Demand for rail travel to and from airports

Rail access to airports is becoming increasingly important for both train operators and the airports themselves. This paper reports analysis of inter-urban rail demand to and from Manchester and Stansted Airports and the sensitivity of this market segment to growth in air traffic and the cost and service quality of rail services. The estimated demand parameters vary in an expected manner between outward and inward air travellers as well as between airport users and general rail travellers. These parameters can be entered into the demand forecasting framework widely used in the rail industry in Great Britain to provide an appropriate means of forecasting for this otherwise neglected market segment. The novel features of this research, at least in the British context, are that it provides the first detailed analysis of aggregate rail flows to and from airports, it has disaggregated the traditional generalised time measure of rail service quality in order to estimate separate elasticities to journey time, service headway and interchange, and it has successfully explored departures from the conventional constant elasticity position.     

Neuro-Fuzzy Control of a Tracked Vehicle Featuring Semi-Active Electro-Rheological Suspension Units

This paper presents vibration control of a tracked vehicle installed with electro-rheological suspension units (ERSU). As a first step, an in-arm type ERSU is designed, and its spring and damping characteristics are evaluated with respect to the intensity of electric fields. Subsequently, a 16 degree-of-freedom model for a tracked vehicle equipped with the proposed ERSU is established followed by the formulation of a neuro-fuzzy controller. This controller takes account for both ride quality and steering stability by adopting a weighting parameter between two performance requirements. The parameter is appropriately determined by employing a fuzzy algorithm associated with two fuzzy variables: the vertical speed of the body and the rotational angular speed of the wheel. Control performances to isolate unwanted vibration from bump and random road excitations are evaluated through computer simulations. In addition, maximum speed of the vehicle with 6 Watt power absorption is investigated with respect to the road roughness.     

Two-Dimensional Motion of Vehicles Damaged due to Collision

This paper deals with two-dimensional motion analysis of vehicles damaged due to collision. Various parts of vehicles are damaged due to collision in general. The effects of the damage in vehicle body and wheels on the vehicle motions are investigated. The center of gravity of the vehicle and the polar moment of inertia are changed by the deformation of vehicle body. Furthermore, the geometrical relations of wheels like wheelbase, treads and steering angles may be changed by damage of the wheels. Thus the vehicle loses symmetry with respect to the vehicle axis. The four-wheel vehicle model is extended to take into account the vehicle damage due to collision. The motions of damaged vehicles are compared with those of undamaged vehicles. It is found that vehicle damages have a significant influence on vehicle motion after impact.     

A conceptual and methdological framework for the generation of activity-travel patterns

This paper develops a conceptual framework for the generation of activity and travel patterns in the context of more general structures and presents an integrated model system as a step toward development of an improved travel demand forecasting model system. We propose a two-stage structure to model activity and travel behavior. The first stage, the stop generation and stop/auto allocation models, consists of the choices for the number of household maintenance stops and the allocation of stops and autos to household members. The second stage, the tour formation model, includes the choices for the number of tours and the assignment of stops to tours for each individual, conditional on the choices in the first stage. Empirical results demonstrate that individual and household socio-demographics are important factors affecting the first stage choices, the generation of maintenance stops and the allocation of stops and autos among household members, and the second stage choices, the number of tours and the assignment of stops to tours. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

REGULATION OF PRODUCTION OF PARATHYROID HORMONE－RELATED PEPTIDE （PTHrP） AND EXPRESSION OF ITS mRNA IN A HUMANLIVER－DERIVED CE

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Time-series model for vehicle speeds

This paper presents a time-series model for the spot speeds of vehicles on a road section. Based on time-series analysis techniques, the model incorporates information on the extent of existing dependency between the speeds of successive vehicles. The model for the data is chosen while relying heavily on the data, and thus emphasis is given to their special characteristics. The advantages of using the model are examined with regard to the relative speed of two successive vehicles along a road section. The results are compared with those obtained by using a model of independent observations; fewer errors are obtained with the time-series model. Therefore, it is concluded that the sequence of speed observations contains valuable information which should be incorporated into speed models.