Rapid Bridge Replacement under Emergency Situation: Case Study

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and subsequent potential threats to the United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to elevate the security of the transportation infrastructure and to develop emergency response plans to quickly react to the possible consequences of an extreme event. Highway bridges, as critical components of the nation’s transportation network, have been brought to closer attention by government agencies. A research project was conducted to identify strategies and technologies to restore the use of a damaged bridge quickly. One of the tasks associated with the research was to perform several case studies of previous bridge replacements following extreme events. These events include explosion and fire caused by vehicle impact, vessel collision with a bridge, and damage caused by flood and earthquake. By studying the cases, the research team seeks to identify and expand on lessons learned and address which actions did and did not work well given the circumstances of the incident. These lessons have great value to the people who need to develop and implement an emergency response plan.     

基于避险设施的火灾救援及避灾路线算法

以VC#.net、SQL Server 2008和地理信息系统为平台,对矿井地图进行了具有地理属性开发的研究,建立了图形库、数据库、方法库和知识库,并构建了基于避险设施的矿井火灾应急救援系统。对矿井火灾进行了实时在线模拟,分析和预测了火灾动态发展趋势,实现了矿井火灾烟流传播和最佳避灾路线的动态可视化显示功能。引入安全性、通行效率等因素对灾后巷道通行能力的变化进行修正,制定了基于避险设施的最优避灾路线选择原则和"理想—可行—逃生"等级路线。利用堆栈数据结构对Dijkstra算法进行改进,提高了在线运算速度。该系统已应用到潞安常村煤矿。      

The medical situation in Bhutan with special consideration of mountaineering

Several thousand mountaineers a year from Germany alone visit high mountains (4000 to 7000 m) in non-european countries. This number si steadily increasing and it seems necessary to familiarize oneself with the medical situation in these countries. Compared to other countries we saw that in Bhutan rescue is possible within a short time, because of the rather short distances between trekking routes and the Thimphu General Hospital. Medical staff in this hospital is very cooperative, for instance if a patient with severe joint injuries should be transferred to Europe for treatment with all possibilities of bone and joint surgery. Generally, however, we recommend to establish special rescue stations in various places with wireless equipment in order to get help as soon as possible in case of emergency and to avoid delayed rescue or transportation under poor conditions (horse back).     

Testing and Evaluating Alternative Algorithms for Location Referencing System Route Generation

Modeling the transportation network of roads and highways for data and information system implementations presents unique challenges. The foremost challenge is selecting a modeling methodology that is compatible with the needs and culture of the organization using it. The second challenge is implementing the model in a viable enterprise information system via a database. Transportation information systems must efficiently store network topology and geometry, as well as attributes, and they must be compatible with geographic information systems (GIS). This paper deals with the topological aspects of the highway network. In particular, it describes computing methodologies for generating location referencing system routes. The paper describes the link node referencing system used to build the routes and mentions an alternative approach using GIS. Various algorithms are presented and described, test case results are presented, the algorithms are compared, and evaluation criteria are defined.     

Global Optimization of Pavement Structural Parameters during Back-Calculation Using Hybrid Shuffled Complex Evolution Algorithm

In this paper, the use of a hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm is proposed for global optimization of pavement structural parameters through inverse modeling. Shuffled complex evolution (SCE) is a population-based stochastic optimization technique combining the competitive complex evolution with the controlled random search, the implicit clustering, and the complex shuffling. Back-calculation of pavement layer moduli is an ill-posed inverse engineering problem, which involves searching for the optimal combination of pavement layer stiffness solutions in an unsmooth, multimodal, complex search space. SCE is especially considered a robust and efficient approach for global optimization of multimodal functions. A desirable characteristic of the SCE algorithm is that it uses information about the nature of the response surface, extracted using the deterministic Simplex geometric shape, to direct the search into regions with higher posterior probability. The hybrid back-calculation system described in this paper combines the robustness of the SCE in global optimization with the computational efficiency of neural networks and advanced pavement system characterization offered by employing finite-element models. This is the first time the SCE approach is applied to real-time nondestructive evaluation of pavement systems required in the routine maintenance and rehabilitation activities for sustainable transportation infrastructure.     

