Current Travel Research Articles

A Survey of Current Procurement Travel Practices, Accident Frequency, and Perceptions of Safety.

A 32 question survey designed to interrogate travel practice, accident frequency, and perceptions of safety was sent to the American Society of Transplant Surgeons membership. Our survey response rate was 20.6%. At least 1 travel accident with bodily injury was reported by 23% of respondents and yet only 7% of respondents reported feeling "unsafe" or "very unsafe" during procurement travel. Sixteen percent of respondents participated in a procurement at a dedicated organ procurement facility, and only 53% of procurement surgeons completed at least 1 deceased donor procurement at their own hospital facility within the preceding 12 months. In a field where increasingly aggressive organ utilization is the norm, the efficiency and safety of procurement travel merits ongoing consideration. Addressing these concerns takes on new significance as organ allocation policies change geographic distribution to expand the extent of travel required for surgical teams.

Spatial mobility and current travel behaviour in the metropolitan hinterland

Spatial mobility and current travel behaviour in the metropolitan hinterland

A new method for identifying a fault in T-connected lines based on multiscale S-transform energy entropy and an extreme learning machine.

Due to the characteristics of T-connection transmission lines, a new method for T-connection transmission lines fault identification based on current reverse travelling wave multi-scale S-transformation energy entropy and limit learning machine is proposed. S-transform are implemented on the faulty reverse traveling waves measured by each traveling wave protection unit of the T-connection transmission line, the reverse travelling wave energy entropies under eight different frequencies are respectively calculated, and a T-connection transmission line fault characteristic vector sample set are thus formed. Establish an intelligent fault identification model of extreme learning machines, and use the sample set for training and testing to identify the specific faulty branch of the T-connection transmission line. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can accurately and quickly identify the branch where the fault is located on the T-connection transmission line under various operation conditions.

Fault Analysis of High-Voltage Circuit Breakers Based on Coil Current and Contact Travel Waveforms Through Modified SVM Classifier

High-voltage circuit breakers (HVCBs) play a substantial protection role in power networks. The reliable operation of these critical components leads to an increment of resiliency and safety of power systems. It is essential to design a fault diagnostic system that detects the defects in preliminary levels and identify the origins to establish a precise maintenance task. This paper focuses on coil current and contact travel waveforms as significant signals that bear helpful information about the fault occurrence for a typical EDF, 72.5 kV, SF6 HVCB. Healthy and faulty signals simulated based on Michael Stanek's HVCB model in MATLAB, with performing some modifications in the actuating coil and operating mechanism. In the first step, to arrange an efficient fault recognition system, neural network and support vector machine (SVM) have been designed using the information of 475 simulated healthy and faulty HVCBs and verified for 200 new samples. In the second step, to improve the classification results, an additional distinction algorithm has been recommended for the cases in which two failure modes are detected by the classifier. Since any failure mode's impact on the selected features is different, the proposed diagnostic method makes a decision, between two classes of faults, based on the extracted pattern of each failure mode. The recommended method, which is a combination of commonly used classification techniques and the defined algorithm, leads to the more accurate diagnosis.

Bicycle superhighway: An environmentally sustainable policy for urban transport

Abstract Bicycle is a sustainable low-carbon transport mode. However, insufficient or unplanned infrastructure leads to decrease in the share of bicycle in many cities of developing nations. In order to increase the bicycle share and to provide safer, faster and more direct routes, a bicycle superhighway is proposed for urban areas. This study identifies the potential of increase in the bicycle share. For maximum utilization of the new infrastructure, an algorithm is presented to identify the optimum number and locations of the connectors between proposed new infrastructure and existing network. Household income levels are incorporated into the decision making process of individual travellers for a better understanding of the modal shift. A real-world case study of Patna, India is chosen to show the application of the proposed superhighway. It is shown that for Patna, the bicycle share can escalate as high as 48% up from 32% by providing this kind of infrastructure. However, together with bicycles, allowing motorbikes on the superhighway limits the bicycle share to 44%. The increase in bicycle share is mainly a result of people switching from motorbike, public transport and walk to the bicycle. Further, to evaluate the benefits of the bicycle superhighway, this study first extends an emission modelling tool to estimate the time-dependent, vehicle-specific emissions under mixed traffic conditions. Allowing only bicyclists on the superhighway improves congested urban areas, reduces emissions, and increases accessibility. However, allowing motorbikes on the superhighway increases emissions significantly in the central part of the urban area and reduces accessibilities by bicycle mode to education facilities which are undesirable. This study elicits that a physically segregated high-quality bicycle superhighway will not only attract current non-cyclist travellers and increase the share of the bicycle mode, but will also reduce negative transport externalities significantly.

