Maritime liner shipping and the stevedoring industry: market structure and competition strategies

Globalization, liberalization, competition and spatial interaction are significant factors affecting the transformation of manufacturing industries worldwide. In the transportation and logistics industry, however, cooperation is becoming even more critical than competition in determining firms' efficiency. Cooperation has always characterized the liner sector in which strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions have generated twin effects: notable increases in ship size and falls in freight rates. Meanwhile, the stevedoring industry is undergoing privatization-driven consolidation and the emergence of global pure terminal operators. This article focuses on vertical integration between global carriers and terminal operators. We address the following key current issues:

• dedicated terminals as a strategy for cutting costs and controlling integrated transport chains;
• the struggle for supply chain control, involving global carriers versus global terminal operators, driven by financial power and technical and managerial capability.

We close analysing one of the core problems of the market, namely the evolving role of the dedicated terminals. For the pure stevedores they represent an opportunity to secure a cargo, while in the hands of the liners they enable cost stability and the possibility to put pressure on pure terminal operators.     

成南高速公路岩质高边坡绿化实践

以成南高速公路K73路段高边坡的绿化为例,介绍岩质边坡的绿化方法,说明边坡绿色防护具有良好的社会效益、经济效益与工程效果。     

基于PCI总线的高速智能通信适配器的设计与实现

区域性控制计算机联锁系统正逐步成为计算机联锁系统新的发展方向，区域联锁系统要求有一个高速，可靠，传输距离远的安全数据通信网，来保证铁路信号安全信息的可靠，实时，高效的传输，文章分析了影响系统通信性能的几项瓶颈因素及其优化方法，并介绍了智能通信适配器的设计思想及实现方法。     

A study of passenger discomfort measures at the Hong Kong mass transit railway system

This note investigates the important attributes relating to the crowding effects at the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in Hong Kong. Data was collected at two sets of three MTR stations to study the responses of the passengers due to the discomfort at crowded vehicles and platforms. Stated preference surveys were used to study the effects of passenger discomfort measures.     

论人才队伍建设与企业跨越式发展

本文结合中国铁路工程总公司人力资源管理工作实践 ,论述了建设高素质人才队伍和学习型机制在企业发展中的重要作用 ,指出了高素质的企业家、高水平的专家、高技能的技师和高效率的政工干部等四支人才队伍培养的核心和重点 ,并分析了人力资源管理创新中的几个关键问题     

The association of the population recruitment of gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, with Mississippi River discharge

Gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, which constitutes a major industrial reduction fishery in the USA, spawn across the northern Gulf of Mexico with a focus of spawning about the Mississippi Delta. This species is estuarine dependent; adults spawn over the continental shelf and their larvae are transported, by mechanisms that are presently not well understood, to estuarine nursery areas. Larval gulf menhaden, along with some other surface oriented larval fishes, appear to aggregate along the Mississippi River plume front, while evidence of the ecological consequences of this aggregation in terms of the feeding, growth, and survival of larvae is ambiguous. On an annual scale, Mississippi River discharge is negatively associated with numbers of half year old recruits. Discharge of the Mississippi River and the population recruitment of gulf menhaden may be plausibly linked through the action of the river's plume and its front on the shoreward transport of larvae. Greater river discharge results in an expansive plume that might project larvae farther offshore and prolong the shoreward transport of larvae. An indirect, decadal scale, positive response of recruitment and river discharge is possible, but not certain. Recruitment became elevated after 1975 when river discharge increased and became highly variable. This response might owe to enhanced primary and secondary production driven by nutrient influx from the Mississippi River.     

牙周炎患者红细胞免疫功能及发病机理研究

采用酵母菌花环试验对31例牙周炎患者红细胞免疫粘附功能、循环免疫复合物、补体C_3含量进行了检测,并与正常组进行了比较。结果显示:牙周炎患者红细胞膜免疫复合物及循环免疫复合物均升高,补体C_3含量降低,且皆与正常组有显著性差异。作者认为:免疫复合物在牙周炎发病机理中有一定的意义,牙周炎患者红细胞免疫对清除循环免疫复合物起着重要作用。     

Development of Green-Naghdi models with a wave-absorbing beach for nonlinear, irregular wave propagation

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional Green-Naghdi (GN) models equipped with a numerical wave-absorbing beach have been developed to simulate nonlinear, regular, and irregular wave propagation. The numerical beach is introduced near the downstream boundary to absorb outgoing waves. An appropriate amount of numerical damping and an appropriate length of numerical beach are investigated using numerical experiments. The results show that the GN models with a numerical beach work very well in simulating wave propagation in water in a small computational domain.     

Manpower and employment issues

Overmanning and restrictive labour practices are major causes of low productivity in Indian ports. Proposals are put forward for a programme of reforms to support investment in modern cargo handling systems.     

Basic Analytical Study of Pantograph-catenary System Dynamics

For a high speed electrical rail system, good dynamic performance of the pantograph-catenary system is vital for smooth and continuous current collection. It has been known for many years that to achieve this the head of the pantograph should be made as light as possible and the average stiffness of the catenary should be high. These conclusions, however, have been reached by numerical modelling and operational experience. In this paper the pantograph-catenary system is modelled as a time-varying, single degree-of-freedom system to facilitate an analytical investigation of the system dynamics. Although the model is very simple, it allows physical insight into the dynamic behaviour of the system, and because the excitation is parametric it also allows the stability of the system to be investigated. The finite element method is used to determine the catenary characteristics and Floquet theory is used to analyse the behaviour of the coupled system.