Towards sustainability in the high-speed railway industry: modeling of cases from China
Purpose – This paper aims to document and to illustrate highly usable research: a practical framework for realizing the sustainable operations of the high investment, technology-intensive high-speed railways in China. Also, for the first time, we draw a broad, metaphorical relationship between railways within a country to Chinese meridian lines within a human body. These are similar in enabling flows across the country and human body. Design/methodology/approach – Employing Chinese case studies, we attempt to apply methodological procedures involving operational, financial and developmental in realizing the sustainability of high-speed railways. Critical criteria are emphasized for efficiency, financial viability and long-term funding sustained development of high-speed railways in the Chinese context. Policymakers may utilize the illustrative framework in working toward specific recommendations that may be implementable. Findings – Three critical aspects to sustainability are operational, financial solve...
Application of Postassessment of Kyushy Shinkansen Network to Proposed U.S. High-Speed Railway Project
In April 2009 the Obama administration announced its strategic plan for high-speed rail in the United States. That plan stipulates the public benefits that are to be expected from a high-speed railway system. This paper describes a recently published report outlining the postassessment of the Kyushu Shinkansen project conducted by the Japan Railway Construction, Transport, and Technology Agency. The paper focuses on the effects of the implementation of the Kyushu Shinkansen project on passenger movements and changes in business and environmental aspects that are relevant to the U.S. strategic plan. This is the first analysis outside Japan of the postassessment of the Kyushu Shinkansen project. It first examines the postassessment analysis of changes in traffic volume. It then addresses the effects of the Kyushu Shinkansen project as they relate to the public benefits expected from the U.S. high-speed rail strategic plan, including the economic and social effects as well as the environmental benefits. The paper attempts to provide the Japanese case as a reference for the U.S. high-speed railway project. The postassessment of the Japanese case indicates that the new Kyushu Shinkansen route has an influence on travel behavior when people use rail for commuting and tourism. It also addresses the critical factor of how aviation demand can be shifted to rail to gain substantial benefits. Taking these points into consideration, the Obama administration's Vision for High-Speed Rail in America is just a starting point. A wider network of railways with more vigorous funding must be expected.
Ceramic microwave antennas for mobile applications
Due to their medium to high permittivity values, ceramic microwave materials are attractive as building blocks for miniaturised antenna solutions. Further advantages are low dielectric losses and an excellent temperature stability of standard ceramic materials. Yet, the permittivity of the ceramic material also has a strong influence on the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. This implies that in the design process a suitable compromise has to be found between the degree of miniaturisation on the one hand and the antenna efficiency and bandwidth on the other. We describe two approaches towards efficient miniaturised ceramic microwave antennas: the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial metallisation and the shorting post patch antenna. We focus on design steps taken to ensure both a high degree of miniaturisation and high values of the radiation efficiency, the choice of the ceramic material and the experimental performance of the antennas.