Contracting in highway maintenance and rehabilitation: Are spatial effects important?

Highway agencies around the world strive to improve practices for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, using project delivery policies that range from total ‘in-house’ responsibility to complete privatization, with a number of flexible contracting policies such as performance-based contracting, variants of design-build-maintain, and lane rentals among others between these two extremes. In this paper, we present a methodology that duly accounts for underlying spatial effects and estimates the expected cost savings of innovative contracting policies for highway maintenance and rehabilitation relative to in-house execution of these activities. Spatial econometric modeling is used to analyze highway contract data from 49 countries. We also investigate the marginal effects of key explanatory variables on contract cost savings using spatial multipliers. Our findings show that there are significant relationships between cost savings and contract characteristics, and that there is an apparent direct relationship between the average cost savings of contracts in a country and contract average cost savings and contract sizes in neighboring countries.     

Sediment geochemistry and mineralogy in Milos bay, SW Kyklades, Aegean Sea, Greece

This work aims at studying the geochemistry and mineralogy of Milos bay surface sediments. The bay forms an enclosed marine area, supplied totally by volcanic formations. Totally 16 samples were subjected to sedimentological (grain size), mineralogical (microscope examination and X-ray diffraction of the bulk sample and the pelitic fraction), and geochemical analyses (X-ray fluorescence in the pelitic fraction). Also the carbonate content was determined. Sediments were sandy with a high carbonate content (14–58%). The dominant minerals recognized in the pelitic fraction were smectite, kaolinite and illite, followed by chlorite, quartz, calcite, Mg-calcite and feldspars. In general, element concentrations appeared to be within the normal range, except Pb and Zn, which exhibited relatively high values. The Index of Geoaccumulation I_geo was computed, in order to investigate a possible enrichment of the surface sediments in metals. The analysis revealed again high values of I_geo class for both Pb and Zn. A careful study of the area, in relation to the quality of the catchment basins petrology, lead to a non-anthropogenic origin of these high concentrations. The enrichment of the surface sediments in Pb and Zn is attributed to the weathering of several mineral deposits, pyroclastic rocks and lavas, covering almost all Milos vicinity. A study of the geochemical data correlation coefficient matrix revealed three major groups of elements: (i) the elements of detrital origin represented by Si, Al, K and a part of the metals; (ii) the carbonates group; and (iii) a Fe–Mn oxyhydroxides–oxides group, which attracts a part of Pb, Cr and Ni.     

城市轨道智能交通系统研究与体系结构设计

依据ITS理论与系统工程思想,在分析城市轨道交通特点的基础上,提出城市轨道智能交通系统(UMITS)的概念,并对UMITS的基本构成进行了论述.对UMITS体系中综合监控系统(ISCS)的功能与结构进行了论述,对旅客向导系统(PIS)的服务内容与功能重新进行了定义.     

LC/CL/LCL滤波的电压源和电流源逆变器多环控制策略分析

多环控制策略已被广泛应用于电压源和电流源的逆变器控制中,包括UPS和分布式发电.但是,对于特殊的应用,这些控制策略将被发展和评价,并作为独立的新发展.通过几个常见的系统,文章分析了用不同反馈变量的不同多环控制方法,强调了其相似性,证明了通用的优化变量选择法可用于大部分多环控制逆变系统.通过Matlab仿真和实验室的试验,不同逆变系统的时域波形图十分相似,验证了文中提出的优化变量选择方法的可行性.     

Effect of advanced traveler information systems and road pricing in a network with non-recurrent congestion

The effect of the application of advanced transport information system (ATIS) and road pricing is studied in a transportation system under non-recurrent congestion. A stochastic network deterministic user equilibrium model (SNDUE) with elastic demand is formulated and used to evaluate the welfare and private impacts of different market penetrations of ATIS, together with road pricing for a simple network. Both marginal first-best road pricing and a second-best fixed road pricing are considered. The incentives of private users to use ATIS are analyzed and the characteristics of optimum tolls as a function of ATIS market penetration are shown. We conclude that ATIS is an efficient and necessary tool to reduce the effects of non-recurrent incidents in a transportation network, especially when non-recurrent congestion causes a significant deterioration of operational conditions of the network. If the impact of non-recurrent incidents on free flow costs is small or is reduced only to congestion effects, the use of road pricing would be more efficient. Social benefits obtained when jointly implementing ATIS and road pricing are practically the same whether first-best or second-best road pricing is used. Considering the private costs perceived by the network users, and the benefits experienced by equipped users, the maximum level of market penetration achieved could be limited because private benefits disappear after certain market penetration is obtained.     

线路定测曲线调整的方法及其应用

公路或铁路路基填筑完后 ,因前期施工过程中导线不通视及施工误差等多种原因 ,会出现直线与曲线不能闭合的情况。分析铁路定测时线路平移原理 ,导出了计算式 ,并应用于新长铁路江阴区段站的牵出线曲线调整和站线曲线调整     

Improvement of drivability and fuel economy with a hybrid antiskid braking system in hybrid electric vehicles

When braking on wet roads, Antilock Braking System (ABS) control can be triggered because the available brake torque is not sufficient. When the ABS system is active, for a hybrid electric vehicle, the regenerative brake is switched off to safeguard the normal ABS function. When the ABS control is terminated, it would be favorable to reactivate the regenerative brake. However, recurring cycles from ABS to motor regenerative braking could occur. This condition is felt to be unpleasant by the driver and has adverse effects on driving stability. In this paper, a novel hybrid antiskid braking system using fuzzy logic is proposed for a hybrid electric vehicle that has a regenerative braking system operatively connected to an electric traction motor and a separate hydraulic braking system. This control strategy and the method for coordination between regenerative and hydraulic braking are developed. The motor regenerative braking controller is designed. Control of regenerative and hydraulic braking force distribution is investigated. The simulation and experimental results show that vehicle braking performance and fuel economy can be improved and the proposed control strategy and method are effective and robust.     

Eigensystem of Tangential Contact in Tyre Models

Summary In this paper, a simplified model of tangential contact between tyre and rigid surface is investigated. By linearization the eigensystem of the contact equations is obtained and parameter variations are carried out. It is shown, that some vehicle model parameters have great influence on the eigensystem of tangential contact and can determine the highest eigenfrequency of the system vehicle and tyre. Root loci are used to investigate the influence of parameters like vehicle velocity and gridwidth of the discretization. Based on the eigensystem, stability areas of numerical methods in solving the partial differential equations of tangential contact are calculated. Numerical solutions using stiff and nonstiff integrators are compared with respect to the stability areas, computational effort and accuracy. The results are discussed with a view to further development.     

评《东南亚港埠与政体之兴衰》

<正>本书收录的12篇论文,系20世纪80年代初由东南亚英国学院资助召开的两次学术研讨会的研究成果,令人耳目一新。这些文章对东南亚部分重要地区从古代至19世纪末的贸易与政体之间的相互关系进行了选择性的探讨。不过,书中绝大部分的论文讨论的是1400年之后的情况,当时,贸易的迅速增长限制了该地区传统权力的变动。书中仅有一篇有关阿瑜陀耶(Ayutthaya)的文章考察了东南亚大陆的非马来地区。