Evaluating the Equivalency Between Track Quality Indices and the Minimum Track Geometry Threshold Exceedances Along a Canadian Freight Railway

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk M. Scanlan ◽  
Michael T. Hendry ◽  
C. Derek Martin
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Quality Indices ◽  
Track Geometry ◽  
Threshold Exceedances ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Q Index ◽  
Proper Interpretation ◽  
Track Quality

Railway regulators require that track geometry measurements meet a specific set of minimum safety thresholds. A proper interpretation of track geometry survey data is fundamental for the detection of track exceeding these thresholds and in need of corrective maintenance. Irregular track geometry independent of the minimum safety thresholds can also be used as evidence of degradation in the railway foundation. Therefore, multiple evaluation methods must be applied to the track geometry survey data when assessing foundation degradation. In this study, we compare multiple track geometry evaluation methods in order to assess if they equally identify sections of irregular track geometry along a 335 kilometer section of a Canadian freight railway. The track geometry evaluation methods investigated are the Transport Canada Class 5 minimum safety threshold exceedances and three literature-suggested track quality indices; the Overall Track Geometry Index, the Polish J Index and the Swedish Q Index. Furthermore, this study also investigates the ability of the track quality indices to provide additional insight into track geometry variability in sections without a minimum safety threshold exceedance. The track under investigation is not a Class 5, however, Class 5 minimum safety thresholds were used to produce enough threshold exceedances to allow for the comparison to the track quality indices. The results of the analysis reveal that while the large-scale variability in the three track quality indices is similar, the individual equivalency with the occurrence of Class 5 threshold exceedances is highly variable. Furthermore, only the Overall Track Geometry Index demonstrates the potential to provide consistent additional track geometry variability information.

scholarly journals Analyzing Major Track Quality Indices and Introducing a Universally Applicable TQI

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (23) ◽  
pp. 8490
Author(s):  
Stefan Offenbacher ◽  
Johannes Neuhold ◽  
Peter Veit ◽  
Matthias Landgraf
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Data ◽  
Railway Track ◽  
Quality Indices ◽  
Combine Measurement ◽  
Track Geometry ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Track Condition ◽  
Railway Operation ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Track Quality

Adequate railway track condition is a prerequisite for safe and reliable railway operation. Many track quality indices (TQIs) have been developed with the aim of assessing the track condition holistically. These indices combine measurement signals of some or all relevant geometry parameters with different mathematical models. In this paper, a selection of important TQIs is evaluated. Using measurement data of a five kilometer track section, the indices are calculated and their properties are discussed. This study reveals that all indices exhibit drawbacks to varying degrees. As a consequence, a new index has been developed—the track quality index of Graz University of Technology (TUG_TQI). Its favorable characteristics are presented by means of the above-mentioned test section. The TUG_TQI combines all relevant track geometry parameters, which are normalized beforehand to eliminate over or underrepresentation of different parameters. Thus, the index reliably describes the overall geometrical track quality.

Application of data mining techniques for the investigation of track geometry and stiffness variation

2019 ◽  
Vol 234 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mehrali ◽  
Morteza Esmaeili ◽  
Saeed Mohammadzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Railway Track ◽  
Quality Indices ◽  
Dominant Wavelength ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Track Geometry ◽  
Railway Tracks ◽  
Track Condition ◽  
Track Stiffness ◽  
Track Quality

Railway tracks are one of the most important national assets of many countries. The major part of the annual budget of railway companies concerns repairing, improving, and maintaining railway tracks, which is a challenge for railway managers. The logical method of repair and maintenance should take into account all the economic and technical aspects of the problem and proper management of track maintenance—without knowing the factors and parameters responsible for the track failure—quality control methods, and finally, the choice of the appropriate repair methods. Railway track geometry is the main factor that identifies the track behavior and condition. It is based on measuring the geometric parameters of the track determined by the track quality indices. The existing track quality indices mostly represent the geometrical condition of the railway track superstructure. In the past years, the effects of track bed stiffness on the track condition have been investigated. This paper investigates the railway track condition based on the railway track geometry parameters as well as the vertical track stiffness. A method for continuous measurement of track stiffness along a railway line is described and demonstrated. By measuring the track geometry parameters and stiffness, the superstructure and the substructure condition of the railway track are assessed. In addition, the relation between these data is investigated by using data mining techniques such as classification, decision tree, clustering, and dominant wavelength filtering. It is shown that filtering the data based on the dominant wavelength provides the best correlation between the track geometry in the vertical direction and stiffness.

Models, Practices and Methods of Reading: Evolution in Time and Space

2009 ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Yulia P. Melentyeva
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
National Program ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Individual

In recent years as public in general and specialist have been showing big interest to the matters of reading. According to discussion and launch of the “Support and Development of Reading National Program”, many Russian libraries are organizing the large-scale events like marathons, lecture cycles, bibliographic trainings etc. which should draw attention of different social groups to reading. The individual forms of attraction to reading are used much rare. To author’s mind the main reason of such an issue has to be the lack of information about forms and methods of attraction to reading.

