A GIS‐based traffic analysis zone design: implementation and evaluation

The purpose of this paper is to implement an efficient method for GIS‐based traffic analysis zone (TAZ) design in order to evaluate and validate such a method. The method was developed by the authors.

Moran's I spatial autocorrelation coefficient and sample variance are used for evaluating the generated TAZs using the Champaign‐Urbana, IL region as a case study. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted to explore the fluctuations in TAZ generation outcomes. The evaluation, the validation as well as the TAZ design have been implemented with ARC/INFO GIS software on a UNIX workstation platform.     

Traffic control oriented impact on the persistence of urban air pollutants: A causeway bay revelation during emergency period

The continuous traffic flow is always considered to take a great extent responsibility for the air quality deterioration in urban areas. Meanwhile, traffic control is assumed to be one of the most effective ways to mitigate the high concentration situation as this may cut off the emission directly and satisfy the air quality objectives. Unfortunately, the overdevelopment of central business district area in megacities not only complicates the control plan, but also troubles the process of plan assessment. Because of the road blockages caused by the radical behavior during the Hong Kong protest in 2014, it offers an unexpected chance to evaluate the influence of traffic control oriented plan on urban (i.e., Causeway Bay) air pollution. Hence, we here investigated the six air pollutants concentrations that measured in the time series before, during and after the Hong Kong Protest period. The impact of traffic flow restriction on pollutants’ persistence has been quantified both qualitatively and quantitatively in this study. The results showed that the persistence of pollutants was a general property in Causeway Bay which dominated by the traffic flow pattern. The road blockages, considered as one kind of extreme traffic control plan, would strengthen the persistence of most pollutants (except ozone). Moreover, it also indicated that comprehensive consideration and further balance among different pollutants were necessary when try to reduce pollution in urban area by traffic control.     

On the use of the autocorrelation function to identify the damage in the side shell of a ship''s hull

When structural damage occurs, the dynamic characteristics of the structure changes correspondingly. This can be used to detect damage occurrence. In this paper, an autocorrelation function was utilized to identify damage in the side shell of ship structures using a combination of experimental and numerical studies. A stiffened plate was used to model the side shell of a ship structure. The damage was simulated by a cut in the longitudinal near the transverse member. The cut was made using a hacksaw. An experimental study using modal testing methods was carried out to measure the random response time history of the undamaged and damaged stiffened plate model. The random response time history was used to obtain its autocorrelation function and its random decrement signature. The autocorrelation function was then compared with the random decrement signature. Finite element models were developed for the stiffened plate, in the undamaged and damaged conditions. The random responses of the model were used to obtain the autocorrelation functions. The autocorrelation functions obtained numerically were compared to the ones obtained experimentally. The results indicate that the autocorrelation functions can be used to identify the occurrence of damage in the stiffened plate model.     

舰船运动的一种改进经典谱估计方法

通过对经典谱估计各种方法的性能分析与比较,并结合实际加以改进,进而提出了针对舰船运动的切实可行的谱估计方法,通过仿真,获得了比较令人满意的结果。此方法在提高舰船运动建模及预报的精度等方面,具有一定的实用价值。     

DRAG-ALZ-1, a first model of monthly total road demand,accident frequency,severity and victims by category,and of mean speed on highways,Algeria 1970–2007

We construct a first country-wide model of demand for road use and of road safety outcomes for Algeria making use of the DRAG-type framework and of flexible regression estimation methods that make a demonstrable difference to the quality of our results. We imply that the availability of high quality Algerian data could make it worthwhile not only to consider updates of the model with longer data series but also to study variants of the model, notably with disaggregation of freight activities across industrial sectors.