Presence Of Intersections Research Articles

Autonomous Vehicle Decision-Making with Policy Prediction for Handling a Round Intersection

Autonomous shuttles have been used as end-mile solutions for smart mobility in smart cities. The urban driving conditions of smart cities with many other actors sharing the road and the presence of intersections have posed challenges to the use of autonomous shuttles. Round intersections are more challenging because it is more difficult to perceive the other vehicles in and near the intersection. Thus, this paper focuses on the decision-making of autonomous vehicles for handling round intersections. The round intersection is introduced first, followed by introductions of the Markov Decision Process (MDP), the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) and the Object-Oriented Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (OOPOMDP), which are used for decision-making with uncertain knowledge of the motion of the other vehicles. The Partially Observable Monte-Carlo Planning (POMCP) algorithm is used as the solution method and OOPOMDP is applied to the decision-making of autonomous vehicles in round intersections. Decision-making is formulated first as a POMDP problem, and the penalty function is formulated and set accordingly. This is followed by an improvement in decision-making with policy prediction. Augmented objective state and policy-based state transition are introduced, and simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for collision-free handling of round intersections by the ego vehicle.

Fossil group origins

Aims. In this work we study the large-scale structure around a sample of non-fossil systems and compare the results with earlier findings for a sample of genuine fossil systems selected using their magnitude gap. Methods. We computed the distance from each system to the closest filament and intersection as obtained from a catalogue of galaxies in the redshift range 0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.7. We then estimated the average distances and the distributions of cumulative distances to filaments and intersections for different magnitude-gap bins. Results. We find that the average distance to filaments is (3.0 ± 0.8) R200 for fossil systems, whereas it is (1.1 ± 0.1) R200 for non-fossil systems. Similarly, the average distance to intersections is larger in fossil than in non-fossil systems, with values of (16.3 ± 3.2) and (8.9 ± 1.1) R200, respectively. Moreover, the cumulative distributions of distances to intersections are statistically different for fossil and non-fossil systems. Conclusions. Fossil systems selected using the magnitude gap appear to be, on average, more isolated from the cosmic web than non-fossil systems. No dependence is found on the magnitude gap (i.e. non-fossil systems behave in a similar manner independently of their magnitude gap, and only fossils are found at larger average distances from the cosmic web). This result supports a formation scenario for fossil systems in which the lack of infalling galaxies from the cosmic web, due to their peculiar position, favours the growing of the magnitude gap via the merging of all the massive satellites with the central galaxy. Comparison with numerical simulations suggests that fossil systems selected using the magnitude gap are not old fossils of the ancient Universe, but rather systems located in regions of the cosmic web not influenced by the presence of intersections.

The Human Being in Eastern Church Father’s and Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology

The authors analyze two historical types of philosophical culture—the classical Eastern Patristics and Arab–Muslim medieval thought. They are united by the religious doctrine of man, which allows considering the intercultural and inter-theological nature of these traditions. In more particular terms, the article examines the understanding of the human being of the thinkers of Nicaea and post-Nicaea periods of Eastern patristics—Athanasius of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor—and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali as the most profound representative of the Sufi philosophical–theological system of the Middle Ages. The authors highlight the philosophical, intercultural, and interreligious significance of the mentioned anthropological concepts. The article focuses on the comparability and consistency of the ideas of the Church Fathers and al-Ghazali. Particular attention is paid to Islam’s theoretical image of man as a caliph—a successor—of the Creator on the Earth. Comparative studies reveal the patristic vision of man, containing in himself the fullness of Divinity and humanity. The main points of the dyophysite Christian understanding of the God Incarnate in contrast to the monophysite currents of Apollinarianism are revealed. The depth of the Christological views of Athanasius of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor is presented. Al-Ghazali’s doctrine of man is substantiated as a conceptual understanding of man’s place in the system of the world created by God, which is seen as a holistic and systematized doctrine of humanity in Muslim philosophy. Conclusions are made about the comparability and the presence of intersections between Eastern Christian, Byzantine, and Muslim types of thought.

Understanding distracted driving patterns of ride-hailing drivers from multi-source data: Applying association rule mining

This study aims to explore the association between distracted driving (including cognitive, visual, operational, and auditory distractions) and multi-source features of ride-hailing drivers, and to discover frequent patterns of distracted driving. To achieve this, a natural driving experiment was conducted, and an association rule mining (‘Apriori’ algorithm) was used to uncover hidden rules between distracted driving and the multi-source features (including emotion, valence, arousal, driving tasks, cumulative driving hours, velocity, longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration, heading rate, presence of intersections, traffic status, and driving time of day). Results indicate that distracted driving is prevalent among ride-hailing drivers in specific scenarios, including trips without passengers, non-intersection sections, driving for over 4 h, and congested traffic conditions. The emotional state of drivers has also been found to have an interesting association with distracted driving. For instance, cognitive and operational distraction were highly associated with positive driving emotions, but auditory distraction caused by passenger interference was highly associated with negative driving emotions. Moreover, there are variations in distracted driving patterns across different categories. These findings can help ride-hailing platforms develop more scientific and effective distracted driving monitoring and prevention strategies.

