WorldWideScience

Sample records for operations highway capacity

  1. The highway capacity manual a conceptual and research history

    CERN Document Server

    Roess, Roger P

    2014-01-01

    Since 1950, the Highway Capacity Manual has been a standard used in the planning, design, analysis, and operation of virtually any highway traffic facility in the United States. It has also been widely used abroad, and has spurred the development of similar manuals in other countries. The twin concepts of capacity and level of service have been developed in the manual, and methodologies have been presented that allow highway traffic facilities to be designed on a common basis, and allow for the analysis of operational quality under various traffic demand scenarios. The manual also addresses related pedestrian, bicycle, and transit issues.   This book details the fundamental development of the concepts of capacity and level of service, and of the specific methodologies developed to describe them over a wide range of facility types. The book is comprised of two volumes. Volume 1 (this book) focuses on the development of basic principles, and their application to uninterrupted flow facilities: freeways, multila...

  2. Marginal overweight operating scenario for DOE's initiative I highway casks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, C.V.; Loud, G.C.; Heitzman, A.C.

    1993-01-01

    This paper assesses the potential transport of high-capacity Initiative I highway casks under development by the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) as permitted marginal overweight shipments that: exceed a gross vehicle weight (gvw) limit of 80,000, but weight less than 96,000 pounds; follow axle and axle group weight limits adopted by the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) of 1982; conform to dimensional restrictions to operate on most major highways; and comply with the Federal Bridge Formula. The marginal overweight tractor-trailer would operate in normal open-quotes over-the-roadclose quotes mode and comply with all laws and regulations. The vehicle would have a sleeper berth and two drivers - one to drive while the other provides escort and communications services and accumulates required off-duty time

  3. Incorporating travel time reliability into the Highway Capacity Manual. [supporting datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-30

    The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) historically has been among the most important reference guides used by transportation professionals seeking a systematic basis for evaluating the capacity, level of service, and performance measures for elements of ...

  4. Incorporating travel time reliability into the Highway Capacity Manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    This final report documents the activities performed during SHRP 2 Reliability Project L08: Incorporating Travel Time Reliability into the Highway Capacity Manual. It serves as a supplement to the proposed chapters for incorporating travel time relia...

  5. Efficient use of highway capacity summary : report to Congress

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-11-01

    This report was developed to summarize the implementation of safety shoulders as travel lanes as a method to increase the efficient use of highway capacity. Its purpose is to provide a succinct overview of efforts to use left or right shoulder lanes ...

  6. Performance analysis of Brazilian highways under concession through the capacity and level of service

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silveira Santos, T.; Martins Ribeiro, P.C.

    2016-07-01

    This paper proposes the development of a methodology to analyze the performance of highways under concession through the capacity and level of service, with special attention to Brazilian highways. The trajectory of transport infrastructure provision in Brazil and its performance assessment framework are mentioned, as well as an approach of the level of service concept and the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). An inventory of the highway with the necessary data to the model is proposed. This database should incorporate information from multiple data sources and its use will be important for the processing and compilation of raw data in order to structure a full informational basis. Then, it is developed a method for segmentation of homogeneous road sections, as conceptualized by HCM, and proposed a way of level of service measurement. Finally, there are analysis of the use of HCM in some highways concession programs in Brazil. (Author)

  7. Simple cellular automaton model for traffic breakdown, highway capacity, and synchronized flow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kerner, Boris S.; Klenov, Sergey L.; Schreckenberg, Michael

    2011-10-01

    We present a simple cellular automaton (CA) model for two-lane roads explaining the physics of traffic breakdown, highway capacity, and synchronized flow. The model consists of the rules “acceleration,” “deceleration,” “randomization,” and “motion” of the Nagel-Schreckenberg CA model as well as “overacceleration through lane changing to the faster lane,” “comparison of vehicle gap with the synchronization gap,” and “speed adaptation within the synchronization gap” of Kerner's three-phase traffic theory. We show that these few rules of the CA model can appropriately simulate fundamental empirical features of traffic breakdown and highway capacity found in traffic data measured over years in different countries, like characteristics of synchronized flow, the existence of the spontaneous and induced breakdowns at the same bottleneck, and associated probabilistic features of traffic breakdown and highway capacity. Single-vehicle data derived in model simulations show that synchronized flow first occurs and then self-maintains due to a spatiotemporal competition between speed adaptation to a slower speed of the preceding vehicle and passing of this slower vehicle. We find that the application of simple dependences of randomization probability and synchronization gap on driving situation allows us to explain the physics of moving synchronized flow patterns and the pinch effect in synchronized flow as observed in real traffic data.

  8. Determining the Toll and Capacity of a Highway to Be Constructed in Parallel with Subway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wen-Xiang Wu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper considers the problem of toll and capacity choice of a new highway with a bottleneck added onto an existing transit network under four ownership/tolling regimes: public fine toll, public flat toll, private fine toll, and private flat toll. Whenever fine toll and flat toll are imposed, in a competitive highway/transit network with constant returns to scale in road construction, an optimally designed and priced privately owned highway would produce positive net benefit justly equal to the total markup with respect to all autocommuters, whereas an optimally designed and priced publicly owned highway would lead to a deficit; that is, the toll revenues are insufficient to cover its all costs. The economic conditions to invest a new road are investigated under different ownership/tolling regimes.

  9. Second-best Road Pricing Through Highway Franchising

    OpenAIRE

    Verhoef, Erik T.

    2005-01-01

    This paper considers the welfare impacts of a range of franchising regimes for congestible highways. For a single road in isolation, it is shown that a competitive auction with the level of road use as the decision criterion produces the socially optimal road (in terms of capacity and toll level) as the equilibrium outcome, provided constant returns to scale characterize highway operations. The auction outperforms various alternatives, in which the bidders are asked to minimize the toll level...

  10. Infiltration of stormwater from highway operations to reduce coastal pollution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-01

    The coastal waters of Hawaii are extremely important for recreation as well as for the health of : the marine environment. Runoff from the construction and operation of highways can be a : source of pollution to coastal waters. Individual states in t...

  11. Concrete Operations and Attentional Capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapman, Michael; Lindenberger, Ulman

    1989-01-01

    To test predictions regarding the attentional capacity requirements of Piaget's stage of concrete operations, a battery of concrete operational tasks and two measures of attentional capacity were administered to 120 first-, second-, and third-graders. Findings concern class inclusion, transitivity of length and weight, and multiplication of…

  12. Consideration of time-evolving capacity distributions and improved degradation models for seismic fragility assessment of aging highway bridges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ghosh, Jayadipta; Sood, Piyush

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents a methodology to develop seismic fragility curves for deteriorating highway bridges by uniquely accounting for realistic pitting corrosion deterioration and time-dependent capacity distributions for reinforced concrete columns under chloride attacks. The proposed framework offers distinct improvements over state-of-the-art procedures for fragility assessment of degrading bridges which typically assume simplified uniform corrosion deterioration model and pristine limit state capacities. Depending on the time in service life and deterioration mechanism, this study finds that capacity limit states for deteriorating bridge columns follow either lognormal distribution or generalized extreme value distributions (particularly for pitting corrosion). Impact of column degradation mechanism on seismic response and fragility of bridge components and system is assessed using nonlinear time history analysis of three-dimensional finite element bridge models reflecting the uncertainties across structural modeling parameters, deterioration parameters and ground motion. Comparisons are drawn between the proposed methodology and traditional approaches to develop aging bridge fragility curves. Results indicate considerable underestimations of system level fragility across different damage states using the traditional approach compared to the proposed realistic pitting model for chloride induced corrosion. Time-dependent predictive functions are provided to interpolate logistic regression coefficients for continuous seismic reliability evaluation along the service life with reasonable accuracy. - Highlights: • Realistic modeling of chloride induced corrosion deterioration in the form of pitting. • Time-evolving capacity distribution for aging bridge columns under chloride attacks. • Time-dependent seismic fragility estimation of highway bridges at component and system level. • Mathematical functions for continuous tracking of seismic fragility along service

  13. A Generalized Mathematical Model for the Fracture Problem of the Suspended Highway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhao Ying

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to answer dangling fracture problems of highway, the suspended pavement equivalent for non - suspended pavement, through the special boundary conditions has been suspended highway stress field of expression, in accordance with the 3D fracture model of crack formation, and establish a vacant, a general mathematics model for fracture problems of highway and analysis in highway suspended segment weight and vehicle load limit of highway capacity of Pu For overturning road inPu is less than the force of carrying more than compared to the work and fruit Bridge Hydropower Station Road engineering examples to verify suspended highway should force field expressions for the correctness and applicability. The results show that: when the hanging ratio R 0. 243177 limits of Pu design axle load 100kN. When the vertical crack in the vacant in the direction of length greater than 0. 1, the ultimate bearing capacity is less than the design axle load 100kN; when the hanging ratio R is less than 0. 5, the road to local fracture, the ultimate bearing capacity of suspended stress field expressions in solution; when the hanging ratio is greater than or equal to 0. 5, the road does not reach the limit bearing capacity of the whole body; torque shear surface of the effect is far less than the bending moments on shear planes.

  14. Feasibility of shoulder use for highway work zone optimization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Du

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Highway maintenance, often requiring lane closure, is very expensive in terms of the costs associated with transportation agencies (i. e. work zone setups and road users (i. e. delay. Longer work zones tend to increase the user delay but will be efficient because of fewer repeated setups. To increase road capacity and mitigate congestion impact for a short-term work zone, temporary shoulder use may be applied. This study develops an analytical model to optimize work zone length on a multi-lane highway considering time-varying traffic volume and road capacity affected by light condition, heavy vehicle percentage, and lane width. The results can be used to evaluate the work zone impact (i. e. delay and cost and assist engineers/planners to prepare and develop a cost-effective highway maintenance plan. A case study for a highway work zone in New Jersey has been conducted, in which the optimized solution is found. A guideline of using road shoulder under various circumstances is developed.

  15. A study on traffic weaving segment level of service on Malaysia urban highway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdullah, Rohaya; Sadullah, Ahmad Farhan Mohd

    2017-07-01

    The objective of this research is to observe weaving problems, analyze the capacity of the weaving segment and to identify the behavior of the Malaysian driver at urban freeway weaving segment. Field data collected during non - peak hours at km. 138.6-138.2 (north bound) Seberang Jaya: Penang Bridge, km.16.8 to km.17.0 Sunway Mentari: Damansara-Puchong Highway and km.21.4 to km.21.9 Puchong Intan: Damansara-Puchong Highway. These segments behave as a bottleneck during peak hour. The data collected are traffic volume, vehicle composition and the road geometry. The drivers behavior pattern at the freeway weaving segment is observed. This research analyses by two different methodologies, the first analysis is by referring to the US Highway Capacity Manual 2010 and the second analysis through a modified method to suit the local traffic composition. The consideration of motorcycle and light heavy vehicle in the analysis lead to a different evaluation of weaving segment capacity. The analysis results show a slight difference between both methods. LOS, weaving speed and density prediction by the modified method is slightly higher than the HCM method. These results, suggest that the numbers of light heavy vehicle and motorcycle contribute to the amount of traffic volume because the value factors of Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE). The adoption of the widely used method without taking consideration of local traffic condition, might lead to improper road planning or design or road operation management.

  16. Updating a Strategic Highway Safety Plan : Learning from the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) - Proceedings from the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Highway Safety Peer-to-Peer Exchange Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-10-01

    On November 4, 2009, ITDs Office of Highway Operations and Safety partnered with the FHWA Office of Safety to host a one-day peer exchange. This event focused on the update of Idahos Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), entitled Toward Zero...

  17. Superhydrophobic engineered cementitious composites for highway bridge applications : technology transfer and implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-01

    The strength and durability of highway bridges are two of the key components in maintaining a : high level of freight transportation capacity on the nations highways. Superhydrophobic : engineered cementitious composite (SECC) is a new advanced con...

  18. Green Performance Contracting Strategy for Highway Construction Projects

    OpenAIRE

    2014-01-01

    With the growing awareness of sustainability and global climate change, state highway agencies are taking essential steps to reduce carbon emissions from highway infrastructure on a life cycle basis. While much is known regarding climate change mitigation and adaption strategies during highway operation, very little is understood about how climate change issues should be integrated into highway planning, delivery, and construction processes. This paper presents the current contracting pra...

  19. Geometric Design of Highways in USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hrvoje Baričević

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the criteria, standards, and engineeringprocedures used to design principal elements of the highwayalignment, highway cross sections, and adjacent roadside environment.Development of a comprehensive highway design focuseson the establishment of travel lane configuration, alignmentlocation, and all dimensions related to the highway crosssection. A three-dimensional physical location is determinedthrough calculation of a horizontal and vertical alignment ofthe highway centerline, based on a variety of operational considerations.The results of these activities are refe"ed to as thegeometric design and represent all the visible features of a highwayor street. The first and major portion of the paper deals withthe design of motor-vehicle facilities. Specific design elementsare described and discussed with respect to design methodology.

  20. Soft Budgets And Highway Franchising

    OpenAIRE

    Eduardo Engel; Ronald Fischer; Alexander Galetovic

    2004-01-01

    Latin American governments progressively substituted build–operate–and–transfer (BOT) contracts for government–provided highways during the nineties. Because under BOT a private franchise holder finances and operates the road in exchange for tolls, it is often claimed that BOT represents a privatization of highways. We argue that, as currently applied, the BOT model is an imperfect and incomplete privatization, because the franchise holders’ budget constraint has been soft, with losses being ...

  1. The Application Study in Solar Energy Technology for Highway Service Area: A Case Study of West Lushan Highway Low-Carbon Service Area in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaochun Qin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A lot of research works have been made concerning highway service area or solar technology and acquired great achievements. However, unfortunately, few works have been made combining the two topics together of highway service areas and solar energy saving to make a systemic research on solar technology application for highway service area. In this paper, taking West Lushan highway low-carbon service area in Jiangxi Province of China as the case study, the advantages, technical principles, and application methods of solar energy technology for highway service area including solar photoelectric technology and solar water heating technology were discussed based on the analysis of characteristics of highway low-carbon service area; the system types, operation mode, and installing tilt angle of the two kinds of solar systems suitable for highway service areas were confirmed. It was proved that the reduction of the cost by electricity savings of solar system was huge. Taking the investment of the solar systems into account, the payback period of solar photoelectric systems and solar water heating systems was calculated. The economic effect of the solar systems in West Lushan highway service area during the effective operation periods was also calculated and proved very considerable.

  2. Highway runoff quality models for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trenouth, William R.; Gharabaghi, Bahram

    2016-11-01

    This paper presents novel highway runoff quality models using artificial neural networks (ANN) which take into account site-specific highway traffic and seasonal storm event meteorological factors to predict the event mean concentration (EMC) statistics and mean daily unit area load (MDUAL) statistics of common highway pollutants for the design of roadside ditch treatment systems (RDTS) to protect sensitive receiving environs. A dataset of 940 monitored highway runoff events from fourteen sites located in five countries (Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and China) was compiled and used to develop ANN models for the prediction of highway runoff suspended solids (TSS) seasonal EMC statistical distribution parameters, as well as the MDUAL statistics for four different heavy metal species (Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb). TSS EMCs are needed to estimate the minimum required removal efficiency of the RDTS needed in order to improve highway runoff quality to meet applicable standards and MDUALs are needed to calculate the minimum required capacity of the RDTS to ensure performance longevity.

  3. Intelligent Lane Reservation System for Highway(s)

    OpenAIRE

    Dobre, Ciprian

    2012-01-01

    Highways tend to get congested because of the increase in the number of cars travelling on them. There are two solutions to this. The first one, which is also expensive, consists in building new highways to support the traffic. A much cheaper alternative consists in the introduction of advanced intelligent traffic control systems to manage traffic and increase the efficiency of the already existing highways. Intelligent lane reservation system for highways (ILRSH) is such a software control s...

  4. Second-best Road Pricing through Highway Franchising

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhoef, E.T.

    2007-01-01

    This paper considers the welfare impacts of a range of franchising regimes for congestible highways. For a single road in isolation, it is shown that a competitive auction with the level of road use as the decision criterion produces the socially optimal road (in terms of capacity and toll level),

  5. High capacity getter pump for UHV operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manini, P.; Marino, M.; Belloni, F.; Porro, M.

    1993-01-01

    UHV pumps based on non-evaporable getter coated strips find widespread use in particle accelerators, synchrotron radiation machines and nuclear fusion experimental devices. Depending on the geometric constraints, pressure operation conditions and the foreseen gas loads, optimized getter structures, such as modules and cartridges, can be designed and assembled into a high-efficiency pump. In the present paper, the design and performance of a newly conceived High Capacity Getter Pump (HCGP) based on sintered getter bodies, in the shape of blades instead of strips, is illustrated. The porosity and the specific surface area of the blades and their arrangement in the cartridge have been optimized to significantly increase sorption capacity at a given speed. These pumps are well suited for those applications where a very high gas load is expected during the machine operation. The sintered getter bodies increase surface area and capacity, requiring less frequent reactivation and facilitating greater overall life of the pump. A discussion of the experimental results in terms of sorption speed and capacity for various gases is presented

  6. An integrated model for the Environmental Impact Assessment of Highways in China

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cai, Hao

    2011-01-01

    In China, environmental issues caused by construction and operation of highway catch more and more attention, and thus environmental impact assessment of highway has become an important part of feasibility study. According to the Specifications for Environmental Impact Assessment of Highways...... in the People's Republic of China, this paper proposes an integrated model for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of highway. The model has two main characteristics. Firstly, the whole highway is divided into several sections, and then weight of each section is distributed by its importance. Secondly...

  7. A comprehensive methodology for the analysis of highway sight distance

    OpenAIRE

    Castro Malpica, María; Santos Berbel, César de; Iglesias Martínez, Luis

    2017-01-01

    As one of the main elements of geometric design, sight distance must be considered carefully for the safe and efficient operation of highways. An application developed on geographic information systems (GIS) was con-ceived for the three-dimensional estimation of sight distance on highways, as opposed to conventional two-dimensional techniques, which may underestimate or overestimate the actual visibility conditions. It is capable of computing the available sight distance of a highway section ...

  8. Highway travel time estimation with data fusion

    CERN Document Server

    Soriguera Martí, Francesc

    2016-01-01

    This monograph presents a simple, innovative approach for the measurement and short-term prediction of highway travel times based on the fusion of inductive loop detector and toll ticket data. The methodology is generic and not technologically captive, allowing it to be easily generalized for other equivalent types of data. The book shows how Bayesian analysis can be used to obtain fused estimates that are more reliable than the original inputs, overcoming some of the drawbacks of travel-time estimations based on unique data sources. The developed methodology adds value and obtains the maximum (in terms of travel time estimation) from the available data, without recurrent and costly requirements for additional data. The application of the algorithms to empirical testing in the AP-7 toll highway in Barcelona proves that it is possible to develop an accurate real-time, travel-time information system on closed-toll highways with the existing surveillance equipment, suggesting that highway operators might provide...

  9. Highway three-dimensional modeling based on Vehicle-borne laser data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weili, Sun; Ruofei, Zhong; Jiangxia, Wei; Fanyang, Zeng

    2014-01-01

    The of Vehicle-borne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) scanning technology is an efficiently practical approach on the acquisition and application of 3D information and its geographic elements of highway(including road surface, rails, attached facilities, slopes, ditches, etc.). The acquired information is significant on many aspects such as road maintenance, reconstruction, survey, landscape design, visualized modelling and highway hazard supervision and prevention. The initial laser data cannot be directly used to construct highway 3D model, operations of pre-processing are necessary. This paper presented a set of procedure about pre-processing laser data and constructing TIN (Triangle Irregular Net) model of highway

  10. Spatial Planning for Transit Tourism on The Highway: A Case Study of Highway Е-75 Through Vojvodina (Horgoš – Belgrade Section

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vuk GARAČA

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The quality and extent of traffc infrastructure has an immense infuence on the development of tourist destinations and on tourism in gener-al. Transit tourism is a unique form of movement and represents a link between generating zones and destinations. The subject of this study is the planning and spatial organization along the route of Highway Е-75 thorough northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. The goal of the study is to scientifcally assert that the route of highway is inadequately equipped as it lacks adequate hospitality services considering its signifcance and the needs of passengers in transit. The pa-per intends to analyze the growing tourists’ de-mands perceived in passenger numbers and the passenger vehicles turnover with existing tourist products.The spatial extent of the research comprises the section of Highway Е-75 through Vojvodina (Horgoš – Subotica – Bačka Topola – Vrbas – Novi Sad – Beška – Indjija – Stara Pazova. The study utilizes mixed quantitative and qual-itative methods, and employs preliminary desk research, feld work, comparative analysis, and a description to establish a critical synthetic narrative. The statistical method of Pearson cor-relation was used for quantitative data analysis and to assess the relationship between overnight stays in places along the highway and the num-ber of passengers travelling the highway. The results of the research pointed out that the initial hypothesis which refers to the lack of specialized accommodation capacity in the highway zone is valid.

  11. Wireless monitoring of highways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennett, Richard; Hayes-Gill, Barrie; Crowe, John A.; Armitage, Robert; Rodgers, Dale; Hendroff, Adrian

    1999-05-01

    Electronic hardware has been developed to telemetrically transmit temperature and strain measurements from within a public highway in the UK. These measurements provide an important health check for monitoring fatigue damage in pavements. Previous attempts at measuring strain and temperature have required lengths of cable to be installed in the highway. The installation of these cables is both expensive and damaging to the pavement and provides potentially unreliable electrical connections. The new systems consist of a retrofitted instrumented asphalt core which is bonded into the pavement structure. The core contains all the electronics necessary to record two temperatures and two strains. An analogue front end provides signal conditioning which is digitized and passed to microcontroller for endcoding. From there the data is transmitted via a low power radio link to a receiver and data logger positioned by the side of the road. The system has an in-situ operating life of 6 months on AA alkaline batteries. Results are presented of power management and fault tolerant radio protocol techniques, long term temperature variations, dynamic strain measurements within the highway, and RF transmission capabilities through a layer of asphalt.

  12. Off-highway vehicle technology roadmap.; TOPICAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    NONE

    2002-01-01

    The off-highway sector is under increasing pressure to reduce operating costs (including fuel costs) and to reduce emissions. Recognizing this, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) convened a workshop in April 2001 (ANL 2001) to (1) determine the interest of the off-highway sector (consisting of agriculture, construction, surface mining, inland marine) in crafting a shared vision of off-highway, heavy machines of the future and (2) identify critical research and development (R and D) needs for minimizing off-highway vehicle emissions while cost-effectively maintaining or enhancing system performance. The workshop also enabled government and industry participants to exchange information. During the workshop, it became clear that the challenges facing the heavy, surface-based off-highway sector can be addressed in three major machine categories: (1) engine/aftertreatment and fuels/lubes, (2) machine systems, and (3) thermal management. Working groups convened to address these topical areas. The status of off-highway technologies was determined, critical technical barriers to achieving future emission standards were identified, and strategies and technologies for reducing fuel consumption were discussed. Priority areas for R and D were identified. Given the apparent success of the discussions at the workshop, several participants from industry agreed to help in the formation of a joint industry/government ''roadmap'' team. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies has an extensive role in researching ways to make heavy-duty trucks and trains more efficient, with respect to both fuel usage and air emissions. The workshop participants felt that a joint industry/government research program that addresses the unique needs of the off-highway sector would complement the current research program for highway vehicles. With industry expertise, in-kind contributions, and federal government funding (coupled with

  13. Cost of Capital Estimation for Highway Concessionaires in Chile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristian Vergara-Novoa

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present the cost of capital estimation for highway concessionaires in Chile. We estimated the cost of equity and the cost of debt and determined the capital structure for each one of twenty-four concessionaires that operate highways. We based our estimations on the developments of Sharpe (1964, Modigliani and Miller (1958, and Maquieira (2009, which were also compared with the Brusov et al. (2015 developments. We collected stock prices for different highway concessionaires around the world from Google Finance and Reuters’ websites in order to determine the Beta of equity using a representative company. After that, we estimated the cost of equity considering Hamada (1969 and a Capital Asset Pricing Model. Then, we estimated the cost of capital using the cost of debt and the capital structure of Chile’s highway concessionaires. With all above, we were able to determine the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC for highway concessions which ranges from 5.49 to 6.62%.

  14. Highway Safety Program Manual: Volume 8: Alcohol in Relation to Highway Safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT), Washington, DC.

    Volume 8 of the 19-volume Highway Safety Program Manual (which provides guidance to State and local governments on preferred highway safety practices) concentrates on alcohol in relation to highway safety. The purpose and objectives of the alcohol program are outlined. Federal authority in the area of highway safety and general policies regarding…

  15. Hydraulic analysis, Mad River at State Highway 41, Springfield, Ohio

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayo, Ronald I.

    1977-01-01

    A hydraulic analysis of the lad River in a reach at Springfield, Ohio was made to determine the effects of relocating State Highway 41 in 1S76. The main channel was cleaned by dredging in the vicinity cf the new highway bridge and at the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway bridge upstream. The new highway was placed on a high fill with relief structures for flood plain drainage consisting of a 12-foot corrugated metal pipe culvert and a bridge opening to accommodate the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway and a property access road. The effect of the new highway embankment on drainage from the flood plain was requested. Also requested was the effect that might be expected on the elevation of flood waters above the new highway embankment if the access road through the new highway embankment were raised.The study indicates that the improvement in the capacity of the main channel to carry water was such that, up to a discharge equivalent to a 25-year frequency flood, the water-surface elevation in the reach upstream from the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway bridge would be about 0.6 foot lower than under conditions prior to the construction on State Highway 41. Diversion through the Mad River left bank levee break above the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railway bridge to the flood Flain would be decreased about one-half in terms of rate of discharge in cubic feet per second. The maximum difference in elevation cf the flood water between the upstream and downstream side of the new State Highway 41 embankment would be about 0.2 foot, with an additional 0.4 foot to be expected if the access road were raised 1.5 feet.

  16. Highways and outposts: economic development and health threats in the central Brazilian Amazon region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barcellos, Christovam; Feitosa, Patrícia; Damacena, Giseli N; Andreazzi, Marco A

    2010-06-17

    Economic development is often evoked as a driving force that has the capacity to improve the social and health conditions of remote areas. However, development projects produce uneven impacts on local communities, according to their different positions within society. This study examines the spatial distribution of three major health threats in the Brazilian Amazon region that may undergo changes through highway construction. Homicide mortality, AIDS incidence and malaria prevalence rates were calculated for 70 municipalities located within the areas of influence of the Cuiabá-Santarém highway (BR-163), i.e. in the western part of the state of Pará state and the northern part of Mato Grosso. The municipalities were characterized using social and economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), urban and indigenous populations, and recent migration. The municipalities' connections to the region's main transportation routes (BR-163 and Trans-Amazonian highways, along with the Amazon and Tapajós rivers) were identified by tagging the municipalities that have boundaries crossing these routes, using GIS overlay operations. Multiple regression was used to identify the major driving forces and constraints relating to the distribution of health threats. The main explanatory variables for higher malaria prevalence were: proximity to the Trans-Amazonian highway, high proportion of indigenous population and low proportion of migrants. High homicide rates were associated with high proportions of migrants, while connection to the Amazon River played a protective role. AIDS incidence was higher in municipalities with recent increases in GDP and high proportions of urban population. Highways induce social and environmental changes and play different roles in spreading and maintaining diseases and health threats. The most remote areas are still protected against violence but are vulnerable to malaria. Rapid economic and demographic growth increases the risk of AIDS

  17. Highways and outposts: economic development and health threats in the central Brazilian Amazon region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Damacena Giseli N

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Economic development is often evoked as a driving force that has the capacity to improve the social and health conditions of remote areas. However, development projects produce uneven impacts on local communities, according to their different positions within society. This study examines the spatial distribution of three major health threats in the Brazilian Amazon region that may undergo changes through highway construction. Homicide mortality, AIDS incidence and malaria prevalence rates were calculated for 70 municipalities located within the areas of influence of the Cuiabá-Santarém highway (BR-163, i.e. in the western part of the state of Pará state and the northern part of Mato Grosso. Results The municipalities were characterized using social and economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP, urban and indigenous populations, and recent migration. The municipalities' connections to the region's main transportation routes (BR-163 and Trans-Amazonian highways, along with the Amazon and Tapajós rivers were identified by tagging the municipalities that have boundaries crossing these routes, using GIS overlay operations. Multiple regression was used to identify the major driving forces and constraints relating to the distribution of health threats. The main explanatory variables for higher malaria prevalence were: proximity to the Trans-Amazonian highway, high proportion of indigenous population and low proportion of migrants. High homicide rates were associated with high proportions of migrants, while connection to the Amazon River played a protective role. AIDS incidence was higher in municipalities with recent increases in GDP and high proportions of urban population. Conclusions Highways induce social and environmental changes and play different roles in spreading and maintaining diseases and health threats. The most remote areas are still protected against violence but are vulnerable to malaria. Rapid

  18. Highways, Alleys and By-lanes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hellström, Christina; Hellström, Tomas

    2002-01-01

    The present paper introduces a view of how ideas develop in organizations that goes beyond the traditional focus on either individual or structural conditions for creativity and innovation. An interview study was conducted with key actors in a large Swedish telecom company. A model...... was then constructed where idea development is viewed as a process of combining and integrating various informal, yet powerful qualities of the organization. The paper argues that successful idea development depends on the capacity of actors and ideas to move on ‘organizational highways, alleys and by–lanes’. A number...

  19. The highway and railroad operating environments for hazardous shipments in the United States - safer in the '90s?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saricks, C.L.; Tompkins, M.M.

    2000-01-01

    This paper seeks to illuminate the status of transportation safety and risk for large-quantity shipments of spent commercial reactor fuel and mixed and hazardous wastes by examining road and rail accident and vehicular travel data from the mid-1990s. Of special interest are the effect of speed limit changes on controlled-access expressways (chiefly the Interstate Highway System) and the possible effect of season-to-season climatic variation on road transport. We found that improvements in railroad technology and infrastructure have created a safer overall operating environment for railroad freight shipments. We also found recent evidence of an increase in accident rates of heavy combination trucks in states that have raised highway speed limits. Finally, cold weather increases road transport risk, while conditions associated with higher ambient temperatures do not. This last finding is in contrast to rail transport, for which the literature associates both hot and cold temperature extremes with higher accident rates

  20. Evaluating the capacity value of wind power considering transmission and operational constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gil, Esteban; Aravena, Ignacio

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Discussion of power system adequacy and the capacity value of wind power. • Method for estimating capacity value of wind power is proposed. • Monte Carlo simulation used to consider transmission and operational constraints. • Application of the method to the Chilean Northern Interconnected System (SING). - Abstract: This paper presents a method for estimating the capacity value of wind considering transmission and operational constraints. The method starts by calculating a metric for system adequacy by repeatedly simulating market operations in a Monte Carlo scheme that accounts for forced generator outages, wind resource variability, and operational conditions. Then, a capacity value calculation that uses the simulation results is proposed, and its application to the Chilean Northern Interconnected System (SING) is discussed. A comparison of the capacity value for two different types of wind farms is performed using the proposed method, and the results are compared with the method currently used in Chile and the method recommended by the IEEE. The method proposed in the paper captures the contribution of the variable generation resources to power system adequacy more accurately than the method currently employed in the SING, and showed capable of taking into account transmission and operational constraints

  1. Accumulation of Pollutants in Highway Detention Ponds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Thomas Ruby

    single rain event. From the hindcast results it is possible to calculate mean water and pollutant loads. This method is commonly used in urban drainage systems for capacity analysis or for prediction of CSO's. The challenge is to develop a simplified and still accurate description of flow and transport......This PhD study deals with issues related to water and pollutant transport from highway surfaces caused by rain. It is essential in the study to apply methods and models in which improvements in relation to removal of pollutants can be identified and to be able to predict the yearly discharges....... Measurements of water and pollutant transport are carried out in different highway systems. A geometrically well-defined test pond is established, wherein the deposition of particulate matter can be measured. The result from the test pond is transferred to real detention ponds in which the three...

  2. Highways of the future : a strategic plan for highway infrastructure research and development

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-07-01

    This Highways of the FutureA Strategic Plan for Highway Infrastructure Research and Development was developed in response to a need expressed by the staff of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Infrastructure Research and Developme...

  3. Impact of Operating Rules on Planning Capacity Expansion of Urban Water Supply Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Neufville, R.; Galelli, S.; Tian, X.

    2017-12-01

    This study addresses the impact of operating rules on capacity planning of urban water supply systems. The continuous growth of metropolitan areas represents a major challenge for water utilities, which often rely on industrial water supply (e.g., desalination, reclaimed water) to complement natural resources (e.g., reservoirs). These additional sources increase the reliability of supply, equipping operators with additional means to hedge against droughts. How do their rules for using industrial water supply impact the performance of water supply system? How might it affect long-term plans for capacity expansion? Possibly significantly, as demonstrated by the analysis of the operations and planning of a water supply system inspired by Singapore. Our analysis explores the system dynamics under multiple inflow and management scenarios to understand the extent to which alternative operating rules for the use of industrial water supply affect system performance. Results first show that these operating rules can have significant impact on the variability in system performance (e.g., reliability, energy use) comparable to that of hydro-climatological conditions. Further analyses of several capacity expansion exercises—based on our original hydrological and management scenarios—show that operating rules significantly affect the timing and magnitude of critical decisions, such as the construction of new desalination plants. These results have two implications: Capacity expansion analysis should consider the effect of a priori uncertainty about operating rules; and operators should consider how their flexibility in operating rules can affect their perceived need for capacity.

  4. The development of an ecological approach to manage the pollution risk from highway runoff.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crabtree, B; Dempsey, P; Johnson, I; Whitehead, M

    2009-01-01

    In the UK, the Highways Agency is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England. One focus of the Highways Agency's ongoing research into the nature and impact of highway runoff is aimed at ensuring that the Highways Agency will meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. A research programme, undertaken in partnership with the Environment Agency, is in progress to develop a better understanding of pollutants in highway runoff and their ecological impact. The paper presents the outcome of a study to: (1) monitor pollutants in highway runoff under different climate and traffic conditions; (2) develop standards to assess potential ecological risks from soluble pollutants in highway runoff; and (3) develop a model to predict pollutant concentrations in highway runoff. The model has been embedded in a design tool incorporating risk assessment procedures and receiving water standards for soluble and insoluble pollutants--the latter has been developed elsewhere in another project within the research programme. The design tool will be used to support improved guidance on where, and to what level, treatment of runoff is required for highway designers to manage the risk of ecological impact from highway runoff.

  5. The Irony of the Capac Nan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Robert W.

    1992-01-01

    Presents information on the Capac Nan, the highway system of the Incas. Describes its use by the Spanish conquistadors in the destruction of the Incan empire. Includes suggested classroom uses for the article, a homework assignment, and discussion topics. (DK)

  6. Applications of variable speed control for contending with recurrent highway congestion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-07-01

    This research project developed vital operational guidelines for design of a variable speed limit (VSL) system and its integrated operations with ramp metering control in contending with recurrent highway congestion. The developed guidelines can serv...

  7. 23 CFR 661.49 - Can IRRBP funds be spent on Interstate, State Highway, and Toll Road IRR bridges?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ..., and Toll Road IRR bridges? 661.49 Section 661.49 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS INDIAN RESERVATION ROAD BRIDGE PROGRAM § 661.49 Can IRRBP funds be spent on Interstate, State Highway, and Toll Road IRR bridges? Yes. Interstate...

  8. Quality of stormwater runoff discharged from Massachusetts highways, 2005-07

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Kirk P.; Granato, Gregory E.

    2010-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, conducted a field study from September 2005 through September 2007 to characterize the quality of highway runoff for a wide range of constituents. The highways studied had annual average daily traffic (AADT) volumes from about 3,000 to more than 190,000 vehicles per day. Highway-monitoring stations were installed at 12 locations in Massachusetts on 8 highways. The 12 monitoring stations were subdivided into 4 primary, 4 secondary, and 4 test stations. Each site contained a 100-percent impervious drainage area that included two or more catch basins sharing a common outflow pipe. Paired primary and secondary stations were located within a few miles of each other on a limited-access section of the same highway. Most of the data were collected at the primary and secondary stations, which were located on four principal highways (Route 119, Route 2, Interstate 495, and Interstate 95). The secondary stations were operated simultaneously with the primary stations for at least a year. Data from the four test stations (Route 8, Interstate 195, Interstate 190, and Interstate 93) were used to determine the transferability of the data collected from the principal highways to other highways characterized by different construction techniques, land use, and geography. Automatic-monitoring techniques were used to collect composite samples of highway runoff and make continuous measurements of several physical characteristics. Flowweighted samples of highway runoff were collected automatically during approximately 140 rain and mixed rain, sleet, and snowstorms. These samples were analyzed for physical characteristics and concentrations of 6 dissolved major ions, total nutrients, 8 total-recoverable metals, suspended sediment, and 85 semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), which include priority polyaromatic

  9. 75 FR 19670 - Marine Highway Projects

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-15

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Maritime Administration Marine Highway Projects ACTION: Solicitation of applications for Marine highway projects. SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation is soliciting applications for Marine Highway Projects as specified in the America's Marine Highway Program Final Rule, MARAD...

  10. Residential satisfaction close to highways : The impact of accessibility, nuisances and highway adjustment projects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hamersma, Marije; Tillema, Taede; Sussman, Joseph; Arts, Jos

    In this paper we focus on gaining insight into the residential satisfaction of households near highways, based on survey data collected among 1225 respondents in the Netherlands living within 1000 m from a highway. Ordinal regression was used to study the impact of highway externalities on

  11. Regional Approach to Building Operational Level Capacity for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In order to strengthen public health disaster management capacities at the operational level in six countries of the Eastern Africa region, the USAID-funded leadership project worked through the HEALTH Alliance, a network of seven schools of public health from six countries in the region to train district-level teams.

  12. Use of waste glass in highway construction (update--1992).

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-01-01

    Increasing pressures to recycle more wastes and minimize the amount of materials placed in landfills are forcing reconsideration of potential uses of waste glass in highway construction and maintenance operations. The federal government and many stat...

  13. Highway Electrification And Automation

    OpenAIRE

    Shladover, Steven E.

    1992-01-01

    This report addresses how the California Department of Transportation and the California PATH Program have made efforts to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of highway electrification and automation technologies. In addition to describing how the work was conducted, the report also describes the findings on highway electrification and highway automation, with experimental results, design study results, and a region-wide application impacts study for Los Angeles.

  14. Solar Lighting Technologies for Highway Green Rest Areas in China: Energy Saving Economic and Environmental Evaluation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaochun Qin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, taking Lushan West Sea highway green rest area in Jiangxi Province of China as the case study, the suitable types, applicability, advantages, and effective methods of solar lighting technologies for highway rest area were determined based on the analysis of characteristics of highway green rest area. It was proved that solar lighting technologies including the natural light guidance system, solar LED lighting, and maximizing natural light penetration were quite suitable for highway rest area in terms of lighting effects and energy and economic efficiency. The illuminance comparison of light guidance system with electrical lighting was made based on the on-site experiment. Also, the feasibility of natural light guidance system was well verified in terms of the lighting demand of the visitor centre in the rest area by the illuminance simulation analysis. The evaluation of the energy saving, economic benefits, and environmental effects of solar lighting technologies for highway rest area was, respectively, made in detail. It was proved that the application of solar technology for green lighting of highway rest facilities not only could have considerable energy saving capacity and achieve high economic benefits, but also make great contributions to the reduction of environment pollution.

  15. INSAR For Early Warning Of Possible Highway Instability Over Undermined Area Of Ostrava

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazecky, Milan; Kacmarik, Michal; Rapant, Petr

    2012-01-01

    A part of czech highway D1 connecting Ostrava with Prague and Poland, is built over an undermined area of Ostrava-Svinov. Since the end of 2010, this part of the highway is fully operational. Because of undermining, a subsidence can be expected, however with a very slow rate since the mines are no more active in this area. Several TerraSAR-X images from 2011 are investigated interferometrically in order to estimate a precise deformation model. Subjects of interest are movements of newly built highway bridges, banks and close neighbourhood. Existing C-band multitemporal InSAR processing results of ERS and Envisat are available from an earlier period that reveil a slow trend of residual subsidence. In this project, InSAR will be investigated as a tool for an early warning for highway stability.

  16. Capacity enhancement and flexible operation of unified power quality conditioner in smart and microgrid network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shafiuzzaman Khan Khadem

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new approach to design Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC, termed as distributed UPQC (D-UPQC, for smart or microgrid network where capacity enhancement and flexible operation of UPQC are the important issues. This paper shows the possibility of capacity enhancement and operational flexibility of UPQC through a coordinated control of existing resources. This UPQC consists of a single unit series active power filter (APFse and multiple shunt APF (APFsh units in a distributed (parallel mode. These units can be connected with a common/separate dc linked capacitor(s. The requirement of capacity enhancement arises from the flexibility to cope up with the increased harmonic load demand at low voltage (LV distribution network. This can be accomplished by a coordinated control where multiple APFsh units are operated by utilizing the capacity of APFse while it is in idle/low mode using. Operational flexibility can be accomplished by compensating (i the reactive and harmonic current individually or (ii splitting the combined reactive and harmonic current/power among the APFsh units. Design and control issues have been discussed to identify the capacity enhancement limit with the possibility of operational flexibility. A system then has been simulated in MATLAB to show the effectiveness of D-UPQC in capacity enhancement and flexible operation by applying its existing resource utilization capability.

  17. The green highway forum

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2006-07-01

    In late 2004, as part of American Coal Ash Association's (ACAA) strategic planning process, a plan was approved by its Board of Directors implementing a 'green highways' concept which emphasized use of coal combustion products (CCPs) in highways in a variety of ways including being used alone, in combination with other forms of CCPs, and combined with non ash materials. The incentives behind the developed concept were the derived advantages from beneficial technical economic and environmental impacts. Although the primary use of fly ash is concrete, other forms of CCPs could be considered for more non-traditional highway applications. For example, these might include soils stabilization, binders for in-place pavement recycling, use in flowable fills, aggregates, source materials for structural fills and embankments, components in manufactured soils, and for granular base courses beneath pavements. At this same time, unknown to ACCA, EPA Region 3 in Philadelphia was working with the Wetlands and Watershed Work Group, a non-profit organization involved in wetlands policy and management along with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on their own Green Highways initiative. These groups were planning a conference, the 'Green Highway Forum'. This was held in College Park, Maryland at the University of Maryland, Nov 8-10 2005. At the conference a draft 'roadmap' was presented as a guide to executive level participants bringing the diverse viewpoints of many agencies and interest groups together. Ten guiding principals were considered. The 'Green Highways' is a new effort to recognize the 'greenness' of many projects already completed and those to be initiated. 2 photos.

  18. High energy bursts from a solid state laser operated in the heat capacity limited regime

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albrecht, G.; George, E.V.; Krupke, W.F.; Sooy, W.; Sutton, S.B.

    1996-06-11

    High energy bursts are produced from a solid state laser operated in a heat capacity limited regime. Instead of cooling the laser, the active medium is thermally well isolated. As a result, the active medium will heat up until it reaches some maximum acceptable temperature. The waste heat is stored in the active medium itself. Therefore, the amount of energy the laser can put out during operation is proportional to its mass, the heat capacity of the active medium, and the temperature difference over which it is being operated. The high energy burst capacity of a heat capacity operated solid state laser, together with the absence of a heavy, power consuming steady state cooling system for the active medium, will make a variety of applications possible. Alternately, cooling takes place during a separate sequence when the laser is not operating. Industrial applications include new material working processes. 5 figs.

  19. Optimal Retrofit Scheme for Highway Network under Seismic Hazards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongxi Huang

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Many older highway bridges in the United States (US are inadequate for seismic loads and could be severely damaged or collapsed in a relatively small earthquake. According to the most recent American Society of Civil Engineers’ infrastructure report card, one-third of the bridges in the US are rated as structurally deficient and many of these structurally deficient bridges are located in seismic zones. To improve this situation, at-risk bridges must be identified and evaluated and effective retrofitting programs should be in place to reduce their seismic vulnerabilities. In this study, a new retrofit strategy decision scheme for highway bridges under seismic hazards is developed and seamlessly integrate the scenario-based seismic analysis of bridges and the traffic network into the proposed optimization modeling framework. A full spectrum of bridge retrofit strategies is considered based on explicit structural assessment for each seismic damage state. As an empirical case study, the proposed retrofit strategy decision scheme is utilized to evaluate the bridge network in one of the active seismic zones in the US, Charleston, South Carolina. The developed modeling framework, on average, will help increase network throughput traffic capacity by 45% with a cost increase of only $15million for the Mw 5.5 event and increase the capacity fourfold with a cost of only $32m for the Mw 7.0 event.

  20. Implementation of a multicrate CAMAC serial highway for data acquisition on the ARGUS laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frerking, C.E.; Greenwood, J.R.

    1976-09-01

    Much of the target diagnostics data from the ARGUS laser are acquired through a CAMAC interface system, including equipment on a CAMAC serial highway. A scheme has been developed which allows a very general capability for dynamically defining the experimental configuration such that the serial highway is invisible to the controlling program. High level language software compiles the existence of each experimental entity in the system. As the position and description of each module is defined, a software structure is built, with each entry containing the information to be provided to the CAMAC handlers during operation of the equipment. Provision is made to allow tight loops at the lowest software level for critical high speed data acquisition. Currently, the serial highway is operated at a one megabit rate, allowing 24 bit CAMAC words to be transferred at a 5 KHz rate

  1. 49 CFR 1242.20 - Highway grade crossings (accounts XX-17-22 and XX-18-22).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 9 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Highway grade crossings (accounts XX-17-22 and XX... RAILROADS 1 Operating Expenses-Way and Structures § 1242.20 Highway grade crossings (accounts XX-17-22 and XX-18-22). Separate running and switching common expenses according to distribution of the running...

