Environmental Performance Analysis of Eco‐Industrial Parks in China: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

In pursuit of more sustainable development of industry, China has been actively developing eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) for more than a decade. However, the environmental value of these EIPs remains largely unverified. This study aimed to evaluate the environmental performance of national EIPs in China using data envelopment analysis. Eco‐efficiency and environmental performance indices were used to represent the static and dynamic environmental performance of EIPs, respectively. An environmental performance index was formed by combining measures of eco‐efficiency in a dynamic setting with the sequential Malmquist index approach. We obtained three main empirical findings. First, 34 national EIPs exhibited a cumulative environmental performance improvement of 89.4% from 2007 to 2010, which is primarily the result of eco‐efficiency change rather than environmental technical change. Second, compared with the trial EIPs, the demonstration EIPs had a higher average eco‐efficiency (0.611 vs. 0.446 in 2010) and experienced greater average environmental performance improvement (129% vs. 60%). Third, the EIPs retrofitted from high‐tech industrial development zones exhibited much higher average eco‐efficiency (0.798 vs. 0.440 in 2010) than those retrofitted from economic and technical development zones. The key measures supporting the performance improvement and policy implications for the development of EIPs are also discussed.     

Performance Evaluation of Resource Management in Cloud Computing Environments

Cloud computing is a computational model in which resource providers can offer on-demand services to clients in a transparent way. However, to be able to guarantee quality of service without limiting the number of accepted requests, providers must be able to dynamically manage the available resources so that they can be optimized. This dynamic resource management is not a trivial task, since it involves meeting several challenges related to workload modeling, virtualization, performance modeling, deployment and monitoring of applications on virtualized resources. This paper carries out a performance evaluation of a module for resource management in a cloud environment that includes handling available resources during execution time and ensuring the quality of service defined in the service level agreement. An analysis was conducted of different resource configurations to define which dimension of resource scaling has a real influence on client requests. The results were used to model and implement a simulated cloud system, in which the allocated resource can be changed on-the-fly, with a corresponding change in price. In this way, the proposed module seeks to satisfy both the client by ensuring quality of service, and the provider by ensuring the best use of resources at a fair price.     

提高医疗物资管理绩效的思考

对医疗物资管理的现状,抓住医疗物资供应链关键节点,采用先进库存策略、网上申领、“采”、“购”分开、射频识别技术以及重塑团队精神的理念,创新管理模式,提高医疗物资的管理绩效。     

绩效考核在护理管理中的应用现状调查

为了解我院护理人员对绩效考核的评价及满意度,以更好的修订和完善绩效考核评价指标体系.方法:采用任意抽样的方法,运用医院护理人员对绩效考核评价调查问卷,对我院262名护理人员进行调查.结果:基本工资和奖金是护理主要收入来源;工作能力和工作年限是培训和晋升机会主要依据;护理人员对医院绩效考核满意度较低.结论:对护理人员绩效考核评价体系进行全面改革,以调动护理人员积极性,提高满意度.     

Earthquakes and Risk Management in China

Natural hazards such as floods, tsunamis, wildfire res, droughts, landslides, volcanic eruptions, windstorms, and earthquakes exist everywhere in the world. Earthquakes can pose the greatest threat to human lives, property, and economic development in our society. We review tools that have been developed to assist the earthquake risk management process. We also propose two mechanisms for earthquake risk management: one to possibly better predict earthquake damage magnitude (prediction markets), the other to prepare response team performance (recognition primed decision-making). In conjunction with broader use of information system technology, it may be possible to improve preparedness and response.     

QoS Support by the HiperLAN/2 MAC Protocol: A Performance Evaluation

HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio Local Area Network) is a new standard from ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) for high-speed wireless LANs, interconnecting portable devices to each other and to broadband core networks, based on different networking technologies such as IP, ATM, IEEE 1394, and others. This paper introduces the basic features of the HiperLAN/2 MAC protocol. It presents performance evaluation results, specifically related to the mechanisms provided by HiperLAN/2 to manage bandwidth resource requests and granting. These results are assessed in terms of their flexibility and efficiency in supporting delay sensitive traffic, such as voice and Web data traffic, which are expected to be transported by broadband wireless LANs.     

