This book provides a systematic analysis, modeling and evaluation of the performance of advanced transport systems. It offers an innovative approach by presenting a multidimensional examination of the performance of advanced transport systems and transport modes, useful for both theoretical and practical purposes. Advanced transport systems for the twenty-first century are characterized by the superiority of one or several of their infrastructural, technical/technological, operational, economic, environmental, social and policy performances as compared to their conventional counterparts. The advanced transport systems considered include: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems in urban area(s), electric and fuel cell passenger cars, high speed tilting trains, High Speed Rail (HSR), Trans Rapid Maglev (TRM), Evacuated Tube Transport system (ETT), advanced commercial subsonic and Supersonic Transport Aircraft (STA), conventionally- and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2)-fuelled commercial air transportation, advanced Air Traffic Control (ATC) technologies and procedures for increasing the airport runway capacity, Underground Freight Transport (UFT) systems in urban area(s), Long Intermodal Freight Train(s) (LIFTs), road mega trucks, large advanced container ships and freight/cargo aircraft and advanced freight/goods collection distribution networks. This book is intended for postgraduates, researchers, professionals and policy makers working in the transport industry.

In recent years, the paradigm of video coding has shifted from that of a frame-based approach to a content-based approach, particularly with the finalization of the ISO multimedia coding standard, MPEG-4. MPEG-4 is the emerging standard for the coding of multimedia content. It defines a syntax for a set of content-based functionalities, namely, content-based interactivity, compression and universal access. However, it does not specify how the video content is to be generated. To generate the video content, video has to be segmented into video objects and tracked as they transverse across the video frames. This book addresses the difficult problem of video segmentation, and the extraction and tracking of video object planes as defined in MPEG-4. It then focuses on the specific issue of face segmentation and coding as applied to videoconferencing in order to improve the quality of videoconferencing images especially in the facial region.
Modal-based coding is a content-based coding technique used to code synthetic objects that have become an important part of video content. It results in extremely low bit rates because only the parameters needed to represent the modal are transmitted. Model-based coding is included to provide background information for the synthetic object coding in MPEG-4. Lastly, MPEG-4, the first coding standard for multimedia content is described in detail. The topics covered include the coding of audio objects, the coding of natural and synthetic video objects, and error resilience.
"Advanced Video Coding" is one of the first books on content-based coding and MPEG-4 coding standard. It serves as an excellent information source and reference for both researchers and practicing engineers.

This book is the first to comprehensively cover research methods for building occupant behavior. As this is of growing importance for building design and for building performance optimization, the book aims to provide a sound scientific basis for experimental studies in this field. It introduces the reader to fundamental questions about the topic and unfolds the different fields related to occupant actions and comfort. This is followed by more general questions about developing an appropriate research method and experimental design. A comprehensive overview of sensors for monitoring environmental and also behavioral and action-related quantities helps to set up an experiment. In this context, different experimental environments and data collection methods (in-situ, laboratories, surveys) are introduced and discussed in terms of their suitability for the respective research question. Furthermore, data management and reporting is addressed. The book concludes with fundamental challenges in conducting occupant studies, with chapters on ground truth, ethics and privacy.

This book provides cutting-edge insights into autonomous vehicles and road terrain classification, and introduces a more rational and practical method for identifying road terrain. It presents the MRF algorithm, which combines the various sensors' classification results to improve the forward LRF for predicting upcoming road terrain types. The comparison between the predicting LRF and its corresponding MRF show that the MRF multiple-sensor fusion method is extremely robust and effective in terms of classifying road terrain. The book also demonstrates numerous applications of road terrain classification for various environments and types of autonomous vehicle, and includes abundant illustrations and models to make the comparison tables and figures more accessible.