The Determinants and Consequences of Accurate Beliefs About Childhood Vaccinations

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 628-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Joslyn ◽  
Steven M. Sylvester
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Parental Choice ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

In this article, we examine the individual predictors that are responsible for accurate beliefs about the link between vaccinations and autism. We then show how these beliefs affect policy preferences about vaccines. We derive two hypotheses from motivated reasoning theory and test these on national survey data from Gallup and CBS News. Republicans were less likely to report accurate beliefs than Democrats. In addition, educational attainment modified the impact of party identification. The gap between Republicans and Democrats in likelihood of reporting accurate beliefs was largest among the most educated portion of the public. Finally, we show that accurate beliefs about vaccines, independent of statistical controls, are important predictors of policy attitudes about unvaccinated children attending public school and parental choice about the decision to vaccinate. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of these findings.

scholarly journals SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large-scale structure catalogues

2015 ◽  
Vol 455 (2) ◽  
pp. 1553-1573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Reid ◽  
Shirley Ho ◽  
Nikhil Padmanabhan ◽  
Will J. Percival ◽  
Jeremy Tinker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Large Scale Structure ◽  
Scale Structure ◽  
Data Release

Flexibility Effects in a Single Link Robotic Manipulator

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nataraj
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Robotic Manipulator ◽  
Flexible Beam ◽  
Rotating Speed ◽  
Weighted Residuals ◽  
Individual Interaction ◽  
Single Link ◽  
Rigid Mass ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Future Work

Abstract A single link robotic manipulator is modeled as a rotating flexible beam with a rigid mass at the tip and accurate energy expressions are derived. The resulting partial differential equations are solved using an approximate method of weighted residuals. From the solutions, coupling between axial and flexural deformations and the interactions with rigid body motions are rigorously analyzed. The emphasis in the current paper is not on an exhaustive analysis of existing systems but it is rather intended to compare and highlight the various flexibility effects in a relatively simple system. Hence, a nondimensional parametric analysis is performed to determine the effect of several parameters (including the rotating speed) on the errors and the individual interaction effects are discussed. Comparison with previous work in the field shows important phenomena often ignored or buried in large scale numerical analyses. Future work including application to multi-link robots is outlined.

Gender Gaps in Electoral Turnout: Surveys versus Administrative Censuses

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110195
Author(s):  
Paulo Cox ◽  
Mauricio Morales Quiroga
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Official Data ◽  
Rule Out

Gender gaps in voter turnout are usually studied using opinion surveys rather than official census data. This is because administrative censuses usually do not disaggregate turnout according to voters’ sex. Without this official information, much of the research on gender gaps in electoral turnout relies on survey respondents’ self-reported behavior, either before or after an election. The decision to use survey data implies facing several potential drawbacks. Among them are the turnout overstatement bias and the attrition or nonresponse bias, both affecting the estimation of factors explaining turnout and any related statistical analysis. Furthermore, these biases may be correlated with covariates such as gender: men, more than women, may systematically overstate their electoral participation. We analyze turnout gender gaps in Chile, comparing national surveys with official administrative data, which in Chile are publicly available. Crucially, the latter includes the official record of sex, age, and the electoral behavior—whether the individual voted or not—for about 14 million registered individuals. Based on a series of statistical models, we find that analysis based on survey data is likely to rule out gender gaps in electoral participation. Carrying out the same exercises, but with official data, leads to the opposite conclusion, namely, that there is a sizable gender gap favoring women.

Evaluation Methods for Estimating Vehicle Miles Traveled with GPS Travel Survey Data

2015 ◽  
Vol 2495 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Blei ◽  
Kazuya Kawamura ◽  
Mahmoud Javanmardi ◽  
Abolfazl Mohammadian
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Vehicle Miles Traveled ◽  
Travel Survey

scholarly journals HUMAN ENERGY UTILIZATION AND EFFECTIVENESS IN SMALL AND MARGINAL FARM HOLDINGS

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 163-171
Author(s):  
Tandra Mondal ◽  
Pranab Kumar Nag
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Energy Utilization ◽  
Hand Tools ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Land Preparation ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Farm Mechanization ◽  
Power Tiller ◽  
Paddy Cultivation ◽  
The Individual

In India, small and marginal farmers have emerged as a distinct and dominant category. While farm mechanization represents a rapid transformation from traditional to modern methods of farming, it is not uniform across the crops and regions. The level of mechanization, however, remains scattered due to the compulsiveness to the situation dominated by the economic layout of farm holdings, land size, and large-scale deprivation of access to the technology suitable to small holdings. This present contribution elucidates the extent of use tools and machinery among the rice farmers of the state of Wes Bengal, India. Analysis revealed that the total number of man-days involved in paddy cultivation was 120-140 per ha, i.e., 900-1000 man-hours depending upon the availability of labour, tools, and machinery used for the individual operation. Analysis of farm work in small and marginal holdings evolved that over 90% of the total number of farmers use either tractor or power tiller for land preparation. Use of the animal-drawn country plough is gradually phased out in the study regions. For sowing and transplanting operations are primarily manual methods using hand tools. The study provided an insight of the issues of work methods and practices of the farmworkers in small and marginal farm holdings.

scholarly journals Evaluation Methods in Teaching Translation by Saudi University Instructors under Coronavirus Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Eman Mohammad Mahmoud AlOneen
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Simple Observation ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
University Instructors ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

Coronavirus pandemic has posed challenges in evaluating students’ performance in educational institutions all over the world. Therefore, university instructors may encounter some problems in evaluating their students fairly through online teaching since it was not an easy task before this worldly crisis. The current study aims at investigating the perspectives of instructors who teach translation courses at some Saudi universities towards the followed evaluation methods in teaching translation courses during Coronavirus pandemic. Two methods were used to collect data: simple observation and online questionnaire. The participants were 21 instructors from 10 Saudi universities. The findings of this study show that using machine translation and CAT tools by students in doing assessment tasks does not guarantee fairness among students during Coronavirus pandemic regardless of the nature of translation courses. In addition, online exams and assignments are less fair to show the individual differences among students compared with written exams before Coronavirus pandemic. To evaluate students’ performance in translation courses fairly, the participants of this study suggested some solutions such as modifying questions' patterns of some translation exams and assignments to cope with online teaching, emphasizing the importance of live sessions and online participation as assessment tasks for students during Coronavirus pandemic, using other evaluation methods such as live oral assessment, editing texts, multiple choice editing questions, etc. The study concludes with some recommendations for future research.

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