Total Travel Research Articles

Analysis of Pill Box Geometrical Shapes for Kinetics and Pilling of Textile Materials

Abstract Pill boxes with various geometrical shapes, such as triangular, cubical, hexagonal, octagonal, and cylindrical shapes, have been theoretically analyzed for their kinetics and compared with the experimental trials using cotton, viscose, linen, polyester/cotton (P/C) (80/20), P/C (65/35), and polyester/viscose (P/V) (70/30) woven fabrics for pilling behavior. Theoretical analysis revealed that as the number of polygon sides increases, the total sample tube movement increases, which leads to continuous motion; however, in the cylindrical box, the single impact force decreases, while the total impact force of the sample remains the same. As the sliding angle increases, an increase in the total impact force and tube travel time at a decreasing rate is observed; the sliding angle is the inclination angle of the polygon side at which the sample tube starts moving horizontally. Experimental trials have revealed that the hexagonal box is more efficient in the pilling of textiles than the other boxes. These trials have also shown the average pills/in2 to be 3.2, 4.3, 2.7, 4.3, 2.8, and 2.4 for cotton, viscose, P/C (80/20), P/C (65/35), P/V (70/30), and linen, respectively, with the total average number of pills for all materials being 79. Various mechanisms and statistical analyses have been attributed. The overall ranking of the pill boxes has shown that the order of pilling is hexagonal, cubical, octagonal, triangular, and cylindrical.

Alternate Criteria in LP Solutions of Public Transport Line Planning

In the paper, the public transportation line planning means planning of routes and frequencies of vehicles on them. In the world literature, different criteria are used in this context; mainly the variable costs of lines, the fixed costs of lines, the fixed plus variable costs of lines, the number of direct travellers, the total or average riding time and the total or average travelling time. The current paper adds two more: the total number of used vehicles (to be minimized when all passengers are transported) and relative excess of supply over demand (to be maximized without exceeding the number of available vehicles). Basic mathematical models for both cases are presented and the motivation of such approach is described including a brief excursion into the history of the Czech and Slovak research of line planning where the use of these objectives has arisen. Further, the basic models were modified for the cases of fourteen special practical requirements, e.g. heterogeneous vehicle fleet (= rolling stock), limitation of transfers, elastic demand, limited total number of lines, etc. The brief outline of the experience with practical use is added as well.

Geographic access to emergency obstetric services: a model incorporating patient bypassing using data from Mozambique

IntroductionTargeted approaches to further reduce maternal mortality require thorough understanding of the geographic barriers that women face when seeking care. Common measures of geographic access do not account for the...

A cell-based dynamic congestion pricing scheme considering travel distance and time delay

This study introduces the dynamic congestion pricing (DCP) problem with the consideration of the actual travel distance and time delay (i.e. a joint distance and time-delay toll, JDTDT) in a dynamic network, which is more equitable and effective compared with existing tolling scheme. The system dynamics can be reflected in two aspects: (a) travelers' path choice decisions follow the dynamic user equilibrium principle and (b) the joint distance and time-delay toll takes a time-varying pattern. A multiperiod demand scheme is adopted during the entire modeling horizon and a bi-level programming model for the DCP is formulated to obtain the optimal toll value. Numerical results indicate that the percentage reductions of the minimum total system travel time in the dynamic JDTDT scheme are 6.28%, 4.30% and 7.45% compared to that obtained by the static joint JDTDT, the dynamic joint distance and time toll, and the dynamic pure distance toll, respectively.

Cyclic Timetable Scheduling Problem on High-speed Railway Line

Due to several obvious advantages both in transport marketing and train operation planning, the cyclic timetable has already applied in many high-speed railway (HSR) countries. In order to adopt the cyclic timetable in China's HSR system, a Mixed Integer Programmer (MIP) model is proposed in this paper involving many general constraints, such as running time, dwell time, headway, and connection constraints. In addition, the real-world overtaking rule that concerning a train with higher priority will not be overtaken by a slower one is incorporated into the cyclic timetable optimization model. An approach based on fixed departure is proposed to get a cyclic timetable with minimum total journey time within a reasonable time. From numerical investigations using data from Guangzhou-Zhuhai HSR line in China, the proposed model and associated approach are tested and shown to be effective.

