Subjective well-being and travel: retrospect and prospect

Although the improvement of well-being is often an implicitly-assumed goal of many, if not most, public policies, the study of subjective well-being (SWB) and travel has so far been confined to a relatively small segment of the travel behavior community. Accordingly, one main purpose of this paper is to introduce a larger share of the community to some fundamental SWB-related concepts and their application in transportation research, with the goal of attracting others to this rewarding area of study. At the same time, however, I also hope to offer some useful reflections to those already working in this field. After discussing some basic issues of terminology and measurement of SWB, I present from the literature four conceptual models relating travel and subjective well-being. Following one of those models, I review five ways in which travel can influence well-being. I conclude by examining some challenges associated with assessing the impacts of travel on well-being, as well as challenges associated with applying what we learn to policy.

     

基于红外路径识别的智能车控制系统设计

介绍一种基于模拟式红外光电传感器路径识别的智能车控制系统,使用飞思卡尔公司16位单片机MC9S12DG128为核心控制单元,采集红外传感器信号智能分析导引线路径信息,自动控制舵机转向,并对智能车的直流驱动电机实现PID调速控制。     

刚架拱桥的检测与承载能力评定

对某缺失资料的刚架拱桥进行了病害调查、无损检测及荷载试验,重点对荷载试验进行了分析.通过对结构加载模拟分析、加载等级与方式的确定、变形和自振频率的实测与分析,表明该桥的承载能力不满足规定的荷载等级,且动力性能较差,需要进行加固维修.此方法为该类桥梁的维护使用和加固改造提供参考.     

既有铁路桥梁声屏障的高速列车脉动风致响应

采用SAP2000有限元软件,建立了既有桥梁声屏障的有限元模型,混凝土插板与H型钢立柱之间的连接采用位移和转角弹簧模拟.探讨了脉动力采用多点输入和一致输入,跨度16,24和32 m的铁路桥梁声屏障的动力响应,分析了声屏障的位移峰值、弯矩峰值和动力放大系数的分布特征.结果表明,常用跨度铁路桥梁声屏障的行波效应系数均小于1;声屏障立柱的位移和挑梁弯矩的最大值随桥梁跨度增大而减小;声屏障挑梁刚度过小,跨度16 m的铁路桥梁声屏障立柱的最大位移达15.5 mm.     

同相牵引供电系统平衡补偿的最优模型

为消除同相牵引供电系统中的三相不平衡、滤除谐波、补偿无功,讨论了平衡变换的两种最优补偿模型:以波形质量最优为目标的波形畸变最小模型和以获得最佳负载为目标的最佳负载模型.通过仿真分析了系统电压畸变时两种补偿模型的补偿效果.结果表明,波形畸变最小模型使系统只提供负载所需要的基波有功电流,最佳负载模型将不对称的单相负载变成三相(或两相或四相)对称纯阻性负载.在三相系统电压对称无谐波时,两者补偿特性一致;当三相系统电压不对称有谐波时,两者补偿特性有区别.     

苦参碱对人卵巢癌细胞增殖的影响及其机制

目的 研究苦参碱(matrine)体外培养的人卵巢癌细胞OV2008增殖的影响及相关机制.方法 采用四甲基偶氮唑蓝(MTT)比色法检测不同浓度(0、0.125、0.25、0.5、1.0,2.0、4.0 mg/mL)的苦参碱在不同的时间点(24、48、72 h)对OV2008细胞增殖的影响;采用流式细胞术(FCM)检测不同浓度的苦参碱作用于OV2008细胞48 h后细胞周期分布、凋亡率及Fas、Bcl-2蛋白的表达水平.结果 苦参碱对OV2008细胞的增殖具有明显的抑制作用,与对照组相比具有显著性差异(P<0.05或P<0.01),并呈现时间和剂量依赖性;细胞周期分析显示,随着苦参碱浓度的增高,G0/G1期细胞比例逐渐增加,S期细胞比例减小,G2/M期细胞比例无明显变化;苦参碱能够诱导细胞凋亡,且凋亡率随着苦参碱浓度的增高而升高(P<0.01);苦参碱能够上调Fas蛋白的表达(P<0.05或P<0.01),下调Bcl-2蛋白的表达(P<0.01).结论 苦参碱可显著抑制OV2008细胞的增殖,且抑制作用晕剂量和时间依赖性.苦参碱对OV2008细胞的增殖抑制作用可能与其诱导细胞周期阻滞及凋亡有关,而苦参碱诱导凋亡可能与其上调Fas蛋白表达、下调Bcl-2蛋白表达有关.     

