City infrastructure agencies routinely implement road projects that address various elements of urban infrastructure. The majority of these projects are shortterm in nature (e.g., utility repair), as they are completed in a few hours within 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. of a workday. The implementation of these projects during working hours, in spite of the inconvenience imposed on road users, helps the agency avoid extra labor costs associated with nonregular working hours. Careful scheduling of these projects can prevent unduly increased travel delays (road users' interest) while keeping project costs low (the agency's interest). This study presents a bi-level framework for scheduling short-term urban road projects that analyzes the implicit tradeoffs between the two stakeholders' interests. The upper-level model establishes the optimal schedule considering the project characteristics, such as cost and duration. The lower-level model captures the dynamic user equilibrium conditions that yield the road users' path and departure time choices. The bi-level model is a mixed-integer program with nonlinear constraints. Recognizing the relatively low efficiency of traditional solution methods, this paper proposes a deep-neural-network-ensemble-assisted active learning (DN2EA2L) algorithm and adopts a fixed-point algorithm for solving the bi-level model. The numerical experiment uses the Sioux Falls network to demonstrate the efficiency of the DN2EA2L, compared to conventional metaheuristic methods. It is shown that travel time increases due to the project implementation during the peak hours can outweigh the agency's saving in wage costs. Further, it is shown that a significant reduction in the road users' value of time enables the agency to schedule more projects during regular working hours.
INTRODUCTIONRoad project implementation continues to pose a major cause of nonrecurring congestion in urban road networks (FHWA, 2022). These projects, regardless of their shortterm or long-term nature, cause an increase in road user travel times. Since the pioneering research of Adeli
One of the ways to address the modern traffic-related problems is to encourage people to use sustainable travel modes more regularly. Transportation planners need to find the factors that affect people’s opinions toward using these modes. In this study, we investigated these factors using a case study of a developing country by distributing an online survey among the students of four universities in Tehran. The number of complete responses received was 134 from SUT, 63 for UT, 31 from AUT, and 204 from IUST, summing up to 432 responses. A binomial logistic regression model was used to find the paramount factors affecting the selection of cycling and public transportation. Our model found five and four statistically significant factors affecting preferences toward using bicycle and public transport, respectively. Several novel outcomes resulted from our study. First, expressing prestige to others resulted in the reduction of the preference of students toward cycling by 80%. Second, while a high number of the respondents are not currently using bikes to commute, a noticeable number of them are amongst the ones that will cycle in their daily commutes in an ideal condition. Third, in Iran, a religious approach is present in the society, which results in lower rates of public transport usage among females. Finally, while long commuting distance is the main barrier to cycling, travel time plays a bigger role in the preferences toward using public transportation. In the end, some practical solutions are suggested to encourage the usage of these modes. They include providing safe bicycle lanes and more space in the public transportation systems.
Cyanation
Cyanation O 0273One-Pot Diastereoselective Synthesis of α-Aminonitriles from Aldehydes, Chiral Amines, and Trimethylsilyl Cyanide under Solvent-Free Conditions. -This one-pot asymmetric Strecker synthesis ensures the formation of almost pure α-aminonitriles (IV) and (V) with a diastereoselectivity of 68 to 86% from aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes such as (II), chiral amine (I), and trimethylsilyl cyanide (III) in the absence of Lewis acid under solvent-free conditions in a short time. The diastereoisomeric ratio as well as the product yield does not change to a considerable extent by carrying out the reaction in the presence of a catalyst or an achiral Lewis acid. -(KAZEMEINI, A.; AZIZI, N.; SAIDI, M. R.; Russ.
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