Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

“The Feet of Commerce: Mule-trains and Transportation in Eighteenth Century New Spain” explores the work of the muleteers of colonial Mexico. Muleteers satisfied the material demands of New Spain’s consumers by distributing trans-Atlantic and domestic products throughout the viceroyalty, including fine Chinese and English fabrics; cacao from Guayaquil (Ecuador); olive oil, books, wines and other spirits from Spain. Internally, muleteers supplied urban and mining centers with agricultural goods and raw materials (like wool and tobacco) for their manufacture. In the seventeenth century, mule-based transport coalesced into a professional service that allowed the muleteers to adapt to new demands, establish business relationships, and become the primary mode of transport in the eighteenth century. Moreover, the professionalization of the land-based system of transport (la arriería) generated a level of trust that enabled muleteers to contract their services to all members of New Spain’s commercial networks because the system had proven itself as an efficient method of transportation. As the primary means of transport in the eighteenth century, la arriería was the crucial vehicle by which institutions and individuals negotiated New Spain’s commercial terrain; without it, New Spain’s economy could not function. Muleteers transacted with merchants in urban centers and at the ports of Veracruz and Acapulco, negotiated with local and viceregal authorities for transportation contracts and to ensure the safety of their mule trains, and reacted to obstacles on the road that impeded the flow of commerce. Through their daily business transactions, their influence on the building and maintenance of roads, and their trade networks, muleteers who dedicated their lives to la arriería sustained the economic viability of the Spanish colonial system. / text

During the past decade, the high-speed rail (HSR) has got momentum in China, and a number of lines have been put into operation. However, it is noted that the HSR development in China is quite different from that in other regions. The discrepancies are mainly embodied in the duality of HSR types, the diversity of station locations, and the mixed-speed and cross-rail-type train running scheme. These characteristics have considerable impacts on the HSR stations in terms of the external accessibility in the HSR network as well as the internal accessibility in the cities. Based on the comparative study on the accessibility of main HSR stations in Yangtze River Delta, it is discovered that compared with the conventional rail (CR), the HSR has significantly improved the external accessibility of various cities. It is also found that the HSR has further enhanced the hub status of big cities in the rail network, while the differences among the other cities have been reduced, since the small cities have benefited much more from the HSR than the medium cities. Besides, introducing a new HSR line would improve the external accessibility of cities not only in the HSR network but also in the CR network, due to substantial increases in the efficiency of the whole rail system. In terms of the internal accessibility, it is found that the location choice of stations has significant impacts on the accessibility of HSR stations in cities, and the newly built stations have much lower accessibility due to their remote locations and the under-developed transport facilities and services connecting to them. Overall, for a complete journey by the HSR, the improvement in the external accessibility has made the internal accessibility of HSR stations more critical and sensitive. In this sense, more efforts should be paid to improve the urban transport system so as to fully utilize the positive effects brought about by the HSR. / published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

Community engagement (CE) is an emerging concept with various definitions and acclaimed benefits. It became vital in the transport planning process because conventional approaches to transport planning no longer satisfy a diverse public and is required to improve the “quality of planning outcomes” (Booth and Richardson 2001, p. 148). Since Hong Kong will continue making railway the backbone for passenger transport, and very little (if any) community engagement has been explored for the city’s railway projects, this research aimed to appraise the role, adequacy, and effectiveness of CE in planning Hong Kong’s section of the high-speed Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link from years 2000 to 2010. Four objectives are pursued, which are to: (1) identify what community engagement (CE) means to the XRL project stakeholders, including their perceptions of CE strengths, weaknesses, and challenges during the XRL‘s planning process of Hong Kong‘s section; (2) identify major factors that shape the XRL project stakeholder understanding and perception of CE; (3) identify and evaluate the implications and the cause and effect that result from stakeholders’ understanding and perception of CE in planning Hong Kong‘s XRL section; and (4) identify scopes to improve the CE process for the city’s future transport infrastructure projects. The study first conducted a literature review. It then traced the development of CE in Hong Kong, particularly in the transport planning realm. News articles, MTR website on the XRL, and policy papers from the Legislative Council Policy Database were examined. A survey was distributed afterwards. 130 usable surveys were returned giving a 40.6% response rate. Results were then quantitatively analyzed with Spearman’s correlation and a two-tailed test. A member from each stakeholder group was lastly interviewed. Overall, CE improved since British rule, but its extent in planning the XRL fell short or according to Sheedy (2008), non-existent, thus making it ineffective in achieving CE benefits. By statute and the railway development process that professionals adhere to, genuine CE (or higher levels of it) are not encouraged nor guaranteed. Consequences include public resistance and protests after gazettal; respondents believing the government and MTR engagement efforts raised communities ‘buy-in’ of ‘pre-approved plans;’ “sometimes” disrespected and/or mistrusted their communities; “slightly” shared final decision-making with their communities; “sometimes” if not “always” used too much professional jargon; and only “slightly” to “sometimes” followed-up with communities after engaging them in the planning process. The CE concept in Hong Kong is not eminent either. Engaging people in the XRL planning process additionally showed no direct and comprehensive citizen involvement. This is probably due to the general public and government attitudes, which makes it challenging for genuine CE to occur on top of limited resources. On the bright side, many CE benefits were found true from descriptive analysis, and electronic media was deemed the most effective tool to engage citizens. From quantitative analysis, a stakeholder’s power and/or knowledge lacked a statistical significant relationship with how satisfied he or she was on how CE was conducted in XRL planning and his or her perceptions of it. A stakeholder’s exposure to CE, however, mostly had a negative statistically significant relationship with a few perceptions of community engagement. In the end, three major recommendations are offered to improve CE in Hong Kong’s transport planning framework. In no order of importance, the general community and XRL Sponsor (government and MTR) must change their attitude towards engagement. The XRL Sponsor must aggressively educate the general Hong Kong community about community engagement. Lastly, it should revise the Railways Ordinance to incorporate more CE characteristics. / published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

Στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η καταγραφή των κυριότερων σύγχρονων τεχνολογιών που η εταιρεία ΕΡΓΟΣΕ εφαρμόζει στο νέο σιδηροδρομικό δίκτυο το οποίο εγκαθίσται στον ελληνικό χώρο καθώς και τη μελέτη της δομής του ηλεκτροκινητηρίου συστήματος που είναι εξοπλισμένοι όλοι οι συρμοί που θα το διατρέχουν. Με χρήση των στοιχείων που δόθηκαν από την εταιρεία ΕΡΓΟΣΕ και με χρήση του λογισμικού πακέτου MATLAB/SIMULINK έγινε η εξομοίωση του ηλεκτροκινητηρίου συστήματος και έτσι κατέστη δυνατή η διατύπωση συμπερασμάτων για τα κυριότερα υποσυστήματα από τα οποία αποτελείται. Η χρήση πραγματικών τιμών για τα περισσότερα από τα μεγέθη που υπεισέρχονται στην εξομοίωση καθιστούν τη μελέτη και τα αποτελέσματα όσο το δυνατόν πιο αληθή και κοντά στην πραγματικότητα. Επίσης κατέστη δυνατή η καταγραφή πολλών πληροφοριών πάνω στις σύγχρονες τεχνολογίες των ηλεκτροκίνητων συρμών και του σιδηροδρομικού δικτύου που μπορούν να αποτελέσουν έναυσμα για περαιτέρω αξιοποίηση τους από μελλοντικούς ενδιαφερόμενους. / The object of this work is at first to collect the material that has to do with all the contemporary technologies that ERGOSE uses in the new railroad that is being installed in Greece and secondly the study of the system of electromotion that is installed in every train on this railroads. Based on the material of ERGOSE company and with the use of program Matlab/Simulink the simulation of the whole system of electromotion in trains became a reality.The datas are real so the results of the simulation are very close to the reality. Also the material has a lot of information about all the contemporary technologies and gives the opportunity of the creation of other thesis in the future

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-139). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

The thesis contains two essays on the economic impacts of high-speed railway (HSR) in China. Utilizing a unique data set of towns in Dongguan, a city in South China, it provides empirical evidence on whether HSR affects economic growth and efficiency or not. The first essay uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) to estimate a dynamic panel data model of the town economies. The empirical results suggest that both HSR and expressway have a positive impact on the general economic development of the towns. However, HSR does not have a significant effect on the development of the manufacturing sector, while expressway does in this regard. These findings lend indirect support to the common argument that HSR can benefit the tertiary sector, but not necessarily other sectors. The second essay investigates the relationship between the advent of HSR and productive efficiency of the manufacturing sector. Using a stochastic frontier approach, it provides empirical evidence that proximity to expressway, rather than to HSR, enhances the efficiency of industrial enterprises.

