Opportunistic natural experiments using digital telemetry: a transit disruption case study

ABSTRACT

In the past decade society has entered a technological period characterized by handheld computing that supports input and processing from numerous sensors. Today’s mobile phones offer the ability to integrate input from sensors monitoring various external and internal sources (e.g., accelerometer, magnetometer, microphone, GPS, wireless Internet, and Bluetooth). Furthermore, these raw inputs can be integrated and processed in ways that can offer novel representations of human behaviour. As a result, new opportunities to examine and better understand human spatial behaviour are available; one such application is the constant monitoring of a group of people over an extended period of time. Such a research setting lends itself to natural experiments that emerge as a result of regular and on-going observations. We report here on the observation of a natural experiment that took place in the context of a month-long monitoring study of 28 participants using mobile phone-based ubiquitous sensor monitoring. The implications for public health and transportation planning are discussed.     

Numerical prediction of MODUs drift during Hurricane Katrina

Severe hurricanes, such as Katrina, broke the mooring lines of a number of mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) deployed in the Gulf of Mexico and some of those MODUs went adrift. A drifting MODU may damage other critical elements of the offshore oil and gas infrastructure by colliding with floating or fixed production systems and transportation hubs, or by rupturing pipelines owing to their dragging anchors over the seabed. To avoid or mitigate the damage caused by a drifting MODU, it is desirable to understand the mechanics of the drift of a MODU under the impact of severe wind, wave and current and have the capability of predicting the trajectory of the drift. To explore the feasibility and accuracy of predicting the trajectory of a drifting MODU based on hindcast met-ocean conditions and limited knowledge of the condition of the drifting MODU, this study employed a simplified equation describing only the horizontal (surge, sway and yaw) motions of a MODU under the impact of steady wind, current and wave forces. The simplified hydrodynamic model neglects the first- and second-order oscillatory wave forces, unsteady wind forces (owing to wind gustiness), wave drift damping, and the effects of the body oscillation on the steady wind and current forces. It was assumed that the net effects of the oscillatory forces on the steady motion are insignificant. To verify the accuracy and feasibility of our simplified approach, the predicted drifting trajectories of two MODUs were compared with the corresponding measurements recorded by the global positioning system (GPS).     

Mapping 3D visibility in an urban street environment from mobile LiDAR point clouds

ABSTRACT

Visibility determination is a key requirement in a wide range of national and urban applications, such as national security, landscape management, and urban design. Mobile LiDAR point clouds can depict the urban built environment with a high level of details and accuracy. However, few three-dimensional visibility approaches have been developed for the street-level point-cloud data. Accordingly, an approach based on mobile LiDAR point clouds has been developed to map the three-dimensional visibility at the street level. The method consists of five steps: voxelization of point-cloud data, construction of lines-of-sight, construction of sectors of sight, construction of three-dimensional visible space, and calculation of volume index. The proposed approach is able to automatically measure the volume of visible space and openness at any viewpoint along a street. This approach has been applied to three study areas. The results indicated that the proposed approach enables accurate simulation of visible space as well as high-resolution (1 m × 1 m) mapping of the visible volume index. The proposed approach can make a contribution to the improvement of urban planning and design processes that aim at developing more sustainable built environments.     

量子无线通信技术在海洋环境监测中的应用

以量子技术为基础,利用光子基本粒子的量子纠缠原理,由量子态携带在线实时海洋环境监测数据信息,构建基于量子无线通信的海洋环境监测系统。该系统在无线通信中可确保数据的安全性、系统性、及时性和准确性,提高信息化和灵活化水平,可为海洋环境规划、环境管理、环境治理等提供全面安全可靠的监测数据。     

Changes in Venice Lagoon dynamics due to construction of mobile barriers

The MoSE project (construction of mobile barrier to safeguard the Lagoon of Venice) entails changes to the structure of the lagoon's inlets. This could have consequences for the areas near the inlets and for the dynamics of the lagoon ecosystem as a whole. In order to predict the effects of the proposed alterations on the hydrodynamics of the lagoon, a well-tested hydrodynamic-dispersion model was applied. Simulations were carried out considering both idealised and realistic tide and wind scenarios.     

SVG在移动地图服务中的组织与编码

根据移动地图服务的特点以及SVG的子集MobileSVG在移动设备中应用的优点,首先讨论了传统SVG地图组织模式在移动地图服务中的缺点,在此基础上提出一种新的适合移动地图服务的利用MobileSVG组织地图数据的方式,并对其组织与编码方式进行了详细的说明。     

珠江三角洲通信系统震害预测

基于珠江三角洲通信建筑物的调查资料，对典型的通信建筑物做了时程地震反应分析和单体震害预测；对另一些建筑物做了群体震害预测；并就通信设备震害预测问题做了简单评述。     

三维地理信息数据在移动通信网络规划和优化系统中的应用

随着移动通信的迅猛发展,网络规模不断扩大,借助数字地图,尤其是三维地理信息数据进行网络规划和优化已变得越来越重要。本文主要介绍三维地理信息数据在建立移动通信网络规划和优化系统中的应用。     

沿海渔业天气警报服务系统

本文简要地介绍了建立沿海渔业天气警报服务系统的必要性,系统的设计特点,现场试验情况以及今后建台布网的设想。特别是把短波单边带通信,地面波传播方式和双音报警技术引入天气警报服务系统,开辟了短波单边带气象通应用的新领域。     

移动式测绘系统（MMS）的发展与应用

移动式测绘系统（MMS）已在交通管理、城市规划、地图更新、工程勘测、精准农业、战场测绘等领域广泛应用。本文在简要叙述MMS基本概念和主要功能的基础上，探讨了MMS的发展现状和应用方向，进而提出了当前发展MMS需要解决的关键技术，仅供参考。