Pedestrian distraction: The effects of road environment complexity and age on pedestrian’s visual attention and crossing behavior

Introduction: Little is known about how characteristics of the environment affect pedestrians’ road crossing behavior. Method: In this work, the effect of typical urban visual clutter created by objects and elements in the road proximity (e.g., billboards) on adults and children (aged 9–13) road crossing behavior was examined in a controlled laboratory environment, utilizing virtual reality scenarios projected on a large dome screen. Results: Divided into three levels of visual load, results showed that high visual load affected children’s and adults’ road crossing behavior and visual attention. The main effect on participants’ crossing decisions was seen in missed crossing opportunities. Children and adults missed more opportunities to cross the road when exposed to more cluttered road environments. An interaction with age was found in the dispersion of the visual attention measure. Children, 9–10 and 11–13 years old, had a wider spread of gazes across the scene when the environment was highly loaded—an effect not seen with adults. However, unexpectedly, no other indication of the deterring effect was found in the current study. Still, according to the results, it is reasonable to assume that busier road environments can be more hazardous to adult and child pedestrians. Practical Applications: In that context, it is important to further investigate the possible distracting effect of causal objects in the road environment on pedestrians, and especially children. This knowledge can help to create better safety guideline for children and assist urban planners in creating safer urban environments.     

多条件约束三维动态行人疏散路径优化方法

针对约束环境下的行人疏散路径选择问题,提出了三维动态行人疏散路径优化方法。通过元胞自动机模型的拓展建立了三维行人疏散网格模型和三维解空间,在此基础上,综合考虑行人视域、路径距离、行人空间分布等多条件约束。引入路径寻优方法(Ant Colony Algorithm)、改进的社会力模型、更新的启发函数和信息素,构建了新的行人路径选择与优化机制。仿真结果符合实际路径优化需求,模型算法平衡了各出口利用率,提高了行人整体疏散效率,为三维空间下的行人疏散路径优化问题的解决提供了新的思路和方案,生成的疏散路径信息有望反馈到地标系统中并有效指导突发情况下行人的路径选择。     

配水管网细菌活性影响因素

为研究配水管网水中细菌活性的变化规律,以北方某市试验室模拟配水管网为对象,应用荧光显微镜对经吖啶橙染色的细菌进行直接镜检并计数,以更准确地对细菌活性进行定量分析.以活菌数占细菌总数的比值来表征整体细菌活性,并研究多种因素对配水管网水中细菌活性的影响.结果表明,吖啶橙染色荧光显微镜直接镜检应用于管网水中细菌计数能够快速得到较稳定的结果,计数结果重现性好.试验水样中的活菌数10~3~10~4cells·m L~(-1),细菌总数10~4~10~5cells·m L~(-1).管网水中整体细菌活性与水温、浊度和流速都存在正相关关系;与运行稳定后的水中余氯存在负相关关系.模拟配水管网水中常见形态的细菌对次氯酸钠消毒剂的耐受能力依次为:短杆形菌球形菌长杆形菌弧形菌,并且杆形菌恢复活性和再繁殖的能力较强.夏季水样中短杆形菌多于冬季.     

Surface waves and roughness in self-aerated supercritical flow

In high-velocity open channel flows, free-surface aeration is commonly observed. The effects of surface waves on the air–water flow properties are tested herein. The study simulates the air–water flow past a fixed-location phase-detection probe by introducing random fluctuations of the flow depth. The present model yields results that are close to experimental observations in terms of void fraction, bubble count rate and bubble/droplet chord size distributions. The results show that the surface waves have relatively little impact on the void fraction profiles, but that the bubble count rate profiles and the distributions of bubble and chord sizes are affected by the presence of surface waves.     

Efficient statistical mapping of avian count data

We develop a spatial modeling framework for count data that is efficient to implement in high-dimensional prediction problems. We consider spectral parameterizations for the spatially varying mean of a Poisson model. The spectral parameterization of the spatial process is very computationally efficient, enabling effective estimation and prediction in large problems using Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques. We apply this model to creating avian relative abundance maps from North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. Variation in the ability of observers to count birds is modeled as spatially independent noise, resulting in over-dispersion relative to the Poisson assumption. This approach represents an improvement over existing approaches used for spatial modeling of BBS data which are either inefficient for continental scale modeling and prediction or fail to accommodate important distributional features of count data thus leading to inaccurate accounting of prediction uncertainty.     