Sysmex XN-3000全自动血细胞分析仪血小板计数性能评价分析

目的:探讨Sysmex XN-3000全自动血细胞分析仪的血小板计数性能。方法:采用Sysmex XN-3000全自动血细胞分析仪的3种方法进行血小板计数,从精密度、线性范围、携带污染率及红细胞碎片干扰等4方面评价,并与使用抗CD61抗体的流式细胞术检测结果进行比较。结果:与电阻抗法(PLT-I)、光学法(PLT-O)相比,核酸染色法(PLT-F)的重复性最好,精确度较高;3种方法的稀释线性和携带污染均得到良好的结果;在红细胞碎片干扰实验中,PLT-F具有较强的抗干扰能力(P均大于0.05),PLT-O次之;相关分析结果显示3种方法都得到良好的相关性,PLT-F法的准确性较高,尤其在低值血小板计数中。结论:临床常规标本可以使用Sysmex XN-3000全自动血液分析仪的PLT-I或PLT-O法;当标本血小板数目异常或溶血时,建议使用PLT-F法复查,必要时采用镜检法或流式细胞术。     

Shiftwork and Industrial Injuries at A Chemical Plant in Southeast Texas

-A historical retrospective study of 242 shiftworker (SW) and 224 non-SW (NSW) injuries at a chemical manufacturing plant in southeast Texas (U.S.A.) was performed. Data were collected on injuries that occurred between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1985. The SW schedule comprised an 8-hr, 7-day backward rotation program while the dayworker schedule consisted of a typical U.S.A. 40-hr work week. Injury records were matched against payroll/attendance records to substantiate the probability of isolating possible effects of the shiftwork rotation schedule on the rates, distribution and severity of injuries. Injuries in the SW sample were compared to those in the non-SW sample. The work responsibilities of dayworkers were not exactly the same as those of shiftworkers. However, the job responsibilities for males and females within the dayworker and shiftworker groups were equivalent. Overall injury incidence rates were not significantly different between SWs and non-SWs, although female SWs had significantly higher incidence rates than did male SWs and both male and female dayworkers. The occurrence of injuries, however, was not equally distributed during the day shift and the night shift, but was equally distributed during the evening shift and for non-SWs, suggesting that certain, yet to be determined, factors were affecting the distribution of injuries during the day and night shift. However, the average number of injuries was two-three times higher during the First four days of the day and night shift, yet were not elevated during the evening shift.     

Ecological Supply Chains Performance Evaluation and Disruption Risk Management Strategies

This article presents the ecological supply chain (ESC) model and demonstrates its benefits. The causes that make an ESC vulnerable to disruption risks are analyzed; the objective is to balance the cost and the disruption risk. Also, it provides supply management strategies, demand management strategies, product management strategies, and information management strategies. Practice in China is reviewed. Based on exergoeconomics theory, the ESC is regarded as a huge energy system providing new perspective. The sustainability of the ESC system is discussed under the circumstances of exergoeconomics. The metric of “system negative environment effect” is introduced to measure ESC system performance. Finally, a real case example is used to illustrate the models and get some conclusions.     

Corporate Carbon Performance Indicators

The dependency on carbon‐based materials and energy sources and the emission of greenhouse gases have been recognized as major problems of the 21st century. Companies are central to the effort to grapple with these issues due to the large material flows they process and their capabilities for technological innovation. It is important, on the one hand, to determine the individual stake companies have in these issues and, on the other, to measure companies' performance. Since the results of studies thus far have been ambiguous, we define four comprehensive and systematic corporate carbon performance indicators: (1) Carbon intensity is physically oriented and represents a company's carbon use in relation to a business metric. (2) Carbon dependency illustrates the change in physical carbon performance within a given time period. (3) Carbon exposure reveals the financial implications of using and emitting carbon. (4) Carbon risk estimates the change in financial implications of carbon usage within a given time period. On the basis of these general definitions, we specify the indicators for a standardized application that can support two important stakeholders in their decision making: policy makers, who can include such information when evaluating current climate policies and formulating future ones, and investors and financial institutions, which can compare companies with respect to their carbon performance and corresponding financial effects.     

