Field Measured Dynamic Effects and Load Distribution in a Prestressed Concrete Light Rail Bridge

Live load performance of a recently constructed, prestressed concrete bridge was investigated to determine the Impact Factors (IMs), the Girder Distribution Factors (GDFs). The bridge was subjected to controlled static and dynamic loading using two Denver Transit Partners (DTP) electric-multiple-unit rail cars prior to a commuter rail line being placed into service. The rail cars travelled along northbound and southbound tracks of the four span, horizontally curved, bridge at various speeds. A total 24 tests were conducted and response was measured using a combination of strain sensors and accelerometers installed at critical sections on the supporting girders. Results for IMs and GDFs obtained from the field tests are presented. These results are also compared against relevant code provisions and these preliminary results indicated that IMs are insensitive to train speed and are smaller than investigated code provisions and that measured GDFs were different than those provided by these code provisions.

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Analysis of the Acoustic Environment of Typical Residential Areas along a Light Rail Line Based on GIS

Advances in Civil Engineering ◽

10.1155/2020/4832892 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Yu Zhao ◽

Qingwei Yang ◽

Peiyin Yuan

Keyword(s):

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Scientific Basis ◽

Light Rail ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Acoustic Environment ◽

Rail Line ◽

The Impact ◽

Objective Indicators

The acoustic environment of urban residential areas is closely related to road traffic noise. More specifically, the effect of the light rail on the old residential area in Chongqing is potentially profound. Using geographic information system (GIS) to construct a map of the urban light rail’s influence on the acoustic environment of residential areas, the influence of noise can be determined. Very few studies exist on the impact of light rails on the acoustic environment of residential areas, and there is no literature on the impact of light rails on the acoustic environment of residential areas using GIS. In this study, the degree of influence of a light rail on nearby residential areas and the diffusion degree of light rail noise in these areas during various times of the day were analysed by measuring the objective indicators of acoustic landscape elements and evaluating subjective indicators. The layout mode of the residential areas and the light rail were superimposed, and other traffic noise influences were eliminated. This method provides a scientific basis for the planning, design, and reconstruction of residential areas.

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The Impact of Anglicizing Former German-Language Psychology Journals on Authorship and Citation Frequencies

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000074 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 190-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Günter Krampen ◽

Thomas Huckert ◽

Gabriel Schui

Keyword(s):

Side Effects ◽

English Language ◽

General Trend ◽

Native Language ◽

Impact Factors ◽

German Language ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Number Of Citations ◽

The Impact ◽

Number Of Authors

Exemplary for other than English-language psychology journals, the impact of recent Anglicization of five former German-language psychology journals on (1) authorship (nationality, i.e., native language, and number of authors, i.e., single or multiple authorships), (2) formal characteristics of the journal (number of articles per volume and length of articles), and (3) number of citations of the articles in other journal articles, the language of the citing publications, and the impact factors (IF) is analyzed. Scientometric data on these variables are gathered for all articles published in the four years before anglicizing and in the four years after anglicizing the same journal. Results reveal rather quick changes: Citations per year since original articles’ publication increase significantly, and the IF of the journals go up markedly. Frequencies of citing in German-language journals decrease, citing in English-language journals increase significantly after the Anglicization of former German-language psychology journals, and there is a general trend of increasing citations in other languages as well. Side effects of anglicizing former German-language psychology journals include the publication of shorter papers, their availability to a more international authorship, and a slight, but significant increase in multiple authorships.

