622,025 research outputs found
Using Different Approaches to Evaluate Individual Social Equity in Transport
Inequalities not only exist in the field of economics in relation to income and wealth, but also in other areas, such as the transport sector, where access to and use of different transport modes varies markedly across population groups, and which provides the means to access everyday living activities. A key concern within the transport sector is that inequality has extended beyond the traditional measures of travel, and now covers a wide range of effects relating to social exclusion, freedom, well-being and being able to access reasonable opportunities and resources. In order to address the aforementioned issues, an important question to resolve is what type of methods can be used to measure inequalities in transport most effectively. Therefore, this study aims to apply different approaches, including the Capabilities Approach (CA) and a further six inequality indices, namely the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson index, the Palma ratio, the Pietra ratio, the Schutz coefficient and the Theil index, to the case study using the relatively migrant-rich lower-income neighbourhood of Tuqiao, in Beijing, in order to assess individual transport-related social inequity issues. The findings suggest that the CA is useful in assessing transport-related inequalities where there are significant barriers to the take up of accessibility, for example where there are high levels of disadvantaged groups and disaggregated analysis can be undertaken. The Palma ratio appears to have a larger effect than the Gini coefficient and the other inequality indices when measuring transport-related social inequity. In addition, we also found that most income inequality methods adapted from econometrics may be better suited to measuring transport-related social inequity between different regions, cities or countries, or within the same area, but at different points in time, rather than to measuring a single neighbourhood as a whole. Finally, we argue that to what extent politicians or transport planners can use appropriate management tools to measure transport-related social inequalities may be significant in terms of the progress that can be made in the fight against social inequity in the transport field
Universality Classes in Isotropic, Abelian and non-Abelian, Sandpile Models
Universality in isotropic, abelian and non-abelian, sandpile models is
examined using extensive numerical simulations. To characterize the critical
behavior we employ an extended set of critical exponents, geometric features of
the avalanches, as well as scaling functions describing the time evolution of
average quantities such as the area and size during the avalanche. Comparing
between the abelian Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model [P. Bak, C. Tang and K.
Wiensenfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 381 (1987)], and the non-abelian models
introduced by Manna [S. S. Manna, J. Phys. A. 24, L363 (1991)] and Zhang [Y. C.
Zhang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 470 (1989)] we find strong indications that each
one of these models belongs to a distinct universality class.Comment: 18 pages of text, RevTeX, additional 8 figures in 12 PS file
Two-neutron transfer reactions and shape phase transitions in the microscopically-formulated interacting boson model
Two-neutron transfer reactions are studied within the interacting boson model
based on the nuclear energy density functional theory. Constrained
self-consistent mean-field calculations with the Skyrme energy density
functional are performed to provide microscopic input to completely determine
the Hamiltonian of the IBM. Spectroscopic properties are calculated only from
the nucleonic degrees of freedom. This method is applied to study the
and transfer reactions in the assorted set of rare-earth nuclei
Sm, Gd, and Dy, where
spherical-to-axially-deformed shape phase transition is suggested to occur at
the neutron number . The results are compared with those from the
purely phenomenological IBM calculations, as well as with the available
experimental data. The calculated and transfer reaction
intensities, from both the microscopic and phenomenological IBM frameworks,
signal the rapid nuclear structural change at particular nucleon numbers.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 2 table
Application of multiobjective genetic programming to the design of robot failure recognition systems
We present an evolutionary approach using multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) to derive optimal feature extraction preprocessing stages for robot failure detection. This data-driven machine learning method is compared both with conventional (nonevolutionary) classifiers and a set of domain-dependent feature extraction methods. We conclude MOGP is an effective and practical design method for failure recognition systems with enhanced recognition accuracy over conventional classifiers, independent of domain knowledge
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