342 research outputs found
Constant net-time headway as key mechanism behind pedestrian flow dynamics
We show that keeping a constant lower limit on the net-time headway is the
key mechanism behind the dynamics of pedestrian streams. There is a large
variety in flow and speed as functions of density for empirical data of
pedestrian streams, obtained from studies in different countries. The net-time
headway however, stays approximately constant over all these different data
sets. By using this fact, we demonstrate how the underlying dynamics of
pedestrian crowds, naturally follows from local interactions. This means that
there is no need to come up with an arbitrary fit function (with arbitrary fit
parameters) as has traditionally been done. Further, by using not only the
average density values, but the variance as well, we show how the recently
reported stop-and-go waves [Helbing et al., Physical Review E, 75, 046109]
emerge when local density variations take values exceeding a certain maximum
global (average) density, which makes pedestrians stop.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Petion for a Writ of Certiorari. Knight v. Thompson, 136 S.Ct. 2534 (2016) (No. 15-999), 2016 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs LEXIS 542, 2016 WL 447654
QUESTION PRESENTED In Holt v. Hobbs, 135 S.Ct. 853 (2015), this Court held that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (“RLUIPA”), renders unlawful an absolute ban on inmates\u27 wearing a beard for religious reasons. The Eleventh Circuit, subsequent to and despite this Court\u27s decision in Holt, rejected a RLUIPA challenge to Alabama\u27s similarly inflexible policy prohibiting all male inmates from wearing long hair for religious reasons. A vast majority of states, the District of Columbia, and all federal prisons accommodate inmates whose religious practices include wearing beards or long hair. The Question Presented is: Whether Alabama\u27s grooming policy violates RLUIPA, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, et seq., to the extent that it prohibits Petitioners from wearing unshorn hair in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs
Reply Brief of Petitioners. Knight v. Thompson, 136 S.Ct. 2534 (2016) (No. 15-999), 2016 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs LEXIS 1645, 2016 WL 1555013+A12
QUESTION PRESENTED Section 3 of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ( RLUIPA ) prohibits state and local governments from imposing a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution . . . unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person : (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-l(a). The Question Presented is: Whether RLUIPA requires that prison officials actually consider and demonstrate a sufficient basis for rejecting widely accepted accommodations to traditional religious practices as part of their burden of proving that they have chosen the least restrictive means of furthering their asserted governmental interests
Generalized Centrifugal Force Model for Pedestrian Dynamics
A spatially continuous force-based model for simulating pedestrian dynamics
is introduced which includes an elliptical volume exclusion of pedestrians. We
discuss the phenomena of oscillations and overlapping which occur for certain
choices of the forces. The main intention of this work is the quantitative
description of pedestrian movement in several geometries. Measurements of the
fundamental diagram in narrow and wide corridors are performed. The results of
the proposed model show good agreement with empirical data obtained in
controlled experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication as a Regular Article
in Physical Review E. This version contains minor change
Exploring the Effect of Crowd Management Measures on Passengers’ Behaviour at Metro Stations
To reduce problems of interaction at the platform train interface (PTI) platform edge doors (PEDs) and markings on the platform are used as door positions indicators. The common methods to study the effect of these measures are based on average values of density using Fruin’s Level of Service (LOS), however identification cannot be made of which part of the PTI is more congested. To solve this problem, a new method is proposed. The method included a conceptual model in which the PTI was discretised into 40 cm square cells to identify which part of the platform is more congested. Passengers’ behaviour was recorded considering two situations before the train arrives: i) passengers waiting in front of the doors; ii) passengers waiting beside the doors. Observation was done at existing stations at Metro de Santiago and London Underground. Results show that PEDs changed the behaviour of passengers as they were located beside the doors rather than in front of them. In addition, when markings were used on the platform, then this behaviour was reinforced. Therefore, it is recommended to use this method to better design the PTI rather than the LOS which is used to design the whole platform. Further research is needed to study the effect of PEDs on passengers with reduced mobility
Efficient determination of vehicle emission factors by fuel use category using on-road measurements: downward trends on Los Angeles freight corridor I-710
