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The EC circular economy waste directive sets ambitious recycling and reuse targets towards waste reduction and banning of landfills. Monitoring of wastes can lead to efficient policies and implementation of proactive measures for waste reduction. Up-to-date methods for waste monitoring in cyclic economy (CE) may not provide reliable and useful figures. Product stock-in-use and flows in CE, including waste flows, are uncertain due to varying demand and imports/exports, random, early losses of stock-in-use, delayed and distributed product returns or end-of-life exit and varying utilization of returns by remanufacturers. Adopting a systems perspective and using a dynamic/stochastic model of stock and flows in CE, this work quantifies waste monitoring and reduction under realistic conditions. It reveals how consumption and stock depletion consist the driving forces of waste generation, compensated by cyclic actions, reuse/remanufacturing and recycle. The conventional recycling rate and other key parameters, including the reuse rate, the mean lifetime, the remanufacturing rate, the number of reuse cycles, are shown inapt to accurately monitor end-wastes. None can consistently distinguish the environmentally superior system or state, featuring lower end-wastes. Higher recycling rates and/or higher reuse rates may not ensure lower wastes. Asymmetric policies (differing recycle and reuse rates) can be advantageous: higher reuse is preferable under rising stock and higher recycle under stock depletion. Sharp real-time monitoring of end-wastes is provided by the cycle rate, a dimensionless rate accounting for consumption and stock variations in CE. Its supreme efficacy is demonstrated in a robust Case study (US cellular phones) via Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo simulation.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have shown that the optimal treatments of textile waste follow the waste hierarchy. Consequently, there is great potential for environmental improvements through ensuring that textiles are collected, reused, recycled and disposed of in the best possible way. Despite the fact that textile sorting centres play a central role in ensuring a high reuse rate, they have either been left out of previous LCAs or modelled based on low-quality data. In this study, a material flow analysis (MFA) of the textile flows in a sorting centre, and a life cycle inventory (LCI), was undertaken for the period 2015–2017, along with an assessment of the main economic factors. The MFA showed that the majority of the sorted textiles were indeed reusable, but their numbers decreased in the reference period, from 79.8% to 74.9%. The LCI and economic analysis showed increasing resource consumption in terms of electricity, gas (trucks) and packing per sorted tonne. Furthermore, the quality of textiles has generally decreased over the last decade, which is reflected in the share of reusable textiles of the highest quality, which undergo additional fine sorting. While in 2015, almost 33% of the reusable textiles were sorted out for fine sorting, in 2017, this figure was down to 29%. The number of recyclable textiles increased over the period, from 12.9% to17.3%, and the amount of waste also increased, from 5.4 to 6.0%. The results presented herein are important for properly representing the sorting process in modelling textile waste management.

In order to protect the offshore environment and strengthen the comprehensive rectification of sewage outfalls, an evaluation method of regional sewage outfalls by combining the marine numerical simulation and comprehensive evaluation technology was constructed, considering the marine environmental capacity and the ecological impact of sewage discharge from outfalls on the marine eco-environment sensitive areas. Then the layout rationality of each outfall was evaluated and the discharge scale was optimized with a case study of existing sewage outfalls in Xiamen. The results show that, the comprehensive evaluation score of Yundang outfall was 3 points in 2025, evaluated as the outfall with irrational layout. In 2035, the comprehensive evaluation scores of Fenglin and Dalipu outfalls were 3 and 2 points respectively, evaluated as the outfall with irrational discharge scale. It is suggested to control the scale of expansion or increase the reclaimed water reuse rate in Jimei and Gaoqi Wastewater Treatment Plants. This method has enriched the evaluation system for layout optimization of sewage outfalls, providing scientific supports for comprehensive improvement of sewage outfalls and marine environmental management.