Expanding the role of the neonatal transport nurse: nurse-led teams

Nottingham neonatal service provides a unit-based interhospital transport programme for the stabilization and transportation of critically III neonates within the Trent region. The transport nurse is responsible and accountable for providing optimum care for infants in conjunction with a registrar. The quality of care received by the neonate requiring emergency transfer could be further enhanced by a team of two specifically trained transport nurses.     

三山岛金矿西山矿区深部运输系统优化改造工程实践

为实现降本增效,对三山岛金矿西山矿区深部开拓的运输系统进行改造,改变原来无轨运输至地表(或-243 m水平)的运输系统,设计并施工-537 m转运系统.使生产、基建的矿(废)石全部转运至新立矿区-600 m水平,由14 t电机车牵引11辆6 m3矿车进行有轨运输,通过新立主混合井提至地表.优化改造后的运输系统平均运距减...     

Transportation Distance Measurement Data Quality

Data quality and spatial data accuracy issues are critical to any geographic information systems (GIS) application, especially GIS applications in the transportation community. This paper addresses one specific aspect of spatial data accuracy issues, namely, linear measurement (length measurement), through a transportation case study. In the case study, an alternative to distance measurement instruments (DMI) was proposed to determine road lengths for interstate highways in North Carolina. In the proposed alternative, the road lengths were calculated by overlaying GIS roadway linework over elevation data—in this case the National Elevation Dataset, which was developed based on U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 min digital elevation models and calculating a centerline roadway slope distance. The results of this approach were collected and compared with DMI lengths to assess the accuracy of the proposed approach. Error sources were tentatively identified and control mechanisms were discussed. Computer tools and models used to model surfaces and roadway linework are emphasized in this paper. The computer algorithms used for length calculations and accuracy assessment are described. This research concluded that, by carefully controlling quality of both the roadway linework data and the elevation data, GIS programs can be written to provide accurate length measurements to the transportation community. Furthermore, instrumentation like global positioning systems, high resolution cameras, and precise odometers can be combined to create productivity enhancing automated engineering systems.     

应急救援物资车辆运输路线多目标优化

运用运筹学中图论及多目标优化的理论和方法建立应急救援物资车辆最佳运输路线的选择模型,并基于启发式算法求解该模型.从静态网络应急物资车辆运输路线的双目标优化问题入手,设计适合本文模型的算法,并将之推广至含有三个及三个以上优化目标的路线选择问题.引入时间扩展图的概念,将动态网络中的最佳运输路线问题转化为静态网络中的路径选择问题.算法实质是通过构造辅助决策函数实现Dijstra算法的调用,并在辅助函数构成的搜索空间上寻找最优解,是一种快速的、近似的算法.利用随机路网和真实路网测试本文算法,测试结果与本文的理论分析一致,证明本文算法在应急救援物资车辆运输路线的多目标优化问题中可行且有较好的应用效果.      

Simulation As a Tool to Assess the Vulnerability of the Operation of a Health Care Facility

Health care systems are classified as critical infrastructure systems when responding to disaster events. Physical damage to health care facilities or disruption of their operations or supply chains could prevent an effective response and aggravate the outcome of an emergency situation. Even if a hospital or public health facility were not directly affected by the disaster event, these facilities are required to operate efficiently during an emergency in order to manage a surge of capacity. When infrastructure systems are damaged as a result of man-made or natural disaster events, insufficient supply of resources through these systems affects their performance. In this paper, a system dynamics simulation model will be used as a tool to represent the operation of a health care facility, including the interaction between the different service areas (emergency room, intensive care unit, wards, operating room), the flow of patients inside the facility, and the condition of the infrastructure systems that supply resources (i.e., water, power, transportation of medical supplies) to maintain the operation of the facility. The results of this study may assist hospital administrators in their disaster preparedness plans, providing information regarding the level of occupancy and patients waiting to enter the service areas.     