Longer, More Active Commute, but Still not Very Active: Five-Year Physical Activity and Travel Behavior Change in a University Population.

Active travel can support the achievement of recommended levels of physical activity. Monitoring travel behavior of university students and staff provides a useful insight into patterns of regional travel and population level changes in physical activity. This study sought to evaluate current travel and physical activity behaviors in a university population and to determine whether these changed over time. An online survey of travel behavior and physical activity was conducted at the University of Sydney, Australia. The survey was actively promoted for three weeks prior to the release of the survey among staff and students, which asked about travel behavior on a specific day in September 2017. The survey questions were the same as those used in a similar online survey conducted across the University in 2012. In total, 4359 People completed the survey, representing 10.8% of staff and 4.1% of students. Approximately two thirds of survey respondents were students, in both the 2012 and 2017 surveys. Compared with 2012, there was an increase in active travel to the University in 2017 from increased walking and train travel. Compared to 2012, in 2017 there was an increase in average minutes walked by about nine minutes, and less time spent sitting. Trip lengths increased, with 68% of trips taking longer than 30 min in 2017. The amount of time spent in low–moderate levels physical activity increased between 2012 and 2017, potentially related to active travel behavior. Citywide changes towards a system-wide transport fare structure was the biggest change in the transport environment between the two surveys and may have contributed to increased train travel.

A current travel model: smart tour on mobile guide application services

ABSTRACT Along with the rapid development of internet and mobile devices, the integration of navigation systems and travel service apps has become very popular. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and external variables, experiential marketing and mobility, this study applies mobile devices in convenient guide services to develop an online-purchase behavioural model for travellers when using the travel app. Surveys are used to investigate travellers through convenience sampling, and a total of 495 valid surveys were collected for a rate of 96%. The study data yielded the following findings: (1) experiential marketing positively influences purchase intentions through perceived usefulness and use context; (2) mobility does not positively influence purchase intentions without through perceived usefulness and use context; (3) perceived usefulness and use context positively influence purchase intentions; (4) use context plays a mediating role between perceived usefulness and purchase intentions. Finally, this study proposes a current travel model of mobile guide app services, and provides managerial implications for travel agencies and app developers.

Jim Crow journey stories: African American driving as emotional labor

Automobile-based tourism during the USA Jim Crow era, while providing a mechanism for African Americans to circumvent institutionalized discrimination and segregation, was nonetheless fraught with anti-black harassment and denied accommodations, and even violence. The emotional geographies that undergirded this Jim Crow travel have traditionally not attracted significant attention from tourism scholars despite the foundational role they play in shaping current travel patterns, preferences, and anxieties among African Americans. We interpret Jim Crow travel in the context of the atmospheric politics of White supremacy that negatively affected Black motorists on the road and the counter mobility-work of African Americans using the automobile to survive, negotiate, defy, and redefine these atmospheres of uncertainty, fear, and intimidation. In particular, our paper focuses on the emotional labor behind Jim Crow automobile travel, using oral histories collected through a partnership with the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, a Knoxville, Tennessee Black heritage site, to highlight the travel experiences of people of color. Results suggest that seemingly practical and mundane driving practices, decisions, and preparations were always deeply informed by the emotion-laden work of African Americans controlling the degree to which racism might affect them and their children, both physically and psychologically, as well as controlling the extent to which their presence on the road might affect and inflame a hostile White public.

