Driving with intelligent speed adaptation: Final results of the Belgian ISA-trial

In October 2002 the first ISA-trial in Belgium was started in Ghent. Thirty-four cars and three buses were equipped with the "active accelerator pedal". In this system a resistance in the accelerator is activated when the driver attempts to exceed the speed limit. If necessary, the driver can overrule the system. The main research goals of the trial in Ghent were to evaluate the effects of ISA on speed-change, traffic safety, drivers' attitude, behaviour and drivers' acceptance. To study these effects of the ISA-system both surveys and logged speed data were analyzed. In the surveys drivers noticed that the pedal assisted them well in upholding the speed limits and that the system increased driving comfort. Most important drawbacks were technical issues. Data analysis shows a reduction in the amount of speeding due to the ISA-system. There is however still a large remaining percentage of distance speeding, especially in low speed zones. Differences between drivers are large. For some drivers speeding even increases despite activation of the system. For less frequent speeders average driving speed almost always increases and for more frequent speeders average speed tends to decrease. With the system, less frequent speeders tend to accelerate faster towards the speed limit and drive exactly at the speed limit instead of safely below, which causes average speeds to go up. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA); Acceptance; Driving behaviou

Boat electrofishing survey of common smelt and common bullies in the Ohau Channel

We conducted a boat electrofishing survey of the Ohau Channel, which flows from Lake Rotorua to Lake Rotoiti, on 13 December 2007. The purpose of the survey was to investigate the longitudinal pattern in densities of common smelt (Retropinna retropinna) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) along the Ohau Channel. We caught 1,267 fish comprising three native fish species and two introduced fish species in 1.58 km of fished distance at a total of 10 sites. Native species caught were the common smelt, common bully and longfinned eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii) and introduced species were rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and goldfish (Carassius auratus). Assuming that the bow-mounted anodes effectively fished a 4 m swath then the total area fished was 6,328 m2 (0.632 ha). Common smelt densities varied among the 10 different sites in the Ohau Channel ranging from 0 to 10.6 fish 100 m-2. Smelt density was higher at the upstream end of the channel near the weir at the Lake Rotorua outlet, decreasing with increasing distance from the weir. Smelt were found in the littoral zones but were not caught in mid-channel habitats. In the upstream reaches of the Ohau Channel, directly below the weir, a high number of juveniles (4.4 fish 100 m-2) were captured compared to the amount of juveniles captured at the other sites (0 – 1.2 fish 100 m-2). Common bully densities varied among the 10 different sites in the Ohau Channel ranging from 0.2 to 58.3 fish 100 m-2. No longitudinal pattern in the distribution of common bullies was evident along the channel. The highest densities were found halfway along the Ohau Channel where there was an abundance of dense macrophyte beds. Common bully densities were found to be much higher in the edge habitats with macrophyte beds compared to the mid-channel habitats and the willow edge habitat where there were relatively low densities. Size frequency data shows that there is generally a higher proportion of small bullies than larger ones suggesting that recruitment is occurring. Both adult and juvenile rainbow trout were observed in the Ohau Channel. Most of these individuals were found in the upstream section of the channel below the weir and ranged from a 75 mm juvenile to a fully grown adult about 500 mm long. Large longfinned eels were also captured and were only found in the downstream section of the Ohau Channel in willow-dominated edges. In the bottom third section of the channel, near the possible artificial embayment, goldfish were present

Defining Interestigness for Association Rules

Interestingness in Association Rules has been a major topic of research in the past decade. The reason is that the strength of association rules, i.e. its ability to discover ALL patterns given some thresholds on support and confidence, is also its weakness. Indeed, a typical association rules analysis on real data often results in hundreds or thousands of patterns creating a data mining problem of the second order. In other words, it is not straightforward to determine which of those rules are interesting for the end-user. This paper provides an overview of some existing measures of interestingness and we will comment on their properties. In general, interestingness measures can be divided into objective and subjective measures. Objective measures tend to express interestingness by means of statistical or mathematical criteria, whereas subjective measures of interestingness aim at capturing more practical criteria that should be taken into account, such as unexpectedness or actionability of rules. This paper only focusses on objective measures of interestingness

An Overview of Cost-benefit Models/Tools for Investigating Occupational Accidents

The safety-related economic (cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness) tools and models discussed in this paper allow the user to execute an investment analysis, in order to evaluate investments in preventive measures related to occupational accidents. The available software shows that there are a multitude of indirect consequences of occupational accidents next to the direct consequences that should be taken into account to calculate their costs and benefits. Furthermore, during the study we noticed that available costbenefit tools clearly focus on occupational accidents instead of major accidents.Values Technology and InnovationTechnology, Policy and Managemen

A new method for improved standardisation in three-dimensional computed tomography cephalometry

Interest for three-dimensional computed tomography cephalometry has risen over the last two decades. Current methods commonly rely on the examiner to manually point-pick the landmarks and/or orientate the skull. In this study, a new approach is presented, in which landmarks are calculated after selection of the landmark region on a triangular model and in which the skull is automatically orientated in a standardised way. Two examiners each performed five analyses on three skull models. Landmark reproducibility was tested by calculating the standard deviation for each observer and the difference between the mean values of both observers. The variation can be limited to 0.1 mm for most landmarks. However, some landmarks perform less well and require further investigation. With the proposed reference system, a symmetrical orientation of the skulls is obtained. The presented methods contribute to standardisation in cephalometry and could therefore allow improved comparison of patient data

Auction-Based Allocation of Shared Electricity Storage Resources through Physical Storage Rights

This article proposes a new electricity storage business model based on multiple simultaneously considered revenue streams, which can be attributed to different market activities and players. These players thus share electricity storage resources and compete to obtain the right to use them in a dynamic allocation mechanism. It is based on the design of anew periodically organized auction to allocate shared storage resources through physical storage rights between different market players and ac-companying applications. Through such a flexibility platform owners of flexible resources can commercialize their flexible capacity over different applications, while market players looking for additional flexibility can obtain this through a pay-per-use principle and thus not having to make long-term investment commitments. As such, they can quickly adapt their portfolio according to the market situation. Alternatively, through such an allocation mechanism players can effectively share storage re-sources. Players may be incentivized to participate as they can share the investment cost, mitigate risk, exploit economies of scale, overcome regulatory barriers, and merge time-varying and player-dependent flexibility needs. The mechanism allocates the limited storage resources to the most valuable application for each market-clearing, based on the competing players' willingness-to-pay. An illustrative case study is provided in which three players share storage resources that are allocated through a daily auction with hourly market-clearings