Finnish Transport Agency

This article reflects on developments in Corded Ware-related material and research in the eastern Baltic Sea area (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, north-western Russia). It builds upon a manuscript on the Corded Ware phenomenon in the eastern Baltic, completed nearly 15 years ago. Intended as the first modern review of the topic, this paper was not published at that time. Although now partially outdated due to the passage of time, it nonetheless offers a valuable overview of how the Corded Ware complex was perceived and studied in the early 2010s. Together with the supplementary commentaries appended to the original text, the article provides basic information about the Corded Ware phenomenon in the eastern Baltic and documents changes and an intensification of research on the 3rd millennium BC that occurred during the 2010s and early 2020s.

It is undeniable that digital technology enables, e.g., building information modelling, digital twins, extended reality (i.e., virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality), and automation, have recently played a significant role in the construction and engineering industry. The traditional applications of digital technologies include design and construction management, waste management, and, to a limited extent, asset management. Despite some applications of digital technologies, the technology users are often isolated and siloed. In reality, the cross-functional applications, roles, and co-benefits have not been thoroughly understood or well demonstrated. This is evident by a very limited usage of such technology across either the whole lifecycle or the value chain of built environment sectors. On this ground, this study is the first to tackle the challenges by conducting expert and stakeholder interviews using open-ended questionnaires both online and offline (n = 42) to identify synergic roles and influences, as well as co-benefits of digital technology enablers. Industry participants are dominant in our study and, unsurprisingly, siloed practice can undermine cross-collaboration among value chain stakeholders. Clearly, co-benefits may hypothetically occur, but they can be only unlocked by genuine, participative stakeholder engagement. This study is unprecedented, and our new findings also reveal technical and societal capabilities of digital technologies, which can inclusively enable participative decision-making, engagement, and integration of stakeholders for implementing buildings’ circularity through viable business and management models. New insights clearly exhibit that digital technology enablers must be co-created by main stakeholders in order to yield co-benefits and harvest synergic value for circular management models in the built environment.

Abstract The R-Mare matrix is the first risk maturity model developed for maritime authorities. Its main purpose is to support the authorities in self-evaluating their current risk management performance and in steering that performance toward higher levels. To gain insight into the model’s usability in practical applications, the aim of this study is to test the reliability of its measurements in real-world settings and identify areas for improvement. The empirical testing is conducted within maritime administration in the Baltic Sea region and involves two rounds of semi-structured interviews with 16 panelists. During these interviews, the panelists employ the R-Mare matrix model to provide individual ratings of their administration’s risk management performance and justify their expert judgments. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the model’s reliability, the collected data is analyzed using internal consistency reliability and inter-rater reliability tests. For the former, statistical quantifications are performed using Cronbach’s Alpha and McDonald’s Omega coefficients, while for the latter, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient is employed. These tests are conducted separately for the results of both interview rounds to further address the model’s temporal stability. The findings indicate a high degree of internal consistency reliability, and at least a moderate degree of inter-rater reliability for the model’s measurements. These further highlight areas for improvement in the model and assist in developing strategies to enhance its reliability. Consequently, the results provide evidence of the reliability of the R-Mare matrix model’s measurements, while supporting its deployment in the maritime administrations of the Baltic Sea region and beyond.

Railway curve squeal is a loud tonal noise generated by instabilities in the wheel-rail contact of railway vehicles while negotiating tight curves. The emitted noise is perceived as highly disturbing and contributes to noise problems in urban environments. Traditional monitoring of squeal occurrence involves analyzing train pass-by sound measurements. Such monitoring system is sensitive to high background noise which can pose a problem in urban environments with limited possibilities for suitable microphone placement. To overcome these issues, an alternative approach to detect curve squeal from rail vibration measurements is investigated. This comprises a simple and practical monitoring solution virtually unaffected by sound disturbances from the surroundings. Furthermore, this method can identify whether squeal noise occurs on the low or high rail. Field measurements involve a two-part analysis: 1) the development and validation of a method for detecting squealing events from rail vibrations, and 2) identifying tonal components from the measured signals. Results from the first part suggest that curve squeal can be detected from rail vibrations and the specific rail where squeal is generated can be identified. In the second part, specific frequency regions where squeal tonal components tend to emerge are recognized.

Abstract This paper describes results from a research and development (R&D) project at Trafikverket (Swedish transport administration). The purpose of the study was to systemize dependability improvements of Trafikverket’s Control Command and Signalling (CCS) assets. A case study was conducted on level crossings that represent a critical part of the CCS system. The results of the study show that the systemic approach contributes to asset management as it contributes to short-term dependability and productivity improvements as well as to medium term specifications for system modifications and long-term specifications for next generation of level crossings. The approach is based on a combination of methodologies and tools described in dependability standards, e.g., Failure Modes, Effects & Criticality Analysis (FMECA). However, the approach also considers aspects from Design of Experiments (DoE) to support field tests aligned with other tasks in the railway infrastructure. Besides contributing to improvements, the approach complies with regulations and mandatory standards. Examples of these are Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM-RA, EU 402/2013) and EN 50126 - RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability & Safety) for railway applications. In addition, the approach complies with regulatory requirements related to enterprise risk management and internal control, i.e., effectiveness, productivity, compliance and documentation. The approach also supports asset management in accordance with the ISO 55000-series.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe a risk-based scenario analysis, by use of an Event Tree Analysis (ETA) approach, which will support testability considerations and test level integration in the design or dependability improvement phases of technical systems. The proposed scenario analysis includes fault recognition and fault localization efforts and their associated hazards of false alarms, unrecognized faults, and un-localized faults. The combination of these single hazards into the hazard of NFF events and the consequences to safety, dependability, and cost are also discussed. It should be noted that the paper focuses on Built-in-Test (BIT), i.e., the capability of a test system of performing automatic fault recognition and fault localization. The hardware aspects, related to Built-in-Test Equipment (BITE), are not specifically considered. An earlier version of this paper has previously been presented at the IAI2023 Congress.

