Analysis of occupational accidents encountered by deck cadets in maritime transportation

The 2010 Manila amendments to the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code (STCW) was adopted by the idea to render the profession more attractive to the seafarers, particularly to cadets. It is possible to ensure greater attraction only by providing suitable and safe working conditions on board to cadets. This study analyses occupational accidents and near misses encountered by ocean going deck cadets, who received A-II/I training, during their sea training. The aim of this study was to determine causal factors influencing work accidents and to propose several recommendations for the safety of deck cadets. A total of 857 officer candidates, who received maritime education at university level in Turkey, were interviewed. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used in the study to analyse the occupational accidents. As a result of this study on deck cadets, the most risky areas for work accidents were found to be the deck (39.9%), cargo areas (35.7%), areas used for manoeuvring operations (including winch areas and areas in which berthing, unberthing, and anchoring operations take place) (16.1%), and accommodation areas (8.3%). The most important root causes for occupational accidents were identified as not using personal protective equipment (24.2%), haste (22.6%), and presence in inappropriate places (13.6%). This study offers some important insight into the prevention of occupational accidents, and includes suggestions and advisory opinions of sector representatives. As a result of this study, several recommendations for the prevention of accidents are proposed.     

Critical success factors of supply chain integration in container shipping: an application of resource-based view theory

ABSTRACT

The container shipping industry is receiving growing attention in driving the performance of global supply chains. This phenomenon has accelerated supply chain integration (SCI) within the industry. Although SCI could offer numerous benefits, it is often quoted to be implemented easier in theory than in practice. The high failure rate that is associated with SCI is often not addressed in the literature. Grounded on resource-based view (RBV) theory, this paper is aimed at identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) and examining their influence on SCI and supply chain performance (SCP). Survey questionnaires were administered on 164 container shipping firms. The constructs were validated empirically using confirmatory factor analysis and were subsequently analysed using structural equation modelling. The proposed CSFs in this study are found to be positively corelated with SCI, which, in turn, is positively correlated with SCP. This paper has contributed to both theory and practice by applying RBV theory to identify the key resources and capabilities that are necessary for SCI in the container shipping industry.     

Impact of hilly road information on fuel economy of FCHEV based on parameterization of hilly roads

Under real-life driving conditions, hilly roads are prevalent. Hilly road profile substantially influences fuel economy (FE) due to large impacts (increase or decrease) on power demand profile. Thus, the utilization of future altitude profile information has large potential to improve FE. In this paper, for optimal energy management of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEV), we investigate how much FE could potentially be improved when future altitude profile information is available. In particular, the simulation results are analyzed to justify the reason for this potential improvement and to identify which characteristics of hilly roads leads to large FE improvements. First of all, four statistical parameters are defined to characterize hilly roads: mean value, standard deviation (STD), distance interval (DI), and total distance. Then, several types of virtual hilly roads are generated based on various parameter combinations. In order to evaluate the potential FE improvement two energy management strategies (EMSs) are utilized: the first is Dynamic Programming, which evaluates the globally optimal FE when future hilly road information is available; the other is the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) with adaptive equivalent factor for charge-sustenance, which represents the baseline EMS when future hilly road information is not available. The results show that downhill roads have much larger potential than uphill roads do for FE improvements when the future altitude profile is properly used for EMS. Furthermore, if the battery capacity is not large enough to handle the difference in potential energy, future hilly road information is more important to prevent violations of the maximum state-of-charge bound.     

Long-memory characteristics of urban roadside air quality

Carbon monoxide is a major contributor to air pollution in urban cities, particularly at the roadside. Hourly, monthly and seasonal mean carbon monoxide concentration data are collected from a roadside air monitoring station in Hong Kong over 7-years. The station is a few metres from a major intersection surrounded by tall buildings. In particular, hourly patterns of concentrations on different days of the week are investigated. The data show that hourly carbon monoxide concentrations resemble the traffic pattern of the area and tend to be lower in the summer. Using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models shows that the daily traffic cycle strongly influences concentrations. Further, it is found that urban roadside carbon monoxide monitoring data exhibits a long-memory process, suggesting that a model incorporating long memory and seasonality effects is needed simulate urban roadside air quality.     

Fatigue life prediction of welded stiffened 350WT steel plates

The propagation of fatigue cracks under constant amplitude cyclic loading was studied in welded stiffened steel plates. The residual stresses in the stiffened plates were measured using the neutron diffraction strain-scanning technique. A finite element model of the stiffened plate was constructed to simulate the residual stresses by an uncoupled thermal and thermo-mechanical analysis. Both the finite element model and the neutron diffraction measurements indicated that in general the residual stresses were tensile near the welded stiffeners and compressive between the stiffeners and ahead of the starter notch tip. Fatigue testing indicated that the fatigue crack growth rates of the stiffened plates were in general lower than that of a corresponding unstiffened plate, especially near the notch tip where compressive residual stresses existed. Both the finite element method and Green's function predicted the fatigue crack growth rates with reasonable accuracy.     

Field tests for evaluating cooperative intersection signal violation warning system (CISVWS)

This paper demonstrates the results of field tests for assessing a cooperative intersection signal violation warning system (CISVWS), which consists of (a) hardware, including an in-vehicle warning device, roadside antenna, and traffic signal controller, and (b) software to operate and test the cooperative system through vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication systems. Field tests were performed under real traffic situations in order to test the system in terms of the initiation time of the signal violation warning from the signal controller, the activation and duration of on board equipment (OBE), and the warning delay based on the relationships between distance variables, including the safe stopping distance, and the location of road side equipment (RSE). Findings from the field test at the real-world signalized intersection sites indicated that the system would be capable of reducing red light violations and intersection collisions through use of the in-vehicle warning device at signalized intersections.     

Pedestrian streets in Singapore

A fair amount of literature pertaining to pedestrian streets has been produced but for the most part it is on the American and European developments. There has been surprisingly little published research on pedestrian street development in Asia. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine pedestrian streets in Asia, using the city-state of Singapore as a case study. Since the mid-1980s, pedestrian streets have been adopted as a policy in the conservation and planning of Singapore's city centre. The resulting pedestrian streets came in many forms, from a single pedestrian-only street to a whole precinct of several streets.     

让速度去配合你

高铁还是飞机?飞机抑或驾车?看来非单纯关手速度。也许中国要开始接受一个事实:不要先考虑到是否世界第一,是否创下纪录,是否需要那么快。而选择出行工具,是关乎到一整套出行文化与生活方式,不单纯是一个交通工具的问题。中国,快也好,慢也行,最重要的不是速度本身是否快或慢,而是这速度是否适合中国,是否配合到     

是时候为中国制造了

香港的购物名区铜锣湾有一个以年青人顾客为对象的小商场"银座商场",熟悉此商场的人都知这里是潮流服饰小店的"英雄地"——很多抱着潮流时装梦的小店老板满腔热血地开业,预算付出一年半载的"进场费"(包括租金、买货和销售的成本)来证明自己的时尚触觉和眼光,更关键的是用有限的时间去摸索商场的客路、时尚品味,以至细微到顾客喜欢的颜色、不会碰的剪裁、购物的习性等