Silicone breast implants and long-term health effects: when are data adequate?

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine whether ambulance transport time from the scene to the emergency department is faster with warning lights and siren than that without. DESIGN: In a convenience sample, transport times and routes of ambulances using lights and sirens were recorded by an observer. The time also was recorded by a paramedic who drove an ambulance without lights and siren over identical routes during simulated transports at the same time of day and on the same day of the week as the corresponding lights-and-siren transport. SETTING: An emergency medical service system in a city with a population of 46,000. PARTICIPANTS: Emergency medical technicians and paramedics. RESULTS: Fifty transport times with lights and siren averaged 43.5 seconds faster than the transport times without lights and siren [t = 4.21, P = .0001]. CONCLUSION: In this setting, the 43.5-second mean time savings does not warrant the use of lights and siren during ambulance transport, except in rare situations or clinical circumstances.     

Finding Optimal Bus Service Routes: Internet-Based Methodology to Serve Transit Patrons

Internet-based transportation systems are becoming widespread due to advances in Internet, computing, and geospatial information system (GIS) technologies. An internet-based methodology that allows public transportation users to find routes and buses between pairs of origin and destination addresses is discussed in this paper. The methodology is considered as a framework where several different transportation-related objectives can be met. Of these objectives, finding the sequence of bus routes with a minimum number of bus-to-bus transfers between any two entered addresses is focused in the work presented in this paper. With the proposed methodology, users are provided with information on the bus routes (bus numbers) they should take and locations where they should get on and off the bus including all bus-to-bus transfer points. The methodology is intended to be easily accessible and available through standard Web browsers on the client machine and be interoperable with respect to data and software facilitating integration to other data and software. To demonstrate some of the features and capabilities of the methodology, a prototype of the methodology, called iBus, is also discussed.     

水钢铁路运输调度集中与调度监督系统的开发

首钢水城钢铁（集团）公司运输部承担着水钢生产的铁路运输,由于近年企业生产规模成倍扩大,但受特殊的山区环境条件限制,水钢铁路运输站场规模已很难扩大,利用计算机及网络信息技术开发铁路运输调度集中与调度监督管理系统,获得了很好的经济效益。主要介绍运输调度集中与调度监督管理系统的结构、功能及效果。     

Bax and adenine nucleotide translocator cooperate in the mitochondrial control of apoptosis

The proapoptotic Bax protein induces cell death by acting on mitochondria. Bax binds to the permeability transition pore complex (PTPC), a composite proteaceous channel that is involved in the regulation of mitochondrial membrane permeability. Immunodepletion of Bax from PTPC or purification of PTPC from Bax-deficient mice yielded a PTPC that could not permeabilize membranes in response to atractyloside, a proapoptotic ligand of the adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT). Bax and ANT coimmunoprecipitated and interacted in the yeast two-hybrid system. Ectopic expression of Bax induced cell death in wild-type but not in ANT-deficient yeast. Recombinant Bax and purified ANT, but neither of them alone, efficiently formed atractyloside-responsive channels in artificial membranes. Hence, the proapoptotic molecule Bax and the constitutive mitochondrial protein ANT cooperate within the PTPC to increase mitochondrial membrane permeability and to trigger cell death.     

Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport Simulation with Imprecise Parameters

A methodology has been developed in this study wherein a genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find a global optimal solution to a groundwater flow and contaminant problem by incorporating an artificial neural network (ANN) to evaluate the objective function within the genetic algorithm. The study shows that an ANN-GA technique can be used to find the uncertainties in output parameters due to imprecision in input parameters. The ANN-GA methodology is applied to five case studies involving radial flow in a well, one-dimensional solute transport in steady uniform flow, a two-dimensional heterogeneous steady flow, a two-dimensional solute transport, and a two-dimensional unsteady groundwater flow to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the developed algorithm. The results show that, with this approach, one can successfully measure the uncertainty in groundwater flow and contaminant transport simulations and achieve a considerable reduction in computational effort when compared to the vertex method that has been widely used in the past.     