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Case study: Prediction and field tests of railway noise and effects of a low-height noise barrier

Noise Control Engineering Journal ◽

10.3397/1/376826 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 68 (4) ◽

pp. 303-314

Author(s):

Yuna Park ◽

Hyo-In Koh ◽

University of Science and Technology, Transpo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Field Tests ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Railway Systems ◽

Railway Noise ◽

Sound Levels ◽

Noise Barrier ◽

The Difference ◽

Reduction Effect ◽

The Impact

Railway noise is calculated to predict the impact of new or reconstructed railway tracks on nearby residential areas. The results are used to prepare adequate counter- measures, and the calculation results are directly related to the cost of the action plans. The calculated values were used to produce noise maps for each area of inter- est. The Schall 03 2012 is one of the most frequently used methods for the production of noise maps. The latest version was released in 2012 and uses various input para- meters associated with the latest rail vehicles and track systems in Germany. This version has not been sufficiently used in South Korea, and there is a lack of standard guidelines and a precise manual for Korean railway systems. Thus, it is not clear what input parameters will match specific local cases. This study investigates the modeling procedure for Korean railway systems and the differences between calcu- lated railway sound levels and measured values obtained using the Schall 03 2012 model. Depending on the location of sound receivers, the difference between the cal- culated and measured values was within approximately 4 dB for various train types. In the case of high-speed trains, the value was approximately 7 dB. A noise-reducing measure was also modeled. The noise reduction effect of a low-height noise barrier system was predicted and evaluated for operating railway sites within the frame- work of a national research project in Korea. The comparison of calculated and measured values showed differences within 2.5 dB.

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Exploring Factors Influencing Scenarios Evolution of Waste NIMBY Crisis: Analysis of Typical Cases in China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18042006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 2006

Author(s):

Ling He ◽

Qing Yang ◽

Xingxing Liu ◽

Lingmei Fu ◽

Jinmei Wang

Keyword(s):

Network Theory ◽

Development Process ◽

Dynamic Bayesian Network ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Social Stability ◽

Ground Theory ◽

Evolution Path ◽

Dynamic Scenario ◽

The Impact

As the impact factors of the waste Not-In-My-Back Yard (NIMBY) crisis are complex, and the scenario evolution path of it is diverse. Once the crisis is not handled properly, it will bring adverse effects on the construction of waste NIMBY facilities, economic development and social stability. Consequently, based on ground theory, this paper takes the waste NIMBY crisis in China from 2006 to 2019 as typical cases, through coding analysis, scenario evolution factors of waste NIMBY crisis are established. Furtherly, three key scenarios were obtained, namely, external situation (E), situation state (S), emergency management (M), what is more, scenario evolution law of waste NIMBY crisis is revealed. Then, the dynamic Bayesian network theory is used to construct the dynamic scenario evolution network of waste NIMBY crisis. Finally, based on the above models, Xiantao waste NIMBY crisis is taken as a case study, and the dynamic process of scenario evolution network is visually displayed by using Netica. The simulation results show that the scenario evolution network of Xiantao waste NIMBY crisis is basically consistent with the actual incident development process, which confirms the effectiveness and feasibility of the model.

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Alternative Control of Phragmidium rubi-idaei Infecting Two Rubus Species

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10071452 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 1452

Author(s):

Raluca-Maria Pârlici ◽

Aurel Maxim ◽

Stefania Mirela Mang ◽

Ippolito Camele ◽

Lucia Mihalescu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Farming ◽

Plant Pathogens ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Control Sample ◽

Field Tests ◽

In Vitro Tests ◽

Rust Disease ◽

Conidia Germination ◽

The Impact

Organic berry plantations have been gaining popularity among farmers during recent years. Even so, farmers experience serious challenges in disease control management, which is a concern in organic farming. Phragmidiumrubi-idaei (DC) P. Karst is the pathogen responsible for blackberry and raspberry rust disease, one of the most present and active diseases in plantations. The antifungal certified products found on the organic farming market offer the opportunity for an efficient control strategy over plant pathogens in fruit shrub plantations. In this study, 5 natural based products—namely Altosan, Mimox, Canelys, Zitron, and Zeolite—were tested for their fungistatic effect over P. rubi-idaei. The experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions, performing observations over the impact of organic products, used at different concentration levels, on rust conidia germination. Moreover, field experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the efficiency of different treatments for rust control on raspberry (‘Polka’, ‘Veten’ and ‘Heritage’) and blackberry (‘Thorn Free’, ‘Chester’ and ‘Loch Ness’) varieties. Data analysis based on ANOVA tests showed significant differences between the tested variants and the control sample at p < 0.001. Furthermore, LSD test confirmed differences between all substances tested (p < 0.005). The natural products Canelys (formulated with cinnamon) and Zytron (based on citrus extract) have proven the highest inhibitory capacity for conidia germination during in vitro tests registering values of 80.42% and 78.34%, respectively. The same high inhibitory rates against rust pathogen were kept also in the field tests using the same two natural-based products mentioned earlier. In addition, outcomes from this study demonstrated that Zeolite is not recommended for raspberry or blackberry rust control.

