Advanced Materials Research Vols. 347-353

Abstract: A new type of energy-saving magnetic amplifier controlling current and voltage of inductive load has been designed. The energy-saving magnetic amplifier with two windings wrapped across one iron core column can change impedance of the main winding by means of PWM controlling AC excitation current. The energy-saving magnetic amplifier has not used a special adjustable DC voltage circuit, has overcome disadvantages of complicated manufacturing process for the traditional excitation amplifier.The application shows the energy-saving excitation amplifier can achieve stepless dimming for high pressure sodium lamp to good energy-saving effect. The use cost of excitation amplifier is lower as simple production process, so its promotional value is great.

Abstract: RMIT’s Building 28 Research Lounge was used as a pilot research project to investigate the feasibility of DC lighting system and accumulate benchmarking data for future research reference. Unlike conventional light-for-light replacement, the B28 project takes an innovative approach to re-design the lighting circuit in DC mode without re-wiring. The intelligent control system manages charging and discharging of the battery bank depending on whether solar power is available or grid power back up is needed. Based on a two-week benchmark data log, the result shows a total energy reduction from 210 kWh to 71 kWh, representing a saving of 65%.

Abstract: To reduce power consumption and attain goals of energy saving and carbon reduction, this study explored the possibility of replacing regular roadway lamps with LED roadway lamps, with focus on the comparison and analysis of lighting color differences. Computer vision system was used for color quantification to simulate human vision. We allowed for LED roadway lamps and various illuminants to irradiate on a 24-color chart to collect the displayed colors and color differences. The CIEDE2000 color difference equation was used to determine the difference between LED roadway lamp illuminants and D65 standard sources, and indicated different characteristics for different illuminants at different colors. The research results showed that lighting color difference values for LED roadway lamps was next to that of T8 luminous tubes and metal halide lamps (similar to D65 standard source). The LED roadway lamp can replace regular roadway lamps to become a predominant type in the future.

Abstract: This paper presented a novel post-treatment method of He plasma,which could effectively improve the field emission characteristics of screen-printed CNTs cathodes. Notable changes in the surface morphologies of screen-printed CNTs cathodes were investigated by scanning electron micro scope (SEM) as the f unction of treatment by He plasma.The results showed the post-treated CNTs cathodes hold lower turn-on electric field,higher field emission current density,more emission sites,and better uniformity than those of untreated ones.

Abstract: An alternating conjugated copolymer composed of 2,5-divinyl-3,4-dialkylthiophene and 2,6-pyridine was synthesized by Heck coupling approach. The regioregular poly(3, 4-dialkylthiophene) was prepared by McCullough for the comparing research. The obtained polymers were evaluated with 1H NMR, FT-IR, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), UV–vis spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL). The results indicate that the polymers depict outstanding thermal stabilities, low band gaps, and high PL quantum efficiency, and they might be excellent polymeric materials for applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), light-emitting electrochemical cells, polymer solar cells, and so on.

Abstract: Heavy metal concentrations of the sediment from an inland river in Suzhou city, northern Anhui Province were determined, and the index of Geo-accumulation (Igeo) was calculated for evaluating the extent of heavy metals contamination. The results showed that the contents of Cr, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb are higher than those of the background values, and the Igeo data indicates that these metals can be subdivided into three kinds, un-pollution (Cr and As), slight pollution (Pb) and moderate pollution (Cu and Zn). Multivariate statistical approaches were applied for source discrimination of heavy metals. The multivariate statistical approaches drew the final conclusion: (1) Cluster I consisted with Cu and Pb is greatly impacted by the traffic emissions, corresponding to the PC1; (2) the high accumulation of Zn and As in Cluster II mainly derived from the pollutant emissions in industry area, representing the PC2; (3) Cluster III (only Cr) is considered to be controlled by the parent materials of soils and shows the character of PC3; (4)The high contamination of Cluster I and II are related to the human activities, the government should pay attention to the environment in the area.

