Search results for " transportation"
showing 10 items of 511 documents
Is There a Predisposition towards the Use of New Technologies within the Traffic Field of Emerging Countries? The Case of the Dominican Republic
2021
Technological devices are becoming more and more integrated in the management and control of traffic in big cities. The population perceives the benefits provided by these systems, and, therefore, citizens usually have a favorable opinion of them. However, emerging countries, which have fewer available infrastructures, could present a certain lack of trust. The objective of this work is to detect the level of knowledge and predisposition towards the use of new technologies in the transportation field of the Dominican Republic. For this study, the National Survey on Mobility was administered to a sample of Dominican citizens, proportional to the ONE census and to sex, age and province. The k…
Endoscopy at Bedside in Isolated Patients with Severe COVID-19: Our Approach during the Pandemic
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the management of emergency medicine and those complications that needed interventional procedures, such as endoscopy or other radiological procedures. At the beginning of the outbreak, there were no exploitable recommendations regarding the proper policy to apply for limiting the virus spread during endoscopy. Between the first and the second wave, the approach regarding interventional procedures changed, due to higher awareness and newly defined protocols, even if different among the health centers. Patients with severe COVID-19 may develop major gastrointestinal complications or require nutritional support, so interventional procedures are required at bedsid…
Influence of Two Different Coating Application Methods on the Maintenance of the Nutritional Quality of Fresh-Cut Melon during Storage
2021
This study aimed at evaluating the effects of two coating application methods, spraying and dipping, on the quality of fresh-cut melons. An alginate-based coating containing both ascorbic and citric acid was applied at two concentrations (5% and 10%) with both methods on fresh-cut melon. The nutritional quality of the products was investigated during 11 days of storage at 10 °C. The suitability and adaptability of the applied coatings on the fruit were evaluated based on rheological and microstructural properties. Moisture, carotenoids, total polyphenols and ascorbic acid content were analyzed on melon samples during storage. Results showed that the coating solution applied by the dipping m…
Heuristics for the Constrained Incremental Graph Drawing Problem
2019
Abstract Visualization of information is a relevant topic in Computer Science, where graphs have become a standard representation model, and graph drawing is now a well-established area. Within this context, edge crossing minimization is a widely studied problem given its importance in obtaining readable representations of graphs. In this paper, we focus on the so-called incremental graph drawing problem, in which we try to preserve the user’s mental map when obtaining successive drawings of the same graph. In particular, we minimize the number of edge crossings while satisfying some constraints required to preserve the position of vertices with respect to previous drawings. We propose heur…
Head, chest and femur injury in teenage pedestrian–SUV crash; mass influence on the speeds
2018
This work studies the teenage pedestrian–sport utility vehicle (SUV) crash; injury to the vital parts of the body, such as the head and chest, and to the femur is evaluated. More advanced injury criteria are applied, as provided in the rules. The multibody technique is applied by making use of SimWise software and of the teenager anthropomorphic model, the use of which is now consolidated. Head injury criterion (HIC) is used for the head, thoracic trauma index (TTI) criterion for the thorax in the case of side impact and 3 ms criterion in the case of frontal impact, while the force criterion is used for the femur. Both the TTI and femur load evaluation require non-substantial modifications…
Electric vehicles and psychology
2021
The popularity of electric vehicles is evidenced by the broad range of manufacturers presenting new models of plug-in hybrid and battery vehicles. However, the success of the revolution or, rather, the rebirth of electric vehicles, is hanging by a thread, as it lacks the involvement of a large number of users, and many psychological mechanisms hinder it. What are users’ true feelings about this new world of vehicles? Are people ready for the fifth level of automation, i.e., fully automatic driving and the absence of the driving position? The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the psychological aspects that influence the adoption of electric vehicles. Topics such as the chicken …
Estimating the occurrence of traffic accidents near school locations: A case study from Valencia (Spain) including several approaches
2019
Traffic safety around school locations is a topic of particular interest given the large number of vulnerable users, such as pedestrians or cyclists, that commute to them at certain times of the day. A dataset of traffic accidents recorded in Valencia (Spain) during 2014 and 2015 is analyzed in order to estimate the effects that school locations produce on traffic risk within their surroundings. The four typologies of school in this city according to the academic levels they offer (All-level, Preschool, Primary, Secondary) are distinguished and taken into consideration for the analysis. Two time windows comprising the starting time in the morning and the evening time once day school has end…
Distraction of cyclists: how does it influence their risky behaviors and traffic crashes?
2018
BackgroundUndisputedly, traffic crashes constitute a public health concern whose impact and importance have been increasing during the past few decades. Specifically, road safety data have systematically shown how cyclists are highly vulnerable to suffering traffic crashes and severe injuries derived from them. Furthermore, although the empirical evidence is still very limited in this regard, in addition to other human factors involved in cycling crashes, distractions while cycling appear to be a major contributor to the road risk of cyclists.ObjectivesThe main objectives of this study were, first, to explore the prevalence and trends of cycling distractions within an international sample o…
Capacity-based calculation of passenger car equivalents using traffic simulation at double-lane roundabouts
2018
Abstract Calculation of passenger car equivalents for heavy vehicles represents the starting point for the operational analysis of road facilities and other traffic management applications. This paper introduces a criterion to find the passenger car equivalents that reflect traffic conditions at double-lane roundabouts, where the capacity is typically estimated for each entry lane. Based on the equivalence defined by the proportion of capacity used by vehicles of different classes, the criterion implies a comparison between the capacity that would occur with a traffic demand of passenger cars only and the capacity reached beginning from a demand with a certain percentage of heavy vehicles. …
Trip Characteristics Analysis of the Effects of a Travel Behavior Change Program
2018
[EN] Travel behavior change programs (TBCP) are measures or actions specifically designed to motivate people to reduce their car use. This study contributes to the literature on rigorous evaluation of the effects of participating in TBCP. In particular, we analyze the effect of TBCP in relation to a potential for a reduction in car use. In contrast to previous studies, the effect of TBCP is analyzed considering two characteristics of the trip: travel companion and time of trip. The TBCP, consisting of three persuasion actions customized to the needs of the participants in the research, was designed and implemented in Valencia (Spain). To evaluate the effects of participating in the TBCP, a …