Guidelines for Using StreetLight Data for Planning Tasks

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has purchased a subscription to the StreetLight (SL) Data products that mainly offer origin-destination (OD) related metrics through crowdsourcing data. Users can manipulate a data source like this to quickly estimate origin-destination trip tables. Nonetheless, the SL metrics heavily rely on the data points sampled from smartphone applications and global positioning services (GPS) devices, which may be subject to potential bias and coverage issues. In particular, the quality of the SL metrics in relation to meeting the needs of various VDOT work tasks is not clear. Guidelines on the use of the SL metrics are of interest to VDOT. This study aimed to help VDOT understand the performance of the SL metrics in different application contexts. Specifically, existing studies that examined the potential of SL metrics have been reviewed and summarized. In addition, the experiences, comments, and concerns of existing users and potential users have been collected through online surveys. The developed surveys were primarily distributed to VDOT engineers and planners as well as other professionals in planning organizations and consultants in Virginia. Their typical applications of the SL metrics have been identified and feedback has been used to guide and inform the design of the guidelines. To support the development of a set of guidelines, the quality of the SL metrics has been independently evaluated with six testing scenarios covering annual average daily traffic (AADT), origin-destination trips, traffic flow on road links, turning movements at intersections, and truck traffic. The research team has sought ground-truth data from different sources such as continuous count stations, toll transaction data, VDOT’s internal traffic estimations, etc. Several methods were used to perform the comparison between the benchmark data and the corresponding SL metrics. The evaluation results were mixed. The latest SL AADT estimates showed relatively small absolute percentage errors, whereas using the SL metrics to estimate OD trips, traffic counts on roadway segments and at intersections, and truck traffic did not show a relatively low and stable error rate. Large percentage errors were often found to be associated with lower volume levels estimated based on the SL metrics. In addition, using the SL metrics from individual periods as the input for estimating these traffic measures resulted in larger errors. Instead, the aggregation of data from multi-periods helped reduce the errors, especially for low volume conditions. Depending on project purposes, the aggregation can be based on metrics of multiple days, weeks, or months. The results from the literature review, surveys, and independent evaluations were synthesized to help develop the guidelines for using SL data products. The guidelines focused on five main aspects: (1) a summary for using SL data for typical planning work tasks; (2) general guidance for data extraction and preparation; (3) using the SL metrics in typical application scenarios; (4) quality issues and calibration of the SL metrics; and (5) techniques and tools for working with the SL metrics. The developed guidelines were accompanied with illustrative examples to allow users to go through the given use cases. Based on the results, the study recommends that VDOT’s Transportation and Mobility Planning Division (TMPD) should encourage and support the use of the guidelines in projects involving SL data, and that TMPD should adopt a checklist (table) for reporting performance, calibration efforts, and benchmark data involved in projects that use the SL metrics

On the nature of the fourth generation neutrino and its implications

We consider the neutrino sector of a Standard Model with four generations. While the three light neutrinos can obtain their masses from a variety of mechanisms with or without new neutral fermions, fourth-generation neutrinos need at least one new relatively light right-handed neutrino. If lepton number is not conserved this neutrino must have a Majorana mass term whose size depends on the underlying mechanism for lepton number violation. Majorana masses for the fourth generation neutrinos induce relative large two-loop contributions to the light neutrino masses which could be even larger than the cosmological bounds. This sets strong limits on the mass parameters and mixings of the fourth generation neutrinos.Comment: To be published. Few typos corrected, references update

Study of J/ψJ/\psi and ψ(3686)→Σ(1385)0Σˉ(1385)0\psi(3686)\rightarrow\Sigma(1385)^{0}\bar\Sigma(1385)^{0} and Ξ0Ξˉ0\Xi^0\bar\Xi^{0}

We study the decays of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(3686)$ to the final states $\Sigma(1385)^{0}\bar\Sigma(1385)^{0}$ and $\Xi^0\bar\Xi^{0}$ based on a single baryon tag method using data samples of $(1310.6 \pm 7.0) \times 10^{6}$ $J/\psi$ and $(447.9 \pm 2.9) \times 10^{6}$ $\psi(3686)$ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The decays to $\Sigma(1385)^{0}\bar\Sigma(1385)^{0}$ are observed for the first time. The measured branching fractions of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(3686)\rightarrow\Xi^0\bar\Xi^{0}$ are in good agreement with, and much more precise, than the previously published results. The angular parameters for these decays are also measured for the first time. The measured angular decay parameter for $J/\psi\rightarrow\Sigma(1385)^{0}\bar\Sigma(1385)^{0}$, $\alpha =-0.64 \pm 0.03 \pm 0.10$, is found to be negative, different to the other decay processes in this measurement. In addition, the "12\% rule" and isospin symmetry in the $J/\psi$ and $\psi(3686)\rightarrow\Xi\bar\Xi$ and $\Sigma(1385)\bar{\Sigma}(1385)$ systems are tested.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. This version is consistent with paper published in Phys.Lett. B770 (2017) 217-22

Search for the decay J/ψ→γ+invisibleJ/\psi\to\gamma + \rm {invisible}

We search for $J/\psi$ radiative decays into a weakly interacting neutral particle, namely an invisible particle, using the $J/\psi$ produced through the process $\psi(3686)\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi$ in a data sample of $(448.1\pm2.9)\times 10^6$ $\psi(3686)$ decays collected by the BESIII detector at BEPCII. No significant signal is observed. Using a modified frequentist method, upper limits on the branching fractions are set under different assumptions of invisible particle masses up to 1.2 $\mathrm{\ Ge\kern -0.1em V}/c^2$. The upper limit corresponding to an invisible particle with zero mass is 7.0$\times 10^{-7}$ at the 90\% confidence level

