Short-distance Mobility Research Articles

Verification of the Operability of Short-Distance Mobility Vehicles (Electric Wheelchair) WHILL Through Test Drive Experiments

Verification of the Operability of Short-Distance Mobility Vehicles (Electric Wheelchair) WHILL Through Test Drive Experiments

Is Silent External Human–Machine Interface (eHMI) Enough? A Passenger-Centric Study on Effective eHMI for Autonomous Personal Mobility Vehicles in the Field

Autonomous personal mobility vehicle (APMV) is a miniaturized autonomous vehicle designed for short-distance mobility to everyone. Due to its open design, APMV’s passengers are exposed to communications between the external human-machine interface (eHMI) on APMV and pedestrians. Therefore, effective eHMI designs for APMV need to consider potential impacts of APMV-pedestrian interactions on passengers’ subjective feelings. This study from the perspective of APMV passengers discussed three eHMI designs: (1) graphical user interface (GUI)-based eHMI with text message (eHMI-T), (2) multimodal user interface (MUI)-based eHMI with neutral voice (eHMI-NV), and (3) MUI-based eHMI with affective voice (eHMI-AV). In a riding field experiment (N = 24), eHMI-T made passengers feel awkward during the “silent time” when eHMI-T conveyed information exclusively to pedestrians, not passengers. MUI-based eHMIs with voice cues showed advantages, with eHMI-NV excelling in pragmatic quality and eHMI-AV in hedonic quality. Considering passengers’ personalities and genders in APMV eHMI design is also highlighted.

The Resilience and Adaptation of Pastoralist Livestock Mobility in a Protracted Conflict Setting: West Darfur, Sudan

Abstract This paper focuses on the dynamics of pastoralist herd mobility in West Darfur State, Sudan, a region affected by persistent conflict. The paper examines the annual cycle and seasonal trajectories of mobility for camels, cattle, and sheep, comparing mobility patterns by livelihood specialisation and reviewing the mobility of multi-species herds. Using social research tools and remote sensing livestock tracking technology, the study found diverse livestock mobility patterns within the region. Conflict and insecurity have reduced the freedom and flexibility of these movements. Persistent insecurity combined with climate shocks have led to adaptations, including changes in herd species composition and owner preference, and a shift from long to short-distance mobility closer to the home area. Ultimately these changes have undermined the resilience of the pastoral system. The paper considers the implications of these changes in pastoralist mobility for humanitarian needs, building livelihood resilience and promoting peaceful integration with other users of natural resources.

INFLUÊNCIA DO TREINAMENTO COMPOSTO SOBRE A APTIDÃO FÍSICA EM ATLETAS DE BADMINTON

ABSTRACT Introduction: Currently, compound rapid stretching training has been explored by sports researchers. However, most research focuses on soccer, basketball, volleyball, and other sports that require vertical jump fitness, but little attention is paid to badminton. Objective: Study the influence of compound rapid stretching training on fitness in professional badminton athletes. Methods: By experimental and statistical methods, 16 outstanding college badminton players were randomly divided into composite training and control groups. The sports performance test (T-shaped run) and short-distance mobility test (5-10-5), were evaluated and compared before and after the intervention, adding a specific rapid stretching training protocol to the composite group. Results: Comparatively, the T-run and hexagonal jump tests were significantly improved in the composite group (P<0.01). The time required to complete the 5-10-5 moving test progressed from 3.980s to 3.763s, significantly longer than the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: 6-week training with rapid stretching was shown to significantly improve the fitness of college badminton athletes. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

Delineating borders of urban activity zones with free-floating bike sharing spatial interaction network

Free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) programs have been put into use in many cities around the world in an effort to provide travel convenience for local inhabitants. However, it is unclear whether the existing administrative subdivisions reflect the most plausible spatial structure for the daily movements of FFBS users. In this study, we first build a spatial interaction network based on FFBS journey data from Nanjing, China. On this basis, urban activity zones are delineated leveraging the Leiden community detection algorithm, and a set of network measures are then utilized to examine the properties of these activity zones. The community detection results show that the identified activity zone borders rarely overlap with existing administrative district borders. Activity zone borders could separate FFBS travel flows more rationally than administrative district borders. In order to quantitatively explore the attenuation effect of activity zone borders on FFBS travel flows, we further subdivide the borders into various types (i.e., administrative, natural, and infrastructural borders) and construct border effect models. The regression results show that, in addition to demographic size, built environment, and distance factors, the activity zone border parameters are also revealed as important predictors of bilateral travel flows. Among the different types of activity zone borders, natural borders consisting of water bodies and mountains have the most significant attenuation effect on FFBS travel flows. The delineation of activity zones could better portray short-distance mobility patterns and urban structures, thereby providing nuanced and appropriate guidance for deliberating related policies.

