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Background/Objectives: Public health administrators are entrusted to oversee the fair and efficient implementation of public health policy. Professional standards rooted in social justice add an additional ethical standard beyond what is required by procedural equality, reinforcing a service culture of creativity and doing more with less when resources are restrictive. This study explores this phenomenon within the context of government-subsidized opioid use disorder programming in Pennsylvania. Methods: Twenty-three agencies responsible for opioid treatment referrals in Pennsylvania were surveyed about the effects of meeting social equity needs on their operational and procedural outcomes. Univariate frequencies, cross-tabulations, and percentage comparisons were employed in a descriptive–analytic induction approach to analyze the online survey responses. Results: The survey results showed that 91.4% of administrators identified transportation equity as an important programmatic concern, with 91.3% developing transportation support for their clients although not required or funded by the grant program. Conclusions: Equity-focused interventions necessitated operational creativity and sacrifice to maintain compliance while meeting the unique needs of populations, especially when taking geographical differences into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social equity is a normative value in the field of public administration; however, policy guidance and associated funding rules are often rooted in values of equality. This perspective explores the conditions under which a public administrator's professional responsibility to social equity goes beyond a program's requirements for equality-based outcomes. This mismatch often results in extraneous efforts on the part of the administrator to implement creative solutions above and beyond what is funded and required by bureaucratic guidance. Realigning program rules and providing sufficient funding with an eye for equity will provide responsible public administrators with sufficient resources for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report presents the results of a multi-year research effort on the development of a real-time section-based traffic performance measurement system using inductive vehicle signatures obtained from single conventional loop sensors along a six-mile freeway corridor in the City of Irvine, California and a separate effort to investigate the potential of a new type of inductive sensor called the Blade™ for the purpose of commercial vehicle surveillance at the San Onofre Truck Weigh and Inspection Facility in Southern California. The real-time performance measurement system (RTPMS) is based on a new vehicle reidentification algorithm called RTREID-2 and vehicle classification model, both of which are based on a new data extraction method that extracts an equal number of Piecewise Slope Rate (PSR) values from each vehicle signature. As a part of this study, a framework based on CORBA was developed to enable communication between field computers and the RTPMS server. A database system was also developed to store the output from the RTPMS server and present it in a prototype RTPMS Testbed Website that presents advanced real-time traffic performance measures. In the separate investigation of Blade™ inductive sensors, a new commercial vehicle classification model was developed to profile commercial vehicles by their body type and axle configuration. A new commercial vehicle vector classification framework is introduced to describe the depth of information available from this developed model. The results obtained from both studies have yielded very promising results, and warrants the need for further investigation.

Indoor air pollution remains a major concern, with formaldehyde (HCHO) a primary contributor due to its long emission period and associated health risks, including skin allergies, coughing, and bronchitis. This study evaluated the adsorption performance and economic efficiency of various adsorbents (biochar, activated carbon, zeolites A, X, and Y) selected for HCHO removal. The impact of thermal treatment on adsorbent regeneration was also assessed. The experimental apparatus featured an adsorption column and HCHO concentration meter with an electrochemical sensor designed for adsorption analysis. Zeolite X exhibited the highest adsorption performance, followed by zeolite A, zeolite Y, activated carbon, and biochar. All adsorbents displayed increased HCHO removal rates with an extended length/diameter (L/D) ratio of the adsorption column. Zeolite A demonstrated the highest economic efficiency, followed by zeolite X, activated carbon, zeolite Y, and biochar. Higher L/D ratios improved economic efficiency and prolonged the replacement cycle (the optimal timing for adsorbent replacement to maintain high adsorption performance). Sensitivity analysis of adsorbent regeneration under varying thermal treatment conditions (150, 120, and 80°C) and durations (60, 45, and 30 min) revealed minimal changes in adsorption efficiency (±3%). The results indicated the potential of adsorbent regeneration under energy-efficient thermal treatment conditions (80°C, 30 min). In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of a comprehensive assessment, considering factors such as adsorption performance, replacement cycle, economic efficiency, and regeneration performance for the selection of optimal adsorbents for HCHO adsorption and removal. Implications: This study underscores the importance of adsorption technology for the removal of formaldehyde and similar volatile organic compounds (VOCs), highlighting the potential of alternative adsorbents, such as environmentally friendly biochar, in addition to traditional strategies, such as activated carbon and zeolites. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of adsorbent regeneration under energy-efficient thermal treatment conditions. These results hold promise for improving indoor air quality, reducing environmental pollutants, and enhancing responses to air contaminants like fine dust and VOCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research involved an important extension of existing field-implemented and tested PATH research by the authors on individual vehicle reidentification, to develop methods for assessing freeway and arterial (and transit) system performance for the Caltrans PeMS (Performance Measurement System). PeMS has been adopted by Caltrans as the standard tool for assessing freeway system performance, but lacks capabilities for assessing arterial and transit system performance, and strategies that combine freeways, arterials and/or transit and commercial vehicle fleets. It was shown that the research methodology of this project could directly address these limitations in PeMS. A systematic investigation was conducted of anonymous vehicle tracking using existing inductive loop detectors on both freeway and arterial street facilities combined with new, low-cost high-speed scanning detector cards (that were utilized by the authors in PATH TO 4122) to meet the needs of PeMS. Both field data and microscopic simulation were utilized in a major travel corridor setting, using the Paramics simulation model and field sites that were part of the California ATMS (Advanced Transportation Management Systems) testbed network in Irvine, California. The experience and insights of the research team obtained from extensive previous and current PATH research on vehicle reidentification techniques for single roadway segments and signalized intersections was used to investigate and develop methods for tracking individual vehicles (including specified classes of vehicle such as buses and trucks) across multiple detector stations on a freeway and an arterial street network to obtain real-time performance measurements (including dynamic or time-varying origin-destination (OD) path flow information such as path travel time and volume). This study presented a framework for studying the feasibility of an anonymous vehicle tracking system for real-time freeway and arterial traffic surveillance and performance measurement. The potential feasibility of such an approach was demonstrated by simulation experiments for both a freeway and a signalized arterial operated by actuated traffic signal controls. Synthetic vehicle signatures were generated to evaluate the proposed tracking algorithm under the simulation environment. The PARAMICS microscopic simulation model was used to investigate the proposed vehicle tracking algorithm. The findings of this study can serve as a logical and necessary precursor to possible field implementation of the proposed system in freeway and arterial network. It is also believed that the proposed method for evaluating a traffic surveillance system using microscopic simulation in this study can offer a valuable tool to operating agencies interested in realtime congestion monitoring, traveler information, control, and system evaluation. Furthermore, the automatic vehicle classification system developed in this study showed very encouraging results.

