Factors that promote innovation in shipping companies

This study seeks to identify factors that promote innovation in shipping companies. The study is based on an empirical investigation of 63 companies headquartered in Norway. The results imply that organizational and interorganizational variables are important to innovation. Three aspects of innovation are focused on: (1) service/product innovations, (2) market innovations, and (3) production method innovations. The explanatory variables that are applied in this study capture between 13-51% of the variability of the measures of innovation. The results indicate that an explicit strategy that promotes innovation is very important for the actual level of innovation within shipping companies. In management literature, it is often assumed that organic organizational features like decentralized decision-making promote innovation. The opposite features are assumed to restrain innovation. However, the results do not support these basic assumptions. For example, it seems to be important that managers make precise decisions in order to promote innovation.     

Changing policies in Eastern Europe and their impact on the maritime field: experiences from Eastern Germany

The political changes that occured in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s coincided in the fromer German Democratic Republic (GDR) with the reunification of Germany. The economic result was the existence of a split economy in Germany. Within the maritime field the problem had to be solved by a change over of the former GDR's maritime industry from the centrally-planned command type economy as its failure was evident. Three economic factors were identified as the main causes for the failure which made, together with some other negatives, the collapse inevitable. The transition of the East German maritime industry started immediately after reunification. In the maritime field, two different forms of economic transition have been applied. Using the examples of the main shipping company and the seaports the economic transition process has been analyzed and some basic conclusions regarding the substance and methods of economic transition have been drawn.     

Investigating micro-simulation error in activity-based travel demand forecasting: a case study of the FEATHERS framework

Activity-based models of travel demand have received considerable attention in transportation planning and forecasting in recent years. However, in most cases they use a micro-simulation approach, thereby inevitably including a stochastic error that is caused by the statistical distributions of random components. As a consequence, running a transport micro-simulation model several times with the same input will generate different outputs, which baffles practitioners in applying such a model and in interpreting the results. A common approach is therefore to run the model multiple times and to use the average value of the results. The question then becomes: what is the minimum number of model runs required to reach a stable result? In this paper, systematic experiments are carried out using Forecasting Evolutionary Activity-Travel of Households and their Environmental RepercussionS (FEATHERS), an activity-based micro-simulation modelling framework currently implemented for the Flanders region of Belgium. Six levels of geographic detail are taken into account. Three travel indices – average daily activities per person, average daily trips per person and average daily distance travelled per person, as well as their corresponding segmentations – are calculated by running the model 100 times. The results show that the more disaggregated the level, the larger the number of model runs is needed to ensure confidence. Furthermore, based on the time-dependent origin-destination table derived from the model output, traffic assignment is performed by loading it onto the Flemish road network, and the total vehicle kilometres travelled in the whole Flanders are subsequently computed. The stable results at the Flanders level provides model users with confidence that application of FEATHERS at an aggregated level requires only limited model runs.     

无伸缩缝桥梁研究综述

综述了无伸缩缝桥梁(简称“无缝桥”)技术发展,介绍了无缝桥优点、应用和研究热点,分析了无缝桥纵桥向受力特点、桩-土相互作用、台后土压力与抗震性能,指出了新技术研发与应用的现状与发展方向。分析结果表明：无缝桥技术受到许多国家的重视,已开展了大量的实桥监测和其他研究;在纵桥向受力方面,温度变形是其主因,现有规范中所给出的平均温差与实桥监测结果相差较大,应研究精度更高的计算方法;桩-土相互作用是整体桥受力的特点与研究的难点,在计算土抗力时,m法应限于小位移的无缝桥,位移较大时宜采用p-y曲线法;桥台桩基受力复杂,H型钢桩存在屈服、疲劳、屈曲的破坏可能,混凝土桩则易出现开裂病害;无缝桥温升时台后土压力增大,是研究的热点与难点,它随水平变形量和往复变形次数增大而增大的机理、量值和分布未达成共识,有待今后深入、系统的研究;纵桥向受力分析应建立全桥有限元模型,考虑结构-土相互作用和节点非线性性能;钢主梁受压稳定性和混凝土主梁抗裂性能是研究与设计的关键;引板是无缝桥的病害易发构件,面板式引板应减小板底摩阻力,避免开裂和末端沉降,而斜埋入式引板应控制其末端之上接线路面的隆起和下陷;许多无缝桥新技术已被提出并得到应用,今后还需深入研究,如：新材料与新构造在无缝桥各组成部分、台背、桩基与引板中的应用等;无缝桥具有较强的结构强健性、抗倒塌和防落梁能力,抗震研究已取得可喜的进展,但许多国家尚未形成相关的设计规定,应继续研究,为将来的应用和规范制订提供科学依据。     

