Designing a large-scale travel demand survey: New challenges and new opportunities

Information about travel demand, traveller behaviour and transport systems performance is an essential input to decision making on transport policy, planning and design issues. However, this information is difficult and expensive to collect and establish, so that its collection has been infrequent. Further, previous information technology and past methods for managing travel information have helped to make it expensive to access, maintain and keep current. This paper describes the findings of a research project called the Melbourne Travel Survey Research Projects (MTSRP), undertaken to determine the needs for and likely applications of new travel information for a large metropolitan area (Melbourne, Australia), and to define the desirable form for a new metropolitan travel demand survey program. The research required surveys of the present and anticipated needs for travel demand data and the available and required technology for data collection and information dissemination. The paper describes the findings of the research project, and provides an interpretation of their implications for a large-scale travel survey program.

Elementos para uma história da neuroascese Elements for a history of neuroascese

O espetacular progresso das neurociências e o intenso processo de popularização, via mídia, de imagens e informações que associam a atividade cerebral a praticamente todos os aspectos da vida produzem, no imaginário social, crescente percepção do cérebro como detentor das propriedades e autor das ações que definem o que é ser alguém. Nesse contexto sociocultural, aumenta o interesse pela neuroascese, isto é, discursos e práticas a respeito de como agir sobre o cérebro para maximizar sua performance. Com o objetivo de traçar alguns elementos da história da ascese cerebral, resgatam-se momentos históricos do século XIX em que práticas neuroascéticas eram comuns. O artigo problematiza a continuidade dessas práticas na atualidade, levando em conta os diferentes contextos socioculturais e históricos nos quais se originam.<br>The spectacular progress of the neurosciences, as well as the intense process of popularization by the media of images and information that associate cerebral activity with practically every aspect of life, have produced a growing perception of the brain as the site and agent of all the properties and actions that define us as human beings. Today's socio-cultural context has seen increased interest in 'neuroascese', that is, discourses and practices aimed at maximizing brain performance. Tracing elements of the history of 'brain ascese' back to historical moments of the nineteenth century in which neuroascetic practices were commonplace, the article examines their continued use today, taking into account the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which they originated