The relationship among highway geometrics,traffic-related elements and motor-vehicle accident frequencies

This research provides a demonstration of a statistical model of accident frequency that can eventually be used as part of a proactive program to allocate safety-related highway improvement funds. Negative binomial regressions of annual accident frequency on sections of principal arterials in Washington State were estimated using data from two years (1992 and 1993). In all, 31306 observations were used in model estimation (annual accident frequencies on specific sections of highway). Our estimation results isolated the effects of various highway geometric and traffic characteristics on annual accident frequency. Subsequent elasticity computations identified the relative importance of the variables included in our specifications. The findings show that the negative binomial regression used in this paper is a powerful predictive tool and one that should be increasingly applied in future accident frequency studies.     

Analysis of a new composite material for watercraft manufacturing

In this paper, we investigate the properties of an alternative material for use in marine engineering, namely a rigid and light sandwich-structured composite made of expanded polystyrene and fiberglass. Not only does this material have an improved section modulus, but it is also inexpensive, light, easy to manipulate, and commercially available in various sizes. Using a computer program based on the finite element method, we calculated the hogging and sagging stresses and strains acting on a prismatic boat model composed of this material, and determined the minimum sizes and maximum permissible stresses to avoid deformation. Finally, we calculated the structural weight of the resulting vessel for comparison with another structure of comparable dimensions constructed from the commonly used core material Divinycell.     

FUZZY REQUIREMENT BASED STRATEGY OF QoS SERVICE FOR BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS

IntroductionThere are many strategies for Qo S service inbroadband telecommunication networks[1] . Withthe fast evolution of chip and software techniques,the telecommunication networks are running withmore and more throughputcapabilities and self- ad-ministration capabilities.On the other hand,theapplication of methodologies based on concepts ofartificial intelligence in the telecommunication fieldis being more and more frequently used[2 ] .Thispaper gives a new strategy to evaluate the Qo S…