  2. OML-Highway within the framework of SELMAGIS

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Steen Solvang; Becker, Thomas; Ketzel, Matthias

    This report describes the OML-Highway model and its integration into SELMAGIS. The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has developed the OML-Highway model and Ingenieurbüro Lohmeyer from Germany has developed SELMAGIS. The OML-Highway model is able to calculate air pollution concentr...... concentration levels at receptor points along a highway road network, while SELMAGIS is a framework for calculating and representing air pollutant emissions and concentrations in a geographical information system (GIS)......This report describes the OML-Highway model and its integration into SELMAGIS. The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has developed the OML-Highway model and Ingenieurbüro Lohmeyer from Germany has developed SELMAGIS. The OML-Highway model is able to calculate air pollution...

  3. 78 FR 9771 - Federal Highway Administration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-11

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Highway Administration Notice of Final Federal Agency Action on Proposed Transportation Project in Illinois and Indiana AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration...., Acting Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, 3250 Executive Park Drive, Springfield...

  4. Area Based Models of New Highway Route Growth

    OpenAIRE

    David Levinson; Wei Chen

    2007-01-01

    Empirical data and statistical models are used to answer the question of where new highway routes are most likely to be located. High-quality land-use, population distribution and highway network GIS data for the Twin CitiesMetropolitan Area from 1958 to 1990 are developed for this study. The highway system is classified into three levels, Interstate highways, divided highways, and secondary highways. Binary logit models estimate the new route growth probability of divided highways and second...

  5. Polynomial friction pendulum isolators (PFPIs) for seismic performance control of benchmark highway bridge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saha, Arijit; Saha, Purnachandra; Patro, Sanjaya Kumar

    2017-10-01

    The seismic response of a benchmark highway bridge isolated with passive polynomial friction pendulum isolators (PFPIs) is investigated and subjected to six bidirectional ground motion records. The benchmark study is based on a lumped mass finite-element model of the 91/5 highway overcrossing located in Southern California. The PFPI system possesses two important parameters; one is horizontal flexibility and the other is energy absorbing capacity through friction. The evaluation criteria of the benchmark bridge are analyzed considering two parameters, time period of the isolator and coefficient of friction of the isolation surface. The results of the numerical study are compared with those obtained from the traditional friction pendulum system (FPS). Dual design performance of the PFPI system suppressed the displacement and acceleration response of the benchmark highway bridge. The dual design hysteresis loop of the PFPI system is the main advantage over the linear hysteresis loop of the FPS. The numerical result indicates that the seismic performance of the PFPI system is better than that of the traditional FPS isolated system. Further, it is observed that variations of the isolation time period and coefficient of friction of the FPS and PFPI systems have a significant effect on the peak responses of the benchmark highway bridge.

  6. 75 FR 18014 - Federal Highway Administration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-08

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Highway Administration AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of Availability regarding a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI): U.S.... FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Federal Highway Administration, Kentucky Division: Mr. Greg Rawlings...

  7. Structural damage detection for in-service highway bridge under operational and environmental variability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Chenhao; Li, Jingcheng; Jang, Shinae; Sun, Xiaorong; Christenson, Richard

    2015-03-01

    Structural health monitoring has drawn significant attention in the past decades with numerous methodologies and applications for civil structural systems. Although many researchers have developed analytical and experimental damage detection algorithms through vibration-based methods, these methods are not widely accepted for practical structural systems because of their sensitivity to uncertain environmental and operational conditions. The primary environmental factor that influences the structural modal properties is temperature. The goal of this article is to analyze the natural frequency-temperature relationships and detect structural damage in the presence of operational and environmental variations using modal-based method. For this purpose, correlations between natural frequency and temperature are analyzed to select proper independent variables and inputs for the multiple linear regression model and neural network model. In order to capture the changes of natural frequency, confidence intervals to detect the damages for both models are generated. A long-term structural health monitoring system was installed on an in-service highway bridge located in Meriden, Connecticut to obtain vibration and environmental data. Experimental testing results show that the variability of measured natural frequencies due to temperature is captured, and the temperature-induced changes in natural frequencies have been considered prior to the establishment of the threshold in the damage warning system. This novel approach is applicable for structural health monitoring system and helpful to assess the performance of the structure for bridge management and maintenance.

  8. Threshold Research on Highway Length under Typical Landscape Patterns Based on Drivers’ Physiological Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xia Zhao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The appropriately landscaped highway scenes may not only help improve road safety and comfort but also help protect ecological environment. Yet there is very little research data on highway length threshold with consideration of distinctive landscape patterns. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to quantitatively analyze highway landscape’s effect on driving behavior based on drivers’ physiological performance and quantify highway length thresholds under three typical landscape patterns, namely, “open,” “semiopen,” and “vertical” ones. The statistical analysis was based on data collected in a driving simulator and electrocardiograph. Specifically, vehicle-related data, ECG data, and supplemental subjective stress perception were collected. The study extracted two characteristic indices, lane deviation and LF/HF, and extrapolated the drivers’ U-shaped physiological response to landscape patterns. Models on highway length were built based on LF/HF’s variation trend with highway length. The results revealed that the theoretical highway length threshold tended to increase when the landscape pattern was switched to open, semiopen, and vertical ones. And the reliability and accuracy of the results were validated by questionnaires and field operational tests. Findings from this research will assist practitioners in taking active environmental countermeasures pertaining to different roadside landscape patterns.

  9. 77 FR 31632 - Intent To Request Approval From OMB of One New Public Collection of Information: Highway Baseline...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-29

    ... and assets owned and operated by state departments of education and transportation. The Highway BASE... Transportation (DOT), Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), school bus, motorcoach companies... consistent road map for highway systems to address security and emergency program vulnerabilities. In...

  10. Estimates of emergency operating capacity in US manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belzer, D.B. (Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)); Serot, D.E. (D/E/S Research, Richland, WA (USA)); Kellogg, M.A. (ERCE, Inc., Portland, OR (USA))

    1991-03-01

    Development of integrated mobilization preparedness policies requires planning estimates of available productive capacity during national emergency conditions. Such estimates must be developed in a manner that allows evaluation of current trends in capacity and the consideration of uncertainties in various data inputs and in engineering assumptions. This study, conducted by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL), developed estimates of emergency operating capacity (EOC) for 446 manufacturing industries at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level of aggregation and for 24 key non-manufacturing sectors. This volume presents tabular and graphical results of the historical analysis and projections for each SIC industry. (JF)

  11. Vehicles In Highway Communication System Using ZigBee And Bluetooth Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    EiThuzarKhin

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Globally many vehicle types operate on the highway system. And highway infrastructure stakeholders have developed a number of products intended to facilitate the identification of critical assets and provide guidance for conductiong security planning. Many of these productsare conducted as joint efforts between the state highway agencies.The main aim of the system is to have a network between Roadside Unit RSU and On-Board Unit OBU and between On-Board Unit OBU and another On-Board Unit OBU . ZigBee is a consortium of software hardware and services companies having improved a common standard for wireless networking of sensors and microcontrollers.Bluetooth is a technology of wireless standard for exchanging data for short distances. In this article we point out sending data to the drivers via not only ZigBee module but also Bluetooth module.

  12. Missouri Work Zone Capacity : Results of Field Data Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-01

    This report presents the results of work zone field data analyzed on interstate highways in Missouri to determine : the mean breakdown and queue-discharge flow rates as measures of capacity. Several days of traffic data : collected at a work zone nea...

  13. Post-Earthquake Traffic Capacity of Modern Bridges in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-01

    Evaluation of the capacity of a bridge to carry self-weight and traffic loads after an earthquake is essential for a : safe and timely re-opening of the bridge. In California, modern highway bridges designed using the Caltrans : Seismic Design Criter...

  14. 77 FR 64077 - National Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory Reporting Requirements

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-18

    ... about warning devices and signage, for each previously unreported and new public and private highway..., including current information about warning devices and signage, related to new and previously unreported... devices and signage * * * concerning each previously unreported crossing through which it operates or with...

  15. The hydrogen highway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grigg, A.

    2004-01-01

    'Full text:' The Hydrogen Highway in British Columbia, Canada, is a coordinated, large-scale demonstration and deployment program aimed at accelerating the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and products. It will be a showcase for fuel cell vehicles, refuelling stations and stationary power systems leading up to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Whistler, BC. The Hydrogen Highway is designed to help address many of the challenges to commercialization identified in the Canadian Fuel Cell Commercialization Roadmap. The project will create an early adopter network of hydrogen and fuel cell microenvironments where technology developers and users can learn about the technical, economic, environmental and social impacts of products. The Hydrogen Highway will give the public and potential purchasers an opportunity to feel, touch and see the new technology, as well as provide the industry with a venue in which to develop industry standards and supply chains of materials and components. While demonstration and deployment programs are a recognized and necessary component in the process to commercialize hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, there is no handbook describing how it should be done. This paper will describe the history, objectives, project details and some of the challenges associated with establishing Canada's Hydrogen Highway. (author)

  16. The hydrogen highway

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grigg, A. [Fuel Cells Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)

    2004-07-01

    'Full text:' The Hydrogen Highway in British Columbia, Canada, is a coordinated, large-scale demonstration and deployment program aimed at accelerating the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and products. It will be a showcase for fuel cell vehicles, refuelling stations and stationary power systems leading up to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Whistler, BC. The Hydrogen Highway is designed to help address many of the challenges to commercialization identified in the Canadian Fuel Cell Commercialization Roadmap. The project will create an early adopter network of hydrogen and fuel cell microenvironments where technology developers and users can learn about the technical, economic, environmental and social impacts of products. The Hydrogen Highway will give the public and potential purchasers an opportunity to feel, touch and see the new technology, as well as provide the industry with a venue in which to develop industry standards and supply chains of materials and components. While demonstration and deployment programs are a recognized and necessary component in the process to commercialize hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, there is no handbook describing how it should be done. This paper will describe the history, objectives, project details and some of the challenges associated with establishing Canada's Hydrogen Highway. (author)

  17. Conceptual Model for Smart Cities: Irrigation and Highway Lamps using IoT

    OpenAIRE

    Vijender Kumar Solanki; M. Venkaesan; Somesh Katiyar

    2017-01-01

    Keeping in mind the need to preserve energy as well as utilize the available at its best the need was felt to develop a module that would be able to sort out the problem where resources such as water and electricity were wasted, in urban as well as rural area. Resource (electricity) was wasted as beside the point operation of Highway and High Mast Lamp; while wastage of water followed by improper trends and methodologies imparted for watering of city park, road side plantation and highway pla...

  18. Demand Analysis of Logistics Information Matching Platform: A Survey from Highway Freight Market in Zhejiang Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Daqiang; Shen, Xiahong; Tong, Bing; Zhu, Xiaoxiao; Feng, Tao

    With the increasing competition in logistics industry and promotion of lower logistics costs requirements, the construction of logistics information matching platform for highway transportation plays an important role, and the accuracy of platform design is the key to successful operation or not. Based on survey results of logistics service providers, customers and regulation authorities to access to information and in-depth information demand analysis of logistics information matching platform for highway transportation in Zhejiang province, a survey analysis for framework of logistics information matching platform for highway transportation is provided.

  19. Comprehensive highway corridor planning with sustainability indicators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-01

    "The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has initiated major planning efforts to improve transportation : efficiency, safety, and sustainability on critical highway corridors through its Comprehensive Highway Corridor : (CHC) program. This pr...

  20. Highway Design on the Sections Affected by Aquaplaning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandr Reznik

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Pouring rain, snow melting, water condensing, fog and other natural phenomena cause the collection of water on roadway pavement, leading to the decrease of road-holding capacity of a tyre.When a car or a light truck is moving at a high speed on wet road pavement, the water under its wheels cannot be expelled in time.It results in raising of the front wheels of the vehicle above the road surface under the action of a hydrodynamic force and loss of vehicle control.The methods ensuring traffic safety on road sections, where vehicle’s aquaplaning is possible, should be developed by identifying and improving these sections at the stages of highway design, reconstruction and maintenance and by limiting traffic speed of vehicles.Keywords: vehicle, road, road-holding capacity, aquaplaning, reconstruction, maintenance, traffic safety.DOI: 10.3846/mla.2009.6.06

  1. Autonomous Highway Systems Safety and Security

    OpenAIRE

    Sajjad, Imran

    2017-01-01

    Automated vehicles are getting closer each day to large-scale deployment. It is expected that self-driving cars will be able to alleviate traffic congestion by safely operating at distances closer than human drivers are capable of and will overall improve traffic throughput. In these conditions, passenger safety and security is of utmost importance. When multiple autonomous cars follow each other on a highway, they will form what is known as a cyber-physical system. In a general setting, t...

  2. DOT Official County Highway Map

    Data.gov (United States)

    Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — The County Highway Map theme is a scanned and rectified version of the original MnDOT County Highway Map Series. The cultural features on some of these maps may be...

  3. Research notes : monitoring water quality along highways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-12-01

    Runoff from highways typically picks up a variety of pollutants from the roadway. These pollutants include sediment, trash, residue from petroleum products, and heavy metals. Depending on the highway and its geographic setting, highway runoff can eva...

  4. Preliminary Findings of the South Africa Power System Capacity Expansion and Operational Modelling Study: Preprint

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reber, Timothy J [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Chartan, Erol Kevin [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Brinkman, Gregory L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2018-01-01

    Wind and solar power contract prices have recently become cheaper than many conventional new-build alternatives in South Africa and trends suggest a continued increase in the share of variable renewable energy (vRE) on South Africa's power system with coal technology seeing the greatest reduction in capacity, see 'Figure 6: Percentage share by Installed Capacity (MW)' in [1]. Hence it is essential to perform a state-of-the-art grid integration study examining the effects of these high penetrations of vRE on South Africa's power system. Under the 21st Century Power Partnership (21CPP), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has significantly augmented existing models of the South African power system to investigate future vRE scenarios. NREL, in collaboration with Eskom's Planning Department, further developed, tested and ran a combined capacity expansion and operational model of the South African power system including spatially disaggregated detail and geographical representation of system resources. New software to visualize and interpret modelling outputs has been developed, and scenario analysis of stepwise vRE build targets reveals new insight into associated planning and operational impacts and costs. The model, built using PLEXOS, is split into two components, firstly a capacity expansion model and secondly a unit commitment and economic dispatch model. The capacity expansion model optimizes new generation decisions to achieve the lowest cost, with a full understanding of capital cost and an approximated understanding of operational costs. The operational model has a greater set of detailed operational constraints and is run at daily resolutions. Both are run from 2017 through 2050. This investigation suggests that running both models in tandem may be the most effective means to plan the least cost South African power system as build plans seen to be more expensive than optimal by the

  5. Missouri Highway Safety Manual Recalibration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-05-01

    The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) is a national manual for analyzing the highway safety of various facilities, including rural roads, urban arterials, freeways, and intersections. The HSM was first published in 2010, and a 2014 supplement addressed fre...

  6. Development of a highway incident management operational and training guide for incident responders in Illinois.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-01

    Each year highway traffic incidents, such as crashes, place responders on and beside roadways with : dangerous high-speed traffic. The unexpected conditions of an incident scene have the potential to surprise : unsuspecting or inattentive drivers, po...

  7. 75 FR 18095 - America's Marine Highway Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-09

    ... Marine Highway Transportation. Authority: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Sections 1121...] RIN 2133-AB70 America's Marine Highway Program AGENCY: Maritime Administration, Department of... interim final rule that established America's Marine Highway Program, under which the Secretary will...

  8. State Maintained Highways in Louisiana, UTM Zone 15 NAD83, LDOTD (2007) [state_highways_ldotd_2007

    Data.gov (United States)

    Louisiana Geographic Information Center — This dataset represents the state maintained road network of Louisiana. The dataset includes Interstates, US highways, and Louisiana State Highways. This dataset was...

  9. 23 CFR Appendix B to Subpart B of... - Required Contract Provisions, Appalachian Development Highway System and Local Access Roads...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS... washrooms, restaurants and other eating areas, timeclocks, locker rooms and other storage or dressing areas... his basic rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of eight hours in any calendar day or in excess...

  10. By, with, and through: the theory and practice of special operations capacity-building

    OpenAIRE

    Heisler, Anthony F.

    2014-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited This thesis presents a theory of how U.S. special operations forces (USSOF) build partner capacity. Building partner capacity (BPC) is a cornerstone of America’s post-9/11 security strategy and a signature mission of USSOF. However, USSOF lacks a theory that articulates how capacity is built or the keys to its success. This thesis explores BPC from the top down, through national security documents, doctrine, and case studies. It identi...

  11. Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) (National)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has the responsibility to assure that adequate highway transportation information is available to support its functions and...

  12. Off-Highway Gasoline Consuption Estimation Models Used in the Federal Highway Administration Attribution Process: 2008 Updates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hwang, Ho-Ling [ORNL; Davis, Stacy Cagle [ORNL

    2009-12-01

    This report is designed to document the analysis process and estimation models currently used by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to estimate the off-highway gasoline consumption and public sector fuel consumption. An overview of the entire FHWA attribution process is provided along with specifics related to the latest update (2008) on the Off-Highway Gasoline Use Model and the Public Use of Gasoline Model. The Off-Highway Gasoline Use Model is made up of five individual modules, one for each of the off-highway categories: agricultural, industrial and commercial, construction, aviation, and marine. This 2008 update of the off-highway models was the second major update (the first model update was conducted during 2002-2003) after they were originally developed in mid-1990. The agricultural model methodology, specifically, underwent a significant revision because of changes in data availability since 2003. Some revision to the model was necessary due to removal of certain data elements used in the original estimation method. The revised agricultural model also made use of some newly available information, published by the data source agency in recent years. The other model methodologies were not drastically changed, though many data elements were updated to improve the accuracy of these models. Note that components in the Public Use of Gasoline Model were not updated in 2008. A major challenge in updating estimation methods applied by the public-use model is that they would have to rely on significant new data collection efforts. In addition, due to resource limitation, several components of the models (both off-highway and public-us models) that utilized regression modeling approaches were not recalibrated under the 2008 study. An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency's NONROAD2005 model was also carried out under the 2008 model update. Results generated from the NONROAD2005 model were analyzed, examined, and compared, to the extent that

  13. Assessment of metal retention in newly constructed highway embankments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Werkenthin, Moritz; Kluge, Björn; Wessolek, Gerd

    2016-12-01

    Newly constructed embankments should provide both a specific bearing capacity to enable trafficability in emergency cases and a sufficient pollutant retention capacity to protect the groundwater. A number of lysimeters were installed along the A115 highway to determine total and dissolved metal concentrations in road runoff and in the soil solution of newly constructed embankments. Dissolved concentrations in soil solution of the embankments did not exceed the trigger values of the German legislation. Depending on the metal, total concentrations in soil solution were more than twice as high as dissolved concentrations. The high infiltration rates lead to increased groundwater recharge beneath the embankments (up to 4100 mm a -1 ). Although metal concentrations were not problematic from the legislators' point of view, the elevated infiltration rates beside the road facilitated the transfer of high metal loads into deeper soil layers and potentially into the groundwater as well.

  14. FHWA Research and Technology Evaluation: Public-Private Partnership Capacity Building Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-02-01

    This report details the evaluation of the Federal Highway Administrations Office of Innovative Program Delivery Public-Private Partnership (P3) Capacity Building Program (P3 Program). The evaluators focused on the P3 Programs P3 Toolkit as an e...

  15. Major Highway Lines, US, 2015, NAVTEQ

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — NAVTEQ Major Highways for the United States. The Major Highways layer contains Road Network features based on the Functional Class attribute value on each link...

  16. Secondary Highway Lines, US, 2015, NAVTEQ

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — NAVTEQ Secondary Highways for the United States. The Secondary Highways layer contains Road Network features based on the Functional Class value on each link present...

  17. Impact of Plastic Hinge Properties on Capacity Curve of Reinforced Concrete Bridges

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nasim Shatarat

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Pushover analysis is becoming recently the most practical tool for nonlinear analysis of regular and irregular highway bridges. The nonlinear behaviour of structural elements in this type of analysis can be modeled through automated-hinge or user-defined hinge models. The nonlinear properties of the user-defined hinge model for existing highway bridges can be determined in accordance with the recommendations of the Seismic Retrofit Manual by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA-SRM. Finite element software such as the software SAP2000 offers a simpler and easier approach to determine the nonlinear hinge properties through the automated-hinge model which are determined automatically from the member material and cross section properties. However, the uncertainties in using the automated-hinge model in place of user-defined hinge model have never been addressed, especially for existing and widened bridges. In response to this need, pushover analysis was carried out for four old highway bridges, of which two were widened using the same superstructure but with more attention to seismic detailing requirements. The results of the analyses showed noticeable differences in the capacity curves obtained utilizing the user-defined and automated-hinge models. The study recommends that bridge design manuals clearly ask bridge designers to evaluate the deformation capacities of existing bridges and widened bridges using user-defined hinge model that is determined in accordance with the provisions of the FHWA-SRM.

  18. Computational Intelligence in Highway Management: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ondrej Pribyl

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Highway management systems are used to improve safety and driving comfort on highways by using control strategies and providing information and warnings to drivers. They use several strategies starting from speed and lane management, through incident detection and warning systems, ramp metering, weather information up to, for example, informing drivers about alternative roads. This paper provides a review of the existing approaches to highway management systems, particularly speed harmonization and ramp metering. It is focused only on modern and advanced approaches, such as soft computing, multi-agent methods and their interconnection. Its objective is to provide guidance in the wide field of highway management and to point out the most relevant recent activities which demonstrate that development in the field of highway management is still important and that the existing research exhibits potential for further enhancement.

  19. Assessment of the neighborhood environmental effects of highway improvements through micronetwork simulation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schimpeler, C.C. (Schimpeler--Corradino Associates, Louisville, KY); Corradino, J.C.; Siria, B.S.

    1978-01-01

    New Cut Road is a major arterial highway serving South Louisville. Until recently, it was a narrow two-lane highway of rural-type design carrying up to 14,000 vehicles per day under forced flow conditions. Then construction began to widen the road from Southside Drive to Old Third Street Road, as a result of Urban Corridor Demonstration Program funding. The impacts (traffic, noise, and air pollution) on the neighborhoods surrounding this widening have been measured through micronetwork simulation techniques. Traffic will be diverted from surrounding roads (up to 20 percent) to the widened New Cut facility, thereby eliminating ''over-capacity'' conditions in these facilities, adding several years' life. Further, expeditious movement of vehicles through the New Cut Road ''area of influence'' will have a beneficial, albeit small, effect on the local air and noise environment. New Cut Road will be a highly cost-effective, low-capital-intensive improvement.

  20. Revenue Risk Modelling and Assessment on BOT Highway Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novianti, T.; Setyawan, H. Y.

    2018-01-01

    The infrastructure project which is considered as a public-private partnership approach under BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) arrangement, such as a highway, is risky. Therefore, assessment on risk factors is essential as the project have a concession period and is influenced by macroeconomic factors and consensus period. In this study, pre-construction risks of a highway were examined by using a Delphi method to create a space for offline expert discussions; a fault tree analysis to map intuition of experts and to create a model from the underlying risk events; a fuzzy logic to interpret the linguistic data of risk models. The loss of revenue for risk tariff, traffic volume, force majeure, and income were then measured. The results showed that the loss of revenue caused by the risk tariff was 10.5% of the normal total revenue. The loss of revenue caused by the risk of traffic volume was 21.0% of total revenue. The loss of revenue caused by the force majeure was 12.2% of the normal income. The loss of income caused by the non-revenue events was 6.9% of the normal revenue. It was also found that the volume of traffic was the major risk of a highway project because it related to customer preferences.

  1. Estimates of emergency operating capacity in US manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries - Volume 1: Concepts and Methodology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belzer, D.B. (Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)); Serot, D.E. (D/E/S Research, Richland, WA (USA)); Kellogg, M.A. (ERCE, Inc., Portland, OR (USA))

    1991-03-01

    Development of integrated mobilization preparedness policies requires planning estimates of available productive capacity during national emergency conditions. Such estimates must be developed in a manner to allow evaluation of current trends in capacity and the consideration of uncertainties in various data inputs and in engineering assumptions. This study developed estimates of emergency operating capacity (EOC) for 446 manufacturing industries at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level of aggregation and for 24 key nonmanufacturing sectors. This volume lays out the general concepts and methods used to develop the emergency operating estimates. The historical analysis of capacity extends from 1974 through 1986. Some nonmanufacturing industries are included. In addition to mining and utilities, key industries in transportation, communication, and services were analyzed. Physical capacity and efficiency of production were measured. 3 refs., 2 figs., 12 tabs. (JF)

  2. Highways and outposts: economic development and health threats in the central Brazilian Amazon region

    OpenAIRE

    Barcellos, Christovam; Feitosa, Patrícia; Damacena, Giseli N; Andreazzi, Marco A

    2010-01-01

    Abstract Background Economic development is often evoked as a driving force that has the capacity to improve the social and health conditions of remote areas. However, development projects produce uneven impacts on local communities, according to their different positions within society. This study examines the spatial distribution of three major health threats in the Brazilian Amazon region that may undergo changes through highway construction. Homicide mortality, AIDS incidence and malaria ...

  3. Capacity enhancement and flexible operation of unified power quality conditioner in smart and microgrid network

    OpenAIRE

    Khadem, Shafiuzzaman Khan; Basu, Malabika; Conlon, Michael F.

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents a new approach to design Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC), termed as distributed UPQC (D-UPQC), for smart or microgrid network where capacity enhancement and flexible operation of UPQC are the important issues. This paper shows the possibility of capacity enhancement and operational flexibility of UPQC through a coordinated control of existing resources. This UPQC consists of a single unit series active power filter (APFse) and multiple shunt APF (APFsh) units in a...

  4. Outflow of traffic from the national capital Kuala Lumpur to the north, south and east coast highways using flow, speed and density relationships

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Nik Hashim Nik Mustapha; Nik Nur Wahidah Nik Hashim

    2016-01-01

    The functional relationships between flow (veh/km), density (veh/h) and speed (km/h) in traffic congestion have a long history of research. However, their findings and techniques persist to be relevant to this day. The analysis is pertinent, particularly in finding the best fit for the three major highways in Malaysia, namely the KL-Karak Highway, KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. The trans-logarithm function of density—speed model was compared to the classical models of Greenshields, Greenberg, Underwood and Drake et al. using data provided by the Transport Statistics Malaysia 2014. The results of regression analysis revealed that the Greenshields and Greenberg models were statistically signifi-cant. The trans-logarithm function was also tested and the results were nonetheless without exception. Its usefulness in addition to statistical significance related to the derived economic concepts of maximum speed and the related number of vehicles, flow and density and the limits of free speed were relevant in comparing the individual levels of traffic congestion between highways. For instance, KL-Karak Highway was least congested compared to KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. Their maximum speeds, based on three lanes carriage capacity of one direction, were 33.4 km/h for KL-Karak, 15.9 km/h for KL-Seremban, and 21.1 km/h for KL-Ipoh. Their corresponding flows were approxi-mated at 1080.9 veh/h, 1555.4 veh/h, and 1436.6 veh/h.

  5. Genetic algorithm-based stochastic optimization for preempted signals at highway railroad grade crossing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-01

    Decreasing the number of accidents at highway-railway grade crossings (HRGCs) is an important goal in the transportation field. The preemption of traffic signal operations at HRGCs is widely used to prevent accidents by clearing vehicles off the trac...

  6. Current Situation of Highway Daily Maintenance Management in Beijing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pan Feng Ming

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Combined with the industry property, characteristics and management needs of highway maintenance project in Beijing, through investigation and research of the highway daily maintenance management, the present situation of highway repair and maintenance is expounded from the aspects such as the determination of maintenance funds and plan, maintenance management mode, and so on. Then in order to explore the new mechanisms for market management of highway maintenance, the advantages and disadvantages of highway maintenance and minor repairment of Beijing are analyzed.

  7. 23 CFR 470.107 - Federal-aid highway systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND RESEARCH HIGHWAY SYSTEMS... industrial centers, including important routes into, through, and around urban areas, serve the national... importance in Canada and Mexico. (2) The portion of the Interstate System designated under 23 U.S.C. 103 (e...

  8. Entanglement Capacity of Two-Qubit Unitary Operator with the Help of Auxiliary System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Baolin; Di Yaomin

    2007-01-01

    The entanglement capacity of general two-qubit unitary operators is studied when auxiliary systems are allowed, and the analytical results based on linear entropy when input states are disentangled are given. From the results the condition for perfect entangler, α 1 = α 2 = π/4, is obtained. Contrary to the case without auxiliary system, the parameter α 3 may play active role to the entanglement capacity when auxiliary systems are allowed.

  9. Nationwide desert highway assessment: a case study in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Xuesong; Wang, Fuchun; Wang, Binggang

    2011-07-01

    The natural environment affects the construction of desert highways. Conversely, highway construction affects the natural environment and puts the ecological environment at a disadvantage. To satisfy the variety and hierarchy of desert highway construction and discover the spatio-temporal distribution of the natural environment and its effect on highway construction engineering, an assessment of the natural regional divisions of desert highways in China is carried out for the first time. Based on the general principles and method for the natural region division, the principles, method and index system for desert highway assessment is put forward by combining the desert highway construction features and the azonal differentiation law. The index system combines the dominant indicator and four auxiliary indicators. The dominant indicator is defined by the desert's comprehensive state index and the auxiliary indicators include the sand dune height, the blown sand strength, the vegetation coverage ratio and the annual average temperature difference. First the region is divided according to the dominant indicator. Then the region boundaries are amended according to the four auxiliary indicators. Finally the natural region division map for desert highway assessment is presented. The Chinese desert highways can be divided into three sections: the east medium effect region, the middle medium-severe effect region, and the west slight-medium effect region. The natural region division map effectively paves the way for the route planning, design, construction, maintenance and ongoing management of desert highways, and further helps environmental protection.

  10. Sustainable Waste Management for Green Highway Initiatives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Husin Nur Illiana

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Green highway initiative is the transportation corridors based on sustainable concept of roadway. It incorporates both transportation functionality and ecological requirements. Green highway also provides more sustainable construction technique that maximizes the lifespan of highway. Waste management is one of the sustainable criterias in the elements of green highway. Construction of highway consumes enormous amounts of waste in term of materials and energy. These wastes need to be reduce to sustain the environment. This paper aims to identify the types of waste produced from highway construction. Additionally, this study also determine the waste minimization strategy and waste management practiced.. This study main focus are construction and demolition waste only. The methodology process begin with data collection by using questionnaire survey. 22 concession companies listed under Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia acted as a respondent. The questionnaires were distributed to all technical department staffs. The data received was analyzed using IBM SPSS. The results shows the most production of waste is wood, soil, tree root and concrete. The least production of waste is metal. For waste minimization, the best waste minimization is reuse for all type of waste except for tree root and stump. Whereas, the best waste management is providing strategic plan. The least practice for waste management is recording the quantity of waste.

  11. Comprehensive highway corridor planning with sustainability indicators : [research summary].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-01

    The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) has initiated major planning : efforts to improve transportation efficiency, safety and sustainability on critical : highway corridors through its Comprehensive Highway Corridor (CHC) program. : It is i...

  12. Trend and concentrations of legacy lead (Pb) in highway runoff

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kayhanian, Masoud

    2012-01-01

    This study presents the results of lead (Pb) concentrations from both highway runoff and contaminated soil along 32 and 23 highway sites, respectively. In general, the Pb concentration on topsoil (0–15 cm) along highways was much higher than the Pb concentration in subsurface soil (15–60 cm). The Pb deposited on soil appears to be anthropogenic and a strong correlation was found between the Pb concentration in surface soil and highway runoff in urban areas. The concentration of Pb measured during 1980s from highways runoff throughout the world was up to 11 times higher than the measured values in mid 1990s and 2000s. The current Pb deposited on soil near highways appears to be a mixture of paint, tire weight balance and old leaded gasoline combustion. Overall, the Pb phase-out regulation reduced the Pb deposits in the environment and consequently lowered Pb loading into receiving waters. - Highlights: ► Pb concentrations in highway runoff ranged from 0.5 to 752 mg/L. ► 78% of total lead concentration in highway runoff was in particulate form. ► Pb deposited on highway sites was mostly within 0 to 15 cm of soil column. ► Pb concentration in highway runoff and top soil was strongly correlated. ► Current Pb concentration in highway runoff is up to 11 times lower than late 1980s. - Most Pb deposited on soil near highways is within the top 15 cm. This Pb is the major sources of Pb concentration in highway runoff that has substantially been reduced since lead phase-out era.

  13. Highway Safety Program Manual: Volume 3: Motorcycle Safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT), Washington, DC.

    Volume 3 of the 19-volume Highway Safety Program Manual (which provides guidance to State and local governments on preferred highway safety practices) concentrates on aspects of motorcycle safety. The purpose and specific objectives of a State motorcycle safety program are outlined. Federal authority in the highway safety area and general policies…

  14. Trends in the highway market for wood products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robert G. Knutson

    1975-01-01

    Forty-eight million cubic feet of wood products, about 50 million dollars worth, were used in the Nation's highway construction program in 1972. Expenditures for highway construction increased 2½ times from 1954 to 1972. The volume of wood products used in highway construction changed little during this period because other materials were substituted for...

  15. Outflow of traffic from the national capital Kuala Lumpur to the north, south and east coast highways using flow, speed and density relationships

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nik Hashim Nik Mustapha

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The functional relationships between flow (veh/km, density (veh/h and speed (km/h in traffic congestion have a long history of research. However, their findings and techniques persist to be relevant to this day. The analysis is pertinent, particularly in finding the best fit for the three major highways in Malaysia, namely the KL-Karak Highway, KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. The trans-logarithm function of density–speed model was compared to the classical models of Greenshields, Greenberg, Underwood and Drake et al. using data provided by the Transport Statistics Malaysia 2014. The results of regression analysis revealed that the Greenshields and Greenberg models were statistically significant. The trans-logarithm function was also tested and the results were nonetheless without exception. Its usefulness in addition to statistical significance related to the derived economic concepts of maximum speed and the related number of vehicles, flow and density and the limits of free speed were relevant in comparing the individual levels of traffic congestion between highways. For instance, KL-Karak Highway was least congested compared to KL-Seremban Highway and KL-Ipoh Highway. Their maximum speeds, based on three lanes carriage capacity of one direction, were 33.4 km/h for KL-Karak, 15.9 km/h for KL-Seremban, and 21.1 km/h for KL-Ipoh. Their corresponding flows were approximated at 1080.9 veh/h, 1555.4 veh/h, and 1436.6 veh/h.

  16. Case study on ventilation method development for Bar-Boljare highway tunnels construction in Montenegro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cvjetić Aleksandar S.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Sometimes tunnel construction is a necessity regardless of its purpose due to many reasons, to mention some of them: limited space, safe operation, environmental protection etc. In those cases, one of the main aspects concerning an appropriate design of a tunnel construction is site ventilation. Ventilation is required during the construction of any tunnel regardless of technology used to construct it. Three major construction ventilation schemes are typically applied. Which one will be use are often in dependency of the site requirements. In this paper is presented case study on ventilation method development for the highway tunnels construction and it includes ventilation solutions for tunnels ‘Suka’, ‘Vežešnik’, ‘Mrke’ and ‘Vjeternik’ during construction phase. The tunnels are part of the Bar-Boljare highway which is also a part of the Trans-European Highway (THE through the Republic of Montenegro.

  17. OML-Highway within the framework of SELMAGIS. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Solvang Jensen, S.; Becker, T.; Ketzel, M.; Loefstroem, P.; Roerdam Olesen, H. (Aarhus Univ., National Environmental Research Institute, Dept. of Atmospheric Environment (Denmark)); Lorentz, H. (Ingenieurbuero Lohmeyer (Germany))

    2010-06-15

    This report describes the OML-Highway model and its integration into SELMAGIS. The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has developed the OML-Highway model and Ingenieurbuero Lohmeyer from Germany has developed SELMAGIS. The OML-Highway model is able to calculate air pollution concentration levels at receptor points along a highway road network, while SELMAGIS is a framework for calculating and representing air pollutant emissions and concentrations in a geographical information system (GIS). (author)

  18. Risk assessment of wind turbines close to highways

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Sørensen, Jens Nørkær; Lemming, Jørgen Kjærgaard

    2012-01-01

    with a spacing of 400m. As an example the generally accepted risk on highways in increased with less than 0.1% in wind turbines are installed more than 150 meters from the highway. The risk due to ice throw from a wind turbine in operation is seen to be slightly greater than the risk if the wind turbine......) and a spacing of 400-500 m along the road. The studies show that the probability per kilometer that a person in a vehicle is killed due to total or partial collapse (damage) of a wind turbine can be assumed to be of minor importance. The probability per kilometer will be less than 5 10-12 for wind turbines...... that are more than 60 meters from the road. This risk is considered acceptable using the ALARP principle and comparing with the general, well-documented risk on roads in Denmark which in 2009 was 2 10-9. The analysis also shows that the height of the turbines and the distance between them is of less importance...

  19. Working Memory Capacity and Fluid Abilities: Examining the Correlation between Operation Span and Raven

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unsworth, N.; Engle, R.W.

    2005-01-01

    The correlation between a measure of working memory capacity (WMC) (Operation Span) and a measure of fluid abilities (Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices) was examined. Specifically, performance on Raven problems was decomposed by difficulty, memory load, and rule type. The results suggest that the relation between Operation Span and Raven is…

  20. Research of influence of time of reaction of the driver on the calculation of the capacity of the highway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anastasiya SHEVTSOVA

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available In the work we performed a review of studies of foreign scholars on changing the reaction time of the driver depending on various road conditions, namely the change in the response time when using the traffic light regulation. Earlier by the authors of this article have already been carried out research in the field of throughput of a site of a highway with traffic regulation, which showed that this value depends on the time of reaction of the driver. In this article the estimation of how much bandwidth the highway using different result obtained in the course of analysis, time value of reaction of the driver and is a direct correlation bandwidth from the time of reaction of the driver. The values obtained allow to conclude that taking into account the psycho-physiological characteristics of drivers (response time will have a significant impact on the throughput and the various methods of organization and reorganization of sections of the road network, implementation of which is used investigated the amount of bandwidth.

  1. Trends in federal and state highway investment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2003-06-18

    In response to Congressional request the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed data from Federal Highway Administration 's Highway Statistics for the period from 1982 through 2001, adjusting expenditures to 2001 dollars to (1) identify overal...

  2. HIGHWAY, a transportation routing model: program description and users' manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.; Gibson, S.M.

    1982-12-01

    A computerized transportation routing model has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be used for predicting likely routes for shipping radioactive materials. The HIGHWAY data base is a computerized road atlas containing descriptions of the entire interstate highway system, the federal highway system, and most of the principal state roads. In addition to its prediction of the most likely commercial route, options incorporated in the HIGHWAY model can allow for maximum use of interstate highways or routes that will bypass urbanized areas containing populations > 100,000. The user may also interactively modify the data base to predict routes that bypass any particular state, city, town, or specific highway segment

  3. Explaining residential moving intentions : the case of highway locations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hamersma, Marije; Heinen, Eva; Tillema, Taede; Arts, Jos

    2013-01-01

    In this paper Structural Equation Modeling is used to test a theoretical framework to explain the impact of highway externalities (i.e. accessibility and nuisance) on moving intentions of people living close to highways. We aimed to study whether highway externalities (alongside other contextual

  4. A capacity expansion model dealing with balancing requirements, short-term operations and long-run dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Villavicencio, Manuel

    2017-01-01

    One of the challenges of current power systems is presented by the need to adequately integrate increasing shares of variable renewable energies (VRE) such as wind and photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The study of capacity investments under this context raises refreshed interrogations about the optimal power generation mix when considering system adequacy, operability and reliability issues. This paper analyses the influence of such considerations and adopts a resource-adequacy approach to propose a stylized capacity expansion model (CEM) that endogenously optimize investments in both generation capacity and new flexibility options such as electric energy storage (EES) and demand side management (DSM) capabilities. Three formulations are tested in order to seize the relevance of system dynamics representation over the valuation of capacity and flexibility investments. In each formulation the complexity of the representation of operating constraints increases. The resource-adequacy approach is then enlarged with a multi-service representation of the power system introducing non-contingency reserve considerations. Therefore, investments decisions are enhanced by information from system operations requirements given by the hourly economic dispatch and also by a reliability criterion given by reserve needs. The formulations are tested on a case study in order to capture the trade-offs of adding more details on the system representation while exogenously imposing supplementary VRE penetration. The results obtained show the importance of adopting a sufficiently detailed representation of system requirements to accurately capture the value of capacity and flexibility when important VRE penetration levels are to be studied, but also to appropriately estimate resulting system cost and CO_2 emissions. (author)

  5. Canada's gas taxes = highway robbery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2000-05-01

    This report was prepared for the second annual 'gas honesty day' (May 18, 2000) in an effort to draw attention to the frustration of Canadian taxpayers with gasoline retailers and the petroleum industry for the inordinately and unjustifiably high prices for gasoline at the pump. The report points out that the public outcry is, in fact, misdirected since the largest profiteers at the pumps, the federal government, remains largely unscathed. It is alleged in the report that gas taxes are tantamount to highway robbery. Ostensibly collected for road construction and maintenance, of the almost $ 5 billion collected in 1999, only a paltry $ 194 million was returned to the provinces for roadway and highway spending. The 10-year average of federal returns to the the provinces from tax on gasoline is a meager 4.7 per cent, which fell even further to 4.1 per cent in 1998-1999. Gasoline tax revenues continue to climb, while government commitment to real roadway and highway spending continues to decline. This document attempts to shed some light on the pricing structure for gasoline. Without defending or explaining the non-tax portion of the pump price charged by Canada's oil companies, which is a task for the oil companies to undertake, the document makes a concerted effort to raise public awareness and focus public attention on government's involvement, namely that gas taxes represent on average about 50 per cent of the pump price and that the majority of the taxes collected are not put back into road and highway improvements. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, authors of this report, expect that by focusing debate on the issue of gasoline taxes a broad support for a lowering of the overall tax burden on motorists will result. Among other things, the CTF advocates reduction of federal and provincial fuel taxes to levels commensurate with highway funding; dedication of fuel tax revenues to highway construction and maintenance; elimination of the sales and goods

  6. The ELETTRA field highway system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bulfone, D.; Michelini, P.; Mignacco, M.

    1992-01-01

    ELETTRA is a third generation Synchrotron Light Source under construction in Trieste (Italy); it consists of a full energy linac injector and a storage ring with beam energies between 1.5 and 2 GeV. The ELETTRA control system has a distributed architecture, hierarchically divided into three layers of computers; two network levels provide communication between the adjacent computer layers. The field highway adopted for the connection of the middle-layer local process computers with the bottom-layer equipment interface units is the MIL-1553B multidrop highway. This paper describes the hardware configuration and the main communication services developed on the MIL-1553B field highway for accelerator control. As an additional feature, typical LAN utilities have been added on top of the basic MIL-1553B communication software allowing remote logic and file transfer; these tools are currently used for software development in our laboratory. (author)

  7. Optimize pollutant emissions through adaptive highway management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-01

    In this project, we investigated the possibility to reduce green house emission : (mainly CO2) from urban highways by adaptive ramp meter control. QUADSTONE : PARAMICS software was used to build a microscopic traffic model for a 4-lane highway : sect...

  8. Bosentan Improves Exercise Capacity in Adolescents and Adults After Fontan Operation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hebert, Anders; Mikkelsen, Ulla Ramer; Thilen, Ulf

    2014-01-01

    a crucial role. Elevated pulmonary vascular resistance has been associated with raised levels of endothelin-1, which are common both before and after Fontan operations. Treatment with endothelin-1 receptor antagonists could theoretically improve cardiopulmonary hemodynamics and exercise capacity. The aim......BACKGROUND: The Fontan procedure has improved survival in children with functionally univentricular hearts. With time, however, complications such as reduced exercise capacity are seen more frequently. Exercise intolerance is multifactorial, but pulmonary vascular resistance probably plays...... of this study was therefore to examine the efficacy and safety of bosentan in Fontan patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Seventy-five adolescents and adults were randomized 1:1 to 14 weeks of treatment with bosentan or placebo. Cardiopulmonary exercise test, functional class, blood samples, and quality...

  9. SafetyAnalyst : software tools for safety management of specific highway sites

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    SafetyAnalyst provides a set of software tools for use by state and local highway agencies for highway safety management. SafetyAnalyst can be used by highway agencies to improve their programming of site-specific highway safety improvements. SafetyA...

  10. MANAGING RISKS AND LIABILITIES IN THE HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT SECTOR

    OpenAIRE

    P.E. FORMAN, B.Eng.(Hons.), M.Sc., C.Eng.

    2000-01-01

    In recent years, more people have been claiming financial recompense for personal injuries they sustain. Increasingly, the targets of such claims are highway authorities, transport operators and property owners. This paper outlines an area of risk commonly overlooked by practitioners, but which can be managed effectively and can afford both cost savings and public safety improvements. Inconsistencies between design standards, safety improvement policies and maintenance regimes for the more...

  11. Simulator Evaluation of Drivers’ Performance on Rural Highways in relation to Drivers’ Visual Attention Demands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yaqin Qin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim of the study is to investigate, by means of a driving simulator experiment, drivers’ performance in terms of lateral position, speed, deceleration, steering angle, and breaking times on a divided two-lane rural highway in relation to drivers’ visual attention (VD. In the experiment, the virtual scene of twenty different geometric alignment sections without traffic and the VD testing were designed. Twenty-three experienced drivers with the calibration of attention capacity participated in a 30 km drive in an interactive fixed-base simulator. Each participant was required to drive with the controlled speed of 60 km/h along the central lane as repeating random number and was evaluated on VD and driving performances. Three different data analysis techniques were used: (a statistical tests and hypothesis test of curvature change rate (CCR of the geometric alignments, visual attention demands, and driving performance data, (b correlation analysis of VD, CCRs, and driving behaviors, and (c regression analysis of the VD and CCRs. Results have showed that the driving performance can be effectively influenced by the highway alignment and a prediction model built in this study can evaluate the drivers’ visual attention demands before the highway constructed. The interactions among VD, driving behavior, and CCRs were also found.

