美国铁路客车的发展动向与水平

文章阐述了美国地铁、高速列车等轨道车辆的发展水平、动态,以及铁道车辆市场现状。介绍了美国针对铁路事故而开展提高车辆强度、抗碰撞能力的研究及取得的成果。     

铸造复合化技术与铸铁接合技术的动向

介绍了铸造复合化技术的发展新动向,着重阐述了压力浇注法、离心铸造法等新技术、新工艺;同时还叙述了铸铁接合技术的新进展;指出铸造复合化技术将对多功能铸件和复合化铸件的推广应用作出贡献。     

A mechanism to enhance bicycle conspicuity and visibility and increase detection distances: New insights into bicycle safety

Poor sensory conspicuity and poor visibility of bicycles are key factors that correlate strongly with bicycle-vehicle accidents. Although researchers have explored how to improve detection distances, i.e., the distances from which bicycles can be recognized by other road users, there is a dearth of research on ways to signal bicyclists' presence on the road. This study investigates how to enhance, at minimum cost, the level of visibility and sensory conspicuity of bicycles; it also considers ways to signal their presence to other road users, without necessitating any active behavior by bicyclists themselves. In the first study, the level of visibility of 6 rear-end components of bicycles was analyzed according to Adrian's model; the sensory conspicuity of these same components was analyzed via respondent perceptions in conditions of sunlight, twilight with no car headlights, twilight with car headlights, and night with car headlights. The level of visibility and sensory conspicuity of the 6 rear-end components were compared with considering angular size of the components under 4 lighting conditions. The level of visibility of the rear fender was good under sunlight and night-time conditions; in other conditions, the level of visibility was directly affected by painting the fender a silver color with reflectivity and also by the fender's angular size. However, the rear tire, among the 6 components tested, had a higher visible area when used with a short fender; it also produced rotational effects during riding conditions with no extra effort by the cyclists. In the second study, adhesive tape with specific patterns and 6 different color combinations were applied to the rear tire of a bicycle under the same lighting conditions, with the aim of creating a strong signal of the bicycle's presence for other road users. Among the 6 combinations, white stripes overlaid on the color red provide an optimal combination in terms of detection distance. The mean detection distance of white stripes on red in sunlight was 138.67 m, 94.67 m in twilight without car headlights, 94 m in twilight with car headlights, and 53.67 m at night with car headlights. In addition, this combination strongly signals the presence of the bicycle to other road users with no extra effort by the cyclists, thereby reducing the likelihood of drivers looking but failing to see bicycles. In sum, the study recommends that bicyclists install white stripes overlaid on red, in order to increase visibility and conspicuity and signal the presence of their bicycles, thereby reducing the likelihood of cyclist-vehicle collisions.     

Course Tracking Control Algorithm Using Visual Information

Automatic steering control algorithm has been proposed, which uses the motion of objects in a visual image (Optical Flow) obtained from an ITV camera looking ahead in the situation without forward vehicles. This algorithm is improved to be applicable to the situation in which the forward tracking course is invisible owing to the interfarence of the forward vehicles. The adjustment of the control parameters against the change in vehicle speed is confirmed by the computer simulation experiments.     

东日本铁路公司车辆保养检修的现状与课题

JR东日本公司为应对市场、经营理念的巨变，重新评价了传统车辆维修体系，提出了三大新概念，以推进铁道车辆维修的现代化进程。文章简要介绍了车辆维修现代化计划的概况以及围绕车辆维修三大概念开展的工作；重点阐述了新保养体系的实质及待解决的课题。     

国内外内燃机车、电力机车技术水平现状与差距(一)

为了实现铁路的跨越式发展,对于了解国内外铁路机车的技术水平现状与差距,是十分必要的。文章阐述了国内外内燃机车、电力机车的技术水平现状,以及与国外先进水平对比所存在的差距。     

Recognising customers' patterns of bus service patronage using a loyalty framework

With the aim of identifying typical characteristics of travellers, traditional segmentation approaches were based on socio-demographic variables. However, the approaches could not reveal the factors motivating individual behaviour. This result led to an emerging interest in psychological research models that are adhered to the decision-making process. Among various related theories, the concept of loyalty was attractive because the major purpose of establishing a loyalty concept is to recognise a customer's pattern towards a given service. However, there were few efforts aimed at determining market segments based on a loyalty framework. In addition, there was no consensus achieved on theoretical loyalty typology due to different empirical findings in different market contexts. This study aims to be the first loyalty-based attempt to provide an operational method of segmenting bus service market. Seeking practical implementation, another focus of this study is to determine typical characteristics of the market segments. Analyses that included cluster techniques were conducted on questionnaire data collected from 333 respondents in Hidaka city, Japan. A cross-classification between relative attitude and service patronage was successfully established, dividing the market into four segments. Segments of loyalty and no-loyalty were observed to be dominant over the remaining market. In contrast, the spurious loyalty segment was small and insignificant. An expansion of the latent loyalty segment was also observed when moving from the intention phase to the actual behaviour phase. Notably, not only demographic factors but also social awareness variables including environmental concern and elderly support were observed to be significant in distinguishing customer segments from one another.     

基于物联网体系的智能船舶设计探讨

物联网已成为当今世界新一轮经济和科技发展的战略性新兴产业,对船舶建造业的发展必将产生深远的影响。文章介绍了物联网基本概念及体系结构,将物联网技术和智能空间相结合,构建了集信息化、智能化、理解和决策控制为一体的"智能船舶空间",探讨了基于层次结构的船舶物联网系统设计,并分析了各层的功能、设备配置和技术要求。最后,设计实现了智能船舶的网络模型。     

基于总布置图的船舶三维模型重建研究

为了高效完成各类船舶辅助设计,需要快速完成船舶三维建模工作,文章对船舶总布置图的DXF格式文件进行了数据分析,并利用VC++6.0平台对DXF格式文件内的数据进行提取,在将所提取的二维数据扩充为三维数据后,用OpenGL三维工具包建立了船舶的三维模型。该方法实现了直接将船舶二维图纸转换为三维仿真模型的工作,为提高船舶各类辅助设计工作效率提供了动力。     

Clarifying multiple-mode decision making in conventional psychological models: A consideration of the influential mechanism of car use's characteristics on the behavioral use of public transportation

The existence of the multiple-mode decision making process challenges the existing psychological theories those predict travel behaviors because the theories were mainly to explain the relationship between travelers' perceived attributes of a targeted mode, not to make choices between modes. A review of related literatures showed a lack of focus on the mechanism of one mode influencing other mode in psychological models. The present study investigates how car-related factors affect the establishment of bus use intention in a psychological investigation. It is hypothesized that single car use factors do not directly influence bus use intention, rather than that; they indirectly influence bus use intention through an overall factor of car use. Results from a dataset of 270 samples investigating three types of daily trips in the Japanese context showed support to the mediating effect of the overall car use factor. As such, an arbitrary inclusion of car-related factors to psychological models of public transportation may not be recommended.