Leveraging the Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC)for pandemic response: opportunities and challenges

Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC) was conceptualized and established for coordinatinginformation and resources towards goal-oriented response in large scale public health emergency. Yet, theactivities undertaken by PHEOCs and their intended goals have not been fully optimized in current scenario.This paper revisited the collective efforts invested in PHEOC conceptualization and development, identified theopportunities and challenges in compliance with standards and framework, demonstrated the accountabilityof PHEOC network, thereby promoted best practice guidance for global public health emergency preparednessand response. This review will help navigate emergency response complexities leveraging PHEOC partnershipsand advance the ability to detect and respond to public health emergencies in low resource settings. The reviewshows that the information on how to adapt best practice guidance to local circumstances could incentivizethe full implementation of prevention, early detection and response to outbreaks. Identifying and correctingdeficiencies in effectiveness evaluation will provide the basis for continuous PHEOC improvement. With thegradually reopening economies and public services in some countries, there is an urgent need to emphasize andvalidate the collective efforts undertaken by PHEOCs for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timetable optimization for single bus line based on hybrid vehicle size model

This study proposes a flexible timetable optimization method based on hybrid vehicle size model to tackle the bus demand fluctuations in transit operation. Three different models for hybrid vehicle, large vehicle and small vehicle are built in this study, respectively. With the operation data of Shanghai Transit Route 55 at peak and off-peak hours, a heuristic algorithm was proposed to solve the problem. The results indicate that the hybrid vehicle size model excels the other two modes both in the total time and total cost. The study verifies the rationality of the strategy of hybrid vehicle size model and highlights the importance of the adaptive vehicle size in dealing with the bus demand fluctuation. The main innovation of the study is that unlike traditional timetables, the arrangement of the scheduling interval and the corresponding bus type or size are both involved in the timetable of hybrid vehicle size bus mode, which will be more effective to solve the problem of passenger demand fluctuation. Findings from this research would provide a new perspective to improve the level of regular bus service.

A methodology for rearranging transit stops for enhancing transit users generalized travel time

This study develops a methodology to consohdate transit stops. It develops a mathematical model and a program which takes stop consolidation decision（s） according to users gener- alized travel time savings and desired accessibility. The model iterates until the users generalized travel time savings are maximized. The study tests this mathematical model in different hypothetical scenarios. Six factors （distance between stops, passenger activity, average cruising speed, maximum walking distance, service frequency, and percentage of decreased passengers） with multiple levels were set to build the scenarios. Three responses {percentage of consolidated stops, percentages of travel time and operating time savings） were observed. The findings showed that the distance between the stops the passenger ac- tivity, and the probable demand change （or the percentage of decreased passengers） are the most influential factors. The frequency of service was found to be influential as well. The average cruising speed has very little influence on the response variables. Finally, the model is tested on two routes （route 900 and 930） ofAl Ain City public bus service. It shows that 22 and 32 out of 98 and 126 stops can be consolidated in route 900 and 930 respectively. This can save considerable amounts of users travel and operating times. In monetary values, the savings are about $329,827 and $491,094 per year for routes 900 and 930, respectively.