  12. The Application Study in Solar Energy Technology for Highway Service Area: A Case Study of West Lushan Highway Low-Carbon Service Area in China

    OpenAIRE

    Qin, Xiaochun; Shen, Yi; Shao, Shegang

    2015-01-01

    A lot of research works have been made concerning highway service area or solar technology and acquired great achievements. However, unfortunately, few works have been made combining the two topics together of highway service areas and solar energy saving to make a systemic research on solar technology application for highway service area. In this paper, taking West Lushan highway low-carbon service area in Jiangxi Province of China as the case study, the advantages, technical principles, and...

  13. 26 CFR 48.6427-0 - Off-highway business use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 16 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Off-highway business use. 48.6427-0 Section 48... Special Application to Retailers and Manufacturers Taxes § 48.6427-0 Off-highway business use. For purposes of the regulations under section 6427, after March 31, 1983, the term “off-highway business use...

  14. 26 CFR 48.6421-0 - Off-highway business use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 16 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Off-highway business use. 48.6421-0 Section 48... Special Application to Retailers and Manufacturers Taxes § 48.6421-0 Off-highway business use. For purposes of the regulations under section 6421, after March 31, 1983, the term “off-highway business use...

  15. Vehicle safety telemetry for automated highways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, G. R.

    1977-01-01

    The emphasis in current, automatic vehicle testing and diagnosis is primarily centered on the proper operation of the engine. Lateral and longitudinal guidance technologies, including speed control and headway sensing for collision avoidance, are reviewed. The principal guidance technique remains the buried wire. Speed control and headway sensing, even though they show the same basic elements in braking and fuel systems, are proceeding independently. The applications of on-board electronic and microprocessor techniques were investigated; each application (emission control, spark advance, or anti-slip braking) is being treated as an independent problem is proposed. A unified bus system of distributed processors for accomplishing the various functions and testing required for vehicles equipped to use automated highways.

  16. Modelling Free Flow Speed on Two-Lane Rural Highways in Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Lovrić

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Free flow speed is used as a parameter in transportation planning and capacity analysis models, as well as speed-flow diagrams. Many of these models suggest estimating free flow speed according to measurements from similar highways, which is not a practical method for use in B&H. This paper first discusses problems with using these methodologies in conditions prevailing in B&H and then presents a free flow speed evaluation model developed from a comprehensive field survey conducted on nine homogeneous sections of state and regional roads.

  17. Induced Polarization Surveying for Acid Rock Screening in Highway Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, K. E.; Al, T.; Bishop, T.

    2004-05-01

    Highway and pipeline construction agencies have become increasingly vigilant in their efforts to avoid cutting through sulphide-bearing bedrock that has potential to produce acid rock drainage. Blasting and fragmentation of such rock increases the surface area available for sulphide oxidation and hence increases the risk of acid rock drainage unless the rock contains enough natural buffering capacity to neutralize the pH. In December, 2001, the New Brunswick Department of Transportation (NBOT) sponsored a field trial of geophysical surveying in order to assess its suitability as a screening tool for locating near-surface sulphides along proposed highway alignments. The goal was to develop a protocol that would allow existing programs of drilling and geochemical testing to be targeted more effectively, and provide design engineers with the information needed to reduce rock cuts where necessary and dispose of blasted material in a responsible fashion. Induced polarization (IP) was chosen as the primary geophysical method given its ability to detect low-grade disseminated mineralization. The survey was conducted in dipole-dipole mode using an exploration-style time domain IP system, dipoles 8 to 25 m in length, and six potential dipoles for each current dipole location (i.e. n = 1 - 6). Supplementary information was provided by resistivity and VLF-EM surveys sensitive to lateral changes in electrical conductivity, and by magnetic field surveying chosen for its sensitivity to the magnetic susceptibility of pyrrhotite. Geological and geochemical analyses of samples taken from several IP anomalies located along 4.3 line-km of proposed highway confirmed the effectiveness of the screening technique. IP pseudosections from a region of metamorphosed shales and volcaniclastic rocks identified discrete, well-defined mineralized zones. Stronger, overlapping, and more laterally extensive IP anomalies were observed over a section of graphitic and sulphide-bearing metasedimentary

  18. Conceptual Model for Smart Cities: Irrigation and Highway Lamps using IoT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vijender Kumar Solanki

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Keeping in mind the need to preserve energy as well as utilize the available at its best the need was felt to develop a module that would be able to sort out the problem where resources such as water and electricity were wasted, in urban as well as rural area. Resource (electricity was wasted as beside the point operation of Highway and High Mast Lamp; while wastage of water followed by improper trends and methodologies imparted for watering of city park, road side plantation and highway plantation. Thus as per Energy survey statistics of a City (Lucknow, India it was found that major portion of resources (water and electricity were being wasted due to negligent activities of officials who were in charge of resource management. So to facilitate energy saving trends and to completely modernize it to autonomous system, module below is proposed which incorporates modern technological peripheral and has its base ingrained in IoT (Internet of Things which when put into consideration would result in large scale resource and energy saving.This developed module incorporates the peripherals such as Arduino, Texas Instruments ultra low power kits etc. in accordance with software technology including Lab View which help to monitor as well as control the various operation from the base station, located far away from the site. Lab View Interface interacts with all the module located at various city parks, subways and highway lighting modules. Later below in several section a detailed pattern and application frame has been put up.

  19. Landslides along Highways: GIS-based Inventory and Planning Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaeger, Ann-Kathrin; Klose, Martin; Damm, Bodo

    2015-04-01

    Highways rank as critical transportation infrastructures that are at risk of landslides in many areas worldwide (e.g., Hungr et al., 1999; Bhandary et al., 2013). Safe and affordable operations of traffic routes constitute the two main criteria for transportation planning in landslide-prone terrain. A right balancing of these often conflicting priorities requires profound knowledge of landslide locations across highway networks and the costs caused by landslides in the past (e.g., Saha et al., 2005). Much of the direct costs affecting transportation departments relate to capital investments for landslide repair or mitigation and operational expenditures in connection with maintenance works. A systematic collection and inventory of such data sets combined with an acquisition of hazard information on vulnerable road sections is still rarely the case in engineering practice. This is despite significant cost impacts and budgetary burdens, especially in peripheral mountain areas where financial resources are naturally limited (e.g., Klose et al., 2014). The present contribution introduces a regional inventory of landslides along highways in the Harz Mountains, NW Germany. As subset of a landslide database for the entire country, this focused GIS-based inventory has been compiled in close collaboration with the Lower Saxony Department of Transportation. The inventory includes data sets gathered by archive studies and relies on high-quality information sources such as maintenance protocols, geotechnical reports, and documents from tendering, controlling, and accounting. A mapping tool in ArcGIS format is used to specify and visualize road sections affected by landslides. This spatial information on hazard exposure is complemented by narrative risk profiles for landslide sites showing a long history of damage events. By summarizing the occurrence dates of landslides, the associated damages, and the types and costs of repair or prevention, such risk profiles are useful to

  20. Characteristics of heavy metal pollution on roadside soil along highway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Chaocheng

    2017-10-01

    Highway traffic is the main source of heavy metal pollution. Due to limited cropland, it is very common to plant crops along the highways. So, in view of agricultural products safety, heavy metal pollution by highway traffic to soils along highway is widely concerned. Therefore, to study distribution traits, accumulative laws and influence factors of heavy metals in agricultural soils could provide scientific evidence and theoretical basis for environmental protection along express way.

  1. Utah ITS/CVO business plan : using technology to maximize highway safety and improve government and industry productivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-12-31

    This plan was produced to maximize highway safety and increase government and industry productivity through the application of Intelligent Transportation System/Commercial Vehicle Operations (ITS/CVO) technologies to support regulatory and enforcemen...

  2. Assessment of highway pavements using GPR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plati, Christina; Loizos, Andreas

    2015-04-01

    Highway infrastructure is a prerequisite for a functioning economy and social life. Highways, often prone to congestion and disruption, are one of the aspects of a modern transport network that require maximum efficiency if an integrated transport network, and sustainable mobility, is to be achieved. Assessing the condition of highway structures, to plan subsequent maintenance, is essential to allow the long-term functioning of a road network. Optimizing the methods used for such assessment will lead to better information being obtained about the road and underlying ground conditions. The condition of highway structures will be affected by a number of factors, including the properties of the highway pavement, the supporting sub-base and the subgrade (natural ground), and the ability to obtain good information about the entire road structure, from pavement to subgrade, allows appropriate maintenance programs to be planned. The maintenance of highway pavements causes considerable cost and in many cases obstruction to traffic flow. In this situation, methods that provide information on the present condition of pavement structure non-destructively and economically are of great interest. It has been shown that Ground-Penetrating-Radar (GPR), which is a Non Destructive Technique (NDT), can deliver information that is useful for the planning of pavement maintenance activities. More specifically GPR is used by pavement engineers in order to determine physical properties and characteristics of the pavement structure, information that is valuable for the assessment of pavement condition. This work gives an overview on the practical application of GPR using examples from highway asphalt pavements monitoring. The presented individual applications of GPR pavement diagnostics concern structure homogeneity, thickness of pavement layers, dielectric properties of asphalt materials etc. It is worthwhile mentioning that a number of applications are standard procedures, either

  3. Air quality and energy impacts of NYSDOT highway ROW management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-01

    Mowing the highway right-of-way is important for the safety of roadway users and maintaining the highway infrastructure. However, little quantitative data are available on the energy use and air quality impacts of highway mowing activities. In this r...

  4. Investigation of laboratory test procedures for assessing the structural capacity of geogrid-reinforced aggregate base materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    The objective of this research was to identify a laboratory test method that can be used to quantify improvements in structural capacity of aggregate base materials reinforced with geogrid. For this research, National Cooperative Highway Research Pro...

  5. Improvement of operation capacity and decreasing of delay of The Hague Holland Spoor

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xiaojun, P.

    2001-01-01

    The Hague Holland Spoor is a representative main station in the Netherlands railvi/ay network, its current form of operation and passenger organisation is being limited by its infrastructure. Also its infrastructure restricts the main network capacity of the Netherlands between Leiden, The Hague and

  6. Operating experience with a high capacity helium pump under supercritical conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehmann, W.; Minges, J.

    1984-01-01

    This chapter discusses the development and testing of a high-capacity piston pump to provide forced cooling for large superconducting magnets. The pump is a three cylinder, vertically arranged single-acting piston pump equipped with a frequency controlled three-phase geared motor operating at room temperature. The pump is capable of delivering up to 150 g/s at a maximum speed of 310 rpm and under the inlet conditions of 4 bar/4.5 K. No decline was noticed in delivery head and efficiencies during more than 560 hours of operation. It is concluded that the pump satisfies all requirements for circulating large mass flows across great pressure differences as needed (e.g. in fusion magnet design)

  7. Photonic Technologies for Ultra-High-Speed Information Highways

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bouchoule, S; Lèfevre, R.; Legros, E.

    1999-01-01

    The ACTS project HIGHWAY (AC067) addresses promising ultra-high speed optoelectronic components and system technologies for 40 Gbit/s time-division-multiplexed (TDM) transport systems. Advanced 40 Gbit/s TDM system lab demonstrators are to be realized and tested over installed field fiber testbeds....... This paper reviews the current status of 40 Gbit/s TDM components and subsystem technologies achieved in HIGHWAY. The results of HIGHWAY 40 Gbit/s TDM systems and field tests will be reported in a subsequent paper. (C) 1999 Academic Press....

  8. 25 CFR 170.144 - What are eligible highway safety projects?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... RESERVATION ROADS PROGRAM Indian Reservation Roads Program Policy and Eligibility Highway Safety Functions... management system; (g) Education and outreach highway safety programs, such as use of child safety seats... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What are eligible highway safety projects? 170.144...

  9. Trend and concentrations of legacy lead (Pb) in highway runoff.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kayhanian, Masoud

    2012-01-01

    This study presents the results of lead (Pb) concentrations from both highway runoff and contaminated soil along 32 and 23 highway sites, respectively. In general, the Pb concentration on topsoil (0-15 cm) along highways was much higher than the Pb concentration in subsurface soil (15-60 cm). The Pb deposited on soil appears to be anthropogenic and a strong correlation was found between the Pb concentration in surface soil and highway runoff in urban areas. The concentration of Pb measured during 1980s from highways runoff throughout the world was up to 11 times higher than the measured values in mid 1990 s and 2000s. The current Pb deposited on soil near highways appears to be a mixture of paint, tire weight balance and old leaded gasoline combustion. Overall, the Pb phase-out regulation reduced the Pb deposits in the environment and consequently lowered Pb loading into receiving waters. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. 76 FR 8400 - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-14

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Petition for Exemption From the Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard; Mitsubishi Motors AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Grant of petition for exemption. SUMMARY: This...

  11. The Information Highway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gore, Al

    1994-01-01

    The new information marketplace is based on a network of wide, two-way highways comprised of private owners and developers, makers of information appliances (televisions, telephones, computers, and combinations of all three), information providers (local broadcasters, digital libraries, information service providers, and entrepreneurs), and…

  12. Highway traffic simulation on multi-processor computers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hanebutte, U.R.; Doss, E.; Tentner, A.M.

    1997-04-01

    A computer model has been developed to simulate highway traffic for various degrees of automation with a high level of fidelity in regard to driver control and vehicle characteristics. The model simulates vehicle maneuvering in a multi-lane highway traffic system and allows for the use of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies such as an Automated Intelligent Cruise Control (AICC). The structure of the computer model facilitates the use of parallel computers for the highway traffic simulation, since domain decomposition techniques can be applied in a straight forward fashion. In this model, the highway system (i.e. a network of road links) is divided into multiple regions; each region is controlled by a separate link manager residing on an individual processor. A graphical user interface augments the computer model kv allowing for real-time interactive simulation control and interaction with each individual vehicle and road side infrastructure element on each link. Average speed and traffic volume data is collected at user-specified loop detector locations. Further, as a measure of safety the so- called Time To Collision (TTC) parameter is being recorded.

  13. Module 13: Bulk Packaging Shipments by Highway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Przybylski, J.L.

    1994-07-01

    The Hazardous Materials Modular Training Program provides participating United States Department of Energy (DOE) sites with a basic, yet comprehensive, hazardous materials transportation training program for use onsite. This program may be used to assist individual program entities to satisfy the general awareness, safety training, and function specific training requirements addressed in Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), Title 49, Part 172, Subpart H -- ''Training.'' Module 13 -- Bulk Packaging Shipments by Highway is a supplement to the Basic Hazardous Materials Workshop. Module 13 -- Bulk Packaging Shipments by Highway focuses on bulk shipments of hazardous materials by highway mode, which have additional or unique requirements beyond those addressed in the ten module core program. Attendance in this course of instruction should be limited to those individuals with work experience in transporting hazardous materials utilizing bulk packagings and who have completed the Basic Hazardous Materials Workshop or an equivalent. Participants will become familiar with the rules and regulations governing the transportation by highway of hazardous materials in bulk packagings and will demonstrate the application of these requirements through work projects and examination

  14. Outline of Matsuto coastal park power plant and its operation performance; Matsuto kaihin koen hatsudensho no gaiyo to unten jisseki

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1994-12-01

    The Matsuto Coastal Park where the power plant was constructed, is well arranged as a central facility in the Matsuto Coastal Community Zone Adjustment Plan, and therefore the offshore breakwater and artificial reef in the coast, the highway oasis established firstly in Japan in the highway, the indoor pool and civic bath utilizing a hot spring in the folktale zone are constructed. A system constitution of the power plant is a hybrid system consisted of one unit of the upwind type propeller wind mill with a capacity of 100 kW and the polycrystal type silicon solar cell with a capacity of 3 kW. The power generated in the power plant is supplied to a lighting up system of wind mill, a Holland type monument wind mill, and the Matsuto cycling terminal completed in a fiscal year of 1994 and so forth. An excess power generated is set to be sold to the power company. An operation state of the mill is in a degree that the wind mill stoppage caused by a mismotion of sensors occurred at several times, and consequently no serious failure has occurred up to present. 1 tab.

  15. A Synopsis of Technical Issues for Monitoring Sediment in Highway and Urban Runoff

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bent, Gardner C.; Gray, John R.; Smith, Kirk P.; Glysson, G. Douglas

    2000-01-01

    Accurate and representative sediment data are critical for assessing the potential effects of highway and urban runoff on receiving waters. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified sediment as the most widespread pollutant in the Nation's rivers and streams, affecting aquatic habitat, drinking water treatment processes, and recreational uses of rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Representative sediment data are also necessary for quantifying and interpreting concentrations, loads, and effects of trace elements and organic constituents associated with highway and urban runoff. Many technical issues associated with the collecting, processing, and analyzing of samples must be addressed to produce valid (useful for intended purposes), current, complete, and technically defensible data for local, regional, and national information needs. All aspects of sediment data-collection programs need to be evaluated, and adequate quality-control data must be collected and documented so that the comparability and representativeness of data obtained for highway- and urban-runoff studies may be assessed. Collection of representative samples for the measurement of sediment in highway and urban runoff involves a number of interrelated issues. Temporal and spatial variability in runoff result from a combination of factors, including volume and intensity of precipitation, rate of snowmelt, and features of the drainage basin such as area, slope, infiltration capacity, channel roughness, and storage characteristics. In small drainage basins such as those found in many highway and urban settings, automatic samplers are often the most suitable method for collecting samples of runoff for a variety of reasons. Indirect sediment-measurement methods are also useful as supplementary and(or) surrogate means for monitoring sediment in runoff. All of these methods have limitations in addition to benefits, which must be identified and quantified to produce representative data. Methods for

  16. Frequency and distribution of highway crossings by Kenai Peninsula brown bears

    OpenAIRE

    Graves, Tabitha A.; Farley, Sean; Servheen, Christopher

    2003-01-01

    Highway construction and expansion through bear habitat can negatively affect brown bear populations. Highway structures can decrease habitat availability through habitat loss and restricted access, roads often displace animals and cause re-direction of natural movements, and highways can act as barriers to decrease gene flow. Lastly, highway traffic can cause direct bear and human mortality through car-animal collisions. We examined the spatial and temporal distribution of brown bear crossin...

  17. Response of benthic macroinvertebrate communities to highway construction in an Appalachian watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hedrick, Lara B.; Welsh, S.A.; Anderson, James T.; Lin, L.-S.; Chen, Y.; Wei, X.

    2010-01-01

    Highway construction in mountainous areas can result in sedimentation of streams, negatively impacting stream habitat, water quality, and biotic communities. We assessed the impacts of construction of a segment of Corridor H, a four-lane highway, in the Lost River watershed, West Virginia, by monitoring benthic macroinvertebrate communities and water quality, before, during, and after highway construction and prior to highway use at upstream and downstream sites from 1997 through 2007. Data analysis of temporal impacts of highway construction followed a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) study design. Highway construction impacts included an increase in stream sedimentation during the construction phase. This was indicated by an increase in turbidity and total suspended solids. Benthic macroinvertebrate metrics indicated a community more tolerant during and after construction than in the period before construction. The percent of Chironomidae and the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) increased, while percent of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) decreased. Our 10-year study addressed short-term impacts of highway construction and found that impacts were relatively minimal. A recovery of the number of EPT taxa collected after construction indicated that the benthic macroinvertebrate community may be recovering from impacts of highway construction. However, this study only addressed a period of 3 years before, 3 years during, and 4 years post construction. Inferences cannot be made concerning the long-term impacts of the highway, highway traffic, runoff, and other factors associated with highway use. Continual monitoring of the watershed is necessary to determine if the highway has a continual impact on stream habitat, water quality, and biotic integrity. ?? 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

  18. Evaluating the use of operational management techniques for capacity improvements on shared-use rail corridors : final report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    The majority of intercity passenger and commuter rail services in the United States (U.S.) operate on the shared-use corridors with : freight rail services. These types of operations tend to be challenging for efficient capacity utilization and relia...

  19. Mortality among California highway workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maizlish, N; Beaumont, J; Singleton, J

    1988-01-01

    Standardized proportional mortality ratios (PMR) were computed for a population of highway workers. Hazards of highway maintenance work include exposure to solvents, herbicides, asphalt and welding fumes, diesel and auto exhaust, asbestos, abrasive dusts, hazardous material spills, and moving motor vehicles. Underlying cause of death was obtained for 1,570 workers who separated from the California Department of Transportation between 1970 and 1983, and who died in California between 1970 and 1983 (inclusive). Among 1,260 white males, the major findings were statistically significant excesses of cancers of digestive organs (PMR = 128), skin (PMR = 218), lymphopoietic cancer (PMR = 157), benign neoplasms (PMR = 343), motor vehicle accidents (PMR = 141), and suicide (PMR = 154). Black males (N = 66) experienced nonsignificant excesses of cancer of the digestive organs (PMR = 191) and arteriosclerotic heart disease (PMR = 143). Among 168 white females, deaths from lung cancer (PMR = 189) and suicide (PMR = 215) were elevated. White male retirees, a subgroup with 5 or more years of service, experienced excess mortality due to cancers of the colon (PMR = 245), skin (PMR = 738), brain (PMR = 556), and lymphosarcomas and reticulosarcomas (PMR = 514). Deaths from external causes (PMR = 135) and cirrhosis of the liver (PMR = 229) were elevated among white males with a last job in landscape maintenance. White males whose last job was highway maintenance experienced a deficit in mortality from circulatory diseases (PMR = 83) and excess mortality from emphysema (PMR = 250) and motor vehicle accidents (PMR = 196). Further epidemiologic and industrial hygiene studies are needed to confirm the apparent excess mortality and to quantify occupational and nonoccupational exposures. However, reduction of recognized hazards among highway maintenance workers is a prudent precautionary measure.

  20. Institutional and scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food safety and quality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boekel, van M.A.J.S.; Meerdink, G.; Banati, D.; Marvin, H.J.P.; Kuiper, H.A.; Houtman, C.B.

    2002-01-01

    This paper explains the situation in Hungary and The Netherlands regarding scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food quality and safety. Specific details are given about institutional co-operation including exchanges between staff and students, collaborative

  1. Management model of productive capacity: integrating theory of constraints and the global operational efficiency index (IROG

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego Augusto Pacheco

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a model of management capacity in productive systems integrating the concepts of the Theory of Constraints and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM. The main objective of this study is to discuss and propose a model of management capacity, able to answer the following key questions: i capacity indicators which should be considered and how to measure them to measure the productive capacity of manufacturing systems? ii what is the real productive capacity of the system analyzed under a determined relationship between capacity and demand? The discussion of the proposed model is relevant because the definition of productive capacity system enables better management of resources and capabilities, improve production scheduling on the factory floor and meeting the demands imposed by the market. This paper presents the proposition of using the Operating Income Index Global (IROG with a different approach from traditional literature dealing with the theme, presented by Nakajima (1988. The results of this paper enable to develop a model to determine the capacity of the production system and the impact on the productive capacity of the entire system, not to consider the quality conformances that occur after the bottleneck resource of the production flow.

  2. Inter-individual variability of stone marten behavioral responses to a highway.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Ascensão

    Full Text Available Efforts to reduce the negative impacts of roads on wildlife may be hindered if individuals within the population vary widely in their responses to roads and mitigation strategies ignore this variability. This knowledge is particularly important for medium-sized carnivores as they are vulnerable to road mortality, while also known to use available road passages (e.g., drainage culverts for safely crossing highways. Our goal in this study was to assess whether this apparently contradictory pattern of high road-kill numbers associated with a regular use of road passages is attributable to the variation in behavioral responses toward the highway between individuals. We investigated the responses of seven radio-tracked stone martens (Martes foina to a highway by measuring their utilization distribution, response turning angles and highway crossing patterns. We compared the observed responses to simulated movement parameterized by the observed space use and movement characteristics of each individual, but naïve to the presence of the highway. Our results suggested that martens demonstrate a diversity of responses to the highway, including attraction, indifference, or avoidance. Martens also varied in their highway crossing patterns, with some crossing repeatedly at the same location (often coincident with highway passages. We suspect that the response variability derives from the individual's familiarity of the landscape, including their awareness of highway passage locations. Because of these variable yet potentially attributable responses, we support the use of exclusionary fencing to guide transient (e.g., dispersers individuals to existing passages to reduce the road-kill risk.

  3. HIGHWAY, a transportation routing model: program description and revised users' manual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.

    1983-10-01

    A computerized transportation routing model has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be used for predicting likely routes for shipping radioactive materials. The HIGHWAY data base is a computerized road atlas containing descriptions of the entire Interstate System, the federal highway system, and most of the principal state roads. In addition to its prediction of the most likely commercial route, options incorporated in the HIGHWAY model can allow for maximum use of Interstate highways or routes that will bypass urbanized areas containing populations greater than 100,000 persons. The user may also interactively modify the data base to predict routes that bypass any particular state, city, town, or specific highway segment

  4. Geotechnical considerations of perennial failures of a highway ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The causes of frequent failures of the Kumasi – Accra highway section at Wiwiso have been investigated to offer remedial measures on future reconstruction works. The study of the highway section at Wiwiso has revea-led that pavements can undergo considerable distress when seepage control considerations are partially ...

  5. Weighted Complex Network Analysis of Pakistan Highways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasir Tariq Mohmand

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The structure and properties of public transportation networks have great implications in urban planning, public policies, and infectious disease control. This study contributes a weighted complex network analysis of travel routes on the national highway network of Pakistan. The network is responsible for handling 75 percent of the road traffic yet is largely inadequate, poor, and unreliable. The highway network displays small world properties and is assortative in nature. Based on the betweenness centrality of the nodes, the most important cities are identified as this could help in identifying the potential congestion points in the network. Keeping in view the strategic location of Pakistan, such a study is of practical importance and could provide opportunities for policy makers to improve the performance of the highway network.

  6. 77 FR 19004 - Fishing Capacity Reduction Program for the Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Salmon Fishery

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-29

    ... Capacity Reduction Program for the Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Salmon Fishery AGENCY: National Marine... Salmon Fishery. DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before 5 p.m. EST April 13, 2012. ADDRESSES: Send... Seine Salmon Buyback, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION...

  7. 26 CFR 1.46-11 - Commuter highway vehicles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... Rules for Computing Credit for Investment in Certain Depreciable Property § 1.46-11 Commuter highway... investment under section 46(c)(1) for a qualifying commuter highway vehicle is 100 percent. A qualifying... meets the following requirements: (1) The vehicle is section 38 property in the hands of the taxpayer...

  8. Evaluation of seismic damage to bridges and highway systems in Shelby County, Tennessee

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jernigan, John Bailey

    by the Capacity/Demand (C/D) ratios of bridge components. The damage states considered in this study are no/minor damage, repairable damage, and significant damage. The seismic fragility analysis of each bridge classification was performed and the results were expressed as fragility curves. In this study, eight bridge classifications were defined and a fragility curve was developed for each. To estimate the seismic hazard, three scenario earthquakes located at Marked Tree, Arkansas was established for this study. The moment magnitude of the M scenario earthquake was set as 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5 to represent various sizes of earthquakes that might occur in the NMSZ. For each scenario earthquake, the intensity of ground shaking and liquefaction-induced permanent ground deformation in Shelby County were estimated, and then the expected damage to bridges and roadway systems was determined. The results from this study can be used to prioritize bridges for retrofitting, to prepare a pre-earthquake preparedness plan, and to develop a post-earthquake emergency response plan. Furthermore, the results can also be used to assess the regional economic impact from the damage to highway transportation systems.

  9. Maine highway safety plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Each September 1, the MeBHS must provide NHTSA a comprehensive plan to reduce : traffic crashes and resulting deaths, injuries and property damage. The Highway Safety : Plan (HSP) serves as Maines application for available federal funds for these ...

  10. Bad Foundation and its Treatment of HeBei Coastal Highway | Ye ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In recent years, with the accelerating urbanization process, the national road network continues to expand, a lot of highway construction projects are in the countryside. The geological properties of high level, long distance highway foundation are complicated. In order to guarantee the stability of highway embankment, we ...

  11. Determining the drivers' acceptance of EFTCD in highway work zones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Yong; Li, Yingfeng

    2011-05-01

    Traffic safety is a major concern in the temporary one-lane, two-way highway work zones due to the increasing of construction and maintenance operations. To prevent rear-end crashes and to mitigate the severity of these crashes caused by the inattentive driving, the utilization of the Emergency Flasher Traffic Control Device (EFTCD) was under consideration by government agencies, in addition to existing temporary traffic control devices installed in the one-lane, two-way highway work zones. The EFTCD was a newly proposed traffic warning device implemented through the use of vehicles' hazard warning flashers. The primary objective of the research project was to investigate the drivers' acceptance of the proposed EFTCD by measuring the mean speed changes of vehicles with and without EFTCD and by evaluating the drivers' opinions of the EFTCD using the survey method. Field experimental results revealed that the EFTCD effectively reduced the mean vehicle speeds in the upstream of two work zones. A slow speed is more likely to reduce the severity of a crash in work zones. In addition, survey results indicated that 60% of the drivers thought the EFTCD signified a need for speed reduction and 82% of drivers recommended the implementation of the EFTCD in one-lane, two-way work zones. These results provide the necessary scientific justifications for the government agencies to decide if the EFTCD should be implemented in the one-lane, two-way highway work zones to prevent rear-end crashes and to mitigate the severity of these crashes. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Downlink Multicell Processing with Limited-Backhaul Capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Simeone

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Multicell processing in the form of joint encoding for the downlink of a cellular system is studied under the assumption that the base stations (BSs are connected to a central processor (CP via finitecapacity links (finite-capacity backhaul. To obtain analytical insight into the impact of finite-capacity backhaul on the downlink throughput, the investigation focuses on a simple linear cellular system (as for a highway or a long avenue based on theWyner model. Several transmission schemes are proposed that require varying degrees of knowledge regarding the system codebooks at the BSs. Achievable rates are derived in closed-form and compared with an upper bound. Performance is also evaluated in asymptotic regimes of interest (high backhaul capacity and extreme signal-to-noise ratio, SNR and further corroborated by numerical results. The major finding of this work is that even in the presence of oblivious BSs (that is, BSs with no information about the codebooks multicell processing is able to provide ideal performance with relatively small backhaul capacities, unless the application of interest requires high data rate (i.e., high SNR and the backhaul capacity is not allowed to increase with the SNR. In these latter cases, some form of codebook information at the BSs becomes necessary.

  13. Discussion on runoff purification technology of highway bridge deck based on water quality safety

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Sheng-guang; Liu, Xue-xin; Zou, Guo-ping; Xiong, Xin-zhu; Tao, Shuang-cheng

    2018-06-01

    Aiming at the actual problems existing, including a poor purification effect of highway bridge runoff collection and treatment system across sensitive water and necessary manual emergency operation, three kinds of technology, three pools system of bridge runoff purification, the integral pool of bridge runoff purification and ecological planting tank, are put forward by optimizing the structure of purification unit and system setting. At the same time, we come up with an emergency strategy for hazardous material leakage basing on automatic identification and remote control of traffic accidents. On the basis of combining these with the optimized pool structure, sensitive water safety can be guaranteed and water pollution, from directly discharging of bridge runoff, can be decreased. For making up for the shortages of green highway construction technology, the technique has important reference value.

  14. Regional approach to building operational level capacity for disaster planning: the case of the Eastern Africa region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bazeyo, W; Mayega, R W; Orach, G C; Kiguli, J; Mamuya, S; Tabu, J S; Sena, L; Rugigana, E; Mapatano, M; Lewy, D; Mock, N; Burnham, G; Keim, M; Killewo, J

    2013-06-01

    The Eastern Africa region is regularly affected by a variety of disasters ranging from drought, to human conflict and population displacement. The magnitude of emergencies and response capacities is similar across the region. In order to strengthen public health disaster management capacities at the operational level in six countries of the Eastern Africa region, the USAID-funded leadership project worked through the HEALTH Alliance, a network of seven schools of public health from six countries in the region to train district-level teams. To develop a sustainable regional approach to building operational level capacity for disaster planning. This project was implemented through a higher education leadership initiative. Project activities were spear-headed by a network of Deans and Directors of public health schools within local universities in the Eastern Africa region. The leadership team envisioned a district-oriented systems change strategy. Pre-service and in-service curricula were developed regionally and district teams were formed to attend short training courses. Project activities began with a situational analysis of the disaster management capacity at national and operational levels. The next steps were chronologically the formation of country training teams and training of trainers, the development of a regional disaster management training curriculum and training materials, the cascading of training activities in the region, and the incorporation of emerging issues into the training curriculum. An evaluation model included the analysis of preparedness impact of the training program. The output from the district teams was the creation of individual district-level disaster plans and their implementation. This 4-year project focused on building operational level public health emergency response capacity, which had not previously been part of any national program. Use of the all-hazard approach rather than a scenario-based contingency planning led to the

  15. Assessment of Pronghorn movements and strategies to promote highway permeability : US Highway 89.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-01

    Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) movements were investigated with Global Position System (GPS) : telemetry from 2007 to 2008 along a 28-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 89 in northern Arizona to develop : strategies to enhance permeability with future h...

  16. Highways: Interstate, US & State

    Data.gov (United States)

    Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — This dataset contains lines for all highways in the state of New Mexico. It is in a vector digital data structure digitized from a USGS 1:500,000 scale map of the...

  17. Study of a New Quick-Charging Strategy for Electric Vehicles in Highway Charging Stations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lixing Chen

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available To solve the problem, because of which conventional quick-charging strategies (CQCS cannot meet the requirements of quick-charging for multiple types of electric vehicles (EV on highways where vehicle inflow is excessive, this paper proposed a new quick-charging strategy (NQCS for EVs: on the premise of not affecting those EVs being charged, the remaining power of the quick-charging pile with multiple power output interfaces is used to provide a synchronous charging service for EVs waiting in the queue. To verify the effectiveness of this strategy, a power distribution model of charging pile and a queuing model of charging station (CS were constructed. In addition, based on an actual highway service area where vehicle inflow is excessive during the simulation period (0:00–24:00, charging situations of CQCS and NQCS were respectively simulated in a charging station (CS, with different number of chargers, by basic queuing algorithm and an improved queuing algorithm. The simulation results showed that when the relative EV inflow is excessive, compared to CQCS, NQCS not only can reduce user waiting time, charging time, and stay time, but also can improve the utilisation rate of charging infrastructure and service capacity of CS and reduce the queue length of CS. At the same time, NQCS can reduce the impact on the power grid. In addition, in NQCS, the on-demand power distribution method is more efficient than the average power distribution method. Therefore, NQCS is more suitable for quick-charging for multiple types of EVs on highways where vehicle inflow is excessive.

  18. Validity, Reliability, and Performance Determinants of a New Job-Specific Anaerobic Work Capacity Test for the Norwegian Navy Special Operations Command.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angeltveit, Andreas; Paulsen, Gøran; Solberg, Paul A; Raastad, Truls

    2016-02-01

    Operators in Special Operation Forces (SOF) have a particularly demanding profession where physical and psychological capacities can be challenged to the extremes. The diversity of physical capacities needed depend on the mission. Consequently, tests used to monitor SOF operators' physical fitness should cover a broad range of physical capacities. Whereas tests for strength and aerobic endurance are established, there is no test for specific anaerobic work capacity described in the literature. The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate the reliability, validity, and to identify performance determinants of a new test developed for testing specific anaerobic work capacity in SOF operators. Nineteen active young students were included in the concurrent validity part of the study. The students performed the evacuation (EVAC) test 3 times and the results were compared for reliability and with performance in the Wingate cycle test, 300-m sprint, and a maximal accumulated oxygen deficit (MAOD) test. In part II of the study, 21 Norwegian Navy Special Operations Command operators conducted the EVAC test, anthropometric measurements, a dual x-ray absorptiometry scan, leg press, isokinetic knee extensions, maximal oxygen uptake test, and countermovement jump (CMJ) test. The EVAC test showed good reliability after 1 familiarization trial (intraclass correlation = 0.89; coefficient of variance = 3.7%). The EVAC test correlated well with the Wingate test (r = -0.68), 300-m sprint time (r = 0.51), and 300-m mean power (W) (r = -0.67). No significant correlation was found with the MAOD test. In part II of the study, height, body mass, lean body mass, isokinetic knee extension torque, maximal oxygen uptake, and maximal power in a CMJ was significantly correlated with performance in the EVAC test. The EVAC test is a reliable and valid test for anaerobic work capacity for SOF operators, and muscle mass, leg strength, and leg power seem to be the most important determinants

  19. Canada's gas taxes = highway robbery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2000-05-01

    This report was prepared for the second annual 'gas honesty day' (May 18, 2000) in an effort to draw attention to the frustration of Canadian taxpayers with gasoline retailers and the petroleum industry for the inordinately and unjustifiably high prices for gasoline at the pump. The report points out that the public outcry is, in fact, misdirected since the largest profiteers at the pumps, the federal government, remains largely unscathed. It is alleged in the report that gas taxes are tantamount to highway robbery. Ostensibly collected for road construction and maintenance, of the almost $ 5 billion collected in 1999, only a paltry $ 194 million was returned to the provinces for roadway and highway spending. The 10-year average of federal returns to the the provinces from tax on gasoline is a meager 4.7 per cent, which fell even further to 4.1 per cent in 1998-1999. Gasoline tax revenues continue to climb, while government commitment to real roadway and highway spending continues to decline. This document attempts to shed some light on the pricing structure for gasoline. Without defending or explaining the non-tax portion of the pump price charged by Canada's oil companies, which is a task for the oil companies to undertake, the document makes a concerted effort to raise public awareness and focus public attention on government's involvement, namely that gas taxes represent on average about 50 per cent of the pump price and that the majority of the taxes collected are not put back into road and highway improvements. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, authors of this report, expect that by focusing debate on the issue of gasoline taxes a broad support for a lowering of the overall tax burden on motorists will result. Among other things, the CTF advocates reduction of federal and provincial fuel taxes to levels commensurate with highway funding; dedication of fuel tax revenues to highway construction and maintenance; elimination of the sales and

  20. Mobile operators have set ambitious targets – Is it possible to boost network capacity while reducing its energy consumption?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Micallef, Gilbert; Mogensen, Preben; Scheck, Hans-Otto

    2012-01-01

    While operators have to upgrade the capacity of their networks, they have committed themselves to reduce their CO2 emissions, partly by reducing their energy consumption. This article investigates the challenges faced by operators and quantifies, through a number of case studies, the impact...... the possible savings by adopting an energy-efficient capacity evolution together with an equipment replacement and site upgrade strategy. Results show that network operators can get relatively close to their targets, with energy reductions of up to 40% noted. While this can be improved further through software...... based energy saving features, further CO2 emissions can be offset through carbon-neutral energy sources....

  1. Developing operator capacity estimates for supervisory control of autonomous vehicles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummings, M L; Guerlain, Stephanie

    2007-02-01

    This study examined operators' capacity to successfully reallocate highly autonomous in-flight missiles to time-sensitive targets while performing secondary tasks of varying complexity. Regardless of the level of autonomy for unmanned systems, humans will be necessarily involved in the mission planning, higher level operation, and contingency interventions, otherwise known as human supervisory control. As a result, more research is needed that addresses the impact of dynamic decision support systems that support rapid planning and replanning in time-pressured scenarios, particularly on operator workload. A dual screen simulation that allows a single operator the ability to monitor and control 8, 12, or 16 missiles through high level replanning was tested on 42 U.S. Navy personnel. The most significant finding was that when attempting to control 16 missiles, participants' performance on three separate objective performance metrics and their situation awareness were significantly degraded. These results mirror studies of air traffic control that demonstrate a similar decline in performance for controllers managing 17 aircraft as compared with those managing only 10 to 11 aircraft. Moreover, the results suggest that a 70% utilization (percentage busy time) score is a valid threshold for predicting significant performance decay and could be a generalizable metric that can aid in manning predictions. This research is relevant to human supervisory control of networked military and commercial unmanned vehicles in the air, on the ground, and on and under the water.

  2. A comparative empirical analysis of statistical models for evaluating highway segment crash frequency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bismark R.D.K. Agbelie

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The present study conducted an empirical highway segment crash frequency analysis on the basis of fixed-parameters negative binomial and random-parameters negative binomial models. Using a 4-year data from a total of 158 highway segments, with a total of 11,168 crashes, the results from both models were presented, discussed, and compared. About 58% of the selected variables produced normally distributed parameters across highway segments, while the remaining produced fixed parameters. The presence of a noise barrier along a highway segment would increase mean annual crash frequency by 0.492 for 88.21% of the highway segments, and would decrease crash frequency for 11.79% of the remaining highway segments. Besides, the number of vertical curves per mile along a segment would increase mean annual crash frequency by 0.006 for 84.13% of the highway segments, and would decrease crash frequency for 15.87% of the remaining highway segments. Thus, constraining the parameters to be fixed across all highway segments would lead to an inaccurate conclusion. Although, the estimated parameters from both models showed consistency in direction, the magnitudes were significantly different. Out of the two models, the random-parameters negative binomial model was found to be statistically superior in evaluating highway segment crashes compared with the fixed-parameters negative binomial model. On average, the marginal effects from the fixed-parameters negative binomial model were observed to be significantly overestimated compared with those from the random-parameters negative binomial model.

  3. Analyzing the Impact of Highways Associated with Farmland Loss under Rapid Urbanization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jie Song

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Highway construction has accelerated urban growth and induced direct and indirect changes to land use. Although many studies have analyzed the relationship between highway construction and local development, relatively less attention has been paid to clarifying the various impacts of highways associated with farmland loss. This paper integrates GIS spatial analysis, remote sensing, buffer analysis and landscape metrics to analyze the landscape pattern change induced by direct and indirect highway impacts. This paper explores the interaction between the impact of highways and farmland loss, using the case of the highly urbanized traffic hubs in eastern China, Hang-Jia-Hu Plain. Our results demonstrate that the Hang-Jia-Hu Plain experienced extensive highway construction during 1990–2010, with a clear acceleration of expressway development since 2000. This unprecedented highway construction has directly fragmented the regional landscape and indirectly disturbed the regional landscape by attracting a large amount of built-up land transition from farmland during the last two decades. In the highway-effect zone, serious farmland loss initially occurred in the urban region and then spread to the rural region. Moreover, we found the discontinuous expansion of built-up land scattered the farmland in the rural region and expressway-effect zone. Furthermore, farmland protection policies in the 1990s had the effect of controlling the total area of farmland loss. However, the cohesive farmland structure was still fragmented by the direct and indirect impacts of highway construction. We suggest that an overall farmland protection system should be established to enhance spatial control and mitigate the adverse impacts caused by highway construction. This work improves the understanding of regional sustainable development, and provides a scientific basis for balanced urban development with farmland protection in decision-making processes.

  4. Highway-Rail Crossings Inventory Data

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The entire National Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory is available in three separate downloadble files. There is a file of all current Public-at-Grade crossings. There...

  5. Making the Traffic Operations Case for Congestion Pricing: Operational Impacts of Congestion Pricing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chin, Shih-Miao [ORNL; Hu, Patricia S [ORNL; Davidson, Diane [ORNL

    2011-02-01

    Congestion begins when an excess of vehicles on a segment of roadway at a given time, resulting in speeds that are significantly slower than normal or 'free flow' speeds. Congestion often means stop-and-go traffic. The transition occurs when vehicle density (the number of vehicles per mile in a lane) exceeds a critical level. Once traffic enters a state of congestion, recovery or time to return to a free-flow state is lengthy; and during the recovery process, delay continues to accumulate. The breakdown in speed and flow greatly impedes the efficient operation of the freeway system, resulting in economic, mobility, environmental and safety problems. Freeways are designed to function as access-controlled highways characterized by uninterrupted traffic flow so references to freeway performance relate primarily to the quality of traffic flow or traffic conditions as experienced by users of the freeway. The maximum flow or capacity of a freeway segment is reached while traffic is moving freely. As a result, freeways are most productive when they carry capacity flows at 60 mph, whereas lower speeds impose freeway delay, resulting in bottlenecks. Bottlenecks may be caused by physical disruptions, such as a reduced number of lanes, a change in grade, or an on-ramp with a short merge lane. This type of bottleneck occurs on a predictable or 'recurrent' basis at the same time of day and same day of week. Recurrent congestion totals 45% of congestion and is primarily from bottlenecks (40%) as well as inadequate signal timing (5%). Nonrecurring bottlenecks result from crashes, work zone disruptions, adverse weather conditions, and special events that create surges in demand and that account for over 55% of experienced congestion. Figure 1.1 shows that nonrecurring congestion is composed of traffic incidents (25%), severe weather (15%), work zones, (10%), and special events (5%). Between 1995 and 2005, the average percentage change in increased peak traveler

  6. 76 FR 1664 - Notice of Final Federal Agency Actions on State Highway 99 (Segment G)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-11

    ... on State Highway 99 (Segment G) AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of.... 139(l)(1). The actions relate to a proposed highway project, Grand Parkway (State Highway 99) Segment... (State Highway 99) Segment G from I- 45 to US 59 in Harris and Montgomery Counties; FHWA Project...

  7. Methodology and significance of studies of atmospheric deposition in highway runoff

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colman, John A.; Rice, Karen C.; Willoughby, Timothy C.

