Announcement Signals and Automatic Braking Using Virtual Balises in Railway Transport Systems.

In rail transport, various automatic protection systems are available to ensure the safe operation of trains and to facilitate automation and optimization tasks. For this purpose, a set of physical balises is used, which are placed at fixed points along the railway track. Based on the information provided by these balises, different information is displayed to the driver, and control actions are generated. The use of physical balises located at fixed points does not allow for automatic protection actions on sections of track where they are not installed. This is a major drawback as in many cases, temporary automatic protection actions are necessary on sections of the railway line without balises due to various circumstances (work on the track, accidents, etc.). To solve this problem, this paper presents a solution called announcement signals and automatic braking using virtual balises (ASAB-VB). This proposal allows the incorporation of virtual balises at points on the track where it is necessary to temporarily perform automatic protection actions. For this purpose, the ASAB-VB system allows obtaining the train position in real-time and storing a digital map of the track that will be made by each train. This digital map includes geographic information about the balises (both physical and virtual ones) located on the track. At the same time, the train position is obtained by merging the information provided by a GNSS, an odometer, and an inertial system (gyro and accelerometers).

Does Free Route Implementation Influence Air Traffic Management System? Case Study in Poland.

The issue addressed in this publication concerns new Air Traffic Management (ATM) functionality, identified in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 716/2014, known as Flexible Airspace Management and Free Route (FRA). The authors pose a question-does free route implementation influence air transport safety? What can be done to maintain the current level of safety and still implement modern solutions? To achieve the aim of this paper a developed concept of Risk Priority Number (RPN) calculation, with determination of main RPN components rating scales, in order to carry out the FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) risk analysis of FRA implementation was done. The results allow lining up of the identified potential incompatibilities according to their criticality to the system. In effect it can be said that each modification in a management system, related to safety, influence the safety itself. Nevertheless, this influence does not always lead to negative impact.

Interprofessional two-man team approach for interhospital transport of ARDS-patients under extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a 10 years retrospective observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) has become an accepted treatment option for severely ill patients. Due to a limited availability of ECMO support therapy, patients must often be transported to a specialised centre before or after cannulation. According to the ELSO guidelines, an ECMO specialist should be present for such interventions. Here we describe the safety and efficacy of a reduced team approach involving one anaesthesiologist, experienced in specialised intensive care medicine, and a specialised critical care nurse. METHODS: This study is a 10 years retrospective, single institution analysis of all data collected between January 2007 and December 2016 from the medical records at the University Hospital Bonn, Germany. RESULTS: The Bonner mobile ECMO team was deployed in 170 cases for on-site evaluation for ECMO support therapy. 4 (2.4%) patients died prior to arrival or during the implementation of ECMO support. Of the remaining 166 patients, 126 were cannulated at the referring site, 40 were transported without ECMO. Of those, 21 were subsequently cannulated out our centre. 19 patients never received ECMO treatment. The primary indication for ECMO treatment was ARDS (159/166 patients). Veno-venous ECMO was initiated in 137, whilst 10 patients received veno-arterial ECMO treatment. Mean transportation time was 75 ± 36 min, and mean transport distance was 56 ± 57 km. In total, 26 complications were observed, three being directly transport-related. The overall survival was 55%. CONCLUSIONS: Initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and subsequent transport can be safely and efficiently performed by a two-man team with good outcome.

The impact of government failure on tourism in the Philippines.

While the Philippines aspires to be one of the top tourist destinations in Southeast Asia, self-inflicted wounds like the failure of the government to comply with international aviation safety standards may derail the country from achieving its goals. This article estimates the short- and long-term impact of the US FAA downgrade of the Philippine civil aviation system in 2008 and the EU ban of Philippine carriers in 2010 on tourist expenditures, arrivals, and length of stay using monthly time series data. The econometric model, consisting of three equations due to the endogeneity of the tourist arrivals and length of stay variables in the tourist expenditures equation, is estimated simultaneously using the generalized method of moments. The results indicate that the US FAA downgrade and the EU ban impact monthly tourist receipts negatively in the short term while the downgrade also impacts tourist expenditures in the long term. Moreover, the ban impacts length of stay negatively in the short and long term while the downgrade impacts length of stay negatively only in the long term. The substantial decline in tourism receipts from 2008 to 2010 despite an increasing trend in tourist arrivals is due to the shorter stay of tourists, indicating that high-spending tourists have not returned following the downgrade and ban.

A home-based approach to understanding seatbelt use in single-occupant vehicles in Tennessee: Application of a latent class binary logit model.