This report presents the results of Phase 2 of a multi-year research effort on "Field Investigation of Advanced Vehicle Reidentification Techniques and Detector Technologies." Phase I of this research was conducted under PATH MOU 3008. Phases I and II of this research extended previous PATH research by the authors on MOU 336 "Section-Related Measures of Traffic System Performance: Prototype Field Implementation." Phase II of this research continued development, field investigation and assessment of the latest technologies available for traffic detection and surveillance, for collecting more accurate traffic characteristics and traffic data necessary for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. The focus of Phase II of this research was to utilize fully instrumented freeway and signalized intersection sites in the California Advanced Transportation Management Systems Testbed in Southern California for field investigation of several emerging traffic sensor and detector technologies for vehicle reidentification (REID) purposes and real-time traffic performance measurement. As part of this project, a traffic detector and surveillance sub-testbed (TDS 2) on North I-405 in Irvine became operational in August 2002, and the ability to perform REID-based real-time traffic performance measurement in TDS 2, developed as part of this research, and including section travel times, traffic origins and destinations, and vehicle classification, was demonstrated on-line at the PATH Annual Meeting in October 2002. The very encouraging results obtained to date by developing and applying a vehicle reidentification approach for real-time traffic performance measurement suggest that further development, implementation and testing of this approach would clearly be of value.

This report presents the results of Phase I of a multi-year research effort on "Field Investigation of Advanced Vehicle Reidentification Techniques and Detector Technologies," and extends previous PATH research by the authors on MOU 336 "Section-Related Measures of Traffic System Performance: Prototype Field Implementation." The focus of this research included the following: significant expansion and enhancement of the ILD-based vehicle reidentification system at a major signalized intersection in Irvine, California to address reidentification of turning vehicles in addition to through vehicles; derivation of improved estimates of fundamental real-time traffic parameters such as speed, volume and vehicle class from single loop detector inductive signatures; development of a new technique for on-line real-time intersection level of service estimation; implementation of a capability for communicating real-time traffic performance data to operators in the City of Irvine Transportation Management Center (TMC); development of a prototype real-time web-site for internet-based access to performance data from the study intersection in Irvine (and other sites in the future); initial testing of a new state-of-the-art detector card (the IST-222, from IST, Inc.); and an initial study of video image processing for future detector data fusion of video and loop signature data. The very encouraging results obtained to date for signalized intersection application of the vehicle reidentification approach suggest that further development and improvement of the vehicle reidentification algorithms for this application would clearly be of value. Keywords vehicle signature, inductive loop detector, single loop speed estimation, vehicle classification, vehicle reidentification, signalized intersection, level of service, detector card, data fusion, web-site