Frontal impact dummy kinematics in oblique frontal collisions: evaluation against post mortem human subject test data

OBJECTIVE: Today, a predominant percentage of vehicles involved in car crashes are exposed to oblique or frontal offset collisions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the 50th percentile male Hybrid III, THOR 99, and THOR Alpha dummies by comparing them with the corresponding kinematics of post mortem human subjects (PMHS) in this type of collision. METHODS: The PMHS data include results from oblique frontal collision tests. They include sled tests with near-side and far-side belt geometries at 15 degrees , 30 degrees , and 45 degrees angles. The test subjects were restrained with a three-point lap-shoulder belt and the Delta V was 30 km/h. RESULTS: The results from the Hybrid III and THOR 99 tests showed that, in most of the test, the head trajectories were an average of approximately 0.1 m shorter than those from equivalent PMHS. The Hybrid III and THOR 99 far-side belt geometry tests showed that the belt remained in place longer on the shoulder of the Hybrid III than on the THOR 99 and the THOR Alpha. This was probably due to a stiffer lumbar spine in the Hybrid III and to a large groove in the steel of the superior surface of the Hybrid III shoulder structure. The THOR 99 escaped from the shoulder belt about 40-50 ms earlier than the THOR Alpha. The results from the THOR Alpha tests show that the head trajectory accorded fairly well with the PMHS data, as long as the shoulder belt did not slip off the shoulder. Although the THOR Alpha shoulder escaped the shoulder belt in the 45 degrees far-side belt geometry, the PMHS did not. This may be due to the THOR Alpha shoulder design, with approximately 0.05 m smaller superior and medial shoulder range-of-motion, in combination with a relatively soft lumbar spine. CONCLUSIONS: The THOR Alpha provides head trajectories similar to those of the PMHS under these loading conditions, provided the shoulder belt remains in position on the shoulder. When the shoulder belt slipped off the dummy shoulder, the head kinematics was altered. The shoulder range-of-motion may be a contributing factor to the overall kinematics of an occupant in oblique frontal impact situations where the occupant moves in a trajectory at an angle from that of the longitudinal direction of the car.     

Screening of environmental pressure from products in the Swedish railway infrastructure: Implications for strategic environmental management

This paper proposes a method to be used in environmental reviews as an initial tool for estimating upstream environmental pressures from material use in organisations dealing mostly with construction materials. Upstream environmental pressures are often omitted in environmental reviews from organisations and instead tend to be site specific, with a limited life-cycle perspective. This paper uses the Swedish National Rail Authority as a case to present the approach. An energy indicator is used to estimate the environmental pressure of material use.In the studied building project, a small set of products contribute to a major part of the material use and the material-related energy use. The energy use is almost exclusively of nonrenewable energy carriers. The three most important products are all homogenous and non-complex, which makes the energy indicator well suited for the analysis. The organisation can use the results to focus on the most important products and also to see which parts of the organisation contribute to the material-related energy use. Rail traffic in Sweden is almost exclusively from non-fossil-based energy carriers. This highlights the importance of the infrastructure to the overall environmental pressure of the railway. Consequently, if road transport were to shift away from fossil fuels, railways earlier environmental advantages would diminish, since research suggests that railway infrastructure is more energy intensive than road infrastructure.     

Noise annoyance responses of middle school pupils and teachers

The present survey study had three aims: (1) to compare pupils’ and teachers’ annoyance responses to classroom noise, (2) to compare females and males responses and (3) to test annoyance models that fitted both pupils and teachers. The study included 207 pupils, aged 13–14 years, and 166 teachers, aged 21–65 years. Both pupils and teachers rated chatter as the most disturbing noise source in the classroom. In line with predictions, the teachers experienced themselves as more sensitive to noise, had poorer hearing status, and reported more intense stress symptoms than the pupils. Contrary to expectations, the teachers were more annoyed and they perceived the noise to be more unpredictable than the pupils did. The control items showed a mixed pattern. There were no overall differences between females and males annoyance responses, but females reported having more stress symptoms than males. A conceptual model was tested with structural equation models, where noise sensitivity mediated the relationship between hearing status and annoyance, which in turn affected stress symptoms. Control and predictability were tested as moderators of the relations between stress symptoms and annoyance. The data fit the conceptual model reasonable well when both samples were included in the same test.     

WATER QUALITY IN THE PAWTUXET RIVER: METAL MONITORING AND GEOCHEMISTRY1

ABSTRACT: The Pawtuxet River flows from a relatively rural area through some of the more highly industrialized sections of Rhode Island. During its journey, the river receives many municipal, industrial, and ground water sources of metal constituents. The present report is the first in a two part series in which the water quality of this urban river was evaluated by a chemical monitoring study of the sources, transport mechanisms, and fate of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, and nickel in the river. The second paper will use the chemical data to derive and calibrate a steady-state water quality model for this river. The metal concentrations In the river tended to increase from the headwaters to the mouth with river stations nearest to point source outfalls showing elevated values. In some sections of the river, levels of a few of the metals could not be explained by the point sources; and other inputs, including sediment resuspension, axe proposed to make up this apparent unbalance. The ability of a municipal secondary treatment plant to remove metals was demonstrated, and the tie-in of the effluent from a major chemical company to the plant did not cause any observable deterioration in treatment efficiency.     

