Towards a common measure of greenhouse gas related logistics activity using data envelopment analysis

Monitoring company emissions from freight transport is essential if future greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are to be realised. Modern economies are characterised increasingly by lower density freight movements. However, weight-based measures of freight transport activity (tonne-kilometre, tonnes lifted) are not good at describing volume-limited freight. After introducing the need for performance measurement, the problem of benchmarking is outlined in more detail. A context-dependent undesirable output data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, designed to be sensitive to business context, is then tested on a simulated set of fleet profiles. DEA can produce more consistent measures of good-practice, compared to ratio-based key performance indicators (KPI), providing emission reduction targets for companies and an aggregate reporting tool

The psychology of mountaineering: A systematic review

Research on the psychology of mountaineering has received widespread attention over many decades. Therefore, to clarify scientific findings in the area, provide future research directions, and enable the development of applied recommendations to enhance performance and safety, the purpose of this systematic mixed studies review was to identify, appraise, and synthesise research on the psychology of mountaineering. After systematically searching 10 electronic databases and undertaking manual searches up to April 2020, 69 studies published over 54 years (1966-2020) were included in the review. Thematic synthesis was undertaken and generated 11 descriptive themes, which were captured by two analytical themes, (i) personality characteristics of mountaineers, and (ii) psychological experiences in mountaineering. The synthesis generated novel insights into connections between different research topics in the psychology-specific literature in mountaineering, thus providing a more advanced understanding of current knowledge in this area. The review highlights that considerable progress has been made in this field, but further high-quality studies are required across all facets of this literature. Future avenues for research include: group dynamics; cognitive mechanisms underlying decision-making; and coping with setbacks and traumatic events

Defining Bridge Preservation by Action Type

There has been progressive interest from FHWA and state departments of transportation (DOTs) in considering bridge preservation an essential part of a comprehensive bridge program. The available definitions of bridge preservation give a conceptual overview; they do not identify specific bridge preservation actions. The objective of this study was to come up with a comprehensive list of bridge actions, as identified by bridge experts, and to identify the specific actions that the experts defined as preservation. A comprehensive list of 94 bridge actions was developed with input from 12 DOTs. Through an online survey, bridge experts were asked to classify each bridge action as operations, maintenance, preservation, rehabilitation, improvement, or replacement. Although the level of consensus in the final classification of the bridge actions varied, 64 actions were assigned to the same category by more than 50% of the respondents. The authors used the simple majority to determine an action\u27s classification but reported the percentages for all categories, with the intention of presenting alternative criteria and related levels of response to the readers. Fifty-two percent of the actions were classified as maintenance; 15% of the actions were classified as preservation. Examples of bridge preservation actions included the addition of wearing surfaces to protect decks, painting to protect steel, and the mitigation of scour to protect the bridge. From the results, it appeared that industry professionals used “maintenance” and “preservation” almost interchangeably. A comparison between the results of this research and published text definitions of preservation found that the text definitions were very broad and included actions considered by the participants in this research to be maintenance, preservation, or rehabilitation