scholarly journals Impact Assessing of Traffic Lights via GPS Vehicle Trajectories

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 769
Author(s):  
Zhuhua Liao ◽  
Hao Xiao ◽  
Silin Liu ◽  
Yizhi Liu ◽  
Aiping Yi

The adaptability of traffic lights in the control of vehicle traffic heavily affects the trafficability of vehicles and the travel efficiency of traffic participants in busy urban areas. Existing studies mainly have focused on the presence of traffic lights, but rarely evaluate the impact of traffic lights by analyzing traffic data, thus there is no solution for practicably and precisely self-regulating traffic lights. To address these issues, we propose a low-cost and fast traffic signal detection and impact assessment framework, which detects traffic lights from GPS trajectories and intersection features in a supervised way, and analyzes the impact range and time of traffic lights from intersection track data segments. The experimental results show that our approach gains the best AUC value of 0.95 under the ROC standard classification and indicates that the impact pattern of traffic lights at intersections is high related to the travel rule of traffic participants.

Author(s):  
Darlington Bon Nwokoma ◽  
Uchenna Anene

There is an increasing awareness of the impact of spilled crude oil and its refined products on human health and environment. The potential of using groundnut husk, agro-based waste, which is not only ubiquitous but indiscriminately littered around Nigerian urban areas, as an adsorbent in removal of oil spilled on water was investigated. Groundnut shell, a waste generated in local vegetable oil processing plants, has been converted into a low cost adsorbent. The groundnut husk was treated and meshed to adsorb crude oil from water at various experimental conditions. Investigations include the effects of sorbent dosage, particle size, contact time and temperature on the adsorption of crude oil. Meshed groundnut shell, especially less than 150 µm, exhibited high affinity for oil adsorption with time. The optimum adsorption temperature range lies between 25 – 45°C. The adsorption data indicates that a pseudo-second-order equation could be used to study the adsorption kinetics and the correlation coefficient of 0.9985 indicates that the sorption process is dominated by adsorption process. The results demonstrate that crude oil removal by adsorption onto this abundantly available low cost and readily biodegradable material is feasible. With high affinity for oil and low water pick up, meshed groundnut shell adsorbent could be said to be oleophilic or hydrophobic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aboubakr Benabbas ◽  
Martin Geißelbrecht ◽  
Gabriel Martin Nikol ◽  
Lukas Mahr ◽  
Daniel Nähr ◽  
...  

Abstract. The concern about air quality in urban areas and the impact of particulate matter (PM) on public health is turning into a big debate. A good solution to sensitize people to this issue is to involve them in the process of air quality monitoring. This paper presents contributions in the field of PM measurements using low-cost sensors. We show how a low-cost PM sensor can be extended to transfer data not only over Wi-Fi but also over the LoRa protocol. Then, we identify some of the correlations existing in the data through data analysis. Afterwards, we show how semantic technologies can help model and control sensor data quality in an increasing PM sensor network. We finally wrap up with a conclusion and plans for future work.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1105-1115
Author(s):  
Afshin Shariat Mohaymany ◽  
Matin Shahri

Traffic congestion in urban areas is a challenging issue in transportation planning. Policy options have been proposed to evaluate the impacts of interventional action through change detection or before–after studies. In this research, low-cost traffic image data collected by smartphone-based application have been employed and the impact of new congestion charging scheme (CCS) upon congestion within congestion charging zone (CCZ) as well as the entire network in Tehran, the capital of Iran has been investigated. Applying statistical tests indicated the significance of change in congestion within CCZ by applying the new CCS. Differential Moran’s I as spatial autocorrelation index specified the spatial patterns of congestion between the critical time of changing the scheme on weekdays (17:00–19:00) and weekend (6:00–13:00) after implementing the new CCS. The approach in this paper can be used with a low-cost appropriate instrument to monitor the probable change in traffic congestion by introducing any new scheme or sudden change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (14) ◽  
pp. e2023185118
Author(s):  
Joan Hamory ◽  
Edward Miguel ◽  
Michael Walker ◽  
Michael Kremer ◽  
Sarah Baird