To evaluate the success of vehicle emissions regulations, trends in both fleet-wide average emissions as well as high-emitter emissions are needed, but it is challenging to capture the full spread of vehicle emission factors (EFs) with chassis dynamometer or tunnel studies, and remote sensing studies cannot evaluate particulate compounds. We developed an alternative method that links real-time on-road pollutant measurements from a mobile platform with real-time traffic data, and allows efficient calculation of both the average and the spread of EFs for light-duty gasoline-powered vehicles (LDG) and heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles (HDD). This is the first study in California to report EFs under a full range of real-world driving conditions on multiple freeways. Fleet average LDG EFs were in agreement with most recent studies and an order of magnitude lower than observed HDD EFs. HDD EFs reflected the relatively rapid decreases in diesel emissions that have recently occurred in Los Angeles/California, and on I-710, a primary route used for goods movement and a focus of additional truck fleet turnover incentives, HDD EFs were often lower than on other freeways. When freeway emission rates (ER) were quantified as the product of EF and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per time per mile of freeway, despite a twoto three-fold difference in HDD fractions between freeways, ERs were found to be generally similar in magnitude. Higher LDG VMT on low HDD fraction freeways largely offset the difference. Therefore, the conventional assumption that free ways with the highest HDD fractions are significantly worse sources of total emissions in Los Angeles may no longer be true
Reanalysis of Data Taken by the CANGAROO 3.8 Meter Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope: PSR B1706-44, SN 1006, and Vela
We have reanalyzed data from observations of PSR B1706-44, SN 1006, and the
Vela pulsar region made with the CANGAROO 3.8 m imaging atmospheric Cherenkov
telescope between 1993 and 1998 in response to the results reported for these
sources by the H.E.S.S. collaboration. In our reanalysis, in which gamma-ray
selection criteria have been determined exclusively using gamma-ray simulations
and OFF-source data as background samples, no significant TeV gamma-ray signals
have been detected from compact regions around PSR B1706-44 or within the
northeast rim of SN 1006. We discuss reasons why the original analyses gave the
source detections. The reanalysis did result in a TeV gamma-ray signal from the
Vela pulsar region at the 4.5 sigma level using 1993, 1994, and 1995 data. The
excess was located at the same position, 0.13 deg. to the southeast of the Vela
pulsar, as that reported in the original analysis. We have investigated the
effect of the acceptance distribution in the field of view of the 3.8 m
telescope, which rapidly decreases toward the edge of the field of the camera,
on the detected gamma-ray morphology. The expected excess distribution for the
3.8 m telescope has been obtained by reweighting the distribution of HESS
J0835-455 measured by H.E.S.S. with the acceptance of the 3.8 m telescope. The
result is morphologically comparable to the CANGAROO excess distribution,
although the profile of the acceptance-reweighted H.E.S.S. distribution is more
diffuse than that of CANGAROO. The integral gamma-ray flux from HESS J0835-455
has been estimated for the same region as defined by H.E.S.S. from the
1993-1995 data of CANGAROO to be F(> 4.0 +/- 1.6 TeV) = (3.28 +/- 0.92) x
10^{-12} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1}, which is statistically consistent with the
integral flux obtained by H.E.S.S.Comment: Published in ApJ, minor improvement
The Fundamental Diagram of Pedestrian Movement Revisited
The empirical relation between density and velocity of pedestrian movement is
not completely analyzed, particularly with regard to the `microscopic' causes
which determine the relation at medium and high densities. The simplest system
for the investigation of this dependency is the normal movement of pedestrians
along a line (single-file movement). This article presents experimental results
for this system under laboratory conditions and discusses the following
observations: The data show a linear relation between the velocity and the
inverse of the density, which can be regarded as the required length of one
pedestrian to move. Furthermore we compare the results for the single-file
movement with literature data for the movement in a plane. This comparison
shows an unexpected conformance between the fundamental diagrams, indicating
that lateral interference has negligible influence on the velocity-density
relation at the density domain . In addition we test a
procedure for automatic recording of pedestrian flow characteristics. We
present preliminary results on measurement range and accuracy of this method.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
An Upper Limit to Microwave Pulse Emission at the Onset of a Supernova
This paper reports an upper limit at 10 GHz of 4 x 10^(43) erg in a 40 MHz bandwidth for the microwave pulse emission at the onset of an optically observed supernova
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