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...
The growth of city systems with high-speed railway systems
Abstract. This paper proposes a dynamic multi-regional growth model with free mobility of capital and population. The economic system consists of multiple cities interconnected by high-speed railway systems with each city consisting of one production sector as well as residential land use. The railway systems provide production sectors of different cities with the opportunity of face-to-face communication for knowledge production. The model describes the dynamic interdependence between capital and knowledge accumulation, wage and land rent structures, urban patterns with endogenous city size and inter-city interactability. It is emphasized how differences in geographic and qualitative factors of high-speed railway systems may affect regional economic development. The model simulates the dynamic processes of economic development of city systems.
Measurement and Demonstration of Thermal Expansion Coefficient
There are many classroom demonstrations, such as the ball-and-ring experiment, for showing the existence of thermal expansion of solids. The coefficient of linear expansion α (= increase in length divided by the original length times the change in temperature) may be measured in high school laboratories using a number of methods.1–4 In this paper we describe an especially simple experiment for determining α for a metal rod. It is based on the well-known optical lever method and is suitable for either a laboratory experiment or a classroom exercise.