The Demise of a Tropical Coastal Lagoon as Breeding Habitat for Ground-Nesting Waterbirds: Unintended,but Anticipated Consequences of Development

Laguna Cuyutlán (Colima, Mexico), an Important Bird Area, used to provide breeding habitat for ground-nesting waterbirds. During 2014 and 2015, nesting efforts of laughing gull, black skimmer, and royal, gull-billed and Forster's terns failed almost completely due to inundation, while least terns and snowy plovers fared the same during 2014. No anomalies in rainfall, tidal level, or coseismic subsidence explained such failure. Rather, the inundations were due to the enlarging of Canal Tepalcates that connects the lagoon with the sea, which was widened from 100 to 300 m and dredged to 17-m deep. Before this, the hydrodynamics were regulated by evaporation and runoff. Now, increased seawater volumes dominate the basin's hydrodynamics. The failure of Laguna Cuyutlán as a breeding habitat for these birds is an important threat for these species, as this lagoon held one of the < 20 colonies known for several of these species along the western coast of North and Central America. Documenting this demise of Laguna Cuyutlán for ground-nesting waterbirds transcends the regional scale as it emphasizes the little consideration still given to biodiversity vs. economic development, and is a warning for coastal projects in other developing areas of the world.     

The development of safe riding guidelines for young riders – A case study of Phu Yen,Vietnam

Phu Yen is a small province located in the central part of Vietnam and is suffering from a tremendous number of traffic casualties, compared with other cities in Vietnam and developed countries. Young riders take a large proportion, accounting for 47.6% in total traffic crashes. To resolve this issue, the present study aims to (i) analyze young riders' behavior and their attitudes towards traffic safety and to (ii) propose a procedure to develop a book of safe riding guidelines to reduce their involvement in dangerous situations. A set of 73 questions in the questionnaire survey have been conducted to determine the risk-taking behavior and attitude towards traffic safety of 300 individuals, who are using bicycles, e-bikes, mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles less than 150 cc. The statistical results indicate that there are significant differences among riding behavior and attitudes of respondents towards traffic safety regarding the regional factor (rural, suburb, and urban), the demographic factor (gender and age), and the travel distance factor. The guidelines designed based on the questionnaire survey are used to alter adolescents' riding behavior and attitudes and so help them recognize, avoid, and handle risks in demanding traffic situations. An analysis of the before and after the traffic safety training workshop to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed guidelines indicated that there was a significant increment in the perceived risks of young riders after training them by using this book.     

Book review

Onshore Planning for Offshore Oil—Lessons from Scotland by Pamela L. Baldwin and Malcolm F. Baldwin The Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1975     

Out-of-home activities,daily travel,and subjective well-being

It is argued that utility theory that underpins current cost-benefit analyses of daily travel needs to be complemented. An alternative theoretical framework is to this end proposed which applies subjective well-being (SWB) to travel behaviour analysis. It is posited in this theoretical framework that participation in goal-directed activities, facilitated or hindered by travel, contributes to SWB, that the degree of travel-related stress in participating in these activities reduces SWB, and that positive affect associated with travel in itself has an impact on SWB.     

Estimation of the effects of aircraft noise on residential satisfaction

This study assesses the effects of aircraft noise on residential satisfaction, an important indicator of subjective well-being. A structural equation model is specified that estimates the relationships between objective variables, noise annoyance variables and residential satisfaction. Secondary data-analysis is used to estimate the model. The survey was conducted in 1996/1997 among the population living within a 25-km radius of Amsterdam Schiphol, the largest airport in the Netherlands. The effect of aircraft noise annoyance is found to be relatively small. In addition, the objective level of aircraft noise exposure is found to be a better predictor of residential satisfaction than its subjective counterpart. The most important determinants of residential satisfaction are found to be road traffic noise annoyance, age and neighbor noise annoyance.     

Methodology for the accuracy improvement of FEM beam type T-junctions of buses and coaches structures

The analysis of structures with finite elements methods (FEM) represents a widely spread technique. For large tubular structures similar to the buses and coaches upper structures, beam type elements are utilized due to the fact that these elements provide satisfactory results at relatively reduced computational performances. However the beam type elements have a main disadvantage determined by the fact that the modeled joints have an infinite rigid behavior. This shortcoming determines a stiffer behavior of the modeled structures which translates into an error source for the structural simulations (up to 45%). To overcome this problem, a simple methodology was conceived and an alternative optimized equivalent beam model obtained. The methodology studies the behavioral characteristics of beam modeled T-junctions determining their limitations and comparing them to equivalent T-junctions modeled with shell and volume elements. This way an improved Tjunction has been obtained, in which the behavioral error was reduced to less than 5%. Furthermore the FEM obtained results were validated with real T-junctions.     

Flexible long range planning using low cost information

Contemporary transport planning requires a flexible modelling approach which can be used to monitor the implementation of a long term plan checking regularly its short term performance with easily available data; the original model is periodically updated using low cost information and this allows the evaluation of the changes to the plan which may be required. Such an approach requires models suited to regular updating and to the use of data from different sources. Models to update trip matrices from traffic counts have been available for some time; however, the estimation and/or updating of other model stages with low cost data has escaped analytical treatment. The paper discusses this idea and formulates the updating problem for an example involving a joint destination/mode choice model under various assumptions about the nature of the available data. Analytical solutions are proposed as well as some general conclusions.requests for offprints     

Location of bus garages

The location of bus garages is a complex issue that has received recent attention in the literature. Given a bus system, the number of bus garages and their locations depend on garage cost, deadheading cost and environmental impacts. An approximate analytical model is used to determine the number of bus garages that minimizes the above costs. The concept of a slowly varying density of bus-route origins (hence deadheads) per unit area is used to model deadheading costs. The increased deadheading caused by breakdowns and accidents is also considered. The garage cost is modeled as a function of the number of buses stored. A closed-form solution is obtained for the optimal density of garages, when the garage cost function is linear. The actual locations of garages and the allocations of buses to the garages are found using a discrete space location-allocation model formulated so as to consider the environmental impact associated with buses deadheading through populated neighborhoods.     

Calculation of Transient Stress Field During Laser Transformation Hardening Process

IntroductionHighpowerCOzlaserssdsetransformationhardeningtechniquehasbeensuccessfullyusedinindusnyforWYears.BecausethetemPeratUrefleldislocalizedinmaterialdurllglasertransfonnationhMngProcess,highthermstrCsswillgenerateinmatgrialduringlasertfansformationhardeningProcess.Therisalsohighresidualstressinmaterial,bothintCnsionandcomPression['-'].ComPressresidualstressishelptoincreasethefatigueldrimeofthelasertreatedmaterial,butthetensilestresswillshortenthefatiguelifetmeofthelasertreatedmator…