    2001-01-01

    Atmospheric deposition and the processes that are involved in causing and altering atmospheric deposition in relation to highway surfaces and runoff were evaluated nationwide. Wet deposition is more easily monitored than dry deposition, and data on wet deposition are available for major elements and water properties (constituents affecting acid deposition) from the inter-agency National Atmospheric Deposition Program/ National Trends Network (NADP/NTN). Many trace constituents (metals and organic compounds) of interest in highway runoff loads, however, are not included in the NADP/NTN. Dry deposition, which constitutes a large part of total atmospheric deposition for many constituents in highway runoff loads, is difficult to monitor accurately. Dry-deposition rates are not widely available.Many of the highway-runoff investigations that have addressed atmospheric-deposition sources have had flawed investigative designs or problems with methodology. Some results may be incorrect because of reliance on time-aggregated data collected during a period of changing atmospheric emissions. None of the investigations used methods that could accurately quantify the part of highway runoff load that can be attributed to ambient atmospheric deposition. Lack of information about accurate ambient deposition rates and runoff loads was part of the problem. Samples collected to compute the rates and loads were collected without clean-sampling methods or sampler protocols, and without quality-assurance procedures that could validate the data. Massbudget calculations comparing deposition and runoff did not consider loss of deposited material during on-highway processing. Loss of deposited particles from highway travel lanes could be large, as has been determined in labeled particle studies, because of resuspension caused by turbulence from passing traffic. Although a cause of resuspension of large particles, traffic turbulence may increase the rate of deposition for small particles and

  8. Sexual behavior of female sex workers and access to condoms in Kenya and Uganda on the Trans-Africa highway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Chester N; Morris, Sheldon R; Ferguson, Alan G

    2009-10-01

    Female sex workers and their clients remain a high risk core group for HIV in Africa. We measured sexual behavior of a snowball sample of female sex workers (FSW) along the Trans Africa highway from Mombasa, Kenya to Kampala, Uganda and surveyed the availability of male condoms at 1,007 bars and lodgings in Kenya along the highway trucking stops where transactional sex occurs. There were 578 FSW one month sex diaries analyzed, 403 from Kenya and 175 from Uganda. Kenyan FSW had a median of 45 sexual acts per 28 days compared to 39 sex acts per 28 days by Ugandan FSW (P lodges in Kenya compared to Uganda were more likely to: have condom dispensers, 25% versus 1%, respectively (P < 0.01); distribute or sell condoms, 73.9% versus 47.6% (P < 0.01); and have more weekly condom distribution, 4.92 versus 1.27 condoms per seating capacity (P < 0.01). Our data indicate that in both countries condom use for FSW is suboptimal, particularly with regular partners, and greater condom use by Trans African highway FSW in Kenya compared to Uganda may be related to availability. Targeted interventions are warranted for FSW and truck drivers to prevent transmission in this important core group.

  9. The study for installing noise barrier on highway route no.9

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiradecha Chaddanai

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Highway Route No. 9 is a Bangkok bypass motorway that aims to alleviate traffic congestion in greater Bangkok areas. Presently, it is found a rapid expansion of new communities residing along both side of Highway No. 9. To lessen the noise level, Department of Highways installed the noise barrier on the sensitive locations. However, people from communities living on both sides of highway still demand some additional noise pollution improvement. To improve the efficiency of using noise barriers and to promote environmental and social quality for the people on the sensitive communities along the highway route, the Department of Highways, therefore, designs a new technique for installing noise barrier on the sensitive areas, i.e. education institutions, temple, residential area. In addition, the mathematic model is applied to 12 selected locations of sensitive areas for monitoring the effectiveness of the new installation technique. The mathematic model is used for predict the future noise level after installation of noise barrier in year 2037. The results confirm that the appropriate height and width of noise barrier can improve the comfortable of the people on the sensitive area.

  10. Reliable Freestanding Position-Based Routing in Highway Scenarios

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galaviz-Mosqueda, Gabriel A.; Aquino-Santos, Raúl; Villarreal-Reyes, Salvador; Rivera-Rodríguez, Raúl; Villaseñor-González, Luis; Edwards, Arthur

    2012-01-01

    Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are considered by car manufacturers and the research community as the enabling technology to radically improve the safety, efficiency and comfort of everyday driving. However, before VANET technology can fulfill all its expected potential, several difficulties must be addressed. One key issue arising when working with VANETs is the complexity of the networking protocols compared to those used by traditional infrastructure networks. Therefore, proper design of the routing strategy becomes a main issue for the effective deployment of VANETs. In this paper, a reliable freestanding position-based routing algorithm (FPBR) for highway scenarios is proposed. For this scenario, several important issues such as the high mobility of vehicles and the propagation conditions may affect the performance of the routing strategy. These constraints have only been partially addressed in previous proposals. In contrast, the design approach used for developing FPBR considered the constraints imposed by a highway scenario and implements mechanisms to overcome them. FPBR performance is compared to one of the leading protocols for highway scenarios. Performance metrics show that FPBR yields similar results when considering freespace propagation conditions, and outperforms the leading protocol when considering a realistic highway path loss model. PMID:23202159

  11. Optimizing Dispersed Air Operations: A Concept To Use Highways As Improved Airfields In A Contested Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    345 3,501 – 4,286 Myanmar – 147 144 983 1,729 – 3,003 Nepal – – 311 1,003 12 – 1,326 AU/ACSC/HATCH, B/AY15 31 Pakistan 358 1,116 160 2,569...25s-blast-off-from-a-highway-1677293059 32 http://www.x-plane.org/home/urf/ aviation /text/bas/dispersed_basing.html 33 Katie Hunt, Fighter Jets...People’s Republic of China, Georgia, India, Japan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar , Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand

  12. CAMAC serial highway interface for the LSI-11

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lau, N.H.

    1980-01-01

    A CAMAC Serial Highway Interface has been designed for the Local Control and Instrumentation System of the Mirror Fusion Test Facility. There are over 50 distinguishable systems in the facility, each of which consists of the LSI-11 computer, fiber optic communication links, and the CAMAC system. The LSI-11 computer includes a 32k memory, serial modem interface and the CAMAC Serial Highway Interface

  13. Fleet size estimation for spreading operation considering road geometry, weather and traffic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven I-Jy Chien

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Extreme weather conditions(i.e. snow storm in winter time have caused significant travel disruptions and increased delay and traffic accidents. Snow plowing and salt spreading are the most common counter-measures for making our roads safer for motorists. To assist highway maintenance authorities with better planning and allocation of winter maintenance resources, this study introduces an analytical model to estimate the required number of trucks for spreading operation subjective to pre-specified service time constraints considering road geometry, weather and traffic. The complexity of the research problem lies in dealing with heterogeneous road geometry of road sections, truck capacities, spreading patterns, and traffic speeds under different weather conditions and time periods of an event. The proposed model is applied to two maintenance yards with seven road sections in New Jersey (USA, which demonstrates itself fairly practical to be implemented, considering diverse operational conditions.

  14. 23 CFR 1.3 - Federal-State cooperation; authority of State highway departments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Federal-State cooperation; authority of State highway... MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION GENERAL § 1.3 Federal-State cooperation; authority of State highway departments... State in all matters relating to, and to enter into, on behalf of the State, all contracts and...

  15. Evaluation of a radar-based proximity warning system for off-highway dump trucks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruff, Todd

    2006-01-01

    A radar-based proximity warning system was evaluated by researchers at the Spokane Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to determine if the system would be effective in detecting objects in the blind spots of an off-highway dump truck. An average of five fatalities occur each year in surface mines as a result of an equipment operator not being aware of a smaller vehicle, person or change in terrain near the equipment. Sensor technology that can detect such obstacles and that also is designed for surface mining applications is rare. Researchers worked closely with the radar system manufacturer to test and modify the system on large, off-highway dump trucks at a surface mine over a period of 2 years. The final system was thoroughly evaluated by recording video images from a camera on the rear of the truck and by recording all alarms from the rear-mounted radar. Data show that the system reliably detected small vehicles, berms, people and other equipment. However, alarms from objects that posed no immediate danger were common, supporting the assertion that sensor-based systems for proximity warning should be used in combination with other devices, such as cameras, that would allow the operator to check the source of any alarm.

  16. Zoning of highway flood-triggering environment for highway in Fuling District, Chongqing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Qing-mei; Tang, Hong-mei; Chen, Hong-kai

    2011-10-01

    Based on the geological environment about Fuling district in Chongqing city, eight evaluating indicators on road flooding subsequently environment along the highway: geological disasters developmental condition, rainstorm intensity, flood frequency, landform condition, litho-logical condition, average annual rainfall, vegetation coverage and geological structure, have been chosen. Adopting expert system to double evaluation and using the analysis hierarchy process to confirm the weight of index, accordingly, the mathematical model of evaluation on subsequently environment is put forward. On the support of GIS, grid subsequently environmental index and township administrative division subsequently environmental index, subsequently environment is divided into 4 degrees. They are dangerous zone, high susceptible zone, middle susceptible zone and low susceptible zone of the floods subsequently environment around highway. The results of the study indicate that in the total area, dangerous zone, high susceptible zone, middle susceptible zone and low susceptible zone of road flooding are 11.89%, 41.65%, 32.20% and 14.26% respectively. The results provide some significant scientific evidence for the further risk evaluation of road flooding.

  17. Transportation Infrastructure: Managing the Costs of Large-Dollar Highway Projects

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-02-01

    The General Accounting Office (GAO) was requested to assess the effectiveness of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) oversight of the costs of large-dollar highway and bridge projects (those with a total estimated cost of over $100 million)...

  18. 78 FR 79312 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-30

    ... deviation from the operating schedule that governs the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is necessary to allow.... Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation for the Rock Island Railroad and Highway...

  19. Regional Risk Evaluation of Flood Disasters for the Trunk-Highway in Shaanxi, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hong-Liang Qi

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Due to the complicated environment there are various types of highway disasters in Shaanxi Province (China. The damages caused are severe, losses are heavy, and have rapidly increased over the years, especially those caused by flood disasters along the rivers in mountainous areas. Therefore, research on risk evaluations, which play important roles in the prevention and mitigation of highway disasters are very important. An evaluation model was established based on the superposition theory of regional influencing factors to highway flood disasters. Based on the formation mechanism and influencing factors of highway flood disasters, the main influencing factors were selected. These factors include rainstorms, terrain slopes, soil types, vegetation coverage and regional river density, which are based on evaluation indexes from climate conditions and underlying surface of the basin. A regional risk evaluation of highway flood disasters in Shaanxi was established using GIS. The risk index was divided into five levels using statistical methods, in accordance with the regional characteristics of highway flood disasters. Considering the difference in upfront investments, road grade, etc, between expressways and trunk-highways in China, a regional risk evaluation of trunk-highway flood disasters was completed. The evaluation results indicate that the risk evaluation is consistent with the actual situation.

  20. Regional Risk Evaluation of Flood Disasters for the Trunk-Highway in Shaanxi, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Hong-Liang; Tian, Wei-Ping; Li, Jia-Chun

    2015-10-29

    Due to the complicated environment there are various types of highway disasters in Shaanxi Province (China). The damages caused are severe, losses are heavy, and have rapidly increased over the years, especially those caused by flood disasters along the rivers in mountainous areas. Therefore, research on risk evaluations, which play important roles in the prevention and mitigation of highway disasters are very important. An evaluation model was established based on the superposition theory of regional influencing factors to highway flood disasters. Based on the formation mechanism and influencing factors of highway flood disasters, the main influencing factors were selected. These factors include rainstorms, terrain slopes, soil types, vegetation coverage and regional river density, which are based on evaluation indexes from climate conditions and underlying surface of the basin. A regional risk evaluation of highway flood disasters in Shaanxi was established using GIS. The risk index was divided into five levels using statistical methods, in accordance with the regional characteristics of highway flood disasters. Considering the difference in upfront investments, road grade, etc, between expressways and trunk-highways in China, a regional risk evaluation of trunk-highway flood disasters was completed. The evaluation results indicate that the risk evaluation is consistent with the actual situation.

  1. Proposal for a New Model for Highway Records in the Republic of Croatia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rinaldo Paar

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Highways are public roads, whose function is to integrate Croatia in the European transport system, link the regions of Croatia and facilitate transit traffic. They are public property for general use, owned by the Republic of Croatia, and they cannot be the subject of acquisition or other proprietary rights of any kind. Today, there are two types of highway record-keeping. The first is conducted by leading companies authorised to manage highways in order to develop a highway database, or create a highway register. The second is conducted by land-management systems; the Cadastre and Land Registry. They are the official public registers for keeping records of land plots, buildings and other structures, and their ownership. Procedures that need to be implemented in the second type of record-keeping often get "stuck" in practice. Based on the problems identified in this model and an analysis of the state of record-keeping, a proposal for a new model for highway records in the Cadastre and Land Registry is given. Keywords: highways; building plot; expropriation; record; Cadastre; Land Registry

  2. Expanding transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O) from planning to construction primer : [summary].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    Floridas increasing population leads to more road users of all types: pedestrians, cyclists, public : transit, trucks, and automobiles. Because funds and right-of-way are often unavailable to : increase highway capacity through expansion, effectiv...

  3. Highway traffic operations and freeway management : state-of-the-practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    2003-03-01

    This paper focuses on the proactive management of freeway facilities to balance the capacity of the transportation system and the prevailing demands and to respond to out-of-the-ordinary conditions (e.g., incidents, adverse weather, work zones, speci...

  4. Highway Expenditures and Associated Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Paz

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study analyzes the satisfaction of the Nevadans with respect to their highway transportation system and the corresponding expenditures of Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT. A survey questionnaire was designed to capture the opinions of the Nevadans (customers about a number of characteristics of their transportation system. Data from the financial data warehouse of the NDOT was used to evaluate expenditures. Multinomial probit models were estimated to study the correlations between customers’ opinion and the government expenditures in transportation. The results indicate the customer satisfaction is decreasing with respect to traffic safety throughout Northwestern and Southern Nevada highways. In addition, users of Northwestern highways are more likely to be satisfied, compared to their counterparts, with increasing construction spending to reduce the time taken to complete construction projects. In Southern Nevada highways, customers’ satisfaction increases with the expenditures associated with reduction of congestion. These insights are examples of the conclusions that were obtained as a consequence of simultaneously considering customer satisfaction and the corresponding expenditures in transportation.

  5. Analyses of Lattice Traffic Flow Model on a Gradient Highway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gupta Arvind Kumar; Redhu Poonam; Sharma Sapna

    2014-01-01

    The optimal current difference lattice hydrodynamic model is extended to investigate the traffic flow dynamics on a unidirectional single lane gradient highway. The effect of slope on uphill/downhill highway is examined through linear stability analysis and shown that the slope significantly affects the stability region on the phase diagram. Using nonlinear stability analysis, the Burgers, Korteweg-deVries (KdV) and modified Korteweg-deVries (mKdV) equations are derived in stable, metastable and unstable region, respectively. The effect of reaction coefficient is examined and concluded that it plays an important role in suppressing the traffic jams on a gradient highway. The theoretical findings have been verified through numerical simulation which confirm that the slope on a gradient highway significantly influence the traffic dynamics and traffic jam can be suppressed efficiently by considering the optimal current difference effect in the new lattice model. (nuclear physics)

  6. Relationship Between Accumulation and Influx of Pollutants in Highway Ponds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Thomas Ruby; Larsen, Torben; Rasmussen, Michael R.

    The paper discusses the long term mass balance of pollutants in highway ponds. The accumulations of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and six heavy metals have been measured in eight Danish detention ponds, which receive runoff from highways only. For each pollutant the accumulation has...... been compared to the long-term influx, estimated from short-term measurements of concentrations in highway runoff. The results show that a large proportion of the incoming heavy metals in short-term runoff events has accumulated in the ponds. This is not the case for the toxic organic compounds....... The results also show that the accumulation rates for the heavy metals depend significantly on the relative pond area (pond area divided by catchment area). The conclusion is that the mass balances of heavy metals and PAHs in highway ponds can be estimated with acceptable accuracy from a combination of short...

  7. Energy harvesting on highway bridges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    A concept for harvesting energy from the traffic-induced loadings on a highway bridge using piezoelectric : materials to generate electricity was explored through the prototype stage. A total of sixteen lead-zirconate : titanate (PZT) Type 5A piezoel...

  8. Design of a Two-stage High-capacity Stirling Cryocooler Operating below 30K

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaotao; Dai, Wei; Zhu, Jian; Chen, Shuai; Li, Haibing; Luo, Ercang

    The high capacity cryocooler working below 30K can find many applications such as superconducting motors, superconducting cables and cryopump. Compared to the GM cryocooler, the Stirling cryocooler can achieve higher efficiency and more compact structure. Because of these obvious advantages, we have designed a two stage free piston Stirling cryocooler system, which is driven by a moving magnet linear compressor with an operating frequency of 40 Hz and a maximum 5 kW input electric power. The first stage of the cryocooler is designed to operate in the liquid nitrogen temperature and output a cooling power of 100 W. And the second stage is expected to simultaneously provide a cooling power of 50 W below the temperature of 30 K. In order to achieve the best system efficiency, a numerical model based on the thermoacoustic model was developed to optimize the system operating and structure parameters.

  9. Estimates of emergency operating capacity in U.S. manufacturing industries: 1994--2005

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belzer, D.B.

    1997-02-01

    To develop integrated policies for mobilization preparedness, planners require estimates and projections of available productive capacity during national emergency conditions. This report develops projections of national emergency operating capacity (EOC) for 458 US manufacturing industries at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level. These measures are intended for use in planning models that are designed to predict the demands for detailed industry sectors that would occur under conditions such as a military mobilization or a major national disaster. This report is part of an ongoing series of studies prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to support mobilization planning studies of the Federal Emergency Planning Agency/US Department of Defense (FEMA/DOD). Earlier sets of EOC estimates were developed in 1985 and 1991. This study presents estimates of EOC through 2005. As in the 1991 study, projections of capacity were based upon extrapolations of equipment capital stocks. The methodology uses time series regression models based on industry data to obtain a response function of industry capital stock to levels of industrial output. The distributed lag coefficients of these response function are then used with projected outputs to extrapolate the 1994 level of EOC. Projections of industrial outputs were taken from the intermediate-term forecast of the US economy prepared by INFORUM (Interindustry Forecasting Model, University of Maryland) in the spring of 1996.

  10. 76 FR 72029 - Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-21

    ... in the FHWA Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program as authorized in 23 U.S.C. 511... Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program as authorized in 23 U.S.C. 511. This notice clarifies... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Highway Administration Multistate Corridor Operations and...

  11. [Effect of highway driving on the health of factory workers].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uramoto, Hidetaka

    2008-06-01

    Commuting transportation is one of the important factors in the administration of safety management in industries. Most workers commute to work by car and are certain to make use of highways, mainly because of the special condition of factory locations. In this study, we investigated the effect of communicating by car on the health of factory workers. The proportion of males was significantly higher in the highway (HW) group than in the non-highway (NHW) group, and the former was younger than the latter. BMI, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol deteriorated significantly in the NHW group after 5-year periodic medical checkups. However, in the HW group, those factors did not change except for systolic blood pressure and significant improvements in triglyceride. The percentage of those who follow a good lifestyle regarding excise and nutrition, and have a solution for stress, was lower in the HW group than in the NHW group. Nevertheless, the percentage of those who did not feel stress was significantly higher in the HW group than in the NHW group, suggesting a stress-relieving effect of highway driving. Highway driving might have an unexpectedly good impact on the health of factory workers.

  12. Mathematical model of highways network optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakhapov, R. L.; Nikolaeva, R. V.; Gatiyatullin, M. H.; Makhmutov, M. M.

    2017-12-01

    The article deals with the issue of highways network design. Studies show that the main requirement from road transport for the road network is to ensure the realization of all the transport links served by it, with the least possible cost. The goal of optimizing the network of highways is to increase the efficiency of transport. It is necessary to take into account a large number of factors that make it difficult to quantify and qualify their impact on the road network. In this paper, we propose building an optimal variant for locating the road network on the basis of a mathematical model. The article defines the criteria for optimality and objective functions that reflect the requirements for the road network. The most fully satisfying condition for optimality is the minimization of road and transport costs. We adopted this indicator as a criterion of optimality in the economic-mathematical model of a network of highways. Studies have shown that each offset point in the optimal binding road network is associated with all other corresponding points in the directions providing the least financial costs necessary to move passengers and cargo from this point to the other corresponding points. The article presents general principles for constructing an optimal network of roads.

  13. A Method for Increasing the Operating Limit Capacity of Wind Farms Using Battery Energy Storage Systems with Rate of Change of Frequency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dae-Hee Son

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the appropriate rated power of battery energy storage system (BESS and the operating limit capacity of wind farms are determined considering power system stability, and novel output control methods of BESS and wind turbines are proposed. The rated power of BESS is determined by correlation with the kinetic energy that can be released from wind turbines and synchronous generators when a disturbance occurs in the power system. After the appropriate rated power of BESS is determined, a novel control scheme for quickly responding to disturbances should be applied to BESS. It is important to compensate the insufficient power difference between demand and supply more quickly after a disturbance, and for this purpose, BESS output is controlled using the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF. Generally, BESS output is controlled by the frequency droop control (FDC, however if ROCOF falls below the threshold, BESS output increases sharply. Under this control for BESS, the power system’s stability can be improved and the operating limit capacity of wind farms can be increased. The operating limit capacity is determined as the smaller of technical limit and dynamic limit capacity. The technical limit capacity is calculated by the difference between the maximum power of the generators connected to the power system and the magnitude of loads, and the dynamic limit capacity is determined by considering dynamic stability of a power system frequency when the wind turbines drop out from a power system. Output of the dynamic model developed for wind turbine is based on the operating limit capacity and is controlled by blade pitch angle. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method, different case studies are conducted, with simulations for BESS and wind turbine using Power System Simulation for Engineering (PSS/E.

  14. World nuclear power plant capacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1981-01-01

    Worldwide, there were 249 power reactors in operation at the end of 1980, with a net electrical capacity of about 142 GW. In Canada the ten reactors in operation had a combined capacity of about 5.5 GW. Another 14 under construction will produce an additional 9.9 GW. Four Canadian reactors were in the world's top ten in terms of capacity factor in 1980, and six were in the top ten in terms of lifetime performance. Data tabulated for the Canadian reactors are: location, power, operator, date of first power. For the rest of the world, a table gives the number of reactors of each type and their capacity. (N.D.H.)

  15. 76 FR 43121 - Highway Use Tax; Filing and Payment for Taxable Period Beginning July 1, 2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-20

    .... The regulations affect owners and operators of highway motor vehicles with a taxable gross weight of... applicability, see Sec. Sec. 41.6001-2T(d), 41.6071(a)-1T(c)(3), and 41.6151(a)-1T(b). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION... motor vehicle with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. The person in whose name the vehicle...

  16. Dollars for lives: the effect of highway capital investments on traffic fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen-Hoang, Phuong; Yeung, Ryan

    2014-12-01

    This study examines the effect of highway capital investments on highway fatalities. We used state-level data from the 48 contiguous states in the United States from 1968 through 2010 to estimate the effects on highway fatalities of capital expenditures and highway capital stock. We estimated these effects by controlling for a set of control variables together with state and year dummy variables and state-specific linear time trends. We found that capital expenditures and capital stock had significant and negative effects on highway fatalities. States faced with declines in gas tax revenues have already cut back drastically on spending on roads including on maintenance and capital outlay. If this trend continues, it may undermine traffic safety. While states and local governments are currently fiscally strained, it is important for them to continue investments in roadways to enhance traffic safety and, more significantly, to save lives. Copyright © 2014 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Highway and interline transportation routing models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joy, D.S.; Johnson, P.E.

    1994-01-01

    The potential impacts associated with the transportation of hazardous materials are important issues to shippers, carriers, and the general public. Since transportation routes are a central characteristic in most of these issues, the prediction of likely routes is the first step toward the resolution of these issues. In addition, US Department of Transportation requirements (HM-164) mandate specific routes for shipments of highway controlled quantities of radioactive materials. In response to these needs, two routing models have been developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These models have been designated by DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Transportation Management Division (DOE/EM) as the official DOE routing models. Both models, HIGHWAY and INTERLINE, are described

  18. ANALYSIS OF SUFFICIENCY OF THE BEARING CAPACITY OF BUILDING STRUCTURES OF OPERATING SITES OF MAIN BUILDINGS OF THERMAL POWER PLANTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alekseeva Ekaterina Leonidovna

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Upon examination of eleven main buildings of power plants, analysis of defects and damages of building structures was performed. Thereafter, the damageability of principal bearing structures of main buildings of thermal plants was analyzed. It was identified that the fastest growing defects and damages were concentrated in the structures of operating sites. The research of the rate of development of the most frequent damages and defects made it possible to conclude that internal corrosion of the reinforcing steel was the most dangerous defect, as far as the reinforced concrete elements of operating sites were concerned. Methods of mathematical statistics were applied to identify the reinforcing steel development pattern inside reinforced concrete elements of floors of operating sites. It was identified that the probability of corrosion of reinforced concrete elements of operating sites was distributed in accordance with the demonstrative law. Based on these data, calculation of strength of reinforced concrete slabs and metal beams was performed in terms of their regular sections, given the natural loads and the realistic condition of structures. As a result, dependence between the bearing capacity reserve ratio and the corrosion development pattern was identified for reinforced concrete slabs and metal beams of operating sites. In order to analyze the sufficiency of the bearing capacity of building structures of operating sites in relation to their time in commission, equations were derived to identify the nature of dependence between the sufficiency of the bearing capacity of reinforced concrete slabs and metal beams of the operating sites and their time in commission.

  19. West Virginia peer exchange : streamlining highway safety improvement program project delivery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    The West Virginia Division of Highways (WV DOH) hosted a Peer Exchange to share information and experiences : for streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) project delivery. The event was held September : 22 to 23, 2014 in Charleston, We...

  20. A hydraulic test stand for demonstrating the operation of Eaton’s energy recovery system (ERS)

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Meng (Rachel); Danzl, Per; Mahulkar, Vishal; Piyabongkarn, Damrongrit (Neng); Brenner, Paul

    2016-01-01

    Fuel cost represents a significant operating expense for owners and fleet managers of hydraulic off-highway vehicles. Further, the upcoming Tier IV compliance for off-highway applications will create further expense for after-treatment and cooling. Solutions that help address these factors motivate fleet operators to consider and pursue more fuelefficient hydraulic energy recovery systems. Electrical hybridization schemes are typically complex, expensive, and often do not satisfy customer pay...

  1. Countermeasures that work : a highway safety countermeasure guide for state highway safety offices : eighth edition : 2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-11-01

    The guide is a basic reference to assist State Highway Safety Offices in selecting effective, evidence- based : countermeasures for traffic safety problem areas. These areas include: : - Alcohol-and Drug-Impaired Driving; : - Seat Belts and Child Res...

  2. FLEXURAL CAPACITY OF THE PRECAST RC BEAM-COLUMN CONNECTION USING CFRP SHEET

    OpenAIRE

    Djamaluddin, Rudy; Rante, Harmonis; Irmawaty, Rita

    2016-01-01

    Precast concrete have advantages in quality and shorter construction time. The connection of a precast concrete structures is important for the successful construction. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the flexural capacity of the portal system beam-column connection of precast concrete using CFRP sheet. The study was conducted to develop a connection system using CFRP sheet on a precast concrete frame of a highway bridges. A series of specimens with parameter of CFRP shee...

  3. Impact of three years training on operations capacities of research ethics committees in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Folayan, Morenike Oluwatoyin; Adaranijo, Aisha; Durueke, Florita; Ajuwon, Ademola; Adejumo, Adebayo; Ezechi, Oliver; Oyedeji, Kola; Akanni, Olayide

    2014-04-01

    This paper describes a three-year project designed to build the capacity of members of research ethics committes to perform their roles and responsibilities efficiently and effectively. The project participants were made up of a cross-section of the membership of 13 Research Ethics Committees (RECs) functioning in Nigeria. They received training to develop their capacity to evaluate research protocols, monitor trial implementation, provide constructive input to trial staff, and assess the trial's success in promoting community engagement in the research. Following the training, technical assistance was provided to participants on an ongoing basis and the project's impacts were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicate that sustained investment in capacity building efforts (including training, ongoing technical assistance, and the provision of multiple tools) improved the participants' knowledge of both the ethical principles relevant to biomedical research and how effective REC should function. Such investment was also shown to have a positive impact on the knowledge levels of other RECs members (those who did not receive training) and the overall operations of the RECs to which the participants belonged. Building the capacity of REC members to fulfill their roles effectively requires sustained effort and investment and pays off by enabling RECs to fulfill their essential mission of ensuring that trials are conducted safely and ethically. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. The impact of highway base-saturation flow rate adjustment on Kuwait's transport and environmental parameters estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    AlRukaibi, Fahad; AlKheder, Sharaf; Al-Rukaibi, Duaij; Al-Burait, Abdul-Aziz

    2018-03-23

    Traditional transportation systems' management and operation mainly focused on improving traffic mobility and safety without imposing any environmental concerns. Transportation and environmental issues are interrelated and affected by the same parameters especially at signalized intersections. Additionally, traffic congestion at signalized intersections has a major contribution in the environmental problem as related to vehicle emission, fuel consumption, and delay. Therefore, signalized intersections' design and operation is an important parameter to minimize the impact on the environment. The design and operation of signalized intersections are highly dependent on the base saturation flow rate (BSFR). Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) uses a base-saturation flow rate of 1900-passenger car/h/lane for areas with a population intensity greater than or equal to 250,000 and a value of 1750-passenger car/h/lane for less populated areas. The base-saturation flow rate value in HCM is derived from a field data collected in developed countries. The adopted value in Kuwait is 1800passengercar/h/lane, which is the value that used in this analysis as a basis for comparison. Due to the difference in behavior between drivers in developed countries and their fellows in Kuwait, an adjustment was made to the base-saturation flow rate to represent Kuwait's traffic and environmental conditions. The reduction in fuel consumption and vehicles' emission after modifying the base-saturation flow rate (BSFR increased by 12.45%) was about 34% on average. Direct field measurements of the saturation flow rate were used while using the air quality mobile lab to calculate emissions' rates. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Efficient common rail injection systems and intelligent control strategies for the fulfillment of future on/off highway emission limits; Effiziente Common Rail Einspritzsysteme und intelligente Regelstrategien fuer die Erfuellung zukuenftiger On-/Off-Highway Emissionsgrenzwerte

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schugger, Christian; Krauss, Jost; Projahn, Ulrich; Gerhardt, Juergen [Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart-Feuerbach (Germany)

    2011-07-01

    The diesel engine is the most common powertrain in commercial applications, and will retain that position for the foreseeable future. In order to meet future emission standards, a wide variety of solutions within combustion process control, exhaust gas aftertreatment, air and injection systems have been developed. The development of common rail injection systems for trucks with 2000 and 2200 bar injection pressure increases the opportunities for internal engine emissions reductions. The systems are designed for medium-duty and heavy-duty applications, on-highway (on-HW) and Off-highway (off-HW). Besides increasing the injection pressure this system features high efficiency in hydraulic pressure generation and injection, making a direct contribution to reducing fuel consumption. To meet even greater requirements, a system with an injection pressure of 2500 bar is under development. As an indicator for the hydraulic efficiency of an injector, the ''effective injection pressure'' is derived. This indicator allows for a uniform rating of different injector concepts. Software functions contribute to the fulfillment of the system requirements over lifetime. An engine speed based function calibrates the pilot injection quantity during low idle operation for on- and off-highway applications. The increase in system pressure results in increased loads for the components. A calibration function for the pump delivery characteristics minimizes pressure overshoots and ensures the pressure control dynamics over lifetime. (orig.)

  6. Simulation of physical development because affected by the construction of the highway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Damjan Bačnar

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available The procedure for planning highways entails evaluation of possibilities the purpose being selection of the optimal one. In the procedure certain criteria are applied, amongst other evaluation of influences on regional and urban development. Despite the set criteria the chosen route is often contrary to development goals of cities and wider areas – regions, which it affects. The article presents possibilities of using models of effects of highways on settlement development for forecasting consequences of construction. The model is based on knowledge of effects of already built highways, examples of analysed highway exits are shown with settlement growth. Spatial models are useful tools for forecasting physical changes and simulating effects of projects on physical development or its particular elements.

  7. Highway renewable energy : photovoltaic noise barriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-01

    Highway photovoltaic noise barriers (PVNBs) represent the combination of noise barrier systems and photovoltaic systems in order to mitigate traffic noise while simultaneously producing renewable energy. First deployed in Switzerland in 1989, PVNBs a...

  8. Transition curves for highway geometric design

    CERN Document Server

    Kobryń, Andrzej

    2017-01-01

    This book provides concise descriptions of the various solutions of transition curves, which can be used in geometric design of roads and highways. It presents mathematical methods and curvature functions for defining transition curves. .

  9. 23 CFR 752.8 - Privately operated information centers and systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Privately operated information centers and systems. 752... may permit privately operated information centers and systems which conform with the standards of this... AND ENVIRONMENT LANDSCAPE AND ROADSIDE DEVELOPMENT § 752.8 Privately operated information centers and...

  10. Kentucky's highway incident management strategic plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-06-01

    Kentucky s Highway Incident Management Strategic Plan consists of a mission statement, 4 goals, 16 objectives, and 49 action strategies. The action strategies are arranged by priority and recommended time frame for implementation. When implemented...

  11. The M77 Highway: saving lives and money.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crane, Evan O T; Augustine, Angelica; Tait, Gavin R

    2008-09-01

    Upgrading of a stretch of the A77, a major road in South West Scotland to Highway status has resulted in a significant reduction in the incidence of serious and fatal road traffic accidents on a major international route. Notwithstanding the pain and suffering prevented, the annual economic savings amount to over pound 6.1 Million ($12.14 M/euro 7.96 M) The Highway, with an effective central reservation barrier, will pay for itself in 17 years and will continue to prevent serious injury and save lives.

  12. Causative factors of cost overrun in highway projects of Sindh province of Pakistan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohu, S.; Halid, A.; Nagapan, S.; Fattah, A.; Latif, I.; Ullah, K.

    2017-11-01

    Cost overrun is an increase of cost of project from approved budget which was signed by parties at the time of tender. Cost overrun in construction of highway projects is a common problem worldwide and construction industry of Pakistan is also facing this crucial problem of cost overrun in highway projects of Pakistan. The main objective of this research is to identify the causative factors of cost overrun in highway projects of Sindh province of Pakistan. A well designed questionnaire was developed based on 64 common factors of cost overrun from literature review. Developed questionnaire was distributed among selected 30 experts from owner/client, designer/consultant and contractor who have experience more than 20 years’ experience in highway projects. The collected data was statistical analyzed. After analysis results showed that delay process in payment by client, inadequate planning, client interference, poor contract management, delay of decision making, change of scope of project and financial problems faced by client were most causative factors of cost overrun in highway projects. This research will provide alertness to stakeholders of highway projects of Sindh province to avoid cost overrun in projects.

  13. Artificial potential functions for highway driving with collision avoidance

    OpenAIRE

    Wolf , Michael T.; Burdick, Joel W.

    2008-01-01

    We present a set of potential function components to assist an automated or semi-automated vehicle in navigating a multi-lane, populated highway. The resulting potential field is constructed as a superposition of disparate functions for lane- keeping, road-staying, speed preference, and vehicle avoidance and passing. The construction of the vehicle avoidance potential is of primary importance, incorporating the structure and protocol of laned highway driving. Particularly, the shape and dimen...

  14. A Novel Beamforming Technique for Highways Coverage Using High-Altitude Platforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasser Albagory

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel beamforming technique to form an arbitrary-shaped cell for the high-altitude platforms (HAPs mobile communications. The new technique is based on pattern summation of individual low-sidelobe, narrow beams which constitute the desired cell pattern weighted by an amplitude correcting function. The new cell pattern can be adapted to cover the main highways forming worm-shaped cells which may cover the highway for long distances up to 100 km and it will have an important role in reducing frequent handoffs and signaling traffic of location updating from moving users over the long highways.

  15. Comparison of Ferry Boat and Highway Bridge Energy Use

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wayne D. Cottrell

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Passenger ferries serve a variety of transport needs in the U.S., such as providing vital links across bodies of water, and supplementing highway bridges. In some cases in which there is a ferry connection but no bridge, a bridge would be impractical; in other cases, a bridge might be feasible. The paper compares the energy consumption of ferries and motor vehicles on bridges, to determine which link is more fuel efficient. One finding is that limited data are available on ferry boat fuel consumption: despite there being 208 ferry boat operators in the U.S. as of 2008, only eight were providing energy use data to the National Transit Database. Examinations of three of the systems found that the passenger-MPG of the ferries ranged from 2.61 to 14.00 (1.11 to 5.95 km/L, while that of the motor vehicles on adjacent highway bridge connections ranged from 25.34 to 32.45 (10.77 to 13.79 km/L. Data from the eight systems are used to develop a ferry MPG model. The model is used to show that the Ryer Island and Charles Hall Ferries are less fuel efficient than hypothetical bridges in those locations. The fuel efficiencies and consumptions of the ferries would equal those of motor vehicles on the bridges, however, if smaller vessels were used, and if the frequency of service was reduced.

  16. Speed Distribution on Two-Lane Rural Highways with Mixed Traffic: A Case Study in North East India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saha, Pritam; Roy, Nabanita; Sarkar, Ashoke Kumar; Pal, Manish

    2017-06-01

    This work focuses on minimising inaccuracies in distributional assumptions of speed data on two-lane roads with heterogeneous traffic to improve accuracy in capacity and level of service analysis. Accordingly, field study was conducted on a two-lane highway in India that exhibits heterogeneity in its traffic composition. Two distribution functions, namely, normal and logistic were examined for the observed speed data. The appropriate function was chosen using a methodology based on K-S test and field validation. Logistic distribution function was found to exhibit its aptness in describing speed under such traffic and was, thereby, considered in estimating the limiting speed of slower vehicles that tends to obstruct the flow of traffic. Vehicles that move at or below this speed cause delay to the faster ones resulting in formation of platoons at moderate and heavy flow when passing is restricted. Since the percent time-spent-following, a performance measure to assess level-of-service of two-lane highways, considers proportion of vehicles that are trapped inside platoons, it is imperative to estimate the limiting speed of slower vehicles correctly to approximate the delayed vehicles.

  17. Social multiplier effects: academics’ and practitioners’ perspective on the benefits of a tuberculosis operational research capacity-building program in Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Probandari, Ari; Mahendradhata, Yodi; Widjanarko, Bagoes; Alisjahbana, Bachti

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Background: The Tuberculosis Operational Research Group (TORG) implemented a capacity-building model involving academics and practitioners (i.e. clinicians or program staff) in an operational research (OR) team in Indonesia. Objective: This study explored academics’ and practitioners’ perspectives regarding the benefits of participating in a tuberculosis (TB) OR capacity-building program in Indonesia. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 36 academics and 23 practitioners undertaking the TORG capacity-building program. We asked open-ended questions about their experience of the program. Data were analyzed via content analysis. Results: The findings demonstrated the social multiplier effects of the OR capacity-building program. Both academics and practitioners reported perceived improvements in research knowledge, skills, and experience, and described additional individual- and institutional-level benefits. The individual-level benefits level included improvements in understanding of the TB program, motivation for research and self-satisfaction, the development/enhancement of individual networking, receipt of recognition, and new opportunities. The additional benefits reported at an institutional level included improvement in research curricula, in-house training, and program management and the development/enhancement of institutional partnerships. Conclusions: The program improved not only individuals’ capacity for conducting OR but also the quality of the TB program management and public health education. OR should be included in research methodology curricula for postgraduate public health/disease control programs. The capacity-building model, in which academics and program staff collaborated within an OR team, should be promoted. PMID:29039271

  18. Prioritizing essential surgery and safe anesthesia for the Post-2015 Development Agenda: operative capacities of 78 district hospitals in 7 low- and middle-income countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeBrun, Drake G; Chackungal, Smita; Chao, Tiffany E; Knowlton, Lisa M; Linden, Allison F; Notrica, Michelle R; Solis, Carolina V; McQueen, K A Kelly

    2014-03-01

    Surgery has been neglected in low- and middle-income countries for decades. It is vital that the Post-2015 Development Agenda reflect that surgery is an important part of a comprehensive global health care delivery model. We compare the operative capacities of multiple low- and middle-income countries and identify critical gaps in surgical infrastructure. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative survey tool was used to assess the operative capacities of 78 government district hospitals in Bangladesh (n = 7), Bolivia (n = 11), Ethiopia (n = 6), Liberia (n = 11), Nicaragua (n = 10), Rwanda (n = 21), and Uganda (n = 12) from 2011 to 2012. Key outcome measures included infrastructure, equipment availability, physician and nonphysician surgical providers, operative volume, and pharmaceutical capacity. Seventy of 78 district hospitals performed operations. There was fewer than one surgeon or anesthesiologist per 100,000 catchment population in all countries except Bolivia. There were no physician anesthesiologists in any surveyed hospitals in Rwanda, Liberia, Uganda, or in the majority of hospitals in Ethiopia. Mean annual operations per hospital ranged from 374 in Nicaragua to 3,215 in Bangladesh. Emergency operations and obstetric operations constituted 57.5% and 40% of all operations performed, respectively. Availability of pulse oximetry, essential medicines, and key infrastructure (water, electricity, oxygen) varied widely between and within countries. The need for operative procedures is not being met by the limited operative capacity in numerous low- and middle-income countries. It is of paramount importance that this gap be addressed by prioritizing essential surgery and safe anesthesia in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Copyright © 2014 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. 23 CFR Appendix C to Subpart A of... - Federal-Aid Highway Contractors Annual EEO Report (Form PR-1391)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Federal-Aid Highway Contractors Annual EEO Report (Form PR-1391) C Appendix C to Subpart A of Part 230 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Part 230—Federal-Aid Highway Contractors Annual EEO Report (Form PR-1391) EC14OC91.000 ...

  20. Value for railway capacity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sameni, Melody Khadem; Preston, John M.

    2012-01-01

    to analyze the efficiency of operators in transforming inputs of allocated capacity of infrastructure and franchise payments into valuable passenger service outputs while avoiding delays. By addressing operational and economic aspects of capacity utilization simultaneously, the paper deviates from existing...... DEA work on the economic efficiency of railways by considering a new combination of input-output that also incorporates quality of service. The constant and variable returns to scale models are applied to the case study of franchised passenger operators in Great Britain. The follow-up Tobit regression...

  1. POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON CONTAMINATION LEVELS IN COLLECTED SAMPLES FROM VICINITY OF A HIGHWAY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. V. Samimi ، R. Akbari Rad ، F. Ghanizadeh

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Tehran as the biggest city of Iran with a population of more than 10 millions has potentially high pollutant exposures of gas oil and gasoline combustion from vehicles that are commuting in the highways every day. The vehicle exhausts contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are produced by incomplete combustion and can be directly deposited in the environment. In the present study, the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contamination in the collected samples of a western highway in Tehran was investigated. The studied location was a busy highway in Tehran. High performance liquid chromatography equipped with florescence detector was used for determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations in the studied samples. Total concentration of the ten studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds ranged from 11107 to 24342 ng/g dry weight in the dust samples and increased from 164 to 2886 ng/g dry weight in the soil samples taken from 300 m and middle of the highway, respectively. Also the average of Σ PAHs was 1759 ng/L in the water samples of pools in parks near the highway. The obtained results indicated that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contamination levels were very high in the vicinity of the highway.

  2. Effect of chronic nonmalignant pain on highway driving performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veldhuijzen, D S; van Wijck, A J M; Wille, F; Verster, J C; Kenemans, J L; Kalkman, C J; Olivier, B; Volkerts, E R

    2006-05-01

    Most pain patients are treated in an outpatient setting and are engaged in daily activities including driving. Since several studies showed that cognitive functioning may be impaired in chronic nonmalignant pain, the question arises whether or not chronic nonmalignant pain affects driving performance. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine the effects of chronic nonmalignant pain on actual highway driving performance during normal traffic. Fourteen patients with chronic nonmalignant pain and 14 healthy controls, matched on age, educational level, and driving experience, participated in the study. Participants performed a standardized on-the-road driving test during normal traffic, on a primary highway. The primary parameter of the driving test is the Standard Deviation of Lateral Position (SDLP). In addition, driving-related skills (tracking, divided attention, and memory) were examined in the laboratory. Subjective assessments, such as pain intensity, and subjective driving quality, were rated on visual analogue scales. The results demonstrated that a subset of chronic nonmalignant pain patients had SDLPs that were higher than the matched healthy controls, indicating worse highway driving performance. Overall, there was a statistically significant difference in highway driving performance between the groups. Further, chronic nonmalignant pain patients rated their subjective driving quality to be normal, although their ratings were significantly lower than those of the healthy controls. No significant effects were found on the laboratory tests.

  3. Highways and habitat: managing habitat connectivity and landscape permeability for wildlife.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jonathan. Thompson

    2006-01-01

    Millions of miles of highway crisscross the United States . Highways fragment the landscape, affecting the distribution of animal populations and limiting the ability of individuals to disperse between those populations. Moreover, animal-vehicle collisions are a serious hazard to wildlife, not to mention people.Researchers at the PNW Research Station in...

  4. Reservoir operations under climate change: Storage capacity options to mitigate risk

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehsani, Nima; Vörösmarty, Charles J.; Fekete, Balázs M.; Stakhiv, Eugene Z.

