Analysis of driver injury severity in wrong-way driving crashes on controlled-access highways

For more than five decades, wrong-way driving (WWD) has been notorious as a traffic safety issue for controlled-access highways. Numerous studies and efforts have tried to identify factors that contribute to WWD occurrences at these sites in order to delineate between WWD and non-WWD crashes. However, none of the studies investigate the effect of various confounding variables on the injury severity being sustained by the at-fault drivers in a WWD crash. This study tries to fill this gap in the existing literature by considering possible variables and taking into account the ordinal nature of injury severity using three different ordered-response models: ordered logit or proportional odds (PO), generalized ordered logit (GOL), and partial proportional odds (PPO) model. The findings of this study reveal that a set of variables, including driver’s age, condition (i.e., intoxication), seatbelt use, time of day, airbag deployment, type of setting, surface condition, lighting condition, and type of crash, has a significant effect on the severity of a WWD crash. Additionally, a comparison was made between the three proposed methods. The results corroborate that the PPO model outperforms the other two models in terms of modeling injury severity using our database. Based on the findings, several countermeasures at the engineering, education, and enforcement levels are recommended.     

Decisions and actions of distracted drivers at the onset of yellow lights

Driving on an approach to a signalized intersection while distracted is relatively risky, as potential vehicular conflicts and resulting angle collisions tend to be relatively more severe compared to other locations. Given the prevalence and importance of this particular scenario, the objective of this study was to examine the decisions and actions of distracted drivers during the onset of yellow lights. Driving simulator data were obtained from a sample of 69 drivers under baseline and handheld cell phone conditions at the University of Iowa – National Advanced Driving Simulator. Explanatory variables included age, gender, cell phone use, distance to stop-line, and speed. Although there is extensive research on drivers’ responses to yellow traffic signals, the examinations have been conducted from a traditional regression-based approach, which do not necessary provide the underlying relations and patterns among the sampled data. In this paper, we exploit the benefits of both classical statistical inference and data mining techniques to identify the a priori relationships among main effects, non-linearities, and interaction effects. Results suggest that the probability of yellow light running increases with the increase in driving speed at the onset of yellow. Both young (18–25 years) and middle-aged (30–45 years) drivers reveal reduced propensity for yellow light running whilst distracted across the entire speed range, exhibiting possible risk compensation during this critical driving situation. The propensity for yellow light running for both distracted male and female older (50–60 years) drivers is significantly higher. Driver experience captured by age interacts with distraction, resulting in their combined effect having slower physiological response and being distracted particularly risky.     

一种新型全折叠式集装箱的设计与运用

目的 为降低港航企业的集装箱空箱堆存和调运成本，提升全球集装箱市场的供应链效率，加速箱源周转。方法 提出一项空箱储运成本“减肥法”，即设计出一项新型全折叠式标准集装箱及其辅助工具。基于折叠式集装箱和空箱调运领域的参考文献和创新成果，以及《系列1集装箱技术要求和试验方法》，通过Adobe Illustrator和SolidWorks设计出新型全折叠式标准集装箱及其辅助工具各要件的平面图和3D图，并研究其工作机理；借助Workbench对折叠箱进行模拟试验，以研究折叠箱在最大应力和变形量下的强度和刚性。结果 研究表明该折叠箱最大应力（131.75 MPa）和最大变形量（4.1255 mm）均在ISO 1496—1标准容许的范围内，同时折叠状态下的空箱体积仅为普通空箱的三分之一，宜用于码头堆场、集装箱货运站、货主仓库和集装箱班轮等场景。结论 该项发明有助于为港口企业减少空箱的堆存成本、为运输企业降低空箱调运成本、为货主提供充足箱源运输货物，有较好的应用价值。     

Investigating the influence of curbs on single-vehicle crash injury severity utilizing zero-inflated ordered probit models

The severity of traffic-related injuries has been studied by many researchers in recent decades. However, previous research has seldom accounted for the effects of curbed outside shoulders on traffic-related injury severity. This study applies the zero-inflated ordered probit (ZIOP) model to evaluate the influences of curbed outside shoulders, speed limit change, as well as other traditional factors on the injury severity of single-vehicle crashes. Crash data from 2003 to 2007 in the Illinois Highway Safety Database were employed in this study.     

