The future for in‐vehicle information systems: The technology and its impacts

In‐vehicle information has an important social role to play in improving the efficiency and safety of travel by all modes. In this review, three generations of system are identified. The first generation consists of simple in‐vehicle units relying heavily on external data. The second generation has more sophisticated in‐vehicle units with colour TFT screens and DVD players for maps and entertainment. The third generation again makes use of external data, using the mobile phone network to download map sections and other data as and when required, thereby obviating the need for beacons and map CDs. For locationing, GPS (and/or Galileo, the European version of GPS) remains the favoured technology. Portable devices offering multi‐modal information could improve inter‐modal transport efficiency.     

Searching for the root causes of maritime casualties

This paper opens by placing our current understanding of human error within a model of accident causation. The philosophical problems of bias and hindsight in accident investigation are discussed and a classification of human error types is presented. Two recent surveys of accident data and three case studies are used to highlight the main concerns in the sources of failure. These concerns are onboard violations, lack of onboard situational awareness, and failures in management practice. The paper provides an overview of how these issues have led to developments in maritime training and research. The first development has been the design of more effective training courses through a better understanding of the nature of the skill requirements of situational awareness. The current training is outlined and other areas of research, which are now being undertaken, are described. The paper concludes with a summary of further research and development needs.     

黄秀烺墓志:20世纪初期的华侨、侨乡与中国现代化

自从改革开放以来,海外华侨对中国现代化的贡献,越来越成为中国及国外学术界研究的重要课题之一.[1]中国的新闻媒介里,经常可以看到有关华侨与祖国密切关系的报道,华侨不仅热心公益还投资办实业,同时,在思想意识形态方面也给中国社会带来很大的冲击.     

Dense network traffic models,travel time reliability and traffic management. Ii: Application to network reliability

This paper is the second of a pair of papers discussing two main themes concerning dense network modelling. These themes are: (1) the changing nature of traffic management technology and the underlying objectives behind traffic management practice, and (2) the use of measures of network reliability in models, especially as an element of the evaluation of alternative network configurations. This paper develops and applies the second theme, the use of network reliability concepts in the evaluation of traffic networks, through consideration of variations in travel times, distinction between local street and arterial road networks, and the definition and application of a set of reliability indices that may be used to study different trip movements in a network. It indicates how these indices may be used in appraising different traffic management plans for a dense network of local streets and arterial roads, using a case study application.     

Public transport policy in Canada and the United States: Developing political commitment from the federal government

The United States federal government has been involved in public transport funding for over 40 years, whereas in Canada the federal government has little history of urban public transport policy. In that context, over the past 10 years, Canada has made significant progress in developing new federal commitments for public transport. Critical as these developments have been, however, they do not represent a true National Transit Strategy, which needs to be permanent, predictable and comprehensive. This claim is supported by economic analysis which suggests that Canadian government investment in transit is significantly below the optimal level.     

The impact of transitional changes of maritime passenger transport on Croatian tourism development

At the beginning of the nineties, Croatia witnessed the collapse of communism, arrival of democracy, a war of national survival and the launch of the transition. Extraordinarily under these circumstances, tourism has become one of the most propulsive economic activities in Croatia. To preserve this prosperous industry, one must consider the variables that affect Croatian tourism. Research shows that maritime passenger transport has a substantial influence upon seashore tourism improvement. This mode not only represents a sizable share of international tourism transport, but often provides the only access to island tourism destinations. This paper provides an analysis of the impact of the transitional changes of maritime passenger transport on Croatian tourism development. Following a brief examination of the functions of maritime transport within tourism, the paper focuses on: composition of Croatian fleets, potential opportunities in local and international markets, and structural reforms required to increase the quality of Croatian maritime passenger services. Commercialization programmes are significantly important as Croatia prepares to enter the EU, and open up its markets to free competition.     

An ensemble approach for conflict detection in Free Flight by data mining

Airborne separation assurance is a key requirement for Free Flight operations. A variety of conflict detection (CD) and resolution algorithms have been developed for this task. A lack of rigorous evaluation and the existence of an infinite number of possible conflict geometries in Free Flight makes the choice of which algorithm to be placed in the cockpit a challenging task for the designers of future air traffic management (ATM) systems. In this paper, we propose an ensemble approach for CD in Free Flight. The ensemble consists of several CD algorithms, a rule set for each algorithm describing its learned behavior from its past performance and a switch mechanism to choose an appropriate CD algorithm given probe characteristics. A novel mechanism to evolve complex conflict scenarios, using genetic algorithms (GA), is developed and integrated in a fast time air traffic simulator to generate the performance data of CD algorithms. Data mining techniques are then employed to identify implicit patterns in the probe characteristics where the CD algorithms missed or falsely identified a conflict. These patterns are formulated as rule sets for each CD algorithm and are then used by a switch in the ensemble to route a probe for conflict prediction. Given probe characteristics, the CD algorithm, which is less likely to miss or falsely identify a conflict, is selected to evaluate the probe for potential conflict. The performance of the ensemble and of individual algorithms is evaluated by comparing the Pareto efficient set of solutions generated by them. The ensemble approach demonstrates a significant reduction in the number of missed detects and false alarms as compared to individual algorithms. The proposed methodology is capable of accommodating existing as well as new CD models and can be extended to other ATM concepts as well.     

丰田与通用:市场领导者Vs可持续发展

当今汽车市场,占全球主流地位成为整车公司孜孜以求的目标.但是.除非哪一家有足够敏捷的身手,来迅速有效地适应市场变化,并能超越法规的樊篱,否则它就不可能成为荣誉的象征而广受尊敬.