Empirical Traffic Data and Their Implications for Traffic Modeling

From single vehicle data a number of new empirical results about the temporal evolution, correlation, and density-dependence of macroscopic traffic quantities have been determined. These have relevant implications for traffic modeling and allow to test existing traffic models.Comment: For related work see http://www.theo2.physik.uni-stuttgart.de/helbing.htm

Evaluation of a refurbishment scheme incorporating the King's Fund “Enhancing the healing environment” design principles

Purpose – In 2000, a national initiative “Enhancing the Healing Environment” (EHE) was launched by the King’s Fund to celebrate the millennium. This aimed to support nurse-led teams to undertake an environment improvement programme in their National Health Service (NHS) hospital. Sheffield Care Trust (SCT) decided to carry out this project in its intensive treatment suite, a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) providing care for up to six patients. There were no known examples of an EHE project being undertaken in a PICU elsewhere in the NHS. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of EHE design principles in improving the patient experience, from the perspectives of staff and patients. Design/methodology/approach – A focus group and individual interviews were used as the primary method of data collection. Secondary data comprised sets of statistics related to pre- and post-refurbishment periods. Findings – It was found that staff and patients liked many aspects of the changed environment. Staff felt improved openness of space, natural light, fresh air, reduced noise levels and greater choice of spaces to provide care, were most important. Patients cited a high quality, comfortable and homely environment (not like a typical NHS ward) as important; they also valued high standards of cleanliness, tidiness, choice and being able to view the outside, open windows and let in fresh air. Experiencing high quality clinical care was equally important. Incidence of physical assaults decreased markedly in the new environment. Practical implications – NHS mental health services trusts will understand the benefits of applying EHE principles in PICUs or similar environments. Some project management shortcomings are identified and improvements suggested. Originality/value – This paper is of value to NHS mental health trusts which need to decide on the effectiveness of different design principles for PICUs or similar environments

Frequency doubling in Ga:La:S optical glass with microcrystals

Second harmonic generation in gallium-lanthanum-sulphide (Ga:La:S) and GeS2+Ga:La:S glasses is investigated. It is shown that microcrystals of Ga:La:S and of alpha-phase of gallium-sulphide (alpha-Ga2S3), whose presence in the glass matrix is revealed by x-ray diffraction analysis, are responsible for the frequency doubling process

Resolving depth measurement ambiguity with commercially available range imaging cameras

Time-of-flight range imaging is typically performed with the amplitude modulated continuous wave method. This involves illuminating a scene with amplitude modulated light. Reflected light from the scene is received by the sensor with the range to the scene encoded as a phase delay of the modulation envelope. Due to the cyclic nature of phase, an ambiguity in the measured range occurs every half wavelength in distance, thereby limiting the maximum useable range of the camera. This paper proposes a procedure to resolve depth ambiguity using software post processing. First, the range data is processed to segment the scene into separate objects. The average intensity of each object can then be used to determine which pixels are beyond the non-ambiguous range. The results demonstrate that depth ambiguity can be resolved for various scenes using only the available depth and intensity information. This proposed method reduces the sensitivity to objects with very high and very low reflectance, normally a key problem with basic threshold approaches. This approach is very flexible as it can be used with any range imaging camera. Furthermore, capture time is not extended, keeping the artifacts caused by moving objects at a minimum. This makes it suitable for applications such as robot vision where the camera may be moving during captures. The key limitation of the method is its inability to distinguish between two overlapping objects that are separated by a distance of exactly one non-ambiguous range. Overall the reliability of this method is higher than the basic threshold approach, but not as high as the multiple frequency method of resolving ambiguity

Advantages of 3D time-of-flight range imaging cameras in machine vision applications

Machine vision using image processing of traditional intensity images is in wide spread use. In many situations environmental conditions or object colours or shades cannot be controlled, leading to difficulties in correctly processing the images and requiring complicated processing algorithms. Many of these complications can be avoided by using range image data, instead of intensity data. This is because range image data represents the physical properties of object location and shape, practically independently of object colour or shading. The advantages of range image processing are presented, along with three example applications that show how robust machine vision results can be obtained with relatively simple range image processing in real-time applications

Use of Inherited Differences among Strains of Inbred Mice to Study Genetic Determinants of Steroid Biosynthesis a

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72865/1/j.1749-6632.1984.tb38364.x.pd

Absolute rate of the reaction of Cl(p-2) with molecular hydrogen from 200 - 500 K

Rate constants for the reaction of atomic chlorine with hydrogen are measured from 200 - 500 K using the flash photolysis-resonance fluorescence technique. The results are compared with previous work and are discussed with particular reference to the equilibrium constant for the reaction and to relative rate data for chlorine atom reactions. Theoretical calculations, using the BEBO method with tunneling, give excellent agreement with experiment

Absolute rate of the reaction of C l(2P) with methane from 200-500 K

Rate constants for the reaction of atomic chlorine with methane have been measured from 200-500K using the flash photolysis-resonance fluorescence technique. When the results from fourteen equally spaced experimental determinations are plotted in Arrhenius form a definite curvature is noted. The results are compared to previous work and are theoretically discussed

Absolute rate constant for the reaction of atomic chlorine with hydrogen peroxide vapor over the temperature range 265-400 K

Rate constants for the reaction of atomic chlorine with hydrogen peroxide were measured from 265-400 K using the flash photolysis-resonance fluorescence technique. Analytical techniques were developed to measure H2O2 under reaction conditions. Due to ambiguity in the interpretation of the analytical results, the data combine to give two equally acceptable representations of the temperature dependence. The results are compared to previous work at 298 K and are theoretically discussed in terms of the mechanism of the reaction. Additional experiments on the H + H2O2 reaction at 298 and 359 K are compared with earlier results from this laboratory and give a slightly revised bimolecular rate constant