The Effects of a Nap Opportunity in Quiet and Noisy Environments on Driving Performance

While napping has previously been shown to alleviate the effects of sleep loss, before advocating the use of naps in transport accident campaigns it is necessary to consider whether a nap opportunity in a noisy uncomfortable environment can produce the same benefits as a nap opportunity in conditions that are conducive to sleep. To examine this, eight participants drove a driving simulator for 50 min at 11:00 h on three different test days. The simulator used has previously been found to be sensitive to the effects of sleep loss, alcohol consumption, and time of day. All three sessions were conducted after one night of sleep loss. Prior to driving during each session the participants either had a 60 min nap opportunity in a quiet or noisy environment, or no nap opportunity. Driving performance and reaction time while driving were measured, as were subjective sleepiness and ratings of sleep quality. No significant benefits of nap opportunities on driving performance were found. Levels of subjective sleepiness were not affected by the nap opportunity condition; however, sleep was rated as more refreshing and restful after a nap in a quiet environment compared to noisy environment. The measures of effect size reported suggest further research is required to unequivocally test the effects of nap opportunities on driving ability.     

Process Control as Ecosystem Management: Using the History of Sewage Treatment Plants to Analyze Ecosystem Management Practices

Industrial ecosystems are fruitful sites for examining ecosystem management. Sewage treatment plants, breweries, biotechnology reactors, and ethanol production plants are all ecosystems—complex biophysical systems in which communities of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and other organisms are maintained to extract services or resources. The industrial analog to ecosystem management is “process control”, where the industrial operator is the ecosystem manager. Process control is the management of a production process through the careful measurement and adjustment of its physical and chemical conditions. By analyzing the history of process control in activated sludge sewage treatment plants, I show the importance of craft knowledge in ecosystem management. Sewage treatment plant workers, through their experience in operating the plants, developed means of evaluating process conditions based on sight and smell rather than laboratory analysis. These craft techniques developed and persisted in spite of concerted efforts on the part of sanitary scientists to institute “scientific” control of the process based on laboratory analysis and models of microbial kinetics, suggesting that craft knowledge of ecosystem function can contribute to successful management. The craft knowledge of sewage plant workers is a kind of adaptive management, in which workers constantly adjust ecosystem parameters and observe the results. This approach is contrasted to “command and control” approaches to treatment plant automation, which have met with uneven success.     

长江经济带工业生态效率评价及区域差异研究

提高长江经济带工业生态效率,是促进工业向绿色转型升级的重要路径,更是促进区域经济与生态协调发展的重要选择。将工业生态系统分解为工业经济、环境、能源三个子系统,以2009—2013年9省2市的工业数据为基础,采用网络DEA模型对长江经济带9省2市的工业生态效率及三个子系统效率进行评价。结果显示:(1)长江经济带工业生态效率水平整体呈上升趋势,且自上游至下游效率水平依次递增。(2)长江经济带工业经济子系统效率水平相对稳定,区域内以下游最高、上游最低;环境子系统效率水平呈增长趋势,区域内以下游最高、中游最低;能源子系统效率水平呈增长趋势,区域内以下游最高、上游最低;(3)收敛性检验显示,长江经济带工业生态效率及各子系统效率呈收敛趋势,其中工业经济子系统效率呈相对稳定的状态。研究为长江经济带工业生态效率的改善提出了可操作性的政策建议。     

我国森林食叶害虫种群生态控制可行性分析

我国是世界上森林病虫害发生比较严重的国家之一。建国以来 ,森林病虫害发生面积一直呈上升趋势。据资料显示 ,随着造林面积的增加 ,森林病虫害发生面积也相应增加。从 2 0世纪 50年代开始 ,全国人工林面积每 1 0年分别递增 2 2 .2 %、 8.7%、1 1 .2 %和 5.0 % ,而同期病虫害的发生面积的递增率相应为 2 2 .6%、2 .9%、1 2 .9%和 4.6% [1]。我国森林病虫害发生的特点之一是范围广、区域性灾害严重。如我国历史性森林害虫松毛虫 (Den-drolimus spp.) ,全国共有 2 9种 (含 4个亚种 ) ,发生范围达 2 4个省 (区、市 ) ,并随人工林面积迅速增加…     

Evaluation of the Performance of a Dengue Outbreak Detection Tool for China

An outbreak detection and response system, using time series moving percentile method based on historical data, in China has been used for identifying dengue fever outbreaks since 2008. For dengue fever outbreaks reported from 2009 to 2012, this system achieved a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 99.8% and a median time to detection of 3 days, which indicated that the system was a useful decision tool for dengue fever control and risk-management programs in China.     