CFD Analysis of Ship-to-Ship Hydrodynamic Interaction

A numerical study of ship-to-ship interaction forces is performed using a commercial CFD code, and the results are compared with experimental data and with the results of a panel method analysis. Two ship models have been used in the interaction forces analysis: a tug and a tanker, advancing parallel to each other with different lateral distances and two different values of the fluid depth. Computations are carried out with four different flow models: inviscid and viscous flow with the free surface modeled as a rigid wall and inviscid and viscous flow with the deformable free surface. A fair agreement was obtained with available experimental data and results obtained by panel method. The influence of viscosity in the computations is found to be comparatively weak, while the wavemaking effects may be important, at small magnitude of the horizontal clearance.     

Are we ready to embrace connected and self-driving vehicles? A case study of Texans

While connected, highly automated, and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will eventually hit the roads, their success and market penetration rates depend largely on public opinions regarding benefits, concerns, and adoption of these technologies. Additionally, the introduction of these technologies is accompanied by uncertainties in their effects on the carsharing market and land use patterns, and raises the need for tolling policies to appease the travel demand induced due to the increased convenience. To these ends, this study surveyed 1088 respondents across Texas to understand their opinions about smart vehicle technologies and related decisions. The key summary statistics indicate that Texans are willing to pay (WTP) $2910, $4607, $7589, and $127 for Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 automation and connectivity, respectively, on average. Moreover, affordability and equipment failure are Texans’ top two concerns regarding AVs. This study also estimates interval regression and ordered probit models to understand the multivariate correlation between explanatory variables, such as demographics, built-environment attributes, travel patterns, and crash histories, and response variables, including willingness to pay for CAV technologies, adoption rates of shared AVs at different pricing points, home location shift decisions, adoption timing of automation technologies, and opinions about various tolling policies. The practically significant relationships indicate that more experienced licensed drivers and older people associate lower WTP values with all new vehicle technologies. Such parameter estimates help not only in forecasting long-term adoption of CAV technologies, but also help transportation planners in understanding the characteristics of regions with high or low future-year CAV adoption levels, and subsequently, develop smart strategies in respective regions.     

How household transportation expenditures have evolved in Canada: a long term perspective

In recent years, increasing recognition of the challenges associated with global climate change and inequity in developed countries have revived researcher’s interest towards analyzing transportation related expenditure of households. The current research contributes to travel behaviour literature by developing an econometric model of household budgetary allocations with a particular focus on transportation expenditure. Towards this end, we employ the public-use micro-data extracted from the Survey of Household Spending (SHS) for the years 1997–2009. The proposed econometric modeling approach is built on the multiple discrete continuous extreme value model (MDCEV) framework. Specifically, in our analysis, the scaled version of the MDCEV model outperformed its other counterparts. Broadly, the model results indicated that a host of household socio-economic and demographic attributes along with the residential location characteristics affect the apportioning of income to various expenditure categories and savings. We also observed a relatively stable transportation spending behaviour over time. Additionally, a policy analysis exercise is conducted where we observed that with increase in health expenses and reduction in savings results in adjustments in all expenditure categories.     

Robust network pricing and system optimization under combined long-term stochasticity and elasticity of travel demand

Network pricing serves as an instrument for congestion management, however, agencies and planners often encounter problems of estimating appropriate toll prices. Tolls are commonly estimated for a single-point deterministic travel demand, which may lead to imperfect policy decisions due to inherent uncertainties in future travel demand. Previous research has addressed the issue of demand uncertainty in the pricing context, but the elastic nature of demand along with its uncertainty has not been explicitly considered. Similarly, interactions between elasticity and uncertainty of demand have not been characterized. This study addresses these gaps and proposes a framework to estimate nearest optimal first-best tolls under long-term stochasticity in elastic demand. We show first that the optimal tolls under the deterministic-elastic and stochastic-elastic demand cases coincide when cost and demand functions are linear, and the set of equilibrium paths is constant. These assumptions are restrictive, so three larger networks are considered numerically, and the subsequent pricing decisions are assessed. The results of the numerical experiments suggest that in many cases, optimal pricing decisions under the combined stochastic-elastic demand scenario resemble those when demand is known exactly. The applications in this study thus suggest that inclusion of demand elasticity offsets the need of considering future demand uncertainties for first-best congestion pricing frameworks.