This text contains contributions from various authors on topics related to probabilistic methods used for the design of structures. Several of the papers were initially prepared for advanced courses on structural reliability or on probabilistic methods for structural design. These courses have been held in several countries and have been given by various groups of lecturers. They were aimed at engineers and researchers that had already been exposed to structural reliability methods, and presented overviews of the various topics. The book includes a selection of these contributions, which should be of use to future courses or for engineers and researchers who want an up-to-date overview. It is complementary to the existing textbooks on structural reliability, which normally cover the basic topics but exclude the more specialized aspects. In addition, several papers have been specially prepared for this book, complementing the others in providing an overall account of recent advances in the field. Among the topics covered are modelling of uncertainty, prediction of the strength of components, load modelling and combination, assessment of structural systems, stochastic finite elements and design consideration. This volume is directed at practitioners as well as researchers.

This book covers several aspects of the synthesis of composites by the pressureless infiltration technique. It describes the methods used to obtain green preforms, such as cold pressed and hot sintering, describing the heating time, load, and time required for pressing the preforms. Additionally, wettability phenomena, which is directly related on infiltration, is extensively described. Wettability process and interfacial reactions are analyzed in many ceramic-metal systems prior to fabricate the composites. A complete description of fabrication processes for Metal Matrix Composites is included. An extensive section on structural, chemical, and mechanical characterization of composites fabricated with aluminum and magnesium alloys as matrices reinforced with titanium carbide (TiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), silicon carbide (SiC) and alumina (Al2O3) is included. Relevant techniques for joining composites, such as welding and brazing are addressed. As well as issues pertaining to the corrosion and wear of composites are discussed as well. Corrosion behavior of some composites exposed to aqueous media was analyzed. Corrosion of composites using TiC and SiC like reinforcement and Al, Ni, and some Al-Cux, Al-Mgx and Al-Cu-Li alloys like matrix is discussed extensively. The structural characterization techniques addressed include: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical microscopy (OM), differential thermal analysis (DTA), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). Mechanical testing including hardness, elastic modulus, tension tests, and impact tests were used in the characterization of composites. Theoretical models for prediction of some mechanical properties are included too.

Methods of controlling mass concrete temperatures range from relatively simple to complex and from inexpensive too costly. Depending on a particular situation, it may be advantageous to use one or more methods over others. Based on the author s 50 years of personal experience in designing mass concrete structures, "Thermal Stresses and Temperature Control of Mass Concrete "provides a clear and rigorous guide to selecting the right techniques to meet project-specific and financial needs. New techniques such as long time superficial thermal insulation, comprehensive temperature control, and MgO self-expansive concrete are introduced.
Methods for calculating the temperature field and thermal stresses in dams, docks, tunnels, and concrete blocks and beams on elastic foundationsThermal stress computationsthat take into account the influences of all factors and simulate the process of constructionAnalytical methods for determining thermal and mechanical properties of concreteFormulas for determining water temperature in reservoirs and temperature loading of arched damsNew numerical monitoring methods for mass and semi-mature aged concrete"

Fundamental environmental challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution are still widely relevant in today's world. Many of these problems have been associated with the architecture, engineering, and construction industries due to the level of resources used in these professions. In recent years, many manufacturers in these fields have expressed the motivation to make necessary changes that would be beneficial to the environment. Despite this progress, there remains a lack of research and assessment on the methods to achieve environmental stability within these architectural fields. Examining the Environmental Impacts of Materials and Buildings provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of ecological performance within modern building design and materials-based construction. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as life cycle assessment, material flows analysis, and sustainability, this book is ideally designed for architects, civil engineers, construction professionals, environmentalists, ecologists, business practitioners, scientists, policymakers, designers, researchers, and academicians seeking research on current trends in environmental performance within building design.

This manual provides the reader with an accurate and convenient method for estimatig direct labor for general contrsuction work for any given system, plant, or location. Though this book, the reader has a reliable process of obtaining and streamlining an efficent model of operation.

This book reports on the physical and mechanical characterization of Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC), produced through a partial-to-total replacement of ordinary aggregates with what have been dubbed Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCAs). It proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the relationships between RCAs and RCA, and for predicting the resulting behavior of RAC. The book demonstrates that in the case of RAC two additional parameters have to be taken into account than with ordinary aggregates, due to the composite nature and higher porosity of RCAs. By extending Abrams' Law for Recycled Aggregate Concrete, it represents a first step in the formulation of a general model for predicting the properties of RAC. The theoretical approach presented here addresses an important gap in the literature and is expected to stimulate new research on the use of this more sustainable form of concrete in structural applications.

