Transit assignment under crowded conditions

This paper presents a transit assignment algorithm for crowded networks. Both congestion in vehicles and queuing at stations are explicitly taken into account in predicting passenger flows for a fixed pattern of origin-destination trip demands. The overflow effects due to insufficient capacity of transit lines are considered to be concentrated at transit stations, while the in-vehicle congestion effects (or discomforts) are considered to be dependent on in-vehicle passenger volume. Overflow delay at a transit station is dependent on the number of excess passengers required to wait for the next transit car. We use a logit model to determine the split between passengers that chose to wait for the next transit car and passengers that chose to board on the alternative transit lines. The proposed algorithm predicts how passenger will choose their optimal routes under both queuing and crowded conditions.     

Benthic community patterns reflect water column processes in the Northeast Water polynya (Greenland)

Benthic community patterns were investigated in the Northeast Water polynya (Greenland) during the summers of 1992 and 1993 to elucidate to what extent the bottom fauna is influenced by the dynamics of the overlying water. Five different fractions of the benthos (foraminiferans, nematodes, polychaetes, peracarid crustaceans, and epibenthic megafauna), ranging in average adult body size over 6 orders of magnitude (from about 100 μm to about 10 cm), were sampled quantitatively at 69 stations in water depths from 40 to 515 m. Total abundances of nematodes, polychaetes and peracarid crustaceans were found to be primarily correlated with parameters characterizing the potential benthic food supply (water column pigment and nitrate concentrations, sediment bound pigments and sediment biological activity), whereas abundances of foraminiferans and megabenthos were largely associated with seabed properties. Four benthic zones were distinguished by separately analyzing the faunistic composition and distribution of the five community fractions for Ob Bank, Western Westwind Trough, Eastern Westwind Trough, and Belgica Trough. This pattern was shown principally to reflect pelagic regimes differing in surface water hydrography, ice cover and euphotic productivity. This is the first time that a synoptic study of several benthic community portions spanning such a range in sizes and life styles has been performed in a polar shelf ecosystem. Our results indicate that abundances as well as composition of Arctic benthos are largely influenced by mesoscale pelagic processes, and thus provide further evidence for the importance of the benthic-pelagic coupling in high latitude seas.     

安中机械(深圳)物流设备制造公司前行在汽车尾板制造业道路上

在国内尾板制造行业中,安中机械(深圳)物流设备制造公司(以下简称安中机械)称得上是元老级的企业。这个建于1965年的老厂,在2003年进行改制,可渭是“老树换新颜”,这棵经历改制之后的“老树”将如何发展?安中机械(深圳)公司总经理雷养民为记者讲述了该公司的发展足迹。     

A study of passenger discomfort measures at the Hong Kong mass transit railway system

This note investigates the important attributes relating to the crowding effects at the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in Hong Kong. Data was collected at two sets of three MTR stations to study the responses of the passengers due to the discomfort at crowded vehicles and platforms. Stated preference surveys were used to study the effects of passenger discomfort measures.     

浅谈集装箱货物发生残损、短缺的类型与责任归属

集装箱在运输装卸过程中货物时有残损、短缺发生。为了便于现场检验鉴定人员、理货人员、保险理赔人员以及收发货人判明货物的残损、短缺的类型,区分其原因,明确责任归属;同时也便于收发货人或代理人找到责任方,提出索赔、挽回损失,现就集装箱货物的残损、短缺的判别方法、类型、责任归属及其检验鉴定证书的作用作一探讨。     

A traffic flow simulator for short‐term travel time forecasting

This paper presents an off‐line forecasting system for short‐term travel time forecasting. These forecasts are based on the historical traffic count data provided by detectors installed on Annual Traffic Census (ATC) stations in Hong Kong. A traffic flow simulator (TFS) is developed for short‐term travel time forecasting (in terms of offline forecasting), in which the variation of perceived travel time error and the fluctuations of origin‐destination (O‐D) demand are considered explicitly. On the basis of prior O‐D demand and partial updated detector data, the TFS can estimate the link travel times and flows for the whole network together with their variances and covariances. The short‐term travel time forecasting by O‐D pair can also be assessed and the O‐D matrix can be updated simultaneously. The application of the proposed off‐line forecasting system is illustrated by a numerical example in Hong Kong.     

On the Design and Development of a Magneto-Rheological Mount

This paper evaluates the performance of a Magneto-Rheological (MR) mount. The mount incorporates MR fluid in a conventional fluid mount to open and close an inertia track between the fluid chambers of the mount. It is shown that such switching of the inertia track improves the mount's isolation effect by eliminating the large transmissibility peak that commonly exists at frequencies larger than the notch frequency for conventional fluid mounts. The switching frequencies of the MR mount are evaluated based on the parameters of the mount. A simple control scheme for switching the mount between the open and closed states is proposed, and the performance of the controlled mount is compared with conventional mounts. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate the effect of parameter errors in estimating the switching frequencies and mount performance. The results show that the switching frequencies can be accurately determined from mount parameters that are easily measured or estimated.     

Towards improving resilience of cities: an optimisation approach to minimising vulnerability to disruption due to natural disasters under budgetary constraints

Transportation - In recent years, climate change emerged as a dominant concern to many parts of the world bringing in huge economic losses disturbing normal business/life. In particular cities are...     

Integrated approach to an optimal automotive timing chain system design

Ensuring engine efficiency is a crucial issue for automotive manufacturers. Several manufacturers focus on reducing the time taken to develop and introduce brand new vehicles to the market. Thus, a synergic approach including various simulations is generally adopted to achieve a development schedule and to reduce the cost of physical tests. This study involved proposing a design process that is very useful in the preliminary development stage through effective support from simulations. This type of simulation-based design process is effective in developing timing chain drives; the use of this process, based on results from multiple trials, showed improvements in performance including low friction and vibration, improved durability, and cost-effective part design when compared to conventional processes. This study proposes an integrated approach to the preliminary design of an automotive timing chain system. The approach involves structural and dynamic analyses. The details of the design process are described by using the case of a virtual engine. This study conducted and summarized a dynamic and structural analysis as well as topological optimization to describe a process to obtain optimal results. The results of this study indicated the following improvements in overall performance factors: 12.1 % improvement in transmission error, 10.1 % reduction in chain tension, 46 % reduction in tensioner arm weight, and 11 % reduction in transversal displacement.     

Modeling the interactions between car and bicycle in heterogeneous traffic

In this paper, a new cellular automata model is proposed to simulate the car and bicycle heterogeneous traffic on urban road. To capture the complex interactions between these two types of vehicles, a novel occupancy rule is adopted in the proposed model to consider the variable lateral distances of mixed vehicular traffic. Based on massive simulations, microscopic fundamental diagrams under different bicycle densities are devised. With these, the bicycle's spilling behavior is then investigated and discussed. In order to reflect the interference of a bicycle on a car, the interference transformation from friction state to block state is modeled explicitly. Finally, different simulation results under different occupancy rules indicate that the constant and fixed occupancy rule adopted in the previous studies might lead to overestimation of car flux in the heterogeneous traffic flows with different bicycle densities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.