A bi-level programming model for protection of hierarchical facilities under imminent attacks

Disorders caused by deliberate sabotage and terrorist attacks have always been considered as a major threat by the governments. Hence, identifying and planning for strengthening of critical facilities have become a priority for more security and safety. This paper presents a bi-level formulation of the r-interdiction median problem with fortification for critical hierarchical facilities. In the developed bi-level formulation, the defender, as the leader, decides to protect a certain number of facilities in each level of the hierarchical system in order to minimize the impact of the most disruptive attacks to unprotected facilities. On the other hand the attacker, as the follower, with full information about protected facilities, makes his interdiction plan to maximize the total post-attack cost incurred to the defender. We develop three metaheuristic algorithms and an exhaustive enumeration method to solve the introduced problem. Extensive computational tests on a set of randomly generated instances demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed algorithms.     

System reliability for a multi-state manufacturing network with joint buffer stations

This paper studies system reliability for a multi-state manufacturing network with multiple production lines (MSMN-MPL) considering joint buffer station. Joint buffer stations with finite volumes are set into the MSMN-MPL to temporally store blocked outputs from upstream workstations. The usage volume of each joint buffer station is therefore affected by the capacity states of workstations. An adjustment term, defined as the probability that all buffer stations are not blocked, is proposed to analyze volume usage and corresponding probability for joint buffer stations. The system reliability with finite buffer volume is evaluated accurately in terms of the adjustment term. In particular, the relationship between system reliabilities with infinite and finite buffer volumes can be formulated by multiplying the adjustment term. A practical case of footwear manufacturing system is utilized to demonstrate system reliability evaluation with both infinite and finite buffer volumes. The suggested production policy for the case is to produce 144 and 96 products by two production lines because this policy can result a higher reliability. Moreover, experimental results show that the system reliabilities with infinite and finite buffer volume are 87.190% and 83.099%, respectively. This indicates that the assumption of infinite buffer volume overestimates the system reliability in the footwear manufacturing system.     

基于车体协同的铁路运输轮式货物轮挡设计

目的 为保证运输安全,轮式货物在铁路运输过程中需要用轮挡限位。针对我国铁路运输轮式货物的现状及存在的问题,提出车体与加固装置协同设计的理念,设计一种轮挡可调式,适用于多种规格的轮式货物,存用一体、可靠性高、使用快捷。方法 利用SolidWorks建立轮挡三维模型,通过铁路运输加固强度计算,确定在最不利状况下对轮挡的强度要求,进行载荷和约束分析,利用有限元分析软件SolidWorks simulation进行仿真计算及强度分析。结果 得到该轮挡在最不利工况下的应力及位移情况。最大应力出现在轮挡底面与活动销连接部位,最大应力值为499.9 MPa,不超出设计所用材料的许用应力（585 MPa）;最大位移为0.99 mm,在允许范围内。结论 该轮挡的强度满足安全运输的要求,用于多种轮式货物铁路运输装载加固,可有效提高加固效率。     

An urban traffic network model via coloured timed Petri nets

This paper deals with modelling of traffic networks (TNs) for control purposes. A modular framework based on coloured timed Petri nets (CTPNs) is proposed to model the dynamics of signalized TN systems: places represent link cells and crossing sections, tokens are vehicles and token colours represent the routing of the corresponding vehicle. In addition, ordinary timed Petri nets model the signal timing plans of the traffic lights controlling the area. The proposed modelling framework is applied to a real intersection located in Bari, Italy. A discrete event simulation of the controlled intersection validates the model and tests the signal timing plan obtained by an optimization strategy presented in the related literature.     

一种改进的混沌优化方法及其应用

根据混沌运动的遍历性提出了一种改进的混沌优化算法，其主要思想是把优化变量的取值范围细分为若干个等距区间，在各个区间内同时进行混沌搜索。由于每一次搜索都同时在细分区间内进行，从而加快了搜索的速度，并提高了得到全局最优解的近似精度。将改进算法应用于优化实例的仿真结果验证了这一结论。