STUDIES ON TOXICOLOGICAL AND NEUROBEHAVIORAL PROFILE OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF MUSSAENDA ROXBURGHII HOOK. F. LEAVES IN MICE

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the toxicity of Mussaenda roxburghii with special reference to the nervous system.
 Methods: For the study, 15 mice were obtained from Pasteur Institute, Shillong. The mice were then divided into three groups containing five mice in each group. The groups were, namely Group I, Group II, and Group III; Group I mice received distilled water and acted as a control group, Group II mice received plant extract at a dose of 600 mg/kg body weight (BWT.), and Group III mice received plant extract at a dose of 800 mg/kg BWT. The doses were administered orally through oral gavage tube for 28 days and the BWT of the mice was measured at 7th, 14th, 21th, and 28th days. The behavior of mice was evaluated for anxiety, locomotion, immobility, learning, and memory with the elevated plus maze test (EPMT), open field test (OFT), forced swim test (FST), and Morris water maze test (MWMT), respectively.
 Results: The result of the experiment showed a decrease in the BWT of mice exposed to plant extracts significantly as compared to the control. In the OFT, there is a significant decrease in total distance travel in OFT and also total distance travel in the central zone in mice treated with the plant extracts as compared to the control mice. In the EPMT, the plant extract treated mice showed a decreased in the time spent in open arms. The FST results in increased immobility in mice exposed to plant extracts as compared to control. In the present study, MWMT results in an increased escape latency and path length and in decreased annulus crossovers in plant extract treated group as compared to control.
 Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that the plant extract alters the behavior of the treated mice and possesses neurotoxic activity.

A new design and evaluation approach for managed lanes from a sustainability perspective

This article presents a comprehensive framework that optimizes traffic management measures to reduce emissions and fuel consumption and evaluates their operating and secondary environmental impacts. A new managed lane strategy is presented that minimizes the total passenger travel time on the freeway. This managed lane focuses on simultaneously optimizing toll schemes on the high occupancy toll (HOT) lane and the operation of the general purpose (GP) lanes. With reduced congestion and thus reduced number of acceleration and deceleration events associated with stop-and-go traffic, fuel efficiency increases and emissions are reduced. PARAMICS microscopic traffic simulator, which considers the behavior of individual vehicles (e.g., acceleration, deceleration, and lane changing behavior) is used to collect traffic performance and emission data for estimating mobility and emissions measures (i.e., operating phase). While previous studies only focused on operating phase impact, this study uses a Leontief input-output (I-O) model to establish the financial flow between industries to capture the large-scale environmental impacts of HOT lane deployment (i.e., secondary impact). The core of the new evaluation approach lies in its capability to provide a more thorough assessment of the environmental impacts of traffic management schemes by quantifying the impacts associated with the interplay between the activities of various sectors and the transportation industry. The I-O model is utilized to assess the indirect impacts of induced demand generated from network improvements and evaluate the environmental impacts of HOT lane deployment in regional economies. The developed approach is applied to The City of Calgary. The results of the study show that the traditional approaches that only evaluate the operating phase impacts of transportation strategies considerably overestimate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Cost and Time-Integrated Road-to-Park Cruising Prevention Scheme in Smart Transportation

Vehicle cruising for a destination-nearby parking lot has been a problem to drivers in cities. This problem causes drivers to consume unexpected time and resources to compete for a parking lot. Conventional parking schemes are in place to predict or reserve the parking spaces. Some of these schemes optimize the total cost only for locating parking spaces and road traffic condition is usually ignored. In this investigation, key road traffic conditions, such as vehicle queueing at the intersection of roads and parking fee information, are considered since they influence time and cost in the parking process. As such, a new comprehensive parking scheme is needed in place to assist drivers to identify the appropriate parking lot, estimate the transportation time to reach the parking lot, as well as the parking expenses. In essence, the total journey time and the total cost are important factors. However, former research lacked a harmonious consideration of these two factors. In this paper, a new parking model (PM) is developed for a holistic optimization of time and cost. The performance is measured by a newly defined indicator, referred to as a figure of merit, which is a fusion of time and cost. The analysis reveals that the incorporation of PM improves the performance by 24% ~43%.

