Geographical accessibility to the supply of antiophidic sera in Brazil: Timely access possibilities

Snakebite accidents are considered category A neglected tropical diseases. Brazil stands out for snakebite accidents, mainly in the Amazon region. The best possible care after snakebite accidents is to obtain antiophidic sera on time. And the maximum ideal time to reach it is about 2 hours after an accident. Based on public health information and using a tool to analyze geographical accessibility, we evaluate the possibility of reaching Brazilian serum-providing health facilities from the relationship between population distribution and commuting time. In this exploratory descriptive study, the geographic accessibility of Brazilian population to health facilities that supply antiophidic serum is evaluated through a methodology that articulates several issues that influence the commuting time to health units (ACCESSMOD): population and facilities’ distribution, transportation network and means, relief and land use, which were obtained in Brazilian and international sources. The relative importance of the population without the possibility of reaching a facility in two hours is highlighted for Macro-Regions, States and municipalities. About nine million people live in locations more than two hours away from serum-providing facilities, with relevant variations between regions, states, and municipalities. States like Mato Grosso, Pará and Maranhão had the most important participation of population with reaching time problems to those units. The most significant gaps are found in areas with a dispersed population and sometimes characterized by a high incidence of snakebites, such as in the North of the country, especially in the Northeastern Pará state. Even using a 2010 population distribution information, because of the 2020 Census postponement, the tendencies and characteristics analyzed reveal challenging situations over the country. The growing availability of serum-providing health facilities, the enhanced possibilities of transporting accident victims, and even the availability of sera in other types of establishments are actions that would allow expanding the possibilities of access to serum supply.

Analysis of Identification Methods of Key Nodes in Transportation Network

The identification of key nodes plays an important role in improving the robustness of the transportation network. For different types of transportation networks, the effect of the same identification method may be different. It is of practical significance to study the key nodes identification methods corresponding to various types of transportation networks. Based on the knowledge of complex networks, the metro networks and the bus networks are selected as the objects, and the key nodes are identified by the node degree identification method, the neighbor node degree identification method, the weighted k-shell degree neighborhood identification method (KSD), the degree k-shell identification method (DKS), and the degree k-shell neighborhood identification method (DKSN). Take the network efficiency and the largest connected subgraph as the effective indicators. The results show that the KSD identification method that comprehensively considers the elements has the best recognition effect and has certain practical significance.

Understanding the Spatiotemporal Variation of High-Efficiency Ride-Hailing Orders: A Case Study of Haikou, China

Understanding the spatiotemporal variation of high-efficiency ride-hailing orders (HROs) is helpful for transportation network companies (TNCs) to balance the income of drivers through reasonable order dispatch, and to alleviate the imbalance between supply and demand by improving the pricing mechanism, so as to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the ride-hailing industry and urban transportation. From the perspective of TNCs for order management, this study investigates the spatiotemporal variation of HROs and common ride-hailing orders (CROs) for ride-hailing services using the trip data of Didi Chuxing in Haikou, China. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models are established to examine the factors that affect the densities of HROs and CROs during different time periods, such as morning, evening, afternoon and night, with considering various built environment variables. The OLS models show that factors including road density, average travel time rate, companies and enterprises and transportation facilities have significant impacts on HROs and CROs for most periods. The results of the GWR models are consistent with the global regression results and show the local effects of the built environment on HROs and CROs in different regions.

Critical Analysis of Train Derailments in Canada through Process Safety Techniques and Insights into Enhanced Safety Management Systems

Canada’s rail transportation network is a critical part of Canada’s integrated supply chain which connects industries, consumers, and resource sectors to ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. One transportation activity that is essential to most industries, especially oil and manufacturing, is the rail transport of dangerous goods (DG). Although rail transportation of DG is beneficial to Canada’s economy, not paying attention to the safe transportation of these types of goods can have irreparable effects on the economy, human lives, and the environment. Recent rail accidents, such as Lake Wabamun in 2005 and Lac-Mégantic in 2013, have shown that there is still room to increase the safety of transportation of DG by rail through improving railways’ safety management systems (SMS). As a result, investigations to increase the safety of rail transportation of DG have been started. This work is part of these initiatives focusing on enhancing railways’ SMS, particularly DG main-track train derailments. The current study applied detailed root cause analysis (RCA), the bow tie analysis (BTA), and incident databases to identify the main causes and consequences of these types of accidents (2007–2017). Then, the relationship between these factors and gaps in SMS elements were identified and the frequency of each factor was investigated. The results showed that the main gaps are related to process and equipment integrity, incident investigation, and company standards, codes, and regulations. Furthermore, some useful recommendations are presented to improve the management of each SMS element and reduce these gaps.

