We undertook a study to determine if the automatic detection and counting of vehicle occupants is feasible. An automated vehicle occupant counting system would greatly facilitate the operation of freeway lanes reserved for buses, car-pools, and emergency vehicles (HOV lanes). In the present paper, we report our findings regarding the appropriate sensor phenomenology and arrangement for the task...

The purpose of this paper is to present the crash exposure patterns of pregnant occupants and to evaluate the effectiveness of restraint systems, including four-point seatbelts, in far side crashes. The NASS CDS database revealed that 53.0 % of pregnant occupants are exposed to frontal crashes while 13.5 % are exposed to far side impacts. Given that far side crashes were the second leading cras...

Objective: To assess the relationship between the implementation of a SAFE KIDS Coalition and pediatric unintentional injury rates. Setting: Shelby County, Tennessee. Design: Retrospective observational analysis. Patients: County residents nine years of age or younger presenting to the children’s medical center, its emergency department, or its outpatient clinics from 1990–97. Intervention: Imp...

There is increasing literature demonstrating the link between building indoor environmental quality, and occupant health and productivity, driving the corporate real estate industry to investigate how to integrate wellness features in both new and existing building stock. Meanwhile, new voluntary standards to promote occupant health are becoming adopted alongside sustainability standards. As co...

There is a significant lack of indoor air quality research in low energy homes. This study compared the indoor air quality of eight newly built case study homes constructed to similar levels of air-tightness and insulation; with two different ventilation strategies (four homes with Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems/Code level 4 and four homes naturally ventilated/Code lev...

Vehicle occupants are exposed to low frequency vibrations with possible harmful effects such as mild discomfort, lower back pain, and even injury to the spine. Occupational drivers and operators of heavy machinery are exposed to significantly longer duration and higher levels of vibration. Thus, the modeling and prediction of biodynamic response of seated occupants to such vibrations is very im...

BACKGROUND Proper classification of child occupant restraint use is dependent on the age of the child occupant. Observations of vehicle restraint use involve estimating child age. If estimates of age are incorrect, then a potential for misclassification of restraint use exists. OBJECTIVE To compare estimated and confirmed child occupant age and calculate the impact of errors in age estimates ...

The damping ratio of chassis suspension is a key parameter for damping matching of in-wheel motor vehicles (IWMVs). Because the motor is attached to the driving wheel, the initial design method of the damping ratio for traditional cars is not entirely suitable for IWMVs. This paper proposes an innovative initial design method of the damping ratio for IWMVs. Firstly, a traveling vibration model ...

Occupant behavior is widely regarded as one of the most significant sources of uncertainty in the prediction of building energy use. Preexisting simulation methods address this issue by automatically reproducing patterns of behavior found in historical occupant schedules. We extend these methods to incorporate spatial information. In our work, space layout influences the selection of individual...

Cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of policies intended to increase occupant restraint in automobiles typically find that such policies generate social benefits that exceed social costs, often by a considerable margin. The analyses are incomplete, however, due to their inability to incorporate potentially important costs and benefits that are hard to measure and monetize. Furthermore, analyses fail t...