Relationships between self-reported bicycling injuries and perceived risk of cyclists in Queensland, Australia

The focus of governments on increasing active travel has motivated renewed interest in cycling safety. Bicyclists are up to 20 times more likely to be involved in serious injury crashes than drivers so understanding the relationship among factors in bicyclist crash risk is critically important for identifying effective policy tools, for informing bicycle infrastructure investments, and for identifying high risk bicycling contexts. This study aims to better understand the complex relationships between bicyclist self reported injuries resulting from crashes (e.g. hitting a car) and non-crashes (e.g. spraining an ankle) and perceived risk of cycling as a function of cyclist exposure, rider conspicuity, riding environment, rider risk aversion, and rider ability. Self reported data from 2,500 Queensland cyclists are used to estimate a series of seemingly unrelated regressions to examine the relationships among factors. The major findings suggest that perceived risk does not appear to influence injury rates, nor do injury rates influence perceived risks of cycling. Riders who perceive cycling as risky tend not to be commuters, do not engage in group riding, tend to always wear mandatory helmets and front lights, and lower their perception of risk by increasing days per week of riding and by increasing riding proportion on bicycle paths. Riders who always wear helmets have lower crash injury risk. Increasing the number of days per week riding tends to decrease both crash injury and non crash injury risk (e.g. a sprain). Further work is needed to replicate some of the findings in this study.

Avoiding road rage

Road Rage describes a range of aggressive and dangerous driving behaviours directed at other road users. The phrase involves images of uncontrolled temper and the open display of anger and frustration. A common alternative term is “aggressive driving” with road rage seen to be a manifestation of extreme aggressive driving.

Underground power cable environment on-line monitoring and analysis

Knowledge of cable parameters has been well established but a better knowledge of the environment in which the cables are buried lags behind. Research in Queensland University of Technology has been aimed at obtaining and analysing actual daily field values of thermal resistivity and diffusivity of the soil around power cables. On-line monitoring systems have been developed and installed with a data logger system and buried spheres that use an improved technique to measure thermal resistivity and diffusivity over a short period. Results based on long term continuous field data are given. A probabilistic approach is developed to establish the correlation between the measured field thermal resistivity values and rainfall data from weather bureau records. This data from field studies can reduce the risk in cable rating decisions and provide a basis for reliable prediction of “hot spot” of an existing cable circuit

Probabilistic cable rating based on cable thermal environment studying

This paper describes a new approach to establish the probabilistic cable rating based on cable thermal environment studies. Knowledge of cable parameters has been well established. However the environment in which the cables are buried is not so well understood. Research in Queensland University of Technology has been aimed at obtaining and analysing actual daily field values of thermal resistivity and diffusivity of the soil around power cables. On-line monitoring systems have been developed and installed with a data logger system and buried spheres that use an improved technique to measure thermal resistivity and diffusivity over a short period. Based on the long-term continuous field data for more than 4 years, a probabilistic approach is developed to establish the correlation between the measured field thermal resistivity values and rainfall data from weather bureau records. Hence, a probabilistic cable rating can be established based on monthly probabilistic distribution of thermal resistivity

Large eddy simulation of smoke flow in a real road tunnel fire using FDS

Numerical study is carried out using large eddy simulation to study the heat and toxic gases released from fires in real road tunnels. Due to disasters about tunnel fires in previous decade, it attracts increasing attention of researchers to create safe and reliable ventilation designs. In this research, a real tunnel with 10 MW fire (which approximately equals to the heat output speed of a burning bus) at the middle of tunnel is simulated using FDS (Fire Dynamic Simulator) for different ventilation velocities. Carbone monoxide concentration and temperature vertical profiles are shown for various locations to explore the flow field. It is found that, with the increase of the longitudinal ventilation velocity, the vertical profile gradients of CO concentration and smoke temperature were shown to be both reduced. However, a relatively large longitudinal ventilation velocity leads to a high similarity between the vertical profile of CO volume concentration and that of temperature rise.

Social cars : sensing, gathering, sharing and conveying social cues to road users

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) resembles the infrastructure for ubiquitous computing in the car. It encompasses a) all kinds of sensing technologies within vehicles as well as road infrastructure, b) wireless communication protocols for the sensed information to be exchanged between vehicles (V2V) and between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I), and c) appropriate intelligent algorithms and computational technologies that process these real-time streams of information. As such, ITS can be considered a game changer. It provides the fundamental basis of new, innovative concepts and applications, similar to the Internet itself. The information sensed or gathered within or around the vehicle has led to a variety of context-aware in-vehicular technologies within the car. A simple example is the Anti-lock Breaking System (ABS), which releases the breaks when sensors detect that the wheels are locked. We refer to this type of context awareness as vehicle/technology awareness. V2V and V2I communication, often summarized as V2X, enables the exchange and sharing of sensed information amongst cars. As a result, the vehicle/technology awareness horizon of each individual car is expanded beyond its observable surrounding, paving the way to technologically enhance such already advanced systems. In this chapter, we draw attention to those application areas of sensing and V2X technologies, where the human (driver), the human’s behavior and hence the psychological perspective plays a more pivotal role. The focal points of our project are illustrated in Figure 1: In all areas, the vehicle first (1) gathers or senses information about the driver. Rather than to limit the use of such information towards vehicle/technology awareness, we see great potential for applications in which this sensed information is then (2) fed back to the driver for an increased self-awareness. In addition, by using V2V technologies, it can also be (3) passed to surrounding drivers for an increased social awareness, or (4), pushed even further, into the cloud, where it is collected and visualized for an increased, collective urban awareness within the urban community at large, which includes all city dwellers.