Access and egress times to high-speed rail stations: a spatiotemporal accessibility analysis

Accessibility by high-speed rail (HSR) depends not only on station-to-station travel time, but also on access and egress times, which can be determining factors in total journey travel time. However, studies focusing on accessibility analyses of access/egress times to/from stations are less extended in the literature and centre mainly on the influence of access times to stations on HSR accessibility levels on a regional scale. This paper's aim is to evaluate the importance of access and egress times to/from HSR stations in an urban context. We carry out a spatiotemporal accessibility analysis that considers the temporal variations of both taxi and public transport travel times. General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) files for public transport and TomTom Speed Profiles data for cars are used to measure access/egress times. These kinds of data allow for the calculation of travel times from/to HSR stations through network analysis GIS tools at different times of the day, and thus a spatiotemporal accessibility measure can be obtained. This accessibility measure is complemented by a mass factors representing the activity ‘hotspots’ in the visited city throughout the workday, which is derived from Twitter data, while population is considered for city of residence. This method was applied to the two largest metropolitan areas in Spain: Madrid and Barcelona, where the influence of access/egress times acquires a higher relevance for rail-based trips. The results obtained show that access and egress times vary significantly during the day, depending on the levels of traffic congestion and the frequency of public transport services, which are always more favourable for taxis. In addition, weighted average access and egress times at the home end are higher than those at the activity end since population tends to show more dispersed spatial patterns than activities. Another interesting finding is that the first and last mile of the HSR trip usually account for a high percentage increase in travel time (about 35% for taxis and 55% for public transport, respectively). These results have important policy implications. The paper suggests that HSR accessibility can be improved also by improving local transport services, scheduling coordination and land use policies.

Link Prediction Investigation of Dynamic Information Flow in Epilepsy.

As a brain disorder, epilepsy is characterized with abnormal hypersynchronous neural firings. It is known that seizures initiate and propagate in different brain regions. Long-term intracranial multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) reflects broadband ictal activity under seizure occurrence. Network-based techniques are efficient in discovering brain dynamics and offering finger-print features for specific individuals. In this study, we adopt link prediction for proposing a novel workflow aiming to quantify seizure dynamics and uncover pathological mechanisms of epilepsy. A dataset of EEG signals was enrolled that recorded from 8 patients with 3 different types of pharmocoresistant focal epilepsy. Weighted networks are obtained from phase locking value (PLV) in subband EEG oscillations. Common neighbor (CN), resource allocation (RA), Adamic-Adar (AA), and Sorenson algorithms are brought in for link prediction performance comparison. Results demonstrate that RA outperforms its rivals. Similarity, matrix was produced from the RA technique performing on EEG networks later. Nodes are gathered to form sequences by selecting the ones with the highest similarity. It is demonstrated that variations are in accordance with seizure attack in node sequences of gamma band EEG oscillations. What is more, variations in node sequences monitor the total seizure journey including its initiation and termination.

Disaster relief routing under uncertainty: A robust optimization approach

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and the Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem (SDVRP) with uncertain travel times and demands when planning vehicle routes for delivering critical supplies to a population in need after a disaster. A robust optimization approach is used for CVRP and SDVRP considering the five objective functions: minimization of the total number of vehicles deployed (minV), the total travel time/travel cost (minT), the summation of arrival times (minS), the summation of demand-weighted arrival times (minD), and the latest arrival time (minL), out of which we claim that minS, minD, and minL are critical for deliveries to be fast and fair for relief efforts whereas minV and minT are common cost-based objective functions in the traditional VRP. A new two-stage heuristic method that combines the extended insertion algorithm and tabu search is proposed to solve the VRP models for large-scale problems. The solutions of CVRP and SDVRP are compared for different examples using five different metrics in which we show that the latter is not only capable of accommodating the demand greater than the vehicle capacity but also is quite effective to mitigate demand and travel time uncertainty, and thereby outperforms CVRP in the disaster relief routing perspective.

Urban Growth, Transport Planning, Air Quality and Health: A Multi-Objective Spatial Analysis Framework for a Linear Monocentric City

In this paper, we propose a multi-objective spatial analysis framework to evaluate the economic, environmental and health impacts of transport investment strategies under different urban growth scenarios. We consider a linear monocentric city (LMC) wherein residents are distributed continuously along an urban corridor and commute daily to a common destination, the central business district (CBD), represented by one end of the linear city. Two modes are available: car and rail. Users can travel from their residence to the CBD by car on a congestible highway with stochastic travel time, or by rail from the most convenient nearby station, which they reach by walking or cycling. Travellers throughout the city have a distribution of reliability preferences. Individual mode choice is determined using the notion of travel time budget surplus to take into consideration the travel time, travel time reliability and monetary cost associated with each mode. We assume users would like to minimise travel time, monetary cost, and maximise travel time reliability. The resulting formulation is a three-objective user equilibrium model (TBSmaxTUE). For the continuous monocentric city model, TBSmaxTUE can be formulated as a fixed point problem. To admit a numerical solution the continuum is discretised, allowing it to be expressed as a standard network equilibrium assignment problem. The performance of this LMC model can then be analysed against multiple objectives. We consider the economic objective to minimise total system travel time; the environmental objective to minimise total tailpipe emissions from car trips; and health objectives to minimise pollutant uptake while also maximising the level of physical activity during the journey to work.

