The reconstruction of transportation and environmental infrastructure in rural areas

On March 11, 2011 a massive, magnitude 9.0 earthquake destroyed most of the rural areas along the Pacific Coast of eastern Japan, an area that had been facing issues of depopulation and aging even before the earthquake. In this paper I discuss reconstruction plans for depopulated rural areas from the perspectives of transportation infrastructure, residential areas, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, consensus building, and nature restoration. We must take a “backcasting” approach to sustainable development, one in which planning strategies lead to successful outcomes. An organizational and planning support platform is needed to build a consensus within an area.     

Measuring social effective speed to improve sustainable mobility policies in developing countries

Over the last few decades, many developing countries have experienced car fleet growth, which has contributed to congestion, increased travel times, and deteriorated public transport reliability and punctuality. However, alternatives to urban mobility can be found by creating policies to stimulate sustainable transportation modes with equal opportunities for all citizens. In this paper, measures of social effective speeds are presented to improve sustainable urban mobility policies in developing countries. Data from the 2018 Origin-Destination Survey of the Metropolitan Region of Recife (Brazil) were used to estimate social effective speeds. The results showed that motorized modes had lower effective speed than non-motorized modes. In addition, total external costs were $2 billion USD per year. The social effective speed will be valuable if inserted in sustainable urban mobility policies in developing countries.     

Impact of transition between signal timing plans in social cost based in delay,fuel consumption and air emissions

Significant effects of traffic congestion include the cost associated with extra travel time, fuel consumption, and gas emissions. This paper develops a mathematical function to quantify the monetary impact of transition designs between signal timing plans on users and the environment. This function offers an approach to reduce problems such as excessive travel time, pollution emissions and fuel consumption. The proposed social cost function is evaluated for various transition plans to assess the impact of the number of steps required to adjust signal timing. The relationships between delay, fuel consumption and gas emissions and the number of steps needed to achieve the transition are also analysed.     

An empirical investigation into the time-use and activity patterns of dual-earner couples with and without young children

This paper examines the time-use patterns of adults in dual-earner households with and without children as a function of several individual and household socio-demographics and employment characteristics. A disaggregate activity purpose classification including both in-home and out-of-home activity pursuits is used because of the travel demand relevance of out-of-home pursuits, as well as to examine both mobility-related and general time-use related social exclusion and time poverty issues. The study uses the Nested Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value (MDCNEV) model, which recognizes that time-decisions entail the choice of participating in one or more activity purposes along with the amount of time to invest in each chosen activity purpose, and allows generic correlation structures to account for common unobserved factors that might impact the choice of multiple alternatives. The 2010 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data is used for the empirical analysis. A major finding of the study is that the presence of a child in dual-earner households not only leads to a reduction in in-home non-work activity participation (excluding child care activities) but also a substantially larger decrease in out-of-home non-work activity participation (excluding child care and shopping activities), suggesting a higher level of mobility-related social exclusion relative to overall time-use social exclusion. To summarize, the results in the paper underscore the importance of considering household structure in activity-based travel demand models, as well as re-designing work policies in the United States to facilitate a reduction in work-family conflict in dual-earner families.     

Analysis of the economic and social parameters of the Three-Wheeler Taxi service in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has an extensive Three-Wheeler Taxi service comprised of around 300,000 vehicles. These vehicles, which first made an entry to Sri Lanka’s roads in the early 1980s, account for around 15% of the active motor vehicle fleet at present. Three-Wheelers Taxis also account for around 6% of the passenger kilometres. These vehicles are mostly individually operated with some owned by the operator and others hired on a monthly or daily basis. The industry is unregulated with vehicle registration and driving licenses being the only instruments of regulation. Fares are unregulated. However, most operators belong to associations which are loose collections of operators found in a given locality. These associations impose a degree of self regulation with respect to fares. They also tend to demonstrate oligapolistic behaviour.The paper is based on a survey of 200 operators and 100 passengers from a Divisional Secretariat area in Colombo District. The survey covered a number of details pertaining to ownership, management and fare structures, as well as opinions on the service attributes by users. The survey also covered perceptions of operators to determine the social, economic and transport implications of the services provided. Details were also obtained on the profiles of the operators and their expectations.The paper provides the results of the analysis of this data and draws a number of conclusions on the economics of the industry as well as the social aspects associated with it. It also discusses the characteristics of the users of these three wheelers as well as their typical use. The analysis also investigates complementarily of service provision between three wheelers as an access mode to buses and railways. This analysis has been used to develop an understanding of the manner in which the industry has grown over the last two decades and how it is being operated today. It also identifies areas wherein the industry has become inefficient and assesses the degree of over pricing that exists due to this. The data also helps to determine the relationship between unemployment and provision of self-employed transport services.The paper concludes with a synopsis of the profile of the industry and its role within the wider transport sector and with respect to ownership. It also discusses the positive and negative impacts of the lack of regulation on the industry.     

浅析泡沫沥青冷再生技术

文章结合324国道百色一平班公路大修工程实例,介绍了泡沫沥青冷再生技术的原理、设计方法和施工工艺,并通过和传统大修方案的比较,分析了泡沫沥青冷再生技术在社会经济效益方面的优越性。     

丰田＂召回事件＂对汽车零部件企业的警示

丰田“召回事件”向国内汽车零部件企业敲响了警钟。国内汽车零部件企业应当从丰田“召回事件”中吸取教训。要做大应先做强,打牢做大的基础;要正确处理好速度与质量的关系,任何时候都必须坚持“质量就是生命”的信念和追求;为消费者和社会提供优质的产品,既是企业应尽的义务,也是企业应该担负的社会责任,更是企业可持续发展,在市场竞争中“永葆青春”的法宝;在“走出去”的过程中,要加强“风险防范”,千万不能低估了跨国经营的法规制度的风险防范。     

高职院校面向新农村建设开展社会服务的探讨

开展返乡农民工职业技能培训是历史赋予高职院校的使命和机遇,也是高职院校最鲜明的办学特色和开展社会服务的重要途径。     

社会工作在思政课实践教学中的应用探析

文章分析了社会工作在思政课教学实践中运用的重要作用,提出在思政课实践教学中,引入社会工作中的"助人自助"、"平等和尊重"理念以及"服务"的理念,借鉴社会工作中的个案工作法、团体工作法和社区工作法,以期建立以学生为本的教学观,开创思政课改革的新局面。     

社会体育专业管理类课程实践教学模式研究

本文根据社会体育专业培养目标,以《健身俱乐部经营与管理》课程为例,分析指出现阶段社会体育专业在实践教学中存在的问题,探索研究在体育专业领域培养经营管理人才的实践教学模式,为体育专业培养经营管理人才实践教学改革提供了理论基础。