Influence of Intersection Density on Risk Perception of Drivers in Rural Roadways: A Driving Simulator Study

With the aim of maintaining a decent level of accessibility, the presence of intersections, often in high numbers, is one of the typical features of rural roads. However, evidence from literature shows that increasing intersection density increases the risk of accidents. Accident analysis literature regarding intersection density primarily consists of accident prediction models which are a useful tool for measuring safety performance of roads, but the literature is lacking in terms of evaluation of driver behavior using direct measurements of driver performance. This study focuses on the influence of intersection density on the risk perception of drivers through experiments carried out with a driving simulator. A virtual driving environment of a rural roadway was constructed. The road consisted of segments featuring extra-urban and village driving environments with varying intersection density level. Participants were recruited to drive through this virtual driving environment. Various driver performance measures such as vehicle speed and brake and gas pedal usage were collected from the experiment and then processed for further analysis. Results indicate an increase in driver’s perceived risk when the intersection density increased, according with the findings from the accident prediction modeling literature. However, at the same time, this driving simulator study revealed some interesting insights about oscillating perceived risk among drivers in the case of mid-level intersection separation distances. Beyond the accident research domain, findings from this study can also be useful for engineers and transportation agencies associated with access management to make more informed decisions.

Business as a source of the recruitment of high-ranking officials of Russian federal economic ministries

The article analyzes the role of business as a source of the recruitment of high-ranking officials of the economic ministries of the Russian government. The empirical basis of the study is a biographical database of 225 deputy ministers and directors of departments in eight ministries. The study demonstrated that although administrative professionalization is the most pronounced characteristic of officials’ careers, economic ministries are quite dependent on business as a channel for recruitment of their top executives, which, in this sense, has the features of a “new public management” bureaucracy. Business serves as the main supplier of senior staff for economic ministries outside the administrative realm, while large state-owned companies belonging to sectors supervised by ministries play a particularly significant role. Business experience is found more often at the highest level of the administrative hierarchy, particularly among deputy ministers. Interdepartmental differences are also significant: there are ministries with a pronounced presence of people from business, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture. In some ministries, the presence of intersections between ministers and their subordinates in the course of a business career preceding the current position is noticeable, which may indicate the importance of patrimonial recruitment based on personal loyalty or patron-client relations. The plutocratic recruitment of executives, especially noticeable in a number of ministries, probably puts overrepresented companies and industries in a privileged position in the policy-making and implementation process, thereby forming a kind of administrative bias in their favor.

Pathology of Takhti and Imam Reza Football Stadiums in Mashhad with Emphasis on Passive Defense

INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, paying attention to the significance of football stadiums as important urban facilities and applying the principles of passive defense in them are among critical areas in the field of urban management. Given that, the primary goal of the present research is to investigate the pathology of football stadiums with an emphasis on passive defense. METHODS: The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of the research approach. Data collection was accomplished through documentary and field studies. In the documentary domain, information and data were gathered from the website of sports complexes, publications, and brochures. Regarding the field domain, spatial data related to the city of Mashhad were collected from the database and field studies in the form of observations and interviews with stadium officials. The target stadiums in the present study are Takhti and Imam Reza stadiums, which were studied based on two main criteria of design and location selection based on the principles of passive defense. After specifying the indicators, Arc GIS software was used to perform data analysis and spatial analysis operations. FINDINGS: The research findings indicate that the most significant weaknesses of Takhti Stadium are the lack of access to first and secondary arterial roads, the presence of intersections and heavy traffic near the stadium, inadequate open space and parking lots, and lack of automatic fire suppression systems. The drawbacks of Imam Reza Stadium include the absence of shelter, no access to the subway stations, no direct access to primary arterial roads, and the absence of entrance and exit passageways in the stadium. CONCLUSION: The results indicate the fact that paying attention to the indicators and criteria of passive defense can extensively conserve and maintain sports facilities at times of crisis.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ АКУСТИЧНОГО НАВАНТАЖЕННЯ ВІД ТРАНСПОРТНОГО ПОТОКУ НА ПРИКЛАДІ МІСТА ХМЕЛЬНИЦЬКОГО