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Do Agricultural Machinery Services Facilitate Land Transfer? Evidence from Rice Farmers in Sichuan Province, China

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050466 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 466

Author(s):

Xi Yu ◽

Xiyang Yin ◽

Yuying Liu ◽

Dongmei Li

Keyword(s):

Negative Impact ◽

Sichuan Province ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Farm Labor ◽

Agricultural Machinery ◽

Rice Farmers ◽

Land Transfer ◽

Land Rental ◽

Rental Markets ◽

The Impact

Agricultural machinery services play an increasingly important role in the land transfer market, especially in developing countries. Prior studies have explored the impact factors of machinery use on agricultural production and land transfer, respectively. However, little research has focused on the relationship between the adoption of agricultural machinery services and the land transfer of rice farmers. To bridge this gap, this study investigated the correlation between machinery services and land transfer, using unique survey data of 810 rice farmers collected from Sichuan province in China. Additionally, this study further explored the impact mechanism on land transfer of rural households with IV-Probit and IV-Tobit models. The empirical results show the following: (i) Agricultural machinery services have a significantly positive and robust effect on both the incidence and area of rice farmers’ land transfer-in, while the impact degree is different. Specifically, with other conditions remaining unchanged, and with a 1% increase in the proportion of machinery services, the average probability of land transfer-in of rice farmers increased by 2.4%, and the area of land transfer-in increased by 13.4 mu, on average. (ii) For control variables, head education, agricultural certificates and whether the majority of land, are in a flat area have positive impacts on land transfer-in behavior. Yet, age and off-farm labor have a negative impact on land transfer-in area. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of agricultural machinery services in stimulating the development of rural land rental markets.

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Analysis of the journal impact factor and related bibliometric indicators in education and educational research category

Education for Information ◽

10.3233/efi-200442 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Metin Orbay ◽

Orhan Karamustafaoğlu ◽

Ruben Miranda

Keyword(s):

Impact Factor ◽

Educational Research ◽

Journal Impact Factor ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Bibliometric Indicators ◽

Strongly Correlated ◽

Starting Point ◽

Consistent Assessment ◽

The Impact ◽

Journal Impact

This study analyzes the journal impact factor and related bibliometric indicators in Education and Educational Research (E&ER) category, highlighting the main differences among journal quartiles, using Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index, SSCI) as the data source. High impact journals (Q1) publish only slightly more papers than expected, which is different to other areas. The papers published in Q1 journal have greater average citations and lower uncitedness rates compared to other quartiles, although the differences among quartiles are lower than in other areas. The impact factor is only weakly negative correlated (r=-0.184) with the journal self-citation but strongly correlated with the citedness of the median journal paper (r= 0.864). Although this strong correlation exists, the impact factor is still far to be the perfect indicator for expected citations of a paper due to the high skewness of the citations distribution. This skewness was moderately correlated with the citations received by the most cited paper of the journal (r= 0.649) and the number of papers published by the journal (r= 0.484), but no important differences by journal quartiles were observed. In the period 2013–2018, the average journal impact factor in the E&ER has increased largely from 0.908 to 1.638, which is justified by the field growth but also by the increase in international collaboration and the share of papers published in open access. Despite their inherent limitations, the use of impact factors and related indicators is a starting point for introducing the use of bibliometric tools for objective and consistent assessment of researcher.

