Short trips: An opportunity for reducing mobile-source emissions?

This paper examines how conversion of automobile trips of less than 3 miles to other transportation modes reduces emissions. Short trips contribute disproportionately to emissions because of cold starts. An analysis is conducted of short-trip behavior across the US using the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey. The data is used to develop likely scenarios of mode conversions for short trips, which are then applied to estimate emission savings using MOBILE6 cold start and running emission factors for volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The results suggest that reducing short auto trips would modestly reduce mobile source air pollution, but emission reductions are high compared to most federally-funded surface transportation interventions aimed at improving air quality. Enhanced the community pedestrian environment to encourage short trip mode conversion also produces co-benefits such as increased physical activity and subsequent reductions in chronic diseases.     

湿法磁粉探伤在凸轮轴探伤中的应用

对磁粉干法、湿法探伤的优缺点进行论证后,对凸轮轴探伤采用湿法的可行性进行了分析,并介绍了湿法探伤的工艺。     

A comparative analysis of the European and North-American approaches to dealing with major oil spills

Background  

The question of what should be the right level of preparedness to react to a major oil spill (i.e. the EXXON VALDEZ spill, the ERIKA spill, and the PRESTIGE spill) is highly debated, especially in the aftermath of such spills. Little research, however, has been conducted with the aim to identify and compare governments’ best practices not only to fund preparedness measures but also to assess the countries’ ability to respond effectively to catastrophic oil spills. It is the author’s belief that important lessons can be learnt from a comparative analysis of countries’ best practices.     

1 000TEU江海直达顶推船型及经济分析

提出一种可用于江海直达或近海运输1 000TEU集装箱的组合顶推驳船设计方案,该船典型形式为一艘驳船和一艘机动顶推轮采用FastJoint装置联接而成,两条船统一的线型使该船具有接近自航船的航速,可完成较大的年运量.以洋山深水港集装箱集疏运典型航线为例,将该船和自航船进行技术经济比较分析,该船具有建造成本低、装卸时间效率高、人工费用节省等方面优势,可广泛用于近海及江海直达运输.     

Numerical analysis of crack under compression by 3D displacement discontinuity method

A 3D displacement discontinuity method is applied to solve the fracture mechanics problems of the mixed mode crack under compression. Friction between the surface of the closed crack is considered by establishing a simple and efficient iterative algorithm based on method of contact resistance mitigation. On the surfaces of the closed crack, the Mohr-coulomb rule is satisfied by iteration when the crack is in condition of sliding. The stress intensity factors are obtained using displacement fitting method. It is shown that the numerical results agree with the experimental results well and that friction plays an important role in resisting crack propagation.     

Experimental study on the liquid slug of cryogenic slug flow in inclined tubes

An experimental study was carried out to understand the phenomena of the boiling flow of liquid nitrogen in inclined tubes with closed bottom by using a high speed motion analyzer.The experimental tubes are 0.018 and 0.014 m inner diameter(ID) and 1.0 m in length.The range of the inclination angle is 45°-90° from the horizontal.The experimental observation on the liquid slug was carried out along the tubes.Statistical method was employed to analyze the experimental data.The experiment analyzed the influences of the inclination angle and the tube diameter on the liquid slug length and velocity.The results show the liquid slug propagation velocity increases with the decrease of inclination angle θ.For all cases,the maximum values of the mean liquid slug lengths were obtained at θ = 60°.The mean liquid slug lengths were greater for large tube at higher tube position.These conclusions provide a basis for further study liquid slug of cryogenic two-phase undeveloped slug flow.     

Threshold controlled scheme of difference expansion techniques for reversible watermarking

Since Tian Jun proposed the difference expansion embedding technique, based on which, many reversible watermarking techniques were proposed. However, these methods do not perform well when the payload is high. In this paper, we proposed an expandable difference threshold controlled scheme for these three methods. Experiments show that our scheme improves the performance of these three methods for heavy payload.     

钢渣在加固公路路基中的应用

通过对河北省唐山市省道S262线路基处理的试验分析,认为钢渣加固路基在技术上是可行的。具有就地取材,工艺简单、施工方便、工期短、造价低、环保、节约土地等优点。     

Why are work travel plans effective? Comparing conclusions from narrative and meta-analytical research synthesis

Reliable research synthesis is of high significance for a transport policy which tries to base its decisions on available empirical evidence. There is growing doubt whether the frequently used narrative approach provides a scientifically defensible way of synthesising a body of quantitative research results. The present paper demonstrates meta-analysis as a more objective and powerful alternative for this task. For this purpose evaluation data synthesised in two earlier narrative reviews on the effectiveness of work travel plans [Cairns et al. Making travel plans work: research report (former), Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), London, 2002; Smarter choices—changing the way we travel. (Final report of the research project: The influence of soft factor interventions on travel demand. Research report for the Department for Transport.) London. Retrieved 1 December 2005, from , 2004] are meta-analytically re-analysed and compared with the conclusions drawn from the narrative synthesis of these data. Our meta-analyis provides only limited support for the conclusion that addressing parking is the hallmark of successful work travel plans. Our meta-analysis indicates that site and organisational factors as well as characteristics of the monitoring process are significant predictors of effective work travel plans, whereas Cairns et al. view little evidence for the impact of these factors.     

Guidelines for samplers: measuring a change in behaviour from before and after surveys

This paper addresses the issue of using before and after surveys to evaluate behavioural changes in response to transport policies and investments, a procedure that, we argue is done far too rarely in this profession. Further, it demonstrates very clearly that, in almost all conceivable cases, there are considerable economies to be obtained by using a panel (again, under-utilised in our profession) to undertake evaluation, rather than successive independent cross-sectional surveys. The paper also addresses the critical issue of sample size requirements for measuring changes of a relatively small magnitude in travel behaviour; i.e., to state, with 95% confidence, that if there is a ∂ percent change in behaviour for the sample, there is a ∂ percent ± e percent change in the behaviour of the population, where e is the sampling error. In this paper, we present a method for calculating such sample size requirements from first principles and demonstrate the applicability both hypothetically and then empirically using data from the Puget Sound Transportation Panel. The formulation enables designers of before and after surveys to investigate the trade-offs between the statistical accuracy of their predictions and the sample size requirements systematically, without the need to specify ∂ a priori. This latter point is crucial, we argue, because we have limited information on ∂, yet, as we explain here, it drives the sample size requirements using alternative, well-cited approaches for calculating sample sizes to assess behavioural change. The results have important ramifications both for those implementing transport policies intended to produce behavioural change, especially when a cost-benefit evaluation of the policy is desired, and for those interpreting the results reported in previous studies.