Minnesota and Western Coal: Requirements, Costs, and Implications

This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu

Transportation research needs and issues for Chinese agriculture

Interprovincial circulation of grain and wholesale markets in China / Wu Shuo -- Inter-state/province grain transportation in the U.S. and China / Tenpao Lee, Robert J. Hauser, Stanley R. Thompson, and Barbara J. Hrutka -- Methodology and data systems for study of transportation / Won W. Koo and Jerry Fruin -- An application of a spatial equilibrium model to analyze the impact on China's trade of a policy change / Shwu-Eng H. Webb, Catherine K. Halbrendt, Rajaram Gana, and Francis Tuan -- Possible Joint Chinese and U.S. grain transportation and distribution research opportunities / Roland R. Robinson and Donald W. Larson -- Transportation research needs and issues for Chinese agriculture: discussion of session presentations / Dale G. Anderso

Enhanced empirical data for the fundamental diagram and the flow through bottlenecks

In recent years, several approaches for modelling pedestrian dynamics have been proposed and applied e.g. for design of egress routes. However, so far not much attention has been paid to their 'quantitative' validation. This unsatisfactory situation belongs amongst others on the uncertain and contradictory experimental data base. The fundamental diagram, i.e. the density-dependence of the flow or velocity, is probably the most important relation as it connects the basic parameter to describe the dynamic of crowds. But specifications in different handbooks as well as experimental measurements differ considerably. The same is true for the bottleneck flow. After a comprehensive review of the experimental data base we give an survey of a research project, including experiments with up to 250 persons performed under well controlled laboratory conditions. The trajectories of each person are measured in high precision to analyze the fundamental diagram and the flow through bottlenecks. The trajectories allow to study how the way of measurement influences the resulting relations. Surprisingly we found large deviation amongst the methods. These may be responsible for the deviation in the literature mentioned above. The results are of particular importance for the comparison of experimental data gained in different contexts and for the validation of models.Comment: A contribution to: Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2008 (Springer) 12 pages, 7 figure

Pedestrian, Crowd, and Evacuation Dynamics

This contribution describes efforts to model the behavior of individual pedestrians and their interactions in crowds, which generate certain kinds of self-organized patterns of motion. Moreover, this article focusses on the dynamics of crowds in panic or evacuation situations, methods to optimize building designs for egress, and factors potentially causing the breakdown of orderly motion.Comment: This is a review paper. For related work see http://www.soms.ethz.c

Validity of physical activity monitors for assessing lower intensity activity in adults

Background: Accelerometers can provide accurate estimates of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, one of the limitations of these instruments is the inability to capture light activity within an acceptable range of error. The purpose of the present study was to determine the validity of different activity monitors for estimating energy expenditure (EE) of light intensity, semi-structured activities. Methods: Forty healthy participants wore a SenseWear Pro3 Armband (SWA, v.6.1), the SenseWear Mini, the Actiheart, ActiGraph, and ActivPAL monitors, while being monitored with a portable indirect calorimetry (IC). Participants engaged in a variety of low intensity activities but no formalized scripts or protocols were used during these periods. Results: The Mini and SWA overestimated total EE on average by 1.0% and 4.0%, respectively, while the AH, the GT3X, and the AP underestimated total EE on average by 7.8%, 25.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. The pattern-recognition monitors yielded non-significant differences in EE estimates during the semi-structured period (p = 0.66, p = 0.27, and p = 0.21 for the Mini, SWA, and AH, respectively). Conclusions: The SenseWear Mini provided more accurate estimates of EE during light to moderate intensity semi-structured activities compared to other activity monitors. This monitor should be considered when there is interest in tracking low intensity activities in groups of individuals.This research was funded by a grant from Bodymedia Inc. awarded to Dr. Greg Welk

Intelligent evacuation management systems: A review

Crowd and evacuation management have been active areas of research and study in the recent past. Various developments continue to take place in the process of efficient evacuation of crowds in mass gatherings. This article is intended to provide a review of intelligent evacuation management systems covering the aspects of crowd monitoring, crowd disaster prediction, evacuation modelling, and evacuation path guidelines. Soft computing approaches play a vital role in the design and deployment of intelligent evacuation applications pertaining to crowd control management. While the review deals with video and nonvideo based aspects of crowd monitoring and crowd disaster prediction, evacuation techniques are reviewed via the theme of soft computing, along with a brief review on the evacuation navigation path. We believe that this review will assist researchers in developing reliable automated evacuation systems that will help in ensuring the safety of the evacuees especially during emergency evacuation scenarios

Modeling, Evaluation, and Scale on Artificial Pedestrians: A Literature Review

Modeling pedestrian dynamics and their implementation in a computer are challenging and important issues in the knowledge areas of transportation and computer simulation. The aim of this article is to provide a bibliographic outlook so that the reader may have quick access to the most relevant works related to this problem. We have used three main axes to organize the article's contents: pedestrian models, validation techniques, and multiscale approaches. The backbone of this work is the classification of existing pedestrian models; we have organized the works in the literature under five categories, according to the techniques used for implementing the operational level in each pedestrian model. Then the main existing validation methods, oriented to evaluate the behavioral quality of the simulation systems, are reviewed. Furthermore, we review the key issues that arise when facing multiscale pedestrian modeling, where we first focus on the behavioral scale (combinations of micro and macro pedestrian models) and second on the scale size (from individuals to crowds). The article begins by introducing the main characteristics of walking dynamics and its analysis tools and concludes with a discussion about the contributions that different knowledge fields can make in the near future to this exciting area

