`Cohen, G., and K. M. Crawford. "A Problem in Estimating Bus Stop Times." Applied Statistics 27.2 (1978): 139. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

This journal by The Royal Statistical Society demonstrates a linear regression for the time a bus spends at a stop, as dependent on the amount of passengers boarding and alighting. Other models provide algorithms to determine whether a boarding/alighting event is definite, improbable, or unlikely. The amount of time a bus would spend not actually moving isn’t something usually taken into account when models of tracking based on actual vehicle location are made, however the creation of such a linear regression based on typical SEPTA data, or gathered by users, would highly increase the accuracy of the tracking by adding another layer of adaptation to only getting new data every 3-5 minutes.

Forbes, M. A., J. N. Holt, P. J. Kilby, and A. M. Watts. "BUDI: A Software System for Bus Dispatching." J Oper Res Soc Journal of the Operational Research Society 45.5 (1994): 497-508. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

A software system known as BUDI is described for the dispatching of buses operated by a public transport organization in Austrailia. Organization of transit terminology is an early focus, defining routes and the difference between a route and a timetabled instance of one, for example. Definitions and rostering of the BCC depots mentioned will provide a theoretical model for database construction of similar data received from the aforecited SEPTA API. While BUDI’s focus is on sorting and dispatching, the concepts behind it’s design, especially in terms of the database it relies on, is universally applicable to any analysis of transit data.

Golshani, Forouzan. "System Regularity and Overtaking Rules in Bus Services." J Oper Res Soc Journal of the Operational Research Society 34.7 (1983): 591-97. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

To passengers, the most important part of a service is its reliability. The authors of this study analyzed average waiting time and under what circumstances would it be appropriate for one bus to overtake another. A simulation was run to determine the average headways and overtaking during a typical day of bus service. Though the original simulation is unavailable and outdated (written in fortran for a mainframe), the mathematics are available in this research journal. There are many different models used to simulate service, and each will have to be evaluated as to it’s potential accuracy. A theoretical application to Accusepta would be to create a new simulation for every time new data is received, allowing for more accurate estimates of headways over time.

Jansson, Jan Owen. "A Simple Bus Line Model for Optimisation of Service Frequency and Bus Size." Journal of Transport Economics and Policy 14.1 (1980): 53-80. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

This analysis of Swedish buses in the 1980’s shows a model of total trip time as dependent on the time taken to travel the distance plus the total time spent boarding and alighting. This algorithm was originally used for economical reasons, determining the most profitable optimized frequency of bus travel. However, this model is relevant as it can be used to provide a “larger picture” estimation of total travel time for a run of a SEPTA bus.

Jennings, Norman H., and Justin H. Dickins. "Computer Simulation of Peak Hour Operations in a Bus Terminal." Management Science 5.1 (1958): 106-20. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

The Monte Carlo method is a statistical simulation built upon the principle of thousands of random estimations within a set of constraints. This method is most often used to replace costly real world trial and error with a computer simulation. In 1958, Port Authority employees built a simulation to build a histogram of the distribution of the bus arrival times to be used when organizing dispatch for the day. This algorithm was used in the original Accusepta design, and is applicable to, say, estimating the probability of making a connection depending on the estimated travel time from the vehicle’s last known location.  

Mcleod, F. "Estimating Bus Passenger Waiting times from Incomplete Bus Arrivals Data." J Oper Res Soc Journal of the Operational Research Society 58.11 (2006): 1518-525. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

Operations Researchers in Southhampton UK have built a model to determine average waiting time based on bus headways, the time between busses at a stop using an AVL, an automatic vehicle location system akin to that used and provided by SEPTA. The main problem with using an AVL is that missing data is almost a guarantee. SEPTA only provides locations every three to five minutes, for example. A lack of total data coverage creates gaps that have to be worked with. The authors main goal is to contribute to the theory of estimating headway variance, the difference between the frequency of busses, with incomplete data. Various methods are tested on different data sets. Previous research on AVL based models is hard to find, and adapting to the gaps, where the bus could potentially make multiple stops or travel a significant distance, is hard to manage while striving for accuracy.