Peasants’ Serfdom, Freedom and Mobility in the Cracow Province (1501–1800)

Abstract The article analyses the mobility of peasants, especially in the context of their relations with their landlords. It considers the role of serfdom and demesne lordship, and the circumstances in which peasants left their villages, whether legally or illegally. It then examines measurements of geographical distances covered in such movements. In the period under review, the predominance of short-distance mobility was characteristic of the peasant population in the Polish Lands; the average scope of the geography of their everyday life was about 15 kilometres. What is important for today’s understanding of both serfdom in Polish history and peasant mobility, is the relationship between the landlord, the leaseholder and the serf. Another key circumstance is that, while limiting the serfs’ mobility by restricting their personal freedom, serfdom also generated mobility through various orders given to peasants with respect to transport services.

Impact of COVID-19 pneumonia on population mobility in ethnic minority areas

The main channel for the spread of COVID-19 is macro and micro population flow, and population and material flow are important means to promote economic development and ensure people’s living standards, especially for ethnic areas with relatively backward economic development. Based on Baidu migration data, this paper confirms that population flow data has a strong correlation with urban GDP indicators, and quantitatively analyzes the population inflow, population outflow and intra-city population flow in cities in ethnic areas during the new coronavirus epidemic. Influenced by the epidemic, after the Spring Festival in 2020, China’s urban population flow showed a trend of first sharp decline and then a slow upward trend, and the reduction of population outflow and population inflow after the epidemic reflects the limited long-distance population flow in my country, while the increase in urban population flow reflects the post-epidemic population flow. Short-distance mobility increased slightly. The impact of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic on different ethnic regions across the country varies greatly. The northwestern ethnic regions are greatly affected by the epidemic. The average population flow in some cities has dropped by more than 50%, while the impact on the southwestern ethnic regions is relatively small. Analyzing the population flow and economic changes in ethnic areas during the epidemic, and demonstrating the impact of the epidemic in each city will help to formulate more effective prevention and control strategies and poverty alleviation measures for these areas. The analysis results can provide decision-making reference for relevant departments.

Design and Development of Economical E-Bicycle

People around the globe using fuel powered bikes for city riding and short distance mobility. Which is one of the reason for increasing CO2 emission parallelly counts for increasing global warming. Because of this, electric bicycle come into the picture as an alternative. The need for an affordable and efficient transportation system has created a growing demand for Electric Bicycles in India and this project is seen as an opportunity, rather a challenge to design and develop a leading electric bicycle class for commute to quotidian. The electric bicycle has wheels that are specially powered by an electric hub motor, powered by a battery pack,that provides the required power. The electric bicycle has an electric motor with an intelligent controller and a battery pack connected to efficient cable systems and monitoring tools. Also, the use of electric bicycles will create less pollution and keep the environment alive. These project research mainly highlights into the design and development of a smart, Economical, and secure electric bicycle achieved through market research, studying the available options to determine the customers need and there requirement.

Ferry–Based Directional Forwarding Mechanism for Improved Network Life-Time in Cluster-Based Wireless Sensor Network

Considerable energy saving can be achieved with mobility-based wireless sensor networks (WSN's), where a mobile node (ferry) visits sensing nodes in a network to collect sensed data. However, the critical issues of such WSN's are limited networks lifetime and high data latency, these critical issues are due to the slow mobility and relatively long route distance for ferries to collect and forward data to the sink. Incorporating ferries in WSNs eliminates the need for multi-hop forwarding of data, and as a result, reduce energy consumption at sensing nodes. In this paper, we introduce the One Hop Cluster-Head Algorithm (OHCH), where a subset of ferries serve as cluster heads (CH), travel between nodes with short distance mobility, collect data originated from sources, and transfer it to the sink with minimum hop count possible, this approach can achieve more balance between network energy saving and data collection delay, also, it is an efficient design to combine between ferries and noise.

