Transportation Planning, Policy and Analysis

Oxford : Pergamon Press Ltd., 1976, pp. 147. Paper, $7.00 by D.N.M. StarkieIn contrast to the time-honored history of European city planning, modern transport planning, as a rather rigorous approach to taming interaction among land use activities, has grown from planning practices in early 1950's American cites. Starting with urban transportation studies in Detroit and Chicago, and later in metropolitan areas, urban transportation planning has been developed to a seemingly agreed-on paradigm, the standard urban transportation planning packages. This book is intended to give concise overview about developing methodologies and applications of the modern transport planning in England. Taking into account that information about status of transport policy planning in England and other countries is not so easily accessible to concerned personnel, this book would be very useful in particular for informative purpose. The author states that transport planning should be systems-analytic planning process, balancing viewpoints from operators, users and non-users of transport facilities. In the balancing process, the burden of transport planning becomes more of public policy decisions and evaluation. For illustrative purpose, a variety of case results are shown such as Belfast and London studies, South-east study, SELNEC study, Third London Airport feasibility study, Great Northern suburban rail study and transport policy exercised by the British MOT

Knowledge-Based Expert System in Traffic Signal Control Systems.

Knowledge based expert systems (KBESs) have been developed in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The aim of knowledge-based expert system is emulation and imitating social problems and then providing human-solving behaviour in complex real world tasks. The potentiality of such systems and their possibilities of application to transport problems have generated considerablely within the transport engineering field. Because of increasing transport demand which produces traffic congestion, safety problems and environmental degradation, the applications of knowledge-based expert system are likely to be the transport sector which are urban infrastructure design, transport planning, safety and maintenance, structures and equipment, vehicle scheduling, traffic monitoring and control especially in urban area and air traffic control. In spite of effectiveness and usefulness of such systems, they still include some problems such as those of knowledge representation and elicitation. In this paper, the concept of knowledge-based expert system is presented and some differences between knowledge-based expert systems and conventional computer programs are discussed. Also, basic structure of knowledge-based expert system and building knowledge-based expert system are described. Finally some developments and applications of expert system in traffic signal control field are identified and discussed

Simple and Reliable Position Sense Assessment Under Different External Torques: Toward Developing a Post-Stroke Proprioception Evaluation Device

Evaluation of position sense post-stroke is essential for rehabilitation. Position sense may be an output of a process needing position information, external torque, and the sense of effort. Even for healthy individuals, it is unclear whether external torque affects position sense. Thus, evaluation of position sense under different external torques in clinical settings is strongly needed. However, simple devices for measuring position sense under different external torques in clinical settings are lacking. Technologically advanced devices that may evaluate the elbow position sense under different torques were reported to be infeasible clinically because of device complexity and the need for technical experts when analyzing data. To address the unmet need, in this study, a simple and light elbow position sense measurement device was developed that allows clinicians to measure elbow position sense under different external torques in the form of position matching error objectively without any technical difficulties. The feasibility of the device, including intra-session intra-rater reliability and test-retest reliability over two consecutive days, was verified to be clinically applicable using tests with 25 healthy subjects. Thanks to its ease of use, high reliability, and ease of data analysis, it is expected that the device can help to evaluate the position sense post-stroke comprehensively

Nb-doped TiO2 air-electrode for advanced Li-air batteries

As new substrate materials to replace a conventional carbon substrate, TiO2 and Nb-doped TiO2 air-electrodes for Li-air batteries were investigated. Through a simple two-step process, we successfully synthesized anatase Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles and demonstrated the potential applicability of TiO2-based materials for use in Li-air battery electrode. An air-electrode with Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles could deliver a higher discharge capacity than a bare TiO2 electrode due to the enhanced conductivity, which implies the importance of facile electron transport during the discharge process. © 2014 The Ceramic Society of Japan and the Korean Ceramic Society.

