Human annoyance, acceptability and concern as responses to vibration from the construction of light rapid transit lines in residential environments

The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of different self-reported measures for assessing the human response to environmental vibration from the construction of an urban LRT (Light Rapid Transit) system. The human response to environmental stressors such as vibration and noise is often expressed in terms of exposure–response relationships that describe annoyance as a function of the magnitude of the vibration. These relationships are often the basis of noise and vibration policy and the setting of limit values. This paper examines measures other than annoyance by expressing exposure–response relationships for vibration in terms of self-reported concern about property damage and acceptability. The exposure–response relationships for concern about property damage and for acceptability are then compared with those for annoyance. It is shown that concern about property damage occurs at vibration levels well below those where there is any risk of damage. Earlier research indicated that concern for damage is an important moderator of the annoyance induced. Acceptability, on the other hand, might be influenced by both annoyance and concern, as well as by other considerations. It is concluded that exposure–response relationships expressing acceptability as a function of vibration exposure could usefully complement existing relationships for annoyance in future policy decisions regarding environmental vibration. The results presented in this paper are derived from data collected through a socio-vibration survey (N = 321) conducted for the construction of an urban LRT in the United Kingdom

Model for Glass Transition in a Binary fluid from a Mode Coupling approach

We consider the Mode Coupling Theory (MCT) of Glass transition for a Binary fluid. The Equations of Nonlinear Fluctuating Hydrodynamics are obtained with a proper choice of the slow variables corresponding to the conservation laws. The resulting model equations are solved in the long time limit to locate the dynamic transition. The transition point from our model is considerably higher than predicted in existing MCT models for binary systems. This is in agreement with what is seen in Computer Simulation of binary fluids. fluids.Comment: 9 Pages, 3 Figure

Ignoring variation in wood density drives substantial bias in biomass estimates across spatial scales

Rapid development of remote sensing and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology has refined estimates of tree architecture and extrapolation of biomass across large spatial scales. Yet, current biomass maps show significant discrepancies and mismatch to independent ground data. A potential obstacle to accurate biomass estimation is the loss of information on wood density, which can vary at local and regional scales, in the extrapolation process. Here we investigate if variation in wood specific gravity (WSG) substantially impacts the distribution of above-ground biomass (AGB) across a range of scales from local plots to large regions. We collected wood cores and measured tree volume in 341 forest sites across large altitudinal and climatic gradients in Colombia. At all spatial scales, variation in WSG was substantial compared to variation in volume. Imputing study-wide average values of WSG induced regional biases in AGB estimates of almost 30%, consequently undervaluing the difference between forest areas of low and high average wood density. Further, neither stem size nor climate usefully predicted WSG when accounting for spatial dependencies among our sampling plots. These results suggest that remote sensing- and LiDAR-based projections to biomass estimates can be considerably improved by explicitly accounting for spatial variation in WSG, necessitating further research on the spatial distribution of WSG and potential environmental predictors to advance efficient and accurate large-scale mapping of biomass

Formal Development of a Distributed Logging Mechanism Supporting Disconnected Updates

In mobile computing environments, logging systems are often used to record updates during device disconnection and logs are used in data synchronization on reconnection. Portable devices often have resource constraints and log truncation must be used to avoid log overflow. However, this method makes data synchronization vulnerable, due to information loss in truncating log files. Characteristic-entry logs record merely the most recent data access of each operation type per data item. They capture the minimum information needed to semantically resolve conflicting updates. They have been implemented in the MemorySafe system of Philips, a prototype distributed system supporting disconnected updates. In this paper, we present a formal model of characteristic-entry logs and investigate the relation between normal logs and characteristic-entry logs. We rigorously prove that characteristic-entry logs can be used in data synchronization, effectively in the same way as normal logs

The Equivalence of Statecharts

This paper proposes a compositional operational semantics for a nontrivial subset of Statecharts and defines an equivalence relation between Statecharts using bisimulation on configurations. An input/response trace model is also investigated at the level of observable behaviour

Network Topology and a Case Study in TCOZ

Object-Z is strong in modeling the data and operations of complex systems. However, it is weak in specifying real-time and concurrent systems. The Timed Communicating Object-Z (TCOZ) extends Object-Z notation with Timed CSP's constructs. TCOZ is particularly well suited for specifying complex systems whose components have their own thread of control. This paper demonstrates expressiveness of the TCOZ notation through a case study on specifying a multi-lift system that operates in real-time