Rural transport – Valuing the mobility of older people

This paper describes a series of focus groups that were undertaken in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to examine the challenges faced by older people in rural Ireland when trying to make trips. The paper outlines transport policy in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and describes the activity patterns of older trip makers and the modes they use. It also discusses some of the contrasts between challenges faced by older men and older women. Both older men and older women experience a shrinking in activity spaces and activity participation when older. Older women are less likely to drive and to own a car and so are seriously impacted by loss of a spouse in terms of their unmet travel needs. However, older men also experience difficulties: the alternatives that are available (such as community transport schemes) provide trips and services that are more attractive to women. In addition, the car dependent lifestyles of men throughout their adult lives seems to make them less prepared for life without a car than older women.     

The 2007 work meeting of national waterborne transport

The 2007 work meeting of national waterborne transport was convened in Beijing on July 5, a date to be for ever remembered by the Chinese rivers, lakes and seas, for on this date waterborne transport was re-positioned and the clarion of marching toward a strong shipping country was blown. The sound swept across the rivers and lakes and surged over the col-orful shipping lines on the seas.     

Hybrid steering cultures in the governance of public transport: A successful way to meet demands?

This paper concerns steering aspects in the governance context of public transport. Various theoretical views of steering have been presented over the years, and it has been argued that a multiple-principal context often leads to fragmented steering. The paper aims to identify steering culture models found among principals operating in the same public transport context, and to explain how a successful procurement outcome is possible, despite the hybrid of steering cultures. The paper is based on an empirical analysis of a Swedish county's planning process that resulted in a very successful procurement outcome that met high environmental and safety standards at a relatively low cost. This procurement was seen as a triumph by principals. The findings presents the existence of various steering cultures among the principals, leading to the conclusion that a “metagovernor,” in this case the PTA, is central to achieving successful outcomes. The metagovernor designed the planning process and formulated a procurement document that satisfied the principals. In this process, the metagovernor negotiated separately with each principal, focusing on the particular characteristics of each principal.     

Strategies of state and local government in management of urban transport problems – A case of Delhi

In India, different layers of Government control different policy instruments to tackle transport externalities which might result in coordination problems and possible efficiency losses. This paper, therefore, addresses the coordination problem resulting from the division of policy instruments between two different government levels that face different types of externalities in varying degrees of magnitude in the urban transport sector by developing three types of theoretical models: the Full Control Centralised Model where the state government has full control over all pricing instrument; a Nash equilibrium model where each of the government levels controls only one instrument and takes the behaviour of the other as given; and a Stackelberg equilibrium mode where the behaviour of the state government is influenced by the fact that one of the price instruments is controlled by the local government. With an empirical illustration of the model for Delhi, the paper finds that since there are many interactions and many externalities between the two levels of government, a division of roles between them does not guarantee an efficient pricing outcome and the efficiency of pricing would depend on the institutional set up and on the correspondence between the objective functions of the two government levels.     

Analysis to the ocean transport industry(1960s to 1990s)

Since 1960s the seatrade markets and the international ocean transport industry have undergone substantial changes. Freight origins and destinations shifted much more rapidly than in the past, and the types of cargo and their forms of packaging kept changing. These trends became more and more pronounced since the beginning of the 1980s. This article descrihes the conditions of seatrade market and ocean transport industry, and analysts the reasons and effectiveness of the chaneges, well as the trend of seatrade market. 1 Development in the international seatrade markets In 1960 the annual volume of international seatrade had reached a level of one billion tons, with equal shares of dry cargo and liquid cargo.     

The regulatory cycle stalled? An assessment of current institutional obstacles to regulatory reform in the provision of road-based public transport in Cape Town, South Africa

Wide-ranging and ambitious proposals for the comprehensive transformation of public transport systems in major South African cities, including Cape Town, have now been in play for a decade or more since the country’s post-apartheid transition. To date, progress in implementing such proposals has been, at best, much delayed and, in Cape Town, appears to have stalled, and may now be significantly compromised. This paper draws on aspects of the concept of regulatory cycles in the bus transport sector to explore some of the key factors which have given rise to this situation, focusing primarily on obstacles embedded in the present institutional framework which governs the provision of road-based public transport in the city. It specifically identifies difficulties in establishing an appropriately mandated and resourced agency at the local level to drive forward the transformation project and the sustained opposition of existing, largely ‘self-regulated’ minibus-taxi operators as key factors which have obstructed the introduction of the proposed regime of ‘regulated competition’. A tentative conclusion is offered to the effect that perhaps a partial or ‘hybrid’ transformation of the public transport system may be the best - and, indeed, possibly the most appropriate - outcome of the transformation process that can be anticipated under the present and foreseeable future circumstances prevailing in the city.     