Pratelli, A., and F. Schoen. "A Mathematical Programming Model for the Bus Deviation Route Problem." J Oper Res Soc Journal of the Operational Research Society 52.5 (2001): 494-502. JSTOR. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

Researchers at The University of Piza and the University of Firanze in Italy have contributed to the creation of a mathematical model of a deviated bus route. While SEPTA does not operate on a deviated bus route. Such a route supports the main route along a corridor, while collecting and distributing passengers from neighboring blocks. The increased route flexibility causes an increase in both travel time and wait time. Despite the fact that SEPTA does not possess a deviated bus route system, the modeling is applicable in terms of analyzing theoretical inconvenience to passengers as well as tracking busses that do not follow their schedules due to traffic or other factors. Thus, this discrepancy between the schedules and the effects of real life can be equivalent to a deviated stop in terms of analyzing inconvenience to passengers. Pratelli. A, has proposed a mixed integer linear programming problem that highlights “many-to-many”, where it takes into account that passengers alight and board at every stop on the route. Other elements it proposes include the concept of net inconvenience for passengers, based off of travel time, waiting time, and any increases to that, alongside delay.

Pratelli. A and F. Schoen both created analytical models of the feasibility of a transit system based on deviation, and a core notation is the usage of arcs between two points. Arcs are used as an efficient and inclusionary way in Italy to capture most every location the bus could have passed in the interim between the last location signaled to central command, deviated stop or not.

"Public Transport, Walking and Cycling Directions - Citymapper." Citymapper. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <https://citymapper.com/philadelphia>.

Citymapper is a Web/iOS/Android app that implements transit data from cities all over the world, including Philadelphia and implements the SEPTA API, however does not provide real time tracking. Citymapper does provide a transit focused view that services such as, say, Google Maps, do not provide as clearly. This aggregation of all available transit services provides an interesting perspective on user interface. Citymapper also provides a directions and travel time interface capable of being used in one’s own applications.

"SEPTA API Documentation." SEPTA API. SEPTA DEV. Web. 03 Feb. 2016. <http://www3.septa.org/hackathon/>.

SEPTA provides documentation on their API (Application Programming Interface). SEPTA provides http links with the ability to make specific requests for data depending on route or location. Features include the TransitView API, a specific system to make requests as to the location of either a specific bus or all buses currently active in the SEPTA network. TransitView will be the crux of the ACCUSEPTA model, as it can provide active tracking of every bus on duty, sending data every 3-5 minutes. Other documentation focuses on interfacing with raw schedule data for other SEPTA services. This framework will be used to build custom route objects for every bus in Philadelphia.

"Septadev/SEPTA-Android." GitHub. SEPTA/Github. Web. 03 Feb. 2016. <https://github.com/septadev/SEPTA-Android>.

SEPTA makes all source code for both their iOS and Android apps available online on Github. This allows for a resource as to the implementation of access to the SEPTA database, alongside typical ways it is accessed. The official SEPTA app offers some features that are useful, however the transitview is lackluster and only provides a general location as was last received. Not much analysis is done, as is the goal with Accusepta. However, the base of real time tracking is there for both buses and regional rail, thus providing a theoretical base on which to build up important Accusepta features based on the official SEPTA implementation of their API.

Analytical Essay:

As circumstances change around someone, so does their role in the world, and with the people around them. For example, as a former student goes to war, such as in the case of Jimmy Cross from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, their role needs to change. Through the “obscenity and evil” of war, as the author O’Brien put it, Jimmy became the battle-hardened leader he was meant to be for his men.  As the world changes, the “self” changes and adapts to the world around itself, for example, creating strong leaders out of insecure dreamers like Jimmy Cross.

Jimmy Cross goes to war unprepared, he was still in the mindset of a college student who had fallen desperately in love. However, he was too weak with the leadership role he had been placed in, that one of his men died. “After Ted Lavender’s death [Jimmy Cross] reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved, but to lead.” With the shock that comes from Lavender’s death, Lt. Cross takes the blame upon himself for what happened. He now sees what how he has to change himself, in order to handle the change around him. Up until that point, he wasn’t really the leader of Alpha Company, but a death was what made him “snap” and know what he had to do, and that he had to fulfill his obligations. He understood that his connection to Martha, among other things, made him too immature to fulfill his duty. He loved a far away woman who did not love him back far more than he cared for the men he was responsible for.

As Jimmy realizes that he has to forget about Martha, and fulfill his duty in Vietnam, he ponders about the many things he carries with him, from his love of Martha, to his good luck pebble. “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” As the world changes around them, soldiers are often forced by circumstance to do things that in the end are caused by a mixture of pent up anger, sadness, and, most importantly, fear. War, especially, consists of situations where soldiers have to choose between doing the “wrong” thing and surviving, or losing a battle/life while staying true to their original morals.

