 (70%) of 432 water samples, respectively. 16S rRNA gene surveying outlined a spectrum of fecal bacteria in the contaminated water, forming complex communities again displaying location-specific temporal signatures. Our data signify that the municipal water in Kathmandu is a predominant vehicle for the transmission of S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi A. This study represents the first extensive spatiotemporal investigation of water pollution in an endemic typhoid fever setting and implicates highly localized human waste as the major contributor to poor water quality in the Kathmandu Valley.     

便携式生物光学传感器的研究进展

生物光学传感器是一种对生物物质敏感并将其浓度转换为光信号,再由光电器件转换成电信号进行检测的仪器。由于随着微加工技术和纳米技术的进步,生物光学传感器将不断的微型化,各种便携式生物光学传感器的出现使得人们在家中进行疾病诊断、在市场上直接检测食品及在野外快速检测环境污染成为可能。便携式生物光学传感器一般由光源、光学通路和光电元件三部分组成。传感器结构中各个组件的优化处理将有利于检测设备在实际运用中的便利性和在复杂环境中的适用性,同时也有利于提高生物检测的灵敏度。主要从激励光源的选择、生物光学检测的原理、用于传感光源分析的半导体光敏元件3方面,描述近年来常见的便携式生物光学传感器的研究进展。未来生物检测器件将趋于成本低廉、便携快捷、智能高效等特点,基于生物光学反应特性的研究和传感器结构制备的优化将使得便携式生物光学传感器在未来传感检测应用中具有巨大的商业价值和广泛的实用价值。     

Molecular markers and sentinel organisms for environmental monitoring

Molecular methods are useful for both to monitor anthropogenic viral, bacterial, and protozoan enteropathogens, and to track pathogen specific markers in a complex environment in order to reveal sources of these pathogens. Molecular genetic markers for fecal viruses, bacteria, and protozoans hold promise for monitoring environmental pollution and water quality. The demand for microbiologically safe waters grows exponentially due to the global demographic rise of the human population. Economically important shellfish, such as oysters, which are harvested commercially and preferentially consumed raw can be of public health importance if contaminated with human waterborne pathogens. However, feral molluscan shellfish which do not have an apparent economic value serve as indicators in monitoring aquatic environments for pollution with human waterborne pathogens and for sanitary assessment of water quality. Current technology allows for multiplexed species-specific identification, genotyping, enumeration, viability assessment, and source-tracking of human enteropathogens which considerably enhances the pathogen source-tracking efforts.     

Application of an unsupervised artificial neural network technique to multivariant surface water quality data

Surface water contamination from agricultural and urban runoff and wastewater discharges from industrial and municipal activities is of major concern to people worldwide. Classical models can be insufficient to visualise the results because the water quality variables used to describe dynamic pollution sources are complex, multivariable, and nonlinearly related. Artificial intelligence techniques with the ability to analyse multivariant water quality data by means of a sophisticated visualisation capacity can offer an alternative to current models. In this study, the Kohonen self-organising feature maps (SOM) neural network was initially applied to analyse the complex nonlinear relationships among multivariable surface water quality variables using the component planes of the variables to determine the complex behaviour of water quality parameters. The dependencies between water quality variables were extracted and interpreted using the pattern analysis visualised in component planes. For further investigation, the k-means clustering algorithm was used to determine the optimal number of clusters by partitioning the maps and utilising the Davies–Bouldin clustering index, leading to seven groups or clusters corresponding to water quality variables. The results reveal that the concentrations of Na, K, Cl, NH₄-N, NO₂-N, o-PO₄, component planes of organic matter (pV), and dissolved oxygen (DO) were significantly affected by seasonal changes, and that the SOM technique is an efficient tool with which to analyse and determine the complex behaviour of multidimensional surface water quality data. These results suggest that this technique could also be applied to other environmentally sensitive areas such as air and groundwater pollution.     