Estimating the impact of child health investments on adult living standards entails multiple methodological challenges, including the lack of experimental variation in health status, an inability to track individuals over time, and accurately measuring living standards and productivity in low-income settings. This study exploits a randomized school health intervention that provided deworming treatment to Kenyan children, and uses longitudinal data to estimate impacts on economic outcomes up to 20 y later. The effective respondent tracking rate was 84%. Individuals who received two to three additional years of childhood deworming experienced a 14% gain in consumption expenditures and 13% increase in hourly earnings. There are also shifts in sectors of residence and employment: treatment group individuals are 9% more likely to live in urban areas, and experience a 9% increase in nonagricultural work hours. Most effects are concentrated among males and older individuals. The observed consumption and earnings benefits, together with deworming’s low cost when distributed at scale, imply that a conservative estimate of its annualized social internal rate of return is 37%, a high return by any standard.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 804
Author(s):  
Abdul Samad ◽  
Freddy Ernesto Melchor Mimiaga ◽  
Bernd Laquai ◽  
Ulrich Vogt

Air pollution in urban areas is a huge concern that demands an efficient air quality control to ensure health quality standards. The hotspots can be located by increasing spatial distribution of ambient air quality monitoring for which the low-cost sensors can be used. However, it is well-known that many factors influence their results. For low-cost Particulate Matter (PM) sensors, high relative humidity can have a significant impact on data quality. In order to eliminate or reduce the impact of high relative humidity on the results obtained from low-cost PM sensors, a low-cost dryer was developed and its effectiveness was investigated. For this purpose, a test chamber was designed, and low-cost PM sensors as well as professional reference devices were installed. A vaporizer regulated the humid conditions in the test chamber. The low-cost dryer heated the sample air with a manually adjustable intensity depending on the voltage. Different voltages were tested to find the optimum one with least energy consumption and maximum drying efficiency. The low-cost PM sensors with and without the low-cost dryer were compared. The experimental results verified that using the low-cost dryer reduced the influence of relative humidity on the low-cost PM sensor results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 30502
Author(s):  
Alessandro Fantoni ◽  
João Costa ◽  
Paulo Lourenço ◽  
Manuela Vieira

Amorphous silicon PECVD photonic integrated devices are promising candidates for low cost sensing applications. This manuscript reports a simulation analysis about the impact on the overall efficiency caused by the lithography imperfections in the deposition process. The tolerance to the fabrication defects of a photonic sensor based on surface plasmonic resonance is analysed. The simulations are performed with FDTD and BPM algorithms. The device is a plasmonic interferometer composed by an a-Si:H waveguide covered by a thin gold layer. The sensing analysis is performed by equally splitting the input light into two arms, allowing the sensor to be calibrated by its reference arm. Two different 1 × 2 power splitter configurations are presented: a directional coupler and a multimode interference splitter. The waveguide sidewall roughness is considered as the major negative effect caused by deposition imperfections. The simulation results show that plasmonic effects can be excited in the interferometric waveguide structure, allowing a sensing device with enough sensitivity to support the functioning of a bio sensor for high throughput screening. In addition, the good tolerance to the waveguide wall roughness, points out the PECVD deposition technique as reliable method for the overall sensor system to be produced in a low-cost system. The large area deposition of photonics structures, allowed by the PECVD method, can be explored to design a multiplexed system for analysis of multiple biomarkers to further increase the tolerance to fabrication defects.


Author(s):  
J.R. Caradus ◽  
D.A. Clark

The New Zealand dairy industry recognises that to remain competitive it must continue to invest in research and development. Outcomes from research have ensured year-round provision of low-cost feed from pasture while improving productivity. Some of these advances, discussed in this paper, include the use of white clover in pasture, understanding the impacts of grass endophyte, improved dairy cow nutrition, the use of alternative forage species and nitrogen fertiliser to improve productivity, demonstration of the impact of days-in-milk on profitability, and the use of feed budgeting and appropriate pasture management. Keywords: dairy, profitability, research and development


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
A. P. Korzh ◽  
T. V. Zahovalko

