Assessing a maritime service website prototype in a ship bridge simulator: navigators’ experiences and perceptions of novel e-Navigation solutions

The aim of this study was to assess proof of concept and usability of a maritime service website prototype in a full-mission ship bridge simulator through Swedish mariners’ experiences and perceptions. This test was part of the European Commission’s EfficienSea2 project for e-navigation. The prototype was intended as an aid to existing standard systems and methodologies for planning, executing and monitoring voyages. The study began with 5 days of simulator trials focused on today’s standard practices. This served as a baseline to compare to subsequent 4 days of simulator trials testing the prototype. For data collection, observations, video footage, interviews, and eye tracking were used. Data analysis included breaking apart the qualitative data to capture the perceptions of the participants, and a preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data as a complement. The results suggested that the prototype could be more suitable for a route planning stage, that the participants were familiar with similar existing solutions from other manufacturers, and that the contents of the tool would be most beneficial if integrated within the Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). There is a pressing need for the novel solutions to be user needs-driven, integrated with the existing technologies, and standardized across the domain, and these processes must go hand-in-hand with accounting for all involved stakeholders, procedures, regulations, and training, as this will alter the course of shipping.     

Occupational Behaviour and Commitment of Seamen

A concern of many environmentalists is that marine pollution conventions are usually slow in coming into force. The reasons for this vary with each convention. Instead of exhaustively examining each convention, this paper suggests a general framework of inquiry which may be used in seeking to ascertain the speed and degree of ratification of any particular convention.     

Optimization of transport investment and pricing policies: the role of transport pricing in network design

This paper investigates the role of transport pricing in network design and describes two facts about flow pattern in a transportation system. The first, illustrated by an example of Braess paradox, is that adding a new link to the network does not necessarily minimize the total travel time. The second is that introducing of appropriate toll pricing may reduce not only the total network time but also the travel time for each individual traveller. It follows with the investigations of different system objectives and different pricing policies (only toll pricing and distance‐based pricing are considered), and shows how they affect the system performance and flow pattern. Lastly, a systematic optimization process is proposed for integrated planning of transport network and pricing policies.     

A new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics

There have been many efforts to develop a logistics information system in the Korean logistics industry. In spite of these efforts, there are many points which need improvement in the Logistics Information System, of which function is the electronic data communication without added value. This paper aims to describe some of the main problems and the successful factors which are being found in the evolution of the present EDI systems for clearing import/export container cargoes, with special reference to Singapore, Korea, and Japan. Following this, leaving legal issues aside, to suggest workable guidelines for designing a new efficient EDI system for container cargo logistics. As a result of the review, the following successful factors are drawn: (a) the planning, requirement analysis and design of EDI are critical, as it provides a framework for its implementation; (b) as the data of customs clearance are an integral part of a logistics EDI system, the inclusion of customs in the system design is essential; (c) the sharing system of cargo data as the framework of the logistics EDI is efficient for data interchange; (d) the EDI software for the user has been developed and provided by an EDI network operating company; and (e) to facilitate communication between trading partners and the transport sector, it is necessary to adopt a global message standard, such as EDIFACT.     

Commentaries

Abstract

This paper surveys the technologies available for constructing a pervasive, national‐scale road pricing system. It defines the different types of road pricing, the methods by which a vehicle’s position can be determined, and then examines possible pricing regimes in the context of their technological requirements and implications. The issue of enforcement and the distribution of pricing policies are considered, and further complexities are outlined. An examination of the security aspects of such systems is made, focusing particularly on the need to ensure privacy using technological, rather than solely procedural, methods. The survey concludes that a pervasive, national‐scale deployment is unlikely to be technically achievable in the short‐term.     

Estimates of vertical mixing during a Lagrangian experiment off the Galician coast

An adjoint 1-D model was used to determine vertical diffusivity coefficients from temperature profiles collected within a filament escaping from the Galician coast following an upwelling event. The optimisation scheme ended with relatively high diffusivity values within the thermocline (9×10⁻⁵ m² s⁻¹). Such high values are relevant for biogeochemical exchanges between surface and deep waters in stratified areas.The optimised values were several orders of magnitude higher than the bulk of diffusivity measurements recorded with a free-falling device; however, the optimisation solution was consistent with the arithmetic mean of the measurements in the thermocline (7.7×10⁻⁵ m² s⁻¹), giving more weight to the few largest values. Below the thermocline, the data assimilation method failed because of the three-dimensional nature of the advective field of the upwelling system. Ignoring this advective forcing in the model led to estimates that were two orders of magnitude too high.The results suggest that turbulent mixing is a random process where a few intense events determine the average mixing that drives the long-term evolution of the water column structure. This statistical property is very important when one wants to use instantaneous diffusivity measurements for modelling purposes.     

An analysis of the determinants of children’s weekend physical activity participation

This paper examines the out-of-home, weekend, time-use patterns of children aged 5–17 years, with a specific emphasis on their physical activity participation. The impact of several types of factors, including individual and household demographics, neighborhood demographics, built environment characteristics, and activity day variables, on physical activity participation is analyzed using a joint nested multiple discrete–continuous extreme value-binary choice model. The sample for analysis is drawn from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area Travel Survey. The model developed in the paper can be used to assess the impacts of changing demographics and built environment characteristics on children’s physical activity levels.     

Damper Models for Heavy Vehicle Ride Dynamics

A laboratory rig for testing hydraulic dampers using the 'hardware-in-the-loop' method is described, and the accuracy of the test method is investigated. A mathematical model of a hydraulic shock absorber is then developed. The model is suitable for vehicle simulations and has seven parameters which can be determined by simple dynamic measurements on a test damper. The shock absorber model is validated under realistic operating conditions using the test rig, and the relative importance of various features of the model on the accuracy of vehicle simulations is investigated.     

Short-term Hourly Traffic Forecasts using Hong Kong Annual Traffic Census

The need for acquiring the current-year traffic data is a problem for transport planners since such data may not be available for on-going transport studies. A method is proposed in this paper to predict hourly traffic flows up to and into the near future, using historical data collected from the Hong Kong Annual Traffic Census (ATC). Two parametric and two non-parametric models have been employed and evaluated in this study. The results show that the non-parametric models (Non-Parametric Regression (NPR) and Gaussian Maximum Likelihood (GML)) were more promising for predicting hourly traffic flows at the selected ATC station. Further analysis encompassing 87 ATC stations revealed that the NPR is likely to react to unexpected changes more effectively than the GML method, while the GML model performs better under steady traffic flows. Taking into consideration the dynamic nature of the common traffic patterns in Hong Kong and the advantages/disadvantages of the various models, the NPR model is recommended for predicting the hourly traffic flows in that region.     

Dual extended Kalman filter for vehicle state and parameter estimation

The article demonstrates the implementation of a model-based vehicle estimator, which can be used for combined estimation of vehicle states and parameters. The estimator is realised using the dual extended Kalman filter (DEKF) technique, which makes use of two Kalman filters running in parallel, thus 'splitting' the state and parameter estimation problems. Note that the two problems cannot be entirely separated due to their inherent interdependencies. This technique provides several advantages, such as the possibility to switch off the parameter estimator, once a sufficiently good set of estimates has been obtained. The estimator is based on a four-wheel vehicle model with four degrees of freedom, which accommodates the dominant modes only, and is designed to make use of several interchangeable tyre models. The paper demonstrates the appropriateness of the DEKF. Results to date indicate that this is an effective approach, which is considered to be of potential benefit to the automotive industry.