Evaluating the effects of increasing physical activity to optimize rehabilitation outcomes in hospitalized older adults (MOVE Trial): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Older adults who have received inpatient rehabilitation often have significant mobility disability at discharge. Physical activity levels in rehabilitation are also low. It is hypothesized that providing increased physical activity to older people receiving hospital-based rehabilitation will lead to better mobility outcomes at discharge. Methods/Design: A single blind, parallel-group, multisite randomized controlled trial with blinded assessment of outcome and intention-to-treat analysis. The cost effectiveness of the intervention will also be examined. Older people (age >60 years) undergoing inpatient rehabilitation to improve mobility will be recruited from geriatric rehabilitation units at two Australian hospitals. A computer-generated blocked stratified randomization sequence will be used to assign 198 participants in a 1:1 ratio to either an 'enhanced physical activity' (intervention) group or a 'usual care plus' (control) group for the duration of their inpatient stay. Participants will receive usual care and either spend time each week performing additional physical activities such as standing or walking (intervention group) or performing an equal amount of social activities that have minimal impact on mobility such as card and board games (control group). Self-selected gait speed will be measured using a 6-meter walk test at discharge (primary outcome) and 6 months follow-up (secondary outcome). The study is powered to detect a 0.1 m/sec increase in self-selected gait speed in the intervention group at discharge. Additional measures of mobility (Timed Up and Go, De Morton Mobility Index), function (Functional Independence Measure) and quality of life will be obtained as secondary outcomes at discharge and tertiary outcomes at 6 months follow-up. The trial commenced recruitment on 28 January 2014. Discussion: This study will evaluate the efficacy and cost effectiveness of increasing physical activity in older people during inpatient rehabilitation. These results will assist in the development of evidenced-based rehabilitation programs for this population. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12613000884707(Date of registration 08 August 2013); ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01910740(Date of registration 22 July 2013)

Traffic and Related Self-Driven Many-Particle Systems

Since the subject of traffic dynamics has captured the interest of physicists, many astonishing effects have been revealed and explained. Some of the questions now understood are the following: Why are vehicles sometimes stopped by so-called ``phantom traffic jams'', although they all like to drive fast? What are the mechanisms behind stop-and-go traffic? Why are there several different kinds of congestion, and how are they related? Why do most traffic jams occur considerably before the road capacity is reached? Can a temporary reduction of the traffic volume cause a lasting traffic jam? Under which conditions can speed limits speed up traffic? Why do pedestrians moving in opposite directions normally organize in lanes, while similar systems are ``freezing by heating''? Why do self-organizing systems tend to reach an optimal state? Why do panicking pedestrians produce dangerous deadlocks? All these questions have been answered by applying and extending methods from statistical physics and non-linear dynamics to self-driven many-particle systems. This review article on traffic introduces (i) empirically data, facts, and observations, (ii) the main approaches to pedestrian, highway, and city traffic, (iii) microscopic (particle-based), mesoscopic (gas-kinetic), and macroscopic (fluid-dynamic) models. Attention is also paid to the formulation of a micro-macro link, to aspects of universality, and to other unifying concepts like a general modelling framework for self-driven many-particle systems, including spin systems. Subjects such as the optimization of traffic flows and relations to biological or socio-economic systems such as bacterial colonies, flocks of birds, panics, and stock market dynamics are discussed as well.Comment: A shortened version of this article will appear in Reviews of Modern Physics, an extended one as a book. The 63 figures were omitted because of storage capacity. For related work see http://www.helbing.org

From Acting What’s next to Speeding Trap: Co-Evolutionary Dynamics of an Emerging Technology-Leader

JEL Classifications: O33, O53, L63[[abstract]]How does technological innovation emerge and evolve? We approach such an inquiry by synthesizing the perspectives of dynamic capabilities and co-evolutionary dynamics to portray organizational routines and multi-phase strategic renewals of an emerging technology-leader. To untangle the emergence of technological innovation, we conducted a longitudinal case study on the first and the largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, TSMC, located in the emerging economy of Taiwan. The firm-case of TSMC illustrates two unique co-evolutionary paths, that is, transforming from industry-latecomer to technology-leader and from process innovation to product innovation. We found multi-motor co-evolutionary dynamics between TSMC and the semiconductor industry, where its co-evolutionary mechanism of managed selection in its creating phase of mature process-innovation (1987-1998) has migrated to hierarchical renewal in its extending phase of advanced process-innovation (1999-2001), and then to holistic renewal in its modifying phase of product-innovation (2002-2007). During such paths, our research discovered a unique type of organizational routines, acting what’s next because TSMC has proactively searched for potential problems sooner than its competitors. However, such routines, although driving technological innovation, also lead to a unique type of success-trap, that is, speeding trap. When an emerging technology-leader fundamentally changes the industrial structures to over-specs, the growth driven by technology speeding may trap such a leader in a loop of over-exploration.[[sponsorship]]The authors are grateful to the research grant from the National Science Council (NSC) in Taiwan. The earlier manuscript of this paper was presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of Academy of International Business (AIB) in San Diego, USA.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]CA