In the beginning, when Tim O’Brien describes how soldiers carry things through war, he describes the emotional baggage carried by soldiers. “They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture. They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to.” As the world changes around them, soldiers are often not really fit for this change. Basic training will teach you how to use a gun, but it won’t teach you how to deal with all the obscenity and death around you. Adapting to being forced to go to Vietnam, men altered themselves to be able to kill and die, if only out of cowardice and fear. They didn’t want to be next. Jimmy, for example, had to become a leader to make sure he and his company weren't next.

Tim O’Brien, the author himself, went through extensive changes in his life when he was drafted into the Vietnam War, as well as witnessing his comrades go through such changes  as well. “Storytelling preceded war for Mr. O'Brien, or at least some kind of writing did. He grew up in the southern Minnesota town of Worthington -''the Turkey Capital of the World'' -and was there, a month out of Macalester College in St. Paul, when his draft notice arrived. He had always liked fiction, and books, but he had majored in political science and certainly had no intention to be a writer. His reaction to the draft notice still surprises him... ...That horrible summer made me a writer. I don't know what I wrote. I've still got it, reams of it, but I'm not willing to look at it. It was just stuff - bitter, bitter stuff, and it's probably full of self-pity. But that was the beginning.'' The war forced O’Brien to change. O’Brien had to now understand what life really was, and he had to learn who he was. He had to adapt to the changing circumstances around him, going from being a Political Science major, to a soldier in Vietnam. He went from being a carefree student, to someone who now had to be a soldier in order to truly face the realities of war.

Change in the world around the self is the primary catalyst for change and evolution in the self. For example, as a former student goes to war, such as in the case of Jimmy Cross from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, their role needs to change. Through the “obscenity and evil” of war, as the author O’Brien put it, Jimmy became the battle-hardened leader he was meant to be for his men.

Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

Bruckner, D.J. "A Storyteller For the War That Won't End." New York Times Online. The New York Times. April 3, 1990. Web. October 20, 2009.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway, 1998. Print.

Narrative Essay:

Willpower. Leadership. Adaptation. Duty. Obligation. These are the traits of not only many people throughout history, but also Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Jimmy stands for the people that have had no choice, but to change, stand up, and fulfill their duty. I personally identify with Jimmy Cross the most, because I have had to learn how to lead a group of people, and I had to change myself and the way I look at the world in order to do it effectively. We have to learn to adapt to our circumstances, in order to make the most of them.

Around May of last year, I was put in charge, made student leader, of an ambitious TFI youth program, where a group of SLA students design and build exhibit prototypes using new Virtual Reality technology. I personally chose most of them for the project. I was given my position due to extensive familiarity with necessary technologies, as well as the drive to communicate with those who could support us. I thought I could do this. I mean, if I had given them tasks, they should do them, like teachers do in school right?

I was always shy and meek, even in the beginning of high school. Me, a leader? Who would have thought? I was able to navigate the intricacies of the non-profit bureaucracy, granted I was able to keep my wits about me, but the actual implementation was the hard part. It’s really hard to get people to be committed to something. It’s hard to properly organize without things eventually devolving into barking orders, unless you know what you’re doing.

We weren’t really productive in the beginning. I had made a roadmap, and standard operation procedures. But really, who just wanted to follow tasks, unless it was for a grade? And all I could think was, why wasn’t this working? But those early days were valuable, if only for the experience provided.

I was then given the advice by my mentor, that Leadership was achieved by inspiring others to do things, not telling them to do things. I thought about it for a bit, and then everything made sense. People had to have a personal stake in what they were doing. They had to care about it. So I went back the next day, and I set to work inspiring morale. I used fun activities, and I focused on valuing everyone's opinion.

I was made a leader by the circumstances at hand, not because of innate natural ability. At the end of the day, this process is applied to many other roles, but the core lesson is this, you become what the world needs you to be as time goes on. And I have thus evolved from the technological savant to the “brilliant” and “charismatic” leader I supposedly am today. Hell, recently I was called a “real ball of fire” who’s “going to become a great corporate leader one day”.

Ukrainian Linguistic Identity

Over the past year, there has been civil unrest in the former Soviet Republic country of Ukraine, which recently went through a semi-violent change in government. The coup was sparked by the governments move to work with Russia, rather than the European Union. As a result, a bloody civil war has began in the Russian speaking eastern regions, with Russian backed separatists taking control of the region. Ukraine is made of many nationalities, with ethnic Russians being the second largest population in the country, and Russian is still a very popular language, being the main language in most of east Ukraine. The ethnic population there would like to keep their ties to Russia and their language, which is threatened by the attempts to mandate Ukrainian in the country. Despite the current ceasefire and granting of special administrative status to said regions, ethnic tension, as well as the divide between Russian speakers and Ukrainian speakers, will remain, as they always have. The divided ethnolinguistic identity and the instability of Ukraine does not just involve the Ukrainian leadership wanting to combat Russian influence, but the unresolved tensions between Russia and the West from the cold war.