Moment-based travel time reliability assessment with Lasserre’s relaxation

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes the generalized moment problem (GMP) to assess total system travel time (TSTT) reliability on a traffic network. As a distribution-free method, the proposed approach only needs moment information of uncertainty to make the evaluation. In the GMP, upper bound of the probability that TSTT exceeds some predefined threshold value (which is called unreliability function) is the objective, and moment information of uncertainty is formulated as constraints. Based on the first moments and support information of total link travel time of each link, we use Lasserre’s relaxation to reformulate the GMP as a semi-definite programming, which can be solved efficiently. We test the proposed method on traffic networks of different sizes. Numerical results show that the upper bounds obtained with our method are tightest in most cases and show different tail information. The results may also bring some useful insight to applications of the moment-based method in practice.

Central Institute of Psychiatry: A fictional journey to past in a time machine.

A fictional journey was planned and carried out in a time machine, to know and understand the glorious past of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi. As Dr. Anand, the protagonist, went through different periods in the history of CIP, he narrated his experiences while meeting different peoples in different clinical settings. In this journey, he met Lt. Col Berkeley-Hill at European Mental Hospital, as it was in the 1930s. He tried to understand the relevance of Professor Mapother's report and its essence in relation to European and Indian psychiatric scenario during inter-war period, the significance of Moore-Taylor's report, and the direction of psychiatric training and teaching during postindependence era under Major RB Davis as the superintendent of Hospital for Mental Diseases (HMD). Here, Dr. Anand met the great rebel poet of Bengal (and the national poet of Bangladesh later), Kazi Nazrul Islam, who was here for a short period, before being shifted to Europe for further treatment. Dr. Anand also met other superintendents/directors of CIP during postindependence period and tried to understand the significance of those periods in the total journey of CIP till today. The journey started in the present and went back in time. Finally, a brief comparative analysis has been made regarding the status of CIP vis-à -vis other important psychiatric institutes/hospitals in the past and present.

An MPCC Formulation and Its Smooth Solution Algorithm for Continuous Network Design Problem

Continuous network design problem (CNDP) is searching for a transportation network configuration to minimize the sum of the total system travel time and the investment cost of link capacity expansions by considering that the travellers follow a traditional Wardrop user equilibrium (UE) to choose their routes. In this paper, the CNDP model can be formulated as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCC) by describing UE as a non-linear complementarity problem (NCP). To address the difficulty resulting from complementarity constraints in MPCC, they are substituted by the Fischer-Burmeister (FB) function, which can be smoothed by the introduction of the smoothing parameter. Therefore, the MPCC can be transformed into a well-behaved non-linear program (NLP) by replacing the complementarity constraints with a smooth equation. Consequently, the solver such as LINDOGLOBAL in GAMS can be used to solve the smooth approximate NLP to obtain the solution to MPCC for modelling CNDP. The numerical experiments on the example from the literature demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible.

Application of Policy Deployment and Daily Management in service sector

BackgroundPolicy Deployment and Daily Management are two critical vehicles of Total Quality Management implementation in a company. Integration of these two vehicles has been discussed and adequately addressed in a few companies that have been practicing Total Quality Management for a long time. However, most companies often face challenges and difficulties in ensuring smooth and seamless transfer of Policy Deployment plans into Daily Management activities.Case descriptionThe challenge is even bigger in service sector which embarked on the Total Quality Management journey barely 5–6 years ago. The service sector has traditionally used Balanced Scorecard which has relatively weaker emphasis on the means to achieve the targets. The authors of this report have found a customized and unique model whose success has been demonstrated through deployment in two customer-facing processes in a large life insurance company in India. The traditional approach used in manufacturing industry has been simplified and customized for the effective application in the service sector.Discussions & EvaluationThe traditional approach used in manufacturing industry has been simplified and customised for the effective application in the service sector. A survey was done to identify the issues and the approach was modified and implemented in couple of key customer-facing processes.ConclusionThe phenomenal results have led to a big ‘pull’ from other process owners to replicate this approach across all operational and support processes. Initial ‘reluctant participants’ of the process have now become the ‘champions’ and truly the ‘change catalysts’ for this approach. The process is now being replicated in several other processes across several Industrial sectors.