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High-energy operator product expansion at sub-eikonal level

Journal of High Energy Physics ◽

10.1007/jhep06(2021)096 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Giovanni Antonio Chirilli

Keyword(s):

Operator Product Expansion ◽

Evolution Equations ◽

Energy Operator ◽

High Energy ◽

Structure Functions ◽

Distribution Functions ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Operator Product ◽

The Impact ◽

New Distribution

Abstract The high energy Operator Product Expansion for the product of two electromagnetic currents is extended to the sub-eikonal level in a rigorous way. I calculate the impact factors for polarized and unpolarized structure functions, define new distribution functions, and derive the evolution equations for unpolarized and polarized structure functions in the flavor singlet and non-singlet case.

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Detecting anomalous citation groups in journal networks

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-93572-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sadamori Kojaku ◽

Giacomo Livan ◽

Naoki Masuda

Keyword(s):

Null Model ◽

Impact Factors ◽

Academic Publishing ◽

Scientific Communities ◽

Citation Behavior ◽

Journal Editors ◽

Journal Citation Reports ◽

Academic Climate ◽

The Impact ◽

Publication Standards

AbstractThe ever-increasing competitiveness in the academic publishing market incentivizes journal editors to pursue higher impact factors. This translates into journals becoming more selective, and, ultimately, into higher publication standards. However, the fixation on higher impact factors leads some journals to artificially boost impact factors through the coordinated effort of a “citation cartel” of journals. “Citation cartel” behavior has become increasingly common in recent years, with several instances being reported. Here, we propose an algorithm—named CIDRE—to detect anomalous groups of journals that exchange citations at excessively high rates when compared against a null model that accounts for scientific communities and journal size. CIDRE detects more than half of the journals suspended from Journal Citation Reports due to anomalous citation behavior in the year of suspension or in advance. Furthermore, CIDRE detects many new anomalous groups, where the impact factors of the member journals are lifted substantially higher by the citations from other member journals. We describe a number of such examples in detail and discuss the implications of our findings with regard to the current academic climate.

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A simplified iterative approach for testing the pulse derailment of light rail vehicles across a viaduct to near-fault earthquake scenarios

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part F Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit ◽

10.1177/0954409720987410 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095440972098741

Author(s):

Ling-Kun Chen ◽

Peng Liu ◽

Li-Ming Zhu ◽

Jing-Bo Ding ◽

Yu-Lin Feng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ground Motions ◽

Simulation Software ◽

Light Rail ◽

Rail Transit ◽

Light Rail Transit ◽

Seismic Responses ◽

Near Fault ◽

Rail Vehicle ◽

Pulse Type ◽

The Impact

Near-fault (NF) earthquakes cause severe bridge damage, particularly urban bridges subjected to light rail transit (LRT), which could affect the safety of the light rail transit vehicle (“light rail vehicle” or “LRV” for short). Now when a variety of studies on the fault fracture effect on the working protection of LRVs are available for the study of cars subjected to far-reaching soil motion (FFGMs), further examination is appropriate. For the first time, this paper introduced the LRV derailment mechanism caused by pulse-type near-fault ground motions (NFGMs), suggesting the concept of pulse derailment. The effects of near-fault ground motions (NFGMs) are included in an available numerical process developed for the LRV analysis of the VBI system. A simplified iterative algorithm is proposed to assess the stability and nonlinear seismic response of an LRV-reinforced concrete (RC) viaduct (LRVBRCV) system to a long-period NFGMs using the dynamic substructure method (DSM). Furthermore, a computer simulation software was developed to compute the nonlinear seismic responses of the VBI system to pulse-type NFGMs, non-pulse-type NFGMs, and FFGMs named Dynamic Interaction Analysis for Light-Rail-Vehicle Bridge System (DIALRVBS). The nonlinear bridge seismic reaction determines the impact of pulses on lateral peak earth acceleration (Ap) and lateral peak land (Vp) ratios. The analysis results quantify the effects of pulse-type NFGMs seismic responses on the LRV operations' safety. In contrast with the pulse-type non-pulse NFGMs and FFGMs, this article's research shows that pulse-type NFGM derail trains primarily via the transverse velocity pulse effect. Hence, this study's results and the proposed method can improve the LRT bridges' seismic designs.

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