<p> The possible contribution of neural plasticity to ON, OFF and steady state responses elicited by brief, repetitive trains of stimulation was investigated in the intact human subject with the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG). Experiment One implemented trains of stimulation at three different repetition rates, 1.5Hz, 4Hz and 13Hz. The goal was to investigate the nature of the ON, OFF and steady state responses evoked at these repetition rates. The experiment was carried out in three modalities: visual (n=13), auditory (n=lO) and somatosensory (n=12). The main result was that the ON and OFF responses were enhanced at 13Hz compared to the lower repetition rates. Experiment Two sought to answer the question of whether enhancement depended on the repetition rate or the increased experience provided by the higher frequencies. The number of stimuli in the 13Hz trains was reduced to equal the 1.5Hz condition from Experiment One. Graded exposure was then provided to the 13Hz stimulation. This procedure was implemented in two groups of subjects: Replication One (n=12) used 13Hz stimulation and Replication Two (n=24) used 14Hz stimulation. A subset (n=IO) of the Replication Two subjects returned for a second session (Day 2) 24 hours after the first. An assessment of effects was made after minutes and hours. There were four main results. The OFF response was observed after nine 13Hz pulses and did not change over the course of the experiment. The ON response increased with exposure to the 13Hz trains. Steady state responses diminished and showed a phase shift over the experimental session. Results for Day 1 and Day 2 were not different. Within session changes, as a result of exposure to the stimulus, were seen. These effects were not long lasting. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of Doppler Lidar sensors for assessing track weakening that would indicate early stages of track instability. Such track weakening could lead to gage widening or track buckling due to rail thermal expansion. A series of tests are performed at the Transportation Technology Center's High Tonnage Loop, where two sections of track are "doctored" to have weaker lateral strength, one on a tangent and another one in a curve. Multiple tests are performed at speeds ranging from 10 – 40 mph, during which the lateral and vertical deflections of the rail are measured under the weight of the passing wheels of a heavily-loaded gondola. The track weakness is created by removing the rail spikes from eight consecutive ties. The measurements from the soft sections are compared with a track section on a tangent that is determined to have nominally sufficient ("good") stiffness. The measurement system consists of four Doppler Lidar units, two oriented toward the rail gage face to measure lateral rail movement, and two directed to the top of the rail to measure vertical rail movement. The combination of the vertical and lateral measurements is used as an indicator of a lack of rail stability if larger-than-normal movement of the rail is detected in either direction. The data collected is analyzed through various methods designed to differentiate sections of track including Gaussian Mixture Model sorting algorithms, inspection via Short Time Fourier Transforms, Discrete Wavelet Transforms, and manual inspection. None of the methods can be done automatically; they each require a different amount of setup and pre-processing before the raw data can be made suitable for the analysis offered by each. The pre-processing can account for dropped data and can be used to identify some false positives such as switches or lubricators. The test results indicate that the system provides a distinctly different measurement in the sections that are doctored to have less track stability than the section with nominally sufficient stiffness. The detection of the loose track in the tangent sections, however, proves to be less reliable. For those, a mostly ad hoc approach is necessary to match the measured data with video images to pinpoint the exact location of the measurements. It is not clear to what extent such approaches would be feasible in practice. Further evaluations of the test data may be used to shed more light on practical analysis methods—possibly wavelets—that are more automated and less ad hoc. They can also provide alternative system setups or designs of experiments for future tests at TTC or on revenue service tracks. / Master of Science / The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a set of Doppler Lidar sensors for their ability to determine the locations of weaker sections of railroad track. These weaker sections could cause damage to the track or passing trains by deforming or buckling under load. A set of tests are performed at the Transportation Technology Center's High Tonnage Loop to evaluate these capabilities. The track had two sections, one of curved track the other of straight track, where the rail was purposefully weakened by removing retaining spikes from the railroad ties. The weakened sections were created by removing the vertical retaining spikes in eight consecutive ties. The tests were conducted at speeds of between 10 to 40 mph, and the sensors measured both the vertical and lateral movement of both rails. The results of these measurements were compared with the unaffected rail. The collected data is analyzed using various data processing techniques. These techniques included using a sorting algorithm to find sections of track with different characteristics as well as inspecting the time and frequency content of the data. None of these methods are automated, and each requires specific setup and adjustment to be effective. The data also needs to be prepared by correcting for any missing or incorrect data points. The tests indicate that the system is able to differentiate between the purposefully weakened track and the rest of the track, however the clearest results of this were for the weakened track in the curve. The straight track results were able to be found with the addition of aligning the video, Lidar, and GPS data sets. It is not clear whether the system could be improved to detect this type of weakness in straight track in practice. Additional testing and evaluation could serve to expand the range of data analysis methods used in differentiating the track conditions and could serve to automate the process. Additionally, alternative test setups could provide further information as to the capabilities of the sensors to detect different types of weakened track.