This proceedings volume examines the effects of transport on socio-economic development including innovation, public health and cultural behavior. Featuring contributions presented at the 2017 TranSopot Conference in Sopot, Poland, the enclosed papers are divided to provide emerging research in transport sustainability, innovation, structure, and in municipal transport economics. Collectively, the contributions provide not only the theoretical background for transport analysis but also empirical data and practical applications. Researchers in the transport sector strive to explore the nuances of various aspects of transport economics, which are connected on many levels. The sustainability of transport fits into a wide perspective of the sustainable economy. It treats the activities of individuals, companies and local, regional and national governments as means of achieving economic and social ends. Conversely, transport sustainability has a certain burden on society as it may generate external costs in the form of congestion, pollution and negative health effects. Many of these adverse effects might be counteracted by transport innovations, both the technical ones and the organizational ones. These innovations, while their main goal might be to increase the efficiency of the transport entities, should also fit into the desirable trend of responsible economic design thinking. These general ideas of transport research naturally have to influence the research in various branches of transport ranging from the road transport to railway. Lastly, there is the municipal transport, in which goals of different stakeholders are often contradictory which leads to highly complicated decision problems. Featuring case examples on topics as bike sharing, green travel, compact cars, freight transport and electric cars, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students in the fields of transport economics, innovation, and sustainability.

The management of a water supply network can be substantially improved defining permanent sectors or districts that enhances simpler water loss detection and pressure management. However, the water network partitioning may compromise water system performance, since some pipes are usually closed to delimit districts in order not to have too many metering stations, to decrease costs and simplify water balance. This may reduce the reliability of the whole system and not guarantee the delivery of water at the different network nodes. In practical applications, the design of districts or sectors is generally based on empirical approaches or on limited field experiences. The book proposes a design support methodology, based on graph theory principles and tested on real case study. The described methodology can help water utilities, professionals and researchers to define the optimal districts or sectors of a water supply network.

Devastating damage in the Tohoku region of Japan occurred during and after the earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011. The AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan) dispatched reconnaissance teams into the field to obtain basic facts on the damage to buildings due to the massive ground motions and resultant tsunami. Their mission included collecting information on the characteristics of the earthquake itself and the observed major ground motions and tsunamis throughout the area. For the structural damage investigation, buildings are classified by their type of construction, namely, steel buildings, reinforced concrete buildings, wooden houses, etc. along with descriptions of special features for each category of building type. The report summarizes damage associated with ground failures including landslide and liquefaction as
well as non-structural damages such as to equipment and facilities, partitioning walls and ceilings, and functional failures in skyscrapers. Also brief description of the Japanese Seismic Design Code will be provided in the Appendix. A proposed scheme of anti-tsunami design for buildings is also included.

Exploring complex and intelligent analytical and mathematical methods, this book examines how different approaches can be used to optimize program management in the construction industry. It presents an in-depth study of the different program management methods, ranging from simple decision-making techniques and statistics analysis to the more complex linear programming and demonstrates how knowledge-base systems and genetic algorithms can be used to optimize resources and meet time, budget and quality criteria. It addresses topics including decision-making principles, planning and scheduling, mathematical forecasting models, optimization techniques programming and artificial intelligence techniques. Providing a valuable resource for anyone managing multiple projects in the construction industry, this book is intended for civil and construction engineering students, project managers, construction managers and senior engineers.

Since 1950, the "Highway Capacity Manual" has been a standard used in the planning, design, analysis and operation of virtually any highway traffic facility in the United States. It has also been widely used abroad and has spurred the development of similar manuals in other countries.

The twin concepts of capacity and level of service have been developed in the manual and methodologies have been presented that allow highway traffic facilities to be designed on a common basis and allow for the analysis of operational quality under various traffic demand scenarios. The manual also addresses related pedestrian, bicycle and transit issues. There have been five full editions of the "Highway Capacity Manual" 1950, 1975, 1985, 2000 and 2010, with interim updates in 1994 and 1997.