The pile-up of massive construction waste causes serious challenges to environment and engineering practice. In order to promote the reuse rate of construction waste bricks, the effects of the content and fineness of construction waste brick powder and of brick powder-silica flour mixture on the strengths of cement mortar were experimentally investigated. Based on the test results, the significance of the particle characteristics of brick powder on mortar strength was analyzed by grey entropy method. The experimental results show that the early strength of cement mortar decreases due to the addition of brick powder; the reduction is, however, not significant when the content of brick powder is less than 10%; the 28 d strength of cement mortar increases with a proper content of brick powder. The grey entropy analysis indicates that the particle characteristics have strong influence on the activity of brick powder and mortar strength; the strength is significantly dependent on specific surface area and the fraction of particles smaller than 20 μm. Fine brick powder and silica flour can improve the macroscopic strengths of cement mortar by affecting the type and quantity of hydration products and the structure of interfacial transition zone between cement paste and sand.

Waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) became an important waste stream due to its recycling potential and negative effects on the social, economic and environmental aspects. Currently, the evaluation of WEEE management systems focus on specific parts of their lifecycle (mostly on recycling options), providing information on environmental impacts and/or economic benefits. Therefore, a methodology that would address the entire WEEE lifecycle and the 3 pillars of sustainable development (environmental, economic, social) is necessary. The proposed SUSTWEEE methodology dedicated exclusively to the WEEE stream comprises a 4 level methodology, with indicators to be addressed on background information, WEEE generation, WEEE technical performance and sustainability. The technical performance and sustainability aspects are evaluated on 7 main categories of indicators, both quantitative and qualitative, assessed according to 44 criteria. All the indicators went through a score allocation and a normalization step where a percentage, qualitative score and color coding were assigned, resulting in a WEEE evaluation matrix. In the validation step, the methodology was tested successfully at national level to evaluate the sustainability of WEEE management system in Romania in reference year 2014. The results obtained in this case show a rather mixed performance, with indicators in extreme situations. The main hot spots were the very low collection rates and the non-existent reuse rate, at least in official data, while the other indicators indicated at least medium performances. The best performances are in the area of WEEE collected that undergoes suitable treatment, the existence of WEEE facilities in Romania capable to perform the treatment, high recycling rate and the overall environmental performance indicator.

[EN] Worldwide cement production is around 4.2 billion tons, and the fabrication of one ton of ordinary Portland cement emits around 900 kg of CO2. Blast furnace slag (BFS) is a byproduct used to produce alkali-activated materials (AAM). BFS production was estimated at about 350 million tons in 2018, and the BFS reuse rate in construction materials of developing countries is low. AAM can reduce CO2 emissions in relation to Portland cement materials: Its use in construction would be a golden opportunity for developing countries in forthcoming decades. The present research aims to formulate AAM destined for future applications in developing countries. Two activators were used: NaOH, Na2CO3, and a mixture of both. The results showed that compressive strengths within the 42¿56 MPa range after 28 curing days were obtained for the Na2CO3-activated mortars. The characterization analysis confirmed the presence of hydrotalcite, carbonated phases, CSH and CASH. The economic study showed that Na2CO3 was the cheapest activator in terms of the relative cost per ton and MPa of manufactured mortars. Finally, the environmental benefits of mortars based on this reagent were evidenced, and, in terms of kgCO2 emissions per ton and MPa, the mortars with Na2CO3 yielded 50% lower values than with NaOH., We would also like to thank the Spanish Government MINECO/FEDER (ECOSOST project RTI-2018-097612-B-C21) for supporting this research.

Remote sensing technology for detecting ships at sea can be widely used in maritime supervision, military reconnaissance, and ship rescue. It has very important application value. In this paper, we propose the YOLOv3-RS algorithm based on YOLOv3 algorithm to precisely detect small ships in remote sensing images. The YOLOv3-RS algorithm uses the K-medians algorithm to improve the clustering effect of the data set, and then uses DenseNet to increase the feature reuse rate, and finally improves the ResNet module to enhance the expressive ability of the network. The final results show that YOLOv3-RS algorithm has better detection performance than YOLOv3 algorithm.