    2017-12-01

    Observed changes in precipitation patterns, rising surface temperature, increases in frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, widespread melting of ice, and reduced snow cover are some of the documented hydrologic changes associated with global climate change. Climate change is therefore expected to affect the water supply-demand balance in the Northeast United States and challenge existing water management strategies. The hydrological implications of future climate will affect the design capacity and operating characteristics of dams. The vulnerability of water resources systems to floods and droughts will increase, and the trade-offs between reservoir releases to maintain flood control storage, drought resilience, ecological flow, human water demand, and energy production should be reconsidered. We used a Neural Networks based General Reservoir Operation Scheme to estimate the implications of climate change for dams on a regional scale. This dynamic daily reservoir module automatically adapts to changes in climate and re-adjusts the operation of dams based on water storage level, timing, and magnitude of incoming flows. Our findings suggest that the importance of dams in providing water security in the region will increase. We create an indicator of the Effective Degree of Regulation (EDR) by dams on water resources and show that it is expected to increase, particularly during drier months of year, simply as a consequence of projected climate change. The results also indicate that increasing the size and number of dams, in addition to modifying their operations, may become necessary to offset the vulnerabilities of water resources systems to future climate uncertainties. This is the case even without considering the likely increase in future water demand, especially in the most densely populated regions of the Northeast.

  5. Least-Present-Value-of-Revenue Auctions and Highway Franchising

    OpenAIRE

    Eduardo M.R.A. Engel; Ronald D. Fischer; Alexander Galetovic

    1998-01-01

    In recent years several countries have started massive highway franchising programs auctioned to private firms. In these auctions, the regulator typically sets the franchise term and firms bid on tolls, or, alternatively, the regulator sets tolls and the winner is the firm that asks for the shortest franchise term. In this paper we argue that many of the problems that highway franchises have encountered are due to the fact that the franchise term cannot adjust to demand realizations. We propo...

  6. 26 CFR 41.4482(a)-1 - Definition of highway motor vehicle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... of its own motor, whether such motor is powered by gasoline, diesel fuel, special motor fuels... 26 Internal Revenue 16 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Definition of highway motor vehicle. 41.4482(a... (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS EXCISE TAXES EXCISE TAX ON USE OF CERTAIN HIGHWAY MOTOR VEHICLES Tax on Use of...

  7. Lead concentrations and reproduction in highway-nesting barn swallows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grue, C.E.; O'Shea, T.J.; Hoffman, D.J.

    1984-01-01

    Swallows (Hirundo rustica) collected within the right-of-way of a major Maryland highway were greater than those found in Barn Swallows nesting within a rural area. Lead concentrations in the feathers of adults from the highway colony were also greater than Lead concentrations in the carcasses and stomach contents of adult and nestling Barn those of rural adults, but concentrations in the feathers of nestlings from the two locations were similar. Activity of u-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase in red blood cells was lower in highway-nesting adults and their young than in their rural counterparts, although hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrits did not differ. The number of eggs, nestlings, and body weights of the latter at 16-18 days of age were similar in the two colonies, as were body weights of adults from the two areas. These results suggest that contamination of roadside habitats by lead from automotive emissions does not pose a serious hazard to birds that are aerial feeders.

  8. Experimental Study on Post Grouting Bearing Capacity of Large Diameter Bored Piles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Duanduan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Post grouting can improve the inherent defects such as the formation of the mud cake at pile side and the sediment at pile end in the process of bored pile construction. Thus post grouting has been widely used in Engineering. The purpose of this paper is to research the influences of post grouting to pile bearing capacity more systematically and intuitively. Combined with the static load test of four test piles in Weihe River Bridge test area of new airport highway in Xi’an, the bearing capacity and settlement of routine piles and post grouting piles are comparatively analyzed. The test results show that under the same geological condition, post grouting can improve the properties of pile tip and pile shaft soil of bored piles significantly, enhance the ultimate resistance, improve the ultimate bearing capacity and reduce the pile tip settlement. Then post grouting can aim to optimize pile foundation.

  9. Dollars for lives : the effect of highway capital investments on traffic fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-10-01

    There is no research that links capital investments on highways with highway fatalities. Our research project aimed to fill : t : hat gap. We used state : - : level data from the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. from 1968 through 2010 to estimate the...

  10. Dynamic Estimation on Output Elasticity of Highway Capital Stock in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, W. J.; Zuo, Q. L.; Bai, Y. F.

    2017-12-01

    By using the Perpetual Inventory Method to calculate the capital stock of highway in China from 1988 to 2016, the paper builds the State Space Model based on Translog Production Function, according to the Ridge Regression and Kalman Filter Method, the dynamic estimation results of output elasticity are measured continuously and analyzed. The conclusions show that: Firstly, China’s growth speed on highway industry capital stock are divided into three stages which are respectively from 1988 to 2000, from 2001 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2016, during which shows steady growth, between which reflect rapid growth; Secondly, the output elasticity of highway capital stock, being between 0.154 and 0.248, is slightly larger than the output elasticity of human input factor, lower than the output elasticity of the technical level, shows positive effect on transport economy and rises steadily, but the output efficiency is low on the whole; Thirdly, around the year of 2010, the scale pay on highway industry begins to highlight the characteristic of increase.

  11. Effects of highway-deicer application on ground-water quality in a part of the Calumet Aquifer, northwestern Indiana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Lee R.; Bayless, E. Randall; Buszka, Paul M.; Wilson, John T.

    2002-01-01

    in ground water were determined in samples collected during the spring and summer from wells open to the water table within about 9 feet of the highway. Chloride concentrations in ground water that were attributable to highway deicers also were found in tested wells about 400 feet downgradient from US?12 during the fall and winter and at greater depths than in wells closer to US?12. Chloride concentrations exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?s (USEPA) secondary maximum contaminant level of 250 milligrams per liter for drinking water at seven wells downgradient from the highway during late winter, spring, and summer samplings. The chloride standard was exceeded only in water from wells with total depths that are less than about 10 feet below land surface. Sodium concentrations in water periodically exceeded the USEPA drinking-water equivalency level of 20 milligrams per liter in both the uppermost (deicer affected) and lower one-thirds of the aquifer. Sodium concentrations in ground water downgradient from US?12 and in the upper 5 feet of the aquifer also occasionally exceeded drinking-water standards for sodium (160 milligrams per liter) as set by the State of Florida and a standard for taste (200 milligrams per liter) as set by the World Health Organization. Dispersion was identified by analysis of aquifer-test data, isotopic dating of ground water, and water-quality data to be the process most responsible for reducing concentrations of highway deicers in the aquifer. Chemical analyses of the sand composing the aquifer indicated that cation exchange decreased the mass of deicer-related sodium in ground water, although the sand has a limited capacity to sustain the process. Automated daily measurements of specific conductance, correlated to chloride concentrations, indicated that some deicer is retained in the aquifer near the highway throughout the entire year and acts as a continuous chloride source for ground water. Peak concentrations of

  12. An assessment of The Capacity Drops at The Bottleneck Segments: A review on the existing methodologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sugiarto Sugiarto

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The term of capacity is very useful to quantify the ability of transport facilities in terms of carrying traffic. The capacity of the road is an essential ingredient in the planning, design, and operation of roadways. It is desirable for traffic analyst to be able to predict the time and places where congestion will occur and the volumes to be expected. Most of urbanized areas have been experiencing of traffic congestion problems particularly at urban arterial systems. High traffic demand and limited supply of roadways are always the main factors produced traffic congestion. However, there are other sources of local and temporal congestion, such as uncontrolled access point, median opening and on-street parking activities, which are caused a reduction of roadway capacity during peak operations. Those locations could result in reduction of travel speed and road, as known as hidden bottlenecks. This is bottleneck which is without any changes in geometric of the segments. The Indonesian Highway Capacity Manual (IHCM, 1997 is used to assess urban arterial systems till current days. IHCM provides a static method for examining the capacityand does not systematically take into account of bottleneck activities. However, bottleneck activities create interruption smooth traffic flow along arterial streets, which in turns stimulate related problems, such as, excessive air pollution, additional energy consumption and driver’s frustration due to traffic jammed. This condition could happen simultaneously; mostly repetitive and predictable in same peak hour demands. Therefore, this paper carefully summarize on the existing methodologies considering required data, handled data processing and expected output of each proposed of analysis. We further notice that dynamic approach could be more appropriated for analyzing temporal congestion segments (median opening, on street parking, etc.. Method of oblique cumulative plot seems to be more applicable in terms of

  13. Building Partnership Capacity: Operation Harmattan and Beyond

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-01

    twofold purpose. The first, in essence, is pedagogic , presenting what the FAF brings to the fight through the lens of the mili­ tary action in Libya...Capacity Feature interaction with the French over many decades often accompanies persistent “legacy” stereotypes

  14. Checklist for transition to new highway fuel(s).

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Risch, C.; Santini, D.J. (Energy Systems)

    2011-12-15

    Transportation is vital to the U.S. economy and society. As such, U.S. Presidents have repeatedly stated that the nation needs to reduce dependence on petroleum, especially for the highway transportation sector. Throughout history, highway transportation fuel transitions have been completed successfully both in United States and abroad. Other attempts have failed, as described in Appendix A: Historical Highway Fuel Transitions. Planning for a transition is critical because the changes can affect our nation's ability to compete in the world market. A transition will take many years to complete. While it is tempting to make quick decisions about the new fuel(s) of choice, it is preferable and necessary to analyze all the pertinent criteria to ensure that correct decisions are made. Doing so will reduce the number of changes in highway fuel(s). Obviously, changes may become necessary because of occurrences such as significant technology breakthroughs or major world events. With any and all of the possible transitions to new fuel(s), the total replacement of gasoline and diesel fuels is not expected. These conventional fuels are envisioned to coexist with the new fuel(s) for decades, while the revised fuel and vehicle infrastructures are implemented. The transition process must analyze the needs of the primary 'players,' which consist of the customers, the government, the fuel industry, and the automotive industry. To maximize the probability of future successes, the prime considerations of these groups must be addressed. Section 2 presents a succinct outline of the Checklist. Section 3 provides a brief discussion about the groupings on the Checklist.

  15. Vertebrate road kill survey on a highway in southern Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luiz Liberato Costa Corrêa

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Highways are a major factor acting in the decline of several wildlife populations. Impact occurs due to the continuous flow of motor vehicles over tracks and collision with animals using the same area. This study aimed to list road killed wild vertebrates found in highways in the Pampa Biome, state of Rio Grande do Sul, over an entire year. The taxa found (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals were identified to species level and their frequency of occurrence was seasonally registered. Along 2,160 km, we found 318 road killed individuals, totaling 65 species. This number represents an average of 0.147 road killed specimens by kilometer (that is, 1 individual each 7 km. Of these, seven species are under threat of extinction in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. We also found a seasonal pattern among road kills, in which the highest number of road killed animals was registered in the summer and spring months. These results contribute to increase knowledge about which species are most impacted by road kill on highways of the Pampa Biome. Such data can be used as an indicator for the implementation of measures by competent bodies to mitigate impacts of highways in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

  16. Analysis on the capacity degradation mechanism of a series lithium-ion power battery pack based on inconsistency of capacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Zhen-Po; Liu Peng; Wang Li-Fang

    2013-01-01

    The lithium-ion battery has been widely used as an energy source. Charge rate, discharge rate, and operating temperature are very important factors for the capacity degradations of power batteries and battery packs. Firstly, in this paper we make use of an accelerated life test and a statistical analysis method to establish the capacity accelerated degradation model under three constant stress parameters according to the degradation data, which are charge rate, discharge rate, and operating temperature, and then we propose a capacity degradation model according to the current residual capacity of a Li-ion cell under dynamic stress parameters. Secondly, we analyze the charge and discharge process of a series power battery pack and interpret the correlation between the capacity degradations of the battery pack and its charge/discharge rate. According to this cycling condition, we establish a capacity degradation model of a series power battery pack under inconsistent capacity of cells, and analyze the degradation mechanism with capacity variance and operating temperature difference. The comparative analysis of test results shows that the inconsistent operating temperatures of cells in the series power battery pack are the main cause of its degradation; when the difference between inconsistent temperatures is narrowed by 5 °C, the cycle life can be improved by more than 50%. Therefore, it effectively improves the cycle life of the series battery pack to reasonably assemble the batteries according to their capacities and to narrow the differences in operating temperature among cells. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  17. Spatial, road geometric, and biotic factors associated with Barn Owl mortality along an interstate highway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Erin M.; Hanser, Steven E.; Regan, Tempe; Thompson, Jeremy; Lowe, Melinda; Kociolek, Angela; Belthoff, James R.

    2018-01-01

    Highway programs typically focus on reducing vehicle collisions with large mammals because of economic or safety reasons while overlooking the millions of birds that die annually from traffic. We studied wildlife‐vehicle collisions along an interstate highway in southern Idaho, USA, with among the highest reported rates of American Barn Owl Tyto furcata road mortality. Carcass data from systematic and ad hoc surveys conducted in 2004–2006 and 2013–2015 were used to explore the extent to which spatial, road geometric, and biotic factors explained Barn Owl‐vehicle collisions. Barn Owls outnumbered all other identified vertebrate species of roadkill and represented > 25% of individuals and 73.6% of road‐killed birds. At a 1‐km highway segment scale, the number of dead Barn Owls decreased with increasing numbers of human structures, cumulative length of secondary roads near the highway, and width of the highway median. Number of dead Barn Owls increased with higher commercial average annual daily traffic (CAADT), small mammal abundance index, and with grass rather than shrubs in the roadside verge. The small mammal abundance index was also greater in roadsides with grass versus mixed shrubs, suggesting that Barn Owls may be attracted to grassy portions of the highway with more abundant small mammals for hunting prey. When assessed at a 3‐km highway segment scale, the number of dead Barn Owls again increased with higher CAADT as well as with greater numbers of dairy farms. At a 5‐km scale, number of dead Barn Owls increased with greater percentage of cropland near the highway. While human conversion of the environment from natural shrub‐steppe to irrigated agriculture in this region of Idaho has likely enhanced habitat for Barns Owls, it simultaneously has increased risk for owl‐vehicle collisions where an interstate highway traverses the altered landscape. We review some approaches for highway mitigation and suggest that reducing wildlife

  18. Behavioral intentions within off-highway vehicle communities in the northeastern U.S.: an application of the theory of planned behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter D' Luhosch; Diane Kuehn; Rudy M. Schuster

    2009-01-01

    The increasing use of off-highway vehicles (OHV) in the northeastern United States suggests the need for more effective recreation management strategies in public forest areas. This study employed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen 1991) to examine the attitudes and perceptions of OHV operators. Hypotheses were tested regarding differences in attitudes toward...

  19. Improved traffic control measures to prevent incorrect turns at highway-rail grade crossings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-01

    A number of injuries and fatal collisions have occurred at certain highway-rail grade crossings that are located immediately adjacent to highway intersections, driveways or interstate ramps. Some guide signage, pavement markings, and other traffic co...

  20. Alaska Highway bibliography, 3rd edition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prange, Laurie

    Since the early 20th century various schemes were considered for the construction of roads, trails or railways 71 to link the Yukon, northern British Columbia and Alaska to the “outside.” These schemes were motivated by economic interests, including mining, lumber and tourism concerns. During...... the 1920s and 1930s a small but vocal group of “builders” began to campaign for a highway, either a coastal or inland route, to improve the northwest’s economic base. With the impending threat of war in the late 1930s, there was an increasing awareness by the American and Canadian governments...... increasing military needs. The unexpected bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 stimulated interest in the construction of the Alaska Highway by the American government. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers selected a route based on the location of the NWSR airfields and the military needs for an alternative...

  1. Capacity market design and renewable energy: Performance incentives, qualifying capacity, and demand curves

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Botterud, Audun; Levin, Todd; Byers, Conleigh

    2018-01-01

    A review of capacity markets in the United States in the context of increasing levels of variable renewable energy finds substantial differences with respect to incentives for operational performance, methods to calculate qualifying capacity for variable renewable energy and energy storage, and demand curves for capacity. The review also reveals large differences in historical capacity market clearing prices. The authors conclude that electricity market design must continue to evolve to achieve cost-effective policies for resource adequacy.

  2. The operating room case-mix problem under uncertainty and nurses capacity constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yahia, Zakaria; Eltawil, Amr B; Harraz, Nermine A

    2016-12-01

    Surgery is one of the key functions in hospitals; it generates significant revenue and admissions to hospitals. In this paper we address the decision of choosing a case-mix for a surgery department. The objective of this study is to generate an optimal case-mix plan of surgery patients with uncertain surgery operations, which includes uncertainty in surgery durations, length of stay, surgery demand and the availability of nurses. In order to obtain an optimal case-mix plan, a stochastic optimization model is proposed and the sample average approximation method is applied. The proposed model is used to determine the number of surgery cases to be weekly served, the amount of operating rooms' time dedicated to each specialty and the number of ward beds dedicated to each specialty. The optimal case-mix selection criterion is based upon a weighted score taking into account both the waiting list and the historical demand of each patient category. The score aims to maximizing the service level of the operating rooms by increasing the total number of surgery cases that could be served. A computational experiment is presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the stochastic model solution outperforms the expected value problem solution. Additional analysis is conducted to study the effect of varying the number of ORs and nurses capacity on the overall ORs' performance.

  3. Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-01

    This report provides a summary of the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in recycling : reclaimed materials in highway construction during calendar year 2015. This report meets the requirements of Illinois Publ...

  4. Highway runoff in areas of karst topography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2004-01-01

    Karst terrain is characterized by sinkholes, depressions, caves, and underground drainage, generally underlain by soluble rocks such as limestone and dolomite. Because natural filtration through soil is limited in karst areas, pollutants in highway s...

  5. Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-08-01

    This report presents the 2014 sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in : recycling reclaimed materials in highway construction. This report meets the requirements of Illinois : Public Act 097-0314 by documenting I...

  6. Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2016.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-04

    This report provides a summary of the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in recycling : reclaimed materials in highway construction during calendar year 2016. This report meets the requirements of Illinois Publ...

  7. Managing risk and expected financial return from selective expansion of operating room capacity: mean-variance analysis of a hospital's portfolio of surgeons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dexter, Franklin; Ledolter, Johannes

    2003-07-01

    Surgeons using the same amount of operating room (OR) time differ in their achieved hospital contribution margins (revenue minus variable costs) by >1000%. Thus, to improve the financial return from perioperative facilities, OR strategic decisions should selectively focus additional OR capacity and capital purchasing on a few surgeons or subspecialties. These decisions use estimates of each surgeon's and/or subspecialty's contribution margin per OR hour. The estimates are subject to uncertainty (e.g., from outliers). We account for the uncertainties by using mean-variance portfolio analysis (i.e., quadratic programming). This method characterizes the problem of selectively expanding OR capacity based on the expected financial return and risk of different portfolios of surgeons. The assessment reveals whether the choices, of which surgeons have their OR capacity expanded, are sensitive to the uncertainties in the surgeons' contribution margins per OR hour. Thus, mean-variance analysis reduces the chance of making strategic decisions based on spurious information. We also assess the financial benefit of using mean-variance portfolio analysis when the planned expansion of OR capacity is well diversified over at least several surgeons or subspecialties. Our results show that, in such circumstances, there may be little benefit from further changing the portfolio to reduce its financial risk. Surgeon and subspecialty specific hospital financial data are uncertain, a fact that should be taken into account when making decisions about expanding operating room capacity. We show that mean-variance portfolio analysis can incorporate this uncertainty, thereby guiding operating room management decision-making and reducing the chance of a strategic decision being made based on spurious information.

  8. Qualitative study to develop processes and tools for the assessment and tracking of African institutions' capacity for operational health research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wallis, Selina; Cole, Donald C; Gaye, Oumar; Mmbaga, Blandina T; Mwapasa, Victor; Tagbor, Harry; Bates, Imelda

    2017-09-05

    Research is key to achieving global development goals. Our objectives were to develop and test an evidence-informed process for assessing health research management and support systems (RMSS) in four African universities and for tracking interventions to address capacity gaps. Four African universities. 83 university staff and students from 11 cadres. A literature-informed 'benchmark' was developed and used to itemise all components of a university's health RMSS. Data on all components were collected during site visits to four African universities using interview guides, document reviews and facilities observation guides. Gaps in RMSS capacity were identified against the benchmark and institutional action plans developed to remedy gaps. Progress against indicators was tracked over 15 months and common challenges and successes identified. Common gaps in operational health research capacity included no accessible research strategy, a lack of research e-tracking capability and inadequate quality checks for proposal submissions and contracts. Feedback indicated that the capacity assessment was comprehensive and generated practical actions, several of which were no-cost. Regular follow-up helped to maintain focus on activities to strengthen health research capacity in the face of challenges. Identification of each institutions' strengths and weaknesses against an evidence-informed benchmark enabled them to identify gaps in in their operational health research systems, to develop prioritised action plans, to justify resource requests to fulfil the plans and to track progress in strengthening RMSS. Use of a standard benchmark, approach and tools enabled comparisons across institutions which has accelerated production of evidence about the science of research capacity strengthening. The tools could be used by institutions seeking to understand their strengths and to address gaps in research capacity. Research capacity gaps that were common to several institutions could be

  9. PERHITUNGAN IDLE CAPACITY DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN CAM-I CAPACITY MODEL DALAM RANGKA EFISIENSI BIAYA PADA PT X

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muammar Aditya

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Aim for this research are to analyze capacity cost which incure from company production machines and human resources whose operate the production machine using CAM-I capacity model. CAM-I capacity model is an approach which focus  upon how to manage company resources. This research initiated at PT X which focus to production activity that used small mixer machine, extruder machine, oven drying machine, enrober machine, pan coting machine which consist of hot and cold pan coating machine, and packing machine which consist of vertical packing machine and horizontal packing machine as well as human resources that operates those machine. This research focus on rate capacity, productive capacity, idle capacity, and nonproductive capacity to measure capacity cost. Result of this research shows most of the capacity owned by either by production machine or human resources are not utilized to its maximum potential. There are need to reduce capacity cost owned by production machine and human resoures to increase the product sales but if its unachieveable there will be need to increase efficiency from production machine and human resources by reducing their quantityDOI: 10.15408/ess.v4i1.1961

  10. How do Continuous Climb Operations affect the capacity of a Terminal Manoeuvre Area?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Perez Casan, J.A.

    2016-07-01

    Continuous climb operations are the following step to optimise departure trajectories with the goals of minimizing fuel consumption and pollutants and noise emissions in the airports neighbourhood, although due to intrinsic nature of these procedures, the integration of these procedures need to develop a new framework for airline operators and air traffic control. Based on the BADA model developed by EUROCONTROL, three activities have been carried out: simulation of several continuous climbs for three aircraft types (Light, Medium and Heavy), analysation of different applied separations throughout the climb from the runway up to cruise level and, as third activity, definition of new separation minima to ensure that the minimum separations are not violated with this new procedures along the climb. In this work are presented the results of modelling three continuous climb type (constant true airspeed, constant climb angle and constant vertical speed) and new time-based separations for most used models in Palma TMA, which will be the case-study scenario. Finally, this theoretical analysis has been applied to a real scenario in Palma de Mallorca TMA in order to compare how the capacity deals with the introduction of this new procedure to standard departures, standard departures are understood as a departure with a level-off at a determined altitude and with the possibility to be affected by any ATC action. First outcomes are promising because capacity, theoretically, would not be grossly diminished, which could initially be expected based on previous studies on continuous descent approaches, although these results should be considered cautiously due to the fact that the model lacks several factors of associated uncertainty for a real climb. (Author)

  11. A perspective of the Malaysian highway energy consumption and future power supply

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saqr, Khalid M.; Musa, Md. Nor

    2011-01-01

    In this short communication, we discuss the energy consumption trends in the Malaysian road transport sector, with a special emphasis on the energy losses due to vehicle aerodynamic drag on highways. The recent trends of energy consumption in the Malaysian road transport sector are reviewed. It is evidently shown that the aerodynamic losses represented exceed 1.2 MTOE annually since 2002. A novel concept of vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) farms for harvesting aerodynamic energy losses on Malaysian highways is preliminarily proposed. The novel concept aims at providing a sustainable and green energy source for the lighting of the highway network in the country.

  12. Flexibility-based damage detection for in-service highway bridge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dahal, Sushil; Jang, Shinae; Mensah-Bonsu, Priscilla

    2012-04-01

    Highway bridges are the backbones of a country's road network infrastructure. In order to efficiently maintain these important structures, structural health monitoring (SHM) can be implemented to impart a more deterministic management procedure. To date, many damage detection strategies have been developed and implemented on lab-scale or simple bridge structures however, damage detection research has rarely been conducted taking full scale in-service structures into account with ambient vibration. Among the different approaches modal flexibility method is one of the sensitive tools for damage detection which has been widely used over the last two decades. This paper presents a damage detection based on the stochastic damage locating vector (SDLV) method for an in-service highway bridge using ambient vibration data from long-term SHM. The target bridge was equipped with a long-term SHM system as a part of a research project of the University of Connecticut. The ambient vibration data during 2001 and 2005 are used to identify the damage on the highway bridge. Finally, the potential damage locations are determined using the SDLV method with the limited number of sensors.

  13. Preliminary engineering cost trends for highway projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-21

    Preliminary engineering (PE) for a highway project encompasses two efforts: planning to minimize the physical, social, and human environmental impacts of projects and engineering design to deliver the best alternative. PE efforts begin years in advan...

  14. Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-08-01

    This report presents the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in : recycling and reclaiming materials for use in highway construction. This report meets the requirements of : Illinois Public Act 097-0314 by docum...

  15. Engineering Solutions to Enhance Traffic Safety Performance on Two-Lane Highways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina Wu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Improving two-lane highway traffic safety conditions is of practical importance to the traffic system, which has attracted significant research attention within the last decade. Many cost-effective and proactive solutions such as low-cost treatments and roadway safety monitoring programs have been developed to enhance traffic safety performance under prevailing conditions. This study presents research perspectives achieved from the Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP that assessed safety performance on two-lane highways in Beijing, China. Potential causal factors are identified based on proposed evaluation criteria, and primary countermeasures are developed against inferior driving conditions such as sharp curves, heavy gradients, continuous downgrades, poor sight distance, and poor clear zones. Six cost-effective engineering solutions were specifically implemented to improve two-lane highway safety conditions, including (1 traffic sign replacement, (2 repainting pavement markings, (3 roadside barrier installation, (4 intersection channelization, (5 drainage optimization, and (6 sight distance improvement. The effectiveness of these solutions was examined and evaluated based on Empirical Bayes (EB models. The results indicate that the proposed engineering solutions effectively improved traffic safety performance by significantly reducing crash occurrence risks and crash severities.

  16. Real-time stress monitoring of highway bridges with a secured wireless sensor network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-01

    "This collaborative research aims to develop a real-time stress monitoring system for highway bridges with a secured wireless sensor network. The near term goal is to collect wireless sensor data under different traffic patterns from local highway br...

  17. Measurements of air pollution from a Danish highway

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ellermann, T.; Solvang Jensen, S.; Ketzel, M.; Loefstroem, P. Massling, A.

    2009-07-15

    This report presents the results from a measurement campaign carried out at the Holbaek Highway during 2008. The objective of the campaign was to determine the emission factors for PM{sub 2.5} and PM{sub 10} due to highway traffic. The campaign included measurements of NO{sub x}, NO, NO{sub 2}, TEOM PM{sub 2.5}, TEOM PM{sub 10}, O{sub 3}, particle size distribution and local meteorology. The emission factors for PM{sub 2.5} and PM{sub 10} were determined to 45 and 155 mg/(vehicle km), respectively. This is comparable to the emission factors previously determined for H. C. Andersens Boulevard in Copenhagen and somewhat higher than found at Jagtvej, Copenhagen. (author)

  18. Proposed methodology for estimating the impact of highway improvements on urban air pollution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1971-01-01

    The aim of this methodology is to indicate the expected change in ambient air quality in the vicinity of a highway improvement and in the total background level of urban air pollution resulting from the highway improvement. Both the jurisdiction in w...

  19. Characteristics of the event mean concentration (EMC) from rainfall runoff on an urban highway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Ju Young; Kim, Hyoungjun; Kim, Youngjin; Han, Moo Young

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the characterization of the event mean concentration (EMC) of runoff during heavy precipitation events on highways. Highway runoff quality data were collected from the 7th highway, in South Korea during 2007-2009. The samples were analyzed for runoff quantity and quality parameters such as COD cr , TSS, TPHs, TKN, NO 3 , TP, PO 4 and six heavy metals, e.g., As, Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn. Analysis of resulting hydrographs and pollutant graphs indicates that the peak of the pollutant concentrations in runoff occurs 20 min after the first rainfall runoff occurrence. The first flush effect depends on the preceding dry period and the rainfall intensity. The results of this study can be used as a reference for water quality management of urban highways. - Research highlights: → Field test on urban highway were performed to 50 of 100 storm events for 3 years. → The peak pollutant concentrations occurs 20 min after the first runoff. → The first flush effect depends on the preceding dry period and rainfall intensity. → Relationship between runoff and event mean concentration for SS and COD. → A crest of the EMC by 70-80 m 3 /event and decreasing EMC after 70-80 m 3 /event. - This study investigate the characterization of the EMC of runoff during rainfall event on highway.

  20. Fatal accidents in nighttime vs. daytime highway construction work zones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arditi, David; Lee, Dong-Eun; Polat, Gul

    2007-01-01

    Awareness about worker safety in nighttime construction has been a major concern because it is believed that nighttime construction creates hazardous work conditions. However, only a few studies provide valuable comparative information about accident characteristics of nighttime and daytime highway construction activities. This study investigates fatal accidents that occurred in Illinois highway work zones in the period 1996-2001 in order to determine the safety differences between nighttime and daytime highway construction. The lighting and weather conditions were included into the study as control parameters to see their effects on the frequency of fatal accidents occurring in work zones. According to this study, there is evidence that nighttime construction is more hazardous than daytime construction. The inclusion of a weather parameter into the analysis has limited effect on this finding. The study justifies establishing an efficient work zone accident reporting system and taking all necessary measures to enhance safety in nighttime work zones.

  1. Removal of Heavy Metals and PAH in Highway Detention Ponds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Thomas Ruby; Larsen, Torben; Thorndahl, Søren Liedtke

    2005-01-01

    , which has been designed according to standard design criteria for several decades. The study will focus on heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The long-term simulation of input of flow and pollution to the ponds will be a hind cast based on time series of historical......The paper presents some of the first results from a study of the removal of pollutants in highway detention ponds in Denmark. The objective of the study is to set up a procedure for long-term modelling of discharges of pollutants to the environment from the many Danish highway detention ponds...... rainfalls. The modelling will take place in a special version of the MIKE URBAN. The modelling is calibrated and validated on measurements from selected highway catchments. The removal of pollutants in the ponds is studied by local measurements in combination with CFD modelling using the MIKE 21 and MIKE 3...

  2. 77 FR 5201 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Bear Creek, Dundalk, MD

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-02-02

    ...-AA09 Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Bear Creek, Dundalk, MD AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice... operation of the Baltimore County highway bridge at Wise Avenue across Bear Creek, mile 3.4, between Dundalk... Avenue across Bear Creek, mile 3.4 between Dundalk and Sparrows Point, MD. This change would require the...

  3. Assessment of Blasting Operations Effects During Highway Tunnel Construction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valašková Veronika

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Blasting operations are one of the fundamental parts of daily civil engineering. Drilling and blasting still remain the only possible ways of tunnelling in very adverse geological conditions. However, this method is a source of various disadvantages, the main one being tremors propagating through the geological environment which not only affect buildings, but also disturb the comfort of living in the vicinity of the source. Designing this procedure is mostly done using standardized empirical relations. This article shows the possibility of using a FEM technique in predicting blast effects. This approach is demonstrated in a simple case study on the impact of blasting operations on steel pipes.

  4. An evaluation of effects of large-scale introduction of renewable power on capacities and operation modes of power generation systems in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Hiromi; Yabe, Kuniaki; Bando, Shigeru; Nagai, Yu

    2014-01-01

    This study aims to establish a methodology to adequately evaluate an optimal power generation mix in Japan taking into account load frequency control (LFC) capacity and operation modes of power plants in case of a large-scale introduction of photovoltaic and wind power. For this purpose, the authors gave such an improvement to the MM-OPG model, a power generation mix optimization model, which it can deal with different operation modes of pumped hydro power in addition to those of thermal power sources. Using the model, the authors calculated the optimal power generation mix and its corresponding operation modes of Japan's power systems in 2030 with additional insights to 2020, and obtained the following results. (1) Introduction of photovoltaic and wind can be substituted for a limited capacity of conventional power sources. The introduction of 150 GW that consists of 108GW of photovoltaic and 42GW of wind in 2030 can replace no greater than 0.5 GW of conventional power sources. (2) The introduction of the renewables will affect the operation patterns of thermal and pumped hydro power generation. The capacity factor of variable speed pumped hydro will be much greater than that of fixed speed pumped hydro since the former can supply LFC at pump modes as well as generation modes. The capacity factor of LNG combined cycle plants decreases from 43% to 29% in the case with the introduction of 150GW of renewables in 2030. On the same assumption, the average cost of power generation excluding the renewables increases by up to 0.55 JPY/kWh in 2030. (author)

  5. 75 FR 39820 - Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-13

    ...-2008-0114] RIN 2125-AF26 Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise... the Federal regulations on the Procedures for Abatement of Highway Traffic Noise and Construction Noise. The final rule clarifies and adds definitions, the applicability of this regulation, certain...

  6. Federal Highway Administration 100-year coating study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-11-01

    The Federal Highway Administration 100-Year Coating Study was initiated in August 2009 to search for durable : coating systems at a reasonable cost. The objective of the study was to identify and evaluate coating materials that can : provide 100 year...

  7. New highway accident location manual for Missouri.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-01

    The Missouri HAL manual is used to identify, analyze, and correct high crash locations, and has not been updated since : 1999. This new edition brings the manual up to date, while incorporating the methodology of the national Highway Safety : Manual ...

  8. Regulated and unregulated emissions from modern 2010 emissions-compliant heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khalek, Imad A.; Blanks, Matthew G.; Merritt, Patrick M.; Zielinska, Barbara

    2015-01-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established strict regulations for highway diesel engine exhaust emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) to aid in meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The emission standards were phased in with stringent standards for 2007 model year (MY) heavy-duty engines (HDEs), and even more stringent NOX standards for 2010 and later model years. The Health Effects Institute, in cooperation with the Coordinating Research Council, funded by government and the private sector, designed and conducted a research program, the Advanced Collaborative Emission Study (ACES), with multiple objectives, including detailed characterization of the emissions from both 2007- and 2010-compliant engines. The results from emission testing of 2007-compliant engines have already been reported in a previous publication. This paper reports the emissions testing results for three heavy-duty 2010-compliant engines intended for on-highway use. These engines were equipped with an exhaust diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), high-efficiency catalyzed diesel particle filter (DPF), urea-based selective catalytic reduction catalyst (SCR), and ammonia slip catalyst (AMOX), and were fueled with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (~6.5 ppm sulfur). Average regulated and unregulated emissions of more than 780 chemical species were characterized in engine exhaust under transient engine operation using the Federal Test Procedure cycle and a 16-hr duty cycle representing a wide dynamic range of real-world engine operation. The 2010 engines’ regulated emissions of PM, NOX, nonmethane hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide were all well below the EPA 2010 emission standards. Moreover, the unregulated emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitroPAHs, hopanes and steranes, alcohols and organic acids, alkanes, carbonyls, dioxins and furans, inorganic ions, metals and elements, elemental carbon, and particle number were substantially

  9. DETERMINATION OF MOST SIGNIFICANT FACTORS FOR ANALYSIS OF HIGHWAY OPERATING CONDITIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. G. Solodkaya

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Traffic circulation on highways is a random process. Therefore automotive damage rate and, respectively, roads on which they are moving is subjected to regularities of random processes. Dynamic processes of vehicle-road interaction are determined to various extents by a host of factors that include road pavement evenness and characteristics of moving vehicles. For this reason the following task has been set: to reveal the most significant factors and mathematically correlate values of vehicle dynamic loads with a quality of road pavement and vehicle speed. Such task statement has not been solved adequately and this situation determines importance and novelty of the investigations in the given direction. While solving the mentioned task the investigations which have been carried out under real-life conditions and with the help of real-life objects are considered as the most reliable ones. However, preparation and execution of such experiments as needed significantly complicates their implementation. In this regard it looks rather expediential to combine a factorial experiment with the tests of a checked model while using ECM with stage-by-stage parameter fixation of working processes passing in “vehicle-road” system, comprehensive assessment pertaining to influence of the selected factors and selection of their optimum combination. Mathematical dependence has been obtained to evaluate influence of several external factors on optimization of vehicle dynamic load on the road. This component makes it possible to attain a simplified and adequate description of element interaction in “vehicle – road” system. While investigating influence of pavement irregularities on maximum dynamic loads on the road influence rate of the selected factors is determined in the following sequence: vehicle weight, pavement evenness and speed of transport facility.

  10. 46 CFR 393.4 - Marine Highway Projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... transportation system research, data, and analysis used to develop or support the business model. (vii) Proposed... Highway Projects. (9) Utilize current or future Federal funding mechanisms, as appropriate, to support the...) Organization. Provide the organizational structure of the proposed project, including business affiliations...

  11. VEHICLE DRIVING CYCLE OPTIMISATION ON THE HIGHWAY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zinoviy STOTSKO

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper is devoted to the problem of reducing vehicle energy consumption. The authors consider the optimisation of highway driving cycle a way to use the kinetic energy of a car more effectively at various road conditions. The model of a vehicle driving control at the highway which consists of elementary cycles, such as accelerating, free rolling and deceleration under forces of external resistance, was designed. Braking, as an energy dissipation regime, was not included. The influence of the various longitudinal profiles of the road was taken into consideration and included in the model. Ways to use the results of monitoring road and traffic conditions are presented. The method of non-linear programming is used to design the optimal vehicle control function and phase trajectory. The results are presented by improved typical driving cycles that present energy saving as a subject of choice at a specified schedule.

  12. Potentials for Platooning in U.S. Highway Freight Transport: Preprint

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Muratori, Matteo; Holden, Jacob; Lammert, Michael; Duran, Adam; Young, Stanley; Gonder, Jeffrey

    2017-03-15

    Smart technologies enabling connection among vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure as well as vehicle automation to assist human operators are receiving significant attention as means for improving road transportation systems by reducing fuel consumption - and related emissions - while also providing additional benefits through improving overall traffic safety and efficiency. For truck applications, currently responsible for nearly three-quarters of the total U.S. freight energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, platooning has been identified as an early feature for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) that could provide significant fuel savings and improved traffic safety and efficiency without radical design or technology changes compared to existing vehicles. A statistical analysis was performed based on a large collection of real-world U.S. truck usage data to estimate the fraction of total miles that are technically suitable for platooning. In particular, our analysis focuses on estimating 'platoonable' mileage based on overall highway vehicle use and prolonged high-velocity traveling, establishing that about 65% of the total miles driven by combination trucks could be driven in platoon formation, leading to a 4% reduction in total truck fuel consumption. This technical potential for 'platoonable' miles in the U.S. provides an upper bound for scenario analysis considering fleet willingness to platoon as an estimate of overall benefits of early adoption of CAV technologies. A benefit analysis is proposed to assess the overall potential for energy savings and emissions mitigation by widespread implementation of highway platooning for trucks.

  13. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through strategic management of highway pavement roughness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Ting; Harvey, John; Kendall, Alissa

    2014-01-01

    On-road vehicle use is responsible for about a quarter of US annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Changes in vehicles, travel behavior and fuel are likely required to meet long-term climate change mitigation goals, but may require a long time horizon to deploy. This research examines a near-term opportunity: management of pavement network roughness. Maintenance and rehabilitation treatments can make pavements smoother and reduce vehicle rolling resistance. However, these treatments require material production and equipment operation, thus requiring a life cycle perspective for benefits analysis. They must also be considered in terms of their cost-effectiveness in comparison with other alternatives for affecting climate change. This letter describes a life cycle approach to assess changes in total GHG (measured in CO 2 -e) emissions from strategic management of highway pavement roughness. Roughness values for triggering treatments are developed to minimize GHG considering both treatment and use phase vehicle emission. With optimal triggering for GHG minimization, annualized reductions on the California state highway network over a 10-year analysis period are calculated to be 0.82, 0.57 and 1.38 million metric tons compared with historical trigger values, recently implemented values and no strategic intervention (reactive maintenance), respectively. Abatement costs calculated using $/metric-ton CO 2 -e are higher than those reported for other transportation sector abatement measures, however, without considering all benefits associated with pavement smoothness, such as vehicle life and maintenance, or the time needed for deployment. (paper)

  14. 76 FR 31279 - Regulatory Guidance: Applicability of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations to Operators...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-31

    ... expenses to run the farming operations. The tenant agrees to use the land for agricultural purposes only... equipment that is equipped with pneumatic tires, infrequently operated or moved on highways and used for the...

  15. Capacity planning and management

    OpenAIRE

    Boydell, Briony

    2011-01-01

    After reading this chapter you should be able to: • Define and measure capacity and appreciate the factors that influence it. • Assess the difficulties of matching capacity to demand. • Evaluate and apply the different strategies for matching capacity with demand in the short, medium and long term. • Analyse the impact of constraints and bottlenecks on a process and consider the Theory of Constraints. • Outline the different strategies available for both manufacturing and service operations. ...

  16. Highway extraction from high resolution aerial photography using a geometric active contour model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Xutong

    Highway extraction and vehicle detection are two of the most important steps in traffic-flow analysis from multi-frame aerial photographs. The traditional method of deriving traffic flow trajectories relies on manual vehicle counting from a sequence of aerial photographs, which is tedious and time-consuming. This research presents a new framework for semi-automatic highway extraction. The basis of the new framework is an improved geometric active contour (GAC) model. This novel model seeks to minimize an objective function that transforms a problem of propagation of regular curves into an optimization problem. The implementation of curve propagation is based on level set theory. By using an implicit representation of a two-dimensional curve, a level set approach can be used to deal with topological changes naturally, and the output is unaffected by different initial positions of the curve. However, the original GAC model, on which the new model is based, only incorporates boundary information into the curve propagation process. An error-producing phenomenon called leakage is inevitable wherever there is an uncertain weak edge. In this research, region-based information is added as a constraint into the original GAC model, thereby, giving this proposed method the ability of integrating both boundary and region-based information during the curve propagation. Adding the region-based constraint eliminates the leakage problem. This dissertation applies the proposed augmented GAC model to the problem of highway extraction from high-resolution aerial photography. First, an optimized stopping criterion is designed and used in the implementation of the GAC model. It effectively saves processing time and computations. Second, a seed point propagation framework is designed and implemented. This framework incorporates highway extraction, tracking, and linking into one procedure. A seed point is usually placed at an end node of highway segments close to the boundary of the

  17. Development of a highway safety fundamental course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-05-01

    Although the need for road safety education was first recognized in the 1960s, it has become an increasingly urgent issue : in recent years. To fulfill the hefty goal set up by the AASHTO Highway Safety Strategy and by state DOTS, it is critical : to...

  18. Learning text representation using recurrent convolutional neural network with highway layers

    OpenAIRE

    Wen, Ying; Zhang, Weinan; Luo, Rui; Wang, Jun

    2016-01-01

    Recently, the rapid development of word embedding and neural networks has brought new inspiration to various NLP and IR tasks. In this paper, we describe a staged hybrid model combining Recurrent Convolutional Neural Networks (RCNN) with highway layers. The highway network module is incorporated in the middle takes the output of the bi-directional Recurrent Neural Network (Bi-RNN) module in the first stage and provides the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) module in the last stage with the i...

  19. 75 FR 17561 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-07

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operations of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, Mile 482.9, Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is... Manager, Docket Operations, telephone (202) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island...

  20. 75 FR 22228 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-28

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, Mile 482.9, Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is... Manager, Docket Operations, telephone (202) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island...

  1. 75 FR 68974 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-11-10

    ..., has issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois... Operations, telephone 202-366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a...

  2. Ground-water problems in highway construction and maintenance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasmussen, W.C.; Haigler, L.B.

    1953-01-01

    This report discusses the occurrence of ground water in relation to certain problems in highway construction and maintenance. These problems are: the subdrainage of roads; quicksand; the arrest of soil creep in road cuts; the construction of lower and larger culverts necessitated by the farm-drainage program; the prevention of failure of bridge abutments and retaining walls; and the water-cement ratio of sub-water-table concrete. Although the highway problems and suggested solutions are of general interest, they are considered with special reference to the State of Delaware, in relation to the geology of that State. The new technique of soil stabilization by electroosmosis is reviewed in the hope that it might find application here in road work and pile setting, field application by the Germans and Russians is reviewed.

  3. Impact of highway construction on land surface energy balance and local climate derived from LANDSAT satellite data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nedbal, Václav; Brom, Jakub

    2018-08-15

    Extensive construction of highways has a major impact on the landscape and its structure. They can also influence local climate and heat fluxes in the surrounding area. After the removal of vegetation due to highway construction, the amount of solar radiation energy used for plant evapotranspiration (latent heat flux) decreases, bringing about an increase in landscape surface temperature, changing the local climate and increasing surface run-off. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the D8 highway construction (Central Bohemia, Czech Republic) on the distribution of solar radiation energy into the various heat fluxes (latent, sensible and ground heat flux) and related surface functional parameters (surface temperature and surface wetness). The aim was to describe the severity of the impact and the distance from the actual highway in which it can be observed. LANDSAT multispectral satellite images and field meteorological measurements were used to calculate surface functional parameters and heat balance before and during the highway construction. Construction of a four-lane highway can influence the heat balance of the landscape surface as far as 90m in the perpendicular direction from the highway axis, i.e. up to 75m perpendicular from its edge. During a summer day, the decrease in evapotranspired water can reach up to 43.7m 3 per highway kilometre. This means a reduced cooling effect, expressed as the decrease in latent heat flux, by an average of 29.7MWh per day per highway kilometre and its surroundings. The loss of the cooling ability of the land surface by evaporation can lead to a rise in surface temperature by as much as 7°C. Thus, the results indicate the impact of extensive line constructions on the local climate. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. A Causal and Real-Time Capable Power Management Algorithm for Off-Highway Hybrid Propulsion Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johannes Schalk

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Hybrid propulsion systems allow for a reduction of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of future off-highway applications. A challenging aspect of a hybridization is the larger number of system components that further increases both the complexity and the diversification of such systems. Hence, beside a standardization on the hardware side for off-highway systems, a high flexibility and modularity of the control schemes is required to employ them in as many different applications as possible. In this paper, a causal optimization-based power management algorithm is introduced to control the power split between engine and electric machine in a hybrid powertrain. The algorithm optimizes the power split to achieve the maximum power supply efficiency and, thereby, considers the energy cost for maintaining the battery charge. Furthermore, the power management provides an optional function to control the battery state of charge in such a way that a target value is attained. In a simulation case study, the potential and the benefits of the proposed power management for the hybrid powertrain—aiming at a reduction of the fuel consumption of a DMU (diesel multiple unit train operated on a representative track—will be shown.