Opportunities for reinforcing cross-border railway connections: the case of the Liège (Belgium) – Maastricht (the Netherlands) connection

ABSTRACTEfficient mobility is an essential driving force for the development of cross-border (CB) regions. The different settings and visions of neighbouring CB entities may lead to unsatisfactory transport connections across the border. This case study of a CB connection focuses on this issue and highlights, by means of a comparative analysis, how the differences in six perspectives (the economic context; urban and regional planning in Belgium and the Netherlands; the structure of the rail network; barriers in the exploitation of the railway; the current travel demand by rail; and the governance, public planning and policy context) lead to an unsatisfactory rail connection between Liège (Belgium) and Maastricht (the Netherlands). Based on the results of the analysis, we suggest reinforcing cross-mobility connections through several tools such as (i) the development of a common governance, not only at the institutional level but also at the counter level of institutional level, by including economic and social stakeholders; (ii) the development of joint technical projects in relation to the infrastructure, communication systems and the rolling stock; and (iii) the strengthening of flows between the two sides of the border, especially the home-work flows.

Development of a Screening Tool to Improve Infectious Disease Detection: A Pilot

BACKGROUND High consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs) have potential to cause a high mortality rate among otherwise healthy populations. In partnership with the state department of health, a universal disease screening algorithm was developed to detect HCIDs and other infectious diseases. This screening tool was piloted in several locations, and staff provided feedback through pre- and post-pilot surveys. METHODS The new screening algorithm was piloted at three sites, an emergency department at a tertiary hospital, a specialty outpatient facility, and a family medicine clinic. Pre- and post-pilot surveys were completed by frontline staff to identify potential barriers, knowledge gaps, and comfort with the tool. Each site completed the novel screening alongside the current travel screening process at check-in for two weeks. Upon completion, surveys and screening results were compared to the existing process for time expenditure, staff perceptions, and sensitivity and specificity of the tools. RESULTS During the pilot, 1894 surveys were completed; of this number, 69 (3.64%) of the patients reported a fever, which prompted assessment for possible exposure and recent travel. Of the patients who reported a fever, 3/1894 (0.16%) had travel or exposure and were classified as “at risk” and 1/1894 (0.05%) had additional symptoms along with travel/exposure and were classified as “suspect” for an HCID. Per survey results, staff reported no significant time increase with the new process, but felt that additional education on HCIDs was needed. CONCLUSIONS The goals of this pilot were to develop a screening tool that efficiently detects HCIDs in healthcare settings and identify barriers to best practice. The results demonstrate a need for simple, effective screening tools, workflows, and staff education on infectious disease management. Using a universal screening model, facilities can improve their capability to prevent exposures, decrease response time, and reduce morbidity /mortality related to HCIDs.

The Fear of Not Flying: Achieving Sustainable Academic Plane Travel in Higher Education Based on Insights from South Australia

Universities are both disseminators and producers of the climate knowledge needed to institute the social and cultural change required for climate adaptation and mitigation to occur. They also have the opportunity to lead and model pro-environmental behavior, yet often have large carbon budgets, partly caused by staff travel. This paper explores this topic via an institutional case study of what factors motivate the academic community to undertake plane travel and the implications this has for wielding wider societal influence in terms of pro-environmental behavior. We report on a year-long qualitative social science study of academic plane travel at the University of Adelaide, South Australia where we investigated the tension between academic requirements to travel and the institution’s formal commitment to sustainability within the Campus Sustainability Plan. We found that, while many academics were worried about climate change, very few were willing to change their current practice and travel less because they are not institutionally incentivized to do so. There is a fear of not flying: plane travel is perceived as a key driver for career progression and this is an ongoing barrier to pro-environmental behavior. We conclude that institutional and political change will be required for individual change to occur and sustainable agendas to be met within academic communities.

Score a goal for climate: Assessing the carbon footprint of travel patterns of the English Premier League clubs

Football is the most popular sport, globally and in the United Kingdom. However it generates a range of negative environmental impacts, such as climate change, due to an extensive amount of travel involved. The growing contribution of football clubs to the global carbon footprint has been recognised, but never consistently assessed. This study assesses the carbon footprint of the English Premier League (EPL) clubs, using the patterns of their domestic travel in the 2016/2017 season as a proxy for analysis. The study shows that, within the 2016/17 season, the EPL clubs produced circa 1134 tonnes of CO2-eq. as a result of their travel, where transportation accounts for 61% of the carbon footprint. To reduce this carbon footprint, a careful review of the current corporate travel and procurement practices in the EPL clubs is necessary. This is in order to optimise the travel itineraries, prioritise more climate-benign modes of transport and contract budget accommodation providers with the ‘green’ credentials.