A minute is all it takes for a hacker to gain informations from your computer, such as Wi-Fi password. Due to the limited capability of people to remember a lot of complex and unique password, people tend to use the same password for most of their account. This paper aimed to implement Wi-Fi password stealing program in USB Rubber Ducky using USB Rubber Ducky Scripting, Visual Basic Script, Web Server, Command Prompt, and Ducky Toolkit to obtain clear text Wi-Fi password that ever connected to the computer. In the testing phase, the success rate of Wi-Fi password stealing program reached 94.28% with 87.87% obtained personal password is still categorized as guessable password and the password reuse rate reached 81.81%. Thus, Wi-Fi password stealing program can be very dangerous as most of the personal password was used in lots of account and still categorized as guessable.

Many animals require tree cavities for breeding and these sites may be reused by a diversity of secondary cavity nesters over a timespan of decades. It is unknown whether the reuse of holes changes their desirability as nest sites. We hypothesized that some species, “cavity destroyers,” degrade the quality of holes by filling them with coarse nest material or waste whereas excavating species, “cavity cleaners,” might prolong the use of a hole by removing debris or enlarging the hole. Using data gathered during 22 years from a field study in central British Colombia, we analyzed long-term patterns of cavity occupancy in relation to their sequential use by bird and mammal species, grouped by traits. Patterns of cavity occupancy were variable with 49% of 875 large-sized holes (excavated by northern flickers Colaptes auratus and pileated woodpeckers Dryocopus pileatus) and 19% of 652 smaller-sized holes incorporating runs of sequential use that lasted to 18 years. About 11% of large and 25% of small cavities also had gaps of 3–13 years between occupancies. Mammals, raptors and European starlings, consistent with the hypothesis, were cavity destroyers, occupying cavities as terminal users and before gaps more often than expected by chance. The pattern of occupancy by northern flickers was random in relation to gaps or prior use by other species. Although flickers did not target old holes to clean, neither did they avoid them. Small cavities that were renovated by flickers into larger cavities were reused at twice the rate after renovation. Runs of cavity occupancy that involved only cavity-destroying species were shorter than runs that involved periodic use by flickers, suggesting the woodpecker, through its cleaning and renovation, prolonged the use of such holes. Our study contributes insights on additional ecological factors, namely previous users, that can influence the use and availability of cavities over time. Fil: Wiebe, Karen L.. University of Saskatchewan; Canadá Fil: Cockle, Kristina Louise. University of British Columbia; Canadá. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina Fil: Trzcinski, M. Kurtis. University of British Columbia; Canadá Fil: Edworthy, Amanda B.. University of British Columbia; Canadá Fil: Martin, Kathy. University of British Columbia; Canadá

For applications of speech and video, the consecutive inputs exhibit a high degree of similarity, hence, some results of previous execution can be reused. The technique of quantization can efficiently increase the similarity of consecutive inputs. However, when using quantization, the smaller the number of quantization bits the higher the similarity, as the inputs are constrained to a smaller set of values, but the larger the accuracy loss since input errors are increased. Therefore, we observe that existing reuse schema just applied unique the number of quantization bits in the entire network. If the number of quantization bits is too long, it will directly reduce the similarity between the inputs and thus reduce the reuse ratio. Hence, it is important that exploits the tradeoff among the number of quantization bits, reuse rate, and accuracy. There is an opportunity to significantly improve the performance and efficiency of DNN execution by use multiple quantization bits simultaneously according to the technique of neuron criticality analysis. To do so, we propose a novel reuse schema called Mquans based on neuron criticality analysis without accuracy loss. And evaluation results show that our proposed design achieves 2.7 speedups and 38% energy saving on average over the baseline.

Container stacking is a common activity in various industries. At a large scale, the shipping industry stacks cargo containers, while at a smaller scale the home and office storage providers stack paper or plastic boxes. An interesting question behind container stacking is how to efficiently move containers from one stack to another. In this paper, we investigate a remotely related question: shape transformation between LEGO models. While many computational algorithms have been developed to construct LEGO models, the problem of constructing a LEGO model using bricks from an existing model has not been explored in open literature. We propose two objectives to optimize the transformation: the movement cost and the reuse rate of LEGO bricks. Two basic approaches coupled with three strategies are implemented to achieve shape transformation. Experiments and analysis reveal the efficiency of different algorithms under several metrics of evaluation.