Effects of Waking Time and Breakfast Intake Prior to Evaluation of Psychomotor Performance in the Early Morning

Many studies conducted in the field of chronobiology report diurnal fluctuation in cognitive and physical performance that occurs in phase with the body temperature circadian rhythm. Waking time and whether or not breakfast is consumed are currently considered to influence the diurnal fluctuation in data collected in the morning at 06∶00 h and evening at 18∶00 h. Nineteen male subjects participated in four test sessions to examine if wake‐up time (04∶00 h or 05∶00 h) and eating or not eating breakfast influence psychomotor performance capacity at 06∶00 h. All four sessions were separated by ≥36 h and were completed in a counterbalanced order. Each test session comprised sign cancellation, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, simple reaction time, and manual dexterity tests. Most of the results indicate that psychomotor performance when evaluated at 06∶00 h under each of the four different study situations (two waking times and two breakfast conditions) is not statistically significantly different. Consequently, previous results that documented diurnal fluctuations in morning and evening performance capacities, with test sessions at 06∶00 h, are confirmed. Being less efficient in the early morning than in the afternoon potentially exposes people to elevated risk of accident and injury at this time of the day. Prior waking time and/or consumption of a light meal, plus other countermeasures mentioned in the literature, are insufficient to prevent this risk.     

Performance evaluation of an analytical laboratory the laboratory product model

Background, Intention, Goal and Scope  The analytical laboratory is traditionally considered to be a service provider. This has resulted in laboratory environmental management being considered mostly from a pollution prevention and waste minimization perspective. There is a recognized need to view environmental performance of a laboratory service provider from a broader perspective. This broader perspective is inclusive of sampling, analysis and the potential for impacts to arise from the use of output information products. A generic methodology for the measurement and benchmarking of the overall environmental performance of an analytical laboratory and its outputs using the Laboratory Product Model (LPM) is described. Environmental performance indicators, relating to inputs and processing are proposed. Objectives  The project seeks to broaden the focus of environmental performance away from the individual analytical unit processes to a more encompassing ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach incorporating sample collection and results reporting and use. To support this approach, a functional unit of output for a laboratory has to be defined. Methods  A life cycle assessment approach, incorporating life cycle inventory considerations, is applied within the LPM conceptual framework. Results and Discussion  This approach facilitates a shift in thinking from laboratory service to the life cycle of laboratory product inputs and outputs. It enables LCA methodologies to be applied to environmental performance through the application of the LPM. The definition of a laboratory product output facilitates benchmarking and comparison of laboratories. Conclusions  The LPM approach assigns a critical role to the laboratory for the sustainability of the laboratory operations from sample collection, through analysis to the use of its product outputs. Recommendations and Outlook  The application of the LPM offers a top down approach for the evaluation of the environmental performance of an analytical laboratory. It is expected to provide a useful tool for assessing and benchmarking the environmental performance of analytical laboratories.     

松林复合经营模式的试验与评价

复合经营系统就是在某一特定的自然环境区域中,根据不同的生物学特性,组成空间的多层次结构、时间的有序配置,以充分利用光热资源、空间资源和土地资源。以物质和能量的多级利用,有效地提高生态、经济和社会效益［１～３］。通过对复合经营系统的实践和研究,积累和总...     

Progress Toward a Circular Economy in China

Eco‐industrial initiatives, which close industrial loops by turning wastes at one point in a value chain into inputs at another point, are attracting growing interest as a solution to the problem of sustainability of industrial systems. Although Germany and Japan have made important advances in building recycling incentives into their industrial systems and sought competitive advantage from doing so, China is arguably taking the issue even further (in principle) through its pursuit of a circular economy, now enshrined in law as an official national development goal. In this article, we review a number of the eco‐industrial initiatives taken in China and compare them using a common graphical representation with comparable initiatives taken in the West and elsewhere in East Asia. Our aim is to demonstrate some common themes across the case studies, such as the transformation from the former linear economy to a circular economy and the evolutionary processes in which dynamic linkages are gradually established over time. We discuss the drivers of these eco‐industrial initiatives as well as the inhibitors, setting the initiatives in an evolutionary framework and introducing a notion of Pareto eco‐efficiency to evaluate them. We make the argument that China might be capturing latecomer advantages through its systematic promotion of eco‐industrial initiatives within a circular economy framework.