Robust motion profiles for the residual vibration reduction of an undamped system

This paper proposes two robust motion profiles to reduce the residual vibration of an undamped system: Trigonometric and trapezoidal acceleration motion profiles. The proposed motion profiles are defined by the total traveling, accelerating, and rising times in acceleration for each profile. Due to their simplicity, implementation of the proposed motion profiles is relatively easier when compared to previous input-shaping motion profiles. Furthermore, the proposed profiles are more robust in terms of system modelling errors than previous s-curve motion profiles. It is found in this paper that the zero vibration and robustness conditions are satisfied if the total traveling, accelerating, and rising times are half-integer multiples of the natural period for the trigonometric profile and integer multiples for the trapezoidal profile.

Move fast, travel slow: the influence of high-speed rail on tourism in Taiwan

ABSTRACTHigh-speed rail (HSR) and tourism are closely related economic activities because improved mobility is perceived to facilitate tourist behavioral changes. This study examines the influence of HSR on the travel patterns of individual tourists in Taiwan in relation to time, space and carbon emissions. A framework is first provided to discuss how changes in the speed of intercity transportation will affect visitors’ choice of the journey, behavior at destinations and trip quality. In addition, HSR is expected to influence five general aspects of travel decisions relating to mobility and trip emissions, including mode selection, travel distance, length of stay per trip, annual travel frequency and total travel days. In the example of Taiwan, information by onsite sampling of 400 domestic travelers found that HSR had a weak influence on travel distance and length of stay per trip, but was observed to facilitate extended time at each stop, a deeper engagement with the locality, and an approximate 10% reduction in transport carbon emissions through intermodal substitution. These phenomena are in line with the slow travel concept of sustainable tourism consumption.

Network-based model for predicting the effect of fuel price on transit ridership and greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract As fuel prices increase, drivers may make travel choices to minimize not only travel time, but also fuel consumption. Consideration of fuel consumption would affect route choice and influence trip frequency and mode choice. For instance, travelers may elect to live closer to their workplace, or use public transit to avoid fuel consumption and the associated costs. To incorporate network characteristics into predictions of the effects of fuel prices, we develop a multi-class combined elastic demand, mode choice, and user equilibrium model using a generalized cost function of travel time and fuel consumption with a combined solution algorithm. The algorithm is implemented in a custom software package, and a case study application on the Austin, Texas network is presented. We evaluate the fuel-price sensitivity of key variables such as drive-alone and transit class proportions, person-miles traveled, link-level traffic flow and per capita fuel consumption and emissions. These effects are examined across a heterogeneous demand set, with multiple user-classes categorized based on their value of travel time. The highest relative transit elasticities against fuel price are observed among low value of time classes, as expected. Although total personal vehicle travel decreases, congestion increases on some roads due to the generalized cost function. Reductions in system-wide fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are observed as well. The study uncovers the combined interactions among fuel prices, multi-modal choice behavior, travel performance, and resultant environmental impacts, all of which dictate the urban travel market. It also equips agencies with motivation to tailor emissions reduction and transit-ridership stimulus policies around the most responsive user classes.

Long-term impact of the Shinkansen on rail and air demand: analysis with data from Northeast Japan

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses how the high-speed rail construction in Northeast Japan (Tohoku) has affected total demand and interregional travel patterns. We use annual interregional passenger data from 1989 to 2012 and apply regression analysis with the demand between Tokyo and the Tohoku prefectures as the dependent variable. We distinguish particularly between the ‘Full-’ and the ‘Mini-’ Shinkansen, where the latter are branch services running with reduced speed. We find that the ‘Full-Shinkansen’ quickly increases rail and total public transport trips and generates additional rail demand year on year. The ‘Mini-Shinkansen’ impacts are less pronounced. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the Shinkansen has shifted some demand from air to rail once it started operation and increased rail share gradually. We therefore suggest that predictions of demand impacts should carefully distinguish immediate from gradual impacts. We also discuss differences in regional demand in that not all prefectures have gained equally from Shinkansen construction.