Introduction. Urbanization, intensification of road transport, development of urban infrastructure contributes to increased noise pollution. As traffic flows increase, so do acoustic discomfort zones, and the problem of traffic noise is becoming increasingly environmentally and socially important. Problem statement. The traffic flow significantly exacerbates the environmental problems of cities. One of the most negative factors is the increasing acoustic load. Noise pollution is currently becoming one of the most important environmental stressors. Noise levels depend on the intensity, speed, nature of traffic, type and quality of coverage, land use planning (longitudinal and transverse street profiles, building architecture, traffic lights) and the presence of greenery. Noise leads to an imbalance of auditory adaptation, regulatory processes of the central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, hemodynamic disorders, the development of noise sickness. At long influence mechanisms of reflex and neurohumoral reactions are broken, there is a nervous pathology, attention decreases by 12-16%. Physiological and biochemical adaptation of a person to noise is impossible, in addition, noise has an inherent consuming effect. Acoustic load has a negative impact on flora and fauna. The main ones are reduced adaptive and reproductive capacity, changes in trophic nets, increased risk of predation, growth retardation, accelerated transpiration, death of leaves and flowers. This problem is most acute for urban ecosystems, as urbanization is one of the main factors in reducing biodiversity due to the loss of natural habitats, their fragmentation or drastic change. In urban conditions, many anthropogenic (industrial, transport noise) is added to the natural noise, which significantly changes the acoustic background. Currently, the noise load in megacities has increased by 12-15 dB, and the volume by three to four times. In cities with heavy traffic, the noise level is approaching 80 dB. Cartographic methods are widely used to visualize and predict noise load. Mapping the noise load of cities is relevant for Ukraine. Currently, acoustic maps have been developed only for certain districts of Kyiv. The creation of acoustic maps will help improve the ecological condition of urban areas. Purpose. Investigate and assess the level of noise load created by traffic flows on the main highways of the city of Khmelnytsky, create an acoustic map and determine the main directions of noise pollution. Research methods. general scientific (generalization, comparison, analysis and synthesis, theoretical and methodological substantiation); mathematical statistics; field (full-scale measurements of noise on the territory); cartographic (construction of a map-scheme) Results. The article highlights the problem of urban ecosystem acoustic load. It is evaluated the noise pollution of Khmelnytskyi city in Ukraine. The noise contamination model is constructed using GIS technologies within modern software package. It is shown that simulation and visualization of noise load using software makes it possible to objectively and detail estimate the acoustic situation and to propose managerial decisions development to protect the population from noise. Conclusion. The intensity of traffic noise depends on the condition and width of roads, the distance of residential buildings from the axis of the roadway. Depending on the capacity of roads, the presence of intersections changes the acoustic load. Reduction of urban traffic noise is associated with absorbing, reflecting, shielding and insulating acoustic ability. Optimization of noise protection of the urban ecosystem depends on a set of architectural and planning solutions. When introducing technical and economic characteristics of noise protection measures, it is necessary to take into account their features (practical limitations and opportunities).

Accident data analysis and on-field inspections: do they lead to similar conclusions?

Network Safety Ranking and Road Assessment Programme (RAP) are two procedures used in road infrastructure safety management to rank the road sections of a network according to estimated road safety performance. The former uses indicators based on road accidents and their consequences while the latter method is based primarily on inspections of the road infrastructure.The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a relationship between the indicators used within these methods, in order to evaluate if and under which conditions RAP scores contribute to the prediction of accident numbers. The adopted approach is based on the calibration and analysis of a wide array of models in order to reproduce the observed events – injury road accidents, fatalities and injuries - with reference to different aggregations of the original data and in the two reference situations: with and without EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) indicators.. From the obtained results, the introduction of the EuroRAP indicators ends up making the models that explain the frequency of accidents more convincing from a statistical point of view. These indicators, which summarise the road safety performance of a road section, could prove useful in replacing the covariates (e.g. presence of intersections, geometrical and functional features of roads) that are used in the calibration of accident prediction models. However, it should be stressed that not all types of accident are addressed by the EuroRAP approach, and this may represent a limitation for those roadways where such kind of accidents are frequently observed, like rear-end collisions on motorways. Probably, by including these accident types, the explanatory power of the EuroRAP variables would increase, at least on motorways.

A novel surface mesh deformation method for handling wing-fuselage intersections

This paper describes a method for mesh adaptation in the presence of intersections, such as wing-fuselage. Automatic optimization tools, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, face the problem to adapt the computational grid upon deformations of the boundary surface. When mesh regeneration is not feasible, due to the high cost to build up the computational grid, mesh deformation techniques are considered a cheap approach to adapt the mesh to changes on the geometry. Mesh adaptation is a well-known subject in the literature; however, there is very little work which deals with moving intersections. Without a proper treatment of the intersections, the use of automatic optimization methods for aircraft design is limited to individual components. The proposed method takes advantage of the CAD description, which usually comes in the form of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) patches. This paper describes an algorithm to recalculate the intersection line between two parametric surfaces. Then, the surface mesh is adapted to the moving intersection in parametric coordinates. Finally, the deformation is propagated through the volumetric mesh. The proposed method is tested with the DLR F6 wing-body configuration.