  5. Determination of residual load-bearing capacity of concrete beams at the operation stage by the strength reinforcement and concrete criterion

    OpenAIRE

    V.S. Utkin

    2015-01-01

    An experimental theoretical method was considered for estimating the residual load-bearing capacity of an individual reinforced concrete beam at the operational stage according to the criteria of the working strength and durability of concrete reinforcement compressed zone of the beam. Integrated methods of beam testing and probabilistic methods of random variables definition were used. Ultimate load in the form of interval during the operational phase was accepted as the measure of carr...

  6. Army Solid State Laser Program: Design, Operation, and Mission Analysis for a Heat-Capacity Laser

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dane, C B; Flath, L; Rotter, M; Fochs, S; Brase, J; Bretney, K

    2001-01-01

    Solid-state lasers have held great promise for the generation of high-average-power, high-quality output beams for a number of decades. However, the inherent difficulty of scaling the active solid-state gain media while continuing to provide efficient cooling has limited demonstrated powers to 10X the diffraction limit. Challenges posed by optical distortions and depolarization arising from internal temperature gradients in the gain medium of a continuously cooled system are only increased for laser designs that would attempt to deliver the high average power in the form of high energy pulses (>25J) from a single coherent optical aperture. Although demonstrated phase-locking of multiple laser apertures may hold significant promise for the future scaling of solid-state laser systems,1 the continuing need for additional technical development and innovation coupled with the anticipated complexity of these systems effectively limits this approach for near-term multi-kW laser operation outside of a laboratory setting. We have developed and demonstrated a new operational mode for solid-state laser systems in which the cooling of the gain medium is separated in time from the lasing cycle. In ''heat-capacity'' operation, no cooling takes place during lasing. The gain medium is pumped very uniformly and the waste heat from the excitation process is stored in the solid-state gain medium. By depositing the heat on time scales that are short compared to thermal diffusion across the optical aperture, very high average power operation is possible while maintaining low optical distortions. After a lasing cycle, aggressive cooling can then take place in the absence of lasing, limited only by the fracture limit of the solid-state medium. This mode of operation is ideally suited for applications that require 1-30s engagements at very high average power. If necessary, multiple laser apertures can provide continuous operation. Land Combat mission analysis of a stressing air defense

  7. Numerical Modelling of Suspended Transport and Deposition of Highway Deposited Sediments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Thomas Ruby; Larsen, Torben; Bach, Christine

    Good data for calibration and validation of numerical models are of high importance. In the natural environment data can be hard to archive and the stochastic nature have governing influence on the data archived. Hence for modelling of suspended transport and deposition of particles, originating ...... from the highway surfaces, in highway detention ponds, four experiments are carried out. To simplify the complexity of a real pond and for easy control and measurement the sediment transports where carried out in two rectangular channels....

  8. 78 FR 69995 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-22

    ... Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of... operating schedule that governs the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is necessary to allow the bridge owner time...

  9. 78 FR 18933 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-28

    ... operating schedule that governs the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is necessary to allow the Quad City Marathon..., Docket Operations, telephone (202) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal...

  10. Capacity competition in electricity markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crampes, Claude; Creti, Anna

    2005-01-01

    The article analyzed a two-stage game where capacity constrained electricity generators first choose how much capacity they make available and then compete in a uniform-rice auction. It is studied how capacity withholding can be used strategically to enforce market power and how uniform auctions in the price game change the results of capacity constrained competition models. The uniform auction procedure gives strong incentives to capacity restriction. At equilibrium, however, power shortage never occurs. Though auctions in electricity markets have already been studied by several economists, yet an important feature of spot trading is the capacity availability decision. In fact, for technical reasons, such as equipment maintenance or failures, the installed capacity may not work at maximum operating level and the spot market rules oblige generators to announce which plants they are willing to use and simultaneously their offer prices. Beside technical reasons, the so-called 'capacity declarations' also offer a strategic instrument for firms: by restricting capacity, operators can benefit from scarcity rents. Assessing whether generators withhold capacity is an intriguing issue for real electricity markets, though proving it is a difficult task. Several theoretical papers show that generators are able to keep wholesale prices high as compared to their generation costs. In our model, a generator is not obliged to declare all installed capacity as available, but decides on the amount of MW of electricity that is available. Hence the available capacity is an endogenous variable while the installed one is exogenous. The distinction between installed capacities and 'available' capacities allows to explain clearly whether generators exert market power by declaring unavailable some production units. Although we find multiple sub game perfect equilibria that cannot be eliminated by Pareto-dominance, all the outcomes are characterized by market price at the highest

  11. Impact of nuclear waste traffic on highways

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sebaaly, P.E.; Siddharthan, R.; Epps, J.A.

    1994-01-01

    A system was developed to evaluate the impact of nuclear waste traffic on the structural performance of highway pavements throughout the state of Nevada. The associated needs of maintenance and rehabilitations can also be evaluated along with their costs. This paper summarizes the system and provides two sample analyses

  12. Diesel Fueled SOFC for Class 7/Class 8 On-Highway Truck Auxiliary Power

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vesely, Charles John-Paul [Cummins Power Generation; Fuchs, Benjamin S. [Cummins Power Generation; Booten, Chuck W. [Protonex Technology, LLC

    2010-03-31

    The following report documents the progress of the Cummins Power Generation (CPG) Diesel Fueled SOFC for Class 7/Class 8 On-Highway Truck Auxiliary Power (SOFC APU) development and final testing under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) contract DE-FC36-04GO14318. This report overviews and summarizes CPG and partner development leading to successful demonstration of the SOFC APU objectives and significant progress towards SOFC commercialization. Significant SOFC APU Milestones: Demonstrated: Operation meeting SOFC APU requirements on commercial Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) fuel. SOFC systems operating on dry CPOX reformate. Successful start-up and shut-down of SOFC APU system without inert gas purge. Developed: Low cost balance of plant concepts and compatible systems designs. Identified low cost, high volume components for balance of plant systems. Demonstrated efficient SOFC output power conditioning. Demonstrated SOFC control strategies and tuning methods.

  13. Design procedure for pollutant loadings and impacts for highway stormwater runoff (Macintosh version) (for microcomputers). Software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-01-01

    The interactive computer program was developed to make a user friendly procedure for the personal computer for calculations and guidance to make estimations of pollutant loadings and impacts from highway stormwater runoff which are presented in the Publication FHWA-RD-88-006, Pollutant Loadings and Impacts from Highway Stormwater Runoff, Volume I: Design Procedure. The computer program is for the evaluation of the water quality impact from highway stormwater runoff to a lake or a stream from a specific highway site considering the necessary rainfall data and geographic site situation. The evaluation considers whether or not the resulting water quality conditions can cause a problem as indicated by the violations of water quality criteria or objectives

  14. Design procedure for pollutant loadings and impacts for highway stormwater runoff (IBM version) (for microcomputers). Software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1990-01-01

    The interactive computer program was developed to make a user friendly procedure for the personal computer for calculations and guidance to make estimations of pollutant loadings and impacts from highway stormwater runoff which are presented in the Publication FHWA-RD-88-006, Pollutant Loadings and Impacts from Highway Stormwater Runoff, Volume I: Design Procedure. The computer program is for the evaluation of the water quality impact from highway stormwater runoff to a lake or a stream from a specific highway site considering the necessary rainfall data and geographic site situation. The evaluation considers whether or not the resulting water quality conditions can cause a problem as indicated by the violations of water quality criteria or objectives

  15. Capacitated Dynamic Lot Sizing with Capacity Acquisition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Hongyan; Meissner, Joern

    One of the fundamental problems in operations management is to determine the optimal investment in capacity. Capacity investment consumes resources and the decision is often irreversible. Moreover, the available capacity level affects the action space for production and inventory planning decisions...

  16. Capacitated dynamic lot sizing with capacity acquisition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Li, Hongyan; Meissner, Joern

    2011-01-01

    One of the fundamental problems in operations management is determining the optimal investment in capacity. Capacity investment consumes resources and the decision, once made, is often irreversible. Moreover, the available capacity level affects the action space for production and inventory...

  17. Arrangement of financing for highway infrastructure projects under the conditions of Public–Private Partnership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vialeta Khmel

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This study focused on the mechanism of attracting funds to finance projects in the field of highway infrastructure construction through Public–Private Partnership (PPP. The basis and principles for development of the financial strategy of a project company were defined in this paper. The proposed financial strategy was developed on the basis of diversification of sources of funds and financing instruments with regard to the stages of the project life cycle. The parameters for development of the financial strategy were defined to improve the mechanisms of attraction of the capital for the project and increase the capacity of the project company to pay debts. The proposed financial strategy can be taken as a basis for development of the financial strategy for any project implemented through PPP. The capital market is not stable; therefore, in addition, an algorithm was proposed for more precise selection of sources of financial resources.

  18. Taxing Feedlots in Alberta: Lethbridge County's Tax on Confined Feeding Operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bev Dahlby

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Lethbridge County introduced a new business tax on confined feeding operations (CFO, notably feedlots, in 2016. It was expected to bring in $2.5 million for county road maintenance in 2017. However, the tax could have a detrimental impact on feedlot owners and is not the fairest way to amass revenue for road repairs. Four criteria can be used to evaluate a particular form of taxation. They are fairness, efficient resource allocation, compliance and administration costs, and revenue stability. This paper examines the potential impacts of the tax and proposes three alternative methods for financing Lethbridge County road maintenance that meet those criteria. These alternatives create less of an impact on feedlot owners and share the tax burden more equitably. They also reduce the potentially negative ripple effects that the CFO levy may have on feed producers, cattle producers, meat packers and consumers. The current tax is based on livestock storage capacity, rather than on production volume. It’s counter-productive in the long run because the feedlot’s fixed costs of production are increased, while its variable costs remain unaffected. This permanent increase in fixed costs, estimated to be as high as 20 per cent of the average operating margin per head of cattle, lowers the return on feedlot investments. Thus, the new tax could result in some feedlots being closed for lack of a high enough return on investment.A more equitable revenue source for road maintenance would be user fees imposed on the trucking industry. This system is already in use in Oregon and New Zealand. It uses GPS technology to track trucks on the roads and then charges the trucking companies a fee based on road use. It would certainly be worthwhile for the province to initiate a pilot program to test the system’s efficacy on Alberta roads. Lethbridge County could also implement a usage levy that would be based on how much it spends on roads, combined with a feedlot

  19. Environmental suitability of recycled concrete aggregate in highways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    The use of recycled concrete aggregate materials in highway constructions as compared to the use of virgin : materials reduces virgin natural resource demands on the environment. In order to evaluate their potential use of : recycle materials in high...

  20. Crash prediction model for two-lane rural highways in the Ashanti region of Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Williams Ackaah

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Crash Prediction Models (CPMs have been used elsewhere as a useful tool by road Engineers and Planners. There is however no study on the prediction of road traffic crashes on rural highways in Ghana. The main objective of the study was to develop a prediction model for road traffic crashes occurring on the rural sections of the highways in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The model was developed for all injury crashes occurring on selected rural highways in the Region over the three (3 year period 2005–2007. Data was collected from 76 rural highway sections and each section varied between 0.8 km and 6.7 km. Data collected for each section comprised injury crash data, traffic flow and speed data, and roadway characteristics and road geometry data. The Generalised Linear Model (GLM with Negative Binomial (NB error structure was used to estimate the model parameters. Two types of models, the ‘core’ model which included key exposure variables only and the ‘full’ model which included a wider range of variables were developed. The results show that traffic flow, highway segment length, junction density, terrain type and presence of a village settlement within road segments were found to be statistically significant explanatory variables (p<0.05 for crash involvement. Adding one junction to a 1 km section of road segment was found to increase injury crashes by 32.0% and sections which had a village settlement within them were found to increase injury crashes by 60.3% compared with segments with no settlements. The model explained 61.2% of the systematic variation in the data. Road and Traffic Engineers and Planners can apply the crash prediction model as a tool in safety improvement works and in the design of safer roads. It is recommended that to improve safety, highways should be designed to by-pass village settlements and that the number of junctions on a highway should be limited to carefully designed ones.

  1. On the cost of using capacity flexibility - a dynamic programming approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wijngaard, J; Miltenburg, GJ

    1997-01-01

    This paper considers the problem of how to evaluate the resource use for sales opportunities in a production situation that is dually constrained: in operator capacity and machine capacity. The operator capacity is flexible, while the machine capacity is not. Therefore, there is a certain machine

  2. Impact Factors and Risk Analysis of Tropical Cyclones on a Highway Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Saini; Hu, Fuyu; Jaeger, Carlo

    2016-02-01

    Coastal areas typically have high social and economic development and are likely to suffer huge losses due to tropical cyclones. These cyclones have a great impact on the transportation network, but there have been a limited number of studies about tropical-cyclone-induced transportation network functional damages, especially in Asia. This study develops an innovative measurement and analytical tool for highway network functional damage and risk in the context of a tropical cyclone, with which we explored the critical spatial characteristics of tropical cyclones with regard to functional damage to a highway network by developing linear regression models to quantify their relationship. Furthermore, we assessed the network's functional risk and calculated the return periods under different damage levels. In our analyses, we consider the real-world highway network of Hainan province, China. Our results illustrate that the most important spatial characteristics were location (in particular, the midlands), travel distance, landfalling status, and origin coordinates. However, the trajectory direction did not obviously affect the results. Our analyses indicate that the highway network of Hainan province may suffer from a 90% functional damage scenario every 4.28 years. These results have critical policy implications for the transport sector in reference to emergency planning and disaster reduction. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  3. [The social hygiene problems in the operator work of hydroelectric power station workers and the means for enhancing work capacity].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karakashian, A N; Lepeshkina, T R; Ratushnaia, A N; Glushchenko, S S; Zakharenko, M I; Lastovchenko, V B; Diordichuk, T I

    1993-01-01

    Weight, tension and harmfulness of professional activity, peculiarities of labour conditions and characteristics of work, shift dynamics of operative personnel's working capacity were studied in the course of 8-hour working day currently accepted at hydroelectric power stations (HEPS) and experimental 12-hour schedule. Working conditions classified as "admissible", positive dynamics of operators' state, their social and material contentment were a basis for 12-hour two-shift schedule to be recommended as more appropriate. At the same time, problem of optimal shift schedules for operative personnel of HEPS remains unsolved and needs to be further explored.

  4. The impact of Arizona Highways Magazine's facebook page.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-02-01

    This project examined the relationship between use of the Arizona Highways magazine (AHM) Facebook Page and the decision to : travel to or within Arizona. Key purposes were to: (1) provide a thorough understanding of AHM Facebook Page users, includin...

  5. 78 FR 21537 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-11

    ... Operation Regulations; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of... operating schedule that governs the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is necessary to allow the Front Street 5K Run...

  6. Workshop report : joint workshop on liability issues in advanced vehicle control and automated highway systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-02-05

    The National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC), ITS America and the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) co-sponsored a two-day workshop in Washington, DC on February 5-6, 1997 to examine the liability i...

  7. Linear-programming-based heuristics for project capacity planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gademann, A.J.R.M.; Schutten, J.M.J.

    2005-01-01

    Many multi-project organizations are capacity driven, which means that their operations are constrained by various scarce resources. An important planning aspect in a capacity driven multi-project organization is capacity planning. By capacity planning, we mean the problem of matching demand for

  8. West Virginia Peer Exchange : Streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program Project Delivery - An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-09-01

    The West Virginia Division of Highways (WV DOH) hosted a Peer Exchange to share information and experiences for streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) project delivery. The event was held September 23 to 24, 2014 in Charleston, West V...

  9. The impact of Arizona Highways Magazine on tourism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-01

    The purpose of this study was to: 1) examine the effect of Arizona Highways Magazine (AHM) on tourism, 2) determine trip : characteristics of AHM subscribers traveling in Arizona, and 3) calculate a benefit/cost ratio for AHM based on the : magazine...

  10. Childhood cancer and residential exposure to highways: a nationwide cohort study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spycher, Ben D.; Feller, Martin; Röösli, Martin; Ammann, Roland A.; Diezi, Manuel; Egger, Matthias; Kuehni, Claudia E.

    2015-01-01

    Children living near highways are exposed to higher concentrations of traffic-related carcinogenic pollutants. Several studies reported an increased risk of childhood cancer associated with traffic exposure, but the published evidence is inconclusive. We investigated whether cancer risk is associated with proximity of residence to highways in a nation-wide cohort study including all children aged <16 years from Swiss national censuses in 1990 and 2000. Cancer incidence was investigated in time to event analyses (1990–2008) using Cox proportional hazards models and incidence density analyses (1985–2008) using Poisson regression. Adjustments were made for socio-economic factors, ionising background radiation and electromagnetic fields. In time to event analysis based on 532 cases the adjusted hazard ratio for leukaemia comparing children living <100 m from a highway with unexposed children (≥500 m) was 1.43 (95 % CI 0.79, 2.61). Results were similar in incidence density analysis including 1367 leukaemia cases (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.57; 95 % CI 1.09, 2.25). Associations were similar for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (IRR 1.64; 95 % CI 1.10, 2.43) and stronger for leukaemia in children aged <5 years (IRR 1.92; 95 % CI 1.22, 3.04). Little evidence of association was found for other tumours. Our study suggests that young children living close to highways are at increased risk of developing leukaemia

  11. Maintenance of signs and sign supports : a guide for local highway and street maintenance personnel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Highway signs are the means by which the road agency communicates the rules, warnings, guidance and other highway information that drivers need to navigate their roads and streets. This guide, which is an update to the same titled guide published in ...

  12. Concession of Brazilian Federal Highways: Orphan Assets Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel de Rezende Salgado

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the uses of public service concession contracts in Brazil is in the road infrastructure sector, existing at the federal level 21 roads’ concession contracts, totaling approximately 10 thousand kilometers, which is 12.6% of the federal road network. Whereas in this type of contract the government does not transfer ownership of the asset, but only access to the concessionaire for the operation of public services, this study aims to determine in which entity (public or private are registered the federal roads, object of the concession contracts. To address the research question, the financial statements of 21 utility companies or controlling group were analyzed, as well the balance sheet of the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT, all for the year 2014. The study findings show that the Brazilian federal highways are not recorded in public statements or in the financial statements of utility companies, providing evidence that these infrastructure assets meet the definition of orphan assets. Thus, the net worth of the ANTT is not adequately represented in its balance sheet.

  13. Spent fuel transportation on highways: the radioactive dose to the traffic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yadigaroglu, G.

    1975-01-01

    The radioactive exposure of the traffic moving on the same highway as spent fuel shipments has been neglected in the past. Methods developed for calculating peak exposures, the number of individuals receiving a dose in excess of a certain limiting value, and the cumulative population doses for the occupants of the vehicles under a variety of highway and accident conditions allow comparisons to the corresponding stationary-population doses. Consideration of both routine direct-radiation exposures and accidental releases indicates that the traffic doses can be of equal or greater importance than the stationary-population doses

  14. Draft environmental impact statement siting, construction, and operation of New Production Reactor capacity. Volume 4, Appendices D-R

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1991-04-01

    This Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assesses the potential environmental impacts, both on a broad programmatic level and on a project-specific level, concerning a proposed action to provide new tritium production capacity to meet the nation`s nuclear defense requirements well into the 21st century. A capacity equivalent to that of about a 3,000-megawatt (thermal) heavy-water reactor was assumed as a reference basis for analysis in this EIS; this is the approximate capacity of the existing production reactors at DOE`s Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. The EIS programmatic alternatives address Departmental decisions to be made on whether to build new production facilities, whether to build one or more complexes, what size production capacity to provide, and when to provide this capacity. Project-specific impacts for siting, constructing, and operating new production reactor capacity are assessed for three alternative sites: the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington; the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho; and the Savannah River Site. For each site, the impacts of three reactor technologies (and supporting facilities) are assessed: a heavy-water reactor, a light-water reactor, and a modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. Impacts of the no-action alternative also are assessed. The EIS evaluates impacts related to air quality; noise levels; surface water, groundwater, and wetlands; land use; recreation; visual environment; biotic resources; historical, archaeological, and cultural resources; socioeconomics; transportation; waste management; and human health and safety. The EIS describes in detail the potential radioactive releases from new production reactors and support facilities and assesses the potential doses to workers and the general public. This volume contains 15 appendices.

  15. Traffic condition with road upgrading during construction and operation stages based on level-of-service (LOS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tay, A. C.; Lee, H. H.

    2018-04-01

    In this study, traffic survey was done at signalized intersection of both ends of an upgrading road during morning and afternoon peak hours throughout construction period. The intersections of Tudan Road located at Miri City in Sarawak State, Malaysia were chosen as study sites. The aim of this research was to investigate the traffic condition for the signalized intersections of a R3 secondary road that being upgrading to standard U5 dual carriageway during peak hours for construction and operation stages. Data collected from these sites were analyzed according to Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010. From the results, the level-of-services (LOS) of Kuala Baram By Pass Road intersection improved from Level F to Level E at operation stage for weekday during peak hours in the morning. LOS of Lutong-Kuala Baram Road intersection at construction stage were Level C during peak hours in the morning and Level D during peak hours in the afternoon for weekends. However, the LOS during both peak hours for weekends were projected to improve to Level B at the operation stage. It proved that the road construction has affected LOS, and this temporary issue can be solved after the upgraded road is in operation.

  16. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 1995 customer satisfaction survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    1996-05-01

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a national Customer Satisfaction Survey in response to the requirements of the National Performance Review and Executive Order 12862. An independent research organization, Schulman,...

  17. Highway vehicle systems contractors coordination meeting. Seventeenth summary report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1979-01-01

    Separate abstracts was prepared for each of the 62 papers presented at the Contractors' Coordination meeting on highway vehicle systems. One paper had previously appeared in DOE's data base.

  18. Technical Support Document: 50% Energy Savings Design Technology Packages for Highway Lodging Buildings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jiang, Wei; Gowri, Krishnan; Lane, Michael D.; Thornton, Brian A.; Rosenberg, Michael I.; Liu, Bing

    2009-09-28

    This Technical Support Document (TSD) describes the process, methodology and assumptions for development of the 50% Energy Savings Design Technology Packages for Highway Lodging Buildings, a design guidance document intended to provide recommendations for achieving 50% energy savings in highway lodging properties over the energy-efficiency levels contained in ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

  19. 76 FR 47288 - Notice of Final Federal Agency Actions on Proposed Highway in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-08-04

    ... highway project will be barred unless the claim is filed on or before January 31, 2012. If the Federal law... following highway project in the State of California: The addition of bus rapid transit stations and... actions by the Federal agencies, and the laws under which such actions were taken, are described in the...

  20. The capacity credit of micro-combined heat and power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hawkes, A.D.; Leach, M.A.

    2008-01-01

    This article is concerned with development of a methodology to determine the capacity credit of micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP), and application of the method for the UK. Capacity credit is an important parameter in electricity system planning because it measures the amount of conventional generation that would be displaced by an alternative technology. Firstly, a mathematical formulation is presented. Capacity credit is then calculated for three types of micro-CHP units-Stirling engine, internal combustion engine, and fuel cell systems-operating under various control strategies. It is found that low heat-to-power ratio fuel cell technologies achieve the highest capacity credit of approximately 85% for a 1.1 GW penetration when a heat-led control strategy is applied. Higher heat-to-power ratio Stirling engine technology achieves approximately 33% capacity credit for heat-led operation. Low heat-to-power ratio technologies achieve higher capacity credit because they are able to continue operating even when heat demand is relatively low. Capacity credit diminishes as penetration of the technology increases. Overall, the high capacity credit of micro-CHP contributes to the viewpoint that the technology can help meet a number of economic and environmental energy policy aims

  1. Apparatus for obtaining electric energy in speed highways

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khalatyan, P.R.; Khalatyan, R.P.; Khalatyan, E.P.

    2012-01-01

    The problems of obtaining electricity by means of moving motor-transport are examined. An apparatus installed in the distributive zone of intensive traffic speed highways is proposed. Part of air mass movement of kinetic energy is transformed from the movement of automobiles into electricity

  2. Variability of Travel Times on New Jersey Highways

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-01

    This report presents the results of a link and path travel time study conducted on selected New Jersey (NJ) highways to produce estimates of the corresponding variability of travel time (VTT) by departure time of the day and days of the week. The tra...

  3. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration : 1997 customer satisfaction survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-03-13

    In 1995, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted its first Customer Satisfaction Survey in response to the requirements of the National Performance Review and Executive Order 12862. An independent research organization, S...

  4. Drug research methodology. Volume 1, The alcohol-highway safety experience and its applicability to other drugs

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-03-01

    This report presents the findings of a workshop concerning the alcohol and highway safety experience, which includes research efforts to define the drinking-driving problem and societal responses to reduce the increased highway safety risk attributab...

  5. Risk assessment of wind turbines sited close to highways; Risikovurdering i forbindelse med vindmoeller og motorveje

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dalsgaard Soerensen, J.; Lemming, J. (Risoe DTU, Roskilde (Denmark)); Noerkaer Soerensen, J. (Danmarks Tekniske Univ., DTU Mekanik, Kgs. Lyngby (Denmark))

    2011-06-15

    This report treats risk assessment of siting wind turbines close to highways in Denmark. The assessment only deals with the risk of total or partly failure of the turbines and the risk of ice throw from the blades. The report describes the fundamental methods, risk assessments as well as the assumptions and limitations the results are based on. The results is based on an example with a number of turbines sited alone the highway and presented as the risk per driven km on the highway. (Author)

  6. Refrigerator with variable capacity compressor and cycle priming action through capacity control and associated methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomes, Alberto Regio; Litch, Andrew D.; Wu, Guolian

    2016-03-15

    A refrigerator appliance (and associated method) that includes a condenser, evaporator and a multi-capacity compressor. The appliance also includes a pressure reducing device arranged within an evaporator-condenser refrigerant circuit, and a valve system for directing or restricting refrigerant flow through the device. The appliance further includes a controller for operating the compressor upon the initiation of a compressor ON-cycle at a priming capacity above a nominal capacity for a predetermined or calculated duration.

  7. Çokşeritli Dönel Kavşaklarda Kapasite Analizi: Highway Capacity Manual 2010 Kapasite Modeliyle Bir Değerlendirme

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melike Ersoy

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Bu çalışmada, genel kabul görmüş çok şeritli dönel kavşak kapasite hesap yöntemlerinin uygulanabilirliği, yeni Highway Capacity Manual (HCM 2010 yöntemiyle karşılaştırılmıştır. Yöntemlerden elde edilen sonuçlar, yerel çalışmalardan toplanan verilerin ışığında değerlendirilmiştir. Karşılaştırma için regresyon analiz yöntemini temsilen Transportation Research Laboratory (TRL formülasyonu, Kritik aralık kabulü yöntemini temsilen Avusturya Hesap Yöntemi seçilmiştir. Bunlara ek olarak, sınırlı öncelik ve ters öncelik koşullarının göz önünde bulundurulduğu kalibre edilmiş kritik aralık yöntemi ve HCM 2010 da yerel uygulamalar için öngörülen kalibre edilmiş formüller ile hesaplamalar yapılmış ve HCM 2010'un olağan değerleriyle karşılaştırılmıştır.Çalışmanın sonucunda elde edilenler, kritik aralık kabul yöntemi ve regresyon yönteminin HCM 2010 olağan değerlerine kıyasla genellikle daha yüksek sonuçlar verdiğini göstermiştir. Yöntemler arasında yapılan regresyon analizleri sonucu, özellikle yüksek dönen akımlar altında kritik aralık kabul yönteminin HCM 2010 yönteminden daha uygun sonuçlar verdiği görülmüştür. Ancak HCM 2010'da yerel uygulamalar için kalibrasyon yapılmasını sağlayan formülasyon sonucunda elde edilenler, olağan formülasyonun verdiği düşük kapasite tahminlerini daha uygun değerlere yükseltmiştir.

  8. Testimony on the Status of the Highway Trust Fund

    OpenAIRE

    Kim P. Cawley

    2013-01-01

    The current trajectory of the Highway Trust Fund is unsustainable. Starting in fiscal year 2015, the trust fund will have insufficient resources to meet all of its obligations—CBO projects—resulting in steadily accumulating shortfalls.

  9. Evolution of new reflective materials for overhead highway signage

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-07-01

    Unlighted highway signs using newly developed retroreflective materials were installed along the Gowanus Expressway. Photometric measurements of the signs were used to assess the visibility of the signs using the relative visual performance model. Th...

  10. Contractors perspective for critical factors of cost overrun in highway projects of Sindh, Pakistan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohu, Samiullah; Abdullah, Abd Halid; Nagapan, Sasitharan; Fattah, Abdul; Ullah, Kaleem; Kumar, Kanesh

    2017-10-01

    Construction industry of Pakistan is creating a number of opportunities in employment as well as plays a role model for economy development of the country. This construction industry has a serious issue of cost overrun in all construction projects especially in construction of highway projects. Cost overrun is a serious and critical issue in construction of highway projects which gives negative impact to construction practitioners because it is not only cross the approved budget but also approved time of the project. The main objective of this study is to find out critical factors causing cost overrun in highway projects of Sindh according to contractors' perspectives. Deep literature review was carried out and a total of 64 factors of cost overrun were identified. To achieve the objective, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among 16 selected respondents who have more than 20 years of experience in construction of highway projects. The results from analysis found that most critical factors of cost overrun in the order of importance include financial and cash flow difficulties faced by contractor, frequent changes in design, changes in price of materials, poor planning by client, change in scope of project, change in specification of materials and delay in taking decisions. This study will assist contractors to narrow down some of the critical factors that would lead to cost overrun, and therefore be prepared with the ways to mitigate these problems in construction of highway projects of Sindh province.

  11. Short-term impacts of a 4-lane highway on black bears in eastern North Carolina

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Manen, Frank T.; McCollister, Matthew F.; Nicholson, Jeremy M.; Thompson, Laura M.; Kindall, Jason L.; Jones, Mark D.

    2012-01-01

    Among numerous anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial landscapes, expanding transportation networks represent one of the primary challenges to wildlife conservation worldwide. Larger mammals may be particularly vulnerable because of typically low densities, low reproductive rates, and extensive movements. Although numerous studies have been conducted to document impacts of road networks on wildlife, inference has been limited because of experimental design limitations. During the last decade, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) rerouted and upgraded sections of United States Highway 64 between Raleigh and the Outer Banks to a 4-lane, divided highway. A new route was selected for a 24.1-km section in Washington County. The new section of highway included 3 wildlife underpasses with adjacent wildlife fencing to mitigate the effects of the highway on wildlife, particularly American black bears (Ursus americanus). We assessed the short-term impacts of the new highway on spatial ecology, population size, survival, occupancy, and gene flow of black bears. We tested our research hypotheses using a before-after control-impact (BACI) study design. We collected data during 2000–2001 (preconstruction phase) and 2006–2007 (postconstruction phase) in the highway project area and a nearby control area (each approx. 11,000 ha), resulting in 4 groups of data (i.e., pre- or postconstruction study phase, treatment or control area). We captured and radiocollared 57 bears and collected 5,775 hourly locations and 4,998 daily locations. Using mixed-model analysis of variance and logistic regression, we detected no differences in home ranges, movement characteristics, proximity to the highway alignment, or habitat use between the 2 study phases, although minimum detectable effect sizes were large for several tests. However, after completion of the new highway, bears on the treatment area became less inactive in morning, when highway traffic was low, compared with

  12. The Damage Effects in Steel Bridges under Highway Random Loading

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agerskov, Henning; Nielsen, Jette Andkjær

    1996-01-01

    In the present investigation, fatigue damage accumulation in steel bridges under highway random loading is studied. In the experimental part of the investigation, fatigue test series on welded plate test specimens have been carried through. The fatigue tests have been carried out using load histo...... indicate that the linear fatigue damage accumulation formula, which is normally used in the design against fatigue in steel bridges, may give results, which are unconservative.......In the present investigation, fatigue damage accumulation in steel bridges under highway random loading is studied. In the experimental part of the investigation, fatigue test series on welded plate test specimens have been carried through. The fatigue tests have been carried out using load...

  13. GIS for Highway Engineering in Developing Countries | Mulaku ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer based information system that enables the input, management, analysis, output and dissemination of geospatial data and information. It is therefore an invaluable management tool in all fields where geospatial data is applied, such as highway engineering. Unfortunately ...

  14. Pollution by lead near the Turin--Milan highway

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sapetti, C; Arduino, E

    1973-10-01

    Soil samples taken at 5 to 50 m from the Turin-Milan highway at depths ranging from 0 to 30 cm on two different sites were analyzed for lead residues by atomic absorption spectrophotometry following extraction by means of ammoniacal EDTA at pH 9. Soil samples from the surface layer taken in one well-ventilated site contained 11.5 to 12.4 ppM lead, while subsoil samples had 5.7 to 9.8 ppM. Soil samples taken in the other site with poor ventilation contained 23.5 to 43.3 ppM lead in the surface layer, and 9.2 to 15.4 ppM in the subsoil. Decrease of the lead concentrations in the soil with increasing depth and distance from the highway was noted. Plant samples taken from the same sites contained 6.4 to 32.2 ppM lead. Lead was fixed predominantly to the exchange complex; partly to the clay fraction, and partly to the humic fraction.

  15. Residential moving intentions at highway locations: : The trade-off between nuisances and accessibility in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hamersma, Marije; Heinen, Eva; Tillema, Taede; Arts, Eric

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates how highway nuisances are traded off against accessibility gains and other residential characteristics in the moving intentions of people living near highways. It studies a potential mediating role for residential satisfaction and potential mitigating relationships with

  16. Recent advances in sustainable winter road operations – a book proposal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-05-05

    Investing in winter transportation operations is essential and beneficial to the public and the economy. The U.S. economy cannot afford the cost of shutting down highways, airports, etc., during winter weather. In the northern U.S. and other cold-cli...

  17. Bivariate quadratic method in quantifying the differential capacitance and energy capacity of supercapacitors under high current operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goh, Chin-Teng; Cruden, Andrew

    2014-11-01

    Capacitance and resistance are the fundamental electrical parameters used to evaluate the electrical characteristics of a supercapacitor, namely the dynamic voltage response, energy capacity, state of charge and health condition. In the British Standards EN62391 and EN62576, the constant capacitance method can be further improved with a differential capacitance that more accurately describes the dynamic voltage response of supercapacitors. This paper presents a novel bivariate quadratic based method to model the dynamic voltage response of supercapacitors under high current charge-discharge cycling, and to enable the derivation of the differential capacitance and energy capacity directly from terminal measurements, i.e. voltage and current, rather than from multiple pulsed-current or excitation signal tests across different bias levels. The estimation results the author achieves are in close agreement with experimental measurements, within a relative error of 0.2%, at various high current levels (25-200 A), more accurate than the constant capacitance method (4-7%). The archival value of this paper is the introduction of an improved quantification method for the electrical characteristics of supercapacitors, and the disclosure of the distinct properties of supercapacitors: the nonlinear capacitance-voltage characteristic, capacitance variation between charging and discharging, and distribution of energy capacity across the operating voltage window.

  18. The research on data organization technology in the highway geographic information system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Zhihui; Wu, Fang; Zeng, Yuhuai

    2008-10-01

    Data are the basis of GIS. It has direct impact on the efficiency and function of a Highway Geographic Information System (HGIS), because of the characteristics of data model and data organization of the traffic geographic information system such as spatial property, multi-path network, linearity. This paper discussed the data property of HGIS, studied and presented the HGIS spatial data on multi-source and model. Also, it described and verified highway geographical feature of special subject data's linearity, dynamic and multiple-path network property in HGIS.

  19. A Review of Semivolatile and Volatile Organic Compounds in Highway Runoff and Urban Stormwater

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopes, Thomas J.; Dionne, Shannon G.

    1998-01-01

    Many studies have been conducted since 1970 to characterize concentrations of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in highway runoff and urban stormwater. To a lesser extent, studies also have characterized concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), estimated loads of SVOCs, and assessed potential impacts of these contaminants on receiving streams. This review evaluates the quality of existing data on SVOCs and VOCs in highway runoff and urban storm- water and summarizes significant findings. Studies related to highways are emphasized when possible. The review included 44 articles and reports that focused primarily on SVOCs and VOCs. Only 17 of these publications are related to highways, and 5 of these 17 are themselves review papers. SVOCs in urban stormwater and sediments during the late 1970's to mid-1980's were the subject of most studies. Criteria used to evaluate data quality included documentation of sampling protocols, analytical methods, minimum reporting limit (MRL) or method detection limit (MDL), qualityassurance protocols, and quality-control samples. The largest deficiency in documenting data quality was that only 10 percent of the studies described where water samples were collected in the stream cross section. About 80 percent of SVOCs in runoff are in the suspended solids. Because suspended solids can vary significantly even in narrow channels, concentrations from discrete point samples and contaminant loads estimated from those samples are questionable without information on sample location or how well streamflow was mixed. Thirty percent or fewer of the studies documented the MRL, MDL, cleaning of samplers, or use of field quality-control samples. Comparing results of different studies and evaluating the quality of environmental data, especially for samples with low concentrations, is difficult without this information. The most significant factor affecting SVOC concentrations in water is suspended solids concentration. In sediment

  20. Discussion on the method of environmental radiological impact assessment for the highway construction project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiu Guohua

    2008-01-01

    Based on the characteristics and environmental radiological impact of the highway construction project, the basic procedure of environmental radiological impact assessment for the highway construction project is put forward, including analysis and determination of contamination sources, selection of evaluation factors, determination of assessment range and dose limit, environmental investigation, environmental impact prediction and assessment. The working method of each procedure is analyzed. (authors)

  1. 78 FR 16411 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-15

    ... operating schedule that governs the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation is necessary to allow the Quad City Heart...-366-9826. [[Page 16412

  2. A comparative study of wood highway sound barriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefan Grgurevich; Thomas Boothby; Harvey Manbeck; Courtney Burroughs; Stephen Cegelka; Craig Bernecker; Michael A. Ritter

    2002-01-01

    Prototype designs for wood highway sound barriers meeting the multiple criteria of structural integrity, acoustic effectiveness, durability, and potential for public acceptance have been developed. Existing installations of wood sound barriers were reviewed and measurements conducted in the field to estimate acoustic insertion losses. A complete matrix of design...

  3. Capacity Expansion and Reliability Evaluation on the Networks Flows with Continuous Stochastic Functional Capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Hamzezadeh

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In many systems such as computer network, fuel distribution, and transportation system, it is necessary to change the capacity of some arcs in order to increase maximum flow value from source s to sink t, while the capacity change incurs minimum cost. In real-time networks, some factors cause loss of arc’s flow. For example, in some flow distribution systems, evaporation, erosion or sediment in pipes waste the flow. Here we define a real capacity, or the so-called functional capacity, which is the operational capacity of an arc. In other words, the functional capacity of an arc equals the possible maximum flow that may pass through the arc. Increasing the functional arcs capacities incurs some cost. There is a certain resource available to cover the costs. First, we construct a mathematical model to minimize the total cost of expanding the functional capacities to the required levels. Then, we consider the loss of flow on each arc as a stochastic variable and compute the system reliability.

  4. Implementation of GPS controlled highway construction equipment, phase III.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-02-01

    Beginning in 2006, WisDOT and the Construction Material and Support Center (CMSC) at UW-Madison worked : together to develop the specifications and the QA/QC procedures for GPS machine guidance on highway grading : projects. These specifications and ...

  5. On-the-spot damage detection methodology for highway bridges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    Vibration-based damage identification (VBDI) techniques have been developed in part to address the problems associated with an aging civil infrastructure. To assess the potential of VBDI as it applies to highway bridges in Iowa, three applications of...

  6. Risk Analysis of Volume Cheat Strategy in a Competitive Capacity Market

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Feng, Donghan; Xu, Zhao

    2009-01-01

    Capacity market provides additional revenue stream for the power suppliers. In a capacity-energy combined market environment, suppliers have incentives to deliberately over-offer their capacities in the capacity market while bid very high price in the energy and ancillary markets to avoid operation....... This paper analyzes the risks and profits of this capacity-over-offer behavior, and develops a method for computing non-operable penalty level which can prevent the capacity-over-offer behavior. It is found that the effective penalty level is highly correlated with the stochastic characteristics......-energy market environment....

  7. Predicting Light-Duty Vehicle Fuel Economy as a Function of Highway Speed

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thomas, John [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Hwang, Ho-Ling [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); West, Brian [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Huff, Shean [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2013-04-08

    The www.fueleconomy.gov website offers information such as window label fuel economy for city, highway, and combined driving for all U.S.-legal light-duty vehicles from 1984 to the present. The site is jointly maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and also offers a considerable amount of consumer information and advice pertaining to vehicle fuel economy and energy related issues. Included with advice pertaining to driving styles and habits is information concerning the trend that as highway cruising speed is increased, fuel economy will degrade. An effort was undertaken to quantify this conventional wisdom through analysis of dynamometer testing results for 74 vehicles at steady state speeds from 50 to 80 mph. Using this experimental data, several simple models were developed to predict individual vehicle fuel economy and its rate of change over the 50-80 mph speed range interval. The models presented require a minimal number of vehicle attributes. The simplest model requires only the EPA window label highway mpg value (based on the EPA specified estimation method for 2008 and beyond). The most complex of these simple model uses vehicle coast-down test coefficients (from testing prescribed by SAE Standard J2263) known as the vehicle Target Coefficients, and the raw fuel economy result from the federal highway test. Statistical comparisons of these models and discussions of their expected usefulness and limitations are offered.

  8. Occurrence of lead and zinc in soils and plants at the margins of a highway with heavy traffic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Celso da Silva

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The occurrences of lead (Pb and zinc (Zn were determined in soil and grasses collected at three points on stretch of 143 km of the Presidente Dutra highway between the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The soil and plant samples were collected by sampling transections perpendicular to the highway at distances of 0, 10, 20, 35 and 50 m from the highway edge. Concentrations of Pb and Zn were higher in samples closest to the highway edge, decreasing with increasing distance from the road. There were positive correlation coefficients between the metal concentration in the soil and the metal concentration in the plant. Concentrations of Pb found in soil samples were below the reference value established for the soil quality in the state of São Paulo, while for Zn, up to 10 m away from the highway edge, the concentration was higher than the reference value.

  9. 78 FR 56607 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Hudson River, Troy and Green Island, NY

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-13

    ...-AA09 Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Hudson River, Troy and Green Island, NY AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... operation of the highway bridge across the Hudson River, mile 152.7, between Troy and Green Island, New York... Street Bridge, mile 155.4, between Troy and Cohoes which has been converted to a fixed bridge. It is...

  10. Optimization of fractional composition of the excipient in the elastomeric covering for asphalt highways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. M. Nurullaev

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The computational method of optimum fractional composition of a dispersible filler of polymeric composite on the basis of three-dimensionally linked elastomer is developed according to non-linear programming. The coefficient of dynamic viscosity of polymeric suspension or the initial module of a viscoelasticity of the join solidification low-molecular rubbers with the final functional groups, filled by many fractional dioxide of silicon are considered as criteria of optimization. Influence of the limiting volume filling on energy of mechanical destruction was investigated. The elastomeric material is offered for use as a covering of asphalt highways in the form of a frost-proof waterproofing layer, which allowing multiply to increase operating properties.

  11. Montana Highway Safety Improvement Program : an RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-01

    This report provides a summary of a peer-to-peer (P2P) videoconference sponsored by the : Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) and the Federal Highway Administration : (FHWA) Office of Safety. The videoconference format provided a low-cost oppo...

  12. Evaluation and Selection of Renewable Energy Technologies for Highway Maintenance Facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrews, Taylor

    The interest in renewable energy has been increasing in recent years as attempts to reduce energy costs as well the consumption of fossil fuels are becoming more common. Companies and organizations are recognizing the increasing reliance on limited fossil fuels' resources, and as competition and costs for these resources grow, alternative solutions are becoming more appealing. Many federally run buildings and associations also have the added pressure of meeting the mandates of federal energy policies that dictate specific savings or reductions. Federal highway maintenance facilities run by the Department of Transportation fall into this category. To help meet energy saving goals, an investigation into potential renewable energy technologies was completed for the Ohio Department of Transportation. This research examined several types of renewable energy technologies and the major factors that affect their performance and evaluated their potential for implementation at highway maintenance facilities. Facilities energy usage data were provided, and a facility survey and site visits were completed to enhance the evaluation of technologies and the suitability for specific projects. Findings and technology recommendations were presented in the form of selection matrices, which were designed to help make selections in future projects. The benefits of utilization of other tools such as analysis software and life cycle assessments were also highlighted. These selection tools were designed to be helpful guides when beginning the pursuit of a renewable energy technology for highway maintenance facilities, and can be applied to other similar building types and projects. This document further discusses the research strategies and findings as well as the recommendations that were made to the personnel overseeing Ohio's highway maintenance facilities.