User Behavioral Intentions toward a Scooter-Sharing Service: An Empirical Study

This paper proposes an innovative shared scooter service whereby scooter owners can authorize the rental of their scooters to others through a mobile service platform. It constitutes a public short-distance mobility service for travelers and increases the efficient utilization of each private scooter. The study examines the adoption of scooter-sharing services by travelers and adapts the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, attitude, and user experience (UX) to investigate the factors that may influence traveler acceptance of scooter-sharing services. The data were collected from Taiwanese travelers who used the shared scooters provided in this study and completed pre- and post-use subjective ratings of the scooter-sharing service (n = 99), analyzed using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that the model constructs of habit, social influence, and environmental protections may positively affect users’ behavioral intentions toward shared scooters, while performance expectancy and effort expectancy may negatively affect intention to use. Attitudes and UX had no direct effect on intention to use. In light of the findings, recommendations for improving the design of scooter-sharing services, implications for service providers, and a reference basis for the development of future shared micro-mobility services are provided.

Consumer acceptance of shared e-scooters for urban and short-distance mobility

E-scooters have conquered urban areas as a means for individual mobility and compete with other modes of transportation. While some studies endorse e-scooters as eco-friendly solution for crowded cities, others report contradictory findings and highlight safety issues. To reveal factors affecting e-scooter usage from a consumer’s perspective, a study using an adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) is conducted. Based on random sampling among German public transportation services, 749 responses were collected and analyzed. E-scooters are studied in the context of mobility alternatives, revealing that they are mostly viewed as fun objects, and perceived safety indeed impedes their usage. Additionally, environmental concerns and individual convenience (i.e., performance expectancy) evince to represent the main drivers for using e-scooter. Besides, differences in the motivation for (potential) usage were found between owners and non-owners. Regarding the ecological assessment of e-scooters, they may, in fact, substitute walking over short distances.

Biodistance studies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East: An overview and future prospects

Biodistance studies have a long presence in Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern (EMME) bioarchaeology. In line with trends seen in North America and elsewhere, such studies were originally typological and were often adopted to explore mass migrations, while after the advent of New Archaeology in the 1960 s, the research questions started covering issues of past population structure and short-distance mobility, and the statistical methods adopted became increasingly sophisticated. Nowadays, despite the revolution in ancient DNA and isotope studies, biodistance analyses are still broadly applied in EMME assemblages to address an ever-expanding range of topics. This paper provides a brief overview of biodistance studies in this region, with a focus on their temporal evolution. In addition, it discusses the directions in which such studies should move in the near future, with an emphasis on the need for even more studies, association of the results with other bioarchaeological, material cultural, historical and ecological information, and methodological standardization.

Clean hydrogen production by the hydrolysis of magnesium-based material: Effect of the hydrolysis solution

Autonomous low-pressure hydrogen on demand system was found promising to supply fuel cell technology for light or short distance mobility applications. Among the various hydrogen production technologies, the hydrolysis reaction method of magnesium-based materials is one of the most suitable. Magnesium (Mg) powder ball milled with the simultaneous addition of graphite and nickel under Ar was used as the hydrolysis reagent for hydrogen production. The effects of the solution composition (i.e. NaCl, NH4Cl and HCl) and the temperature (i.e. from 0 °C to 60 °C) of the solution on the hydrolysis performances were discussed. The hydrolysis reaction was complete (i.e. yield = 100%) in less than 5 minutes, except that performed at 0 °C, regardless the hydrolysis solution. The activation energy of the reaction decreases with lowering the pH of the hydrolysis solution. Semi-quantitative analysis was performed to evaluate the variation of CH4, CO, CO2 and moisture contents in the hydrogen produced by the hydrolysis. The exothermicity of the reaction and the composition of the hydrolysis solution showed a major impact on the purity of hydrogen. Under standard pressure and ambient temperature conditions, the hydrolysis of magnesium-based materials is considered as a clean hydrogen production technique. Our results should be taken as the starting point to evaluate the purity of the hydrogen produced by the hydrolysis of Mg-based materials according to the ISO standard 14687:2019.