Low-temperature synthesis of LiFePO4 nanocrystals by solvothermal route

LiFePO4 nanocrystals were synthesized at a very low temperature of 170°C using carbon nanoparticles by a solvothermal process in a polyol medium, namely diethylene glycol without any heat treatment as a post procedure. The powder X-ray diffraction pattern of the LiFePO4 was indexed well to a pure orthorhombic system of olivine structure (space group: Pnma) with no undesirable impurities. The LiFePO4 nanocrystals synthesized at low temperature exhibited mono-dispersed and carbon-mixed plate-type LiFePO4 nanoparticles with average length, width, and thickness of approximately 100 to 300 nm, 100 to 200 nm, and 50 nm, respectively. It also appeared to reveal considerably enhanced electrochemical properties when compared to those of pristine LiFePO4. These observed results clearly indicate the effect of carbon in improving the reactivity and synthesis of LiFePO4 nanoparticles at a significantly lower temperature

Effect of the glyceryl monooleate-based lyotropic phases on skin permeation using in vitro diffusion and skin imaging

AbstractGlyceryl monooleate (GMO) is a polar lipid that can exist in various liquid crystalline phases in the presence of different amounts of water. It is regarded as a permeation enhancer due to its amphiphilic property. Various phases of GMO/solvent system containing sodium fluorescein were prepared to compare permeability using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). GMO was melted in a vial in a water bath heated to 45 °C. Propylene glycol and hexanediol were homogeneously dissolved in the melted GMO. Sodium fluorescein in aqueous solution was diluted to various ratios and thoroughly mixed by an ultrasonic homogenizer. Each GMO/Solvent system with fluorescein was applied onto the epidermal side of excised pig skin and incubated overnight. CLSM was performed to observe how the GMO/solvent system in its different phases affect skin permeability. Cubic and lamellar phase formulations enhanced the fluorescein permeation through the stratum corneum. A solution system had the weakest permeability compared to the other two phases. Due to the amphiphilic nature of GMO, cubic and lamellar phases might reduce the barrier function of stratum corneum which was observed by CLSM as fluorescein accumulated in the dermis. Based on the results, the glyceryl monooleate lyotropic mixtures could be applied to enhance skin permeation in various topical and transdermal formulations

Evaluation of a Sodium–Water Reaction Event Caused by Steam Generator Tubes Break in the Prototype Generation IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

AbstractThe prototype generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (PGSFR) has been developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. This reactor uses sodium as a reactor coolant to transfer the core heat energy to the turbine. Sodium has chemical characteristics that allow it to violently react with materials such as a water or steam. When a sodium–water reaction (SWR) occurs due to leakage or breakage of steam generator tubes, high-pressure waves and corrosive reaction products are produced, which threaten the structural integrity of the components of the intermediate heat-transfer system (IHTS) and the safety of the primary heat-transfer system (PHTS). In the PGSFR, SWR events are included in the design-basis event. This event should be analyzed from the viewpoint of the integrities of the IHTS and fuel rods. To evaluate the integrity of the IHTS based on the consequences of the SWR, the behaviors of the generated high-pressure waves are analyzed at the major positions of a failed IHTS loop using a sodium–water advanced analysis method-II code. The integrity of the fuel rods must be consistently maintained below the safety acceptance criteria to avoid the consequences of the SWR. The integrity of the PHTS is evaluated using the multidimensional analysis of reactor safety-liquid metal reactor code to model the whole plant

Divergent lineage of a novel hantavirus in the banana pipistrelle (Neoromicia nanus) in Côte d'Ivoire

Recently identified hantaviruses harbored by shrews and moles (order Soricomorpha) suggest that other mammals having shared ancestry may serve as reservoirs. To investigate this possibility, archival tissues from 213 insectivorous bats (order Chiroptera) were analyzed for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Following numerous failed attempts, hantavirus RNA was detected in ethanol-fixed liver tissue from two banana pipistrelles (Neoromicia nanus), captured near Mouyassué village in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, in June 2011. Phylogenetic analysis of partial L-segment sequences using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods revealed that the newfound hantavirus, designated Mouyassué virus (MOUV), was highly divergent and basal to all other rodent- and soricomorph-borne hantaviruses, except for Nova virus in the European common mole (Talpa europaea). Full genome sequencing of MOUV and further surveys of other bat species for hantaviruses, now underway, will provide critical insights into the evolution and diversification of hantaviruses