  13. a Geographic Weighted Regression for Rural Highways Crashes Modelling Using the Gaussian and Tricube Kernels: a Case Study of USA Rural Highways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aghayari, M.; Pahlavani, P.; Bigdeli, B.

    2017-09-01

    Based on world health organization (WHO) report, driving incidents are counted as one of the eight initial reasons for death in the world. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for regression on effective parameters of highway crashes. In the traditional methods, it was assumed that the data are completely independent and environment is homogenous while the crashes are spatial events which are occurring in geographic space and crashes have spatial data. Spatial data have spatial features such as spatial autocorrelation and spatial non-stationarity in a way working with them is going to be a bit difficult. The proposed method has implemented on a set of records of fatal crashes that have been occurred in highways connecting eight east states of US. This data have been recorded between the years 2007 and 2009. In this study, we have used GWR method with two Gaussian and Tricube kernels. The Number of casualties has been considered as dependent variable and number of persons in crash, road alignment, number of lanes, pavement type, surface condition, road fence, light condition, vehicle type, weather, drunk driver, speed limitation, harmful event, road profile, and junction type have been considered as explanatory variables according to previous studies in using GWR method. We have compered the results of implementation with OLS method. Results showed that R2 for OLS method is 0.0654 and for the proposed method is 0.9196 that implies the proposed GWR is better method for regression in rural highway crashes.

  14. A GEOGRAPHIC WEIGHTED REGRESSION FOR RURAL HIGHWAYS CRASHES MODELLING USING THE GAUSSIAN AND TRICUBE KERNELS: A CASE STUDY OF USA RURAL HIGHWAYS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Aghayari

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Based on world health organization (WHO report, driving incidents are counted as one of the eight initial reasons for death in the world. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for regression on effective parameters of highway crashes. In the traditional methods, it was assumed that the data are completely independent and environment is homogenous while the crashes are spatial events which are occurring in geographic space and crashes have spatial data. Spatial data have spatial features such as spatial autocorrelation and spatial non-stationarity in a way working with them is going to be a bit difficult. The proposed method has implemented on a set of records of fatal crashes that have been occurred in highways connecting eight east states of US. This data have been recorded between the years 2007 and 2009. In this study, we have used GWR method with two Gaussian and Tricube kernels. The Number of casualties has been considered as dependent variable and number of persons in crash, road alignment, number of lanes, pavement type, surface condition, road fence, light condition, vehicle type, weather, drunk driver, speed limitation, harmful event, road profile, and junction type have been considered as explanatory variables according to previous studies in using GWR method. We have compered the results of implementation with OLS method. Results showed that R2 for OLS method is 0.0654 and for the proposed method is 0.9196 that implies the proposed GWR is better method for regression in rural highway crashes.

  15. Capacity factor of nuclear power stations in Japan in fiscal year 1984

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agawa, Takashi

    1985-01-01

    In Japan presently a total of 28 nuclear power plants are in operation with aggregate capacity 20,561 MW, 22 % of the total power generation. Around 1975 there occurred such as stress corrosion cracking and to repair them much time was consumed, leading to the low capacity factor. With such troubles removed, in fiscal 1984, the capacity factor on average of the nuclear power stations is 73.9 %, the highest so far. Contributing to this are long period of the continuous operation, short period of the periodical inspection and increase in the in-operation capacity factor. Contents are the following : construction state of nuclear power stations, operation state in fiscal 1984, causes leading to the high capacity factor, future directions. (Mori, K.)

  16. Fracture Mechanics Prediction of Fatigue Life of Aluminum Highway Bridges

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rom, Søren; Agerskov, Henning

    2015-01-01

    Fracture mechanics prediction of the fatigue life of aluminum highway bridges under random loading is studied. The fatigue life of welded joints has been determined from fracture mechanics analyses and the results obtained have been compared with results from experimental investigations. The fati......Fracture mechanics prediction of the fatigue life of aluminum highway bridges under random loading is studied. The fatigue life of welded joints has been determined from fracture mechanics analyses and the results obtained have been compared with results from experimental investigations...... against fatigue in aluminum bridges, may give results which are unconservative. Furthermore, it was in both investigations found that the validity of the results obtained from Miner's rule will depend on the distribution of the load history in tension and compression....

  17. 8760-Based Method for Representing Variable Generation Capacity Value in Capacity Expansion Models: Preprint

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Frew, Bethany A [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Cole, Wesley J [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sun, Yinong [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Mai, Trieu T [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Richards, James [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2017-08-01

    Capacity expansion models (CEMs) are widely used to evaluate the least-cost portfolio of electricity generators, transmission, and storage needed to reliably serve demand over the evolution of many years or decades. Various CEM formulations are used to evaluate systems ranging in scale from states or utility service territories to national or multi-national systems. CEMs can be computationally complex, and to achieve acceptable solve times, key parameters are often estimated using simplified methods. In this paper, we focus on two of these key parameters associated with the integration of variable generation (VG) resources: capacity value and curtailment. We first discuss common modeling simplifications used in CEMs to estimate capacity value and curtailment, many of which are based on a representative subset of hours that can miss important tail events or which require assumptions about the load and resource distributions that may not match actual distributions. We then present an alternate approach that captures key elements of chronological operation over all hours of the year without the computationally intensive economic dispatch optimization typically employed within more detailed operational models. The updated methodology characterizes the (1) contribution of VG to system capacity during high load and net load hours, (2) the curtailment level of VG, and (3) the potential reductions in curtailments enabled through deployment of storage and more flexible operation of select thermal generators. We apply this alternate methodology to an existing CEM, the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS). Results demonstrate that this alternate approach provides more accurate estimates of capacity value and curtailments by explicitly capturing system interactions across all hours of the year. This approach could be applied more broadly to CEMs at many different scales where hourly resource and load data is available, greatly improving the representation of challenges

  18. Developing a Highway Safety Fundamentals Course : Research Project Capsule

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-10-01

    Although the need for road : safety education was fi rst : recognized in the 1960s, : recently it has become an : increasingly urgent issue. To : fulfi ll the hefty goal set up by : the AASHTO Highway : Safety Strategy (cutting : traffi c fatalities ...

  19. Risk-based asset management methodology for highway infrastructure systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2004-01-01

    Maintaining the infrastructure of roads, highways, and bridges is paramount to ensuring that these assets will remain safe and reliable in the future. If maintenance costs remain the same or continue to escalate, and additional funding is not made av...

  20. Auctions of capacity in network industries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stern, J.; Turvey, R.

    2003-01-01

    This paper provides an introduction to the key issues arising for auctions of network capacity including (i) the ability of auctions to handle long-run capacity expansion issues as well as short run capacity allocation; (ii) the definition of 'capacity' on networks; (iii) auction revenues and revenue reallocation to regulated network operators; and (iv) alternative market-based mechanisms to provide signals for capacity expansion. The paper covers some simple analytics before introducing various complications such as the use of auctions in complex networks. The paper discusses implications and provides a context within which to consider the other papers in this issue of Utilities Policy. (Author)

  1. 78 FR 28139 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Tuckahoe River, Between Corbin City and Upper Township, NJ

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-05-14

    ... Operation Regulation; Tuckahoe River, Between Corbin City and Upper Township, NJ AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... River, mile 8.0, between Corbin City and Upper Township, NJ. The deviation is necessary to facilitate... operating schedule, the State Highway Bridge, mile 8.0, between Corbin City and Upper Township, NJ shall...

  2. World nuclear generating capacity 1993/94

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1994-01-01

    This article is the annual summary of world nuclear generating capacity for 1994. A global summary is first provided, reviewing total installed capacity and growth in installed capacity over the next five years. A more detailed discussion of the nuclear efforts in 34 countries follows, with a tabular listing of nuclear projects in each of these countries. The listing includes reactor supplier, reactor type, size, current status, and date of commercial operation

  3. The development of highway nuisance perception. Experiences of residents along the Southern Ring Road in Groningen, the Netherlands.

    OpenAIRE

    Hamersma, M; Heinen, E; Tillema, T; Arts, J

    2017-01-01

    The perception of highway nuisance i.e. noises, air pollution and barrier-effects, is associated with negative effects on health and quality of life. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the development of highway nuisance perception among residents. Interviews were conducted with residents in 32 households living along the Southern Ring Road, a highway which crosses various neighbourhoods in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. Various themes emerged from the interviews which...

  4. Field Measurement and Calibration of HDM-4 Fuel Consumption Model on Interstate Highway in Florida

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Jiao

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Fuel consumptions are measured by operating passenger car and tractor-trailer on two interstate roadway sites in Florida. Each site contains flexible pavement and rigid pavement with similar pavement, traffic and environmental condition. Field test reveals that the average fuel consumption differences between vehicle operating on flexible pavement and rigid pavement at given test condition are 4.04% for tractor-trailer and 2.50% for passenger car, with a fuel saving on rigid pavement. The fuel consumption differences are found statistically significant at 95% confidence level for both vehicle types. Test data are then used to calibrate the Highway Development and Management IV (HDM-4 fuel consumption model and model coefficients are obtained for three sets of observations. Field measurement and prediction by calibrated model shows generally good agreement. Nevertheless, verification and adjustment with more experiment or data sources would be expected in future studies.

  5. Highway pavement failure induced by poor soil geotechnical ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    X-ray diffraction studies showed the presence of abundant kaolinite peaks and a subdued goethite peak without any trace of montmorrilonite. The presence of excess fines in the pavement construction materials (soils) contributed to the failure of the highway pavement at this locality. The low CBR value is also a noted cause ...

  6. Highway Safety Manual applied in Missouri - freeway/software : research summary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    AASHTOs Highway Safety Manual (HSM) : includes models for freeway segments, speedchange : lanes (transitional area between mainline : and ramps), ramps, and interchange terminals. : These predictive models for freeway : interchanges need to be cal...

  7. Citizen, Science, Highways, and Wildlife: Using a Web-based GIS to Engage Citizens in Collecting Wildlife Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tracy Lee

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available Road Watch in the Pass is a citizen-science project that engages local citizens in reporting wildlife observations along a 44-km stretch of Highway 3 through Crowsnest Pass in southwestern Alberta, Canada. The numbers of wildlife vehicle collisions and a recent proposal to expand the highway have raised concerns from both human safety and wildlife conservation perspectives. Through the use of a web-based GIS, interested citizens can contribute information that will be instrumental in making final decisions concerning measures to mitigate the effects of highway expansion. Currently, 58 people have contributed over 713 observations to Road Watch. We performed a preliminary comparison of 11 months of Road Watch observations and wildlife mortality data for the same time period to demonstrate that the use of citizen science not only augments more conventional approaches, but also results in the emergence of new knowledge and insights. A Kappa index of agreement of 14% indicates poor agreement between the data sets, highlighting that wildlife successfully cross the highway in areas not identified by the wildlife mortality data. This has important implications for design and mitigation efforts for Highway 3 and other roadways.

  8. Traffic control and intelligent vehicle highway systems: a survey

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Baskar, L.D.; Schutter, B. de; Hellendoorn, J.; Papp, Z.

    2011-01-01

    Traffic congestion in highway networks is one of the main issues to be addressed by today's traffic management schemes. Automation combined with the increasing market penetration of on-line communication, navigation and advanced driver assistance systems will ultimately result in intelligent vehicle

  9. Using electronic document management systems to manage highway project files.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-12

    "WisDOTs Bureau of Technical Services is interested in learning about the practices of other state departments of : transportation in developing and implementing an electronic document management system to manage highway : project files"

  10. Transportation planning implications of automated/connected vehicles on Texas highways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-04-01

    This research project was focused on the transportation planning implications of automated/connected : vehicles (AV/CVs) on Texas highways. The research assessed how these potentially transformative : technologies can be included in transportation pl...

  11. Weighted radial dimension: an improved fractal measurement for highway transportation networks distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Yongjiu; Liu, Miaolong; Tong, Xiaohua

    2007-06-01

    An improved fractal measurement, the weighted radial dimension, is put forward for highway transportation networks distribution. The radial dimension (DL), originated from subway investigation in Stuttgart, is a fractal measurement for transportation systems under ideal assumption considering all the network lines to be homogeneous curves, ignoring the difference on spatial structure, quality and level, especially the highway networks. Considering these defects of radial dimension, an improved fractal measurement called weighted radial dimension (D WL) is introduced and the transportation system in Guangdong province is studied in detail using this novel method. Weighted radial dimensions are measured and calculated, and the spatial structure, intensity and connectivity of transportation networks are discussed in Guangdong province and the four sub-areas: the Pearl River Delta area, the East Costal area, the West Costal area and the Northern Guangdong area. In Guangdong province, the fractal spatial pattern characteristics of transportation system vary remarkably: it is the highest in the Pearl River Delta area, moderate in Costal area and lowest in the Northern Guangdong area. With the Pearl River Delta area as the centre, the weighted radial dimensions decrease with the distance increasing, while the decline level is smaller in the costal area and greater in the Northern Guangdong province. By analysis of the conic of highway density, it is recognized that the density decrease with the distance increasing from the calculation centre (Guangzhou), demonstrating the same trend as weighted radial dimensions shown. Evidently, the improved fractal measurement, weighted radial dimension, is an indictor describing the characteristics of highway transportation system more effectively and accurately.

  12. Ergodic Capacity for the SIMO Nakagami- Channel

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vagenas EfstathiosD

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents closed-form expressions for the ergodic channel capacity of SIMO (single-input and multiple output wireless systems operating in a Nakagami- fading channel. As the performance of SIMO channel is closely related to the diversity combining techniques, we present closed-form expressions for the capacity of maximal ratio combining (MRC, equal gain combining (EGC, selection combining (SC, and switch and stay (SSC diversity systems operating in Nakagami- fading channels. Also, the ergodic capacity of a SIMO system in a Nakagami- fading channel without any diversity technique is derived. The latter scenario is further investigated for a large amount of receive antennas. Finally, numerical results are presented for illustration.

  13. Building Capacity for Better Results: Strategies for Financing and Sustaining the Organizational Capacity of Youth-Serving Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silloway, Torey

    2010-01-01

    Most nonprofit leaders understand the importance of building strong organizational capacity, but finding ways to support and strengthen this capacity often poses significant challenges. Nonprofit leaders may hesitate to divert money from direct services when funds are needed to support operations. Some experts in the field also note what they…

  14. Approximation Algorithms for the Highway Problem under the Coupon Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamane, Ryoso; Itoh, Toshiya; Tomita, Kouhei

    When a store sells items to customers, the store wishes to decide the prices of items to maximize its profit. Intuitively, if the store sells the items with low (resp. high) prices, the customers buy more (resp. less) items, which provides less profit to the store. So it would be hard for the store to decide the prices of items. Assume that the store has a set V of n items and there is a set E of m customers who wish to buy the items, and also assume that each item i ∈ V has the production cost di and each customer ej ∈ E has the valuation vj on the bundle ej ⊆ V of items. When the store sells an item i ∈ V at the price ri, the profit for the item i is pi = ri - di. The goal of the store is to decide the price of each item to maximize its total profit. We refer to this maximization problem as the item pricing problem. In most of the previous works, the item pricing problem was considered under the assumption that pi ≥ 0 for each i ∈ V, however, Balcan, et al. [In Proc. of WINE, LNCS 4858, 2007] introduced the notion of “loss-leader, ” and showed that the seller can get more total profit in the case that pi < 0 is allowed than in the case that pi < 0 is not allowed. In this paper, we consider the line highway problem (in which each customer is interested in an interval on the line of the items) and the cycle highway problem (in which each customer is interested in an interval on the cycle of the items), and show approximation algorithms for the line highway problem and the cycle highway problem in which the smallest valuation is s and the largest valuation is l (this is called an [s, l]-valuation setting) or all valuations are identical (this is called a single valuation setting).

  15. Evaluation of bridge decks using non-destructive evaluation (NDE) at near highway speeds for effective asset management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-01

    Remote sensing technologies allow for the condition evaluation of bridge decks at near highway speed. : Data collection at near highway speed for assessment of the top of the concrete deck and proof of : concept testing for the underside of the deck ...

  16. Cost estimate modeling of transportation management plans for highway projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-01

    Highway rehabilitation and reconstruction projects frequently cause road congestion and increase safety concerns while limiting access for road users. State Transportation Agencies (STAs) are challenged to find safer and more efficient ways to renew ...

  17. Evaluating life cycle costs of perpetual pavements in China using operational pavement management system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saud A. Sultan

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Highway transportation is considered as vital factor in China’s economic growth; many high grade highways have been constructed in China during the last decades. The research and application of perpetual asphalt pavement (PP technology have been deployed in China since 2000. The semi-rigid pavement has been normally considered as typical pavement of high class highways in the design according to the Chinese experience. The objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of different Chinese perpetual pavements using operational pavement management system and to examine its suitability for use in the design and construction of more economical and durable pavements. It has been found that the use of thin asphalt layers over semi-rigid pavement foundation in PP structure will create more sustainable, economical, and durable PP structures in comparison with typical thick asphalt layers PP structures.

  18. Wildlife Mortality on National Highway 72 and 74 Across Rajaji National Park, North India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ritesh JOSHI

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Evaluating the road impact on resident wildlife is one of the important aspects of future conservation planning and of management related actions. Expanding a motor road network in and around protected habitats is considered to be a major threat that can cause the extinction of endangered species. We assessed vertebrate fauna mortality on two inter–state national highways: No. 72 (Haridwar–Dehradun and 74 (Haridwar–Bijnor and an ancillary road running across the Rajaji National Park and Haridwar Conservation area, North India. Field data on wildlife mortality was collected from June 2009 to May 2011. A total of 352 individuals of 39 species (3 amphibians, 9 reptiles, 18 mammals and 9 avian species were found dead on the national highways 72 & 74 and Haridwar–Chilla–Rishikesh motor road, which is running in between Rajaji National Park. Among all the mortalities, avian species were the most affected accounting for 38%, followed by mammals (27%. During Maha–Kumbh 2010, road accidents increased. It was an event that caused tremendous disturbance in animal migratory corridors and in drinking sites. The evaluation of vehicle traffic pressure on national highways revealed that ±14100 and ±9900 vehicles had been moving across these highways every day. In addition to that, expanding the motor roads network and increasing vehicle traffic pressure is disrupting ecological connectivity and impeding the movement of wild animals. In addition, wildlife mortality rate was observed to be increasing. Further studies are needed to understand the ecological impacts of increasing vehicle traffic on various national highways and roads and on animal behavioral responses, in order to take proper conservation actions

  19. CNNH_PSS: protein 8-class secondary structure prediction by convolutional neural network with highway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Jiyun; Wang, Hongpeng; Zhao, Zhishan; Xu, Ruifeng; Lu, Qin

    2018-05-08

    Protein secondary structure is the three dimensional form of local segments of proteins and its prediction is an important problem in protein tertiary structure prediction. Developing computational approaches for protein secondary structure prediction is becoming increasingly urgent. We present a novel deep learning based model, referred to as CNNH_PSS, by using multi-scale CNN with highway. In CNNH_PSS, any two neighbor convolutional layers have a highway to deliver information from current layer to the output of the next one to keep local contexts. As lower layers extract local context while higher layers extract long-range interdependencies, the highways between neighbor layers allow CNNH_PSS to have ability to extract both local contexts and long-range interdependencies. We evaluate CNNH_PSS on two commonly used datasets: CB6133 and CB513. CNNH_PSS outperforms the multi-scale CNN without highway by at least 0.010 Q8 accuracy and also performs better than CNF, DeepCNF and SSpro8, which cannot extract long-range interdependencies, by at least 0.020 Q8 accuracy, demonstrating that both local contexts and long-range interdependencies are indeed useful for prediction. Furthermore, CNNH_PSS also performs better than GSM and DCRNN which need extra complex model to extract long-range interdependencies. It demonstrates that CNNH_PSS not only cost less computer resource, but also achieves better predicting performance. CNNH_PSS have ability to extracts both local contexts and long-range interdependencies by combing multi-scale CNN and highway network. The evaluations on common datasets and comparisons with state-of-the-art methods indicate that CNNH_PSS is an useful and efficient tool for protein secondary structure prediction.

  20. Impact of highway construction on water bodies: a geospatial assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vijay, Ritesh; Kushwaha, Vikash K; Mardikar, Trupti; Labhasetwar, P K

    2017-08-01

    India has witnessed a massive infrastructure boom in the past few years. One of such projects is National Highway-7 (NH-7), a North-South highway connecting Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, to Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, traversing many water bodies. The present study aims to assess the pre- and post-construction impact due to existing, new and widened NH-7 on the physical status of the water bodies, using remote sensing techniques. Satellite images spanning 22 years were procured and analysed for change detection in land use and land cover within the waterbodies. The study indicates that construction activities have led to transformation within the water bodies regarding reduction in area and inter-changing of land use and land cover classes, in turn leading to siltation and reduction of recharge.

  1. Decomposition and decoupling effects of carbon dioxide emission from highway transportation in Taiwan, Germany, Japan and South Korea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu, I.J.; Lin, Sue J.; Lewis, Charles

    2007-01-01

    We adopted the Divisia index approach to explore the impacts of five factors on the total carbon dioxide emissions from highway vehicles in Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan during 1990-2002. CO 2 emission was decomposed into emission coefficient, vehicle fuel intensity, vehicle ownership, population intensity and economic growth. In addition, the decoupling effects among economic growth, transport energy demand and CO 2 emission were analyzed to better understand the fuel performance and CO 2 mitigation strategies for each country. From our results, we suggest that the rapid growths of economy and vehicle ownership were the most important factors for the increased CO 2 emissions , whereas population intensity contributed significantly to emission decrease. Energy conservation performance and CO 2 mitigation in each country are strongly correlated with environmental pressure and economic driving force, except for Germany in 1993 and Taiwan during 1992-1996. To decouple the economic growth and environmental pressure, proponents of sustainable transport policy in Taiwan should focus on improving the operation and energy use of its highway transportation system by implementing an intelligent transportation system (ITS) with demand management, constructing an integrated feeder system, and encouraging the use of green transport modes

  2. Modeling highway travel time distribution with conditional probability models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oliveira Neto, Francisco Moraes [ORNL; Chin, Shih-Miao [ORNL; Hwang, Ho-Ling [ORNL; Han, Lee [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

    2014-01-01

    ABSTRACT Under the sponsorship of the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Freight Management and Operations, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has developed performance measures through the Freight Performance Measures (FPM) initiative. Under this program, travel speed information is derived from data collected using wireless based global positioning systems. These telemetric data systems are subscribed and used by trucking industry as an operations management tool. More than one telemetric operator submits their data dumps to ATRI on a regular basis. Each data transmission contains truck location, its travel time, and a clock time/date stamp. Data from the FPM program provides a unique opportunity for studying the upstream-downstream speed distributions at different locations, as well as different time of the day and day of the week. This research is focused on the stochastic nature of successive link travel speed data on the continental United States Interstates network. Specifically, a method to estimate route probability distributions of travel time is proposed. This method uses the concepts of convolution of probability distributions and bivariate, link-to-link, conditional probability to estimate the expected distributions for the route travel time. Major contribution of this study is the consideration of speed correlation between upstream and downstream contiguous Interstate segments through conditional probability. The established conditional probability distributions, between successive segments, can be used to provide travel time reliability measures. This study also suggests an adaptive method for calculating and updating route travel time distribution as new data or information is added. This methodology can be useful to estimate performance measures as required by the recent Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP 21).

  3. Methods for excluding cliff swallows from nesting on highway structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-08-01

    Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) are colonially breeding migratory birds that frequently nest on highway : structures. Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, nesting control methods cannot harm swallows or active : nests. This c...

  4. 76 FR 65118 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Bear Creek, Sparrows Point, MD

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-20

    ...-AA09 Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Bear Creek, Sparrows Point, MD AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION... regulation. The Baltimore County Revenue Authority (Dundalk Avenue) highway toll drawbridge across Bear Creek... applicable or necessary. Basis and Purpose The drawbridge across Bear Creek, mile 1.5 was removed and...

  5. High Capacity cylinder roller bearing; High Capacity Zylinderrollenlager. Ein vollrolliges Lager mit Kaefig

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reichert, J.; Baum, J. [SKF, Schweinfurt (Germany)

    2007-07-15

    The high capacity cylinder roller bearing is an example for continuous development of SKF products and does an effective contribution to increase operational safety and offers the possibility to reduce weight and compact design. (GL)

  6. Perubahan Nilai Ekivalensi Mobil Penumpang Akibat Perubahan Karakteristik Operasional Kendaraan di Jalan Kota Semarang

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    EPF. Eko Yulipriyono

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE is a conversion factor to make equal the various types of vehicles that operating on the road section into one type of vehicles i.e. passenger cars. Indonesian Highway Capacity Manual (MKJI 1997 has set the PCE values for various types of vehicle groups either motorized. PCE values of various types of vehicles are not absolute because many factors that affect can change over time and development of automotive technology. This study aimed to find out the changes of PCE value that occurs. As for the purpose of research to determine the current number of PCE values due to the change of operational characteristics of vehicles on a highway especially for urban highways. Data analysis for the determination of PCE values used: time headway method, speed method, capacity method, and vehicle dimension method. The conclusion of this study: PCE of light vehicles (LV = 1 still in accordance with MJKI 1997; PCE of heavy vehicles (HV varied depending on the road types. PCE of heavy vehicles that according to MKJI 1997 is used as a median; PCE of motorcycles (MC of MKJI 1997 need to be adjusted to 0.4 or more, particularly in the calculation of actualy traffic flow.

  7. Exploration of Drone and Remote Sensing Technologies in Highway Embankment Monitoring and Management (Phase I) : research project capsule.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-01

    Over time, many Louisiana highway embankments have experienced surface sliding failures, a safety issue causing traffic disruptions. Since no advance-warning system is available for these highway embankment failures, the Louisiana Department of Trans...

  8. Building Global Capacity for Conducting Operational Research Using the SORT IT Model: Where and Who?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rony Zachariah

    Full Text Available Research capacity is weakest in low and middle-income countries (LMICs where operational research is highly relevant and needed. Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT courses have been developed to train participants to conduct and publish operational research and influence policy and practice. Twenty courses were completed in Asia, Africa, Europe and the South Pacific between 2009 and 2014.In the 20 completed SORT IT courses, to assess where the research was conducted, who was trained, who became facilitators in subsequent courses and course outcomes.A cohort study of completed SORT IT courses.There were 236 participants (41% female including 64 nationalities who conducted research in 59 countries, mostly from Asia and Africa (mean course duration = 9.7 months. Most participants (68% were from government health programs and non-governmental agencies. A total of 213(90% participants completed all milestones successfully with 41(19% becoming subsequent course facilitators, 88% of whom were from LMICs. Of 228 manuscripts submitted to scientific journals, 197(86% were either published or in press; in 86%, the principal investigator (first author was a LMIC national. Papers were published in 23 scientific journals (impact factor 0.5-4.4 and covered 21 disease categories (median publication time = 5.7 months. Published papers (186 had 94,794 cumulative article views/downloads. Article views/downloads for immediate open access articles were double those from closed access journals.The SORT IT model has been effective in training personnel to produce relevant operational research in LMICs. It merits continued commitment and support for further scale-up and development.

  9. Utilizing the energy from induced wind produce by highway vehicle motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abas Abd Wahab; Tong, C.W.

    2000-01-01

    A research work has been conducted at the Faculty of mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to utilize energy from airflow induced by moving vehicles along the highway for advertising and signboard lighting. Series of data collections have been made at Km 20 Johor Bahru - Kuala Lumpur Plus Highway. Wind anemometer equipped with data recorder has been placed at the highway divider to measure the wind speed induced by the vehicles moving from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa. From the data analysis it has been found that the to and from Kuala Lumpur motion of the vehicles induced a stable and continuous source of airflow (wind) ranges from 2 to 4 m/s. The energy in this induced wind has been estimated and has the potential to be used for the above said purpose. Five design models have been tested in the Faculty of mechanical Engineering Low Speed Wind Tunnel and the twisted vertical blades with circular end covers has proven to be the most efficient and suitable. The optimum sizing of the vertical axis wind turbine has also been determined. The details of the collection of wind induced data and analysis, estimation of energy content, the vertical axis wind turbine models testing and results are presented in this paper. (Author)

  10. Solar Highway Program : from concept to reality : a guidebook for Departments of Transportation to develop solar photovoltaic systems in the highway right-of-way.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-11-01

    This guidebook is intended to provide an overview for state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) of the process for developing solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in the highway right-of-way. The goal is to help others navigate the process towards a suc...

  11. Robust Vehicle and Traffic Information Extraction for Highway Surveillance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yeh Chia-Hung

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available A robust vision-based traffic monitoring system for vehicle and traffic information extraction is developed in this research. It is challenging to maintain detection robustness at all time for a highway surveillance system. There are three major problems in detecting and tracking a vehicle: (1 the moving cast shadow effect, (2 the occlusion effect, and (3 nighttime detection. For moving cast shadow elimination, a 2D joint vehicle-shadow model is employed. For occlusion detection, a multiple-camera system is used to detect occlusion so as to extract the exact location of each vehicle. For vehicle nighttime detection, a rear-view monitoring technique is proposed to maintain tracking and detection accuracy. Furthermore, we propose a method to improve the accuracy of background extraction, which usually serves as the first step in any vehicle detection processing. Experimental results are given to demonstrate that the proposed techniques are effective and efficient for vision-based highway surveillance.

  12. Analysis of mosses along Sarp-Samsun highway in Turkey

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Koz, B. [Giresun University, Department of Biology, 28049 Giresun (Turkey); Cevik, U. [Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Physics, 61080 Trabzon (Turkey)], E-mail: ugurc@ktu.edu.tr; Ozdemir, T. [Giresun University, Department of Biology, 28049 Giresun (Turkey); Duran, C. [Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Chemistry, 61080 Trabzon (Turkey); Kaya, S. [Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Physics, 61080 Trabzon (Turkey); Gundogdu, A. [Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Chemistry, 61080 Trabzon (Turkey); Celik, N. [Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Physics, 61080 Trabzon (Turkey)

    2008-05-01

    The elemental analysis of mosses along Sarp-Samsun highway in Turkey was determined using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence method. A radioisotope excited X-ray fluorescence analysis using the method of multiple standard additions is applied for the elemental analysis of mosses. An annular 50 mCi {sup 241}Am radioactive source and annular 50 mCi {sup 55}Fe radioactive source were used for excitation of characteristic K X-rays. An Si(Li) detector which has a 147 eV full width at half maximum for 5.9 keV photons was used for intensity measurements. A qualitative analysis of spectral peaks showed that the samples contained phosphates, potassium, calcium, titanium, iron, strontium, tin and barium. Since this study is the elemental analysis along the highway, one can expect to detect Pb. Due to the detection limit of EDXRF, elements were analyzed with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) for Pb. Evaluation of these elements with their potential hazards for ecology and human is briefly discusse000.

  13. Analysis of mosses along Sarp-Samsun highway in Turkey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koz, B.; Cevik, U.; Ozdemir, T.; Duran, C.; Kaya, S.; Gundogdu, A.; Celik, N.

    2008-01-01

    The elemental analysis of mosses along Sarp-Samsun highway in Turkey was determined using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence method. A radioisotope excited X-ray fluorescence analysis using the method of multiple standard additions is applied for the elemental analysis of mosses. An annular 50 mCi 241 Am radioactive source and annular 50 mCi 55 Fe radioactive source were used for excitation of characteristic K X-rays. An Si(Li) detector which has a 147 eV full width at half maximum for 5.9 keV photons was used for intensity measurements. A qualitative analysis of spectral peaks showed that the samples contained phosphates, potassium, calcium, titanium, iron, strontium, tin and barium. Since this study is the elemental analysis along the highway, one can expect to detect Pb. Due to the detection limit of EDXRF, elements were analyzed with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) for Pb. Evaluation of these elements with their potential hazards for ecology and human is briefly discussed

  14. A STUDY OF THE DISCREPANCY BETWEEN FEDERAL AND STATE MEASUREMENTS OF ON-HIGHWAY FUEL CONSUMPTION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hwang, HL

    2003-08-11

    Annual highway fuel taxes are collected by the Treasury Department and placed in the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). There is, however, no direct connection between the taxes collected by the Treasury Department and the gallons of on-highway fuel use, which can lead to a discrepancy between these totals. This study was conducted to determine how much of a discrepancy exists between the total fuel usages estimated based on highway revenue funds as reported by the Treasury Department and the total fuel usages used in the apportionment of the HTF to the States. The analysis was conducted using data from Highway Statistics Tables MF-27 and FE-9 for the years 1991-2001. It was found that the overall discrepancy is relatively small, mostly within 5% difference. The amount of the discrepancy varies from year to year and varies among the three fuel types (gasoline, gasohol, special fuels). Several potential explanations for these discrepancies were identified, including issues on data, tax measurement, gallon measurement, HTF receipts, and timing. Data anomalies caused by outside forces, such as deferment of tax payments from one fiscal year to the next, can skew fuel tax data. Fuel tax evasion can lead to differences between actual fuel use and fuel taxes collected. Furthermore, differences in data collection and reporting among States can impact fuel use data. Refunds, credits, and transfers from the HTF can impact the total fuel tax receipt data. Timing issues, such as calendar year vs. fiscal year, can also cause some discrepancy between the two data sources.

  15. Read your road : every highway user's guide to driving safely

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-11-01

    This report is the sixth in a series produced for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center). This formal comprehensive review of the plann...

  16. assessment of traffic flow on enugu highways using speed density

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    HOD

    Corresponding author, tel: +234 – 806 – 435 – 0200 ... construction, maintenance and optimization of the highways using the ...... Research Part A: Policy and Practice 29(4), 273-281. 1995. ... relationships: Quality and Theory of Traffic Flow.

  17. A Stochastic Geometry Model for Multi-hop Highway Vehicular Communication

    KAUST Repository

    Farooq, Muhammad Junaid; Elsawy, Hesham; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

    2015-01-01

    dissemination. This paper exploits stochastic geometry to develop a tractable and accurate modeling framework to characterize the multi-hop transmissions for vehicular networks in a multi-lane highway setup. In particular, we study the tradeoffs between per

  18. MIMO Channel Capacity for Handsets in Data Mode Operation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jesper Ødum; Yanakiev, Boyan; Bonev, Ivan Bonev

    2010-01-01

    The current paper concerns realistic evaluation of the capacity of the MIMO channel between a BS and handheld device, such as a PDA or smart phone, held in front of the user’s body (data mode). The work is based on measurements of the MIMO channel between two widely separated BSs in a micro...

  19. Improving transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O), capability maturity model workshop white paper : culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    Research done through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) determined : that agencies with the most effective transportation systems management and operations : (TSM&O) activities were differentiated not by budgets or technical skil...

  20. Improving transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O), capability maturity model workshop white paper : collaboration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    Research done through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) determined : that agencies with the most effective transportation systems management and operations : (TSM&O) activities were differentiated not by budgets or technical skil...

  1. Representation of Solar Capacity Value in the ReEDS Capacity Expansion Model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sigrin, B. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sullivan, P. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Ibanez, E. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Margolis, R. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2014-03-01

    An important issue for electricity system operators is the estimation of renewables' capacity contributions to reliably meeting system demand, or their capacity value. While the capacity value of thermal generation can be estimated easily, assessment of wind and solar requires a more nuanced approach due to the resource variability. Reliability-based methods, particularly assessment of the Effective Load-Carrying Capacity, are considered to be the most robust and widely-accepted techniques for addressing this resource variability. This report compares estimates of solar PV capacity value by the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) capacity expansion model against two sources. The first comparison is against values published by utilities or other entities for known electrical systems at existing solar penetration levels. The second comparison is against a time-series ELCC simulation tool for high renewable penetration scenarios in the Western Interconnection. Results from the ReEDS model are found to compare well with both comparisons, despite being resolved at a super-hourly temporal resolution. Two results are relevant for other capacity-based models that use a super-hourly resolution to model solar capacity value. First, solar capacity value should not be parameterized as a static value, but must decay with increasing penetration. This is because -- for an afternoon-peaking system -- as solar penetration increases, the system's peak net load shifts to later in the day -- when solar output is lower. Second, long-term planning models should determine system adequacy requirements in each time period in order to approximate LOLP calculations. Within the ReEDS model we resolve these issues by using a capacity value estimate that varies by time-slice. Within each time period the net load and shadow price on ReEDS's planning reserve constraint signals the relative importance of additional firm capacity.

  2. Highway Safety, Economic Behavior, and Driving Environment

    OpenAIRE

    Keeler, Theodore E.

    1991-01-01

    Economic analysis has enhanced our understanding of the efficacy of highway safety regulations. Specifically, a consumer-theoretic literature has developed on drivers' responses to regulations, based on ideas first set forth by Lester lave and W. E. Weber (1970) and more fully thought out by Sam Peltzman (1975). Meanwhile, an empirical literature has also developed, testing hypotheses relating to the effects on safety of speed limits, safety-device regulations, and alcohol policies, among oth...

  3. Study of different environmental matrices to access the extension of metal contamination along highways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zanello, Sônia; Melo, Vander Freitas; Nagata, Noemi

    2018-02-01

    Metals are indicators of contamination by anthropic activities, such as road traffic. To assess the extent of the metal contamination, more comprehensive studies analyzing different environmental matrices, such as soils, dust, and plants, collected in different sites that are potential sources of these pollutants along the highways, must be prioritized. Samples of soils, dust, and plants were collected alongside the highways of Brazil at 20 sites selected in strategic locations of metal accumulation (Cr, Pb, Zn, As, and Sb) or different situations of the high ways during two rain conditions (wet and dry weeks of sampling): nearby gutters and water supplies, tolls, petrol stations, a federal road police station, and areas associated with agriculture (yearly culture planting upstream of the highway). The geoaccumulation index (metal concentration in the sample of interest/background) varied from 0 to 6, and the decreasing order of contamination by metals during the wet and dry periods were, respectively: Zn > As > Pb = Sb > Cr and Zn > As > Pb > Cr > Sb. In the soils near the highways, the highest concentrations of metals were as follows (mg kg -1 ): As = 15.6, Cr = 81.9, Pb = 39.7, Sb = 5.0, and Zn = 379.3. The highest amounts of these elements in the most superficial layer in soils indicated their addition through atmospheric emissions. The most prominent metal was Sb, whose concentration was greater than the quality limits for soils. The concentration of Sb in soils was higher in the wet week than in the dry week. The emissions from road traffic promoted the increase in metals in the dust on the track, especially Zn and Pb. The highest metal concentrations in grasses (Brachiaria) were found in the roots, except for Sb and Zn, which suggests leaf absorption of atmospheric deposition. Metal contamination was widespread in all studied matrices along the highways.

  4. Economic development and workforce impacts of state DOT highway expenditures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    The research measured the impact of Georgia Department of Transportations highway : expenditures on economic activity in the State. The analysis covered awards made between January 2009 : and April 2013. The research is unique in that it not only ...

  5. Technical and economic viability of automated highway systems : preliminary analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-01-01

    Technical and economic investigations of automated highway systems (AHS) are addressed. It has generally been accepted that such systems show potential to alleviate urban traffic congestion, so most of the AHS research has been focused instead on tec...

  6. A visualization method for teaching the geometric design of highways

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-04-11

    In this project the authors employed state-of-the-art technology for developing visualization tools for teaching highway design. Specifically, the authors used photolog images as the basis for developing dynamic 3-D models of selected geometric eleme...

  7. Integrated prioritization method for active and passive highway-rail crossings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    This two-year research project developed a prioritization system for highway-rail at-grade crossings that addressed the following major concerns: (1) warrants to identify low-volume, passive crossings with risk factors; (2) a broader priority index t...

  8. The study of KBP of road construction workers of highway AIDS prevention project before and after intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Dan; Dong, Si-Ping; Gao, Guang-Ming; Fan, Ming-Yu; Zhang, Zong-Jiu; Fang, Peng-Qian

    2013-10-01

    To get scientific basis for further health education through the research of the road construction workers' KBP before and after the interventions of highway AIDS prevention project. Multi-stage random sampling method was employeed to select workers of 8 sites from 14 sites along highway to investigate their AIDS knowledge, belief and performance (KBP) before and after highway AIDS prevention project. Over 90% of the investigated workers had ever heard about AIDS, and the non-skilled workers of lower educational level improved more after intervention. The correct answer rate of the three transmitting ways of AIDS of drivers which is the focused group of highway before and after intervention had the obvious statistical significance (Proad construction workers is effective and further health education of HIV prevention should be carried out among the road construction workers to improve their knowledge and awareness of avoiding the high-risk behaviors. Copyright © 2013 Hainan Medical College. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Road kill of animals by highway traffic in the tropical forests of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, southern India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Baskaran

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Highways passing through natural reserves have adverse impact on wild animals. We evaluated the road kill of vertebrate fauna by vehicular traffic on highways at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, southern India. In a fortnight’s survey over 248km across three public roads and opportunistic sampling method, a minimum of 180 road kills belonging to 40 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals were recorded between December 1998 and March 1999. Amphibians were the most affected taxa (53% of road kills followed by reptiles (22%, mammals (18%; including a leopard (Panthera pardus and birds (7%. Amphibians and reptiles are slow to react to vehicles and this along with the drivers’ ignorance probably leads to higher mortality among these species. Road kills are significantly higher on highway stretches along rivers than those without water bodies nearby. We suggest the construction of flyovers, speed limits, speed breakers and signposts along the highways to reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortalities.

  10. Shipping container response to severe highway and railway accident conditions: Main report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, L.E.; Chou, C.K.; Gerhard, M.A.; Kimura, C.Y.; Martin, R.W.; Mensing, R.W.; Mount, M.E.; Witte, M.C.

    1987-02-01

    This report describes a study performed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to evaluate the level of safety provided under severe accident conditions during the shipment of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors. The evaluation is performed using data from real accident histories and using representative truck and rail cask models that likely meet 10 CFR 71 regulations. The responses of the representative casks are calculated for structural and thermal loads generated by severe highway and railway accident conditions. The cask responses are compared with those responses calculated for the 10 CFR 71 hypothetical accident conditions. By comparing the responses it is determined that most highway and railway accident conditions fall within the 10 CFR 71 hypothetical accident conditions. For those accidents that have higher responses, the probabilities anf potential radiation exposures of the accidents are compared with those identified by the assessments made in the ''Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of Radioactive Material by Air and other Modes,'' NUREG-0170. Based on this comparison, it is concluded that the radiological risks from spent fuel under severe highway and railway accident conditions as derived in this study are less than risks previously estimated in the NUREG-0170 document

  11. Analytical Framework for End-to-End Delay Based on Unidirectional Highway Scenario

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aslinda Hassan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In a sparse vehicular ad hoc network, a vehicle normally employs a carry and forward approach, where it holds the message it wants to transmit until the vehicle meets other vehicles or roadside units. A number of analyses in the literature have been done to investigate the time delay when packets are being carried by vehicles on both unidirectional and bidirectional highways. However, these analyses are focusing on the delay between either two disconnected vehicles or two disconnected vehicle clusters. Furthermore, majority of the analyses only concentrate on the expected value of the end-to-end delay when the carry and forward approach is used. Using regression analysis, we establish the distribution model for the time delay between two disconnected vehicle clusters as an exponential distribution. Consequently, a distribution is newly derived to represent the number of clusters on a highway using a vehicular traffic model. From there, we are able to formulate end-to-end delay model which extends the time delay model for two disconnected vehicle clusters to multiple disconnected clusters on a unidirectional highway. The analytical results obtained from the analytical model are then validated through simulation results.

  12. Highway deicing salt dynamic runoff to surface water and subsequent infiltration to groundwater during severe UK winters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rivett, Michael O; Cuthbert, Mark O; Gamble, Richard; Connon, Lucy E; Pearson, Andrew; Shepley, Martin G; Davis, John

    2016-09-15

    Dynamic impact to the water environment of deicing salt application at a major highway (motorway) interchange in the UK is quantitatively evaluated for two recent severe UK winters. The contaminant transport pathway studied allowed controls on dynamic highway runoff and storm-sewer discharge to a receiving stream and its subsequent leakage to an underlying sandstone aquifer, including possible contribution to long-term chloride increases in supply wells, to be evaluated. Logged stream electrical-conductivity (EC) to estimate chloride concentrations, stream flow, climate and motorway salt application data were used to assess salt fate. Stream loading was responsive to salt applications and climate variability influencing salt release. Chloride (via EC) was predicted to exceed the stream Environmental Quality Standard (250mg/l) for 33% and 18% of the two winters. Maximum stream concentrations (3500mg/l, 15% sea water salinity) were ascribed to salt-induced melting and drainage of highway snowfall without dilution from, still frozen, catchment water. Salt persistance on the highway under dry-cold conditions was inferred from stream observations of delayed salt removal. Streambed and stream-loss data demonstrated chloride infiltration could occur to the underlying aquifer with mild and severe winter stream leakage estimated to account for 21 to 54% respectively of the 70t of increased chloride (over baseline) annually abstracted by supply wells. Deicing salt infiltration lateral to the highway alongside other urban/natural sources were inferred to contribute the shortfall. Challenges in quantifying chloride mass/fluxes (flow gauge accuracy at high flows, salt loading from other roads, weaker chloride-EC correlation at low concentrations), may be largely overcome by modest investment in enhanced data acquisition or minor approach modification. The increased understanding of deicing salt dynamic loading to the water environment obtained is relevant to improved

  13. Statistical description of heavy truck accidents on representative segments of interstate highway

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartman, W.F.; Davidson, C.A.; Foley, J.T.