Foreign countries, foreign customs: an analysis of short-distance mobility of new immigrants in the Rhine-Main region in Germany

Mobility is an important driver of social integration. Against this background, the years since 2014 challenged cities and municipalities in Europe when a large number of immigrating refugees came to Europe and had to be integrated into society. Federal, regional, and local politics had to find strategies to overcome these difficulties without detailed understanding of the needs. Research has shown that mobility behaviour of recently settled immigrants significantly differs from locals due to language barriers or different mobility cultures, for example. However, little is known about the details of difference and how supportive measures actually affect their mobility behaviour. Using the example of asylum applicants from the Middle East and Africa in the metropolitan region of Frankfurt Rhine-Main in Germany, this paper analyses mobility for immigrants from the demand and supply sides. It brings together mobility demand and local and political efforts to satisfy this demand. Data were collected in focus groups, a survey among relevant public organisations, and a survey among immigrants. Results show that there is a need for action, as current measures, such as information on public transport or bicycle courses for immigrants, are not as effective as expected. Concurrently, data reveal that public administration and voluntary organisations have reached their limits and cannot intensify mobility measures for immigrants. Based on these findings, recommendations for public administration, voluntary workers, transport planners, and policy makers are derived that help to improve the situation of immigrant mobility.

A Life Course Approach to Immigrants’ Relocation: Linking Long- and Short-distance Mobility Sequences

This paper integrates life course principles to investigate interdependencies between residential, family and professional trajectories following an international migration, and enhance the more classic micro-economic explanations of foreign-born internal migration. Using retrospective data from the Swiss Household Panel survey, we follow foreign-born residents for a six-year period and analyse long- and short-distance mobility outcomes. By considering repeated migration in a multilevel framework, we tackle the question of whether successive migration is due to a short-term adjustment process or rather to a long-term phenomenon for a hypermobile segment of the population. The results corroborate important synchronicities between marriage, employment transitions and spatial outcomes, but fail to confirm the simultaneous process of childbirth and residential relocation. We conclude that successive long-distance and successive short-distance migration are confined to a selected segment of the population with high latent mobility propensity, while a long-short migration sequence rather results from a process of housing adjustment.

Who Benefits from More Housing? A Panel Data Study on the Role of Housing in the Intermunicipal Migration of Different Age Cohorts in Sweden

Although Swedish housing standards are high and young adults leave the parental home relatively early, there are indications that for certain groups housing has, in recent years, become less accessible. We analyse how housing characteristics affect intermunicipal mobility for different age cohorts and estimate a panel data gravity model that models migration as a function of origin and destination characteristics. The results suggest that new construction in the past two decades has negatively affected migration within commuting regions more than migration between commuting regions. For metropolitan areas, there are considerable negative effects on net migration from other commuter regions because new construction has not kept pace with population growth. The effects are stronger for young adults (20-44) compared to older adults (45-74). Further, we find that, while new construction stimulates mobility for all age cohorts, the estimated relationship is weaker for the youngest adults; indicating a need for more variation in new construction to satisfy different needs. Also, we find that the decreased share of rentals since 1992 have negatively affected the short-distance mobility of the youngest adults while the effect is weaker or even positive for the remaining age cohorts.

Differing responses of zircon, chevkinite-(Ce), monazite-(Ce) and fergusonite-(Y) to hydrothermal alteration: Evidence from the Keivy alkaline province, Kola Peninsula, Russia

