Search results

This study aims to examine the question of how long a behavioral skills training program should be in order to result in measurable behavioral change.

An empirical field study was conducted to compare two different lengths of time for a managerial skills training program aimed at achieving behavioral change. The training time for the first training condition was based on “rules‐of‐thumb” found in the literature. The training time was increased in an “extended” training condition that covered the same material but permitted more time for lecture, role‐playing and discussion.

Results showed that, relative to a control group, participants in the “extended” training condition exhibited behavioral change, but those in the “rules‐of‐thumb” training condition did not. Self‐efficacy increased significantly for trainees in both training conditions.

More attention is required to the length of training programs as they are being designed, especially if behavioral change is a goal of the training. Using rules‐of‐thumb regarding training length may be insufficient for bringing about behavioral change. More importantly, the need for more effective management skills will not be met, and organizational performance outcomes may be jeopardized.

The results of this research have the potential to be broadly applicable to management training and may possibly generalize to training in other disciplines where the training is intended to effect behavioral change.

The design goal for the tracking interval of high-speed railway trains in China is 3 min, but it is difficult to achieve, and it is widely believed that it is mainly limited by the tracking interval of train arrivals. If the train arrival tracking interval can be compressed, it will be beneficial for China's high-speed railway to achieve a 3-min train tracking interval. The goal of this article is to study how to compress the train arrival tracking interval.

By simulating the process of dense train groups arriving at the station and stopping, the headway between train arrivals at the station was calculated, and the pattern of train arrival headway was obtained, changing the traditional understanding that the train arrival headway is considered the main factor limiting the headway of trains.

When the running speed of trains is high, the headway between trains is short, the length of the station approach throat area is considerable and frequent train arrivals at the station, the arrival headway for the first group or several groups of trains will exceed the headway, but the subsequent sets of trains will have a headway equal to the arrival headway. This convergence characteristic is obtained by appropriately increasing the running time.

According to this pattern, there is no need to overly emphasize the impact of train arrival headway on the headway. This plays an important role in compressing train headway and improving high-speed railway capacity.

With the aim of discovering the important factors in training staff to use newly installed automated circulation systems, the appropriate libraries in New Zealand were sent a questionnaire in 1988. This asked how libraries had trained their staff, and the outcome of the training in terms of satisfaction with their decisions, sparseness of mistakes after implementation and time taken for staff to attain efficiency after implementation. The most important factors in training were that the vendor should be heavily involved in organizing and carrying out training; training should be given before the system went live; staff should be given detailed training in the whole system; and a number of different training methods should be used. These factors were especially important for libraries installing their first automated system, those installing integrated systems, those with few staff, and those installing their systems in the earlier years of automation; that is, those libraries whose staff have the least background in the system being installed, have the greatest need for excellent training.

This paper aims to propose a gesture recognition method at an early stage. An accelerometer is installed in most current mobile phones, such as iPhones, Android-powered devices and video game controllers for the Wii or PS3, which enables easy and intuitive operations. Therefore, many gesture-based user interfaces that use accelerometers are expected to appear in the future. Gesture recognition systems with an accelerometer generally have to construct models with user’s gesture data before use and recognize unknown gestures by comparing them with the models. Because the recognition process generally starts after the gesture has finished, the output of the recognition result and feedback delay, which may cause users to retry gestures, degrades the interface usability.

The simplest way to achieve early recognition is to start it at a fixed time after a gesture starts. However, the degree of accuracy would decrease if a gesture in an early stage was similar to the others. Moreover, the timing of a recognition has to be capped by the length of the shortest gesture, which may be too early for longer gestures. On the other hand, retreated recognition timing will exceed the length of the shorter gestures. In addition, a proper length of training data has to be found, as the full length of training data does not fit the input data until halfway. To recognize gestures in an early stage, proper recognition timing and a proper length of training data have to be decided. This paper proposes a gesture recognition method used in the early stages that sequentially calculates the distance between the input and training data. The proposed method outputs the recognition result when one candidate has a stronger likelihood of recognition than the other candidates so that similar incorrect gestures are not output.