This research investigated the capacities of recycled aggregate concrete adopting entire concrete waste reuse model in degrading NO2. Two major issues within environmental sustainability were addressed: concrete waste reuse rate and mitigation of hazards substances in the polluted air. The study consisted of two stages: identification of proper replacement rates of recycled concrete wastes in new concrete mixture design, and the evaluation of photocatalytic performance of recycled aggregate concrete in degrading NO2. It was found that replacement rates up to 3%, 30%, and 50% for recycled power, recycled fine aggregate, and recycled coarse aggregate respectively could be applied in concrete mixture design without deteriorating concrete strength. Recycled aggregates contained both positive attributes (“internal curing”) and negative effects (e.g., lower hardness) to concrete properties. It was found that 30%–50% of natural coarse aggregate replaced by recycled coarse aggregates coated with TiO2 would significantly improve the photocatalytic performance of concrete measured by degradation rate of NO2. Micro-structures of recycled aggregates observed under microscope indicated that soaking recycled aggregates in TiO2 solution resulted in whiskers that filled the porosity within recycled aggregates which enhanced concrete strength.

Massive emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have been criticized as the cause of global warming, and the waste sector, serving as the end-of-life treatment of products, is inevitably one of the contributors to the anthropogenic GHG emissions. As landfill area is becoming scarce in Hong Kong, the government proposed the Integrated Waste Management Facilities (IWMF) plan which includes building incinerators for solid waste treatment. However, as incinerating solid waste can increase GHG emissions, controlling GHG emissions from the waste sector in Hong Kong is a thorny problem. This study evaluates GHG emissions from the waste sector in Hong Kong using a calculation tool under the 2006 IPCC inventory guidelines to estimate the projected GHGs emission according to the waste development plan of Hong Kong. The analysis results show that after implementing IWMF, GHG emissions from landfills decrease, while total GHG emissions from the entire waste sector increase, mainly due to the combustion of petroleum products in incinerators. Sensitivity analysis reveals that the increased emission can be offset when solid waste disposal is reduced by 40%. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to improve the recycling and reuse rate of waste in Hong Kong.

Based on the development of heroin vaccine, in this paper, we propose an age structured heroin transmission model with treatment and vaccination. The model allows the drug reuse rate of the individuals in treatment to depend on a treatment-age and the vaccine waning rate of the vaccinated to depend on a vaccination age. Meanwhile, the model allows that the heroin vaccine provides an imperfect protection (i.e., the vaccinated individuals can also become drug addicted). We derive the basic reproduction number which dependents on vaccination. The basic reproduction number completely determines the persistence and extinction of heroin spread, i.e., if the basic reproduction number is less than one the drug-free steady state is globally asymptotically stable (i.e., the heroin spread dies out), if the basic reproduction number is larger than one, there exists an unique positive steady state and it is locally and globally stable in some special cases. Finally, some numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the stability of the positive steady state.

Considering the low recovery and reuse rate in recycling damaged shared bicycle currently, this paper aims to conduct systematic studies on influence factors in terms of enterprise, product, government, and society. Combining objective weight valuation of the CRITIC (Criteria Importance though Intercrieria Correlation) method and causal classification and importance analysis of the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method. we overcome the shortcomings of the traditional DEMATEL method that establish initial direct influence matrix based on expert scoring or questionnaire survey, thus putting forward the CRITIC-DEMATEL method. The research example shows that the new method not only can effectively identify the key factors affecting the reverse recycling of damaged shared bicycles, but also can improve the accuracy of solving actual problems, while at the same time, it can provide scientific support for the damaged bicycle recycling.

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an important system for improving resource reuse rate and reducing waste pollution to the environment. Aiming at automobile products, this article takes end of-life vehicles collecting and dismantling enterprises as an example. By studying the support from tax support policy, tax incentives are provided to those enterprises that meet safety and environmental protection requirements. In this way, it can guide enterprises to improve safety and environmental protection and reduce corporate pressure from taxation. This article also predicts the effect of energy conservation and environmental protection after the implementation of tax support policy and demonstrates the importance of tax support policy of implementing the EPR.