    1977-01-01

    Any quantitative analysis of the risk of transportation accidents requires the use of many different statistical distributions. Included among these are the types of accidents which occur and the severity of these when they do occur. Several previous studies have derived this type of information for truck traffic over U. S. highways in general; these data are not necessarily applicable for the anticipated LMFBR spent fuel cask routes. This report presents data for highway segments representative of the specific LMFBR cask routes which are anticipated. These data are based upon a detailed record-by-record review of filed reports for accidents which occurred along the specified route segments

  14. NHDOT : process for municipally managed state aid highway program projects

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-05-23

    The design and construction of Municipally Managed State Aid Highway Program projects must comply with the requirements in this guideline in order to receive State Aid under the applicable provisions of RSA 235. Under this process, State Aid Construc...

  15. A feasibility study for Arizona's roadway safety management process using the Highway Safety Manual and SafetyAnalyst : final report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-07-01

    To enable implementation of the American Association of State Highway Transportation (AASHTO) Highway Safety Manual using : SaftetyAnalyst (an AASHTOWare software product), the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) studied the data assessment :...

  16. Federal Highway Administration research and technology evaluation final report : Eco-Logical

    Science.gov (United States)

    2018-03-01

    This report documents an evaluation of Federal Highway Administrations (FHWA) Research and Technology Programs activities on the implementation of the Eco-Logical approach by State transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizati...

  17. Environmental suitability of recycled concrete aggregate in highways : [research summary].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    Natural highway aggregate is a finite resource that with continued use in construction : activities but some good quality aggregates used in existing concrete structures may be : re-used to replace with the natural aggregate. Due to the repair or rep...

  18. 3D engineered models for highway construction : the Iowa experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-01

    3D engineered modeling is a relatively new and developing technology that can provide numerous bene ts to owners, engineers, : contractors, and the general public. This manual is for highway agencies that are considering or are in the process of s...

  19. Analysis of Navy Supply Corps Lines of Operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-12-01

    Expeditionary Combat Support FM Financial Management FM Field Manual HCS Department of Defense Logistics Human Capital Strategy JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff...allocation, control, and execution of resources and funds for DOD organizations” ( Office of Supply Corps Personnel, 2011, p. 9) and that Financial ...Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget

  20. 77 FR 20716 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-04-06

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation...) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation...

  1. 77 FR 3607 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-25

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation...) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation...

  2. 76 FR 9223 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-17

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation...) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation...

  3. 77 FR 5398 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-02-03

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation...) 366-9826. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation...

  4. 75 FR 63398 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Hackensack River, Jersey City, NJ

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-15

    ... Operation Regulations; Hackensack River, Jersey City, NJ AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of... across the Hackensack River, mile 1.8, at Jersey City, New Jersey. The deviation allows the bridge owner... INFORMATION: The Route 1 & 9 Lincoln Highway Bridge, across the Hackensack River, mile 1.8, at Jersey City...

  5. 75 FR 61094 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Beaufort, SC

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-04

    .... Highway 21, Sea Island Parkway Bridge at mile marker 536 over the Beaufort River (Atlantic Intracoastal... Bridge, which is across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at mile 539.0 in Port Royal, South Carolina... Bridge, across the Beaufort River, Mile 536.0 at Beaufort. The draw shall operate as follows: (1) On...

  6. Radioisotopes and their applications in highway testings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saxena, S.C.

    1974-01-01

    Applications of radioisotopes in highway testing are described. Radioisotopic methods have been used to determine : (1) moisture and density of soil and base materials for compaction control, (2) magnesium oxide content of cement, (3) permeability of bituminous coverings and (4) field density of freshly laid hot bituminous concrete surface. Possible uses of nuclear explosives for production of aggregates and of radioisotopes for determination of deflection in the design of flexible pavements are indicated. (M.G.B.)

  7. Incorporating Traffic Control and Safety Hardware Performance Functions into Risk-based Highway Safety Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zongzhi Li

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Traffic control and safety hardware such as traffic signs, lighting, signals, pavement markings, guardrails, barriers, and crash cushions form an important and inseparable part of highway infrastructure affecting safety performance. Significant progress has been made in recent decades to develop safety performance functions and crash modification factors for site-specific crash predictions. However, the existing models and methods lack rigorous treatments of safety impacts of time-deteriorating conditions of traffic control and safety hardware. This study introduces a refined method for computing the Safety Index (SI as a means of crash predictions for a highway segment that incorporates traffic control and safety hardware performance functions into the analysis. The proposed method is applied in a computation experiment using five-year data on nearly two hundred rural and urban highway segments. The root-mean square error (RMSE, Chi-square, Spearman’s rank correlation, and Mann-Whitney U tests are employed for validation.

  8. Improving transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O), capability maturity model workshop white paper : performance measurement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    Research done through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) determined : that agencies with the most effective transportation systems management and operations : (TSM&O) activities were differentiated not by budgets or technical skil...

  9. Draft environmental impact statement for the siting, construction, and operation of New Production Reactor capacity. Volume 2, Sections 1-6

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-04-01

    This (EIS) assesses the potential environmental impacts, both on a broad programmatic level and on a project-specific level, concerning a proposed action to provide new tritium production capacity to meet the nation`s nuclear defense requirements well into the 21st century. A capacity equivalent to that of about a 3,000-megawatt (thermal) heavy-water reactor was assumed as a reference basis for analysis in this EIS; this is the approximate capacity of the existing production reactors at DOE`s Savannah River Site. The EIS programmatic alternatives address Departmental decisions to be made on whether to build new production facilities, whether to build one or more complexes, what size production capacity to provide, and when to provide this capacity. Project-specific impacts for siting, constructing, and operating new production reactor capacity are assessed for three alternative sites: the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington; the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho; and the Savannah River Site. For each site, the impacts of three reactor technologies (and supporting facilities) are assessed: a heavy-water reactor, a light-water reactor, and a modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. Impacts of the no-action alternative also are assessed. The EIS evaluates impacts related to air quality; noise levels; surface water, groundwater, and wetlands; land use; recreation; visual environment; biotic resources; historical, archaeological, and cultural resources; socioeconomics; transportation; waste management; and human health and safety. The EIS describes in detail the potential radioactive releases from new production reactors and support facilities and assesses the potential doses to workers and the general public. This volume contains the analysis of programmatic alternatives, project alternatives, affected environment of alternative sites, environmental consequences, and environmental regulations and permit requirements.

  10. Education Moves into High Gear on the Information Highway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noor Al-Deen, Hana S.

    The utilization of teleconferencing as part of the information highway, mainly among schools in North Carolina, is examined. The National Information Infrastructure, outlined by Vice President Gore in January 1994, is the official name of the information system. The U.S. Congress issued four pieces of legislation in support of high-tech…

  11. 76 FR 5120 - Highway-Rail Grade Crossing; Safe Clearance

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-28

    ... suggested that FMCSA should provide pavement markings and signage at or near grade crossings to indicate the... eligible for funding under 23 U.S.C. 130; (2) improvement of highway signage and pavement markings; and (3... crossings might get pavement markings and signage and that not all grade-crossing improvements are likely to...

  12. Highway Construction in the U.S.: Costs, Benefits, Dependence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Childress, Vincent W.

    2013-01-01

    Few people truly recognize the influence of modern transportation on society. In the United States, that includes the influence of highways that allow the citizenry to travel freely, the strength of the economy, and the country's national security. In all cases, the geography of the United States influenced the evolution of transportation and…

  13. Installed capacity in New York

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Charlton, J.

    2006-01-01

    This presentation discussed capacity issues related to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). The NYISO's market volume was approximately $11 billion in 2005, and it was responsible for providing 32,075 MW of electricity at peak load to its users. Regulatory uncertainty is currently discouraging investment in new generating resources. All load serving entities are required to contract for sufficient capacity in order to meet their capacity obligations. Market participants currently determine capacity and energy revenues. The NYISO market allows suppliers to recover variable costs for providing ancillary services, and the economic value of the revenue source governs decisions made in the wholesale electricity market. The installed capacity market was designed as a spot auction deficiency auction. Phased-in demand curves are used to modify the installed capacity market's design. A sloped demand curve mechanism is used to value capacity above the minimum requirement for both reliability and competition. Participation in the day-ahead market enhances competition and exerts downward pressure on energy and ancillary service market prices. It was concluded that the market structures and design features of the installed capacity markets recognize the need for system reliability in addition to encouraging robust competition and recognizing energy price caps and regulatory oversights. tabs., figs

  14. Policy Safeguards and the Legitimacy of Highway Interdiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-12-01

    Adoption among Large Law Enforcement Agencies,” Crime & Delinquency 59, no. 1 (2013): 33, doi:10.1177/0011128708328863. 71 Drug Enforcement...correlation or validity could be established between the number of complaints and the impact of highway interdiction safeguards implemented by the...Engel, “The Impact of Drivers’ Race, Gender, and Age During Traffic Stops Assessing Interaction Terms and the Social Conditioning Model,” Crime

  15. Federal-aid highways : FHWA has improved its risk management approach, but needs to improve its oversight of project costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-07-01

    The federal-aid highway program : provides about $33 billion a year to : states for highway projects. The : federal government provides : funding for and oversees this : program, while states largely : choose and manage the projects. : As requested, ...

  16. The development of highway nuisance perception : Experiences of residents along the Southern Ring Road in Groningen, The Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hamersma, Marije; Heinen, Eva; Tillema, Taede; Arts, Eric

    The perception of highway nuisance i.e. noises, air pollution and barrier-effects, is associated with negative effects on health and quality of life. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the development of highway nuisance perception among residents. Interviews were conducted with

  17. Workload Capacity: A Response Time-Based Measure of Automation Dependence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamani, Yusuke; McCarley, Jason S

    2016-05-01

    An experiment used the workload capacity measure C(t) to quantify the processing efficiency of human-automation teams and identify operators' automation usage strategies in a speeded decision task. Although response accuracy rates and related measures are often used to measure the influence of an automated decision aid on human performance, aids can also influence response speed. Mean response times (RTs), however, conflate the influence of the human operator and the automated aid on team performance and may mask changes in the operator's performance strategy under aided conditions. The present study used a measure of parallel processing efficiency, or workload capacity, derived from empirical RT distributions as a novel gauge of human-automation performance and automation dependence in a speeded task. Participants performed a speeded probabilistic decision task with and without the assistance of an automated aid. RT distributions were used to calculate two variants of a workload capacity measure, COR(t) and CAND(t). Capacity measures gave evidence that a diagnosis from the automated aid speeded human participants' responses, and that participants did not moderate their own decision times in anticipation of diagnoses from the aid. Workload capacity provides a sensitive and informative measure of human-automation performance and operators' automation dependence in speeded tasks. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

  18. Improving transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O), capability maturity model workshop white paper : business processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    Research done through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) determined that agencies with the most effective transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O) activities were differentiated not by budgets or technical skills a...

  19. 76 FR 9224 - Drawbridge Operation Regulation; Upper Mississippi River, Rock Island, IL

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-17

    ... issued a temporary deviation from the regulation governing the operation of the Rock Island Railroad and Highway Drawbridge across the Upper Mississippi River, mile 482.9, at Rock Island, Illinois. The deviation.... SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal requested a temporary deviation for the Rock Island...

  20. Sexually transmitted infections among male highway coach drivers in Myanmar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aung, Wah Wah; Thant, Myo; Wai, Khin Thet; Aye, Mya Mya; Ei, Phyu Win; Myint, Thuzar; Thidar, Moe

    2013-05-01

    A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted from February 2008 to December 2009 at the largest Highway Terminal, Yangon, Myanmar to determine the prevalence of curable STIs (syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydial infections, and trichomoniasis), to find out the associated factors for STIs, and to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of gonococcal infection among highway drivers. Urine and blood specimens were collected from 601 male highway coach drivers after an interview about their behavior. Standard laboratory tests were carried out to detect STIs. Multivariate analysis was used to ascertain potential risk factors for STIs. The prevalence rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydial infections, and trichomoniasis were 4.8, 4.3, 5.7, and 9.8%, respectively. One hundred and two (17.0%) were infected with at least one of the tested four STIs, and 34 (5.7%) had STI co-infections (2STIs). Those who had multiple sexual contacts were likely to be infected with at least one STI, and those who had a history of inconsistent condom use within past two weeks and multiple sexual contacts were more likely to have STI co-infections (p < 0.05). Antimicrobial susceptibility of 21 Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates showed that 85.7% were susceptible to azithromycin, 80.9% to spectinomycin, 66.7% to cefixime, 61.9% to ceftriaxone, and 38.1% to ciprofloxacin. The high prevalence of STIs in this study and the decreased susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone highlighted the role of periodic screening in early diagnosis and effective treatment of STIs among high-risk populations.

  1. Remote sensing in Michigan for land resource management: Highway impact assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    1972-01-01

    An existing section of M-14 freeway constructed in 1964 and a potential extension from Ann Arbor to Plymouth, Michigan provided an opportunity for investigating the potential uses of remote sensing techniques in providing projective information needed for assessing the impact of highway construction. Remote sensing data included multispectral scanner imagery and aerial photography. Only minor effects on vegetation, soils, and land use were found to have occurred in the existing corridor. Adverse changes expected to take place in the corridor proposed for extension of the freeway can be minimized by proper design of drainage ditches and attention to good construction practices. Remote sensing can be used to collect and present many types of data useful for highway impact assessment on land use, vegetation categories and species, soil properties and hydrologic characteristics.

  2. 49 CFR 237.71 - Determination of bridge load capacities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... capacity shall be determined. (g) Bridge load capacity may be expressed in terms of numerical values related to a standard system of bridge loads, but shall in any case be stated in terms of weight and...) Bridge load capacity may be expressed in terms of both normal and maximum load conditions. Operation of...

  3. Measuring highway efficiency : A DEA approach and the Malquist index

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sarmento, Joaquim Miranda; Renneboog, Luc; Verga-Matos, Pedro

    A growing concern exists regarding the efficiency of public resources spent in transport infrastructures. In this paper, we measure the efficiency of seven highway projects in Portugal over the past decade by means of a data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity and efficiency indices.

  4. Plant pollution from lead produced by automobile exhaust system near certain highways of Iran

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahmani, H.R.; Kalbasi, M.; Hajrasuliha, Sh.

    2001-01-01

    Plants polluted with Pb produced by automobiles along the roads and highways have extensively been reported all over the world. It is the most important source of pollution in the environment. This research was carried out to determine the polluting degree of plants along the highways such as: Rasht-Anzaly, Kelachay-Ramsar, Tehran-Karaj, and Isfahan-Tehran. At each arbitrary point, a transect 100 meters long perpendicular to the highway was selected for sampling. Along each transect, plants were sampled at 15 cm above the ground, in different distances from the highway. Samples were transported to the laboratory and analyzed by a standard method. The average concentration of total Pb determined in Anzali, Ramsar, Karaj and Delijan (east and west of the road) areas respectively were 114.5, 58.3, 260.2, 75.1 and microgram per gram dry plant weight. Total Pb content in plants along the roads were high and exponentially decreasing with distance from the roadside. Pb concentration in plants were higher than threshold of Standard, so the risk of entrain g of this poisonous element in nutrition system along the roads is very considerable. The plants were polluted from medium degree up to a very high degree. The rate of pollution in plant samples is very high in Karaj area, high in Anzali area, and medium in Ramsar and Delijan areas. Plant pollution was directly related to the traffic volume in road

  5. Highway route controlled quantity shipment routing reports - An overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cashwell, J.W.; Welles, B.W.; Welch, M.J.

    1989-01-01

    US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations require a postnotification report from the shipper for all shipments of radioactive materials categorized as a Highway Route Controlled Quantity. These postnotification reports, filed in compliance with 49 CFR 172.203(d), have been compiled by the DOT in a database known as the Radioactive Materials Routing Report (RAMRT) since 1982. The data were sorted by each of its elements to establish historical records and trends of Highway Route Controlled Quantity shipments from 1982 through 1987. Approximately 1520 records in the RAMRT database were compiled for this analysis. Approximately half of the shipments reported for the study period were from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractors, with the others being commercial movements. Two DOE installations, EG and G Idaho and Oak Ridge, accounted for nearly half of the DOE activities. Similarly, almost half of the commercial movements were reported by two vendors, Nuclear Assurance Corporation and Transnuclear, Incorporated. Spent fuel from power and research reactors accounted for approximately half of all shipments

  6. Sensor Systems for Vehicle Environment Perception in a Highway Intelligent Space System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Xiaofeng; Gao, Feng; Xu, Guoyan; Ding, Nenggen; Cai, Yao; Ma, Mingming; Liu, Jianxing

    2014-01-01

    A Highway Intelligent Space System (HISS) is proposed to study vehicle environment perception in this paper. The nature of HISS is that a space sensors system using laser, ultrasonic or radar sensors are installed in a highway environment and communication technology is used to realize the information exchange between the HISS server and vehicles, which provides vehicles with the surrounding road information. Considering the high-speed feature of vehicles on highways, when vehicles will be passing a road ahead that is prone to accidents, the vehicle driving state should be predicted to ensure drivers have road environment perception information in advance, thereby ensuring vehicle driving safety and stability. In order to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the HISS, a traditional vehicle-mounted sensor system for environment perception is used to obtain the relative driving state. Furthermore, an inter-vehicle dynamics model is built and model predictive control approach is used to predict the driving state in the following period. Finally, the simulation results shows that using the HISS for environment perception can arrive at the same results detected by a traditional vehicle-mounted sensors system. Meanwhile, we can further draw the conclusion that using HISS to realize vehicle environment perception can ensure system stability, thereby demonstrating the method's feasibility. PMID:24834907

  7. A spatial generalized ordered response model to examine highway crash injury severity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castro, Marisol; Paleti, Rajesh; Bhat, Chandra R

    2013-03-01

    This paper proposes a flexible econometric structure for injury severity analysis at the level of individual crashes that recognizes the ordinal nature of injury severity categories, allows unobserved heterogeneity in the effects of contributing factors, as well as accommodates spatial dependencies in the injury severity levels experienced in crashes that occur close to one another in space. The modeling framework is applied to analyze the injury severity sustained in crashes occurring on highway road segments in Austin, Texas. The sample is drawn from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) crash incident files from 2009 and includes a variety of crash characteristics, highway design attributes, driver and vehicle characteristics, and environmental factors. The results from our analysis underscore the value of our proposed model for data fit purposes as well as to accurately estimate variable effects. The most important determinants of injury severity on highways, according to our results, are (1) whether any vehicle occupant is ejected, (2) whether collision type is head-on, (3) whether any vehicle involved in the crash overturned, (4) whether any vehicle occupant is unrestrained by a seat-belt, and (5) whether a commercial truck is involved. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. FLOW PATTERNS OF VEHICULAR TRAFFIC ALONG HIGHWAY TOLL PLAZA IN OGUN STATE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bashiru A. Raji

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Congestion on our highways, freeways and arterials are increasing at an alarming rate. This occurs because there is an increase in vehicular growth without a corresponding increase in road size, and this has made free flow of traffic a preponderant problem in our highways. Toll plaza causes delay on our highways and results are formation of queue. This paper examined how simple queuing model can be used to determine traffic intensity and the flow pattern of car traffic at a toll plaza. The study was carried out with twelve field assistants at Ogere toll plaza in Ogun State. Findings show a significant variation in the degree of hourly traffic intensities at the four pay points for cars at the toll plaza. However, variation in the daily traffic intensities at the four pay points for cars showed no significant variation. The study also revealed that bumps constructed to check vehicles speed, hawker’s trading activities are among other factors that constitute hindrance to free flow of traffic other than service time and inter-arrival time of cars at the toll plaza. It is therefore recommended that appropriate authority should look into these factors and take necessary steps towards ensuring free flow of traffic at the plaza.

  9. Concentrated fed-batch cell culture increases manufacturing capacity without additional volumetric capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, William C; Minkler, Daniel F; Kshirsagar, Rashmi; Ryll, Thomas; Huang, Yao-Ming

    2016-01-10

    Biomanufacturing factories of the future are transitioning from large, single-product facilities toward smaller, multi-product, flexible facilities. Flexible capacity allows companies to adapt to ever-changing pipeline and market demands. Concentrated fed-batch (CFB) cell culture enables flexible manufacturing capacity with limited volumetric capacity; it intensifies cell culture titers such that the output of a smaller facility can rival that of a larger facility. We tested this hypothesis at bench scale by developing a feeding strategy for CFB and applying it to two cell lines. CFB improved cell line A output by 105% and cell line B output by 70% compared to traditional fed-batch (TFB) processes. CFB did not greatly change cell line A product quality, but it improved cell line B charge heterogeneity, suggesting that CFB has both process and product quality benefits. We projected CFB output gains in the context of a 2000-L small-scale facility, but the output was lower than that of a 15,000-L large-scale TFB facility. CFB's high cell mass also complicated operations, eroded volumetric productivity, and showed our current processes require significant improvements in specific productivity in order to realize their full potential and savings in manufacturing. Thus, improving specific productivity can resolve CFB's cost, scale-up, and operability challenges. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Using tailings and waste products of mining and processing plants for the construction of highways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. L. Khazin

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia is one of the richest regions of Russia. However, the hardness of the climate in this region amends its full development. The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia has a poorly developed network of highways and railroads. The active development of the fields of the region has been in progress since the middle of last century. However, more than 16 thousand potential deposits remain understudied. Thus, it is necessary to build highways with due regard for modern techniques and technologies of construction for the development of industry as well as socio-economic spheres in this region. This article deals with the issues of potential use of tailings of the diamond mining industry for the construction of highways. Moreover, the amounts of dumps available would be enough to construct more than 20 thousand km of double-track highways, for the industrial and civil purposes. The advantage of the use of the refuse heaps is their proximity to the potential route. First of all, it is necessary to build a transport road, which would connect the Trans-Siberian railway with the Northern sea route. Construction technology should be adapted to the climatic characteristics of the region, therefore providing a uniform resource usage all year round. For the accelerated construction of subgrade, the two lines of railway should be placed on the same roadbed. After the construction of the subgrade of the entire section one of the ways could be dismantled and the movement of vehicles could be organized in its stead, after the preparation of the pavement. This will result in the construction of the roads with combined traffic for road transport as well as railroad transport. The construction of highways in this region must be associated with the transport strategy of Russia until 2030 and 2050.

  11. 78 FR 18479 - Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, New Orleans, LA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-27

    ... Operation Regulations; Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, New Orleans, LA AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION... across the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, mile 4.6, at New Orleans, Louisiana. This deviation is... Seabrook Highway crossing the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, mile 4.6, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The...

  12. Improving transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O), capability maturity model workshop white paper : systems and technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-04-01

    Research done through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) determined : that agencies with the most effective transportation systems management and operations : (TSM&O) activities were differentiated not by budgets or technical skil...

  13. High-capacity NO2 denuder systems operated at various temperatures (298-473 K).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Jan-Christoph; Niessner, Reinhard

    2012-12-01

    In this study, we investigated several coatings for high-temperature, high-capacity, and high-efficiency denuder-based NO(2) removal, with the scope to face the harsh conditions and requirements of automotive exhaust gas sampling. As first coating, we propose a potassium iodide (KI)/polyethylene glycol coating with a high removal efficiency (ε > 98%) for about 2 h and 50 ppm NO(2) at room temperature (298 K). At elevated temperatures (423 K), the initial capacity (100 ppmh) is decreased to 15 ppmh. Furthermore, this is the first proposal of the ionic liquid methyl-butyl-imidazolium iodide ([BMIm(+)][I(-)]) as denuder coating material. At room temperature, this ionic liquid exhibits far greater capacity (300 ppmh) and NO(2) removal efficiency (ε > 99.9%) than KI. Nevertheless, KI exhibits a slightly (~10%) higher capacity at elevated temperatures than [BMIm(+)][I(-)]. Both coatings presented are suitable for applications requiring selective denuding of NO(2) at temperatures up to 423 K.

  14. MNC Knowledge Transfer, Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity and HRM

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Minbaeva, Dana; Pedersen, Torben; Björkman, Ingmar

    2014-01-01

    Based on a sample of 169 subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in the USA, Russia, and Finland, this paper investigates the relationship between MNC subsidiary HRM practices, absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer. First, we examine the relationship between the application...... of specific HRM practices and the level of the absorptive capacity. Second, we suggest that absorptive capacity should be conceptualized as being comprised of both employees’ ability and motivation. Further, results indicate that both ability and motivation (absorptive capacity) are needed to facilitate...

  15. Stream instability countermeasures applied at Kansas Department of Transportation highway structures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-11-01

    This project considered stream instability countermeasures used by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) to protect the highway infrastructure at stream crossings from changes due to the dynamic nature of streams. Site visits were made to 13...

  16. Radioactive environmental impact assessment for a highway construction project in Guangdong province

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiu Guohua

    2009-01-01

    Based on the field environmental investigation and monitoring result, the radioactive environmental impact for a highway construction project in Guangdong province has been analyzed and assessed and forecacted. (authors)

  17. Economic feasibility study to Raise the operational capacity of the Electron Beam Accelerator at the National Centre for Radiation Research and Technology, atomic Energy Authority, Egypt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El-Kolaly, M.; Hammad, A.; El-Gameel, E.A.

    2011-01-01

    The study aims to investigate the economic feasibility to raise the operational capacity of the accelerator at the National Center for Radiation Research and Technology, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt, through proposal of additional processing of power cables as it have 4 thousand operating hours per year of total 6 thousand hours per year. The study involved three sections; the first section included the technical aspects and marketing, the second section was concerned with financial analysis, and the third section included the national return of the project. In the first part, the electronic and technical requirements of the accelerator were studied to raise the capacity of the accelerator and to identify the time trend of demand for services in marketing. The second section included the financial feasibility of the project which was carried out through two parts; the first part deal with the analysis of costs of the project including identifying of investment, spending, labor costs, operating expenses, the annual installment of the annual depreciation expense with the total annual costs and operating costs per hour and ton. The second part was carried out to evaluated business profitability of the project, preparation of the annual cash flow, calculation of the internal rate of return, payback period of capital, and the analysis of sensitivity of the project in terms of its ability to achieve profitable business in the event of increasing costs and decreasing revenue. The third section was carried out to raise the operational capacity of the accelerator at the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority to generate added value for national income, and to study the social rate of return for the project and examine the project's ability to provide new employment opportunities. The study showed the possibility and the importance of the project implemented at the level of private investment and national security.

  18. Evaluating the oil sands reclamation process: Assessing policy capacity and stakeholder access for government and non-governmental organizations operating in Alberta's oil sands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, Tyler

    By employing interpretive policy analysis this thesis aims to assess, measure, and explain policy capacity for government and non-government organizations involved in reclaiming Alberta's oil sands. Using this type of analysis to assess policy capacity is a novel approach for understanding reclamation policy; and therefore, this research will provide a unique contribution to the literature surrounding reclamation policy. The oil sands region in northeast Alberta, Canada is an area of interest for a few reasons; primarily because of the vast reserves of bitumen and the environmental cost associated with developing this resource. An increase in global oil demand has established incentive for industry to seek out and develop new reserves. Alberta's oil sands are one of the largest remaining reserves in the world, and there is significant interest in increasing production in this region. Furthermore, tensions in several oil exporting nations in the Middle East remain unresolved, and this has garnered additional support for a supply side solution to North American oil demands. This solution relies upon the development of reserves in both the United States and Canada. These compounding factors have contributed to the increased development in the oil sands of northeastern Alberta. Essentially, a rapid expansion of oil sands operations is ongoing, and is the source of significant disturbance across the region. This disturbance, and the promises of reclamation, is a source of contentious debates amongst stakeholders and continues to be highly visible in the media. If oil sands operations are to retain their social license to operate, it is critical that reclamation efforts be effective. One concern non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed criticizes the current monitoring and enforcement of regulatory programs in the oil sands. Alberta's NGOs have suggested the data made available to them originates from industrial sources, and is generally unchecked by government

  19. Business and the information highway

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meneghetti, M.F. [Western Management Consultants, Calgary, AB (Canada)

    1995-11-01

    The potential role of the information highway in the energy business was reviewed. Economic challenges, technology trends, and the opportunities available to the energy industry to exploit information technology were outlined. The `virtual` economy was identified as one of the consequences resulting from information technology, which will most likely have an impact on all aspects of the economy, including the energy industry, especially marketing. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for detailed business transactions, on-line services for information sharing, news, and discussion, the Internet for e-mail research, publishing, and customer contact, specialty applications for specific business functions, industry restructuring, and Fax transmission were pinpointed as the applications most likely to have the greatest impact on the business aspects of the energy industry.

  20. Multi-fractal analysis of highway traffic data

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Shang Peng-Jian; Shen Jin-Sheng

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of the present study is to investigate the presence of multi-fractal behaviours in the traffic time series not only by statistical approaches but also by geometrical approaches. The pointwise H(o)lder exponent of a function is calculated by developing an algorithm for the numerical evaluation of H(o)lder exponent of time series. The traffic time series observed on the Beijing Yuquanying highway are analysed. The results from all these methods indicate that the traffic data exhibit the multi-fractal behaviour.

  1. Simulations of floor cooling system capacity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Odyjas, Andrzej; Górka, Andrzej

    2013-01-01

    Floor cooling system capacity depends on its physical and operative parameters. Using numerical simulations, it appears that cooling capacity of the system largely depends on the type of cooling loads occurring in the room. In the case of convective cooling loads capacity of the system is small. However, when radiation flux falls directly on the floor the system significantly increases productivity. The article describes the results of numerical simulations which allow to determine system capacity in steady thermal conditions, depending on the type of physical parameters of the system and the type of cooling load occurring in the room. Moreover, the paper sets out the limits of system capacity while maintaining a minimum temperature of the floor surface equal to 20 °C. The results are helpful for designing system capacity in different type of cooling loads and show maximum system capacity in acceptable thermal comfort condition. -- Highlights: ► We have developed numerical model for simulation of floor cooling system. ► We have described floor system capacity depending on its physical parameters. ► We have described floor system capacity depending on type of cooling loads. ► The most important in the obtained cooling capacities is the type of cooling loads. ► The paper sets out the possible maximum cooling floor system capacity

  2. Nuclear-power capacity outside US soars 25% in 18 months

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1980-01-01

    Nuclear power plant operating capacity in countries outside the US increased nearly 25 percent from mid-1978 through 1980 in spite of curtailments in some countries. The operable capacity stood at 70,200 megawatts at the end of 1979, according to an Atomic Industrial Forum survey of 42 nations. The world average share of nuclear power rose from five percent in 1977 to six and is expected to rise dramatically in France, Japan, and elsewhere; France alone plans to bring one reactor into operation every two months, an average, between 1980 and 1985. Statistics from the survey track the expected growth in capacity by country from 1978 to 2000. The status of individual plants and their date or anticipated date of commercial operation are listed by country. The United Kingdom, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, India, and Canada are developing reprocessing and waste-management programs

  3. Evaluating the Cost of Line Capacity Limitations in Aggregations of Commercial Buildings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ziras, Charalampos; Delikaraoglou, Stefanos; Kazempour, Jalal

    2017-01-01

    -ahead optimization strategy to assess the cost of imposing capacity limitations in the total consumption of individual buildings, as well as aggregations of buildings. We show that such capacity limitations lead to an increase for the buildings operational costs, which can be interpreted as the value...... of these limitations. Based on such calculations, the aggregator can value capacity-limitation services to the distribution system operator. Moreover, the value of aggregation is also highlighted, since it leads to lower costs than imposing the same total capacity limitation on individual buildings....

  4. Estimating Concentrations of Road-Salt Constituents in Highway-Runoff from Measurements of Specific Conductance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granato, Gregory E.; Smith, Kirk P.

    1999-01-01

    Discrete or composite samples of highway runoff may not adequately represent in-storm water-quality fluctuations because continuous records of water stage, specific conductance, pH, and temperature of the runoff indicate that these properties fluctuate substantially during a storm. Continuous records of water-quality properties can be used to maximize the information obtained about the stormwater runoff system being studied and can provide the context needed to interpret analyses of water samples. Concentrations of the road-salt constituents calcium, sodium, and chloride in highway runoff were estimated from theoretical and empirical relations between specific conductance and the concentrations of these ions. These relations were examined using the analysis of 233 highwayrunoff samples collected from August 1988 through March 1995 at four highway-drainage monitoring stations along State Route 25 in southeastern Massachusetts. Theoretically, the specific conductance of a water sample is the sum of the individual conductances attributed to each ionic species in solution-the product of the concentrations of each ion in milliequivalents per liter (meq/L) multiplied by the equivalent ionic conductance at infinite dilution-thereby establishing the principle of superposition. Superposition provides an estimate of actual specific conductance that is within measurement error throughout the conductance range of many natural waters, with errors of less than ?5 percent below 1,000 microsiemens per centimeter (?S/cm) and ?10 percent between 1,000 and 4,000 ?S/cm if all major ionic constituents are accounted for. A semi-empirical method (adjusted superposition) was used to adjust for concentration effects-superposition-method prediction errors at high and low concentrations-and to relate measured specific conductance to that calculated using superposition. The adjusted superposition method, which was developed to interpret the State Route 25 highway-runoff records, accounts for

  5. Shipping container response to severe highway and railway accident conditions: Appendices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, L.E.; Chou, C.K.; Gerhard, M.A.; Kimura, C.Y.; Martin, R.W.; Mensing, R.W.; Mount, M.E.; Witte, M.C.

    1987-02-01

    Volume 2 contains the following appendices: Severe accident data; truck accident data; railroad accident data; highway survey data and bridge column properties; structural analysis; thermal analysis; probability estimation techniques; and benchmarking for computer codes used in impact analysis. (LN)

  6. ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF THE HIGHWAY 25 EXPANSION PROJECT ON AIR QUALITY IN MONTREAL USING GIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mioara CHIABURU

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Assessing the impact of the highway 25 expansion project on air quality in montreal using gis. The aim of the paper is to assess local air pollution implications of the Highway 25 expansion project from Montreal. The basic concept of the roadway air dispersion model consists in calculating air pollutant levels in the vicinity of a highway by considering it as a line source. To fulfill this assessment, GIS software was used in order to determine pollutant distribution around the study area based on data collected by existing air monitoring stations located in the City of Montreal. GIS interpolation methods, notably Kriging and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW, was used to generate maps of pollutant concentrations across the study area. From the results, recommendations will be made in regards to the project and appropriate mitigatory alternatives suggested.

  7. Landslide susceptibility near highways is increased by 1 order of magnitude in the Andes of southern Ecuador, Loja province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brenning, A.; Schwinn, M.; Ruiz-Páez, A. P.; Muenchow, J.

    2015-01-01

    Mountain roads in developing countries are known to increase landslide occurrence due to often inadequate drainage systems and mechanical destabilization of hillslopes by undercutting and overloading. This study empirically investigates landslide initiation frequency along two paved interurban highways in the tropical Andes of southern Ecuador across different climatic regimes. Generalized additive models (GAM) and generalized linear models (GLM) were used to analyze the relationship between mapped landslide initiation points and distance to highway while accounting for topographic, climatic, and geological predictors as possible confounders. A spatial block bootstrap was used to obtain nonparametric confidence intervals for the odds ratio of landslide occurrence near the highways (25 m distance) compared to a 200 m distance. The estimated odds ratio was 18-21, with lower 95% confidence bounds >13 in all analyses. Spatial bootstrap estimation using the GAM supports the higher odds ratio estimate of 21.2 (95% confidence interval: 15.5-25.3). The highway-related effects were observed to fade at about 150 m distance. Road effects appear to be enhanced in geological units characterized by Holocene gravels and Laramide andesite/basalt. Overall, landslide susceptibility was found to be more than 1 order of magnitude higher in close proximity to paved interurban highways in the Andes of southern Ecuador.

  8. Landslide susceptibility near highways is increased by one order of magnitude in the Andes of southern Ecuador, Loja province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brenning, A.; Schwinn, M.; Ruiz-Páez, A. P.; Muenchow, J.

    2014-03-01

    Mountain roads in developing countries are known to increase landslide occurrence due to often inadequate drainage systems and mechanical destabilization of hillslopes by undercutting and overloading. This study empirically investigates landslide initiation frequency along two paved interurban highways in the tropical Andes of southern Ecuador across different climatic regimes. Generalized additive models (GAM) and generalized linear models (GLM) were used to analyze the relationship between mapped landslide initiation points and distance to highway while accounting for topographic, climatic and geological predictors as possible confounders. A spatial block bootstrap was used to obtain non-parametric confidence intervals for the odds ratio of landslide occurrence near the highways (25 m distance) compared to a 200 m distance. The estimated odds ratio was 18-21 with lower 95% confidence bounds > 13 in all analyses. Spatial bootstrap estimation using the GAM supports the higher odds ratio estimate of 21.2 (95% confidence interval: 15.5-25.3). The highway-related effects were observed to fade at about 150 m distance. Road effects appear to be enhanced in geological units characterized by Holocene gravels and Laramide andesite/basalt. Overall, landslide susceptibility was found to be more than one order of magnitude higher in close proximity to paved interurban highways in the Andes of southern Ecuador.

  9. Assessment of the transportation route of oversize and excessive loads in relation to the load-bearing capacity of existing bridges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doležel, Jiří; Novák, Drahomír; Petrů, Jan

    2017-09-01

    Transportation routes of oversize and excessive loads are currently planned in relation to ensure the transit of a vehicle through critical points on the road. Critical points are level-intersection of roads, bridges etc. This article presents a comprehensive procedure to determine a reliability and a load-bearing capacity level of the existing bridges on highways and roads using the advanced methods of reliability analysis based on simulation techniques of Monte Carlo type in combination with nonlinear finite element method analysis. The safety index is considered as a main criterion of the reliability level of the existing construction structures and the index is described in current structural design standards, e.g. ISO and Eurocode. An example of a single-span slab bridge made of precast prestressed concrete girders of the 60 year current time and its load bearing capacity is set for the ultimate limit state and serviceability limit state. The structure’s design load capacity was estimated by the full probability nonlinear MKP analysis using a simulation technique Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS). Load-bearing capacity values based on a fully probabilistic analysis are compared with the load-bearing capacity levels which were estimated by deterministic methods of a critical section of the most loaded girders.

  10. Regulated and unregulated emissions from modern 2010 emissions-compliant heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khalek, Imad A; Blanks, Matthew G; Merritt, Patrick M; Zielinska, Barbara

    2015-08-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established strict regulations for highway diesel engine exhaust emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) to aid in meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The emission standards were phased in with stringent standards for 2007 model year (MY) heavy-duty engines (HDEs), and even more stringent NOX standards for 2010 and later model years. The Health Effects Institute, in cooperation with the Coordinating Research Council, funded by government and the private sector, designed and conducted a research program, the Advanced Collaborative Emission Study (ACES), with multiple objectives, including detailed characterization of the emissions from both 2007- and 2010-compliant engines. The results from emission testing of 2007-compliant engines have already been reported in a previous publication. This paper reports the emissions testing results for three heavy-duty 2010-compliant engines intended for on-highway use. These engines were equipped with an exhaust diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), high-efficiency catalyzed diesel particle filter (DPF), urea-based selective catalytic reduction catalyst (SCR), and ammonia slip catalyst (AMOX), and were fueled with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (~6.5 ppm sulfur). Average regulated and unregulated emissions of more than 780 chemical species were characterized in engine exhaust under transient engine operation using the Federal Test Procedure cycle and a 16-hr duty cycle representing a wide dynamic range of real-world engine operation. The 2010 engines' regulated emissions of PM, NOX, nonmethane hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide were all well below the EPA 2010 emission standards. Moreover, the unregulated emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitroPAHs, hopanes and steranes, alcohols and organic acids, alkanes, carbonyls, dioxins and furans, inorganic ions, metals and elements, elemental carbon, and particle number were substantially (90

  11. Guidelines for selecting preferred highway routes for highway-route-controlled quantity shipments of radioactive materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    The document presents guidelines for use by State officials in selecting preferred routes for highway route controlled quantity shipments of radioactive materials. A methodology for analyzing and comparing safety factors of alternative routes is described. Technical information on the impacts of radioactive material transportation needed to apply the methodology is also presented. Application of the methodology will identify the route (or set of routes) that minimizes the radiological impacts from shipments of these radioactive materials within a given State. Emphasis in the document is on practical application of the methodology. Some details of the derivation of the methods and data are presented in the appendices. All references in the body of the report can be found listed in the Bibliography (Appendix F)

  12. 75 FR 49017 - America's Marine Highway Grant Notice of Funding Availability

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-12

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Maritime Administration [Docket No. MARAD-2010-0035] America's Marine... America's Short Sea Transportation Grants for the Development of Marine Highways, amended Section 55601 of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, titled Short Sea Transportation Program. Section 3515...

  13. Highway Safety Data : costs, quality, and strategies for improvement : research report

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-01-01

    The goal of this project was to analyze the collection and management of highway safety data by identifying issues and costs, and proposing means of resolving those issues and reducing the costs. Initial emphasis addressed known elements of the highw...

  14. Cooling Performance Characteristics of the Stack Thermal Management System for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles under Actual Driving Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ho-Seong Lee

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The cooling performance of the stack radiator of a fuel cell electric vehicle was evaluated under various actual road driving conditions, such as highway and uphill travel. The thermal stability was then optimized, thereby ensuring stable operation of the stack thermal management system. The coolant inlet temperature of the radiator in the highway mode was lower than that associated with the uphill mode because the corresponding frontal air velocity was higher than obtained in the uphill mode. In both the highway and uphill modes, the coolant temperatures of the radiator, operated under actual road driving conditions, were lower than the allowable limit (80 °C; this is the maximum temperature at which stable operation of the stack thermal management system of the fuel cell electric vehicle could be maintained. Furthermore, under actual road driving conditions in uphill mode, the initial temperature difference (ITD between the coolant temperature and air temperature of the system was higher than that associated with the highway mode; this higher ITD occurred even though the thermal load of the system in uphill mode was greater than that corresponding to the highway mode. Since the coolant inlet temperature is expected to exceed the allowable limit (80 °C in uphill mode under higher ambient temperature with air conditioning system operation, the FEM design layout should be modified to improve the heat capacity. In addition, the overall volume of the stack cooling radiator is 52.2% higher than that of the present model and the coolant inlet temperature of the improved radiator is 22.7% lower than that of the present model.

  15. Technology transfer of operator-in-the-loop simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yae, K. H.; Lin, H. C.; Lin, T. C.; Frisch, H. P.

    1994-01-01

    The technology developed for operator-in-the-loop simulation in space teleoperation has been applied to Caterpillar's backhoe, wheel loader, and off-highway truck. On an SGI workstation, the simulation integrates computer modeling of kinematics and dynamics, real-time computational and visualization, and an interface with the operator through the operator's console. The console is interfaced with the workstation through an IBM-PC in which the operator's commands were digitized and sent through an RS-232 serial port. The simulation gave visual feedback adequate for the operator in the loop, with the camera's field of vision projected on a large screen in multiple view windows. The view control can emulate either stationary or moving cameras. This simulator created an innovative engineering design environment by integrating computer software and hardware with the human operator's interactions. The backhoe simulation has been adopted by Caterpillar in building a virtual reality tool for backhoe design.

  16. Heavy Vehicles on Minor Highway Bridges

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kirkegaard, Poul Henning; Nielsen, Søren R. K.; Enevoldsen, I.

    of heavier trucks moving at larger speeds, and partly because the authorities want to permit transportation of special heavy goods at a larger part of the road net. These needs will in many cases cause the strengthening of the bridges becomes necessary. In order to keep the expenses of such strengthening...... the results obtained using the numerical models given in details in "Heavy Vehicles on Minor Highway Bridges : dynamic modelling of vehicles and bridges". The models are established using a ordinary vehicle which consists of a 48 t Scania with a 3 axle tractor and a 3 axle trailer, joined in a flexible hinge...

  17. Stabilization of Highway Expansive Soils with High Loss on Ignition ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of high loss on ignition content cement kiln dust on the stabilization of highway expansive soils. Laboratory tests were performed on the natural and stabilized soil samples in accordance with BS 1377 (1990) and BS 1924 (1990), respectively. The preliminary investigation ...

  18. Performance of stress-laminated timber highway bridges in cold climates

    Science.gov (United States)

    James P. Wacker

    2009-01-01

    This paper summarizes recent laboratory and field data studies on thermal performance of stress-laminated timber highway bridges. Concerns about the reliability of stress-laminated deck bridges when exposed to sub-freezing temperatures triggered several investigations. Two laboratory studies were conducted to study the effects of wood species, preservative, moisture...

  19. Education in Transportation Systems Planning: Highway Research Record No. 462.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Transportation Research Board.

    The papers contained in the issue of Highway Research Record focus on current and emerging patterns of education and training related to transportation systems planning. The five papers are: Transportation Centers and Other Mechanisms to Encourage Interdisciplinary Research and Training Efforts in Transportation (Frederick J. Wegmann and Edward A.…

  20. Comparative Analysis of Battery Behavior with Different Modes of Discharge for Optimal Capacity Sizing and BMS Operation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mazhar Abbas

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Battery-operated systems are always concerned about the proper management and sizing of a battery. A Traditional Battery Management System (BMS only includes battery-aware task scheduling based on the discharge characteristics of a whole battery pack and do not take into account the mode of the load being served by the battery. On the other hand, an efficient and intelligent BMS should monitor the battery at a cell level and track the load with significant consideration of the load mode. Depending upon the load modes, the common modes of discharge (MOD of a battery identified so far are Constant Power Mode (CPM, Constant Current Mode (CCM and Constant Impedance Mode (CIM. This paper comparatively analyzes the discharging behavior of batteries at an individual cell level for different load modes. The difference in discharging behavior from mode to mode represents the study of the mode-dependent behavior of the battery before its deployment in some application. Based on simulation results, optimal capacity sizing and BMS operation of battery for an assumed situation in a remote microgrid has been proposed.