Sociological edge effects: Spatial distribution of human impact in suburban forest fragments

Suburban forest fragments often experience heavy recreational and waste disposal use, with considerable damage to the vegetation. To suggest strategies for conservation of the forest flora, spatial distributions of human impact were described in 40 fragmentary stands in northern New Castle County, Delaware. The distribution of human impact showed a significant bias to the forest edge, with 95% of localized damage occurring in the first 82 m. Forms of impact related to lawn maintenance fell significantly closer to the edge than impacts related to recreation and showed the strongest edge orientation. Edge distances of campsites, vandalized trees, and firewood gathering were negatively correlated with distance to the nearest graded road, indicating the importance of road access. Several forms of impact were also clustered near footpaths, although distance to paths was independent of edge distance in all cases. In terms of penetration of the forest and severity of damage, human impact greatly exceeds natural edge effects reported for this community. These findings suggest that damage may be minimized by limiting road access and avoiding the creation of small forest fragments.     

Employing pedestrian observations in engineering analysis

Simulation tools are often used to establish pedestrian and evacuee performance. The accuracy and reliability of such tools are dependent upon their ability to qualitatively and quantitatively capture the outcome of this performance; i.e. whether the simulated agents perform the expected acts and take the expected amount of time to complete them. This article investigates the relationship between simulating individual agent actions and generating reliable emergent conditions (e.g. congestion). Once this relationship is established for a particular tool, it can then be used to investigate the conditions that may emerge in certain scenarios and mitigate against them. This article presents a simple framework for categorising real-world observations and then translating these observations into the simulated environment - extracting key information from the data collected to configure the simulation tool as required. The article addresses the qualitative benefits of representing individual-level actions, and, to a lesser degree, the quantitative benefits, although this effort is limited given the nature of the data. It tests this relationship using observations made at the Hajj, specifically the Sa’ee where large numbers of pilgrims perform religious rites in concert. Several scenarios are simulated using the buildingEXODUS model, enabling the importance of individual-level behaviours upon emergent conditions to be investigated, even when simulating relatively large crowds of up to 15,000 people.     

Prenatal and postnatal exposure to diazinon and its effect on spermatogram and pituitary gonadal hormones in male offspring of rats at puberty and adulthood

The objective of this research is to study the possible reproductive adverse effects of diazinon on rat offspring exposed in utero and during lactation. Twenty-four Sprague–Dawley female rats (10–12 week old) were randomly assigned to four groups, each consisting of six rats. Group 1 served as the control and these rats were given normal saline orally. Rats in groups 2, 3, and 4 were administered diazinon, dissolved in saline at 10, 15, 30 mg/ kg^?1 body weight, per oral, once daily, during mating, pregnancy and lactation. The male offsprings were examined at puberty and adulthood for body weight, testis weight, epididymis weight, sperm count, motility and morphology, pituitary-gonadal hormone levels. At 30 mg kg^?1 dose, the male offsprings showed a decrease in testicular weight, sperm count, motility, with an increase in abnormal sperm percentage and a decline in pituitary-gonadal hormones, at puberty. Upon attaining adulthood, there was a decrease in testicular weight, sperm count and motility with an increase in abnormal sperm percentage and a decrease in pituitary hormone level. There was evidence of some adverse reproductive effects on the male offspring at the 15 mg/ kg^?1 dose. Most of the adverse effects were irreversible and were evident at both puberty and adulthood in the offsprings, although a few parameters reverted to the normal growth pattern. Diazinon is a reproductive toxicant for male offsprings if exposed during prenatal and postnatal phases.     

Chemistry of groundwater in Gulbarga district, Karnataka, India

Groundwater quality of Gulbarga District is extensively monitored for two years of study period from October 1999 to September 2001. Twenty-five different sampling stations were selected for the study purpose in the city and five selected villages in the district. Gulbarga districts lies in the northern plains of Karnataka State, covers an area of 16,244 km² and lies between 16°-11′ and 17°-19′N latitude and 76°-54′E longitude The study revealed that the water sources in the area are heavily polluted. The major water quality parameters exceeding the permissible limits during all the seasons are total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, alkalinity and MPN (Bacterial count) and other parameters have shown distinctive variation in different stations and season. Most of these parameters are correlated with one another. Statistical analysis of the data is presented.     

一种基于社会力的行人-自行车混合疏散模型及模拟研究

当公共安全事件发生时,借助自行车进行疏散是一种重要方式。针对这种情况,开展了行人-自行车混合疏散建模和模拟研究。为了更好量化自行车的超越行为,引入了临时期望运动方向,改变自行车的自驱力,实现对自行车避让超越行为的细致描述;修改了单车模型来更新自行车的运动,建立了一种多层次的自行车运动子模型。将该模型与行人社会力模型相结合,得到一种基于社会力的行人-自行车混合疏散模型“MixSF”。模拟发现,MixSF能够较好地再现混合疏散中的超越行为。在实验条件下,发现个体密度小于0.548人/m²时,自行车占比的增加能加快疏散;相对密度大于0.81时,自行车失去疏散速度优势。