The proposed method was experimentally evaluated on 27 kinds of gestures and it was confirmed that the recognition process finished 1,000 msec before the end of the gestures on average without deteriorating the level of accuracy. Gestures were recognized in an early stage of motion, which would lead to an improvement in the interface usability and a reduction in the number of incorrect operations such as retried gestures. Moreover, a gesture-based photo viewer was implemented as a useful application of our proposed method, the proposed early gesture recognition system was used in a live unscripted performance and its effectiveness is ensured.

Gesture recognition methods with accelerometers generally learn a given user’s gesture data before using the system, then recognizes any unknown gestures by comparing them with the training data. The recognition process starts after a gesture has finished, and therefore, any interaction or feedback depending on the recognition result is delayed. For example, an image on a smartphone screen rotates a few seconds after the device has been tilted, which may cause the user to retry tilting the smartphone even if the first one was correctly recognized. Although many studies on gesture recognition using accelerometers have been done, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of these studies has taken the potential delays in output into consideration.

Accurately estimating the severity of derailment is a crucial step in quantifying train derailment consequences and, thereby, mitigating its impacts. The purpose of this paper is to propose a simplified approach aimed at addressing this research gap by developing a physics-informed 1-D model. The model is used to simulate train dynamics through a time-stepping algorithm, incorporating derailment data after the point of derailment.

In this study, a simplified approach is adopted that applies a 1-D kinematic analysis with data obtained from various derailments. These include the length and weight of the rail cars behind the point of derailment, the train braking effects, derailment blockage forces, the grade of the track and the train rolling and aerodynamic resistance. Since train braking/blockage effects and derailment blockage forces are not always available for historical or potential train derailment, it is also necessary to fit the historical data and find optimal parameters to estimate these two variables. Using these fitted parameters, a detailed comparison can be performed between the physics-informed 1-D model and previous statistical models to predict the derailment severity.

The results show that the proposed model outperforms the Truncated Geometric model (the latest statistical model used in prior research) in estimating derailment severity. The proposed model contributes to the understanding and prevention of train derailments and hazmat release consequences, offering improved accuracy for certain scenarios and train types

This paper presents a simplified physics-informed 1-D model, which could help understand the derailment mechanism and, thus, is expected to estimate train derailment severity more accurately for certain scenarios and train types compared with the latest statistical model. The performance of the braking response and the 1-D model is verified by comparing known ride-down profiles with estimated ones. This validation process ensures that both the braking response and the 1-D model accurately represent the expected behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the necessity of longer and/heavier and/or faster freight train operations and their viability in the European context.

Using a case study, the current research applies qualitative methods, including desktop research and informal discussion with the rail freight industry and shippers. The case study is the recently conducted trial of 1.5 km long Marathon freight train in Europe.

The research finds that at this stage there is no commercial necessity of running a 1.5 km long train. There are technical and operational limitations which are less problematic, but the commercial necessity is a must and that will need sufficient traffic volume on a longer route (to justify extra time and cost incurred in marshalling yard and reasonable pre- and post-consolidated rail transport haul). The time required to form up/disperse such large formation could arguably be a major constraint for the train itself as well as for other services run on the same network. The authors agree in principle with the “do more with less” notion and the necessity of faster train concept. Also, the authors are agreeing with the heavier train aspect.

Considering the current and future (more semi-finished and finished, containerised) cargo trend, it is more important that freight train is operated consistently, reliably, and commercially attractive relatively faster and frequent serving moderate distances (around 300+ km). Towards this, the operation of merging two (or more) short trains to form up to 750 m long trains should be explored, in particular on the nine Rail Freight Corridors, to identify the potential and realistic opportunities for commercial deployment of “longer and/or faster and/or and heavier” freight train.

At the moment there is no need of a 1.5 km long freight train to improve the performance of EU railways.

The case study provides an important platform for debate on the contemporary notion of “longer”, “faster” and “heavier” freight trains in the European context.