Although the enforcement of seatbelt use is considered to be an effective strategy in reducing road injuries and fatalities, lack of seatbelt use still accounts for a substantial proportion of fatal crashes in Tennessee, United States. This problem has raised the need to better understand factors influencing seatbelt use. These factors may arise from spatial/temporal characteristics of a driving location, type of vehicle, demographic and socioeconomic attributes of the vehicle occupants, driver behaviours, attitudes, and social norms. However, the above factors may not have the same effects on seatbelt use across different individuals. In addition, the behavioural factors are usually difficult to measure and may not always be readily available. Meanwhile, residential locations of vehicle occupants have been shown to be associated with their behavioural patterns and thus may serve as a proxy for behavioural factors. However, the suitability of geographic and residential locations of vehicle occupants to understand the seatbelt use behaviour is not known to date. This study aims to fill the above gaps by incorporating the residential location characteristics of vehicle occupants in addition to their demographics and crash characteristics into their seatbelt use while accounting for the varying effects of these factors on individual seatbelt use choices. To achieve this goal, empirical data are collected for vehicular crashes in Tennessee, United States, and the home addresses of vehicle occupants at the time of the crash are geocoded and linked with the census tract information. The resulting data is then used as explanatory variables in a latent class binary logit model to investigate the determinants of vehicle occupants' seatbelt use at the time of the crash. The latent class specification is employed to capture the unobserved heterogeneity in data. Results show that Tennessean drivers belong to two general categories-conformist and eccentric-with gender, vehicle type, and income per capita determining the likelihood of these categories. Overall, male drivers, younger drivers, and drivers who have consumed drugs are less likely to wear a seatbelt, whereas drivers who come from areas with higher population density, travel time, and income per capita are more likely to wear a seatbelt. In addition, driving during the day and in rainy weather are associated with an increased likelihood of seatbelt use. The findings of this study will help developing effective policies to increase seatbelt use rate and improve safety.

Evaluation of Safety in Horizontal Curves of Roads Using a Multi-Body Dynamic Simulation Process.

Road transportation poses one of the significant public health risks. Several contributors and factors strongly link public health and road safety. The design and advancement of higher-quality roads can significantly contribute to safer roads and save lives. In this article, the safety aspect of the roads' horizontal curves under the standard of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is evaluated. Several factors, including vehicle weight, vehicle dimensions, longitudinal grades, and vehicle speed in the geometric design of the horizontal curves, are investigated through a multi-body dynamic simulation process. According to the AASHTO, a combination of simple circular and clothoid transition curves with various longitudinal upgrades and downgrades was designed. Three vehicles were used in this simulation, including a sedan, a bus, and a 3-axle truck. The analysis was based on the lateral friction between the tire and the pavement and also the safety margin parameter. The results showed that designers must differentiate between light and heavy vehicles, especially in curves with a high radius. Evaluation of longitudinal grade impacts indicated that the safety margin decreases when the vehicle is entering the curve. Safety margin reduction on the clothoid curve takes place with a lower grade toward the simple circular curve. By increasing the speed, the difference between lateral friction demand obtained from simulation and lateral friction demand proposed by AASHTO grows. The proposed novel methodology can be used for evaluating road safety.

The Influence of Organizational Factors on Road Transport Safety.

Road transport safety is a major concern across Europe due to the human and socio-economic costs associated with work-related traffic accidents. Traditional approaches have adopted regulatory and technical measures to prevent road accidents leaving aside the organizational factors that might contribute to road transport safety. However, contemporary sociotechnical systems theory acknowledges the need to take into account organizational factors. This study adopts a sociotechnical approach and it examines the relationship between a number of organizational factors (organizational learning and training) and road traffic accidents in the organizations under study. Our sample was composed of 107 road transportation organizations from Spain. Binary logistic regression analyses were carried out to test our hypotheses. Organizational size and type of transport (goods or passengers) were included in the model as control variables. Results showed that in those organizations where organizational learning was supported, the occurrence of traffic accidents was less likely. Unexpectedly, the relationship between training and the occurrence of traffic accidents was not significant. Thus, findings partially supported the formulated hypothesis. Future research should shed light on the relationship between training and traffic accidents taking into account potential intervening variables.

Analysis and evaluation of radioactive material transport monitoring in Beijing from 2006 to 2020 / 中国辐射卫生

Transport monitoring is an important link in the transport process of radioactive materials, involving the whole process, that is, before departure, during transportation and after arrival. To do well in transport monitoring, radiation monitoring organizations need to actively participate in the work, and also need to do a good job in the supervision of radioactive materials transport monitoring. Beijing is one of the radioactive materials distribution centers in China, the monitoring workload is large, the number of monitoring reports is large, the number of packages by air transportation is relatively large, and the transportation and monitoring for medical use is dominant. Through the introduction of radioactive materials transportation monitoring work, and analysis of 2006—2020 radioactive materials transportation monitoring situation, this paper discusses the problems that need to be paid attention to in the monitoring work and the ways to deal with them, so as to provide ideas for radiation monitoring organizations to carry out monitoring work and manage the transport of radioactive materials well.

Analyzing the relationships between travel mode indicators and the number of passenger transport fatalities at the city level.

OBJECTIVE: A number of efforts have been conducted on travel behavior and transport fatalities at the neighborhood or street level, and they have identified different factors such as roadway characteristics, personal indicators, and design indicators related to transport safety. However, only a limited number of studies have considered the relationship between travel behavior indicators and the number of transport fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this study explores this relationship and how to fill the mentioned gap in current knowledge. METHOD: A generalized linear model (GLM) estimates the relationships between different travel mode indicators (e.g., length of motorway per inhabitants, number of motorcycles per inhabitant, percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, percentage of daily trips by public transport) and the number of passenger transport fatalities. Because this city-level model is developed using data sets from different cities all over the world, the impacts of gross domestic product (GDP) are also included in the model. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results imply that the percentage of daily trips by public transport, the percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, and the GDP per inhabitant have negative relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities, whereas motorway length and the number of motorcycles have positive relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities.