Measuring Winners and Losers from the new I-35W Mississippi River Bridge

The opening of the replacement for the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge bridge on September 18th, 2008 provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impacts generated by this additional link on network performance, and thus empirically test whether a Braess Paradox occurred. Using detailed GPS data to estimate travel times on links and for origin-destination pairs, this research Þnds that while on average travel time improved with the reopening of the bridge, the subsequent restoration of parts of the rest of the network to their pre-collapse conÞguration worsened travel times signiÞcantly on average. In all cases, the distribution of winners and losers indicates clear spatial patterns associated with these network changes. While no Braess paradox was found in this case, the research provides a method for measuring such phenomena.Network structure, travel behavior, transport geography, commuting, network disruption, Braess paradox

The traffic and behavioral effects of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse

The collapse, on August 1, 2007, of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, abruptly interrupted the usual route of about 140,000 daily vehicle trips and substantially disturbed the ßow pattern on the network. It took several weeks for the network to re-equilibrate, during which period, travelers continued to learn and adjust their travel decisions. A good understanding of this process is crucial for traffic management and designing mitigation schemes. A survey collected behavioral responses to the bridge collapse. Traffic data were also collected to understand the traffic conditions experienced by road users. Data from both resources are analyzed and compared. Findings of behavioral effects of capacity changes could have significant implications for travel demand modeling, especially of day-to-day travel demandMinnesota, Minneapolis, I-35W bridge collapse, travel behavior, travel survey

High-contrast coronagraph for ground-based imaging of Jupiter-like planets

We propose a high-contrast coronagraph for direct imaging of young Jupiter-like planets orbiting nearby bright stars. The coronagraph employs a step-transmission filter in which the intensity is apodized with a finite number of steps of identical transmission in each step. It should be installed on a large ground-based telescope equipped with state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems. In that case, contrast ratios around 10^-6 should be accessible within 0.1 arc seconds of the central star. In recent progress, a coronagraph with circular apodizing filter has been developing, which can be used for a ground-based telescope with central obstruction and spider structure. It is shown that ground-based direct imaging of Jupiter-like planets is promising with current technology

Generating Random Vectors Using Transformation with Multiple Roots and its Applications

An approach is proposed to generate random vectors using transformation with multiple roots. This approach generalizes the one-dimensional inverse transformation with multiple roots method to higher dimensions, i.e., to random vectors with or without densities. In this approach, multiple roots of the transformation and probabilities of selecting each of the roots are derived. The strategies for constructing such a transformation are discussed and several examples are presented to motivate this simulation approach

A Study of The Impact of Acrylic Based Surface Waterproofing on The Moisture Behaviour of Brick Masonry Through Dynamic Vapour Sorption (DVS) And Water Absorption Tests

The rate and extent of uptake and release of moisture and liquid water are critical in understanding the behaviour of masonry materials. This study focussed on testing brick masonry to identify the moisture performance difference after treated with acrylic based surface waterproofing – commonly used to lessen water uptake and improve façade durability. Brick and mortar specimens were first tested for water absorption then treated and retested 0, 12 and 24 months later to evaluate the short- and long-term impact of waterproofing on their water absorption capacity. Dynamic Vapour Sorption (DVS) tests were also conducted to quantity the change in their (de)sorptive characteristics. Results from both tests were combined to show the impact and durability of acrylic waterproofing on the moisture behaviour of brick masonry

Solving the 100 Swiss Francs Problem

Sturmfels offered 100 Swiss Francs in 2005 to a conjecture, which deals with a special case of the maximum likelihood estimation for a latent class model. This paper confirms the conjecture positively

Motor Vehicle Fatalities During Memorial Day Weekends, 1981-2016

OBJECTIVE: Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of injury death in the United States, and Memorial Day weekend is one of six holiday periods with an increased number of motor vehicle fatalities in the United States. However, few motor vehicle fatality comparisons were made between Memorial Day weekend and non-holiday periods. Our aims were to determine which day(s) during the holiday had highest motor vehicle fatality risk compared to non-holiday travel and to identify potential risk factors. RESULTS: Of 43,457 traffic fatalities studied, 15,292 (35%) occurred during the holiday, with Saturday being deadliest but Monday having highest odds of traffic fatality. Both sexes, all years, age \u3c 65, drivers and passengers, rural and urban, and all regions in the United States were at increased risk during the holiday versus non-holiday periods

[S IV] in the NGC 5253 Supernebula: Ionized Gas Kinematics at High Resolution

The nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 5253 hosts a deeply embedded radio-infrared supernebula excited by thousands of O stars. We have observed this source in the 10.5{\mu}m line of S+3 at 3.8 kms-1 spectral and 1.4" spatial resolution, using the high resolution spectrometer TEXES on the IRTF. The line profile cannot be fit well by a single Gaussian. The best simple fit describes the gas with two Gaussians, one near the galactic velocity with FWHM 33.6 km s-1 and another of similiar strength and FWHM 94 km s-1 centered \sim20 km s-1 to the blue. This suggests a model for the supernebula in which gas flows towards us out of the molecular cloud, as in a "blister" or "champagne flow" or in the HII regions modelled by Zhu (2006).Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal 4 June 201