Due to growing concern for the environment, green design methods are used to create products that can reduce resource use and environmental impacts, throughout the entire product lifecycle. In particular, the end-of-life stage of the product lifecycle has received much attention recently. Disassembly sequence planning is one of the major product end-of-life methods, which can be used to increase the reuse rate of components and reduce product environmental impacts. However, total disassembly is usually expensive and impractical. Contrary to total disassembly, this study develops a new partial disassembly sequence planning method. Most prior partial disassembly sequence planning methods did not use life cycle impact assessment tools to perform cost-benefit analyses to find an optimized disassembly stopping point. In this study, Simapro Eco-indicator 99 is used to analyze environmental impacts. The proposed method considers part order, part disassembly directions, number of reorientations, and number of tool changes to find an optimized disassembly plan and an optimized disassembly stopping point. Study results show that the proposed partial disassembly sequence planning method can be used to reduce environmental costs and increase economical benefits, compared to the traditional disassembly methods. Study results also show that the method can help designers redesign the products, make the parts with high economical (recycling) benefits more accessible, and reduce disassembly cost.

This study assessed the potential of adopting an accelerated mineral carbonation process to produce a new generation of concrete blocks with recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). The replacement contents of coarse and fine natural aggregates by coarse and fine RCA in concrete blocks ranged from 0% to 100% by mass, respectively. The accelerated mineral carbonation of RCA and concrete blocks was processed under a gas pressure of 0.1 Bar and 5.0 Bar. The experimental results showed that incorporating the carbonated RCA in concrete blocks led to an increase in strength by 2%–18%, which can also increase the reuse rate of RCA by 35% for the concrete blocks with the required strength. Moreover, the use of the carbonated RCA in concrete blocks resulted in a lower drying shrinkage. A high CO 2 gas pressure and longer carbonation duration had an insignificant effect on the properties of concrete blocks when the carbonation process was extended to 24 h. It would be more efficient and economical to fabricate this type of eco-blocks by using the carbonated RCA, a low CO 2 gas pressure (i.e. 0.1 Bar) and a short-term carbonation (i.e. 6 h).

Aiming to prevent the waste of copper resources and improve the reuse rate of wastewater, a membrane-assisted crystallizer (MAC) process was developed to remove and recover Cu2+ from wastewater. Cu2+ was sequentially recovered in the form of Cu2(OH)2CO3 crystals in a crystallizer and a membrane reactor, where the latter was also used for further solid-liquid separation. To facilitate this recovery, Na2CO3 and Cu2(OH)2CO3 were selected as the precipitant and crystal seed, respectively. Based on the optimized operating conditions, lab-scale MAC processes were evaluated using an initial Cu2+ concentration of 18.9–52.2 mg/L (tests A, B and C), in which the wastewater was prepared with local tap water that had high concentrations of Ca2+ (22.6–39.3 mg/L) and Mg2+ (8.3–9.1 mg/L). The results indicated that the saturation index (SI) and the excess CO32− were the decisive factors for normal operation of the MAC process. A well-run MAC process (test A with an SI of 2.67 and an excess CO32− of 40 mg/L) not only achieved a lower effluent Cu2+ concentration (

With the improvement of the people’s living standards, the development of the interior design industry is becoming more and more orderly and regular. Interior designers use a variety of design software to design indoor space. The most commonly used design software is Auto CAD. Using Auto CAD drawing can not only make the picture succinct, the view is beautiful, but also be easy to modify, and the reuse rate is high. If designers are proficient in Auto CAD, they will greatly improve their productivity when designing and drawing interior space.