The efficiency of public transport operations – An evaluation using stochastic frontier analysis

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of public transport operations undertaken in Swedish counties by the Public Transport Authorities (PTA), taking into account the substantial differences in operating conditions between counties. The analysis will be performed using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) with annual data from 1986 to 2009 for 26 Swedish counties. The analysis shows how the efficiency of the individual counties has changed over time. The results are used to provide a ranking (in terms of efficiency) of the Swedish public transport authorities that can provide a basis for benchmarking. It is concluded that the efficiency of the public transport providers in all counties fell during the observed time period. Defining cost efficiency as the ratio of minimum cost to observed cost, the overall (average) cost efficiency for the industry fell from 85.7% in the eighties to 60.4% for the period from 2000 to 2009. Possible explanations for the development include increased emphasis on route density as well as higher environmental and safety requirements.     

Introduction of the Australian Chamber of Shipping

HISTORY The Australian Chamber of Shipping Ltd (the 'Chamber') was established in 1964 and remains actively involved domestically and internationally in the sea freight and passenger transport industry. It has extensive relationships with various bodies, both worldwide and nationally.     

Application of the Grey topological method to predict the effects of ship pitching

Ship motion,with six degrees of freedom,is a complex stochastic process.Sea wind and waves are the primary influencing factors.Prediction of ship motion is significant for ship navigation.To eliminate errors,a path prediction model incorporating ship pitching was developed using the Gray topological method,after analyzing ship pitching motions.With the help of simple introduction to Gray system theory,we selected a group of threshold values.Based on an analysis of ship pitch angle sequences over 40 second intervals,a Grey metabolism GM(1,1) model was established according to the time-series which every threshold corresponded to.Forecasting future ship motion with the GM(1,1) model allowed drawing of the forecast curve with effective forecasting points.The precision of the test results show that the model is accurate,and the forecast results are reliable.     

Build the First Largest Bridge of China and Create a Constructionof Fine Quality of the Century——A brief account of theconstruction of the infrastructure of the main bridge of Jiangyin Yangtze River Highway Bridgc

国家主席江泽民题写桥名并出席通车仪式的“江阴大桥”是主跨为1 385m，一跨过长江，中国第一、世界第四的钢悬索特大公路桥。本文综述了中港二航局在承建大桥下部结构(A标、B标)的施工中，根据工程规模大、合同期短、技术含量高、地质条件复杂、施工难度大等特点，运用系统工程原理，健全质量保证体系，坚持技术领先，优化要素配置，精心雕塑中国第一大桥，取得单位工程质量评比全优的佳绩。     

On the nature and sorces of controversy in the economic analysis of the liner shipping industry†

The simulations performed show that demand for quality tankers has to increase by 30% for a two-tier tanker market to emerge. The two-tier freight structure will only last for 3–5 years due to contracting induced by higher freight rates. This means that OPA does not by itself result in higher freight rates for tankers that comply with the requirements. If Western Europe also closes their trades to substandard tankers, a two-tier market emerges and quality tankers obtain a premium. The paper presents a simulation model for international tanker markets. The non-linear complementary equilibrium model solves for a sequence of static equilibria in segmented tanker freight markets, shipbuilding and scrapping markets. Freight markets are segmented according to quality requirements for tankers. The model specifies three tanker classes and one—quality tankers—can operate both market segments.     

Fatigue analysis of the bow structure of FPSO

The bow structure of FPSO moored by the single mooting system is rather complicated. There are many potential hot spots in connection parts of structures between the mooting support frame and the forecastle. Mooting forces, which are induced by wave excitation and transferred by the YOKE and the mooting support frame, may cause fatigue damage to the bow structure. Different from direct wave-induced-forces, the mooting force consists of wave frequency force (WF) and 2nd draft low frequency force (LF) , which are represented by two sets of short-term distribution respectively. Based on two sets of short-term distribution of mooting forces obtained by the model test, the fatigue damage of the bow structure of FPSO is analyzed, with emphasis on two points. One is the procedure and position selection for fatigue check, and the other is the application of new formulae for the calculation of accumulative fatigue damage caused by two sets of short-term distribution of hot spot stress range. From the results distinguished features of fatigue damage to the FPSOs bow structure can be observed.     