Improved measurement of the absolute branching fraction of D+→Kˉ0μ+νμD^{+}\rightarrow \bar K^0 \mu^{+}\nu_{\mu}

By analyzing 2.93 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected at $\sqrt s=3.773$ GeV with the BESIII detector, we measure the absolute branching fraction ${\mathcal B}(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0\mu^{+}\nu_{\mu})=(8.72 \pm 0.07_{\rm stat.} \pm 0.18_{\rm sys.})\%$, which is consistent with previous measurements within uncertainties but with significantly improved precision. Combining the Particle Data Group values of ${\mathcal B}(D^0\to K^-\mu^+\nu_\mu)$, ${\mathcal B}(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0 e^{+}\nu_{e})$, and the lifetimes of the $D^0$ and $D^+$ mesons with the value of ${\mathcal B}(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0 \mu^{+}\nu_{\mu})$ measured in this work, we determine the following ratios of partial widths: $\Gamma(D^0\to K^-\mu^+\nu_\mu)/\Gamma(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0\mu^{+}\nu_{\mu})=0.963\pm0.044$ and $\Gamma(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0 \mu^{+}\nu_{\mu})/\Gamma(D^{+}\rightarrow\bar K^0 e^{+}\nu_{e})=0.988\pm0.033$.Comment: 9 pages; 8 figure

Observation of hch_{c} radiative decay hc→γη′h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta' and evidence for hc→γηh_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta

A search for radiative decays of the $P$-wave spin singlet charmonium resonance $h_c$ is performed based on $4.48 \times 10^{8}$ $\psi'$ events collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring. Events of the reaction channels $h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta'$ and $\gamma \eta$ are observed with a statistical significance of $8.4 \sigma$ and $4.0 \sigma$, respectively, for the first time. The branching fractions of $h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta'$ and $h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta$ are measured to be $\mathcal{B}(h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta')=(1.52 \pm 0.27 \pm 0.29)\times10^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}(h_{c} \rightarrow \gamma \eta)=(4.7 \pm 1.5 \pm 1.4)\times10^{-4}$, respectively, where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic uncertainties.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Observation of an anomalous line shape of the η′π+π−\eta^{\prime}\pi^{+}\pi^{-} mass spectrum near the ppˉp\bar{p} mass threshold in J/ψ→γη′π+π−J/\psi\rightarrow\gamma\eta^{\prime}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}

Using $1.09\times10^{9}$ $J/\psi$ events collected by the BESIII experiment in 2012, we study the $J/\psi\rightarrow\gamma\eta^{\prime}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ process and observe a significant abrupt change in the slope of the $\eta^{\prime}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ invariant mass distribution at the proton-antiproton ($p\bar{p}$) mass threshold. We use two models to characterize the $\eta^{\prime}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ line shape around $1.85~\text{GeV}/c^{2}$: one which explicitly incorporates the opening of a decay threshold in the mass spectrum (Flatt\'{e} formula), and another which is the coherent sum of two resonant amplitudes. Both fits show almost equally good agreement with data, and suggest the existence of either a broad state around $1.85~\text{GeV}/c^{2}$ with strong couplings to $p\bar{p}$ final states or a narrow state just below the $p\bar{p}$ mass threshold. Although we cannot distinguish between the fits, either one supports the existence of a $p\bar{p}$ molecule-like state or bound state with greater than $7\sigma$ significance

Observation and study of the decay J/ψ→ϕηη′J/\psi\rightarrow\phi\eta\eta'

We report the observation and study of the decay $J/\psi\rightarrow\phi\eta\eta'$ using $1.3\times{10^9}$ $J/\psi$ events collected with the BESIII detector. Its branching fraction, including all possible intermediate states, is measured to be $(2.32\pm0.06\pm0.16)\times{10^{-4}}$. We also report evidence for a structure, denoted as $X$, in the $\phi\eta'$ mass spectrum in the $2.0-2.1$ GeV/$c^2$ region. Using two decay modes of the $\eta'$ meson ($\gamma\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\eta\pi^+\pi^-$), a simultaneous fit to the $\phi\eta'$ mass spectra is performed. Assuming the quantum numbers of the $X$ to be $J^P = 1^-$, its significance is found to be 4.4$\sigma$, with a mass and width of $(2002.1 \pm 27.5 \pm 21.4)$ MeV/$c^2$ and $(129 \pm 17 \pm 9)$ MeV, respectively, and a product branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X)\times{}\mathcal{B}(X\rightarrow\phi\eta')=(9.8 \pm 1.2 \pm 1.7)\times10^{-5}$. Alternatively, assuming $J^P = 1^+$, the significance is 3.8$\sigma$, with a mass and width of $(2062.8 \pm 13.1 \pm 7.2)$ MeV/$c^2$ and $(177 \pm 36 \pm 35)$ MeV, respectively, and a product branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X)\times{}\mathcal{B}(X\rightarrow\phi\eta')=(9.6 \pm 1.4 \pm 2.0)\times10^{-5}$. The angular distribution of $J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X$ is studied and the two $J^P$ assumptions of the $X$ cannot be clearly distinguished due to the limited statistics. In all measurements the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures and 4 table