ObjectiveThe Finnish national Traffic Safety Strategy 2022–2026 seeks to halve the number of road fatalities and serious injuries from 2020 to 2030. The strategy states that better information on bicycle crashes is needed for safety promotion. The aim of this study was to describe the demographics, injury characteristics, alcohol involvement, and helmet use of severely injured cyclists and to compare single bicycle crashes (falling alone or hitting a fixed object) to collisions. Material and methodsWe identified all bicycle crashes between 2006 and 2021 from the Helsinki Trauma Registry (HTR). Variables analysed were basic patient demographics, Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) codes, AIS 3+ injuries, injured body regions, patient Injury Severity Score (ISS) and New Injury Severity Score (NISS), 30-day in-hospital mortality, ICU length of stay, injury mechanism, alcohol use by the injured cyclists, and helmet use. ResultsOf the 325 severe (NISS >15) cycling injury patients in the HTR, 53.5 % were injured in single crashes and 46.5 % in collisions with a moving object. Most (71.4 %) patients were men and mean age of all patients was 54.1 years (SD 16.7). Alcohol was detected in 23.1 % of cases and more often in single crashes (32.8 %) than in collisions (11.9 %). Less than a third (29.2 %) of all cyclists wore a helmet; those who wore a helmet had fewer serious (AIS 3+) head injuries than those who did not. Cyclists injured in collisions had higher ISS and NISS scores than those injured in single crashes. Serious (AIS 3+) injuries in extremities or in pelvic girdle were more common in collisions than in single crashes. ConclusionsAmong severely injured cyclists, single bicycle crashes were more common; alcohol was more often detected in single bicycle crashes than in collisions. Overall injury severity was higher in collisions than in single crashes. Helmet users had less AIS 3+ head injuries than non-users. Attention should be focused on preventing alcohol-related cycling injuries, promoting use of bicycle helmets, and more precise and comprehensive documentation of bicycle crashes in health care units.

Cable supported bridges are typically part of community-critical infrastructure and therefore the consequences arising from extensive structural damage due to a fire and the subsequent operational discontinuity could be significant beyond the damage to the bridge itself and the cost of repairs. Bridge design standards generally do not provide guidance and hence fire resistance requirements are often informed by first principles assessments of the thermal and structural response of the structure to proposed fire scenarios. A deterministic assessment can provide a reasonable worst-case scenario but it does not allow bridge stakeholders to make informed decisions with regards to uncertainty and the low likelihood of fires occurring to identify the benefits of investments in structural fire protection. This is because the target reliability required for each bridge may be different depending on its characteristics, and the expected fire severity has a probabilistic nature. This research aims to fill this gap by undertaking a reliability-based analysis to assess the probability of structural failure by considering the probability of a fire of a given size occurring and the uncertainty in the incident location and wind. The methodology is demonstrated through the case study of an operational 450 m long cable supported bridge section and a fire scenario based on a liquid fuel tanker. Liquid tankers can result into two type of fire scenario: first, a fire being contained within the tanker; and secondly, a fire due to a pool on the deck. Both fire scenarios have been characterised and it was determined that the contained tanker scenario presents a more onerous design case owing to its more prolonged duration. A Monte Carlo analysis was undertaken for a total of 10,000 independent trials of the combination of the location of the fire and the wind direction. The frequency of the fire was also examined to establish the probability of structural failure of a cable. It was established that the inclusion of wind can sometimes reduce the estimated height at which cables may experience temperatures with the potential to cause cable failure. However, for a number of the cases, the estimated height can remain broadly similar (i.e. within a couple metres difference) to the worst-case calculated value. Based on this analysis, the influence of the required level of reliability as well the fire protection duration specification agreed with bridge stakeholders can be used to determine the height at which cable fire protection is necessary to reduce the probability of structural failure to a level acceptable to the stakeholders. This approach allows bridge designers and stakeholders to make informed decisions with regards to provision and extent of fire preventive/protective measures for cable supported bridges.

Industry 4.0 and the ongoing digital transformation along with a large number interconnected machines anddevices increase the role of cybersecurity, cyber incident handling and incident response in the factories of the future (FoF). Cyber incident information sharing plays a major role when we need to formulate situational pictures about FoF operations and environment, and respond to cybersecurity threats related to e.g. the implementation of novel technologies. Sharing of incident information has a major drawback since it may reveal too much about the attack target, e.g. in the case of legacy systems and therefore restrictions may apply. We have developed a proof-of-concept service that combines access control and encryption of data at high granularity and a mechanism for requesting access to restricted cyber incident information. Theobjective was to demonstrate how access to restricted incident data fields could be managed in a fine-grained manner to enhance information sharing.