China will speed up the convertibility of the RMB

The Renminbi (RMB) circulation inneighboring countries and regionsis preparing the ground for its future goal ofbecoming a currency that can be exchangedfreely on the international market, an officialwith the central bank told the Beijing-basedOutlook news magazine recently.     

China mill speed up the conuertibility of the RMB

The Renminbi (RMB) circulation in neighboring countries and regions is preparing the ground for its future goal of becoming a currency that can be exchanged freely on the international market, an official with the central bank told the Beijing-based Outlook news magazine recently. The RMB, which is now being accepted     

Study on the methods of precision controlling for the manufacture of hull curvature sections

1 Introduction1 The precision controlling technology is a key step for model ship construction. The core of precision controlling technology lies in reducing the scene repetition to a minimum during the course of construction and revising the working quan…     

Chinese waterborne transport made significant achievement

The tenth "five-year" is the first five years of the new century in which waterborne trans- port kept a continuous, high-speed and healthy development momentum, coastal port construction com- pleted 131.3 billion RMB investment while inland water- way con…     

Reliability analysis of fatigue life of the connectors—the US Mobile Offshore Base

Reliability-based design analysis of the fatigue life of the connectors of the five sections of the 2-km long US Mobile Offshore Base (MOB) is demonstrated. A performance function is defined in terms of the nominal stress range, inherent defect or starter crack, and appropriate material properties, which are considered random variables. The reliability analysis is performed for a sea state 1–8 (SS1–8) random loading having a Gumbel distribution. Where possible, uncertainty data for random variables are obtained from published data relating to the fatigue of metal and metal alloys. Otherwise, judgmental coefficients of variation are prescribed for purposes of demonstration. The fatigue life is assumed to follow the Weibull distribution. The reliability function is defined in terms of the mean life and the total uncertainty in the fatigue life. Preliminary reliability calculations suggest that current design stress levels be reduced to meet the current fatigue life target reliability level for the MOB connectors. An illustrative design is demonstrated and the metal selected for a fatigue design of the connectors for 10 million cycles with a reliability of 0.99 at a nominal stress of 203 MPa is HY-130 steel.     

Is the bus transport contracting system in South Africa leading to trusting relationships between contracted parties? An analysis of funding issues and the impact on relations between government and operators

The 1996 South African White Paper on National Transport policy provided the guidelines for the restructuring of the commuter bus industry. The restructuring objectives were based on improving the competitiveness of and service levels within the industry through a competitive tendering regime, the selective implementation of negotiated contracts and the general transformation of the industry to also include improved transparency in the funding arrangements between government and operators.In order to set the context of the paper, a brief overview is provided of the progress made with policy implementation and the background to funding issues that are experienced in the bus transport sector. To gauge the impact of the funding issues on the relationship between government and operators, a survey of the largest contracted operators was undertaken to determine, amongst other, how these funding issues have potentially impacted on trusting relationships between contracted parties.     

Future of the Energy in Asia

I have been in oil and gas business, orthe evergy business in Japan for almost40 years at Mitsubishi Corporation. I hope myfew words will be a useful contribution totoday‘s agenda“Energy Security in Asia“and“Energy and Environment“.     

The Methodologies of Empowerment? A Systematic Review of the Deployment of Participation in the Coastal Zone Management Literature

Participation (e.g., stakeholder involvement) has become a central concept in the practice of environmental and coastal zone management. Research has shown that the integration of participation in coastal zone management has positive ecological and social outcomes. In the literature, however, participation is often reported in an unstructured and uncritical manner. Therefore, to find out whether and how there is a useful way to structure and characterize the way the coastal zone management literature deals with participation, we have conducted a literature review. The review was conducted and the literature structured through three central dimensions of participation, namely: power, knowledge, and (visions of) nature. The article concludes that this structured approach to participation enables us to study more systematically the role of participation and might facilitate the governance and learning processes of coastal networks.