Explore the vast range of titles available.

Boundary detection is very important in the size measurement of the turnout rail components using machine vision. A new algorithm about boundary detection based on machine vision system is proposed. First an improved median filtering algorithm was used to noise reduction an image. Second Gabor operator energy diagram is generated. Then an elliptical-butterfly surround inhibition was designed to suppress the textures and enhance the boundary. Last a new binarization method and boundary detection algorithm is put forward according to the human beings visual observation. Experimental results show that the algorithm has good feasibility and effectiveness.

In the 64 years since India's independence, the number of women voters and politicians has graduaily increased both at the national and state level. In West Bengal also (which recently concluded one of its most crucial and historic assembly elections), the percentage of female voters and politicians has witnessed a remarkable increase. However, here, women's issues normally do not receive much priority. Rather, 'politically' important groups like 'Muslims', 'SC's', 'ST's', 'OBC's', 'farmers', 'the urban poor' etc are always more seriously targeted, addressed and promised benefits, than women, especially before elections. This paper tries to find out whether the isàue of 'gender' was given sufficient importance by the leaders of the two main political parties in West Bengal, the CPI (M) and the Trinamul Congress in the recently concluded elections. It analyses the content of the speeches of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Maniata Banerjee (the two chief ministerial candidates of these two parties)-from September 2010 to February 2011-as reported by two of the leading English daily newspapers of West Bengal - the Telegraph and the Statesman. The findings reveal that in the period preceding the declaration of electionsin WestBengai, neither Mamata Banerjee nor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee showed any enthusiasm or invested time in addressing gender-specific issues. Over the decades, West Bengal's strong Left ideology and culture has also reinforced the extremely uneasy relationship of the 'Left' and 'gender' or feminist issues.

Railway turnout is a critical railway infrastructure that guides trains in switching tracks. Over time, uneven rail wear can lead to switch rail reduction value (SRRV) deviation, a typical structural defect that compromises turnout functionality and jeopardizes train operation safety. Current SRRV deviation detection methods rely primarily on inefficient manual inspections, making it difficult to ensure operational safety. To address this issue, the study carried out a comprehensive investigation combining numerical and experimental analyses. First, a rigid–flexible coupled dynamics model of a vehicle-turnout system was developed to analyze the wheel–rail dynamic interaction forces and contact relationships under various SRRV deviation conditions. The results revealed that SRRV deviation significantly affects both wheel–rail interaction forces and the turnout structural irregularity wavelength. Thus, based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT), a wheel–rail force trend component was derived that can effectively analyze the turnout structural irregular wavelength, and the mapping relationship between SRRV deviation and the wheel–rail force trend component was then established. Finally, an efficient and accurate method for identifying SRRV deviation based on wheel–rail force trend component was proposed and validated using field-measured data from trains passing through turnouts. This study contributes to the timely detection of track defects, helping to prevent safety incidents during train operations.

The high-speed rail industry (from now on referred to as HSR) in China is flourishing, and improvements in its international competitiveness and the sustainable development of trade are gradually attracting international attention. This study examined data related to trade between major countries producing and importing key HSR equipment and components from 2013 to 2022. The International Competitiveness Index, Trade Complementarity Index, and Trade Integration Index were used to study the international competitiveness of the key equipment and components of China’s HSR, as well as the bilateral trade complementarity between China and other HSR powers. It also studied the degree of bilateral trade integration between China and these HSR powers, as well as that between China and the “Belt and Road” countries. Then, the ARIMA model was established by using Python 3.9.5 software to predict the degree of trade integration between China and the above countries from 2023 to 2027. The results show the following: (1) Some of the key equipment and components of China’s HSR have international competitiveness, but some have shortcomings. (2) China and HSR powers have both trade competition and trade complementarity in the field of key equipment and components. (3) The trade integration of key HSR equipment and components between China and countries along the “Belt and Road” is high. Overall, after ten years of development, China’s HSR industry had improved by 2022. The HSR market in the “Belt and Road” countries is the market that China’s HSR industry must focus on for sustainable development in the future.

This chapter and the one that follows deal with the most important intervention by government into railroading since the takeover of the railroads by the US Railroad Administration during World War I. The actions taken over the decade between 1970 and 1980 profoundly changed the railroad business, both passenger and freight. First, intercity passenger service became a ward of the state, followed by commuter services. The freight business was also in jeopardy, and nationalization was widely discussed as an option. But freed from passenger deficits and burdensome regulation and aided by new markets and new technology, freight railroads became one

Canadian railroading seemed remote and exotic when I was growing up in Texas. Perhaps it was the idea of running trains in the snow, something that was not part of the South Texas scene. Perhaps it was simply because Canada was a “foreign” country at a time when I had never been out of the United States other than on minor incursions into Mexico. Certainly David Morgan’s articles in Trains magazine, with photographs by Phil Hastings, had an influence. Morgan’s accounts of riding up the St. Lawrence behind steam in winter remain one of my most vivid images of steam

The Midwest was never one of my first loves; it struck me as too much like my home state of Texas. I like mountains and mountain railroading. But you cannot be a professional railroader, as I was for forty years, without spending a lot of time in the Midwest, especially Chicago. Breakfast in the diner heading into Chicago on the 20th Century Limited was always a treat; coming home eastbound was about sipping bourbon in a Creek followed by a steak dinner in the twin-unit diner as northern Indiana passed by the window. Chicago loomed large in the creation of

A pictorial survey of Ramesside furniture forms depicted in tomb wall paintings or reliefs, stela and blocks can be found in Appendix A. Listings of individual tombs and the types of furniture illustrated in them can be found in Appendix B (Theban tombs) and Appendix C (Memphite tombs). Depictions of furniture forms found elsewhere are cited at the beginning of each sub-section in this chapter. Ramesside chair forms (Ca–Cjj, see Appendix A) depicted in private tombs at Thebes and Memphis follow a clearly understood anthropometric design canon based upon accurate measurements taken from the human body.¹ Earlier chairs often