The population of Ukraine currently have Ukrainian as their main language, with Russian being an official regional language in the areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, and the Crimean peninsula, which was recently lost to Russia. The most recent statistics stand at Ukrainian (official) 67%, Russian (regional language) 24%, other (includes small Romanian-, Polish-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities) 9% [CIA]. Russian is a major minority language within Ukraine, and around 24 percent or more Ukrainians speak Russian as their main language. Meanwhile, 17.3 percent of Ukraine’s population identified as ethnic Russian in 2001. [CIA]. Said population is mostly centered around Donetsk and Crimea. Not surprisingly, they are the territories currently contested in the bloody conflict, and have a history of being Pro-Yanukovych and Pro-Russia.

Russia and Ukraine have a long, complicated history. During most of the past thousand years, most of the area that we call Ukraine today has been under Russian rule, either during tsarist times, or as a soviet socialist republic. Of course, the rulers attempted to russify the population. There is an example from Soviet times, where a man who moved to Ukraine from Russia as a child gives his experience: “I am also from Russia... Then we moved here with my parents [to Udy, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine,]... Our village, they were Ukrainians there, a Ukrainian speaking population.... But the school was in Russian... It was discrimination by the teachers, they always accused us of speaking Ukrainian outside the school...”[Borderlands into Bordered Lands] This example, of a village with a Russian School in a Ukrainian village, would attract settlers from Russia. The Russian-Soviet authorities would thus ensure that the village would be “Russified” and maintain a Russian identity. Thus, Russian authorities would homogenize the population of Ukraine, which they called “new russia”, and expand their own claims to it’s land in order to strengthen it’s borders. This strategy was rather common, the most famous example would be the “iron curtain” / “Soviet Bloc” of Europe, established to cushion Russia’s borders against the NATO powers.

One of the big questions when Ukraine finally regained independence was language. Would Ukrainian become the standard, or would the country stick with the ever popular Russian? Laada Bilaniuk, a Ukrainian-American researcher into the topic stated on the matter that: “When people name a language, and describe it as mixed or pure, language becomes the site of struggle over identity, social values, and.... a certain type of ‘cultural correctness’“ [Contested Tongues] We can see the struggle right now, in the form of the current civil war between two worlds, two cultures, that were united in the last moments of the dying empire that created them. Russian social values, which were pushed to expand influence, seem to be doing a good job of that by causing the chaos needed for Russia to expand; push it’s way west, even by a couple hundred miles; and restore it’s “importance” in international politics.

Russian influence, as a result of tensions with the west over the course of Ukraine’s history has caused an ethno-linguistic divide within the country that current events have ripped apart even more and turned said divide into an all out civil war. Although the Ukrainian civil war and ethnolinguistic divide may only seem important to Ukraine and possibly it's neighbors, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about the well being of the world's economy and stability. Both NATO and Russia have made moves to influence Ukraine, with Russia annexing part of the country, and sending proxy troops into other unstable parts. NATO and the European Union wish to have Ukraine join as a member, however Russia does not want either organization to get any closer to it's borders. As such, the conflict between Russia and the Western world can only intensify, thus effecting the entire world.

Works Cited

Bilaniuk, Laada. Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005. Print.

"World Factbook Ukraine." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Truly, this year has been... Interesting, to say the least.

Throughout the educational mixture of facts and emotions and a variety of activities, us students have been brought directly into the emotions and situations of the events we have looked at. We have fought intense trials and argued over petty details just to win. We have taken up the mantles of revolutionaries. We have written our own fictional “look into history” in the form of a play. We have truly thrown ourselves into history.

Throughout the year, we have looked upon many different perspectives of the world. One interesting implementation of this was our pipeline monologue project. Click here to see it. "Right now we have a golden opportunity. The door out of this place is standing right there, but you keep trying to barricade it.... Things aren’t always black and white like they are for you and so many others. There are so many other colors and shades. And this one isn’t all bad." (Pipeline Monologues)

We look at the past, we look at those that have had important roles to play, we know where they fit in. But who are we as people? Where do we fit in? A resounding theme this year has been social justice for the oppressed, but what about justice for the ones who don’t know who they are, who have been hurt beyond belief, who still carry their own scars with them for so many years. When we focus on the big picture, we can accomplish great things, but what about the individual behind the statistic? What about one man?...