Could canine visceral leishmaniosis take hold in the UK?

Canine visceral leishmaniosis (CVL) is a life-threatening outcome of infection with Leishmania infantum , a protozoan parasite that is found throughout the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, Latin America and...

Technological Applications in Skin Cancer Prevention

In the United States, skin cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed. The three types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Of those, basal and squamous cell carcinomas are the most diagnosed skin cancer types. Both of which are curable, however they can mar skin in addition to being expensive to fight. Melanoma places in third for being diagnosed. All three types of skin cancer are linked to ultraviolet light rays which come from the sun, tanning beds and sunlamps. The checklist for early detection includes being aware of changes to your skin, visiting a licensed dermatologist or primary care physician to receive a body scan and assess for any skin concerns. By the same token, phone apps, recognition technologies, and devices for early detection have become a few of the forward-thinking prevention techniques for the future because of the knowledge that early detection leads to a better survival outcome. These phone apps analyzing digital images of moles and lesions for instance and determining the risk of cancer. This paper will delve into several apps that are on the market for smartphones that can be used for prevention of skin cancer. For example, Nevisense is a device used in office that's FDA-approved, painless and there's no downtime. In minutes, a doctor can use it on sunspots and moles that look suspicious or concerning. The device sends an electrical frequency into the skin and depending on the way the current travels, the device will notify the doctor whether a biopsy is recommended.

Impact of Public Transport Context Situation and Culture on Mode Choice

Arrival on time when reaching a trip destination is perceived differently by different communities, but the need to arrive at the desired time is essential. This study conducted a cross-cultural comparison of the waiting time reliability of public bus transport systems in three cities in three different countries: Haifa, Israel; Quito, Ecuador; and Valencia, Spain. The objective of the study was to understand and compare the importance of reliable public transport for university students attending classes in these diverse locations. A stated preference survey was conducted that considered the local fares and current travel times for each community. A logit model was designed to detect the importance of the waiting time reliability of bus timing. The values of time and value of reliability were estimated for each location, and the results were compared. The study established that reliability is, in fact, one of the important characteristics when choosing a travel mode (along with cost and travel time) across all of these diverse communities. The results showed that in all of the samples, the Value of Reliability (VOR) late was much higher than the Value of Reliability (VOR) early. Due to the differences between the transportation systems of the distinct countries, this study did not cover all possible transportation variables. An in-depth study, covering other variables, should be undertaken in the future.

Investigations on thin SS sheets joining by pulsed micro-plasma transferred arc process

Joining of thin sheets is challenging due to difficulty in maintaining localized melting and solidification. This becomes more difficult while thin sheet joining of stainless steel due to its poor weld/joining properties. This article reports on autogenous joining of 0.4 mm thickness sheets of 316L austenitic stainless steel (SS) using pulsed micro-plasma transferred arc (P-µPTA) process. Decision of using autogenous joining was taken on the basis of observations of experimentation on homogenous joining of SS thin sheets using 0.274 mm diameter SS filler wire. Effects of pulse-on time, pulse-off time, peak current and torch travel speed on the joint strength of weld were investigated with an objective to identify the optimum values for the maximum tensile strength of the joint. It was found that 50% duty cycle, 10% pulse frequency, 3.5 A peak current and torch travel speed 250 mm/min yielded maximum joint strength 553 MPa. The fusion zone was found to have finer grain size. Non-existence of heat-affected zone absence was assured by very minor dissimilarity in the values of microhardness over the fusion zone. This study establishes the capability of pulse micro-plasma transferred arc process for joining thin sheets of stainless steel without any filler material and producing very good quality joint with very insignificant heat-affected zone (HAZ), thermal distortion and porosity using much less power as compared to conventional fusion joining processes.