A quartzolite from the Rova occurrence, Keivy alkali granite province, Kola Peninsula, Russia, is used to examine the differing responses of certain rare-metal minerals during interaction with hydrothermal fluids. The minerals are two silicates [chevkinite-(Ce) and zircon], a phosphate [monazite-(Ce)] and an oxide [fergusonite-(Y)]. Textural evidence is taken to show that the dominant alteration mechanism was interface-coupled dissolution-reprecipitation. Zircon was the most pervasively altered, possibly by broadening of cleavage planes or fractures; the other minerals were altered mainly on their rims and along cracks. The importance of cracks in promoting fluid access is stressed. The compositional effects of the alteration of each phase are documented. The hydrothermal fluids carried few ligands capable of transporting significant amounts of rare-earth elements (REE), high field strength elements (HFSE) and actinides; alteration is inferred to have been promoted by mildly alkaline, Ca-bearing fluids. Expansion cracks emanating from fergusonite-(Y) are filled with unidentified material containing up to 35 wt% UO2 and 25 wt% REE2O3, indicating late-stage, short-distance mobility of these elements. Electron microprobe chemical dating of monazite yielded an age of 1665 ± 22 Ma, much younger than the formation age of the Keivy province (2.65–2.67 Ga) but comparable to that of the Svecofennian metamorphic event which affected the area (1.9–1.7 Ga) or during fluid-thermal activation of the region during rapakivi granite magmatism (1.66–1.56 Ga). Dates for altered monazite range from 2592 ± 244 Ma to 773 ± 88 Ma and reflect disturbance of the U-Th-Pb system during alteration.

O papel das redes na mobilidade laboral de curta e longa distância: evidências para o Brasil formal

<title>Resumo</title><p>Este artigo tem o objetivo de investigar os determinantes da mobilidade de trabalhadores de curta e longa distância entre microrregiões brasileiras no período 2004-2008, com ênfase no papel das redes de mobilidade preestabelecidas. São construídas matrizes de deslocamento por meio da base de dados Rais-Migra, empregando variáveis explicativas na forma de razão destino/origem, e utilizando como arcabouço metodológico os modelos para dados de contagem, a fim de identificar diferenças e similitudes desses fluxos de trabalhadores em relação a diferentes distâncias. Os resultados apresentam evidências consistentes com o histórico de atratividade das regiões para migração, indicando que redes ou conexões prévias facilitam a mobilidade espacial laboral. Além desses resultados, na mobilidade de curta distância o trabalhador se desloca para destinos com maiores densidade e proporção de graduados, além de menores criminalidade, congestionamento e grau de industrialização. Em longas distâncias, os fluxos são orientados para destinos com menores criminalidade, além de maiores saldos entre trabalhadores admitidos e desligados. A distância entre microrregiões sempre figura como fator inibidor da mobilidade, independente dos cortes de distância usados.</p>

Walking short distances. The socioeconomic drivers for the use of proximity in everyday mobility in Barcelona

Many studies have found that cities, with residents that are co-located with jobs and services in compact and diverse urban environments, generate positive outputs for a number of areas of social policy, with issues ranging from environmental to social and including public health. This evidence supports promoting rich and thriving neighbourhoods in order to encourage short distance mobility. In this context, we use a wide travel survey (EMQ06), undertaken in Spain, to measure short-distance travelling within Barcelona and to assess how distinct social groups make use of the local scale for their everyday mobility. The effects of socioeconomics and access to transport are discussed, prior to applying a Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) method, in order to explore heterogeneity among the different social groups, in terms of local travelling. We found that nearly a quarter of all daily mobility in Barcelona is performed with a local trip, and that short trips are more frequently undertaken for personal purposes. Also, age, gender and access to private transport appear as significant factors. Overall, our results suggest that a proximity scale is being used by those groups with greater time–space constraints, such as working women or low income people without access to private vehicles, opening important implications on transport policy regarding the design of proximity-prone environments.

Environmental Change and Out-Migration: Evidence from Nepal.

Scholars and activists have hypothesized a connection between environmental change and out-migration. In this paper we test this hypothesis using data from Nepal. We operationalize environmental change in terms of declining land cover, rising times required to gather organic inputs, increasing population density, and perceived declines in agricultural productivity. In general, environmental change is more strongly related to short- than long-distance moves. Holding constant the effects of other social and economic variables, we find that local moves are predicted by perceived declines in productivity, declining land cover, and increasing time required to gather firewood. Long-distance moves are predicted by perceived declines in productivity, but the effect is weaker than in the model of short-distance mobility. We also show that effects of environmental change vary by gender and ethnicity, with women being more affected by changes in the time required to gather fodder and men by changes in the time to gather firewood, and high caste Hindus generally being less affect than others by environmental change.