Understanding resident satisfaction with involvement in highway planning: in-depth interviews during a highway planning process in the Netherlands

This study investigates resident satisfaction with provided involvement activities during highway planning processes, with particular attention given to the planned Southern Ring Road highway project in Groningen, the Netherlands. In-depth interviews with 38 residents living in the project area reveal important themes contributing to satisfaction. Satisfaction with passive information activities is motivated by the extent to which information addresses concerns, but (dis)trust in government and other information sources also plays a role. For residents preferring to obtain additional information, perceived access to such information and the extent to which it reduces concerns are also important to satisfaction. Finally, for residents who would rather participate actively, satisfaction is motivated by their perceived access to participation activities and the sense of being heard. Study results show how residents’ evaluations of the themes underpinning involvement satisfaction are based on their perceptions of actual project team activities and contextual factors.     

A fuzzy expert system for soil characterization

As soil is a natural resource not always renewable, the risk characterization of contaminated soils is an issue of great interest. Artificial Intelligence (AI), based on Decision Support Systems (DSSs), has been developed for a wide range of applications in contaminated soil management. Decision trees have already shown to be easy to interpret and able to treat large scale applications. Fuzzy logic gives an improvement in the perturbations and the variance of the training data, due to the elasticity of fuzzy set formalism. In this study, we have developed a classificatory tool applied to characterize contaminated soil in function of human and environmental risks. Knowledge engineering for constructing the Soil Risk Characterization Decision Support System (SRC-DSS) involves three stages: knowledge acquisition, conceptual design and system implementation. A total of 26 parameters were divided into three groups to facilitate the configuration of the expert system: source attributes, transfer vector attributes, and local properties. Sixteen case studies were evaluated with the SRC-DSS. In comparison with other techniques, the results of the current study have shown that SRC-DDS is an excellent tool to classify and characterize soils according to the associated risk.     

Mate choice tactics and swarm size: a model and a test in a dance fly

In the dance flyEmpis borealis (L.) (Diptera: Empididae) females gather to swarm and males visit swarms for mating. A model was constructed, based on previously published data, simulating how males may choose among females of different sizes in swarms of different sizes. The focal question was, what influences the number of individuals in the swarm in this and possibly other swarming insects? The relationships between original swarm size and both the number of males arriving per minute and the proportion of males mating are both logarithmic. The model predicted that if these relationships were linear, or if males were able to judge absolute female size, the mean swarm size should increase and be at least four times as large as those found in the field. The only type of male mate choice strategy that gave rise to very large swarms (>25) was size-related choice (if males are able to assess the size of a female in relation to the entire population and not merely to the swarm). Furthermore, no swarming behaviour would occur if males mate independently of swarm size. Thus, the numbers of females attending a given swarm site are influenced by male arrival pattern, male preference for larger swarms, the inability of males to judge the absolute body size of females, and female polyandry. Males searching for mates seem to prefer larger swarms than females searching for a swarm to join, but the mean swarm size is primarily set by the swarm size preference of females. Optimal swarm size predicted from the model was 4.68±0.53 females. In order to test model predictions, 69 natural swarm sites were studied during one season. The mean swarm size was 4.85±4.54 females (median 4.03), and about 90% of swarms consisted of 11 females or fewer. Predicted and observed swarm size did not differ significantly.     

Seasonal and long-term trends in atmospheric PAH concentrations: evidence and implications

Atmospheric monitoring data for selected polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were compiled from remote, rural and urban locations in the UK, Sweden, Finland and Arctic Canada. The objective was to examine the seasonal and temporal trends, to shed light on the factors which exert a dominant influence over ambient PAH levels. Urban centres in the UK have concentrations 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than in rural Europe and up to 3 orders of magnitude higher than Arctic Canada. Interpretation of the data suggests that proximity to primary sources 'drives' PAH air concentrations. Seasonality, with winter (W) > summer (S), was apparent for most compounds at most sites; high molecular weight compounds (e.g. benzo[a]pyrene) showed this most clearly and consistently. Some low molecular weight compounds (e.g. phenanthrene) sometimes displayed S>W seasonality at some rural locations. Strong W>S seasonality is linked to seasonally-dependent sources which are greater in winter. This implicates inefficient combustion processes, notably the diffusive domestic burning of wood and coal. However, sometimes seasonality can also be strongly influenced by broad changes in meteorology and air mass origin (e.g. in the Canadian Arctic). The datasets examined here suggest a downward trend for many PAHs at some sites, but this is not apparent for all sites and compounds. The inherent noise in ambient air monitoring data makes it difficult to derive unambiguous evidence of underlying declines, to confirm the effectiveness of international source reduction measures.     

Wet peroxide degradation of atrazine

The high temperature (150-200 degrees C), high pressure (3.0-6.0 MPa) degradation of atrazine in aqueous solution has been studied. Under these extreme conditions atrazine steadily hydrolyses in the absence of oxidising agents. Additionally, oxygen partial pressure has been shown not to affect atrazine degradation rates. In no case mineralisation of the parent compound was observed. The addition of the free radical generator hydrogen peroxide to the reaction media significantly enhanced the depletion rate of atrazine. Moreover, partial mineralisation of the organics was observed when hydrogen peroxide was used. Again, oxygen presence did not influence the efficiency of the promoted reaction. Consecutive injections of hydrogen peroxide throughout the reaction period brought the total carbon content conversion to a maximum of 65-70% after 40 min of treatment (suggesting the total conversion of atrazine to cyanuric acid). Toxicity of the effluent measured in a luminometer decreased from 93% up to 23% of inhibition percentage. The process has been simulated by means of a semi-empirical model.