Quantitative Framework for Establishing Low-Risk Inter-District Travel Corridors During COVID-19

Aspirations to slow down the spread of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) resulted in unprecedented restrictions on personal and work-related travels in various nations across the globe in 2020. As a consequence, economic activities within and across the countries were almost halted. As restrictions loosen and cities start to resume public and private transport to revamp the economy, it becomes critical to assess the commuters’ travel-related risk in light of the ongoing pandemic. The paper develops a generalizable quantitative framework to evaluate the commute-related risk arising from inter-district and intra-district travel by combining nonparametric data envelopment analysis for vulnerability assessment with transportation network analysis. It demonstrates the application of the proposed model for establishing travel corridors within and across Gujarat and Maharashtra, two Indian states that have reported many COVID-19 cases since early April 2020. The findings suggest that establishing travel corridors between a pair of districts solely based on the health vulnerability indices of the origin and destination discards the en-route travel risks from the prevalent pandemic, underestimating the threat. For example, while the resultant of social and health vulnerabilities of Narmada and Vadodara districts is relatively moderate, the en-route travel risk exacerbates the overall travel risk of travel between them. The study provides a quantitative framework to identify the alternate path with the least risk and hence establish low-risk travel corridors within and across states while accounting for social and health vulnerabilities in addition to transit-time related risks.

Demand Estimation of Proposed Bus Rapid Route in Al Kut City

Public transit in the city of Al-Kut faces great challenges due to the weakness of the local government abilities in providing adequate conditions for public transport such as wide vehicles, comfortable seats, and other environmentally friendly means of transport that are almost non-use in the city of Kut, where the dependence is heavily on Mini Bus (Kia) and a medium-sized bus, most of which are old, do not operate in an integrated way, compete with each other for the passengers, reduce the flexibility of movement. This study attempts to estimate the demand for the proposed bus rapid route in the city of al Kut as a modern public transport that can contribute to reducing congestion in the city. In this study, the demand for the current public transport network lines in the city was studied, which are 12 lines using boarding / alighting values to determine passenger loads and assess flow on each route in the transportation network using the origin-destination (OD) data from on/off data, then repeat the application on the BRT route, this was done using assignment model in TransCAD software, where the results showed an estimated value for passenger demand on BRT route about 7,616 passengers/hour, which is equivalent to 40.12 % of the transport lines service.

Parking Requirement of Institutional Land Use

Parking demand rates are one of the essential keys to urban city planning around the world. Most cities produced the most suitable parking rates, and models relied on their local conditions, regulations, and people’s habits. In Iraq, there is a lack of parking studies, and therefore, there is a lot of missing information which if be found, will be very valuable for better enhancing and managing the transportation network system. Institutional land use or Government Ministries are the land use type in which this research tries to find its parking generation rates. The goal is to produce models and rates for parking generation by using certain independent variables according to the characteristics of the land-use type. The research study area is the urban areas outside Baghdad CBD. Several sites were selected located in different parts of Baghdad. The number of study sites is three. The collected data about sites are the total number of site employees, site gross floor area, and maximum parked vehicles at each site for an Am and Pm period. Each site has a clear parking lot; besides, the sites were selected relied on particular criteria. The field survey was done at each site for defining days and times. The final stage is a data analysis and producing parking generation rates and models to determine the required parking demand for this land-use type. Statistical analysis of data, model generation, was done by the computer program (SPSS). It concluded that the institutional land use produced 0.94 spaces per 100 m2 of GFA and 0.1 spaces per employee.