The aerodynamic differences between the head car (HC) and tail car (TC) of a high-speed maglev train are significant, resulting in control difficulties and safety challenges in operation. The arch structure has a significant effect on the improvement of the aerodynamic lift of the HC and TC of the maglev train. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of a streamlined arch structure on the aerodynamic performance of a 600 km/h maglev train.

Three typical streamlined arch structures for maglev trains are selected, i.e. single-arch, double-arch and triple-arch maglev trains. The vortex structure, pressure of train surface, boundary layer, slipstream and aerodynamic forces of the maglev trains with different arch structures are compared by adopting improved delayed detached eddy simulation numerical calculation method. The effects of the arch structures on the aerodynamic performance of the maglev train are analyzed.

The dynamic topological structure of the wake flow shows that a change in arch structure can reduce the vortex size in the wake region; the vortex size with double-arch and triple-arch maglev trains is reduced by 15.9% and 23%, respectively, compared with a single-arch maglev train. The peak slipstream decreases with an increase in arch structures; double-arch and triple-arch maglev trains reduce it by 8.89% and 16.67%, respectively, compared with a single-arch maglev train. The aerodynamic force indicates that arch structures improve the lift imbalance between the HC and TC of a maglev train; double-arch and triple-arch maglev trains improve it by 22.4% and 36.8%, respectively, compared to a single-arch maglev train.

This study compares the effects of a streamlined arch structure on a maglev train and its surrounding flow field. The results of the study provide data support for the design and safe operation of high-speed maglev trains.

IN THESE WORDS the Government describes the Bill's intention. Of itself, the Bill is no guarantee that provisions for industrial training will be improved. It is an enabling Bill: it creates machinery for inaugurating the industrial training boards and confers certain powers upon these boards. But about the big issues, which remain to be solved — certification, length of apprenticeship, the standard of training, selection methods and so on — it has nothing to say, simply because it is an enabling Bill.

Discusses the methodological issues in costing two common types of vocational training programmes: institutional vocational training and enterprise‐based vocational training. Points out that the survey/interview approach should be used to collect data from institutions instead of from the government in costing institutional vocational training, and that more frequent use should be made of the case‐study and survey methods in costing enterprise‐based vocational training. Based on empirical studies on both developed and developing countries, analyses the costs of different types of vocational training programmes. Shows that training costs are influenced by such factors as the technology of training, teacher costs and their determinants, programme length, extent of wastage, extent of underutilization of training inputs and scale of operation. In general, vocational/technical education is more costly than academic programmes and pre‐employment vocational training is more expensive than in‐service training. Discusses the implications of these findings for training policies.

The purpose of this paper is to design and develop a business dynamics model in entrepreneurial orientation for employees (EOE).

The mental model uses the casual loops, stock and flow diagrams in the business dynamics model. Hiring rate, Quit rate, Skill rate, Skill growth rate, EOE skill inventory rate, Performance rate etc. were defined and used with EOE metrics governing the model. VENSIM software package was used to simulate and validate the model using sensitivity analysis. The case study method was used to experiment a pre/post EOE training intervention with employees in an ITES organisation in India. Using a validated EOE questionnaire, data were captured from employees in an ITES organisation in Chennai, for validation of business dynamics model.

The time frame for imparting initial EOE training and retraining time after EOE training were simulated and results were summarised.

Future researchers can extend this work and apply in other industries and geographies also. Any organisation can customise and utilise the business dynamics EOE model as per their requirements

The model facilitates the measurement of both individual employee performance as well as organisational performance. The EOE business dynamics model contributes to the development of two indices namely entrepreneurial orientation for employees index (EOEI) and organisational performance index (OPI). The policy planners, human resource strategists, management consultants can utilise the business dynamics EOE model for effective decision making, budgetary allocations towards training initiatives and so on.

The model is a novel and first of its kind using business dynamics in entrepreneurial orientation for employees. The human resource planners can use this model for forecasting the man power needs as well as skill development, employee empowerment and organisational development.