Heat distribution in electric hot incremental sheet forming

Electric hot incremental sheet forming (EHISF) is a technique based on the use of electric current to heat the metal sheet, it consists of a source of direct current (transformer), cables, tool, and plate constituting a closed circuit. According to Joule’s law, when the current travels from the tool to the plate, the current density generates heat. It is known that the mechanical and metallurgical proprieties of the materials are highly influenced by the temperature. Then it is important to know how the distribution of heat near the mobile heat source occurs. Recently, some researchers have suggested different techniques for calculating heat distribution as a function of a mobile source. In this paper, it discusses the temperature distributions when the source moves in relation to the conductive medium, comparing the equation proposal by Bejan the numerical simulation using an explicit finite element method, which has a suitable formulation for inserting the effects of temperature and strain rate in the material. The results show that for the conditions evaluated the model proposed by Bejan (Eq. 4) is very close to the results obtained by the numerical simulation. Moreover, as EHISF is a process with large deformations and time-consuming, it would be necessary to include the terms of the energy of plastic deformation (E) and also the loss by convection to better represent the distribution of heat in the plate.

Literary Tourist Guides as a Form of New Literary History. A Popular Genre in the Field of Professional Literary Knowledge

Abstract Literary historiography is not indifferent to phenomena that are of key importance to contemporary culture and the humanities, including tourism and travel writing/travel studies. By trying to incorporate the ways a contemporary person experiences the world, literary history uses narrative strategies that are typical of current travel discourse-e. g. of a tourist guide. A tourist guide is an applied genre and also a cultural representation of the literary past of a city or region. The central category for literary tourist guides is space and mobility (rather than timelines and other figures important in a grand literary history). Space functions here as the subject of narration and as the basic principle that orders the material. In that context, the form of a tourist guide is a way of presenting the literary past, remembering the history of the city and its literary works, the lives of writers. Adapting a tourist guidebook for the needs of literary history results from the fact that everyday practices, such as travel and walking, influence professional forms of knowledge. This article shows how academic knowledge (here: literary history) can be learned and popularised by means of a non-academic genre (here: literary tourist guides).

Mining Smart Card Data for Travellers’ Mini Activities

In the context of public transport modeling and simulation, we address the problem of mismatch between simulated transit trips and observed ones. We point to the weakness of the current travel demand modeling process; the trips it generates are overly optimistic and do not reflect the real passenger choices. To explain the deviation of simulated trips from the observed trips, we introduce the notion of mini-activities the travelers do during the trips. We propose to mine the smart card data and identify characteristics that help detect the mini activities. We develop a technique to integrate them in the generated trips and learn such an integration from two available sources, the trip history and trip planner recommendations. For an input travel demand, we build a Markov chain over the trip collection and apply the Monte Carlo Markov Chain algorithm to integrate mini activities in such a way that the trip characteristics converge to the target distributions. We test our method on the trip data set collected in Nancy, France. The evaluation results demonstrate a very important reduction of the trip generation error, and a good capacity to cope with new simulation scenarios.

Corrosion Behaviour of 316 Austenitic Stainless Steel Cladding on Copper Coated Low Alloy Steel by Gas Metal Arc Welding

Cladding has developed growing interest among engineers for providing greater corrosion resistance and erosion resistance of the surface of low grade steel components in aggressive environments. Austenitic stainless steel yields satisfactory results as a clad material and successfully used for last few decades. Among different techniques producing quality clad parts, gas metal arc welding is a popular method for cladding due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness. Corrosion resistance of the clad part depends on different microstructural phases as well as alloying elements present in clad layer. Copper, one of the austenising alloying elements, is used to increase corrosion resistance in steel especially in sulphuric acid atmosphere. In the present investigation, austenitic stainless steel (316) is clad by means of gas metal arc welding (GMAW) on copper coated E250 low alloy steel using 100% CO 2 as shielding gas. Copper coating is done on low alloy steel by electroplating process. Single layer cladding is done keeping 50% overlap. Process parameters of GMAW like welding current and troch travel speed are varied in three levels, keeping welding voltage constant. Heat input varies accordingly. Corrosion tests are carried out in three different media (ferric chloride, copper chloride and sulphuric acid solutions). Experimental results show that copper addition improves corrosion resistance to a great extent in sulphate atmosphere, moderately in ferric chloride and the least in case of copper chloride atmosphere. The corrosion rate decreases at higher heat input on the whole. In every case, the cladding exhibits much better corrosion resistance than the base metal.