河湖生态系统生态用水优化研究——以滇池流域为例

生态需水是河流与湖泊生态系统健康的重要基础。湖泊流域的河流与湖泊生态系统之间存在密切的水量联系,目前对流域内生态用水的研究多为单一生态系统生态需水简单相加,忽略了河流和湖泊之间复杂的水量联系。基于河湖复合生态系统之间的水量联系构建了河湖生态系统生态用水优化模型,并以滇池为例分析了河湖生态系统生态用水规律。结果表明：湖泊流域中单一河流或湖泊生态需水计算结果不能满足复合生态系统的生态用水要求,需要综合考虑河流和湖泊之间的水量联系;在当前水质状况下,牛栏江每年的调水量不能满足滇池流域的生态用水要求;滇池流域水体污染对流域内生态用水影响较大,随着水体污染程度的下降,流域生态用水量和调水量呈指数下降,河流生态用水呈线性下降。     

A neural network methodology of quadratic optimization.

According to the basic optimization principle of artificial neural networks, a novel kind of neural network model for solving the quadratic programming problem is presented. The methodology is based on the Lagrange multiplier theory in optimization and seeks to provide solutions satisfying the necessary conditions of optimality. The equilibrium point of the network satisfies the Kuhn-Tucker condition for the problem. The stability and convergency of the neural network is investigated and the strategy of the neural optimization is discussed. The feasibility of the neural network method is verified with the computation examples. Results of the simulation of the neural network to solve optimum problems are presented to illustrate the computational power of the neural network method.     

珠海竹银水库入库污染现状评估及水环境容量分析

以珠海竹银水库为对象,针对水库面临的入库污染问题,分析入库主要的污染物类型与污染负荷总量,全面评估水库的污染现状,并对水库水环境容量状况进行评价.研究结果表明,入库河流的主要问题是氮、磷浓度较高,但其它污染物的浓度不高.每种污染物的水环境容量值都很大,其中氯化物的容量最大,重金属的容量较小,表明水库蓄水初期水质较好,纳污能力较强.这些结果为今后竹银水库的污染控制与水质管理,为实现安全供水目标提供基础数据.     

A linear programming approach for identifying a consensus sequence on DNA sequences

MOTIVATION: Maximum-likelihood methods for solving the consensus sequence identification (CSI) problem on DNA sequences may only find a local optimum rather than the global optimum. Additionally, such methods do not allow logical constraints to be imposed on their models. This study develops a linear programming technique to solve CSI problems by finding an optimum consensus sequence. This method is computationally more efficient and is guaranteed to reach the global optimum. The developed method can also be extended to treat more complicated CSI problems with ambiguous conserved patterns. RESULTS: A CSI problem is first formulated as a non-linear mixed 0-1 optimization program, which is then converted into a linear mixed 0-1 program. The proposed method provides the following advantages over maximum-likelihood methods: (1) It is guaranteed to find the global optimum. (2) It can embed various logical constraints into the corresponding model. (3) It is applicable to problems with many long sequences. (4) It can find the second and the third best solutions. An extension of the proposed linear mixed 0-1 program is also designed to solve CSI problems with an unknown spacer length between conserved regions. Two examples of searching for CRP-binding sites and for FNR-binding sites in the Escherichia coli genome are used to illustrate and test the proposed method. AVAILABILITY: A software package, Global Site Seer for the Microsoft Windows operating system is available by http://www.iim.nctu.edu.tw/~cjfu/gss.htm     

Productivity improvement in xanthan gum fermentation using multiple substrate optimization

