Search results for "Heavy traffic"
showing 10 items of 11 documents
From Laboratory Mixes Evaluation to Full Scale Test: Fatigue Behavior of Bio-Materials Recycled Asphalt Mixtures
2020
The present paper describes the full-scale accelerated test, carried out on asphalt pavements made up with bio-materials, especially designed to help reusing Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) by re-activating the aged binder. Four pavement sections were evaluated: three pavement sections with innovative bio-materials (bio-recycled asphalt mixtures), and a reference section with a conventional, high modulus asphalt mix (EME2). In this study, fatigue resistance was first evaluated in laboratory, with two-points bending test, and then at full scale under heavy traffic loading, with the IFSTTAR accelerated pavement testing facility. The evolution of bio-materials recycled asphalt mixture characteristics, …
The Effect of the Covid-19 Lockdown on Air Quality in Three Italian Medium-Sized Cities
2020
Despite the societal and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown measures put in place by the Italian government provided an unprecedented opportunity to increase our knowledge of the effect transportation and industry-related emissions have on the air quality in our cities. This study assessed the effect of reduced emissions during the lockdown period, due to COVID-19, on air quality in three Italian cities, Florence, Pisa, and Lucca. For this study, we compared the concentration of particulate matter PM10, PM2.5, NO2, and O3 measured during the lockdown period, with values obtained in the same period of 2019. Our results show no evidence of a direct relationship between th…
Forward and backward diffusion approximations for haploid exchangeable population models
2001
Abstract The class of haploid population models with non-overlapping generations and fixed population size N is considered such that the family sizes ν1,…,νN within a generation are exchangeable random variables. A criterion for weak convergence in the Skorohod sense is established for a properly time- and space-scaled process counting the number of descendants forward in time. The generator A of the limit process X is constructed using the joint moments of the offspring variables ν1,…,νN. In particular, the Wright–Fisher diffusion with generator Af(x)= 1 2 x(1−x)f″(x) appears in the limit as the population size N tends to infinity if and only if the condition lim N→∞ E((ν 1 −1) 3 )/(N Var …
The effects of anthropogenic particulate emissions on roadway dust and Nerium oleander leaves in Messina (Sicily, Italy)
2003
Complementary studies on the inorganic chemical composition of Nerium oleander leaves collected in the town of Messina (Sicily, Italy) and seven grain-size fractions of local roadway dust have been carried out. Data and maps are presented to show that the particulate matter present in the air of Messina contains trace elements significantly in excess with respect to the average continental earth crust. The anomalies follow the outline of the urban area, the highest concentrations of trace elements being observed where traffic density is highest. Chemical and isotopic analyses of both road dust and Nerium oleander leaves indicate that Pb contamination still characterizes roads with heavy tra…
Exposure to ultrafine particles in children until 18 years of age: A systematic review.
2019
Airborne ultrafine particles (UFP) have been related to adverse health effects, but exposure in vulnerable population groups such as children is still not well understood. We aim to review the scientific literature regarding personal exposure to UFP in different microenvironments in populations until 18 years of age. The bibliographical search was carried out in July 2019 using the online database PubMed and was completed with references in articles found in the search. We selected the studies that used continuous counters and measured UFP levels in both specific microenvironment (houses, schools, transport, etc) and personal exposure. Finally, 32 studies fulfilled the criteria: of these, 1…
Perceived barriers in the outdoor environment and development of walking difficulties in older people
2012
SIR—Older people with mobility limitations often report more barriers in their outdoor environment than people with intact mobility [1]. However, it is uncertain whether older people perceive their environment as problematic because of their mobility limitations or whether the environmental barriers precede incident mobility limitation, as most studies have been limited to cross-sectional analyses [2–5]. Only a few longitudinal studies have shown that barriers in the outdoor environment, such as poor street conditions, poor lighting and heavy traffic, increase the risk for overall functional loss [6, 7] and decrease physical activity participation [8]. More knowledge is needed about the cha…
M/M/1 queue in two alternating environments and its heavy traffic approximation
2018
We investigate an M/M/1 queue operating in two switching environments, where the switch is governed by a two-state time-homogeneous Markov chain. This model allows to describe a system that is subject to regular operating phases alternating with anomalous working phases or random repairing periods. We first obtain the steady-state distribution of the process in terms of a generalized mixture of two geometric distributions. In the special case when only one kind of switch is allowed, we analyze the transient distribution, and investigate the busy period problem. The analysis is also performed by means of a suitable heavy-traffic approximation which leads to a continuous random process. Its d…
Dissipation and decoherence in Brownian motion
2007
We consider the evolution of a Brownian particle described by a measurement-based master equation. We derive the solution to this equation for general initial conditions and apply it to a Gaussian initial state. We analyse the effects of the diffusive terms, present in the master equation, and describe how these modify uncertainties and coherence length. This allows us to model dissipation and decoherence in quantum Brownian motion.
Fractional Brownian motion and Martingale-differences
2004
Abstract We generalize a result of Sottinen (Finance Stochastics 5 (2001) 343) by proving an approximation theorem for the fractional Brownian motion, with H> 1 2 , using martingale-differences.
The coalescent in population models with time-inhomogeneous environment
2002
AbstractThe coalescent theory, well developed for the class of exchangeable population models with time-homogeneous reproduction law, is extended to a class of population models with time-inhomogeneous environment, where the population size is allowed to vary deterministically with time and where the distribution of the family sizes is allowed to change from generation to generation. A new class of time-inhomogeneous coalescent limit processes with simultaneous multiple mergers arises. Its distribution can be characterized in terms of product integrals.