A new approach for bikeshed analysis with consideration of topography, street connectivity, and energy consumption

In recent years, bike planning has gained the attention of planners and the public as a sustainable and active mode of transportation that can reduce traffic congestion, vehicle emissions, and health risks. Following the success of public bikesharing programs in cities in France and Canada, multiple US cities have initiated similar programs. With this background, spatial analysis has been applied to produce heat maps of bike-travel demand, and identify suitable areas for bikeshare infrastructure. Existing research considers a variety of factors, such as resident demographics, land use, street types, and availability of bike facilities and transit services. However, few studies fully account for topography and street connectivity.The study proposes a method to combine topography and presence of intersections with estimates of energy used to bike, and incorporate the resulting travel-impedance factor, as well as street connectivity, into a spatial analysis. Using the case in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, where elevation and street connectivity differ substantially among neighborhoods, this study shows how the size and shape of bikesheds (or bike demand catchment area) originating from the proposed light rail stations vary in the analysis with or without taking into account these critical factors. The analysis results have significant implications for various bike planning efforts using spatial analysis.

Roadway and traffic characteristics for bicycling

The promotion of bicycle transportation includes the provision of suitable infrastructure for cyclists. In order to determine if a road is suitable for bicycling or not, and what improvements need to be made to increase the level of service for bicycles on specific situations, it is important to know how cyclists perceive the characteristics that define the roadway environment. The present paper describes research developed to define which roadway and traffic characteristics are prioritized by users and potential users in the evaluation of quality of roads for bicycling in urban areas of Brazilian medium-sized cities. A focus group discussion identified 14 attributes representing characteristics that describe the quality of roads for bicycling in Brazilian cities. In addition, an attitude survey was applied with individuals to assess their perception on the attributes, along with the importance given to each one of them. The results were analyzed through the Method of Successive Intervals Analysis, which allows the transformation of categorical data into an interval scale. The analysis suggests that both the roadway and traffic characteristics related to segments and those related to intersections are important to the survey respondents. The five most important attributes, in their opinion, are: (1) lane width; (2) motor vehicle speed; (3) visibility at intersections; (4) presence of intersections; and (5) street trees (shading). Therefore, the research suggests that to promote bicycle use in Brazilian medium-sized cities, these attributes must be prioritized.

Temporal constraints on the grouping of contour segments into spatially extended objects

The speed of contour integration was investigated in a task that can be solved by grouping contour segments into elongated curves. Subjects had to detect a continuous curve, which could be intersected by one or two other curves. At locations where these curves came in close proximity, the assignment of contour segments to the different curves could be based on collinearity. Reaction times exhibited a strong dependence on (1) the presence of intersections among curves; and (2) the context provided by the stimulus set from which individual stimuli were selected. Reaction times were shortest when grouping of contour segments depended on information at a single location in the visual field. In this condition, responses to stimuli containing an intersection were faster than responses to stimuli that did not. When responses were determined by information at spatially separate locations, responses were delayed, and every intersection increased the reaction time considerably. This result contrasts with earlier investigations which have suggested that contour integration on the basis of collinearity is performed pre-attentively but is in accordance with studies on curve tracing. We propose that the assignment of contour segments to equally coherent curves, a process which may be called figure–figure segregation, is a function of object-based attention. Moreover, the protracted reaction times for some of the stimuli indicate that spread of attention within an object costs time. This implies that object recognition is not always as fast as is sometimes assumed.

An exponential relationship for the proportion of free vehicles on arterial roads

The proportion of free vehicles on a road link is dependent on the geometry of the road link and the presence of intersections along the link. This paper details the investigation of the proportion of free vehicles as a function of the link geometry. It is necessary to define the effects of the link geometry before the effect of intersections on the headway distribution can be incorporated. Current methods for describing the proportion of free vehicles on a road link predominantly use linear relationships with the vehicle flow rate. An exponential relationship has been examined and found to be better suited to the modelling of the proportion of free vehicles than the existing linear relationships. In modelling the flow in each lane, the characteristics of the traffic flow were found to be dependent on the lane type being modelled. The kerb lane sustained a higher proportion of free vehicles than the median lane for similar flow rates. This finding is significant in the analysis of priority intersections. The difference is attributed to driver behaviour and is related to the expected ease of overtaking. Using these results the proportion of free vehicles is described as a function of the lane type, lane width and the vehicle flow rate through the use of exponential relationships. The influence of intersections upon the characteristics of the traffic flow can then be incorporated by describing the effect of the proportion of free vehicles on the road link.