Abstract: Based on the index of per capita GDP, spatial-time distribution pattern and spatial interaction types of economic disparities in the economic belt along Lan-Xin Railway during 2000 to 2009 have been examined by the method of combination with spatial autocorrelation analysis and traditional statistic analysis. The conclusions are as follows: the absolute disparity of per capita GDP for administrative counties is increasing constantly, while the economic concentration of those research units fluctuate towards decline and the economic disparities along the Gansu part of Lan-Xin Railway accounts for the largest part of the whole economic belt along Lan-Xin Railway, where the disparities of intra-Gansu grows bigger and that of the inter-regions is getting smaller. The higher level developed counties mainly locate in northern slope of TianShan Mountain, and the western part of Hexi Corridor which covers from Zhangye to Jiayuguan along the Lan-Xin Railway, and those high level counties cluster at intervals; while, the lower level developed counties mainly concentrates in the central part of Gansu province, the eastern part of Hexi Corridor and the eastern part of Qinghai province, and it is obvious to find the trend to agglomerate beside the TianShan Mountain as to the rapid growth counties. The spatial interaction within research units is weak, while the northern slope economic belt and southern slope industries belt of TianShan Mountain which takes the Urumqi as the core city keep great economic growth condition; the central part of Gansu province and the eastern part of Qinghai province is not developed very well and that of the polar cities which are Lanzhou and Xining respectively have a little radiation effect to lead and foster the neighboring counties economic.

Abstract: Commuting to work is one of the most important and regular routines of transportation in towns and cities. From a geographic perspective, the length of people’s commute is influenced, to some degree, by the spatial separation of their home and workplace and the transport infrastructure. The rise of car ownership in Australia from the 1950s to the present was accompanied by a considerable decrease of public transport use. Currently there is an average of 1.4 persons per car in Australia, and private cars are involved in approximately 90% of the trips, and public transportation in only 10%. Increased personal mobility has fuelled the trend of decentralised housing development, mostly without a clear planning for local employment, or alternative means of transportation. Transport sector accounts for 14% of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions. Without further policy action, Australia’s emissions are projected to continue to increase. The Australian Federal Government and the new Department of Climate Change have recently published a set of maps showing that rising seas would submerge large parts of Victoria coastal region. Such event would lead to major disruption in planned urban growth areas in the next 50 years with broad scale inundation of dwellings, facilities and road networks. The Greater Geelong Region has well established infrastructure as a major urban centre and tourist destination and hence attracted the attention of federal and state governments in their quest for further development and population growth. As a result of its natural beauty and ecological sensitivity, scenarios for growth in the region are currently under scrutiny from local government as well as development agencies, scientists, and planners. This paper is part of a broad research in the relationship between transportation system, urban form, trip demand, and emissions, as a paramount in addressing the challenges presented by urban growth. Progressing from previous work focused on private cars, this present paper investigates the use of public transport as a mode for commuting in the Greater Geelong Region. Using a GIS based interaction model, it characterises the current use of the existing public transportation system, and also builds a scenario of increased use of the existing public transportation system, estimating potencial reductions in CO2 emissions. This study provides an improved understanding of the extent to which choices of transport mode and travel activity patterns, affect emissions in the context of regional networks. The results indicate that emissions from commuting by public transportation are significantly lower than those from commuting by private car, and emphasise that there are opportunities for large abatment in the greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector related to efforts in increasing the use of existing public transportation system.

Abstract: Mountain tourism has always been popular in China from ancient time to nowadays. With the popularity of leisure tourism in China, Mountain leisure tourism is increasingly favored by the majority of tourists. Taking the development of Shiniuzhai Mountain Tourist Areas located in Hunan Province for example, based on the explanation of the geographic conditions, natural conditions, social conditions, the tourism resources are overall assessed and the tourism development strategies and safeguards are proposed in order to find a brand new way to develop the mountain leisure tourism.

Abstract: Cement and chemical grouts have often been used for soil strengthening. However, high cost, energy consumption, and harm to environment restrict their applications. Biocement could be a new green building- material and energy-saving material. Biocement is a mixture of enzymes or microbial biomass with inorganic chemicals, which can be produced from cheap raw materials. Supply of biocementing solution to the porous soil or mixing of dry biocement with clayey soil initiate biocementation of soil due to specific enzymatic activity. Different microorganisms and enzymes can be used for production of biocement.