The transportation systems of Buenos Aires, Chicago and São Paulo: City centers, infrastructure and policy analysis

We compare the passenger transportation systems of Buenos Aires, Chicago and São Paulo. The selected cities represent distinctive combinations of land-use, infrastructure, and evolution of transport policy. Analysis is centered on accessibility to downtown areas, where transportation processes converge in an environment where space is scarce. In two of the three cities institutional arrays that legally establish unified decision making have shown little capacity to launch fare or physical coordination between modes. In two of the three cities the concentration of public transportation supply to historical downtowns has not been an attraction factor, and downtown uses have expanded to less accessible areas. Gentrification in Chicago is also another process showing that land use changes are related to many factors, transportation being only one of them, and not always a necessary one. In all three cases the use of railways, as a set of inherited infrastructures, has seen an increase whose magnitude suggests a link to modal reassignment due to increasing congestion. Scarcity of space in old downtown areas is being counteracted through more intense use, or through the expansion of vertical space for transportation operations.     

Adaptability and vulnerability of zooplankton species in the adjacent regions of the Black and Marmara Seas

During 2005–2008 species composition, abundance patterns, natural mortality rates and salinity effects on zooplankton were studied in the Bosphorus regions of the Black and Marmara Seas. The tendencies to diminish for abundance and biomass of the Black Sea originated zooplankton species and to increase for the proportion of their carcasses in the direction from the Black Sea toward the Marmara Sea were found. The mortality in the Black Sea species increased with depth in the Marmara Sea. The contribution of organic matter of carcasses of the Black Sea originated organisms to bacterial processes in the deep strata of the Marmara Sea was estimated. Different salinity and temperature regimes restrict mutual penetration of the species in these seas.     

浅谈如何根据驾校学员心理特征因材施教

多年从事汽车驾驶教员工作 ,针对数学中出现的各种问题 ,经过多年的潜心研究 ,终于得出了一些独特见解 ,即必须根据学员的心理特征因材施教、因人施教 ,才能提高教学质量 ,完成好汽车驾驶教员工作。     

Local shopping as a strategy for reducing automobile travel

Transportation - Suburban development in the US is widely criticized for its contribution to automobile dependence and its consequences. Not surprisingly, then, a return to more urban-style...     

用于低压和高压器件的IGBT的额定过载特性

具有薄n基区和低掺杂场截止层新结构的非穿通绝缘栅双极型晶体管NPT IGBT明显降低了总损耗.特别是场截止概念与挖槽晶体管单元的结合能产生通态电压最小、开关损耗最低、载流子浓度近乎理想的器件.这种概念在600V～6.5 kV以上的IGBT和二极管中得到了发展.当折衷性能和总耐量与电压和电流额定值无关时,低压器件的开关特性与高压晶体管(VBr＞2 kV)的处理方法不同.采用HE-EMCON二极管和高达1 700 V的新型场截止NPT IGBT,几乎不受开关性能的限制,不过,需考虑的是外部栅极电阻必须取确定值.相比低压晶体管,高压器件的电流密度较低,因而高压二极管和IGBT中的"动态"电场强度更临界.     

An idealized model of interaction between fronds of the large seaweed Durvillaea antarctica

The effect of interactions between individual fronds in a bed of the large intertidal seaweed Durvillaea antarctica, when forced by breaking waves, is studied using a computational model. The model simulates the response of a seaweed bed using a sequence of connected oscillators which are excited by a propagating forcing function representing a breaking ocean wave. Two new facets of the interplay between seaweeds and hydrodynamics are considered: (i) wave forcing due to breaking waves is often not sinusoidal in the rocky intertidal zone and (ii) a frond interaction term is included. The addition of frond interaction reduces the maximum loading on individuals within the bed by around 30% using estimated biomechanical parameters. The rate of change of the loading on the holdfast (equivalent to the “jerk”) is affected in a similar or greater fashion.     

Public private partnerships in transportation: Some insights from the European experience

Most EU member states and the European Commission regard the PPP as an important tool to attract additional financial resources for high priority investments such as transport. The objective of this paper is to delineate the EU panorama of PPP markets and investigate the impacts of EU institutions in the development and success of this type of financial arrangement for the transport sector in Europe. We examine how the scope of the PPP in Europe is based on the flexibility and adaptability of the contract to the features of the project and to the economic and institutional environment. These issues are illustrated through a number of examples in the transport sector. We conclude by observing that the market for PPPs, although still fragmented nationally, is developing a European dimension and attracting resources from a variety of players.     

Establishment of Model for Tire Steady State Cornering Properties using Experimental Modal Parameters

Modeling of tire cornering properties using experimental modal parameters is studied. With tire lateral experimental modal parameters, the distribution of side force and lateral deformation under total adhesive and sliding conditions are obtained. Side force, self-aligning, cornering stiffness and relaxation length under different loads and friction coefficients are also calculated. The calculated results are in correspondence to experimental results in the references qualitatively. The non-dimensional side force obtained from the calculated results is compared with the Fiala model, its modified expression by experiments and also the widely used empirical Magic Formula model. The calculated results tally well with the fitted results obtained using Magic Formula model. It can be seen that the tire steady state cornering model using experimental modal parameters proposed in this paper is better for an in-depth study of tire natural characteristics, and the labored experimental work can be avoided.     

Dynamic system-optimal traffic assignment using a state space model

We propose a new mathematical formulation for the problem of optimal traffic assignment in dynamic networks with multiple origins and destinations. This problem is motivated by route guidance issues that arise in an Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) environment. We assume that the network is subject to known time-varying demands for travel between its origins and destinations during a given time horizon. The objective is to assign the vehicles to links over time so as to minimize the total travel time experienced by all the vehicles using the network. We model the traffic network over the time horizon as a discrete-time dynamical system. The system state at each time instant is defined in a way that, without loss of optimality, avoids complete microscopic detail by grouping vehicles into platoons irrespective of origin node and time of entry to network. Moreover, the formulation contains no explicit path enumeration. The state transition function can model link travel times by either impedance functions, link outflow functions, or by a combination of both. Two versions (with different boundary conditions) of the problem of optimal traffic assignment are studied in the context of this model. These optimization problems are optimal control problems for nonlinear discrete-time dynamical systems, and thus they are amenable to algorithmic solutions based on dynamic programming. The computational challenges associated with the exact solution of these problems are discussed and some heuristics are proposed.