An empirical assessment of relational competitive advantage in professional ship management

Intense competition in many sectors across the maritime industry and in professional ship management in particular, means that the quest for achieving competitiveness will continue and intensify. A review of the current strategies across many sectors of the industry indicates the importance of forging stable partnerships for the achievement of competitiveness. Considering that the capability to form a relationship is an intangible resource (as depicted in resource-advantage theory), an empirical assessment in the context of ship management was undertaken. The assessment aimed to identify the type of relationships present in ship management, and succeeded in classifying those relationships into four distinct groups. The central thesis of the paper is that maritime organizations in general, and ship management companies in particular, may utilize their intangible relational resources in order to achieve competitive advantage. Based on the classification of ship management relationships, implications for managers are discussed.     

The demand impacts of train punctuality in great britain: systematic review,meta-analysis and some new econometric insights

Transportation - This paper updates and extends the systematic review and meta-analysis of Wardman and Batley (Transportation 41:1041–1069, 2014), which hitherto was the most comprehensive...     

通过多转子防护装置提高潮汐水轮机性能的策略（英文）

Constructive interference between tidal stream turbines in multi-rotor fence configurations arrayed normally to the flow has been shown analytically, computationally, and experimentally to enhance turbine performance. The increased resistance to bypass flow due to the presence of neighbouring turbines allows a static pressure difference to develop in the channel and entrains a greater flow rate through the rotor swept area. Exploiting the potential improvement in turbine performance requires that turbines either be operated at higher tip speed ratios or that turbines are redesigned in order to increase thrust. Recent studies have demonstrated that multi-scale flow dynamics, in which a distinction is made between device-scale and fence-scale flow events, have an important role in the physics of flow past tidal turbine fences partially spanning larger channels. Although the reduction in flow rate through the fence as the turbine thrust level increases has been previously demonstrated, the within-fence variation in turbine performance, and the consequences for overall farm performance, is less well understood. The impact of turbine design and operating conditions, on the performance of a multi-rotor tidal fence is investigated using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes embedded blade element actuator disk simulations. Fences consisting of four, six, and eight turbines are simulated, and it is demonstrated that the combination of device-and fence-scale flow effects gives rise to cross-fence thrust and power variation. These cross-fence variations are also a function of turbine thrust, and hence design conditions,although it is shown simple turbine control strategies can be adopted in order to reduce the cross-fence variations and improve overall fence performance. As the number of turbines in the fence, and hence fence length, increases, it is shown that the turbines may be designed or operated to achieve higher thrust levels than if the turbines were not deployed in a fence configuration.     

Power plant siting on Wisconsin's coasts: A case study of a displaceable use

Abstract

The issue of whether power plants should be located on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore or inland is addressed in this article. It is quite likely that sites for several large power plants will be needed before the year 2000. Available evidence on the comparative costs of condenser cooling indicates that there may or may not be substantial economies from locating these plants at lakeshore sites depending on site characteristics, fuel costs, and other variables. Environmental impacts of coastal and inland siting are surveyed and also appear to be highly site‐specific. Important issues arise with respect to the intense competition for coastal land and the aquatic impacts at both coastal and inland sites. A third alternative, that of utilizing sites that are in the coastal zone but set back from the water's edge, has some promising aspects, but data on costs are scarce and inconclusive. Conclusions center on the importance of not ruling out either coastal or inland locations in future efforts to identify suitable power plant sites, the need to review current water‐quality measures, and the need for further research on institutions to facilitate sound siting decisions.     

Learning Frontiers in the Practice of Integrated Coastal Management

Since the Rio conference in 1992 investments in integrated coastal management (ICM) have increased dramatically. National and subnational governments have undertaken many initiatives to protect and develop coastal areas. Extensive field experience has advanced understanding of the operational attributes of ICM. This article reviews the principles and operational attributes of ICM that have become well accepted, particularly from the perspective of international ICM donors and professionals. A common understanding of the fundamentals of ICM provides a base from which targeted and systematic study and assessment of ICM can be conducted. Several thematic areas are suggested where there are currently important needs and opportunities for collective study and learning in ICM. The important role of donors is emphasized in supporting collaborative learning initiatives that advance understanding of ICM, and improve and expand the practice.     

Factors Influencing Environmentally Responsible Behavior among Coastal Recreationists

Abstract

An increasing threat to the marine environment is the presence of debris in the ocean, which is predominantly a result of land-based sources and increasing use of single-use packaging items. To begin reducing the amount of debris entering the ocean, human behavior must be addressed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how coastal recreationists behave towards the environment and whether their participation in recreation correlates to their reported behavior specific to marine debris control. Path analysis was used to determine how one’s attitudes, knowledge, recreational activity, and background characteristics influence behavior. Results showed that type of recreational activity had very little impact on behavior and other predictors. From the model, marine environmental concern, connection to the marine environment, and gender most directly influenced reported behavior. Therefore, to encourage change in recreationists’ relevant behavior, the results indicate social groups where behavior change efforts could initially be made. Additionally, the marine environmental concerns of different demographic groups should be considered and used in developing programs directed at increasing environmentally responsible behavior with emphasis on marine debris.     

Wetlands preservation and management: A rejoinder‐economics,science and beyond

Note

This article is a short response to a critique by William Odum and Stephen Skjei of an earlier article by this author in this Journal entitled “Wetlands Preservation and Management on Chesapeake Bay: The Role of Science in Natural Resource Policy.”; It is a continuation of themes begun in that paper. It focuses on the question of determining the social value of wetlands preservation and the contradictory positions which ecologists fall into when discussing the value of wetlands.     

Updating predictive accident models of modern rural single carriageway A-roads

Abstract

Reliable predictive accident models (PAMs) are essential to design and maintain safe road networks, and yet the models most commonly used in the UK were derived using data collected 20 to 30 years ago. Given that the national personal injury accident total fell by some 30% in the last 25 years, while road traffic increased by over 60%, significant errors in scheme appraisal and evaluation based on the models currently in use seem inevitable. In this paper, the temporal transferability of PAMs for modern rural single carriageway A-roads is investigated, and their predictive performance is evaluated against a recent data set. Despite the age of these models, the PAMs for predicting the total accidents provide a remarkably good fit to recent data and these are more accurate than models where accidents are disaggregated by type. The performance of the models can be improved by calibrating them against recent data.