A novel and more comprehensive formulation of the optimal control problem that reflects the operational requirements of a typical industrial fermentation has been proposed in this work. This formulation has been applied to a fed-batch bioreactor with three control variables, i.e., feed rates of carbon source, nitrogen source, and an oxygen source, to result in a 148.7% increase in product formation. Xanthan gum production using Xanthomonas campestris has been used as the model system for this optimization study, and the liquid-phase oxygen supply strategy has been used to supply oxygen to the fermentation. The formulated optimization problem has several constraints associated with it due to the nature of the system. A robust stochastic technique, differential evolution, has been used to solve this challenging optimization problem. The infinite dimensional optimization problem has been approximated to a finite dimensional one by control vector parametrization. The state constraints that are path constraints have been addressed by using penalty functions and by integrating them over the total duration to ensure a feasible solution. End point constraints on final working volume of the reactor and on the final residual concentrations of carbon and nitrogen sources have been included in the problem formulation. Further, the toxicity of the oxygen source, H(2)O(2), has been addressed by imposing a constraint on its maximum usable concentration. In addition, the initial volume of the bioreactor contents and feed concentrations have been handled as decision variables, which has enabled a well-grounded choice for their values from the optimization procedure; adhoc values are normally used in the industry. All results obtained by simulation have been validated experimentally with good agreements between experimental and simulated values.     

面源污染最佳管理措施多目标协同优化配置研究进展

随着点源污染逐渐得到有效控制,面源污染逐渐成为我国多数地区影响水环境质量安全的主要因素。推广实施最佳管理措施(Best Management Practices, BMPs)被认为是控制面源污染的有效途径。受到区域种植制度、耕作方式、政策以及经济成本等因素的影响,导致流域尺度配置BMPs存在一定的困难,特别是随着流域空间尺度的变化,会进一步加大BMPs配置难度,使得BMPs的配置工作变为了一项多目标决策优化问题,即如何在有限的成本投入下,实现水环境质量改善的目标。需要在不同空间尺度下对流域BMPs进行多目标协同优化配置。从面源污染关键源区识别、BMPs削减效率评估以及BMPs多目标协同优化模拟3个方面对面源污染BMPs多目标协同优化配置研究进行了综述。结果表明:1)包含地块尺度和流域尺度的多尺度模型耦合系统的构建,将是实现关键源区精准识别的有效途径;2)BMPs削减效率对水质改善响应的滞后性、不确定性、时空异质性、污染物形态转换风险等均是今后BMPs削减效率评估中需要重点解决的关键问题;3)建立流域污染物负荷削减量与水质改善之间的非线性响应关系,并以此为基础将BMPs组合数据库、成本数据库以及基于进化算法的的优化配置方案进行耦合,进而构建多目标决策支持系统,以获取BMPs空间优化配置方案以及多目标成本-效益最优曲线。     

基于二维与三维信息的南京市主城区生态网络格局对比分析

生境破碎化导致生物多样性锐减,影响生境的生态系统服务,合理而有效的生态网络建设可以恢复城市内破碎生境斑块之间的连接。现有城市生态网络的构建与模拟多基于二维数据信息,未能很好地考虑植被三维结构信息所表征的多元生态位对生境质量的影响,致使生态网络的功能有效性有待验证。选取南京市主城区为研究区,基于高分辨率遥感影像与机载激光雷达数据,对研究区三维绿地植被结构进行了量化,在二维、三维两种情景下分别进行生态源地的提取与景观阻力面的设定,基于最小费用路径识别出两种情景下的生态廊道,并依据电路理论方法识别出廊道中需要重点保护的生态关键节点,进而分析使用二维、三维生态空间信息对生态网络构建结果产生的影响。研究结果表明:1)研究区不同情景下提取的生态源地共有11处不同,与传统二维情景下仅使用绿地面积指标作为斑块属性相比,使用三维植被参数可以更准确地识别具有丰富植被结构的生态源地;2)二维与三维情景下构建的生态廊道分别有137条与129条,平均每条廊道的单位距离阻力值分别为18.2与24.0,运用传统二维信息的模拟结果会在一定程度上高估研究区的景观连通性;3)不同情境下生态关键节点的空间分布基本一致,主要集中于研究区的西北侧、中部以及东南侧,并较多出现在距离较近的源地斑块之间。基于以上分析结果,有针对性地提出了南京市主城区生态网络格局优化的相关策略。