Disposable marine product packaging materials such as wooden, Styrofoam, and corrugated cardboard boxes have a very low reuse rate, thus causing the logistics costs to rise and making it difficult to establish a unit load system for marine products. Disposable packing containers to be discarded are accompanied by resource and environmental issues home and abroad. Transportation vehicles for marine products have to return empty without loading different kinds of products after delivery due to the smell and properties of marine products, thus posing as an obstacle to logistics rationalization. In an effort to overcome those limitations, this study examined the stages of transportation including "producer-wholesale market in the producing area-commission merchant-wholesale market in the consumption area-commission merchant-quasi-wholesale market-consumer" and also analyzed the utilization and distribution of disposable packaging materials currently used in the circulation of marine products including wooden, Styrofoam, and corrugated cardboard boxes. Based on the analysis results, the investigator developed a logistics rationalization model capable of promoting semi-permanent reuse and lowering empty vehicle rate on return routes as an alternative to address environmental issues caused by disposable packaging materials, which have been an obstacle to the logistics rationalization of marine products, packaging costs in the process of repeating packing and unpacking at each stage of marine products circulation, and empty vehicle rates on return routes after marine products delivery.

Recently, self-adaptive system researches have been done to solve the problems occurred in the dynamic environment. Designing requirement in the self-adaptive system is necessary to recognize and solve the problem for the system, and if a developer reuses existing adaptation strategy to design the requirement, the designing time and cost would be reduced. Therefore, this paper proposes the system which extracts reusable adaptation strategy from the existing self-adaptive system. For the proposal, this paper conceptualizes the self-adaptation elements, defines the adaptation strategy ontology and target system ontology, and presents the process of extracting reusable strategy. This paper also implements proposed system and evaluates the reuse rate of the extracted strategy. As a result, the adaptation strategies extracted by proposed system are exactly operated, and the extraction method of proposed system shows higher reuse rate than a previous method.

A self-sustained municipal solid waste (MSW) pyrolysis-gasification process with self-produced syngas as heat source was proposed and an equilibrium model was established to predict the syngas reuse rate considering variable MSW components. Simulation results indicated that for constant moisture (ash) content, with the increase of ash (moisture) content, syngas reuse rate gradually increased, and reached the maximum 100% when ash (moisture) content was 73.9% (60.4%). Novel ternary diagrams with moisture, ash and combustible as axes were proposed to predict the adaptability of the self-sustained process and syngas reuse rate for waste. For wastes of given components, its position in the ternary diagram can be determined and the syngas reuse rate can be obtained, which will provide guidance for system design. Assuming that the MSW was composed of 100% combustible content, ternary diagram shows that there was a minimum limiting value of 43.8% for the syngas reuse rate in the process.

In the current process of urbanization in our country, more than 1,000,000 waste containers are abandoned every year. The recycling or reuse rate of waste container is low, and relevant research is insufficient, resulting in the waste of resources and energy, as well as environmental pollution, which does not comply with the principle of sustainable development. Use of waste or old containers by converting them into housing, temporary sites or mobile facilities and other projects is feasible. The reuse of abandoned building materials not only can save energy and solve practical problems, but also can develop a new model of container construction techniques. It is of great significance.

Primary cavity-producers such as woodpeckers produce nest sites for several other cavity-nesting animals and, thus, are often considered to be keystone species. However, the persistence and occupancy rates of cavities are rarely known and as such the real importance of primary cavity-producers also remains unclear. Cavities of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor were monitored during their whole lifespan. The data include the annual availability and occupancy history of 106 cavities in a 170-km2 area in southern Finland during 1987–2018. The median survival time of a cavity was six years, but there were differences between the various forest types (range six to eight years). The median time for cavity fall was six years, and five years for cavity damage. Six bird species used the old cavities for breeding, with the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca the dominant species accounting for 53% of all occupancies. The cavity reuse rate in the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was 3.6%. The mean occupancy by secondary cavity-nesting birds in old cavities was 32%, with a range of 29–36% across the various forest types. There was a significant negative correlation between annual occupancy rates and the age of the cavity. The first two years of a cavity were found to be the most important for total occupancy and 90% of occupancies took place before the median age of the cavities. The expected mean number of lifespan occupancies by secondary cavity-nesters for a single cavity was 1.97. The results indicate that new, fresh cavities are continuously needed for the secondary cavity-nesters that use Lesser Spotted Woodpecker cavities in their territories.