As part of our Play project, I wrote about what it was like for one man and his friends during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, against Nazi occupation. Click here to see my play project. I looked at more than just the suffering of a people, I looked at the suffering of one man, and how that suffering is connected to the fight for the city, and for the nation.

“Klaus Adler: You’re a fool. If you die, your cause dies...

Jan: And so do you." (Play Project)

“Jan:

You monster. Hell hath no fury like that of a Pole.

(*Starts kicking Klaus*)

This is for my wife! This is for my friends! This is for Warsaw!

And this is for Poland!!! Give Lucifer my regards!

(*Shoots Klaus in head, blows smoke off barrel*)

Well, that’s over. “ (Play Project)

"Stop. What have we seen here? Utter desperation. But this isn’t the end of the story, though you may think it is." (Play Project)

We have focused on such diverse issues from the Keystone XL pipeline, to the role of religion in society. Several more links and quotes from my work are included below: I personally analyzed the relation between religion and war. Click here to see my wiki page about it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monologue 1: John

[Enters through door] “Hey, Daddy’s home!” [Walks to living room] “Hey sweetie how are you? You look kinda sad today.... Something happened at school?.. Oh the pipeline, well what’s the problem with it?.. Your friends? Let them protest and stuff, nothing’s gonna change anyway... [Sits down on couch] Well, that’s the thing. This pipeline does a lot of good stuff for us... I mean... Look at this house, look at your TV, your iPhone, and all your other stuff... And look, so many other families will have the same chance. I mean, look at it... Yeah, I don’t need to treat you like a baby, I’m just, you know, worried.

“Let me tell you something, I was a board meeting today and we were talking about this stuff. The risks are worth the reward.... Well I don’t care about the ‘state department’ or the ‘President of the United States’... Well, ok. Yeah, it can leak, it can spill, it can do hundreds of things... The point is that it won’t... I don’t know, ok maybe I should...

“My point being, this pipeline is important! Not just for us but for an entire nation! Sweetie, listen to me... No, it doesn’t matter here. We won’t even see it.... Yes that’s the big oil spill... Yeah, but that was the gulf of mexico, Not here... Wow, is... is that what happened there.. [mutters] So much destruction... [speaks normally] Well in america... Well here in canada...

“Alright honey...  I admit it, it’s dangerous... But not for us... Yes, people can be hurt... Ok, I think it’s homework time for you... [Get’s up and exits]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monologue 2: Will

[Walks in door] Hey, man, how are you... Come on, lets sit down.... Actually I’m not sure about that, another protest?... I sympathise man, I really do, but we’re adults, not the free-riding teens we once were... [Waitress walks to table] What would I like to have... Get me a scone... or a muffin... Actually a berry muffin please... And some tea. What about you?.. [Waitress walks away after order]

So are you ready, I mean, we are in DC after all, every protest here is bound to be big. Why don’t I want to come... Well that’s the thing, call me crazy, call me a establishment shill, but I think Keystone XL is one of the keys to fixing our economy. We need to take risks right? And XL constitutes a risk. I know the environmental and health stuff, but damn this needs to go through.

[Waitress comes by and brings food] Thanks... Yeah, I do wish the best of luck to you though... Well, we are all in our own little hell right now, and an oil spill is nothing to the suffering of the poor and the middle class. Right now we have a golden opportunity. The door out of this place is standing right there, but you keep trying to barricade it.... Things aren’t always black and white like they are for you and so many others. There are so many other colors and shades. And this one isn’t all bad.

I have a job, but I’m barely getting by... I have meds to take and all that stuff... You know, when I came in, I was on the fence, but now, I’m more than certain this pipeline has to go through. [alarm beeps] Well... I have a doctors appointment in half an hour so, I’ll see you around...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monologue 3: Jack

Ok, that’s it! Tomorrow I’m turning in my two weeks. It’s time for all this to end. I’m going to start looking for an office job tomorrow. I can’t stand that place anymore.

CEO:

Nombre: Alexander Wroblewski

Numero de telefono: 267-765-5453

E-mail: awroblewski@sharklasers.com

CIO:

Nombre: Eamon Kelly

Numero de telefono: 267-875-8795

Email: ekelly@sharklasers.com