The paper aims to review current practices of road safety audits worldwide, investigate the perceptions of experts on highway work zone safety in the USA and issues of adopting…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to review current practices of road safety audits worldwide, investigate the perceptions of experts on highway work zone safety in the USA and issues of adopting work zone safety audits in the country, and propose a framework for developing guidelines for implementing work zone safety audits for safety improvements.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper was conducted by reviewing the existing literature of road safety audits and administering four‐week questionnaire surveys of experts on highway work zone safety in the USA.
Findings
Road safety audits have been successfully adopted worldwide to maximize safety of the roadway environment for highway users. The questionnaire surveys have clarified leading causes of work zone safety problems and effective countermeasures, types of projects suitable for auditing and audit frequencies, audit team composition and funding sources, audit tasks and tools, and project staff safety training audits. A similar procedure for road safety audits could be adopted for work zone safety audits with emphasis on mitigating work zone safety impacts.
Research limitations/implications
Additional survey participants from the highway user group may add valuable insights into the use of highway work zone safety audits for safety improvements.
Practical implications
The paper findings would assist in preparing strategies and methodologies for developing the national highway work zone safety audit guidelines in the USA.
Originality/value
The work zone safety audit guidelines to be developed could help transportation practitioners effectively conduct work zone safety audits for safety improvements in the country.
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Yijun Liu, Guiyong Zhang, Huan Lu and Zhi Zong
Due to the strong reliance on element quality, there exist some inherent shortcomings of the traditional finite element method (FEM). The model of FEM behaves overly stiff, and…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the strong reliance on element quality, there exist some inherent shortcomings of the traditional finite element method (FEM). The model of FEM behaves overly stiff, and the solutions of automated generated linear elements are generally of poor accuracy about especially gradient results. The proposed cell-based smoothed point interpolation method (CS-PIM) aims to improve the results accuracy of the thermoelastic problems via properly softening the overly-stiff stiffness.
Design/methodology/approach
This novel approach is based on the newly developed G space and weakened weak (w2) formulation, and of which shape functions are created using the point interpolation method and the cell-based gradient smoothing operation is conducted based on the linear triangular background cells.
Findings
Owing to the property of softened stiffness, the present method can generally achieve better accuracy and higher convergence results (especially for the temperature gradient and thermal stress solutions) than the FEM does by using the simplest linear triangular background cells, which has been examined by extensive numerical studies.
Practical implications
The CS-PIM is capable of producing more accurate results of temperature gradients as well as thermal stresses with the automated generated and unstructured background cells, which make it a better candidate for solving practical thermoelastic problems.
Originality/value
It is the first time that the novel CS-PIM was further developed for solving thermoelastic problems, which shows its tremendous potential for practical implications.
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This paper aims to expound the composition and characteristics of “SMR Data”, to elaborate the role of the “SMR Data” in the comprehensive study of Anti-Japanese War from three…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to expound the composition and characteristics of “SMR Data”, to elaborate the role of the “SMR Data” in the comprehensive study of Anti-Japanese War from three aspects.
Design/methodology/approach
There are several methodologies included in this thesis, such as literature inquiry, questionnaire survey, field investigation and expert consultation.
Findings
The SMR Data is a historical portrayal of the 40 years of SMR. Its content is integrative, comprehensive and systematic. It covers a large area and a wide range of topics and can reflect the whole process of Japanese militarism’s invasion of China from different aspects.
Originality/value
The study of historical subject is not for the historical fact itself, exploring yesterday is looking for lessons for today. Because the imperialism phenomenon still exists and has not completely withdrew from the historical stage, people step into the typical imperialist colonial aggression, mighty and quite rich mysterious “SMR kingdom” historic sites, to explore the profound truth, unravel mysteries and find out the warning. Taking history as a mirror, all peace-loving people in the world call for a new international order and realize the harmonious coexistence of mankind.
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This study proposes a new political science–based interpretation of the rise of China and focuses on the academic discussion regarding its root causes. This study aims to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes a new political science–based interpretation of the rise of China and focuses on the academic discussion regarding its root causes. This study aims to identify the historical, economic and sociological perspectives in the relevant literature by offering a political science perspective on the factors that enabled China’s rise, analyze and comment on the controversy surrounding Perry Anderson’s theoretical approach and contribute to the literature by focusing on political and social transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
By offering a political science perspective on the factors that enabled China’s rise, this study aims to identify the historic, economic and sociological perspectives in the relevant literature; analyze and comment on the controversy surrounding Perry Anderson’s theoretical approach; and contribute to the literature by focusing on political and social transformation.
Findings
First, revolution and reform together provided the conditions for China’s rise, by establishing a sovereign state and revitalizing the system, respectively. Second, China’s reform model has resulted in a combined and complex institutional structure that effectively integrates the market, the state and political parties in a party-state system. Third, during the rise of China, the market economy, local competition and the authority of political parties have been the source of vitality, the driving force and the stabilizer, respectively.
Originality/value
This paper offers a critique of the theoretical interpretations of scholars such as Perry Anderson regarding the root causes of the rise of China.
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Qiuhong Chen, Ning Geng and Kan Zhu
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the distributional characteristics and evolutional patterns in source periodicals, topics, authors, funding, and institutes of research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the distributional characteristics and evolutional patterns in source periodicals, topics, authors, funding, and institutes of research papers in Chinese Agricultural Economics so as to understand the current situations and developmental tendency of Chinese agricultural economics research over the past decade.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the citation analysis method, this paper analyzed the distributional characteristics and evolution of source periodicals, fields, authors and topics of 2,203 highly cited journal papers from the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and 189 cited journal papers from database of Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) in agricultural economics first-authored by Chinese scholars from 2006 to 2015.
Findings
First, over the past decade, agricultural economics research in China has seen a rapid development. Specially, 103 scholars and 42 institutes have played key roles in the development, and 12 Chinese periodicals and 3 international journals have been the most influential outlets. Second, the coverage of the topics in Chinese agricultural economics research is broad and has expanded over the past decade. The rural land issue has been the most popular topic, while the issues regarding rural institutional arrangements and industrialization in rural areas have been explored extensively. However, issues in other fields, such as agricultural markets and trade, rural labor, food safety, etc. have to be further studied. Third, the improvements of economic theory and quantitative analytic techniques, the supports from research funding, and an increase in the collaboration between Chinese scholars and those from other countries have made great contribution to the rapid development of Chinese agricultural economics research over the past decade.
Originality/value
This paper is an original work that identifies the most influential journal papers including highly cited journal papers from CNKI and cited journal papers from SSCI, using citation frequency and standard Essential Science Indicators method. This is a contribution relative to the methods used by previous studies, which did not account for frequency of citation of a paper. Moreover, this study is based on data from two databases, CNKI and SSCI, suggesting that the coverage of sample papers is broader compared to those of previous studies.