This article summarizes some disadvantages that arise when not using BIM technology modeling to make engineering budgets. For example, traditional calculations are calculated manually by using two-dimensional maps so that the efficiency is low, repetitive modeling rates are high by using general modeling software to modeling, and the reuse rate of the built model is low, the model is not built accurately, and the model information cannot be shared. All the above disadvantages lead to inaccurate calculation of the engineering, and in the whole process of construction of the engineering, the participants of each engineering cannot contact and coordinate the work closely, resulting in serious waste of resources and seriously harming the interests of all parties so that the construction progress of the project is seriously affected. However, using the model built by BIM calculation software to solve the above problems can effectively solve the above problems, and make a great contribution to the development and innovation of engineering cost.

For a total of 9 years, we examined the patterns of a nesting raptor community that utilized European Magpie ( Pica pica ) nests in the Zuojia Natural Reserve, northeast China. Eight raptor species and two other bird species were recorded nesting in magpie nests. The reuse rate of abandoned magpie nests was 51.6%, and the number of reused nests was positively correlated with their availability. Raptors utilized 83.3% of the reused abandoned magpie nests. Nests followed for more than 1 year were reused by raptors an average of 1.13 times. Interspecific nest usurpation was common, with 17.3% of new magpie nests being usurped by raptors, and four cases of usurpation occurred among different raptor species. At the community level, 8 of 11 raptor species took over magpie nests to breed in the study area, and 91.9% of their nests came from magpie nests. European Magpies represent the core species in the nest web of the local raptor community that utilizes magpie nests. At the forest stand level, closer proximity to forest edges and greater distances from occupied raptor nests were the best predictors of nest reuse. At the nest-site level, arbor density and canopy coverage were the best predictors of nest reuse.

About 40 million automotive vehicles all over the world and 0.55 million in Korea were retired from use annually. Every nation is desperate to decrease environmental pollution by ELVs(End of Life Vehicles) and try to tighten the regulations. Europe passed laws requiring OEMs to increase vehicles` recovery and reuse rate to 95% by 2015 from current 84%. The ferrous parts, 75% of total automobile weight, are almost recycled whereas the remaining 25% of the non-metal -predominantly plastics as well as form, glass and rubber- and the non-ferrous materials -copper, nickel and aluminium- end up in landfills. The recycling status of non-ferrous materials represented by copper and nickel is reviewed and how much the recycling rate will be improved is calculated.

In recent years, e-assessment started to attract a lot of attention from researchers as well as practitioners. There are many problems for the application development of e-assessment such as the difficulty to use the assessment object from a platform to another one. In addition, the domain model reuse rate is hardness to guarantee the consistency between designs and codes. Therefore, to resolve these problems, we need an approach aiming to automate the modeling and coding processes in e-assessment system. The present study describes an approach, based on service cloud computing, for integrating assessment functionalities of different LMSs into a generalized e-assessment process.

At present, most of communication interface testing systems are developed only for a manufacturer's specific equipment and interface, with the low reuse rate of software and hardware, and the high cost of maintenance. In view of the above question, the latest high performance fully programming Zedboard is chosen as hardware platform, the custom middleware and core framework meeting the needs of communication interface reconfigurable test are designed with the in-depth research of the technology of the miniaturization of SCA, and the external interface abstraction of hardware platform and component containers of FPGA applications are designed by combining with the advantages of MHAL and OCP interface. Finally, the software framework of reconfigurable communication interface test system based on Zedboard is designed. Users could achieve reconfigurable testing of multiple communication interfaces only by changing the application components and system configuration, which could enhance the universality and flexibility of the system, improve the reusability of software and hardware of the test system, and reduce the costs of interface testing system development and maintenance.

Currently, there are many problems of the application development of E-Assessment such as the difficulty to use the assessment object from a platform to another one. In addition, the domain model reuse rate is very low in various application systems, and hardness to guarantee the consistency between designs and codes. Therefore, to resolve these problems, we need an approach aiming to automate the modeling and coding processes in e-assessment system. The present study describes an approach, based on service cloud computing, for integrating e-assessment functionalities of candidate LMS systems into a generalized e-assessment process.