Recently, the number of published works devoted to the processes of synanthropization of fauna, is growing like an avalanche, which indicates the extreme urgency of this theme. In our view, the process of forming devices to coexist with human and the results of his life reflects the general tandency of the modern nature evolution. Urbanization is characteristic for such a specific group of animals like amphibians, the evidence of which are numerous literature data. Many researchers use this group to assess the bioindicative quality of the environment. For this aim a variety of indicators are used: from the cellular level of life of organization up to the species composition of the group in different territories. At the same time, the interpretation of the results is not always comparable for different areas and often have significantly different interpretations by experts. Urban environment, primarily due to the contamination is extremely aggressive to amphibians. As a consequence, the urban populations of amphibians may be a change in the demographic structure, affecting the reproductive ability of the population, the disappearance of the most sensitive species or individuals, resizing animals, the appearance of abnormalities in the development, etc. At the same time play an important amphibians in the ecosystems of cities, and some species in these conditions even feel relatively comfortable. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the mechanisms of self-sustaining populations of amphibians in urban environments. To assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the development of amphibian populations were used cognitive modeling using the program Vensim PLE. Cognitive map of the model for urban and suburban habitat conditions were the same. The differences concerned the strength of connections between individual factors (migration, fertility, pollution) and their orientation. In general, factors like pollution, parasites, predators had negative impact on the population, reducing its number. The birth rate, food and migration contributed to raising number of individuals. Some of the factors affected on the strength to of each other as well: the majority of the factors affected the structure of the population, had an influence on the fertility. Thanks to it the model reflects the additive effect of complex of factors on the subsequent status of the population. Proposed and analyzed four scenarios differing strength and duration of exposure. In the first scenario, a one-time contamination occurs and not subsequently repeated. The second and third scenario assumes half board contamination, 1 year (2 scenario) and two years (scenario 3). In the fourth scenario, the pollution affected the population of amphibians constantly. In accordance with the results of simulation, much weaker than the natural populations respond to pollution - have them as an intensive population growth and its disappearance at constant pollution is slow. Changes to other parameters of the model showed that this pollution is the decisive factor -only the constant action leads to a lethal outcome for the populations. All other components of the model have a corrective effect on the population dynamics, without changing its underlying trand. In urban areas due to the heavy impact of pollution maintaining the population is only possible thanks to the migration process – the constant replenishment of diminishing micropopulations of natural reserves. This confirms the assumption that the form of existence metapopulations lake frog in the city. In order to maintain the number of amphibians in urban areas at a high level it is necessary to maintain existing migration routes and the creation of new ones. Insular nature of the placement of suitable habitats in urban areas causes the metapopulation structure of the types of urbanists. Therefore, the process of urbanization is much easier for those species whicht are capable of migration in conditions of city. In the initial stages of settling the city micropopulationis formed by selective mortality of the most susceptible individuals to adverse effects. In future, maintaining the categories of individuals is provided mainly due to migration processes metapopulisation form of the species of existence is supported). It should be noted that the changes in the previous levels are always saved in future. In the case of reorganizations of individuals we of morphology can assume the existence of extremely adverse environmental conditions that threaten the extinction of the micropopulations. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
UMMU SHOLEHAH MOHD NOR

High residential living in Malaysia has not been widely given a significant emphasises in literature despite its increasing scale and significance in the real estate market. The significance of high rise is mainly due the increasing rate of migration from rural to urban. It is estimated a total of 77.2 percent of the Malaysian population lived in urban areas in 2020. Approximately, 30 percent of this urban population lives in strata housing. These percentages are predicted to continue to increase in the future. The emergence of high residential building has been argued as confronting various problems which has considerable impact on this life style. Satisfaction is an important outcome of living in one’s dwelling, although it is not the only consideration. High residential building in Malaysia encountered numerous problems in term of management aspects, legislation aspects, and residents’ satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tenants’ satisfaction living in high residential buildings in Klang Valley. The questionnaires survey is conducted amongst 276 tenants at low cost and medium cost HRB using random sampling in HRB located at areas under jurisdiction Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Majlis Bandaraya Subang Jaya (MBSJ), Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA), Majlis Bandaraya Subang Jaya (MBSJ), Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS) and Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ). The result from this study shows that tenant in medium cost residential building are more satisfied in term of facilities and management as compared to tenants in low cost residential building. Tenants also not disclosed to the existing act and procedure related to high residential building. In conclusion, this study suggested the Local Authority to emphasise the role of tenant. These recommendation hopefully will increase the level of satisfaction amongst the residents in HRB.


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