济钢铁路站场精益物流管理

济钢工厂站为提升铁路站场吞吐力,实施精益物流管理。分析影响铁路运输效率的原因,并制定相应的措施。通过完善程序加强协调,规范车辆流程,加强调度组织,强化联系沟通,实现了运输无中断、无绕道、无等待、无回流,完善了停时绩效评价考核机制。物流状况得到明显改善,精益铁运管理日趋完善。     

An improved lance design for hot metal de-sulphurisation

Hot metal de-sulphurisation is a dip-lance process involving the pneumatic injection of fine-grained de-sulphurisation reagents into the molten metal. For maximum efficiency the particles must be dispersed in the ladle as widely as possible to increase the total interfacial area which is primarily controlled by the lance design. Seven different lance configurations were modelled and simulated to determine the most efficient design using physical and mathematical modelling approach. A 0.25 scale plexi-glass model of the 100?T hot metal ladle was fabricated for the study. Residence time and mixing time studies were carried out using the electrical conductivity measurement technique through stimulus response of injected saturated salt solution. Mathematical modelling approach using momentum balance was used to simulate fluid flow profile of lance-ladle assembly under operating conditions using computational fluid dynamics package ANSYS-CFX. Based on the studies a new curved port lance has been designed which resulted in uniform and swirling flow profile inside the ladle without rotating the lance. Injection through the new lance increased the residence time of the particles and reduced the dead zones. The new design was fabricated and experimented at de-sulphurisation stations and has resulted in reduced flux consumption and treatment time.     

铁水运输过程热损失模拟计算浅析

为了考察铁水运输过程中的热损失,开发了铁水运输过程温降数学模型。该模型准确性较高,计算结果与现场数据吻合良好。利用该模型对铁钢界面的3种铁水运输工艺进行了能效对比分析,得到了不同运输条件对铁水运输过程能效利用的影响等一系列结果。结果表明,铁水表面加保温剂或加保温盖能够显著减小铁水温降,存在临界运输距离和临界运输时间使得鱼雷罐-兑铁包工艺和一罐到底工艺的铁水温降相等,兑铁包初始温度对临界运输距离和临界运输时间均有影响。     

Rapid Bridge Replacement: Processes, Techniques, and Needs for Improvements

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequent potential threats to the United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to develop emergency response plans in order to quickly react to the possible consequences of an extreme event. Highway bridges, as critical components of the nation’s transportation network, have received increased attention. To respond to the potential threats on highway bridges, a research project was conducted to identify rapid bridge replacement processes, techniques, and needs for improvements. To achieve the research objectives, the research team studied three cases of previous bridge replacements following extreme events. By studying these cases, the research team first sought to identify and expand on lessons learned and then addressed which actions did and did not work effectively under the incident circumstances. Using the lessons learned government agencies and engineering and construction communities could enhance their emergency response plans for future incidents. Next, the research team identified needed improvements so that the research community could investigate new technologies to advance current practices.     

高效液膜法分离富集与测定钢、钼中的痕量锌

用HDEHDTP、PX - 10 0和n -Hexane高效液膜体系研究Zn2 的迁移行为。在适宜条件下10min内Zn2 的迁移率达 99.5 %以上。液膜体系 :膜相为 7%HDEHDTP、2 %PX - 10 0和 91%n -Hexane;内相为 0 .2mol/LH2 SO4溶液 ;外相为pH 3～ 4。实验表明 ,Fe3 、Al3 、Cu2 、Cd2 、Mo6 、Co2 、Ni2 、Hg2 等 ,碱金属、碱土金属 ;Cl-、NO-3 、ClO-4、F-、SiO2 -3 、SO2 -4等离子都不影响 ,只有Zn2 能从这些离子中得到满意的分离富集。此法已用于富集、测定钢铁和钼中痕量锌 ,结果相当满意。