The manual has a rich conceptual and research history that should be understood both by users of the manual and by those who contribute to it through basic research and development of methodologies.I has become increasingly complex, as our understanding of complex interactions among drivers, vehicles and roadways improves. Through it all, there are common threads of understanding that have not changed a great deal since 1950.

This book details the fundamental development of the concepts of capacity and level of service and of the specific methodologies developed to describe them over a wide range of facility types.The book is comprised of two volumes.Volume 1 (this book) focuses on the development of basic principles and their application to uninterrupted flow facilities: freeways, multilane highways and two-lane highways. Weaving, merging and diverging segments on freeways and multilane highways are also discussed in detail. Volume 2 (expected to be completed in late 2014) focuses on interrupted flow facilities: signalized and unsignalized intersections, urban streets and arterials. It is intended to help users of the manual understand how concepts, approaches and specific methodologies were developed and to understand the underlying principles that each embodies.It is also intended to act as a basic reference for current and future researchers who will continue to develop new and improved capacity analysis methodologies for many years to come."

Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success - speed, journey time, efficiency - are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety - and many other factors that engineering equations don't capture at all. As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, the greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of roads, railways, planes and pavements - as well as the ways in which we use them - but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans. This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work-life priorities have shaken up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans.

Earthquakes represent a major risk to buildings, bridges and other civil infrastructure systems, causing catastrophic loss to modern society. Handbook of seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems reviews the state of the art in the seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems.
Part one reviews research in the quantification of uncertainties in ground motion and seismic hazard assessment. Part twi discusses methodologies in seismic risk analysis and management, whilst parts three and four cover the application of seismic risk assessment to buildings, bridges, pipelines and other civil infrastructure systems. Part five also discusses methods for quantifying dependency between different infrastructure systems. The final part of the book considers ways of assessing financial and other losses from earthquake damage as well as setting insurance rates.
Handbook of seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems is an invaluable guide for professionals requiring understanding of the impact of earthquakes on buildings and lifelines, and the seismic risk assessment and management of buildings, bridges and transportation. It also provides a comprehensive overview of seismic risk analysis for researchers and engineers within these fields.
This important handbook reviews the wealth of recent research in the area of seismic hazard analysis in modern earthquake design code provisions and practicesExamines research into the analysis of ground motion and seismic hazard assessment, seismic risk hazard methodologiesAddresses the assessment of seismic risks to buildings, bridges, water supply systems and other aspects of civil infrastructure

This thesis studied the effect of aging of intumescent coatings (ICs) on the reliability of protected steel columns in fire condition and developed a probabilistic approach to assess the service life of ICs applied on steel columns. In the study, Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to obtain the reliability index or failure probability of steel columns protected by ICs subjected to compartment fires. The effect of aging of intumescent coatings on the failure probability of protected steel columns was investigated by using variable insulation property of intumescent coatings in the simulation. The test data on aging effect on insulation property of intumescent coatings from literature was used. Based on the reliability analysis, a probabilistic approach is given to determine the service life of intumescent coatings for steel columns. In that approach, the failure probability of the protected steel columns is compared with the target probability of the structural fire design. The approach can also be used for probabilistic analysis of steel columns protected by conventional inert fire protection materials.

Integrating information from several areas of engineering geology, hydrogeology, geotechnical engineering, this book addresses the general field of groundwater from an engineering perspective. It covers geological engineering as well as hydrogeological and environmental geological problems caused by groundwater engineering. It includes 10 chapters, i.e., basic groundwater theory, parameter calculation in hydrogeology, prevention of geological problem caused by groundwater, construction dewatering, wellpoint dewatering methods, dewatering wells and drilling, groundwater dewatering in foundation-pit engineering, groundwater engineering in bedrock areas, numerical simulation in groundwater engineering, groundwater corrosion on concrete and steel. Based on up-to-date literature, it describes recent developments and presents several case studies with examples and problems. It is an essential reference source for industrial and academic researchers working in the groundwater field and can also serve as lecture-based course material providing fundamental information and practical tools for both senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in fields of geology engineering, hydrogeology, geotechnical engineering or to conduct related research.