Optimal Threshold Policies for Robust Data Center Control

With the simultaneous rise of energy costs and demand for cloud computing, efficient control of data centers becomes crucial. In the data center control problem, one needs to plan at every time step how many servers to switch on or off in order to meet stochastic job arrivals while trying to minimize electricity consumption. This problem becomes particularly challenging when servers can be of various types and jobs from different classes can only be served by certain types of server, as it is often the case in real data centers. We model this problem as a robust Markov decision process (i.e., the transition function is not assumed to be known precisely). We give sufficient conditions (which seem to be reasonable and satisfied in practice) guaranteeing that an optimal threshold policy exists. This property can then be exploited in the design of an efficient solving method, which we provide. Finally, we present some experimental results demonstrating the practicability of our approach and compare with a previous related approach based on model predictive control.     

Statistical comparison of trace metal concentrations in wild mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) in selected sites of Galicia and Gulf of Biscay (Spain)

Concentrations of five trace metals (Cd, Hg, Pb, Cu and Zn) in wild mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) from the Galician and Gulf of Biscay areas in Spain were monitored from 2000 to 2004. A pool of mussel soft tissue was prepared using 50 or more individuals representing the available size range (35–60 mm) present at the sampling points (A Coruña, Pontevedra and Vigo–Galicia, NW of Spain—and Avilés, Bilbao and Santander–Gulf of Biscay). Metals were analysed by atomic absorption spectrometry, AAS, (flame–AAS: Cu and Zn; graphite furnace–AAS: Cd and Pb; flow injection-cold vapour–AAS: total Hg). Quality of the chemical analyses was assessed by participation in periodic QUASIMEME intercalibration exercises carried out from 2000 to 2004, while the present study was developed . Univariate statistical studies, Anova (Analysis of the Variance) and Principal Component Analysis (autoscaled data, Varimax rotation) were carried out. Differences between the two areas as well as certain temporal trends were found and, in general, the Gulf of Biscay samples showed higher metallic contents, mainly close to Avilés, where iron and steel factories thrown residues for years into a nearby coastal area.     

采用新型转向架设计减小寿命周期成本和轨道作用力

介绍了瑞典3轴LKAB矿山机车转向架各主要零部件的特点。     

Virtually being there: Human aspects of shore-based ship assistance

Shore-based ship assistance is a topic that increasingly is attracting attention from the maritime community. Subjects such as shore-based pilotage and VTS are often discussed and there is technological and political pressure towards more extensive forms of such assistance. Perhaps less often mentioned, but not less important, is the human side of these subjects. The present paper examines two of the central concerns for the people who actually work within today’s VTS centers, namely communication and trust. The study consisted of a literature review, study visits, observations and interviews. Communication and trust are found to be closely related, and one main finding is that adapting one’s means of communication to the context can be a very powerful (and necessary) tool for the creation of trust. Another important result is that the ability of the shore-based operator to see the situation from the viewpoint of the crew is crucial for the creation and maintenance of trust.     

Transit costs and cost efficiency: Bootstrapping non-parametric frontiers

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarized as follows: (i) the bias implied by uncorrected cost efficiency measures is numerically important (close to 25%), (ii) the bootstrapped-based test rejects the constant returns to scale hypothesis, and (iii) explaining patterns of efficiency scores using a two-stage bootstrapping approach detects only one significant covariate, in contrast to earlier results highlighting, e.g., the positive impact of high-powered contract types. Finally, comparing the average inefficiency obtained for the Norwegian data set with an analogous estimate for a smaller French sample illustrates how the estimated differences in average efficiency almost disappear once sample size differences are accounted for.     

The performance effect of innovation in shipping companies

The aim of this study is to investigate how innovation contributes to company performance in Norwegian shipping and to extend our knowledge concerning what organizational and inter-organizational factors influence innovation in shipping firms. The study is based on a survey of 46 Norwegian shipping companies. We find that innovation contributes to firm performance. We also find that a conscious strategy, strategy involvement, external relationships, especially market relationships, and productivity slack have a significant positive effect on the degree of innovation. The results are dependent upon the companies' degree of differentiation and the type of innovation.