Destination know-where : a road map of a PhD journey in theatre for young people

Within contemporary performance arenas young people are fast becoming part of the vanguard of contemporary performance. Performativity, convergence and openness of form are key animating concepts in the landscape of Theatre for Young People (TYP). To ignore what is taking place in the making of performance for and by young people is to ignore the new possibilities in meaning-making and theatrical form. This thesis investigates the contemporary practice within the field of Theatre for Young People. Pivotal to the study are three hallmarks of contemporary performance – shifting notions of performativity; convergence articulated in the use of technology and theatrical genres; and Umberto Eco’s realisation of openness in form and authorship. The thesis draws from theatre and performance studies, globalisation theory and youth studies. Using interviews of Theatre for Young People practitioners and observation of thirty-nine performances, this thesis argues that young people and Theatre for Young People companies are among the leaders of a paradigm shift in developing and delivering performance works. In this period of rapid technological change young people are embracing and manipulating technology (sound, image, music) to represent whom they are and what they want to say. Positioned as ‘cultural catalysts’ (McRobbie, 1999), ‘the new pioneers’ (Mackay, 1993) and ‘first navigators’ (Rushkoff, 1996) young people are using mediatised culture and digital technologies with ease, placing them at the forefront of a shift in cultural production. The processes of deterritorialisation allows for the synthesis of new cultural and performance genres by fragmenting and hybridising traditional cultural categories and forms including the use of new media technologies. Almost half of all TYP performances now incorporate the technologies of reproduction. The relationship between live and mediatised forms, the visceral and the virtual is allowing young people to navigate and make meaning of cultural codes and cultural forms as well as to engage in an open dialogue with their audiences. This thesis examines the way young people are using elements of deterritorialisation to become producers of new performance genres. The thesis considers the contemporary situation in relation to issues of performance making and performance delivery within a global, networked and technology-driven society.

A viable and sustainable key management approach for a national e-health environment

To protect the health information security, cryptography plays an important role to establish confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. Keys used for encryption/decryption and digital signing must be managed in a safe, secure, effective and efficient fashion. The certificate-based Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme may seem to be a common way to support information security; however, so far, there is still a lack of successful large-scale certificate-based PKI deployment in the world. In addressing the limitations of the certificate-based PKI scheme, this paper proposes a non-certificate-based key management scheme for a national e-health implementation. The proposed scheme eliminates certificate management and complex certificate validation procedures while still maintaining security. It is also believed that this study will create a new dimension to the provision of security for the protection of health information in a national e-health environment.

Power system stability enhancement in a deregulated environment using FACTS devices

In deregulated versions of free-market electricity, producers will be free to send power along other utilities. The price of power strongly depends and fluctuates according to mutual benefit index of both supplier and consumer. In such a situation, strong interaction among utilities may cause instabilities in the system. As the frequency of market-based dispatch increases market forces tend to destabilize the stable system dynamics depending on the value of Ks/τλ(market dependent parameter) ratio. This tends to destabilize the coupled dynamics. The implementation of TCSC can effectively damp the inter area modes of oscillations of the coupled market system.

Nucleation experiments in a microgravity environment

A simple experimental apparatus is described in which a wide variety of vapor phase nucleation studies of refractory materials could be performed aboard NASA's KC-135 Research Aircraft. The chief advantage of a microgravity environment for these studies is the expected absence of thermally driven convective motions in the gas. The absence of convection leads to much more accurate knowledge of both the temperature distribution in the system and the time evolution of the refractory vapor concentration as a function of distance from the crucible.The evolution of the apparatus will be described as more experience is gained with the microgravity environment. Such experiments will be used to prepare for similar ones carried out aboard either the shuttle or Space Station where considerably longer duration experiments are possible.

Hazard based models for freeway traffic incident duration

Assessing and prioritising cost-effective strategies to mitigate the impacts of traffic incidents and accidents on non-recurrent congestion on major roads represents a significant challenge for road network managers. This research examines the influence of numerous factors associated with incidents of various types on their duration. It presents a comprehensive traffic incident data mining and analysis by developing an incident duration model based on twelve months of incident data obtained from the Australian freeway network. Parametric accelerated failure time (AFT) survival models of incident duration were developed, including log-logistic, lognormal, and Weibul-considering both fixed and random parameters, as well as a Weibull model with gamma heterogeneity. The Weibull AFT models with random parameters were appropriate for modelling incident duration arising from crashes and hazards. A Weibull model with gamma heterogeneity was most suitable for modelling incident duration of stationary vehicles. Significant variables affecting incident duration include characteristics of the incidents (severity, type, towing requirements, etc.), and location, time of day, and traffic characteristics of the incident. Moreover, the findings reveal no significant effects of infrastructure and weather on incident duration. A significant and unique contribution of this paper is that the durations of each type of incident are uniquely different and respond to different factors. The results of this study are useful for traffic incident management agencies to implement strategies to reduce incident duration, leading to reduced congestion, secondary incidents, and the associated human and economic losses.