While reuse is an effective lifecycle option in terms of reduction of environmental loads and value of reutilization, reuse has inherent difficulties. Our naive question is why component reuse of home appliances seems impossible while that of photocopiers succeeded. This paper clarifies an essential factor for successful reuse; that is, the balance between supply and demand of reusables, and proposes an index named ‘marginal reuse rate,’ which indicates upper limit of reusability. By using this index, reusability of several products is analyzed. The marginal reuse rate indicates that design of lifecycle, in addition to product design, is indispensable for successful reuse.

Background. A change in the licensing arrangements for the use of erythropoietin a in haemodialysis patients has required a switch in the route of administration from subcutaneous (SC) to intravenous (IV). Previous work suggested that the IV route was less efficacious but studies since the enforced switch have not confirmed this. Methods. We studied haemoglobin levels and the mean weekly dose of erythropoietin a in 86 haemodialysis patients at monthly intervals over the 6 month period before and after a change in the route of administration of erythropoietin a from SC to IV. Changes in other parameters known to be associated with erythropoietin response were also monitored. Results. Mean haemoglobin level fell following the switch from 11.9 g/dl±1.4 at baseline to 11.3 g/dl± 1.4 at 1 month (P ¼ 0.001) and to a trough of 11.0 g/dl±1.3 at 2 months (P

Nest re-use in a high density population of Magpies Pica pica in the city of Sofia and its vicinity was studied during 1999–2000. The rate of nest re-use was significantly higher within the urban area (17%) as compared to the immediate rural surroundings within the distance of 1 km (7%). Re-used nests were on average higher above the ground than newly-built nests. The nest reuse rate was not related to breeding density, abundance or the mean height of available trees. Magpies re-using their old nests laid eggs significantly earlier compared to those building new nests. However, nest re-use did not confer other benefits on the reproductive output since clutch-size, hatching and fledging success did not differ significantly between the two nesting strategies.

The requirement and characteristic in Computer Generated Forces behavior modeling were analyzed. From the design concept of American OneSAF system, a method for behavior modeling based on composability was proposed and the formalization description of behavior was given. Moreover, the Behavior Modeling Composer Tool was developed based on this method to assist the behavior modeling. Finally, an application of this method was given. The preliminary results show that this method can improve the modeling efficiency and increase the reuse rate of models.

The amounts of new wood used for housing construction and wood wastes from demolished buildings were calculated using various scenarios of wood recycling. Increase in reuse rate was found to be effective to reduce the total amounts of final wastes and the use of new wood materials.

This paper presents an energy-efficient distributed link scheduling protocol based on vertex coloring method for wireless sensor networks. In the protocol, we perform vertex coloring using maximum degree preferred scheme, and gather network information only by local message exchanges. Thus, our protocol can further reduce the maximum number of timeslots, and avoid long-distance multihop packet forwarding. To improve coloring success rate, two mechanisms are proposed in the protocol. The first is a broadcast guarantee mechanism for increasing broadcast message delivery rate; the second is a conflict processing mechanism for solving coloring conflicts. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed scheduling protocol has better performance than certain centralized scheduling protocols and a classical distributed protocol DRAND in energy efficiency, spatial reuse rate and packet loss rate.

Power supply enterprises often face the problem of large backlog of retired assets because of low attention on retired assets reusing. Taking Shanghai Electric Power Company as an example, this study gives some references to electric power enterprises in retired assets management. Starting from the management and reusing of retired assets, the paper mainly discussed its optimization and the corresponding mechanisms including the operating and security mechanism and information system, which could contribute largely to enhancing retired assets management, raising reuse rate and saving project cost.

As existing web-based application has shortcomings of long development life cycle, low reuse rate and poor expansibility causes a great number of problems for the developers and users. Based on these problems, a framework for web-based configurable software is presented in this paper. This framework is composed of three layers and seven main modules. Under the guidance of this framework, a web-based configurable software was implemented. Finally, the efficiency and the scalability of this framework are proved by a practical application.